Nutritional Ecology and Human Health.

Science.gov (United States)

Raubenheimer, David; Simpson, Stephen J

2016-07-17

In contrast to the spectacular advances in the first half of the twentieth century with micronutrient-related diseases, human nutrition science has failed to stem the more recent rise of obesity and associated cardiometabolic disease (OACD). This failure has triggered debate on the problems and limitations of the field and what change is needed to address these. We briefly review the two broad historical phases of human nutrition science and then provide an overview of the main problems that have been implicated in the poor progress of the field with solving OACD. We next introduce the field of nutritional ecology and show how its ecological-evolutionary foundations can enrich human nutrition science by providing the theory to help address its limitations. We end by introducing a modeling approach from nutritional ecology, termed nutritional geometry, and demonstrate how it can help to implement ecological and evolutionary theory in human nutrition to provide new direction and to better understand and manage OACD.

A Policy Analysis Perspective on Ecological Restoration

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Susan Baker

2013-06-01

Full Text Available Using a simple stages model of the policy process, we explore the politics of ecological restoration using an array of examples drawn across sector, different size and scale, and from different countries. A policy analysis perspective reveals how, at both the program and project levels, ecological restoration operates within a complex and dynamic interplay between technical decision making, ideologies, and interest politics. Viewed through the stages model, restoration policy involves negotiating nature across stages in the policy making process, including agenda setting, policy formulation, implementation, and evaluation. The stages model is a useful heuristic devise; however, this linear model assumes that policy makers approach the issue rationally. In practice, ecological restoration policy takes place in the context of different distributions of power between the various public and private actors involved at the different stages of restoration policy making. This allows us to reiterate the point that ecological restoration is best seen not only as a technical task but as a social and political project.

The Ecology of Human Mobility.

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Meekan, Mark G; Duarte, Carlos M; Fernández-Gracia, Juan; Thums, Michele; Sequeira, Ana M M; Harcourt, Rob; Eguíluz, Víctor M

2017-03-01

Mobile phones and other geolocated devices have produced unprecedented volumes of data on human movement. Analysis of pooled individual human trajectories using big data approaches has revealed a wealth of emergent features that have ecological parallels in animals across a diverse array of phenomena including commuting, epidemics, the spread of innovations and culture, and collective behaviour. Movement ecology, which explores how animals cope with and optimize variability in resources, has the potential to provide a theoretical framework to aid an understanding of human mobility and its impacts on ecosystems. In turn, big data on human movement can be explored in the context of animal movement ecology to provide solutions for urgent conservation problems and management challenges. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Incorporating the gut microbiota into models of human and non-human primate ecology and evolution.

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Amato, Katherine R

2016-01-01

The mammalian gut is home to a diverse community of microbes. Advances in technology over the past two decades have allowed us to examine this community, the gut microbiota, in more detail, revealing a wide range of influences on host nutrition, health, and behavior. These host-gut microbe interactions appear to shape host plasticity and fitness in a variety of contexts, and therefore represent a key factor missing from existing models of human and non-human primate ecology and evolution. However, current studies of the gut microbiota tend to include limited contextual data or are clinical, making it difficult to directly test broad anthropological hypotheses. Here, I review what is known about the animal gut microbiota and provide examples of how gut microbiota research can be integrated into the study of human and non-human primate ecology and evolution with targeted data collection. Specifically, I examine how the gut microbiota may impact primate diet, energetics, disease resistance, and cognition. While gut microbiota research is proliferating rapidly, especially in the context of humans, there remain important gaps in our understanding of host-gut microbe interactions that will require an anthropological perspective to fill. Likewise, gut microbiota research will be an important tool for filling remaining gaps in anthropological research. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

School Effectiveness in Ecological Perspective.

Science.gov (United States)

Bronfenbrenner, Urie; Hamilton, Stephen F.

This report focuses on the learning and development of primary and secondary school children, employing an "ecology of human development" model. This model is defined as involving the scientific study of the accommodation between growing human beings and the changing immediate settings in which they live and learn. The conceptual framework for the…

Human Gut Microbiota: Toward an Ecology of Disease

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Susannah Selber-Hnatiw

2017-07-01

Full Text Available Composed of trillions of individual microbes, the human gut microbiota has adapted to the uniquely diverse environments found in the human intestine. Quickly responding to the variances in the ingested food, the microbiota interacts with the host via reciprocal biochemical signaling to coordinate the exchange of nutrients and proper immune function. Host and microbiota function as a unit which guards its balance against invasion by potential pathogens and which undergoes natural selection. Disturbance of the microbiota composition, or dysbiosis, is often associated with human disease, indicating that, while there seems to be no unique optimal composition of the gut microbiota, a balanced community is crucial for human health. Emerging knowledge of the ecology of the microbiota-host synergy will have an impact on how we implement antibiotic treatment in therapeutics and prophylaxis and how we will consider alternative strategies of global remodeling of the microbiota such as fecal transplants. Here we examine the microbiota-human host relationship from the perspective of the microbial community dynamics.

Examining the work-home interface: an ecological systems perspective

OpenAIRE

MacKinnon, Richard A,

2012-01-01

This dissertation outlines a mixed-methods investigation of work-life balance, examining the construct from an ecological systems theory perspective. This necessitated research at the individual, group, organisational and wider societal levels and included three studies: two using quantitative methodology and one using qualitative.\\ud The quantitative phase included two studies that examined the experience of the home-work interface from the perspective of the employee, examining the impact o...

Ecological Environment in Terms of Human Behavior

OpenAIRE

Chen, Xiaogang; Zhou, Dehu; Lin, Hui

2013-01-01

In terms of human behavior, company and government policy, it is proposed that the ecological behavior of human being is the basis of influence on the ecological environment construction in Poyang Lake and measures to ensure the sustainable development of ecological environment in Poyang Lake.

Interior Design Education within a Human Ecological Framework

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Kaup, Migette L.; Anderson, Barbara G.; Honey, Peggy

2007-01-01

An education based in human ecology can greatly benefit interior designers as they work to understand and improve the human condition. Design programs housed in colleges focusing on human ecology can improve the interior design profession by taking advantage of their home base and emphasizing the human ecological framework in the design curricula.…

Sustainability transitions in the perspective of ecological macroeconomics

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Røpke, Inge

2013-01-01

Globally, societies are facing a number of serious environmental, economic and social crises. Although the multiple crises are interrelated, research communities tend to be organised around specific complexes of problems. This paper is intended to contribute to the development of an ecological...... macroeconomics that addresses multiple crises by including insights from different, partly overlapping research communities. The main idea is to explore the usefulness of combining three different system perspectives in the study of sustainability transitions: socio-technical provision systems, distributional...... systems and macroeconomic systems. First, the theoretical concept of sustainability and the different system perspectives are outlined, and then the perspectives are brought together in the discussion of a specific topic that is key to sustainable transition: the need for considerable resources to invest...

Empowering Learning through Natural, Human, and Building Ecologies.

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Kobet, Robert J.

This article asserts that it is critical to understand the connections between human ecology and building ecology to create humane environments that show inspiration and creativity and that also serve diverse needs. It calls for efforts to: (1) construct an environmental education approach that fuses the three ecologies (natural, human, and…

Toward a Network Perspective of the Study of Resilience in Social-Ecological Systems

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Marco A. Janssen

2006-06-01

Full Text Available Formal models used to study the resilience of social-ecological systems have not explicitly included important structural characteristics of this type of system. In this paper, we propose a network perspective for social-ecological systems that enables us to better focus on the structure of interactions between identifiable components of the system. This network perspective might be useful for developing formal models and comparing case studies of social-ecological systems. Based on an analysis of the case studies in this special issue, we identify three types of social-ecological networks: (1 ecosystems that are connected by people through flows of information or materials, (2 ecosystem networks that are disconnected and fragmented by the actions of people, and (3 artificial ecological networks created by people, such as irrigation systems. Each of these three archytypal social-ecological networks faces different problems that influence its resilience as it responds to the addition or removal of connections that affect its coordination or the diffusion of system attributes such as information or disease.

Chapter 6. Modeling human impacts to the Borderlands environment from a fire ecology perspective

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Suzanne K. Fish

2006-01-01

Theoretical and topical orientations in current archaeology address the interaction between past human populations and their environment. These themes reflect ecological frameworks that were incorporated into the social sciences by the 1950s, as exemplified by the influential publication, Man?s Role in Changing the Face of the Earth (Thomas 1956). Cultural practices...

Research on Lahu’s traditional sports culture from the perspective of cultural ecology

OpenAIRE

Wang Youfeng

2016-01-01

This paper mainly researches Lahu’s traditional sports culture from the perspective of cultural ecology and analyzes the characteristics of Lahu’s traditional sports culture, and analyzes the characteristics of Lahu’s traditional sports culture from three aspects: natural ecological environment, social ecological environment and spiritual ecology. What’ more, Lahu’ traditional sports culture is not only a concrete expression of Lahu’s production form and life style or a symbol of Lahu’s relig...

Eco-experiential quality of urban forests: Combining ecological, restorative and aesthetic perspectives

OpenAIRE

Hauru, Kaisa

2015-01-01

In this thesis I combined perspectives from urban forest ecology, environmental psychology and empirical aesthetics to determine whether ecologically beneficial urban forest planning and management can also be experientially good. The thesis consists of four interrelated papers, three of which are empirical research papers and the fourth a theoretical review article. All empirical work was performed in boreal forests in Helsinki, the capital of Finland. In the ecological part of the thes...

Territorial ordination and fragmentation of the landscape - Perspectives for the ecological integrity

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Velez Restrepo, Luis Anibal

2001-01-01

The field of planning increasingly emphasizes the importance of rooting the strategies of biological diversity on an ecological perspective of landscape linked to the processes and plans of structural reordering of the territory. However, there is still a conceptual and methodological tendency to go back to the old habits in many processes of land planning. This work discusses such disparity. It includes first a general discussion of traditional approaches to conservation and the new perspectives and concepts focused on landscape, second, examining the conventional ecological approach to planning and land use management it shows the fragmentary way in which it determines land uses without any attention to the workings of biodiversity. Finally, this paper looks at the importance and the opportunity of articulating spatial patterns and ecological processes in ways that maintain the integrity of landscape

Multidisciplinary perspectives on the history of human interactions with life in the ocean

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

MacDiarmid, Alison; MacKenzie, Brian; Ojaveer, Henn

2016-01-01

-term changes of affected species and define appropriate and realistic management targets. Second, increased multi-and trans-disciplinary effort is required to better understand the relative importance of different human demographic, technological, economic, and cultural drivers on the patterns, intensities......There is an essentially circular interaction between the human social system and the marine ecosystem. The Oceans Past V Conference "Multidisciplinary perspectives on the history of human interactions with life in the ocean" held in Tallinn, Estonia, in May 2015 was an opportunity...... for the presentation and discussion of papers on a diverse array of topics that examined this socio-ecological system from a historical perspective. Here we provide background to the disciplines participating in the conference and to the conference itself. We summarize the conference papers that appear in this special...

Protection of the environment. How to position radioprotection in an ecological risk assessment perspective

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Brechignac, Francois

2003-01-01

The development of a system capable of ensuring adequate protection of the environment from the harmful effects of ionising radiation is at present particularly debated. This need comes both from a restrictive consideration of the environment in the so far existing system for human radioprotection, and the planetary-wide growing concerns about man's technogenic influence on his environment which have yielded 'sustainability' and 'precaution' as guiding principles for environmental protection. Whilst evolving from the field of human radioprotection, the radioprotection of the environment needs to be discussed in a wider perspective, with particular emphasis on the most advanced concepts which emerge from the efforts to deriving improved approaches to Ecological Risk Assessment. For the sake of protection, the environment is traditionally addressed through its biota since these are the sensitive components of ecosystems. Similarities between man and biotas reflect the ubiquitous mechanistic effects of radiation on life which disrupt molecules. However, important differences also arise in a number of perspectives, from the large spectrum of different species of biotas to their hierarchical self-organisation as interacting populations within ecosystems. Altogether, these aspects are prone to promote complex arrays of different responses to stress which lie beyond the scope of human radioprotection due to its focus on individuals of a single species. By means of selected illustrations, this paper reviews and discusses the current challenges faced in proper identification of measurable effect endpoints (stochastic/deterministic, individual/population- or ecosystem-relevant), dose limits in chronic exposure (or levels of concern), and their consideration according to radiation type (RBE) and interactions with other contaminants (synergies/antagonisms) which represent critical gaps in knowledge. The system of human radioprotection has conceptually been targeted at limiting

Industrial ecology: a new perspective on the future of the industrial system.

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Erkman, S

2001-09-22

Industrial ecology? A surprising, intriguing expression that immediately draws our attention. The spontaneous reaction is that "industrial ecology" is a contradiction in terms, something of an oxymoron, like "obscure clarity" or "burning ice". Why this reflex? Probably because we are accustomed to considering the industrial system as isolated from the Biosphere, with factories and cities on one side and nature on the other, as well as the recurrent problem of trying to minimise th impact of the industrial system on what is "beyond" it: its surroundings, the "environment". As early as the 1950's, this end-of-pipe angle was the one adopted by ecologists, whose first serious studies focused on the consequences of the various forms of pollution on nature. In this perspective on the industrial system, human industrial activity as such remained outside the field of research. Industrial ecology explores the opposite assumption: The industrial system can be seen as a certain kind of ecosystem. After all, the industrial system, just as natural ecosystems, can be described as a particular distribution of materials, energy, and information flows. Furthermore, the entire industrial system relies on resources and services provided by the Biosphere, from which it cannot be dissociated. (It should be specified that "industrial", in the context of industrial ecology, refers to all human activities occurring within modern technological society. Thus, tourism, housing, medical services, transportation, agriculture, etc. are part of the industrial system.) Besides its rigorous scientific conceptual framework (scientific ecology), industrial ecology can also be seen as a practical approach to sustainability. It is an attempt to address the question, "How can the concept of sustainable development be made operational in an economically feasible way?" Industrial ecology represents precisely one of the paths that could provide concrete solutions. Governments have traditionally approached

A conceptual framework for understanding the perspectives on the causes of the science-practice gap in ecology and conservation.

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Bertuol-Garcia, Diana; Morsello, Carla; N El-Hani, Charbel; Pardini, Renata

2018-05-01

-makers) are shared with other disciplines, while others seem specific to Ecology and Conservation (e.g. inadequate research scales). All identified causes require one of three general types of solutions, depending on whether the causal factor can (e.g. inadequate research questions) or cannot (e.g. scientific uncertainty) be changed, or if misconceptions (e.g. undervaluing abstract knowledge) should be solved. The unchanged predominance of the one-way perspective over time may be associated with the prestige of evidence-based conservation and suggests that debates in Ecology and Conservation lag behind trends in other disciplines towards bidirectional views ascribing larger roles to decision-makers. In turn, the two-way perspective seems primarily restricted to research traditions historically isolated from mainstream conservation biology. All perspectives represented superficial views of decision-making by not accounting for limits to human rationality, complexity of decision-making contexts, fuzzy science-practice boundaries, ambiguity brought about by science, and different types of knowledge use. However, joint knowledge-production processes from the two-way perspective can potentially allow for democratic decision-making processes, explicit discussions of values and multiple types of science use. To broaden our understanding of the interface and foster productive science-practice linkages, we argue for dialogue among different research traditions within Ecology and Conservation, joint knowledge-production processes between scientists and decision-makers and interdisciplinarity across Ecology, Conservation and Political Science in both research and education. © 2017 Cambridge Philosophical Society.

Human Ecology: Acid Rain and Public Policy.

Science.gov (United States)

Bybee, Rodger W.

1983-01-01

A connection between science and society can be seen in the human and ecological dimensions of one contemporary problem: acid rain. Introduces a human ecological theme and relationships between acid rain and public policy, considering scientific understanding and public awareness, scientific research and public policy, and national politics and…

Activity Sets in Multi-Organizational Ecologies : A Project-Level Perspective on Sustainable Energy Innovations

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Gerrit Willem Ziggers; Kristina Manser; Bas Hillebrand; Paul Driessen; Josée Bloemer

2014-01-01

Complex innovations involve multi-organizational ecologies consisting of a myriad of different actors. This study investigates how innovation activities can be interpreted in the context of multi-organizational ecologies. Taking a project-level perspective, this study proposes a typology of four

Rivers are social–ecological systems: Time to integrate human dimensions into riverscape ecology and management

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Dunham, Jason B.; Angermeier, Paul L.; Crausbay, Shelley D.; Cravens, Amanda; Gosnell, Hannah; McEvoy, Jamie; Moritz, Max A.; Raheem, Nejem; Sanford, Todd

2018-01-01

Incorporation of concepts from landscape ecology into understanding and managing riverine ecosystems has become widely known as riverscape ecology. Riverscape ecology emphasizes interactions among processes at different scales and their consequences for valued ecosystem components, such as riverine fishes. Past studies have focused strongly on understanding the ecological processes in riverscapes and how human actions modify those processes. It is increasingly clear, however, that an understanding of the drivers behind actions that lead to human modification also merit consideration, especially regarding how those drivers influence management efficacy. These indirect drivers of riverscape outcomes can be understood in the context of a diverse array of social processes, which we collectively refer to as human dimensions. Like ecological phenomena, social processes also exhibit complex interactions across spatiotemporal scales. Greater emphasis on feedbacks between social and ecological processes will lead scientists and managers to more completely understand riverscapes as complex, dynamic, interacting social–ecological systems. Emerging applications in riverscapes, as well as studies of other ecosystems, provide examples that can lead to stronger integration of social and ecological science. We argue that conservation successes within riverscapes may not come from better ecological science, improved ecosystem service analyses, or even economic incentives if the fundamental drivers of human behaviors are not understood and addressed in conservation planning and implementation.

River networks as ecological corridors: A coherent ecohydrological perspective

Science.gov (United States)

Rinaldo, Andrea; Gatto, Marino; Rodriguez-Iturbe, Ignacio

2018-02-01

This paper draws together several lines of argument to suggest that an ecohydrological framework, i.e. laboratory, field and theoretical approaches focused on hydrologic controls on biota, has contributed substantially to our understanding of the function of river networks as ecological corridors. Such function proves relevant to: the spatial ecology of species; population dynamics and biological invasions; the spread of waterborne disease. As examples, we describe metacommunity predictions of fish diversity patterns in the Mississippi-Missouri basin, geomorphic controls imposed by the fluvial landscape on elevational gradients of species' richness, the zebra mussel invasion of the same Mississippi-Missouri river system, and the spread of proliferative kidney disease in salmonid fish. We conclude that spatial descriptions of ecological processes in the fluvial landscape, constrained by their specific hydrologic and ecological dynamics and by the ecosystem matrix for interactions, i.e. the directional dispersal embedded in fluvial and host/pathogen mobility networks, have already produced a remarkably broad range of significant results. Notable scientific and practical perspectives are thus open, in the authors' view, to future developments in ecohydrologic research.

An Ecological Perspective on the Media and Youth Development.

Science.gov (United States)

McHale, Susan M; Dotterer, Aryn; Kim, Ji-Yeon

2009-04-01

From an ecological perspective, daily activities are both a cause and a consequence of youth development. Research on youth activities directs attention to the processes through which daily activities may have an impact on youth, including: (a) providing chances to learn and practice skills; (b) serving as a forum for identity development; (c) affording opportunities to build social ties; (d) connecting youth to social institutions; and (e) keeping youth from engaging in other kinds of activities. Youth's daily activities, in turn, both influence and are influenced by the multi-layered ecology within which their lives are embedded, an ecology that ranges from the proximal contexts of everyday life (e.g., family, peer group) to the larger political, economic, legal and cultural contexts of the larger society. The paper concludes with consideration of methodological issues and directions for research on the media and youth development.

Geography as destiny? Social and ecological resilience in rangelands of the American southwest

Science.gov (United States)

Background/Question/Methods: Social-ecological systems perspectives focus on the reciprocal relationships between human and natural ecosystem elements and how these interactions determine human well-being, ecological state change, and land use change. In the arid southwestern US, which is dominated...

Using a social-ecological systems perspective to understand tourism and landscape interactions in coastal areas

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jasper Hessel Heslinga

2017-04-01

Full Text Available Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to look at the potential synergies between tourism and landscapes and examine the potential contribution of tourism to build social-ecological resilience in the Dutch Wadden. Design/methodology/approach – The authors reveal how a social-ecological systems perspective can be used to conceptualize the Wadden as a coupled and dynamic system. This paper is a conceptual analysis that applies this approach to the Dutch Wadden. The data used for the inquiry primarily comes from a literature review. Findings – The authors argue that the social-ecological systems perspective is a useful approach and could be used to improve the governance of multi-functional socio-ecological systems in coastal areas. Opportunities for synergies between tourism and landscapes have been overlooked. The authors consider that tourism and nature protection are potentially compatible and that the synergies should be identified. Research limitations/implications – This paper is only a conceptual application rather than an empirical case study. Further research to actually apply the methodology is needed. Practical implications – Managers of protected areas should consider applying a social-ecological systems approach. Social implications – The views of a wide variety of stakeholders should be considered in landscape planning. Originality/value – The value of this paper lies in the articulation of the social-ecological systems perspective as a way to identify and understand the complex interactions between tourism and landscape, and the potential synergies between them.

The Outstanding Universal Values of the Wadden Sea: an ecological perspective

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Baptist, M.J.; Dankers, N.M.J.A.; Smit, C.J.

2007-01-01

This report describes the Outstanding Unique Values of the Wadden Sea from an ecological perspective, that is, according to criteria IX and X for the nomination of World Heritage Sites, as defined by the IUCN World Commission on Protected Areas.

Economic development and environmental protection: an ecological economics perspective.

Science.gov (United States)

Rees, William E

2003-01-01

This paper argues on both theoretical and empirical grounds that, beyond a certain point, there is an unavoidable conflict between economic development (generally taken to mean 'material economic growth') and environmental protection. Think for a moment of natural forests, grasslands, marine estuaries, salt marshes, and coral reefs; and of arable soils, aquifers, mineral deposits, petroleum, and coal. These are all forms of 'natural capital' that represent highly-ordered self-producing ecosystems or rich accumulations of energy/matter with high use potential (low entropy). Now contemplate despoiled landscapes, eroding farmlands, depleted fisheries, anthropogenic greenhouse gases, acid rain, poisonous mine tailings and toxic synthetic compounds. These all represent disordered systems or degraded forms of energy and matter with little use potential (high entropy). The main thing connecting these two states is human economic activity. Ecological economics interprets the environment-economy relationship in terms of the second law of thermodynamics. The second law sees economic activity as a dissipative process. From this perspective, the production of economic goods and services invariably requires the consumption of available energy and matter. To grow and develop, the economy necessarily 'feeds' on sources of high-quality energy/matter first produced by nature. This tends to disorder and homogenize the ecosphere, The ascendance of humankind has consistently been accompanied by an accelerating rate of ecological degradation, particularly biodiversity loss, the simplification of natural systems and pollution. In short, contemporary political rhetoric to the contrary, the prevailing growth-oriented global development paradigm is fundamentally incompatible with long-term ecological and social sustainability. Unsustainability is not a technical nor economic problem as usually conceived, but rather a state of systemic incompatibility between a economy that is a fully

Civic Ecology: A Postmodern Approach to Ecological Sustainability

Science.gov (United States)

Lopes, V. L.

2013-12-01

Human agency is transforming the planetary processes at unprecedented rates risking damaging essential life-support systems. Climate change, massive species extinction, land degradation, resources depletion, overpopulation, poverty and social injustice are all the result of human choices and non-sustainable ways of life. The survival of our modern economic systems depends upon insatiable consumption - a simple way of life no longer satisfies most people. Detached, instrumental rationality has created an ideal of liberalism based on individual pursuit of self-interest, leading the way into unprecedented material progress but bringing with it human alienation, social injustice, and ecological degradation. The purpose of this presentation is to introduce a community-based systems response to a growing sense that the interlocked social-ecological crisis is as much a problem of human thought and behavior as it is about identifying carrying capacities and CO2 concentrations in the atmosphere. This approach, referred to here as civic ecology, presents a new and important paradigm shift in sustainability practice that attempts to bring together and integrate ecological ideas and postmodern thinking. As such, it is as much a holistic, dynamic, and synergistic approach to ecological sustainability, as it is a philosophy of life and ethical perspective born of ecological understanding and insight. Civic ecology starts with the proposition that the key factor determining the health of the ecosphere is the behavior of human beings, and therefore many of the most important issues related to sustainability lie in the areas of human thought and culture. Thus, the quest for sustainability must include as a central concern the transformation of psychological and behavioral patterns that have become an imminent danger to planetary health. At the core of this understanding is a fundamental paradigm shift from the basic commitments of modern Western culture to its model of mechanism

The Lifecycle of Trust in Educational Leadership: An Ecological Perspective

Science.gov (United States)

Kutsyuruba, Benjamin; Walker, Keith

2015-01-01

As establishing and fostering trust are imperative activities for school leaders, cognizance of the fundamental importance of trust is essential for the leader's moral agency and ethical decision-making. In this article, we use an ecological perspective to uncover the dynamics of the lifecycle of trust as evident from extant literature on…

The place of consumption in ecological economics

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Røpke, Inge; Reisch, Lucia A.

2004-01-01

for considering all aspects of the interactions between humans, and the environment and simultaneously has the ambition of promoting transdisciplinary work, it is not surprising to see an increasing number of contributions on consumption and environment emerge at ecological economics conferences and in journals......Research concerning consumption in an environmental perspective has become very dynamic in recent years. Throughout the 1990s contributions have emerged from several different disciplines and approaches, and the research now covers a wide variety of topics. As ecological economics is open...... of the following is to give an idea of the disciplinary and methodological breadth and variety of research concerning consumption and environment, and to place ecological economic contributions in perspective....

Theoretical Approaches in Evolutionary Ecology: Environmental Feedback as a Unifying Perspective.

Science.gov (United States)

Lion, Sébastien

2018-01-01

Evolutionary biology and ecology have a strong theoretical underpinning, and this has fostered a variety of modeling approaches. A major challenge of this theoretical work has been to unravel the tangled feedback loop between ecology and evolution. This has prompted the development of two main classes of models. While quantitative genetics models jointly consider the ecological and evolutionary dynamics of a focal population, a separation of timescales between ecology and evolution is assumed by evolutionary game theory, adaptive dynamics, and inclusive fitness theory. As a result, theoretical evolutionary ecology tends to be divided among different schools of thought, with different toolboxes and motivations. My aim in this synthesis is to highlight the connections between these different approaches and clarify the current state of theory in evolutionary ecology. Central to this approach is to make explicit the dependence on environmental dynamics of the population and evolutionary dynamics, thereby materializing the eco-evolutionary feedback loop. This perspective sheds light on the interplay between environmental feedback and the timescales of ecological and evolutionary processes. I conclude by discussing some potential extensions and challenges to our current theoretical understanding of eco-evolutionary dynamics.

Dietary ecology of human

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Minagawa, Masao

1990-01-01

The dietary life of humans varies with the environment where they live and has been changing with time. It has become possible to examine such changes by using stable carbon and nitrogen isotope composition as a chemical tool. The present report outlines recent developments in the application of this tool and compares the dietary ecologies of various human groups from the viewpoint of isotope geochemistry. The history of the application of this tool to dietary analysis is summarized first, and features of the carbon and nitrogen isotope composition in animals and their relations with the food chain are outlined. The dietary ecology of the current people is then discussed in relation to the isotope composition in food, the isotope composition in hair of the current people, and determination of food habit of specific groups of people from such isotope compositions. For prediction of dietary composition, the report presents a flow chart for an algorism which is based on the Monte Carlo method. It also outlines processes for analyzing food habits of people in the prehistoric age, focusing on distribution of isotope composition in humans over the world. (N.K.)

Predicting Dropout Using Student- and School-Level Factors: An Ecological Perspective

Science.gov (United States)

Wood, Laura; Kiperman, Sarah; Esch, Rachel C.; Leroux, Audrey J.; Truscott, Stephen D.

2017-01-01

High school dropout has been associated with negative outcomes, including increased rates of unemployment, incarceration, and mortality. Dropout rates vary significantly depending on individual and environmental factors. The purpose of our study was to use an ecological perspective to concurrently explore student- and school-level predictors…

What determines social capital in a social-ecological system? Insights from a network perspective.

Science.gov (United States)

Barnes-Mauthe, Michele; Gray, Steven Allen; Arita, Shawn; Lynham, John; Leung, PingSun

2015-02-01

Social capital is an important resource that can be mobilized for purposive action or competitive gain. The distribution of social capital in social-ecological systems can determine who is more productive at extracting ecological resources and who emerges as influential in guiding their management, thereby empowering some while disempowering others. Despite its importance, the factors that contribute to variation in social capital among individuals have not been widely studied. We adopt a network perspective to examine what determines social capital among individuals in social-ecological systems. We begin by identifying network measures of social capital relevant for individuals in this context, and review existing evidence concerning their determinants. Using a complete social network dataset from Hawaii's longline fishery, we employ social network analysis and other statistical methods to empirically estimate these measures and determine the extent to which individual stakeholder attributes explain variation within them. We find that ethnicity is the strongest predictor of social capital. Measures of human capital (i.e., education, experience), years living in the community, and information-sharing attitudes are also important. Surprisingly, we find that when controlling for other factors, industry leaders and formal fishery representatives are generally not well connected. Our results offer new quantitative insights on the relationship between stakeholder diversity, social networks, and social capital in a coupled social-ecological system, which can aid in identifying barriers and opportunities for action to overcome resource management problems. Our results also have implications for achieving resource governance that is not only ecologically and economically sustainable, but also equitable.

What Determines Social Capital in a Social-Ecological System? Insights from a Network Perspective

Science.gov (United States)

Barnes-Mauthe, Michele; Gray, Steven Allen; Arita, Shawn; Lynham, John; Leung, PingSun

2015-02-01

Social capital is an important resource that can be mobilized for purposive action or competitive gain. The distribution of social capital in social-ecological systems can determine who is more productive at extracting ecological resources and who emerges as influential in guiding their management, thereby empowering some while disempowering others. Despite its importance, the factors that contribute to variation in social capital among individuals have not been widely studied. We adopt a network perspective to examine what determines social capital among individuals in social-ecological systems. We begin by identifying network measures of social capital relevant for individuals in this context, and review existing evidence concerning their determinants. Using a complete social network dataset from Hawaii's longline fishery, we employ social network analysis and other statistical methods to empirically estimate these measures and determine the extent to which individual stakeholder attributes explain variation within them. We find that ethnicity is the strongest predictor of social capital. Measures of human capital (i.e., education, experience), years living in the community, and information-sharing attitudes are also important. Surprisingly, we find that when controlling for other factors, industry leaders and formal fishery representatives are generally not well connected. Our results offer new quantitative insights on the relationship between stakeholder diversity, social networks, and social capital in a coupled social-ecological system, which can aid in identifying barriers and opportunities for action to overcome resource management problems. Our results also have implications for achieving resource governance that is not only ecologically and economically sustainable, but also equitable.

Ecological restoration, ecosystem services, and land use: a European perspective

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Anne Tolvanen

2016-12-01

Full Text Available This special feature provides an overview on how the ecosystem service concept has been and can be incorporated into the science, practice, and policies of ecological restoration (ER and evidence-based land-use. It includes an edited selection of eleven invited and peer-reviewed papers based on presentations given during the 9th European Conference on Ecological Restoration in 2014. The focus is on Europe, but many contributors also make appraisals and recommendations at the global scale. Based on the contributors' papers, and our own overview of the promise of ecological restoration in the existing international treaties, coalitions, and conventions, we propose that the following actions could contribute to the positive impacts of ER on biodiversity maintenance, ecosystem functioning, progressive mainstreaming the concepts of both ER and ecosystem services, significant mitigation and offsetting of anthropogenic climate change, and lasting enhancement of both ecosystem and human health: •\tER should be incorporated into land use planning, wherever needed, and the synergies and trade-offs of different land use scenarios should be assessed in terms of their impacts on ecosystem services. •\tThe discourse of ER should be enlarged, wherever it is needed, to include multifunctional land use that simultaneously supports sustainable production systems, built environments, and the quality and quantity of diverse ecosystem services. This approach will generate ecological, social, and economic benefits in the long run. •\tMonitoring and evaluation of ER projects should be a continuous process involving careful selection of indicators chosen with the full range of stakeholders in mind, and a sufficiently long-term perspective to catch the progress of long-term or highly dynamic ecosystem processes. •\tScientists should actively participate in policy and land management discussions in order to give their views on the potential outcomes of decisions. �

Human Dimensions of Coral Reef Social-Ecological Systems

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John N. Kittinger

2012-12-01

Full Text Available Coral reefs are among the most diverse ecosystems on the planet but are declining because of human activities. Despite general recognition of the human role in the plight of coral reefs, the vast majority of research focuses on the ecological rather than the human dimensions of reef ecosystems, limiting our understanding of social relationships with these environments as well as potential solutions for reef recovery. General frameworks for social-ecological systems (SESs have been advanced, but system-specific approaches are needed to develop a more nuanced view of human-environmental interactions for specific contexts and resource systems, and at specific scales. We synthesize existing concepts related to SESs and present a human dimensions framework that explores the linkages between social system structural traits, human activities, ecosystem services, and human well-being in coral reef SESs. Key features of the framework include social-ecological reciprocity, proximate and underlying dimensions, and the directionality of key relationships and feedback loops. Such frameworks are needed if human dimensions research is to be more fully integrated into studies of ecosystem change and the sustainability of linked SESs.

Perspectives on economics and ecology

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

O`Neill, R.V.

1995-02-01

As we move toward the twenty-first century, the overlap and synergism between economics and ecology demands our scientific attention. But in the intellectual excitement of seeing this new field emerge, we must not lose sight of the underlying global dynamics that are driving the pending merger. Simply stated: the population bomb has not been defused. The media and ecologists have simply fatigued of repeating the obvious. The combination of human population growth and increasing per capita impact is placing irreconcilable demands on the global biotic system. We can reduce per capita demands with technology and recycling. But such strategies simply delay the inevitable unless the human population asymptotes. of course, the population will reach a limit. The choice is between a series of global crises and a reasoned plan for the future. But for Global Sustainability to avoid becoming a cruel and unattainable fantasy, plans must include human population control and economics.

A Bronfenbrenner Ecological Perspective on the Transition to Teaching for Alternative Certification

Science.gov (United States)

Tissington, Laura D.

2008-01-01

This paper presents an ecologically informed approach to conceptualizing and studying the transition to formal teaching of alternative certification candidates. This perspective acknowledges that transitions play an important role in later teaching success; theorizes that a full understanding of teacher competence must examine the influence of…

Ecological approaches to human nutrition.

Science.gov (United States)

DeClerck, Fabrice A J; Fanzo, Jessica; Palm, Cheryl; Remans, Roseline

2011-03-01

Malnutrition affects a large number of people throughout the developing world. Approaches to reducing malnutrition rarely focus on ecology and agriculture to simultaneously improve human nutrition and environmental sustainability. However, evidence suggests that interdisciplinary approaches that combine the knowledge bases of these disciplines can serve as a central strategy in alleviating hidden hunger for the world's poorest. To describe the role that ecological knowledge plays in alleviating hidden hunger, considering human nutrition as an overlooked ecosystem service. We review existing literature and propose a framework that expands on earlier work on econutrition. We provide novel evidence from case studies conducted by the authors in western Kenya and propose a framework for interdisciplinary collaboration to alleviate hidden hunger, increase agricultural productivity, and improve environmental sustainability. Our review supports the concept that an integrated approach will impact human nutrition. We provide evidence that increased functional agrobiodiversity can alleviate anemia, and interventions that contribute to environmental sustainability can have both direct and indirect effects on human health and nutritional well-being. Integrated and interdisciplinary approaches are critical to reaching development goals. Ecologists must begin to consider not only how their field can contribute to biodiversity conservation, but also, the relationship between biodiversity and provisioning of nontraditional ecosystem services such as human health. Likewise, nutritionists and agronomists must recognize that many of the solutions to increasing human wellbeing and health can best be achieved by focusing on a healthy environment and the conservation of ecosystem services.

Understanding vaginal microbiome complexity from an ecological perspective

Science.gov (United States)

Hickey, Roxana J.; Zhou, Xia; Pierson, Jacob D.; Ravel, Jacques; Forney, Larry J.

2012-01-01

The various microbiota normally associated with the human body have an important influence on human development, physiology, immunity, and nutrition. This is certainly true for the vagina wherein communities of mutualistic bacteria constitute the first line of defense for the host by excluding invasive, nonindigenous organisms that may cause disease. In recent years much has been learned about the bacterial species composition of these communities and how they differ between individuals of different ages and ethnicities. A deeper understanding of their origins and the interrelationships of constituent species is needed to understand how and why they change over time or in response to changes in the host environment. Moreover, there are few unifying theories to explain the ecological dynamics of vaginal ecosystems as they respond to disturbances caused by menses and human activities such as intercourse, douching, and other habits and practices. This fundamental knowledge is needed to diagnose and assess risk to disease. Here we summarize what is known about the species composition, structure, and function of bacterial communities in the human vagina and the applicability of ecological models of community structure and function to understanding the dynamics of this and other ecosystems that comprise the human microbiome. PMID:22683415

Revisiting Learning in Higher Education--Framing Notions Redefined through an Ecological Perspective

Science.gov (United States)

Damsa, Crina; Jornet, Alfredo

2016-01-01

This article employs an ecological perspective as a means of revisiting the notion of learning, with a particular focus on learning in higher education. Learning is reconceptualised as a process entailing mutually constitutive, epistemic, social and affective relations in which knowledge, identity and agency become collective achievements of whole…

Challenges of ecological restoration

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Halme, Panu; Allen, Katherine A.; Aunins, Ainars

2013-01-01

we introduce northern forests as an ecosystem, discuss the historical and recent human impact and provide a brief status report on the ecological restoration projects and research already conducted there. Based on this discussion, we argue that before any restoration actions commence, the ecology......The alarming rate of ecosystem degradation has raised the need for ecological restoration throughout different biomes and continents. North European forests may appear as one of the least vulnerable ecosystems from a global perspective, since forest cover is not rapidly decreasing and many...... on Biological Diversity. Several northern countries are now taking up this challenge by restoring forest biodiversity with increasing intensity. The ecology and biodiversity of boreal forests are relatively well understood making them a good model for restoration activities in many other forest ecosystems. Here...

Considerations in representing human individuals in social ecological models

Science.gov (United States)

Manfredo, Michael J.; Teel, Tara L.; Gavin, Michael C.; Fulton, David C.

2017-01-01

In this chapter we focus on how to integrate the human individual into social-ecological systems analysis, and how to improve research on individual thought and action regarding the environment by locating it within the broader social-ecological context. We discuss three key questions as considerations for future research: (1) is human thought conceptualized as a dynamic and adaptive process, (2) is the individual placed in a multi-level context (including within-person levels, person-group interactions, and institutional and structural factors), and (3) is human thought seen as mutually constructed with the social and natural environment. Increased emphasis on the individual will be essential if we are to understand agency, innovation, and adaptation in social-ecological systems.

Missing ecology: integrating ecological perspectives with the social-ecological system framework

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Graham Epstein

2013-08-01

Full Text Available The social-ecological systems framework was designed to provide a common research tool for interdisciplinary investigations of social-ecological systems. However, its origin in institutional studies of the commons belies its interdisciplinary ambitions and highlights its relatively limited attention to ecology and natural scientific knowledge. This paper considers the biophysical components of the framework and its epistemological foundations as it relates to the incorporation of knowledge from the natural sciences. It finds that the mixture of inductive and deductive reasoning associated with socially-oriented investigations of these systems is lacking on the ecological side, which relies upon induction alone. As a result the paper proposes the addition of a seventh core sub-system to the social-ecological systems framework, ecological rules, which would allow scholars to explicitly incorporate knowledge from the natural sciences for deductive reasoning. The paper shows, through an instructive case study, how the addition of ecological rules can provide a more nuanced description of the factors that contribute to outcomes in social-ecological systems.

An Ecological Perspective on Early Years Workforce Competences in Italian ECEC Settings

Science.gov (United States)

Migliorini, Laura; Rania, Nadia; Tassara, Tatiana

2016-01-01

Based on an ecological perspective on competence, this study analyzed the attitudes, skills, and knowledge of practitioners in educational services for 0-6-years-old children in Italy, examining competence profiles in the Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) workforce. Our study considered three areas of competence, which previously have…

Ecologization Processes in Society Today: the Challenge of Globalization

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Aurelija Samoškienė

2012-07-01

Full Text Available Negative impact on the environment made by human activity is discussed in this article as well as main problems caused by interaction with negative environmental changes. Ecologization conception and its evolution are analyzed chronologically. Key perspectives of scientific research in the ecologization field are determined; the context of today’s society is taken into account.Article in Lithuanian

Meaning Emergence in the Ecology of Dialogical Systems

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Trasmundi, S. B.; Steffensen, S. V.

2016-01-01

This article is an empirically based theoretical contribution to the investigation of meaningmaking in the ecology of human interaction and interactivity. It presents an ecological perspective on meaning-making that pivots on how agents pick up information directly in their organism...... Analysis to investigate how the agents oscillate between being a multi-agent-system with shared, tightly coordinated agency and a loosely coupled dialogical system where the individuals bring forth an understanding based on their professional backgrounds and expertise. On this view, an ecological approach...

Individual Characteristics and the Multiple Contexts of Adolescent Bullying: An Ecological Perspective

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Barboza, Gia Elise; Schiamberg, Lawrence B.; Oehmke, James; Korzeniewski, Steven J.; Post, Lori A.; Heraux, Cedrick G.

2009-01-01

This paper uses an ecological perspective to explore the risk factors associated with bullying behaviors among a representative sample of adolescents aged 11-14 (n = 9816, mean = 12.88, s = 0.9814). Data derived from the "Health Behavior in School Children: WHO Cross-National Survey" were used to model the relationship between bullying and media…

Socio-ecological perspective of older age life expectancy: income, gender inequality, and financial crisis in Europe.

Science.gov (United States)

Kim, Jong In; Kim, Gukbin

2017-08-18

Population is aging rapidly in Europe. Older age life expectancy (OLE) can be influenced by country-level depth of credit information (DCI) as an indicator of financial crisis, gross national income (GNI) per capita, and gender inequality index (GII). These factors are key indicators of socio-ecological inequality. They can be used to develop strategies to reduce country-level health disparity. The objective of this study was to confirm the relationship between socio-ecological factors and OLE in Europe. Data were obtained from World Bank, WHO, and UN database for 34 Europe countries. Associations between socio-ecological factors and OLE were assessed with Pearson correlation coefficients and three regression models. These models assumed that appropriate changes in country-level strategies of healthy aging would produce changes in GNI per capital as personal perspective, GII in social environment perspective, and DCI in public policy perspective to implement socio-ecological changes. Hierarchal linear regression was used for final analysis. Although OLE (women and men) had significant negative correlation with GII (gender inequality index, r = - 0.798, p = 0.001), it had positive correlations with GNI (gross national income per capita, r = 0.834, p = 0.001) and DCI (depth of credit information index, r = 0.704, p = 0.001) levels caused by financial crisis. Higher levels GNI and DCI but lower GII were found to be predictors of OLE (women and men) (R 2  = 0.804, p effect on OLE levels. Thus, country-level strategies of successful aging in Europe should target socio-ecological factors such as GII, GNI, and DCI value.

Explicating Practicum Program Theory: A Case Example in Human Ecology

Science.gov (United States)

Chandler, Kathryn M. M.; Williamson, Deanna L.

2013-01-01

This study explicated the theory underpinning the Human Ecology Practicum Program offered in the Department of Human Ecology at the University of Alberta. The program has operated for 40 years but never been formally evaluated. Using a document analysis, focus group and individual interviews, and a stakeholder working group, we explored…

Human ecology. Foundations of preventive environmental policy. Humanoekologie. Grundlagen praeventiver Umweltpolitik

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Glaeser, B [ed.

1989-01-01

Can human ecology contribute towards originating a preventive environmental policy. Following a discussion of the demands of preventive environmental policy between theory and practice, the book presents the scientific approach 'human ecology' from a social-scientific angle. Then the question of the foundation in environmentally-related ethics is dealt with. The application and realizability of human-ecological considerations are tested with reference to different sectors of politics, and positive and negative indications of the chances of realization of a preventive environmental policy are discussed. (orig.).

New horizons for e-learning in medical education: ecological and Web 2.0 perspectives.

Science.gov (United States)

Sandars, John; Haythornthwaite, Caroline

2007-05-01

An ecological and a Web 2.0 perspective of e-learning provides new ways of thinking about how people learn with technology and also how new learning opportunities are offered by new technology. These perspectives highlight the importance of developing connections between a wide variety of learning resources, containing both codified and tacit knowledge. New adaptive technology has the potential to create personalized, yet collective, learning. The future implications for e-learning in medical education is considered.

Implementation of a socio-ecological system navigation approach to human development in sub-saharan african communities.

Science.gov (United States)

Gilioli, Gianni; Caroli, Anna Maria; Tikubet, Getachew; Herren, Hans R; Baumgärtner, Johann

2014-03-26

all stakeholders should be reconciled in a pragmatic approach to social-ecological system management. Significance for public healthRecently, there is a growing interest in studying the link between human, animal and environmental health. The connection between these different dimensions is particularly important for developing countries in which people face the challenge of escaping vicious cycle of high diseases prevalence, food insecurity driven by absolute poverty and population growth, and natural capital as a poverty trap. The design and implementation of such efforts, aiming at human health improvement and poverty alleviation, should be framed into adaptive social-ecological system management perspectives. In this paper, we present few case studies dealing with human health improvement through anopheline malaria vectors control in Kenya, cattle health improvement through tsetse vectored nagana control, antitrypanosomal drug administration to cattle in Ethiopia and with the development of rural sustainable communities in Ethiopia. Some recommendations are given to rationalise human and cattle health improvement efforts and to smoothen the road towards enhanced sustainability.

Implementation of a Socio-Ecological System Navigation Approach to Human Development in Sub-Saharan African Communities

Science.gov (United States)

Gilioli, Gianni; Caroli, Anna Maria; Tikubet, Getachew; Herren, Hans R.; Baumgärtner, Johann

2014-01-01

all stakeholders should be reconciled in a pragmatic approach to social-ecological system management. Significance for public health Recently, there is a growing interest in studying the link between human, animal and environmental health. The connection between these different dimensions is particularly important for developing countries in which people face the challenge of escaping vicious cycle of high diseases prevalence, food insecurity driven by absolute poverty and population growth, and natural capital as a poverty trap. The design and implementation of such efforts, aiming at human health improvement and poverty alleviation, should be framed into adaptive social-ecological system management perspectives. In this paper, we present few case studies dealing with human health improvement through anopheline malaria vectors control in Kenya, cattle health improvement through tsetse vectored nagana control, antitrypanosomal drug administration to cattle in Ethiopia and with the development of rural sustainable communities in Ethiopia. Some recommendations are given to rationalise human and cattle health improvement efforts and to smoothen the road towards enhanced sustainability. PMID:25170511

Landscape Ecology

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Christensen, Andreas Aagaard; Brandt, Jesper; Svenningsen, Stig Roar

2017-01-01

, and the ecological significance of the patterns which are generated by such processes. In landscape ecology, perspectives drawn from existing academic disciplines are integrated based on a common, spatially explicit mode of analysis developed from classical holistic geography, emphasizing spatial and landscape...... to translate positivist readings of the environment and hermeneutical perspectives on socioecological interaction into a common framework or terminology....

Fundamentals of ecology. Vol. 2. Grundlagen der Oekologie. Bd. 2. Standorte und Anwendung

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Odum, E P

1980-01-01

The following topics are discussed: freshwater flora and fauna; marine ecosystems; shelf, krill, mangroves, and coral reefs; terrestrial biota and biogeographic regions; deciduous wood, grassland, desert; microbial-ecological perspectives: taxonomy, efficiency, turnover; aquaculture, agriculture, forestry; types, cost, and phases of environmental pollution; specific population ecology of humans.

Essential elements of ecological literacy and the pathways to achieve it: Perspectives of ecologists

Science.gov (United States)

McBride, Brooke Baldauf

2011-12-01

National assessments have led many to conclude that the level of ecological literacy among the general population in the United States is too low to enable effective social responses to current environmental challenges. However, the actual meaning of ecological literacy varies considerably between academic fields and has been a topic of intensive deliberation for several decades. Within the field of ecology in particular, a driving purpose behind this ongoing discussion has been to advance a complete, pedagogy-guiding, and broadly applicable framework for ecological literacy, allowing for the establishment of guidelines and tools for assessing educational achievement; yet, a widely accepted framework does not currently exist. What is ecological literacy and how can it be achieved? Through an extensive review of the literature, I traced the evolution of the related concepts of environmental literacy, ecological literacy, and ecoliteracy, and compared and contrasted the numerous proposed frameworks across multiple dimensions of affect, knowledge, skills, and behavior. In addition to characterizing the overall discourse, this analysis facilitated close examination of where we have been, where we are, and where we might be headed with respect to these vital conversations. To explore current perspectives on the topic, I analyzed the open-ended responses of more than 1,000 ecologists and other environmental scientists on the nature of ecological literacy and how it may be achieved. Factor analysis revealed the presence of six common dimensions underlying respondents' views of ecological literacy (cycles and webs, ecosystem services, negative human impacts, critical thinking/application, nature of ecological science, and biogeography) and five common dimensions for how to achieve it (education by mass media, formal/traditional education, financial incentive, participatory/interactive education, and communication/outreach by scientists). Based on these results, I proposed

The ecological economics: An ecological economics

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Castiblanco R, Carmenza

2007-01-01

Ecological Economics arise as a scientific discipline aimed to integrate concepts of economics, ecology, thermodynamics, ethic and other natural and social sciences in order to incorporate a biophysical and integrated perspective of the inter dependences between economies and environment, from a plural conception and a methodology beyond disciplines. Ecological Economics studies the black box of economic processes usually excluded of the traditional economics: thermodynamics and ecology. Although it is relatively a new field of study, it has been strengthening its theoretical framework with scientific basis and analytic principles that lead to its identification as a new discipline that show a whole new paradigm. The scope of this article is to show the conceptual and methodological bases, the main founders, approaches and central debates of this new discipline. This brief introduction is a preamble to the papers of the meeting Ecological Economics: a perspective for Colombia included in this number, that took place on September 22 - 27 of 2007, at the National University of Colombia at Bogota. During tree days national and international experts, professors, researchers, workers of environmental sector and people interested on environmental issues joined together to know the conceptual and methodological achievements reached of this discipline; as well as to analyse and evaluate the environmental problems of the country, from the systemic, interdisciplinary and general perspective that it promotes

Bacteriology of humans : an ecological perspective

National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

Wilson, Michael, 1947

2008-01-01

..., Staphylococcus aureus, etc. What is now a-changing is that interest is shifting towards the vast majority of our microbial partners that do not cause disease and, indeed, are essential to our well being. The indigenous microbiota of healthy humans is now the subject of intense scrutiny, and its enormous diversity and the crucial roles that it pl...

Web 2.0 Technologies and Parent Involvement of ELL Students: An Ecological Perspective

Science.gov (United States)

Shin, Dong-shin; Seger, Wendy

2016-01-01

This study explores how ELL students' parents participated in a blog-mediated English language arts curriculum in a second grade classroom at a U.S. urban school, and how they supported their children's learning of school-based writing. Adopting ecological perspectives on technological affordances, this study views digital literacy as discursive…

Social-ecological systems, social diversity, and power: insights from anthropology and political ecology

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Michael Fabinyi

2014-12-01

Full Text Available A social-ecological system (SES framework increasingly underpins the "resilience paradigm." As with all models, the SES comes with particular biases. We explore these key biases. We critically examine how the SES resilience literature has attempted to define and analyze the social arena. We argue that much SES literature defines people's interests and livelihoods as concerned primarily with the environment, and thereby underplays the role of other motivations and social institutions. We also highlight the SES resilience literature's focus on institutions and organized social units, which misses key aspects of social diversity and power. Our key premise is the importance of inter- and multi-disciplinary perspectives. To illustrate this, we draw attention to the critique of earlier ecological anthropology that remains relevant for current conceptualizations of SESs, focusing on the concepts of social diversity and power. And we discuss insights from social anthropology and political ecology that have responded to this critique to develop different ways of incorporating social diversity and power into human-environment relations. Finally, we discuss how these social science perspectives can help improve the understanding of the "social" in SES resilience research.

Patterns of Early-Life Gut Microbial Colonization during Human Immune Development: An Ecological Perspective

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Isabelle Laforest-Lapointe

2017-07-01

Full Text Available Alterations in gut microbial colonization during early life have been reported in infants that later developed asthma, allergies, type 1 diabetes, as well as in inflammatory bowel disease patients, previous to disease flares. Mechanistic studies in animal models have established that microbial alterations influence disease pathogenesis via changes in immune system maturation. Strong evidence points to the presence of a window of opportunity in early life, during which changes in gut microbial colonization can result in immune dysregulation that predisposes susceptible hosts to disease. Although the ecological patterns of microbial succession in the first year of life have been partly defined in specific human cohorts, the taxonomic and functional features, and diversity thresholds that characterize these microbial alterations are, for the most part, unknown. In this review, we summarize the most important links between the temporal mosaics of gut microbial colonization and the age-dependent immune functions that rely on them. We also highlight the importance of applying ecology theory to design studies that explore the interactions between this complex ecosystem and the host immune system. Focusing research efforts on understanding the importance of temporally structured patterns of diversity, keystone groups, and inter-kingdom microbial interactions for ecosystem functions has great potential to enable the development of biologically sound interventions aimed at maintaining and/or improving immune system development and preventing disease.

Contributing to Sustainability Education of East Asian University Students through a Field Trip Experience: A Social-Ecological Perspective

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Tae Kyung Yoon

2016-10-01

Full Text Available This study reports the effects of a field trip environmental education program with a social-ecological perspective on the experience and learning of university students from China, Japan, South Korea and Vietnam. The students visited Jeju Island, the Saemangeum Sea Dike, the Demilitarized Zone and Seoul, South Korea. Their experiences and learning about social-ecological interactions were analyzed using the new environmental paradigm test, an evaluation questionnaire, group presentations and individual reports. Across demographic characteristics, the participants believed the program fairly presented the concept of social-ecological systems. Some developed new ideas of social-ecological systems through interpreting, transforming and contextualizing their field trip experience based on prior knowledge bases; others compared the sites to case studies. They preferred the sites where social-ecological issues were clearly presented by well-preserved landscapes, successful environmental management or environmental conflict. The results show the need for an advanced multi-dimensional methodology to evaluate students’ learning through constructive processes. The program design of this study from planning to field trip and evaluation, the field site design in which regional site resources were organized in a social-ecological context and the analysis of participants’ learning and experiences could contribute to attempts to couple the social-ecological perspective with the practice of sustainability and environmental education in field trip design.

Coevolutionary ecological economics

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Kallis, Giorgos [ICREA Researcher, ICTA, Universidad Autonoma de Barcelona, ETSE, QC/3095, 08193 Bellatera, Barcelona (Spain); Norgaard, Richard B. [Energy and Resources Group, University of California at Berkeley, 310 Barrows Hall, Berkeley, CA, 94720-3050 (United States)

2010-02-15

This paper maps a coevolutionary research agenda for ecological economics. At an epistemological level coevolution offers a powerful logic for transcending environmental and social determinisms and developing a cross-disciplinary approach in the study of socio-ecological systems. We identify four consistent stories emerging out of coevolutionary studies in ecological economics, concerning: environmental degradation and development failure in peripheral regions; the lock-in of unsustainable production-consumption patterns; the vicious cycle between human efforts to control undesirable micro-organisms and the evolution of these organisms; and the adaptive advantages of other-regarding, cooperative behaviors and institutions. We identify challenges in the conceptualization of coevolutionary relationships in relation to: the interaction between different hierarchical levels of evolution; the role of space and social power; uneven rates of change and crises. We conclude with the political implications of a coevolutionary perspective based on the premises of pragmatism. (author)

Natural Killer T Cells: An Ecological Evolutionary Developmental Biology Perspective.

Science.gov (United States)

Kumar, Amrendra; Suryadevara, Naveenchandra; Hill, Timothy M; Bezbradica, Jelena S; Van Kaer, Luc; Joyce, Sebastian

2017-01-01

Type I natural killer T (NKT) cells are innate-like T lymphocytes that recognize glycolipid antigens presented by the MHC class I-like protein CD1d. Agonistic activation of NKT cells leads to rapid pro-inflammatory and immune modulatory cytokine and chemokine responses. This property of NKT cells, in conjunction with their interactions with antigen-presenting cells, controls downstream innate and adaptive immune responses against cancers and infectious diseases, as well as in several inflammatory disorders. NKT cell properties are acquired during development in the thymus and by interactions with the host microbial consortium in the gut, the nature of which can be influenced by NKT cells. This latter property, together with the role of the host microbiota in cancer therapy, necessitates a new perspective. Hence, this review provides an initial approach to understanding NKT cells from an ecological evolutionary developmental biology (eco-evo-devo) perspective.

Natural Killer T Cells: An Ecological Evolutionary Developmental Biology Perspective

Science.gov (United States)

Kumar, Amrendra; Suryadevara, Naveenchandra; Hill, Timothy M.; Bezbradica, Jelena S.; Van Kaer, Luc; Joyce, Sebastian

2017-01-01

Type I natural killer T (NKT) cells are innate-like T lymphocytes that recognize glycolipid antigens presented by the MHC class I-like protein CD1d. Agonistic activation of NKT cells leads to rapid pro-inflammatory and immune modulatory cytokine and chemokine responses. This property of NKT cells, in conjunction with their interactions with antigen-presenting cells, controls downstream innate and adaptive immune responses against cancers and infectious diseases, as well as in several inflammatory disorders. NKT cell properties are acquired during development in the thymus and by interactions with the host microbial consortium in the gut, the nature of which can be influenced by NKT cells. This latter property, together with the role of the host microbiota in cancer therapy, necessitates a new perspective. Hence, this review provides an initial approach to understanding NKT cells from an ecological evolutionary developmental biology (eco-evo-devo) perspective. PMID:29312339

Natural Killer T Cells: An Ecological Evolutionary Developmental Biology Perspective

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Amrendra Kumar

2017-12-01

Full Text Available Type I natural killer T (NKT cells are innate-like T lymphocytes that recognize glycolipid antigens presented by the MHC class I-like protein CD1d. Agonistic activation of NKT cells leads to rapid pro-inflammatory and immune modulatory cytokine and chemokine responses. This property of NKT cells, in conjunction with their interactions with antigen-presenting cells, controls downstream innate and adaptive immune responses against cancers and infectious diseases, as well as in several inflammatory disorders. NKT cell properties are acquired during development in the thymus and by interactions with the host microbial consortium in the gut, the nature of which can be influenced by NKT cells. This latter property, together with the role of the host microbiota in cancer therapy, necessitates a new perspective. Hence, this review provides an initial approach to understanding NKT cells from an ecological evolutionary developmental biology (eco-evo-devo perspective.

Operationalising a social-ecological system perspective on the Arctic Ocean.

Science.gov (United States)

Crépin, Anne-Sophie; Gren, Åsa; Engström, Gustav; Ospina, Daniel

2017-12-01

We propose a framework to support management that builds on a social-ecological system perspective on the Arctic Ocean. We illustrate the framework's application for two policy-relevant scenarios of climate-driven change, picturing a shift in zooplankton composition and alternatively a crab invasion. We analyse archetypical system dynamics between the socio-economic, the natural, and the governance systems in these scenarios. Our holistic approach can help managers identify looming problems arising from complex system interactions and prioritise among problems and solutions, even when available data are limited.

The Ecology of Human Development in Retrospect and Prospect.

Science.gov (United States)

Bronfenbrenner, Urie

In attempting to define the "ecology" of human development, the term's history and connotations are discussed. The ecological approach requires that the person, the environment, and the relations between them be conceptualized in terms of systems, and subsystems within systems. The experimental situation is not limited to being…

Social-ecological perspective in the analysis of protected natural areas of the metropolitan area of Barcelona (Spain)

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Iago Otero, Armengol; Boada Junca, Marti

2008-01-01

Socio ecological approach tries to integrate natural sciences and social sciences to study reality from an interdisciplinary perspective. Under this point of view, the article analyses the environmental history in the municipality of Matadepera and studies the socio ecological heritage in Olzinelles valley. Through the two case studies we link socio ecological approach with the improvement of management and conservation of two natural protected areas in the Barcelona Metropolitan Region: Sant Llorenc del Munt i l'Obac Natural Park and Montnegre i el Corredor Park

Functional ecology of free-living nitrogen fixation: A contemporary perspective

Science.gov (United States)

Reed, Sasha C.; Cleveland, Cory C.; Townsend, Alan R.

2011-01-01

Nitrogen (N) availability is thought to frequently limit terrestrial ecosystem processes, and explicit consideration of N biogeochemistry, including biological N2 fixation, is central to understanding ecosystem responses to environmental change. Yet, the importance of free-living N2 fixation—a process that occurs on a wide variety of substrates, is nearly ubiquitous in terrestrial ecosystems, and may often represent the dominant pathway for acquiring newly available N—is often underappreciated. Here, we draw from studies that investigate free-living N2 fixation from functional, physiological, genetic, and ecological perspectives. We show that recent research and analytical advances have generated a wealth of new information that provides novel insight into the ecology of N2 fixation as well as raises new questions and priorities for future work. These priorities include a need to better integrate free-living N2 fixation into conceptual and analytical evaluations of the N cycle's role in a variety of global change scenarios.

KAJIAN FILOSOFIS TERHADAP PEMIKIRAN HUMAN- EKOLOGI DALAM PEMANFAATAN SUMBERDAYA ALAM (Philosophical Studies of Human Ecology Thinking on Natual Resource Use

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Armaidy Armawi

2013-03-01

dalam suatu ekosistem,sehingga terjadi interaksi yang harmoni dan seimbang antara pemanfaatan dan pemeliharaan sumberdaya alam dalam pembangunan.   ABSTRACT This research aims to give alternative solution in reducing environmental damage as the result of human exploitation on natural resource in development process. The approach in use is philosophical approach to understand the fact and essence of human role in the universe. What human must do to maintenance and keep himself and his environment? This research is a qualitative bibliographical research. The method in use is versetehen, interpretation, hermeneutic and heuristic. The result shows the development process and human effort in exploiting natural resource is irrational and full of greediness and also hedonism. This result has important role to create consumptiveness. Natural resource base on individualistic-materialistic perspective has created various conflicts with human toll and environmental damage. It also created segregation between wealth and poverty. Therefore, development need critical framework with anthro-ecology-philosophy (human ecology. This critical framework or paradigm could resume various dimensions in human existence or another existence with human measurement. Thus, humanist development and environmental maintenance with time dimension, human, nature and religious dimension measurement are included. Environmental effect analysis in development planning not only base on technical aspect such as damage analysis, pollution and environmental maintenance but also non-technical aspects, namely ethical values base on human and local wisdom. Those attentive aspects are mentioned to avoid rejections and conflicts between ecological elements in an ecosystem to create harmonic interaction and balance between use and natural resource maintenance in development.

More Than a Potential Hazard—Approaching Risks from a Social-Ecological Perspective

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Carolin Völker

2017-06-01

Full Text Available Risks have been classically understood as a probability of damage or a potential hazard resulting in appropriate management strategies. However, research on environmental issues such as pollutants in the aquatic environment or the impacts of climate change have shown that classical management approaches do not sufficiently cover these interactions between society and nature. There have been several attempts to develop interdisciplinary approaches to risk that include natural as well as social science contributions. In this paper, the authors aim at developing a social-ecological perspective on risk by drawing on the concept of societal relations to nature and the model of provisioning systems. This perspective is used to analyze four cases, pharmaceuticals, microplastics, semicentralized water infrastructures and forest management, with regard to risk identification, assessment and management. Finally, the paper aims at developing a perspective on risks which takes into account non-intended side-effects, system interdependencies and uncertainty.

Two sides of a coin: ecological and chronobiological perspectives of timing in the wild.

Science.gov (United States)

Helm, Barbara; Visser, Marcel E; Schwartz, William; Kronfeld-Schor, Noga; Gerkema, Menno; Piersma, Theunis; Bloch, Guy

2017-11-19

Most processes within organisms, and most interactions between organisms and their environment, have distinct time profiles. The temporal coordination of such processes is crucial across levels of biological organization, but disciplines differ widely in their approaches to study timing. Such differences are accentuated between ecologists, who are centrally concerned with a holistic view of an organism in relation to its external environment, and chronobiologists, who emphasize internal timekeeping within an organism and the mechanisms of its adjustment to the environment. We argue that ecological and chronobiological perspectives are complementary, and that studies at the intersection will enable both fields to jointly overcome obstacles that currently hinder progress. However, to achieve this integration, we first have to cross some conceptual barriers, clarifying prohibitively inaccessible terminologies. We critically assess main assumptions and concepts in either field, as well as their common interests. Both approaches intersect in their need to understand the extent and regulation of temporal plasticity, and in the concept of 'chronotype', i.e. the characteristic temporal properties of individuals which are the targets of natural and sexual selection. We then highlight promising developments, point out open questions, acknowledge difficulties and propose directions for further integration of ecological and chronobiological perspectives through Wild Clock research.This article is part of the themed issue 'Wild Clocks: integrating chronobiology and ecology to understand timekeeping in free-living animals'. © 2017 The Author(s).

Human factors in telemanipulation: Perspectives from the Oak Ridge National Laboratory experience

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Draper, J.V.

1994-01-01

Personnel at the Robotics and Process Systems Division (RPSD) of the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) have extensive experience designing, building, and operating teleoperators for a variety of settings, including space, battlefields, nuclear fuel reprocessing plants, and hazardous waste retrieval. In the course of the last decade and a half, the RPSD designed, built, and operated 4 telemanipulators (M-2, ASM, LTM, CESAR arm) and operated another half dozen (M-8, Model 50, TOS SM-229, RM-10, PaR 5000, BilArm 83A). During this period, human factors professionals have been closely integrated with RPSD design teams, investigating telemanipulator feedback and feed forward, designing cockpits and control rooms, training users and designers, and helping to develop performance specifications for telemanipulators. This paper presents a brief review of this and other work, with an aim towards providing perspectives on some of the human factors aspects of telemanipulation. The first section of the paper examines user tasks during supervisory control and discusses how telemanipulator responsiveness determines the appropriate control metaphor for continuous manual control. The second section provides an ecological perspective on telemanipulator feedback and feed-forward. The third section briefly describes the RPSD control room design approach and how design projects often serve as systems integrators.

Human factors in telemanipulation: Perspectives from the Oak Ridge National Laboratory experience

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Draper, J.V.

1994-01-01

Personnel at the Robotics and Process Systems Division (RPSD) of the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) have extensive experience designing, building, and operating teleoperators for a variety of settings, including space, battlefields, nuclear fuel reprocessing plants, and hazardous waste retrieval. In the course of the last decade and a half, the RPSD designed, built, and operated 4 telemanipulators (M-2, ASM, LTM, CESAR arm) and operated another half dozen (M-8, Model 50, TOS SM-229, RM-10, PaR 5000, BilArm 83A). During this period, human factors professionals have been closely integrated with RPSD design teams, investigating telemanipulator feedback and feed forward, designing cockpits and control rooms, training users and designers, and helping to develop performance specifications for telemanipulators. This paper presents a brief review of this and other work, with an aim towards providing perspectives on some of the human factors aspects of telemanipulation. The first section of the paper examines user tasks during supervisory control and discusses how telemanipulator responsiveness determines the appropriate control metaphor for continuous manual control. The second section provides an ecological perspective on telemanipulator feedback and feed-forward. The third section briefly describes the RPSD control room design approach and how design projects often serve as systems integrators

The Correlation of Geo-Ecological Environment and Mountain Urban planning

Science.gov (United States)

Yang, Chun; Zeng, Wei

2018-01-01

As a special area with the complex geological structure, mountain city is more prone to geological disasters. Due to air pollution, ground subsidence, serious water pollution, earthquakes and floods geo-ecological environment problems have become increasingly serious, mountain urban planning is facing more severe challenges. Therefore, this article bases on the correlation research of geo-ecological environment and mountain urban planning, and re-examins mountain urban planning from the perspective of geo-ecological, coordinates the relationship between the human and nature by geo-ecological thinking, raises the questions which urban planning need to pay attention. And advocates creating an integrated system of geo-ecological and mountain urban planning, analysis the status and dynamics of present mountain urban planning.

Current problems of nuclear power radiation ecology and hygiene

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Vorob' ev, E I; Il' in, L A; Knizhnikov, V A; Aleksakhin, R M

1979-10-01

Perspectiveness of different kinds of energetics is mainly defined by their effect on environment and human health. Hygiene and ecology at present time can not give an objective characteristic of detriment because of the effluents from the fuel-energy cycle facilities, especially from facilities of the traditional energetics. The role of the radiactive effluents into environment is defined by their possible effect on the human health, but not the ecological effects. Meanwhile, the development of the principles of ecological normalization is an actual problem. It is important to carry out a quantitative stady of the dose-effect dependencies of the effluents of cancerogens of the physical and chemical nature into environment. It is advisable to estimate the possible effect of cancerogens from the positions of thresholdlessness of their action.

Current problems of nuclear power radiation ecology and hygiene

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Vorob'ev, E.I.; Il'in, L.A.; Knizhnikov, V.A.; Aleksakhin, R.M.

1979-01-01

Perspectiveness of different kinds of energetics is mainly defined by their effect on environment and human health. Hygiene and ecology at present time can not give an objective characteristic of detriment because of the effluents from the fuel-energy cycle facilities, especially from facilities of the traditional energetics. The role of the radiactive effluents into environment is defined by their possible effect on the human health, but not the ecological effects. Meanwhile, the development of the principles of ecological normalization is an actual problem. It is important to carry out a quantitative stady of the dose-effect dependencies of the effluents of cancerogens of the physical and chemical nature into environment. It is advisable to estimate the possible effect of cancerogens from the positions of thresholdlessness of their action

Green” Technology and Ecologically Unequal Exchange: The Environmental and Social Consequences of Ecological Modernization in the World-System

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Eric Bonds

2015-08-01

Full Text Available This paper contributes to understandings of ecologically unequal exchange within the world-systems perspective by offering a series of case studies of ecological modernization in the automobile industry. The case studies demonstrate that “green” technologies developed and instituted in core nations often require specific raw materials that are extracted from the periphery and semi-periphery. Extraction of such natural resources causes significant environmental degradation and often displaces entire communities from their land. Moreover, because states often use violence and repression to facilitate raw material extraction, the widespread commercialization of “green” technologies can result in serious human rights violations. These findings challenge ecological modernization theory, which rests on the assumption that the development and commercialization of more ecologically-efficient technologies is universally beneficial.

Functional ecology of aquatic phagotrophic protists - Concepts, limitations, and perspectives.

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Weisse, Thomas; Anderson, Ruth; Arndt, Hartmut; Calbet, Albert; Hansen, Per Juel; Montagnes, David J S

2016-08-01

Functional ecology is a subdiscipline that aims to enable a mechanistic understanding of patterns and processes from the organismic to the ecosystem level. This paper addresses some main aspects of the process-oriented current knowledge on phagotrophic, i.e. heterotrophic and mixotrophic, protists in aquatic food webs. This is not an exhaustive review; rather, we focus on conceptual issues, in particular on the numerical and functional response of these organisms. We discuss the evolution of concepts and define parameters to evaluate predator-prey dynamics ranging from Lotka-Volterra to the Independent Response Model. Since protists have extremely versatile feeding modes, we explore if there are systematic differences related to their taxonomic affiliation and life strategies. We differentiate between intrinsic factors (nutritional history, acclimatisation) and extrinsic factors (temperature, food, turbulence) affecting feeding, growth, and survival of protist populations. We briefly consider intraspecific variability of some key parameters and constraints inherent in laboratory microcosm experiments. We then upscale the significance of phagotrophic protists in food webs to the ocean level. Finally, we discuss limitations of the mechanistic understanding of protist functional ecology resulting from principal unpredictability of nonlinear dynamics. We conclude by defining open questions and identifying perspectives for future research on functional ecology of aquatic phagotrophic protists. Copyright © 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier GmbH.. All rights reserved.

Interdisciplinary Adventures in Perceptual Ecology

Science.gov (United States)

Bocast, Christopher S.

A portfolio dissertation that began as acoustic ecology and matured into perceptual ecology, centered on ecomusicology, bioacoustics, and translational audio-based media works with environmental perspectives. The place of music in Western eco-cosmology through time provides a basis for structuring an environmental history of human sound perception. That history suggests that music may stabilize human mental activity, and that an increased musical practice may be essential for the human project. An overview of recent antecedents preceding the emergence of acoustic ecology reveals structural foundations from 20th century culture that underpin modern sound studies. The contextual role that Aldo Leopold, Jacob von Uexkull, John Cage, Marshall McLuhan, and others played in anticipating the development of acoustic ecology as an interdiscipline is detailed. This interdisciplinary aspect of acoustic ecology is defined and defended, while new developments like soundscape ecology are addressed, though ultimately sound studies will need to embrace a broader concept of full-spectrum "sensory" or "perceptual" ecology. The bioacoustic fieldwork done on spawning sturgeon emphasized this necessity. That study yielded scientific recordings and spectrographic analyses of spawning sounds produced by lake sturgeon, Acipenser fulvescens, during reproduction in natural habitats in the Lake Winnebago watershed in Wisconsin. Recordings were made on the Wolf and Embarrass River during the 2011-2013 spawning seasons. Several specimens were dissected to investigate possible sound production mechanisms; no sonic musculature was found. Drumming sounds, ranging from 5 to 7 Hz fundamental frequency, verified the infrasonic nature of previously undocumented "sturgeon thunder". Other characteristic noises of sturgeon spawning including low-frequency rumbles and hydrodynamic sounds were identified. Intriguingly, high-frequency signals resembling electric organ discharges were discovered. These

Star Power: An Experiential Learning Exercise to Foster Ecological Perspectives on Power, Privilege, and Oppression

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Nnawulezi, Nkiru; Campbell, Christina; Landstra, Kalleigh; Davis, Se'ara; Vandegrift, Cortney; Taylor, Amanda

2014-01-01

The purpose of this article is to describe the utility of Star Power, as an experiential learning exercise applied in a community psychology undergraduate course. This exercise simulates systems of power, privilege, and oppression while fostering an ecological perspective that raises students’ awareness and knowledge about power differentials within society. The simulation of trading and lawmaking works best with 18 to 35 students and takes approximately 80 minutes to conduct. This paper highlights three representative student perspectives concerning their participation and experience with Star Power. Strategies for facilitating class discussion are also discussed. PMID:23480288

Social robots from a human perspective

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Taipale, Sakari; Sapio, Bartolomeo; Lugano, Giuseppe; Fortunati, Leopoldina

2015-01-01

Addressing several issues that explore the human side of social robots, this book asks from a social and human scientific perspective what a social robot is and how we might come to think about social robots in the different areas of everyday life. Organized around three sections that deal with Perceptions and Attitudes to Social Robots, Human Interaction with Social Robots, and Social Robots in Everyday Life, the book explores the idea that even if technical problems related to robot technologies can be continuously solved from a machine perspective, what kind of machine do we want to have and use in our daily lives? Experiences from previously widely adopted technologies, such smartphones, hint that robot technologies could potentially be absorbed into the everyday lives of humans in such a way that it is the human that determines the human-machine interaction. In a similar way to how today’s information and communication technologies were first designed for professional/industrial use, but which soon wer...

Genomics and the Ark: an ecocentric perspective on human history.

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Zwart, Hub; Penders, Bart

2011-01-01

Views of ourselves in relationship to the rest of the biosphere are changing. Theocentric and anthropocentric perspectives are giving way to more ecocentric views on the history, present, and future of humankind. Novel sciences, such as genomics, have deepened and broadened our understanding of the process of anthropogenesis, the coming into being of humans. Genomics suggests that early human history must be regarded as a complex narrative of evolving ecosystems, in which human evolution both influenced and was influenced by the evolution of companion species. During the agricultural revolution, human beings designed small-scale artificial ecosystems or evolutionary "Arks," in which networks of plants, animals, and microorganisms coevolved. Currently, our attitude towards this process seems subject to a paradoxical reversal. The boundaries of the Ark have dramatically broadened, and genomics is not only being used to increase our understanding of our ecological past, but may also help us to conserve, reconstruct, or even revivify species and ecosystems to whose degradation or (near) extinction we have contributed. This article explores the role of genomics in the elaboration of a more ecocentric view of ourselves with the help of two examples, namely the renaissance of Paleolithic diets and of Pleistocene parks. It argues that an understanding of the world in ecocentric terms requires new partnerships and mutually beneficial forms of collaboration and convergence between life sciences, social sciences, and the humanities.

Being-in-the-World as Being-in-Nature: An ecological Perspective on Being and Time

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Blok, V.

2014-01-01

Because the status of nature is ambiguous in Being and Time, we explore an ecological perspective on Heidegger’s early main work in this article. Our hypothesis is that the affordance theory of James Gibson enables us to a) to understand being-in-the-world as being-in-nature, b) reconnect man and

Being-in-the-World as Being-in-Nature. An ecological perspective on Being and Time

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Blok, V.

2013-01-01

Because the status of nature is ambiguous in Being and Time, we explore an ecological perspective on Heidegger’s early main work in this article. Our hypothesis is that the affordance theory of James Gibson enables us to a) to understand being-in-the-world as being-in-nature, b) reconnect man and

[Measuring water ecological carrying capacity with the ecosystem-service-based ecological footprint (ESEF) method: Theory, models and application].

Science.gov (United States)

Jiao, Wen-jun; Min, Qing-wen; Li, Wen-hua; Fuller, Anthony M

2015-04-01

Integrated watershed management based on aquatic ecosystems has been increasingly acknowledged. Such a change in the philosophy of water environment management requires recognizing the carrying capacity of aquatic ecosystems for human society from a more general perspective. The concept of the water ecological carrying capacity is therefore put forward, which considers both water resources and water environment, connects socio-economic development to aquatic ecosystems and provides strong support for integrated watershed management. In this paper, the authors proposed an ESEF-based measure of water ecological carrying capacity and constructed ESEF-based models of water ecological footprint and capacity, aiming to evaluate water ecological carrying capacity with footprint methods. A regional model of Taihu Lake Basin was constructed and applied to evaluate the water ecological carrying capacity in Changzhou City which located in the upper reaches of the basin. Results showed that human demand for water ecosystem services in this city had exceeded the supply capacity of local aquatic ecosystems and the significant gap between demand and supply had jeopardized the sustainability of local aquatic ecosystems. Considering aqua-product provision, water supply and pollutant absorption in an integrated way, the scale of population and economy aquatic ecosystems in Changzhou could bear only 54% of the current status.

A framework for understanding the concerns of ecological designers

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

DeKay, M.

1992-01-01

This paper creates a theoretical framework of analysis for understanding the concerns and methods of ecological designers. Various definitions of ecological design are reviewed to show its basis in natural ecological systems, either as analog or as context, and its purpose as creating sustainability. Ecological design methods are categorized as conceptual, factual, or integrative. The characteristics and definitions of these methods are explained and several practitioners and theorists classified. Lyle's concept of ecosystematic order is used to show the basis of methods in either a building architecture or a landscape architecture perspective. A matrix is generated and applied to a representative of each category, showing the concerns of each in terms of the integration of human and natural ecosystem structure, function, and location

The Socio-ecological Fit of Human Responses to Environmental Degradation: An Integrated Assessment Methodology

Science.gov (United States)

Briassoulis, Helen

2015-12-01

The scientific and policy interest in the human responses to environmental degradation usually focuses on responses sensu stricto and `best practices' that potentially abate degradation in affected areas. The transfer of individual, discrete instruments and `best practices' to different contexts is challenging, however, because socio-ecological systems are complex and environmental degradation is contextual and contingent. To sensibly assess the effectiveness of formal and informal interventions to combat environmental degradation, the paper proposes an integrative, non-reductionist analytic, the `response assemblage', for the study of `responses-in-context,' i.e., products of human decisions to utilize environmental resources to satisfy human needs in socio-ecological systems. Response assemblages are defined as geographically and historically unique, provisional, open, territorial wholes, complex compositions emerging from processes of assembling biophysical and human components, including responses sensu stricto, from affected focal and other socio-ecological systems, to serve human goals, one of which may be combatting environmental degradation. The degree of match among the components, called the socio- ecological fit of the response assemblage, indicates how effectively their contextual and contingent interactions maintain the socio-ecological resilience, promote sustainable development, and secure the continuous provision of ecosystem services in a focal socio-ecological system. The paper presents a conceptual approach to the analysis of the socio-ecological fit of response assemblages and details an integrated assessment methodology synthesizing the resilience, assemblage, and `problem of fit' literature. Lastly, it summarizes the novelty, value, and policy relevance of conceptualizing human responses as response assemblages and of the integrated assessment methodology, reconsiders `best practices' and suggests selected future research directions.

Intentionality and Developing Researcher Competence on a UK Master's Course: An Ecological Perspective on Research Education

Science.gov (United States)

Stelma, Juup; Fay, Richard

2014-01-01

This paper presents an ecological perspective on the developing researcher competence of participants in the research education component of a professionally oriented master's course. There is a particular focus on the intentionality (as in "purpose") of the participants' research education activity. The data used to develop the…

Ecological Modernization and the Global Economy

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Mol, A.P.J.

2002-01-01

This paper explores what an ecological modernization perspective has to offer in an era marked by globalization. Globalization processes and dynamics are mostly seen as detrimental to the environment. The point that an ecological modernization perspective puts on the research agenda is that,

Emerging Ecological Approaches to Prevention, Health Promotion, and Public Health in the School Context: Next Steps from a Community Psychology Perspective

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Trickett, Edison J.; Rowe, Hillary L.

2012-01-01

In recent years, ecological perspectives have become more visible in prevention, health promotion, and public health within the school context. Individually based approaches to understanding and changing behavior have been increasingly challenged by these perspectives because of their appreciation for contextual influences on individual behavior.…

From forest fires to fisheries management: anthropology, conservation biology, and historical ecology.

Science.gov (United States)

Braje, Todd J; Rick, Torben C

2013-01-01

Human-environmental relationships have long been of interest to a variety of scientists, including ecologists, biologists, anthropologists, and many others. In anthropology, this interest was especially prevalent among cultural ecologists of the 1970s and earlier, who tended to explain culture as the result of techno-environmental constraints. More recently researchers have used historical ecology, an approach that focuses on the long-term dialectical relationship between humans and their environments, as well as long-term prehuman ecological datasets. An important contribution of anthropology to historical ecology is that anthropological datasets dealing with ethnohistory, traditional ecological knowledge, and human skeletal analysis, as well as archeological datasets on faunal and floral remains, artifacts, geochemistry, and stratigraphic analysis, provide a deep time perspective (across decades, centuries, and millennia) on the evolution of ecosystems and the place of people in those larger systems. Historical ecological data also have an applied component that can provide important information on the relative abundances of flora and fauna, changes in biogeography, alternations in food webs, landscape evolution, and much more. Copyright © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

[Ecology and ecologies].

Science.gov (United States)

Valera, Luca

2011-01-01

Ecology (from the Greek words οιχοσ, "house" and λογια "study of") is the science of the "house", since it studies the environments where we live. There are three main ways of thinking about Ecology: Ecology as the study of interactions (between humans and the environment, between humans and living beings, between all living beings, etc.), Ecology as the statistical study of interactions, Ecology as a faith, or rather as a science that requires a metaphysical view. The history of Ecology shows us how this view was released by the label of "folk sense" to gain the epistemological status of science, a science that strives to be interdisciplinary. So, the aim of Ecology is to study, through a scientific methodology, the whole natural world, answering to very different questions, that arise from several fields (Economics, Biology, Sociology, Philosophy, etc.). The plurality of issues that Ecology has to face led, during the Twentieth-century, to branch off in several different "ecologies". As a result, each one of these new approaches chose as its own field a more limited and specific portion of reality.

The Socio-ecological Fit of Human Responses to Environmental Degradation: An Integrated Assessment Methodology.

Science.gov (United States)

Briassoulis, Helen

2015-12-01

The scientific and policy interest in the human responses to environmental degradation usually focuses on responses sensu stricto and 'best practices' that potentially abate degradation in affected areas. The transfer of individual, discrete instruments and 'best practices' to different contexts is challenging, however, because socio-ecological systems are complex and environmental degradation is contextual and contingent. To sensibly assess the effectiveness of formal and informal interventions to combat environmental degradation, the paper proposes an integrative, non-reductionist analytic, the 'response assemblage', for the study of 'responses-in-context,' i.e., products of human decisions to utilize environmental resources to satisfy human needs in socio-ecological systems. Response assemblages are defined as geographically and historically unique, provisional, open, territorial wholes, complex compositions emerging from processes of assembling biophysical and human components, including responses sensu stricto, from affected focal and other socio-ecological systems, to serve human goals, one of which may be combatting environmental degradation. The degree of match among the components, called the socio-ecological fit of the response assemblage, indicates how effectively their contextual and contingent interactions maintain the socio-ecological resilience, promote sustainable development, and secure the continuous provision of ecosystem services in a focal socio-ecological system. The paper presents a conceptual approach to the analysis of the socio-ecological fit of response assemblages and details an integrated assessment methodology synthesizing the resilience, assemblage, and 'problem of fit' literature. Lastly, it summarizes the novelty, value, and policy relevance of conceptualizing human responses as response assemblages and of the integrated assessment methodology, reconsiders 'best practices' and suggests selected future research directions.

School Victimization Among Adolescents. An Analysis from an Ecological Perspective

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Belén Martínez Ferrer

2011-07-01

Full Text Available The present study has two objectives. The first is to analyze the relationships between community (integration in the community, family (perception of family climate, school (perception of school climate and individual (social reputation and satisfaction with life and school victimization among adolescents, from an ecological perspective. Secondly, this study aims to examine the differences in these relationships between boys and girls. The sample is composed of 1795 adolescents of both sexes (52% boys and 48% girls whose ages range from 11 to 18 years old (M = 14.2, SD = 1.68 and who are all from the Spanish Autonomous Community of Andalucia. A model of structural equations was calculated using the EQS program. The results indicated that school climate and satisfaction with life are positively associated with victimization. In addition, community integration and family climate are related to victimization through life satisfaction. The multigroup analysis by sex indicated that the relationship between school climate and social reputation, as well as between implication in the community and social reputation were only statistically significant in the case of boys. Finally, the results obtained and their potential implications are discussed from an ecological point of view.

Beyond classic ecological assessment: The use of functional indices to indicate fish assemblages sensitivity to human disturbance in estuaries.

Science.gov (United States)

Teichert, Nils; Lepage, Mario; Lobry, Jérémy

2018-05-22

Assessing ecological health of aquatic ecosystems is crucial in the current context of biodiversity loss to guide and prioritize management actions. Although several fish-based indices were developed to assess the ecological status of estuarine ecosystems, they do not provide guidance on the causal responses of communities to disturbances. The functional trait-based approach provides an understanding of how human disturbance affects the composition of biological and ecological traits in assemblages, as well as their consequences for ecosystem functioning. Here, we evaluate the responses of fish assemblages to human disturbance in 30 French estuaries using several taxonomic and functional indices (e.g. diversity, evenness or redundancy). We tested whether these indices can provide additional information on the human impacts and health of assemblages that are not reflected by the ecological indicator (fish-based index ELFI). Results indicated that high values of local human disturbances were associated to a decrease in fish abundance, decrease in species richness and reduced functional redundancy, whereas taxonomic and functional evenness increased. In contrast, the functional richness remained stable suggesting that the functional traits of species removed by stressors were maintained by more tolerant species. Indeed, we found that the local disturbances mainly resulted in a decrease in the proportions of small benthic species feeding on macro-invertebrates, which were dominant in the studied estuaries. Some functional alterations were detected by the fish-based index, but the decline of functional redundancy was not reflected, highlighting a serious concern for management. Indeed, the abrupt collapse of functional redundancy in response to local disturbances can decrease the ability of assemblages to maintain certain species traits in the face of future environmental disturbance, including climate change. From a management perspective, the application of such

Migration-related detention centers: the challenges of an ecological perspective with a focus on justice.

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Esposito, Francesca; Ornelas, José; Arcidiacono, Caterina

2015-06-06

In recent years, border control and migration-related detention have become increasingly widespread practices affecting the lives of undocumented migrants, their families, and communities at large. In spite of the concern within academia, few studies have directly witnessed the life and experiences of people confined to migration-related detention centers. In the medical and psychological fields, a considerable body of research has demonstrated the pathogenic nature of detention in terms of mental health, showing an association between length of detention and severity of distress. Nevertheless, it was limited to the assessment of individuals' clinical consequences, mainly focusing on asylum seekers. There currently exists a need to adopt an ecological perspective from which to study detained migrants' experiences as context-dependent, and influenced by power inequalities. This paper addresses this gap. Drawing upon advances in community psychology, we illustrate an ecological framework for the study of migration-related detention contexts, and their effects on the lives of detained migrants and all people exposed to them. Making use of existing literature, Kelly's four principles (interdependence, cycling of resources, adaptation, succession) are analyzed at multiple ecological levels (personal, interpersonal, organizational, communal), highlighting implications for future research in this field. A focus on justice, as a key-dimension of analysis, is also discussed. Wellbeing is acknowledged as a multilevel, dynamic, and value-dependent phenomenon. In presenting this alternative framework, the potential for studying migration-related detention through an ecological lens is highlighted, pointing the way for future fields of study. We argue that ecological multilevel analyses, conceptualized in terms of interdependent systems and with a focus on justice, can enhance the comprehension of the dynamics at play in migration-related detention centers, providing an

Human cognitive ecology: an instructive framework for comparative primatology.

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Keller, Janet Dixon

2004-03-01

In this review, research on human cognitive ecology is compared with studies of the cognitive ecologies of apes-especially the common chimpanzee. The objective was to assess the feasibility of extending an activity-theory framework developed in studies of humans to an integrated approach for studying the cognitive accomplishments and skills of other primates living in the wild. Six generalizations were abstracted from studies of humans: 1) Social and material environments are arranged to facilitate production. 2) Human activity is shaped by conceptual and cultural principles that provide underlying logic for working knowledge and practice. 3) Schemata (multimodal, mental representations of procedures, strategies, and techniques) govern performance in a domain. 4) Working knowledge, skills, and social identities are co-constructed in communities of practice. 5) Rehearsal improves skilled performances, from which reputations as well as material products are derived. 6) Planning and emergence are in productive tension in human practices. These generalizations are applied to findings in the literature regarding the behavior of chimpanzees and other apes in the wild to assess the potential utility of a situated-activity approach for comparative studies of primate cognition. It is argued in the Discussion that schemata constitute a common core of higher primate intelligence. Planning, emergence, and alterations of the environment to facilitate production further characterize human and chimpanzee or gorilla behaviors to varying degrees. Less apparent in the nonhuman-primate literature is evidence of governing principles, rehearsal, and skill-based reputations or identities entailing theories of mind. Nonetheless, recent observations in the wild suggest that further research is warranted to explore the rudiments of each of these components to enhance our understanding of the ecology of primate cognition and its evolutionary history. Copyright 2004 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

Wilderness, biodiversity, and human health

Science.gov (United States)

Daniel L. Dustin; Keri A. Schwab; Kelly S. Bricker

2015-01-01

This paper illustrates how wilderness, biodiversity, and human health are intertwined. Proceeding from the assumption that humankind is part of, rather than apart from, nature, health is re-imagined as a dynamic relationship that can best be conceived in broad ecological terms. Health, from an ecological perspective, is a measure of the wellness of the individual and...

Ecological effects of harvesting biomass for energy in the Spanish Mediterranean

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Zavala, Miguel A.; Marcos, Francisco

1993-01-01

Biomass utilization for energy has major consequences for Spanish Mediterranean landscapes. In this paper we present a synthesis of the ecological effects of harvesting biomass for energy. We compare these effects with other fuel reduction procedures such as prescribed burning. Throughout history we see that some Iberian ecosystems are stabilized by long human interference. One of the stabilizing factors is the utilization of wood as a source of energy. New energy sources and massive human movements towards urban areas have changed the ecosystem dynamics. Reforested areas in Spain during the period from 1940 to 1970 included silviculture treatments that in some cases never took place. This has led to a greater accumulation of biomass. The current perspective of the problem must be analyzed from an economic and political viewpoint. For instance, the Middle East crisis has direct consequences for the budget dedicated to forest energetics, and consequently for the landscape. This shows how ecological problems must be dealt with using a very broad perspective. In Spain current biomass usage should be considered primarily as a complementary silvicultural treatment rather than as a way of producing great biomass outputs. If we are going to manage our forest from an ecological perspective, we have to analyze the effects of these operations at the stand level. At the landscape level fuel management plans should be included in the Forest Management Prescriptions (ordenaciones) whether in terms of harvesting or in a prescribed burning plan

Ecosystem Services are Social-ecological Services in a Traditional Pastoral System: the Case of California's Mediterranean Rangelands

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Lynn Huntsinger

2014-03-01

Full Text Available When attempting to value ecosystem services and support their production, two critical aspects may be neglected. The term "ecosystem services" implies that they are a function of natural processes; yet, human interaction with the environment may be key to the production of many. This can contribute to a misconception that ecosystem service production depends on, or is enhanced by, the coercion or removal of human industry. Second, in programs designed to encourage ecosystem service production and maintenance, too often the inter-relationship of such services with social and ecological processes and drivers at multiple scales is ignored. Thinking of such services as "social-ecological services" can reinforce the importance of human culture, perspectives, and economies to the production of ecosystem services. Using a social-ecological systems perspective, we explore the integral role of human activity and decisions at pasture, ranch, and landscape scales. Just as it does for understanding ecosystems, a hierarchical, multiscaled framework facilitates exploring the complexity of social-ecological systems as producers of ecosystem services, to develop approaches for the conservation of such services. Using California's Mediterranean rangelands as a study area, we suggest that using a multiscaled approach that considers the importance of the differing drivers and processes at each scale and the interactions among scales, and that incorporates social-ecological systems concepts, may help avoid mistakes caused by narrow assumptions about "natural" systems, and a lack of understanding of the need for integrated, multiscaled conservation programs.

The Encyclical Laudato Si': integral ecology, gender and deep ecology

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José Eustáquio Diniz Alves

2015-09-01

Full Text Available Pope Jorge Mario Bergoglio released the "Encyclical Laudato Si': on the care of common home" on June 18, 2015, the same day that the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA has shown that the temperature of Earth continues increasing and that May of 2015 was Earth's warmest month, since 1880. By endorsing the scientific knowledge in relation to anthropogenic factors on global warming and by defending actions to confront the causes of climate change and ecosystem degradation, the Holy See has taken a key step to put Catholics at the forefront of global ecological struggle and to encourage the signing of the global treaty to replace the Kyoto Protocol at the 21st Conference of the Parties (COP-21, that will take place in December in Paris. But the encyclical of Pope Francis proposes a larger task that is to protect the poorest of the poor countries, addressing jointly the human environment and the natural environment from the perspective of an integral ecology. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the advances and limitations of the propositions of the encyclical Laudato Si ' and to expand the dialogue on gender relations and deep ecology.

New methods for field collection of human skin volatiles and perspectives for their application in the chemical ecology of human-pathogen-vector interactions.

Science.gov (United States)

Dormont, Laurent; Bessière, Jean-Marie; McKey, Doyle; Cohuet, Anna

2013-08-01

Odours emitted by human skin are of great interest to biologists in many fields, with practical applications in forensics, health diagnostic tools and the ecology of blood-sucking insect vectors of human disease. Convenient methods are required for sampling human skin volatiles under field conditions. We experimentally compared four modern methods for sampling skin odours: solvent extraction, headspace solid-phase micro-extraction (SPME), and two new techniques not previously used for the study of mammal volatiles, contact SPME and dynamic headspace with a chromatoprobe design. These methods were tested and compared both on European subjects under laboratory conditions and on young African subjects under field conditions. All four methods permitted effective trapping of skin odours, including the major known human skin volatile compounds. In both laboratory and field experiments, contact SPME, in which the time of collection was restricted to 3 min, provided results very similar to those obtained with classical headspace SPME, a method that requires 45 min of collection. Chromatoprobe sampling also proved to be very sensitive, rapid and convenient for the collection of human-produced volatiles in natural settings. Both contact SPME and chromatoprobe design may considerably facilitate the study of human skin volatiles under field conditions, opening new possibilities for examining the olfactory cues mediating the host-seeking behaviour of mosquito vectors implicated in the transmission of major diseases.

Towards More Effective Water Quality Governance : A Review of Social-Economic, Legal and Ecological Perspectives and Their Interactions

NARCIS (Netherlands)

van Rijswick, H.F.M.W.|info:eu-repo/dai/nl/099909189; Wuijts, S.; Driessen, P.P.J.|info:eu-repo/dai/nl/069081417

2018-01-01

In this article, social-economic, legal and ecological perspectives on effectiveness of water quality governance and their interactions have been studied. Worldwide, authorities are facing the challenge of restoring and preserving aquatic ecosystems in accordance with the United Nations Sustainable

Towards More Effective Water Quality Governance: A Review of Social-Economic, Legal and Ecological Perspectives and Their Interactions

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Susanne Wuijts

2018-03-01

Full Text Available In this article, social-economic, legal and ecological perspectives on effectiveness of water quality governance and their interactions have been studied. Worldwide, authorities are facing the challenge of restoring and preserving aquatic ecosystems in accordance with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDG 6. Over the last few decades, governance approaches have often been used to realise these ambitions. To date, scholars have identified that it is difficult to relate governance approaches to water quality improvement and have offered several different explanations for this. Combined with a targeted conceptualisation of the perspectives and their interactions, the systematic literature review demonstrates the gap that exists in the current understanding of these interactions and what their effects are on water quality improvement, especially in regard to the identification of ecological issues and their boundary conditions for the legal framework and the development of measures and follow-up. The review also reveals that the scientific debate is focused on the planning rather than implementation phase. A step forward can be made by supplementing existing analytical frameworks by the interactions between the different perspectives, especially those related to problem definition and the development and realisation of measures.

Exploring dimensions, scales, and cross-scale dynamics from the perspectives of change agents in social-ecological systems

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Vervoort, J.M.; Rutting, L.; Kok, K.; Hermans, F.L.P.; Veldkamp, A.; Bregt, A.K.; Lammeren, van R.J.A.

2012-01-01

Issues of scale play a crucial role in the governance of social–ecological systems. Yet, attempts to bridge interdisciplinary perspectives on the role of scale have thus far largely been limited to the science arena. This study has extended the scale vocabulary to allow for the inclusion of

Humans and Seagrasses in East Africa : A social-ecological systems approach

OpenAIRE

de la Torre-Castro, Maricela

2006-01-01

The present study is one of the first attempts to analyze the societal importance of seagrasses (marine flowering plants) from a Natural Resource Management perspective, using a social-ecological systems (SES) approach. The interdisciplinary study takes place in East Africa (Western Indian Ocean, WIO) and includes in-depth studies in Chwaka Bay, Zanzibar, Tanzania. Natural and social sciences methods were used. The results are presented in six articles, showing that seagrass ecosystems are ri...

Landscape Ecology

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Christensen, Andreas Aagaard; Brandt, Jesper; Svenningsen, Stig Roar

2017-01-01

Landscape ecology is an interdisciplinary field of research and practice that deals with the mutual association between the spatial configuration and ecological functioning of landscapes, exploring and describing processes involved in the differentiation of spaces within landscapes......, and the ecological significance of the patterns which are generated by such processes. In landscape ecology, perspectives drawn from existing academic disciplines are integrated based on a common, spatially explicit mode of analysis developed from classical holistic geography, emphasizing spatial and landscape...... pattern analysis and ecological interaction of land units. The landscape is seen as a holon: an assemblage of interrelated phenomena, both cultural and biophysical, that together form a complex whole. Enduring challenges to landscape ecology include the need to develop a systematic approach able...

FCJ-121 Transversalising the Ecological Turn: Four Components of Felix Guattari’s Ecosophical Perspective

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John Tinnell

2011-10-01

Full Text Available Many humanities scholars are working to transform their disciplines in response to new conditions and problems emerging in the twenty-first century. Arguably, two of the most important forces affecting contemporary global culture are the growing awareness of the ecological crisis and the proliferation of digital media. This essay endeavors to develop Felix Guattari’s “unfinished” concept of ecosophy into a theoretical framework for constructing productive syntheses between the ecological and the digital. In general, the essay first articulates ecosophical models of individual and collective subjectivity, and then argues that the best way to sustain ecosophical identity experience is to invent “post-media” practices, which harness the networked infrastructure of digital media such that specific pedagogical engagements with the technology effectively maximise the user’s capacity to affect and be affected by immanent forces in the world. In addition, this Guattarian rethinking of the ecological turn concurrently challenges the philosophical basis of the pedagogy of Nature appreciation that has characterised the eco-humanities landscape since the 1970s. The essay’s conclusions gesture toward a transversal eco-humanities, which would be rhizomatically rooted in Guattari’s preference for autopoiesis and becoming-other (via new media, rather than a static allegiance to the ideals of “Self-realisation” postulated by the deep ecology movement.

Perspectives on Neoliberalism for Human Service Professionals

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Gray, Mel; Dean, Mitchell; Agllias, Kylie

2015-01-01

This article provides an overview of recent perspectives on neoliberalism, which serve as a foundation for the assessment of neoliberalism's influence on human services practice. Conventionally, neoliberalism has been conceived of as an ideology, but more recent perspectives regard neoliberalism...... as an art of government, a thought collective, and an uneven but path-dependent process of regulatory development. We argue that these new perspectives have the potential to contribute to our critical capacity and open avenues for the analysis of contemporary transformations of public policy and its...

[Regional ecological construction and mission of landscape ecology].

Science.gov (United States)

Xiao, Duning; Xie, Fuju; Wei, Jianbing

2004-10-01

The eco-construction on regional and landscape scale is the one which can be used to specific landscape and intercrossing ecosystem in specific region including performing scientific administration of ecosystem and optimizing environmental function. Recently, the government has taken a series of significant projects into action, such as national forest protection item, partly forest restoration, and adjustment of water, etc. Enforcing regional eco-construction and maintaining the ecology security of the nation have become the strategic requisition. In various regions, different eco-construction should be applied, for example, performing ecological safeguard measure in ecological sensitive zone, accommodating the ecological load in ecological fragile zone, etc., which can control the activities of human being, so that, sustainable development can be reached. Facing opportunity and challenge in the development of landscape ecology, we have some key topics: landscape pattern of ecological security, land use and ecological process, landscape changes under human activity stress, quantitative evaluation of the influence on human being activities, evaluation of zonal ecological security and advance warning of ecological risk, and planning and optimizing of model in landscape eco-construction.

An Analysis of Bronfenbrenner's Bio-Ecological Perspective for Early Childhood Educators: Implications for Working with Families Experiencing Stress

Science.gov (United States)

Swick, Kevin James; Williams, Reginald D.

2006-01-01

Today's families face many stressors during the early childhood years. Particular stressors like homelessness, violence, and chemical dependence, play havoc with the family system. Urie Bronfenbrenner's bio-ecological perspective offers an insightful lens for understanding and supporting families under stress. This article presents the key…

PERSPECTIVES ON RANGELAND ECOLOGY AND MANAGEMENT

OpenAIRE

Heady, Harold F.

2011-01-01

This paper reviews changes in rangeland ecology and management in the U.S.A. over the last 65 years and speculates on future changes. Emphasis has shifted from livestock management to ecological and environmental concerns, hence "rangeland ecology." The term "range management" may have outlived its usefulness and may also be detrimental to our image. The vision that we have of ourselves is not the same as others have of us. Many members of the Society for Range Management (SRM) and most of ou...

Ecological worldview perspective on urban sustainability

CSIR Research Space (South Africa)

Du Plessis, C

2009-10-01

Full Text Available system, i.e. an ecological worldview. This paper briefly outlines the key characteristics of this alternative, ecological worldview as it is emerging from the interactions between a wide range of knowledge sources, in order to develop a theoretical basis...

The Semiotics of Learning Korean at Home: An Ecological Autoethnographic Perspective

Science.gov (United States)

Jenks, Christopher J.

2017-01-01

This autoethnographic study examines how I re-learn Korean in, and through, interactions with family members at home. The analysis, which is informed by language ecology and sociocultural concepts of development, shows how semiotic and human resources, including material objects and more proficient speakers, play a mediating role in how I deal…

Natural Resource Management based on Gender Perspectives and Integrating Traditional Ecological Knowledge of the Tepera in Jayapura, Papua

Science.gov (United States)

Rumbiak, W. A.; Wambrauw, E. V.

2018-05-01

The Tepera in Jayapura Regency have a traditional ecological concept of managing their natural resources which evolved over generations. The spatial concept of their resources management is recorded visually on mental maps. The existing conditions of the landscape, forest, coastal area, and sea are considered heritage and have economic, ecological, and cultural values. The people have their own perspectives on the relationship between the resources management, cultural values, gender perspectives, and development. Thus, this research aims to identify the gender perspective in the natural resource management and environmental services; and to analyse the sustainable pattern of the land use and cultural zoning in the resources management. The methodology comprises grounded research and Participatory Action Research. This research has three findings, i.e., the tribe named the landscape; they have developed a zoning system to manage the forest traditionally; and there is a difference in perception between men and women regarding the type of forest and landscape related to food and traditional medicine sources. Therefore, it is important to incorporate the concept of managing the environment and the cultural zones of the Tepera in the programs of the local government to direct the development in sustainable way. In addition, the female participation in managing the environment should be improved, especially related to domestic aspects.

Human Geography Trains Diverse Perspectives on Global Development

Science.gov (United States)

Ahamer, Gilbert

2012-01-01

Purpose: Education for equity in global development and cultural diversity calls for professional capacity building to perceive diverse perspectives on complex procedures of globalisation. The discipline of human geography is such a "provider of perspectives". The purpose of this paper is to propose a historic series of how theories of geography…

Ecological literacy materials for use in elementary schools: A critical analysis

Science.gov (United States)

Chambers, Joan Maureen

My research is a critical examination of environmental science education resources for use in Alberta schools. I examine both the resources and the processes by which these resources are developed by diverse groups. My inquiry is guided by the following question: What is the nature of the discourse of ecological literacy in the promotion and content of teaching materials in elementary schools in Alberta? This critical analysis centres on the discourses, language, and perspectives (both hidden and overt) of these resources and processes; the manifestation of political agendas; existing relations; and the inclusion or exclusion of alternate views. Framed within critical theory and an ecosocial construct, my methodology employs critical discourse analysis and hermeneutic interpretation. I analyse selected environmental science resources produced for the elementary classroom by government and nongovernment organizations. I also interview the producers and/or writers of these instructional resources to provide the perspectives of some of the developers of these materials. The findings illustrate how the discursive management of the view of nature, human-nature relationships, uncertainty, multiple perspectives, and dimensions of ecological literacy in materials for schools offer students a particular perspective. These ecological and science discourses act to shape their personal relationships with nature and notions of environmental responsibility and consciousness. This research is necessary because, particularly in Alberta, corporate interests have the potential to impact school curricula. The study points to a need for a critical appraisal of resources for schools produced by the environmental science community.

Dealing with Human Death: The Floating Perspective.

Science.gov (United States)

Kenyon, Gary M.

1991-01-01

Explores approach to dealing with human death. Describes floating perspective, based on insights from Choron and Jaspers, as suggesting it is possible to deal with human death by refraining from taking ultimate position on the problem. Position encourages openness to death. Examines role of anxiety and describes possible meaningful outcomes of…

Philosophy of ecology

CERN Document Server

Brown, Bryson; Peacock, Kent A

2011-01-01

The most pressing problems facing humanity today - over-population, energy shortages, climate change, soil erosion, species extinctions, the risk of epidemic disease, the threat of warfare that could destroy all the hard-won gains of civilization, and even the recent fibrillations of the stock market - are all ecological or have a large ecological component. in this volume philosophers turn their attention to understanding the science of ecology and its huge implications for the human project. To get the application of ecology to policy or other practical concerns right, humanity needs a clear and disinterested philosophical understanding of ecology which can help identify the practical lessons of science. Conversely, the urgent practical demands humanity faces today cannot help but direct scientific and philosophical investigation toward the basis of those ecological challenges that threaten human survival. This book will help to fuel the timely renaissance of interest in philosophy of ecology that is now oc...

[Status and actualization of tasks to improve the scientific-methodological and regulatory frameworks in the field of human ecology and environmental health].

Science.gov (United States)

Rakhmanin, Iu A; Sinitsyna, O O

2013-01-01

Contemporary factors that affect the health of the population have been analyzed. There was shown the growing activity of chemical pollution of the environment. Therefore, in order to prevent the growth of negative health and environment consequences caused by increased levels of exposure to chemicals preventive potential for solutions of this complex problem and all strenuous efforts to assist possibly of the sound management of the chemicals should be enhanced. Problematic issues of harmonization of the Russian normative and guidance documents have been actualized. Perspective directions of science development in the field of human ecology and environmental health are suggested.

The ecology of insect-yeast relationships and its relevance to human industry.

Science.gov (United States)

Madden, Anne A; Epps, Mary Jane; Fukami, Tadashi; Irwin, Rebecca E; Sheppard, John; Sorger, D Magdalena; Dunn, Robert R

2018-03-28

Many species of yeast are integral to human society. They produce many of our foods, beverages and industrial chemicals, challenge us as pathogens, and provide models for the study of our own biology. However, few species are regularly studied and much of their ecology remains unclear, hindering the development of knowledge that is needed to improve the relationships between humans and yeasts. There is increasing evidence that insects are an essential component of ascomycetous yeast ecology. We propose a 'dispersal-encounter hypothesis' whereby yeasts are dispersed by insects between ephemeral, spatially disparate sugar resources, and insects, in turn, obtain the benefits of an honest signal from yeasts for the sugar resources. We review the relationship between yeasts and insects through three main examples: social wasps, social bees and beetles, with some additional examples from fruit flies. Ultimately, we suggest that over the next decades, consideration of these ecological and evolutionary relationships between insects and yeasts will allow prediction of where new yeast diversity is most likely to be discovered, particularly yeasts with traits of interest to human industry. © 2018 The Author(s).

REVIEW OF INTERNATIONAL PROJECTS IN А FIELD OF HUMAN MICROBIAL ECOLOGY AND CONSTRUCTION OF PROBIOTICS

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S. A. Starovoitova

2013-06-01

Full Text Available Modern huge and world-wide known projects concerning studying of human microbial ecology and construction of probiotics, particularly: Society for Microbial Ecology and Disease, Probiotics & Health Targeted Initiative of International Science and Technology Center (TI PROBIO ISTC, Human Microbiome Project of National Institutes of Health, MetaHIT Project (Metagenomics of the Human Intestinal Tract of European Commission, Human Metabolome Project of Canadian University of Alberta and some more else were characterized in the article. Brief historical information and reference to official sites of every discussed project were given. Main goals and tasks of every project were described. Short characteristic of discussed projects and also modern accessible results of researches were given. Importance of every examined project for widening scientific knowledge in the field of human microbial ecology and also for improvement and/or for construction of modern effective probiotics on basis of human normal intestinal microflora were paid attention. Close interaction of scientific data received by realization of every discussed project was shown.

Climate change adaptation strategies for federal forests of the Pacific Northwest, USA: ecological, policy, and socio-economic perspectives

Science.gov (United States)

Thomas A. Spies; Thomas W. Giesen; Frederick J. Swanson; Jerry F. Franklin; Denise Lach; K. Norman. Johnson

2010-01-01

Conserving biological diversity in a changing climate poses major challenges for land managers and society. Effective adaptive strategies for dealing with climate change require a socioecological systems perspective. We highlight some of the projected ecological responses to climate change in the Pacific Northwest, U.S.A and identify possible adaptive actions that...

Empowerment and the ecological determinants of health: three critical capacities for practitioners.

Science.gov (United States)

Williams, Lewis

2017-08-01

Human agency or the expression of intentionality towards some form of betterment has long occupied human imagination and creativity. The ways in which we express such aspirations are fundamentally informed by our beliefs about the nature of reality, meanings of human well-being and progress, and the ways in which our social locations shape our interests. Within Western health-promoting discourse and practice, such processes have largely been expressed through the construct of empowerment. To date, like health, much empowerment practice has been implicitly rooted in Cartesianism, has tended towards anthropocentrism and in cases where it has engaged with environmental issues, has mirrored environmentalism's focus on externalities and objectivity. These tendencies coupled with the increasing complexity of global, ecological, human well-being issues call empowerment practitioners to integrate new kinds of capacities more suited to addressing the ecological determinants of health. Drawing in part on the author's empowerment research over more than a decade, this article distinguishes between a range of epistemological perspectives underlying contemporary empowerment practices while fore-grounding the concepts of place-based agency and social-ecological resilience. These constructs in turn form the basis for three capacities considered critical for practitioners addressing human-ecological well-being. © The Author 2016. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.

Integrating human and natural systems in community psychology: an ecological model of stewardship behavior.

Science.gov (United States)

Moskell, Christine; Allred, Shorna Broussard

2013-03-01

Community psychology (CP) research on the natural environment lacks a theoretical framework for analyzing the complex relationship between human systems and the natural world. We introduce other academic fields concerned with the interactions between humans and the natural environment, including environmental sociology and coupled human and natural systems. To demonstrate how the natural environment can be included within CP's ecological framework, we propose an ecological model of urban forest stewardship action. Although ecological models of behavior in CP have previously modeled health behaviors, we argue that these frameworks are also applicable to actions that positively influence the natural environment. We chose the environmental action of urban forest stewardship because cities across the United States are planting millions of trees and increased citizen participation in urban tree planting and stewardship will be needed to sustain the benefits provided by urban trees. We used the framework of an ecological model of behavior to illustrate multiple levels of factors that may promote or hinder involvement in urban forest stewardship actions. The implications of our model for the development of multi-level ecological interventions to foster stewardship actions are discussed, as well as directions for future research to further test and refine the model.

The biology of human sexuality: evolution, ecology and physiology

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

PW Bateman

2006-09-01

Full Text Available Many evolutionary biologists argue that human sexual behaviour can be studied in exactly the same way as that of other species. Many sociologists argue that social influences effectively obscure, and are more important than, a reductionist biological approach to human sexual behaviour. Here,we authors attempt to provide a broad introduction to human sexual behaviour from a biological standpoint and to indicate where the ambiguous areas are. We outline the evolutionary selective pressures that are likely to have influenced human behaviour and mate choice in the past and in the present; ecological features that influence such things as degree of parental care and polygamy; and the associated physiology of human sexuality. Then they end with a discussion of �abnormal� sexuality.

Managing ecological thresholds in coupled environmental–human systems

Science.gov (United States)

Horan, Richard D.; Fenichel, Eli P.; Drury, Kevin L. S.; Lodge, David M.

2011-01-01

Many ecosystems appear subject to regime shifts—abrupt changes from one state to another after crossing a threshold or tipping point. Thresholds and their associated stability landscapes are determined within a coupled socioeconomic–ecological system (SES) where human choices, including those of managers, are feedback responses. Prior work has made one of two assumptions about managers: that they face no institutional constraints, in which case the SES may be managed to be fairly robust to shocks and tipping points are of little importance, or that managers are rigidly constrained with no flexibility to adapt, in which case the inferred thresholds may poorly reflect actual managerial flexibility. We model a multidimensional SES to investigate how alternative institutions affect SES stability landscapes and alter tipping points. With institutionally dependent human feedbacks, the stability landscape depends on institutional arrangements. Strong institutions that account for feedback responses create the possibility for desirable states of the world and can cause undesirable states to cease to exist. Intermediate institutions interact with ecological relationships to determine the existence and nature of tipping points. Finally, weak institutions can eliminate tipping points so that only undesirable states of the world remain. PMID:21502517

Human genetic issues from scientific and Islamic perspectives | Alwi ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

This paper aims at revealing the Human Genome Project (HGP) and human genetic issues arising from science and Islamic perspectives such as Darwin's evolutionary theory, human cloning and eugenics. Finally, issues arising from the applications of human genetic technology need to be addressed to the best possible ...

`Human nature': Chemical engineering students' ideas about human relationships with the natural world

Science.gov (United States)

Goldman, Daphne; Ben-Zvi Assaraf, Orit; Shemesh, Julia

2014-05-01

While importance of environmental ethics, as a component of sustainable development, in preparing engineers is widely acknowledged, little research has addressed chemical engineers' environmental concerns. This study aimed to address this void by exploring chemical engineering students' values regarding human-nature relationships. The study was conducted with 247 3rd-4th year chemical engineering students in Israeli Universities. It employed the New Ecological Paradigm (NEP)-questionnaire to which students added written explanations. Quantitative analysis of NEP-scale results shows that the students demonstrated moderately ecocentric orientation. Explanations to the NEP-items reveal diverse, ambivalent ideas regarding the notions embodied in the NEP, strong scientific orientation and reliance on technology for addressing environmental challenges. Endorsing sustainability implies that today's engineers be equipped with an ecological perspective. The capacity of Higher Education to enable engineers to develop dispositions about human-nature interrelationships requires adaptation of curricula towards multidisciplinary, integrative learning addressing social-political-economic-ethical perspectives, and implementing critical-thinking within the socio-scientific issues pedagogical approach.

Comparison of models used for ecological risk assessment and human health risk assessment

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ryti, R.T.; Gallegos, A.F.

1994-01-01

Models are used to derive action levels for site screening, or to estimate potential ecological or human health risks posed by potentially hazardous sites. At the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), which is RCRA-regulated, the human-health screening action levels are based on hazardous constituents described in RCRA Subpart S and RESRAD-derived soil guidelines (based on 10 mRem/year) for radiological constituents. Also, an ecological risk screening model was developed for a former firing site, where the primary constituents include depleted uranium, beryllium and lead. Sites that fail the screening models are evaluated with site-specific human risk assessment (using RESRAD and other approaches) and a detailed ecological effect model (ECOTRAN). ECOTRAN is based on pharmacokinetics transport modeling within a multitrophic-level biological-growth dynamics model. ECOTRAN provides detailed temporal records of contaminant concentrations in biota, and annual averages of these body burdens are compared to equivalent site-specific runs of the RESRAD model. The results show that thoughtful interpretation of the results of these models must be applied before they can be used for evaluation of current risk posed by sites and the benefits of various remedial options. This presentation compares the concentrations of biological media in the RESRAD screening runs to the concentrations in ecological endpoints predicted by the ecological screening model. The assumptions and limitations of these screening models and the decision process where these are screening models are applied are discussed

Use of an integrated human health/ecological risk assessment to develop a long-term groundwater/site management plan for a sour gas facility

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Swanson, S.M.; Shaw, R.D.; McClymont, G.; Nadeau, S.

1995-01-01

An integrated human health and ecological risk assessment was used to quantify the level of risk associated with the off-site movement of contaminants via groundwater and soils at a medium-sized gas processing facility in southern Alberta. The study incorporated three key aspects: (1) integration; (2) consultation; and, (3) pro-active remedial actions. Integration was complete, beginning with the Problem Formulation stage and progressing through Risk Characterization and Risk Management. This integration was reflected in a multidisciplinary team of hydrogeologists, biologists and human health specialists. Several lessons emerged from the integrated approach: (1) spending 2/3 of the time and resources on Problem Formulation prevented later problems; (2) the different perspectives provided by the various specialists helped reveal the relative importance of pathways and ecological receptors (3) clear, consistent screening procedures for contaminants of concern and receptors were very effective with stakeholders; (4) exposure scenarios that incorporated common-sense situations (although still conservative) contributed to the credibility of the risk analysis; and, (5) an innovative combination of toxicity testing and chemical analysis helped delineate the boundaries of the potentially contaminated area for both human and ecological receptors in a cost effective manner. Consultation included directly affected parties, regulatory personnel and community members. The consultation extended through the project, with key ''buy-in'' points during Problem Formulation and Risk Characterization/Management. Pro-active remedial action included the removal of contaminant sources in the 1980's, a pump-and-treat system and extensive monitoring. These actions showed commitment and set the stage for credible risk-based mitigation and long-term monitoring

Ecology and evolution of plant–pollinator interactions

Science.gov (United States)

Mitchell, Randall J.; Irwin, Rebecca E.; Flanagan, Rebecca J.; Karron, Jeffrey D.

2009-01-01

Background Some of the most exciting advances in pollination biology have resulted from interdisciplinary research combining ecological and evolutionary perspectives. For example, these two approaches have been essential for understanding the functional ecology of floral traits, the dynamics of pollen transport, competition for pollinator services, and patterns of specialization and generalization in plant–pollinator interactions. However, as research in these and other areas has progressed, many pollination biologists have become more specialized in their research interests, focusing their attention on either evolutionary or ecological questions. We believe that the continuing vigour of a synthetic and interdisciplinary field like pollination biology depends on renewed connections between ecological and evolutionary approaches. Scope In this Viewpoint paper we highlight the application of ecological and evolutionary approaches to two themes in pollination biology: (1) links between pollinator behaviour and plant mating systems, and (2) generalization and specialization in pollination systems. We also describe how mathematical models and synthetic analyses have broadened our understanding of pollination biology, especially in human-modified landscapes. We conclude with several suggestions that we hope will stimulate future research. This Viewpoint also serves as the introduction to this Special Issue on the Ecology and Evolution of Plant–Pollinator Interactions. These papers provide inspiring examples of the synergy between evolutionary and ecological approaches, and offer glimpses of great accomplishments yet to come. PMID:19482881

Ecology and evolution of plant-pollinator interactions.

Science.gov (United States)

Mitchell, Randall J; Irwin, Rebecca E; Flanagan, Rebecca J; Karron, Jeffrey D

2009-06-01

Some of the most exciting advances in pollination biology have resulted from interdisciplinary research combining ecological and evolutionary perspectives. For example, these two approaches have been essential for understanding the functional ecology of floral traits, the dynamics of pollen transport, competition for pollinator services, and patterns of specialization and generalization in plant-pollinator interactions. However, as research in these and other areas has progressed, many pollination biologists have become more specialized in their research interests, focusing their attention on either evolutionary or ecological questions. We believe that the continuing vigour of a synthetic and interdisciplinary field like pollination biology depends on renewed connections between ecological and evolutionary approaches. In this Viewpoint paper we highlight the application of ecological and evolutionary approaches to two themes in pollination biology: (1) links between pollinator behaviour and plant mating systems, and (2) generalization and specialization in pollination systems. We also describe how mathematical models and synthetic analyses have broadened our understanding of pollination biology, especially in human-modified landscapes. We conclude with several suggestions that we hope will stimulate future research. This Viewpoint also serves as the introduction to this Special Issue on the Ecology and Evolution of Plant-Pollinator Interactions. These papers provide inspiring examples of the synergy between evolutionary and ecological approaches, and offer glimpses of great accomplishments yet to come.

Marine Ecological Environment Management Based on Ecological Compensation Mechanisms

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Qunzhen Qu

2016-12-01

Full Text Available The level of marine environmental management is a key factor in the successful implementation of marine power strategies. The improvement in management levels of marine environments requires innovation in marine management. In other words, the transformation of marine environmental management into marine ecological environment management must be done in order to achieve sustainable development of the marine economy. As an environmental economic policy that combines both administrative and market measures, ecological compensation mechanisms have significant advantages in marine ecological environment management. Based on the study of the current development of ecological compensation mechanisms in China, through the analysis of the connotation of marine ecological civilization, existing marine ecological protection practices and marine environmental management methods, this paper posits that the current marine ecological environment management in China should be established on the basis of ecological compensation mechanisms. At present, a lack of laws and regulations for overall marine ecological environment management is the key factor restricting the practice of marine ecological environment management. Therefore, it is necessary to explore the current path of marine ecological environment management in China from the perspective of the construction of legal system of ecological compensation law, the establishment of ecological compensation fees, ecological taxes and ecological compensation fund systems, and the clear status for a marine ecological management and supervision body.

Studying the neurobiology of human social interaction: Making the case for ecological validity.

Science.gov (United States)

Hogenelst, Koen; Schoevers, Robert A; aan het Rot, Marije

2015-01-01

With this commentary we make the case for an increased focus on the ecological validity of the measures used to assess aspects of human social functioning. Impairments in social functioning are seen in many types of psychopathology, negatively affecting the lives of psychiatric patients and those around them. Yet the neurobiology underlying abnormal social interaction remains unclear. As an example of human social neuroscience research with relevance to biological psychiatry and clinical psychopharmacology, this commentary discusses published experimental studies involving manipulation of the human brain serotonin system that included assessments of social behavior. To date, these studies have mostly been laboratory-based and included computer tasks, observations by others, or single-administration self-report measures. Most laboratory measures used so far inform about the role of serotonin in aspects of social interaction, but the relevance for real-life interaction is often unclear. Few studies have used naturalistic assessments in real life. We suggest several laboratory methods with high ecological validity as well as ecological momentary assessment, which involves intensive repeated measures in naturalistic settings. In sum, this commentary intends to stimulate experimental research on the neurobiology of human social interaction as it occurs in real life.

The ecologic products and the importance of their consumption for the human health

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Corina Constanța Sîrbu

2017-11-01

Full Text Available This study intends to analyze the perception of young people regarding the ecologic products, their consumption and implicitly the awareness of their effect on the human health. The geographic area where we realized the study wasTimisoaraby distributing a questionnaire in different places: universities, super-markets, mall. After analyzing the results, we noticed that 80% of the young people consider that the food is very important for a healthy life. The majority of the young people questioned, even knowing the characteristics of the bio products, consumed fruits and vegetables bought from stores specialized in ecologic products. From our study, we can say that the young people are interested in the ecologic products sold inTimisoaraand they are aware about their impact on the human health.

Young, disadvantaged fathers' involvement with their infants: an ecological perspective.

Science.gov (United States)

Gavin, Loretta E; Black, Maureen M; Minor, Sherman; Abel, Yolanda; Papas, Mia A; Bentley, Margaret E

2002-09-01

To investigate fathers' involvement with their children using an ecological model, multiple respondents, and a comprehensive definition of fathers' involvement. The study's primary objectives were: (a) to describe the characteristics of fathers whose infants are born to low-income, urban, African-American adolescent mothers; (b) to describe the ways in which fathers are involved with their children; and (c) to identify factors associated with fathers' involvement. A total of 181 first-time mothers (aged parenting. Mothers provided the name of their infant's father; 109 (60%) of the fathers also agreed to participate. Baseline interviews of mothers, fathers, and grandmothers addressed demographic characteristics, relationships, and the father's involvement with his child. Three multivariate regression models were used to identify factors associated with paternal involvement, explaining 35% to 51% of the variability in father involvement. Regardless of the respondent (mother, father, or grandmother), paternal involvement was predicted most strongly by the quality of the parents' romantic relationship. The father's employment status, the maternal grandmother's education, and the father's relationship with the baby's maternal grandmother were also associated with paternal involvement. The study confirmed the value of an ecological perspective that uses multiple informants and a comprehensive definition of father involvement that includes multiple role functions. Efforts to increase paternal involvement should help young parents separate the father's relationship with their child from the romantic relationship between the mother and father, address the roles played by maternal grandmothers, and assist fathers to complete their education, and obtain and keep jobs.

Harnessing the plurality of actor frames in social-ecological systems : Ecological sanitation in Bolivia

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Eelderink, M.; Vervoort, J.; Snel, D.; de Castro, F.

2017-01-01

This article uses a case study on ecological sanitation as a basis for lessons on identifying and harnessing the plurality of actor frames in social-ecological systems, thereby moving beyond the advocacy positions often taken by implementing NGOs. The study aimed to explore how perspectives between

Towards a concept of community artifact ecology in HCI?

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Saad-Sulonen, Joanna; Korsgaard, Henrik

or workplaces do. This has implications on understanding how to research and design HCI for communities but also on refining the ecological perspective in HCI. We look in particular at examples from preliminary research on a local self-organised urban community and discuss what existing concepts in the ecology......In this paper we introduce the concept of community artifact ecology. We argue that taking a community perspective on the concept of artifact ecologies is relevant in HCI because communities are also dealing with multitudes of artifacts, in ways di↵erent that individuals, organizations...

Human-Computer Interaction The Agency Perspective

CERN Document Server

Oliveira, José

2012-01-01

Agent-centric theories, approaches and technologies are contributing to enrich interactions between users and computers. This book aims at highlighting the influence of the agency perspective in Human-Computer Interaction through a careful selection of research contributions. Split into five sections; Users as Agents, Agents and Accessibility, Agents and Interactions, Agent-centric Paradigms and Approaches, and Collective Agents, the book covers a wealth of novel, original and fully updated material, offering:   ü  To provide a coherent, in depth, and timely material on the agency perspective in HCI ü  To offer an authoritative treatment of the subject matter presented by carefully selected authors ü  To offer a balanced and broad coverage of the subject area, including, human, organizational, social, as well as technological concerns. ü  To offer a hands-on-experience by covering representative case studies and offering essential design guidelines   The book will appeal to a broad audience of resea...

The Ecology of Seamounts: Structure, Function, and Human Impacts

Science.gov (United States)

Clark, Malcolm R.; Rowden, Ashley A.; Schlacher, Thomas; Williams, Alan; Consalvey, Mireille; Stocks, Karen I.; Rogers, Alex D.; O'Hara, Timothy D.; White, Martin; Shank, Timothy M.; Hall-Spencer, Jason M.

2010-01-01

In this review of seamount ecology, we address a number of key scientific issues concerning the structure and function of benthic communities, human impacts, and seamount management and conservation. We consider whether community composition and diversity differ between seamounts and continental slopes, how important dispersal capabilities are in seamount connectivity, what environmental factors drive species composition and diversity, whether seamounts are centers of enhanced biological productivity, and whether they have unique trophic architecture. We discuss how vulnerable seamount communities are to fishing and mining, and how we can balance exploitation of resources and conservation of habitat. Despite considerable advances in recent years, there remain many questions about seamount ecosystems that need closer integration of molecular, oceanographic, and ecological research.

Brief note: Applying developmental intergroup perspectives to the social ecologies of bullying: Lessons from developmental social psychology.

Science.gov (United States)

Brenick, Alaina; Halgunseth, Linda C

2017-08-01

Over the past decades, the field of bullying research has seen dramatic growth, notably with the integration of the social-ecological approach to understanding bullying. Recently, researchers (Hymel et al., 2015; Hawley & Williford, 2015) have called for further extension of the field by incorporating constructs of group processes into our investigation of the social ecologies of bullying. This brief note details the critical connections between power, social identity, group norms, social and moral reasoning about discrimination and victimization, and experiences of, evaluations of, and responses to bullying. The authors highlight a parallel development in the bridging of developmental social-ecological and social psychological perspectives utilized in the field of social exclusion that provides a roadmap for extending the larger field of bullying research. This article is part of a Special Issue entitled [VSI: Bullying] IG000050. Copyright © 2017 The Foundation for Professionals in Services for Adolescents. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Ecology: From Individuals to Collectives

Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

Home; Journals; Resonance – Journal of Science Education; Volume 19; Issue 4. Ecology: From Individuals to Collectives: A Physicist's Perspective on Ecology. Vishwesha Guttal. Series Article Volume 19 Issue 4 April 2014 pp 368-375. Fulltext. Click here to view fulltext PDF. Permanent link:

Asian Eden : large herbivore ecology in India

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Ahrestani, F.S.

2009-01-01

The study of large mammalian herbivore ecology has a strong allometric tradition. The
majority of studies that have helped better understand how body mass affects large herbivore
ecology in the tropics, from a biological, functional, and ecological perspective, are from
Africa.

Long term socio-ecological research across temporal and spatial scales

Science.gov (United States)

Singh, S. J.; Haberl, H.

2012-04-01

Long term socio-ecological research across temporal and spatial scales Simron Jit Singh and Helmut Haberl Institute of Social Ecology, Vienna, Austria Understanding trajectories of change in coupled socio-ecological (or human-environment) systems requires monitoring and analysis at several spatial and temporal scales. Long-term ecosystem research (LTER) is a strand of research coupled with observation systems and infrastructures (LTER sites) aimed at understanding how global change affects ecosystems around the world. In recent years it has been increasingly recognized that sustainability concerns require extending this approach to long-term socio-ecological research, i.e. a more integrated perspective that focuses on interaction processes between society and ecosystems over longer time periods. Thus, Long-Term Socio-Ecological Research, abbreviated LTSER, aims at observing, analyzing, understanding and modelling of changes in coupled socio-ecological systems over long periods of time. Indeed, the magnitude of the problems we now face is an outcome of a much longer process, accelerated by industrialisation since the nineteenth century. The paper will provide an overview of a book (in press) on LTSER with particular emphasis on 'socio-ecological transitions' in terms of material, energy and land use dynamics across temporal and spatial scales.

Ecological aspects influencing the implementation of inclusive ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Keywords: Assessment and Support Strategy, barriers to learning, ecological model, identification, inclusive ..... impedes the management of these learners in the mainstream schools. ..... An ecological systems theory perspective on youth.

Confluence of arts, humanities, and science at sites of long-term ecological inquiry

Science.gov (United States)

Frederick J. Swanson

2015-01-01

Over the past century, ecology, the arts, and humanities diverged, but are now converging again, especially at sites of long-term, place-based ecological inquiry. This convergence has been inspired in part by the works of creative, boundary-spanning individuals and the long-standing examples of artshumanities programs in intriguing landscapes, such as artist and writer...

Using Voice, Meaning, Mutual Construction of Knowledge, and Transfer of Learning to Apply an Ecological Perspective to Group Work Training

Science.gov (United States)

Orr, Jonathan J.; Hulse-Killacky, Diana

2006-01-01

Concepts of voice, meaning, mutual construction of knowledge, and transfer of learning are presented in this paper as critical ingredients that support the teaching of group work from an ecological perspective. Examples of these concepts are given to illustrate their application in group work classes. (Contains 1 table.)

PERSPECTIVES OF ETHICAL CONSUMPTION DEVELOPMENT IN UKRAINE

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

O. Yevtushevska

2014-12-01

Full Text Available Universal principles of ethical consumption are lightened. Five main principles are definite, in particular: principle of caring treatment to environment, principle of human rights keeping, principle of human treatment to animals, principle of domestic producers support, principle of ethical treatment to other buyers. Main reasons of undeveloped consumer culture in Ukraine are analyzed, namely historical peculiarities of consumption, poor information, ineffective legislation, undeveloped ecological culture, poor experience of total boycott of goods and services. Perspectives of ethical consumption development under domestic conditions are opened.

Ecological research at the offshore windfarm alpha ventus. Challenges, results and perspectives

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Beiersdorf, Anika; Wollny-Goerke, Katrin

2014-01-01

At present and over the next few years, large-scale windfarms are being installed far off the coast of Germany in the North and Baltic Sea, making a major contribution to electricity generation from renewable energy sources. One of the German government's aims is to ensure the environmentally sound and sustainable development of offshore wind energy. Germany's first offshore test site, alpha ventus, was therefore accompanied from the construction phase to the first years of operation by an intensive environmental research programme, the StUKplus project, financed by the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety and coordinated by the Federal Maritime and Hydrographic Agency. Marine and ecological aspects have been researched there for more than five years to improve the level of knowledge about the ecological impacts of offshore windfarms. This book provides a broad, richly illustrated overview of applied and new research methods and monitoring techniques. It summarises the key research findings on the impacts on benthic communities, fish, marine mammals and birds, also taking into account underwater sound and sediment measurements. Interpreting the results in the sense of lessons learned, new challenges and perspectives are discussed for future sustainable offshore development in German waters.

Ecological research at the offshore windfarm alpha ventus. Challenges, results and perspectives

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Beiersdorf, Anika; Wollny-Goerke, Katrin (eds.)

2014-07-01

At present and over the next few years, large-scale windfarms are being installed far off the coast of Germany in the North and Baltic Sea, making a major contribution to electricity generation from renewable energy sources. One of the German government's aims is to ensure the environmentally sound and sustainable development of offshore wind energy. Germany's first offshore test site, alpha ventus, was therefore accompanied from the construction phase to the first years of operation by an intensive environmental research programme, the StUKplus project, financed by the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety and coordinated by the Federal Maritime and Hydrographic Agency. Marine and ecological aspects have been researched there for more than five years to improve the level of knowledge about the ecological impacts of offshore windfarms. This book provides a broad, richly illustrated overview of applied and new research methods and monitoring techniques. It summarises the key research findings on the impacts on benthic communities, fish, marine mammals and birds, also taking into account underwater sound and sediment measurements. Interpreting the results in the sense of lessons learned, new challenges and perspectives are discussed for future sustainable offshore development in German waters.

Understanding Action and Adventure Sports Participation-An Ecological Dynamics Perspective.

Science.gov (United States)

Immonen, Tuomas; Brymer, Eric; Orth, Dominic; Davids, Keith; Feletti, Francesco; Liukkonen, Jarmo; Jaakkola, Timo

2017-12-01

Previous research has considered action and adventure sports using a variety of associated terms and definitions which has led to confusing discourse and contradictory research findings. Traditional narratives have typically considered participation exclusively as the pastime of young people with abnormal characteristics or personalities having unhealthy and pathological tendencies to take risks because of the need for thrill, excitement or an adrenaline 'rush'. Conversely, recent research has linked even the most extreme forms of action and adventure sports to positive physical and psychological health and well-being outcomes. Here, we argue that traditional frameworks have led to definitions, which, as currently used by researchers, ignore key elements constituting the essential merit of these sports. In this paper, we suggest that this lack of conceptual clarity in understanding cognitions, perception and action in action and adventure sports requires a comprehensive explanatory framework, ecological dynamics which considers person-environment interactions from a multidisciplinary perspective. Action and adventure sports can be fundamentally conceptualized as activities which flourish through creative exploration of novel movement experiences, continuously expanding and evolving beyond predetermined environmental, physical, psychological or sociocultural boundaries. The outcome is the emergence of a rich variety of participation styles and philosophical differences within and across activities. The purpose of this paper is twofold: (a) to point out some limitations of existing research on action and adventure sports; (b) based on key ideas from emerging research and an ecological dynamics approach, to propose a holistic multidisciplinary model for defining and understanding action and adventure sports that may better guide future research and practical implications.

Ecological accounting based on extended exergy: a sustainability perspective.

Science.gov (United States)

Dai, Jing; Chen, Bin; Sciubba, Enrico

2014-08-19

The excessive energy consumption, environmental pollution, and ecological destruction problems have gradually become huge obstacles for the development of societal-economic-natural complex ecosystems. Regarding the national ecological-economic system, how to make explicit the resource accounting, diagnose the resource conversion, and measure the disturbance of environmental emissions to the systems are the fundamental basis of sustainable development and coordinated management. This paper presents an extended exergy (EE) accounting including the material exergy and exergy equivalent of externalities consideration in a systematic process from production to consumption, and China in 2010 is chosen as a case study to foster an in-depth understanding of the conflict between high-speed development and the available resources. The whole society is decomposed into seven sectors (i.e., Agriculture, Extraction, Conversion, Industry, Transportation, Tertiary, and Domestic sectors) according to their distinct characteristics. An adaptive EE accounting database, which incorporates traditional energy, renewable energy, mineral element, and other natural resources as well as resource-based secondary products, is constructed on the basis of the internal flows in the system. In addition, the environmental emission accounting has been adjusted to calculate the externalities-equivalent exergy. The results show that the EE value for the year 2010 in China was 1.80 × 10(14) MJ, which is greatly increased. Furthermore, an EE-based sustainability indices system has been established to provide an epitomized exploration for evaluating the performance of flows and storages with the system from a sustainability perspective. The value of the EE-based sustainability indicator was calculated to be 0.23, much lower than the critical value of 1, implying that China is still developing in the stages of high energy consumption and a low sustainability level.

[Applied ecology: retrospect and prospect].

Science.gov (United States)

He, Xingyuan; Zeng, Dehui

2004-10-01

Applied ecology is evolved into a principal part of modern ecology that rapidly develops. The major stimulus for the development of applied ecology roots in seeking the solutions for the problems of human populations, resources and environments. Through four decades, the science of applied ecology has been becoming a huge group of disciplines. The future for the applied ecology should concern more with human-influenced and managed ecosystems, and acknowledge humans as the components of ecosystems. Nowadays and in future, the top-priorities in applied ecology should include following fields: sustainable ecosystems and biosphere, ecosystem services and ecological design, ecological assessment of genetically modified organisms, ecology of biological invasions, epidemical ecology, ecological forecasting, ecological process and its control. The authors believe that the comprehensive and active research hotspots coupled some new traits would occur around these fields in foreseeable future.

Mapping social-ecological vulnerability to inform local decision making.

Science.gov (United States)

Thiault, Lauric; Marshall, Paul; Gelcich, Stefan; Collin, Antoine; Chlous, Frédérique; Claudet, Joachim

2018-04-01

An overarching challenge of natural resource management and biodiversity conservation is that relationships between people and nature are difficult to integrate into tools that can effectively guide decision making. Social-ecological vulnerability offers a valuable framework for identifying and understanding important social-ecological linkages, and the implications of dependencies and other feedback loops in the system. Unfortunately, its implementation at local scales has hitherto been limited due at least in part to the lack of operational tools for spatial representation of social-ecological vulnerability. We developed a method to map social-ecological vulnerability based on information on human-nature dependencies and ecosystem services at local scales. We applied our method to the small-scale fishery of Moorea, French Polynesia, by combining spatially explicit indicators of exposure, sensitivity, and adaptive capacity of both the resource (i.e., vulnerability of reef fish assemblages to fishing) and resource users (i.e., vulnerability of fishing households to the loss of fishing opportunity). Our results revealed that both social and ecological vulnerabilities varied considerably through space and highlighted areas where sources of vulnerability were high for both social and ecological subsystems (i.e., social-ecological vulnerability hotspots) and thus of high priority for management intervention. Our approach can be used to inform decisions about where biodiversity conservation strategies are likely to be more effective and how social impacts from policy decisions can be minimized. It provides a new perspective on human-nature linkages that can help guide sustainability management at local scales; delivers insights distinct from those provided by emphasis on a single vulnerability component (e.g., exposure); and demonstrates the feasibility and value of operationalizing the social-ecological vulnerability framework for policy, planning, and participatory

Transition(s) towards an ecologic economy. The prospective program

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Riviere, Antoine; Hervieu, Halvard; Monnoyer-Smith, Laurence; Cecutti-Etahiri, Nathalie

2015-07-01

This publication aims at presenting works performed between 2010 and 2014 within the frame of the prospective program 'Transition(s) towards an ecologic economy' of the prospective mission of the CGDD (Commissariat General au Developpement Durable, the French General Committee for Sustainable Development). It also presents lessons which can be learned. The first part examines what could be the shape of an ecologic economy. For this purpose, scenarios have been developed which allow the role which various actors (citizen, territories, State) can play, and the possible evolutions of the present social-economic system to be explored. The second part addresses more specific issues in order to highlight some levers of action for a successful transition. These issues can be transverse (for example, the role of ITs in ecologic economy, or the human factor in terms of challenge of social change and employment) as well as sector-based (focus on transports and on ecologic mobility in the perspective of automotive industries and enterprises, and of public policies)

Human and ecological determinants of the spatial structure of local breed diversity.

Science.gov (United States)

Colino-Rabanal, Victor J; Rodríguez-Díaz, Roberto; Blanco-Villegas, María José; Peris, Salvador J; Lizana, Miguel

2018-04-24

Since domestication, a large number of livestock breeds adapted to local conditions have been created by natural and artificial selection, representing one of the most powerful ways in which human groups have constructed niches to meet their need. Although many authors have described local breeds as the result of culturally and environmentally mediated processes, this study, located in mainland Spain, is the first aimed at identifying and quantifying the environmental and human contributions to the spatial structure of local breed diversity, which we refer to as livestock niche. We found that the more similar two provinces were in terms of human population, ecological characteristics, historical ties, and geographic distance, the more similar the composition of local breeds in their territories. Isolation by human population distance showed the strongest effect, followed by isolation by the environment, thus supporting the view of livestock niche as a socio-cultural product adapted to the local environment, in whose construction humans make good use of their ecological and cultural inheritances. These findings provide a useful framework to understand and to envisage the effects of climate change and globalization on local breeds and their livestock niches.

Complementary system perspectives in ecological macroeconomics

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Røpke, Inge

2016-01-01

Globally, societies are facing a number of interrelated environmental, economic and social crises. This paper is intended to contribute to the development of an ecological macroeconomics that addresses these multiple crises in combination. Insights from different research communities will be incl......Globally, societies are facing a number of interrelated environmental, economic and social crises. This paper is intended to contribute to the development of an ecological macroeconomics that addresses these multiple crises in combination. Insights from different research communities...... will be included in this effort. Taking an ecological economic understanding of sustainability as the point of departure, and inspired by systems thinking, it is discussed which economic sub-systems should be in focus for sustainability transitions, and whether relevant guides for sustainability can be formulated...... for these systems. In particular, the focus is on systems that are decisive for resource consumption and pollution although their influence on these is indirect. A simple typology of sub-systems is suggested and applied in relation to an example that highlights the importance of the interplay between macroeconomic...

Effects of ionizing radiation upon natural populations and ecosystems. Final report. [Ecological perspectives in land use planning

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

McCormick, J.F.

1976-01-01

Accomplishments throughout a 10-year period summarized include: a study of the effects of radiation from a ..gamma.. source on the ecology of the El Verde rain forest in Puerto Rico, with emphasis on the role of secondary succession in the recovery of forest ecosystems following irradiation; the effects of light and temperature on gaseous exchange in trees using /sup 14/CO/sub 2/ as a tracer in Palcourea; the nature of the sensitivity of pine trees to ionizing radiation and the possible synergistic effects of elevated ozone levels on radiosensitivity; the combined effects of radioactive and thermal effluents on plant communities of a swamp hardwood forest; and the development of a new conceptual approach to the evaluation of environmental quality, with emphasis on ecological perspectives in land use planning. (CH)

Genetic Engineering and Human Mental Ecology: Interlocking Effects and Educational Considerations

OpenAIRE

Affifi, Ramsey

2017-01-01

This paper describes some likely semiotic consequences of genetic engineering on what Gregory Bateson has called ?the mental ecology? (1979) of future humans, consequences that are less often raised in discussions surrounding the safety of GMOs (genetically modified organisms). The effects are as follows: an increased 1) habituation to the presence of GMOs in the environment, 2) normalization of empirically false assumptions grounding genetic reductionism, 3) acceptance that humans are capabl...

The ecology of seamounts: structure, function, and human impacts.

OpenAIRE

Clark, MR; Rowden, AA; Schlacher, T; Williams, A; Consalvey, M; Stocks, KI; Rogers, AD; O'Hara, TD; White, M; Shank, TM; Hall-Spencer, JM

2010-01-01

In this review of seamount ecology, we address a number of key scientific issues concerning the structure and function of benthic communities, human impacts, and seamount management and conservation. We consider whether community composition and diversity differ between seamounts and continental slopes, how important dispersal capabilities are in seamount connectivity, what environmental factors drive species composition and diversity, whether seamounts are centers of enhanced biological prod...

Human ecology and environmentalism: Two different approaches to the relationships ecosystem/culture

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Leon Sicard, Tomas

2001-01-01

A comparative analysis of the human ecology focus versus the environmental dimension analysis, emphasizing that the first one does not have theoretical instruments to adequately consider the human action inside the ecosystems, while the second one considers the concept of culture as an explanation of the human niche and then of the environmental problem. It ends with thoughts about the environmental or ecologist conception that is discussed in the Colombian peace negotiations

Protected areas as social-ecological systems: perspectives from resilience and social-ecological systems theory.

Science.gov (United States)

Cumming, Graeme S; Allen, Craig R

2017-09-01

Conservation biology and applied ecology increasingly recognize that natural resource management is both an outcome and a driver of social, economic, and ecological dynamics. Protected areas offer a fundamental approach to conserving ecosystems, but they are also social-ecological systems whose ecological management and sustainability are heavily influenced by people. This editorial, and the papers in the invited feature that it introduces, discuss three emerging themes in social-ecological systems approaches to understanding protected areas: (1) the resilience and sustainability of protected areas, including analyses of their internal dynamics, their effectiveness, and the resilience of the landscapes within which they occur; (2) the relevance of spatial context and scale for protected areas, including such factors as geographic connectivity, context, exchanges between protected areas and their surrounding landscapes, and scale dependency in the provision of ecosystem services; and (3) efforts to reframe what protected areas are and how they both define and are defined by the relationships of people and nature. These emerging themes have the potential to transform management and policy approaches for protected areas and have important implications for conservation, in both theory and practice. © 2017 by the Ecological Society of America.

Temporal knowledge and autobiographical memory: an evolutionary perspective

OpenAIRE

Skowronski, John J.; Sedikides, Constantine

2007-01-01

Section I: Philosophical issues 1. Evolutionary pyschology in the round , Robin Dunbar & Louise Barrett 2. The power of culture , Henry Plotkin 3. Evolution and psychology in philosophical perspective , Matteo Mameli 4. Niche construction, human behavioural ecology and evolutionary psychology , Kevin N Laland 5. Group level evolutionary processes , David Sloan Wilson Section II: The comparative Approach 6. Homologizing the mind , Drew Rendall, Hugh Nottman & John ...

[Human ecology. Which is the main challenge to Russia?].

Science.gov (United States)

Velichkovskiĭ, B T

2002-01-01

The main direction in the study of human ecology in Russia today is to provide evidence for how to maintain environmental balance in the biosphere of the Earth, though the above factor also exerts a constantly growing negative impact on the health and life quality of the population. During the years of the reforms in the country, all the principal medical and demographic indices have undergone negative changes. To overcome the medicodemographic crisis should be now a priority problem to be solved in human ecology in Russia. The crisis was mainly caused by the "shock" strategy of the reforms. To eliminate the negative medicodemographic consequences, a strong working motivation should be firstly created for the population, that is to create such conditions that allow people to earn well-deserved living by honest work. All this requires the development of small business, democratization of private property forms of private property, and changes in the Government's policy concerning work payment. Medical scientists should clarify how biological mechanisms, that is negative social, economic and psychological factors, cause a drastic increase in mortality, particularly in the able-bodied population. This process is likely to involve three regulation levels; the central nervous system (dynamic stereotype break, as called by I. P. Pavlov), the neuroendocrine system (great stress, as described by G. Selye), molecular-cellular free radical processes (phenoptosis, as outlined by V. P. Skulachev). Five factors that most negatively affect human health and demographic processes were identified.

Why Finance Should Care about Ecology

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Scholtens, Lambertus

Finance ignores ecosystems, which has resulted in a growing list of environmental and social problems. In this article, the importance of ecology for finance is assessed. We suggest The piece also suggests that the financial intermediation perspective can align finance and ecology for the benefit of

Ecological response to climate change and human activities indicated by n-alkane proxy during the mid- to late Holocene: a case study from an alpine lake

Science.gov (United States)

Zhang, C.; Zhao, C.

2017-12-01

Paleolimonological records provide long-term dynamics information of past climate, environment, human activities and ecological variations and give evolutionary perspectives to understand responses process of ecological shift to internal or external trigger. In this study, a powerful biomarkers, n-alkanes, was used to reconstruct the past 5000 years organic matter sources and ecological evolution history of Beilianchi Lake in the southwestern of Loess Plateau after preliminary investigation of modern samples. Climate-environment change and human activities were also traced by total organic matter (TOC), magnetic susceptibility (MS) and relevant proxies. The results showed that the ecosystem related to organic matter composition in Beilianchi Lake might be mainly controlled by climate change before 1400 cal B.P., whereas after that, it was significantly influenced by soil erosion induced by increasing population and enhanced human activities. Lake ecosystem experienced periodical change from relatively stable stage with combination of allochthonous-autochthonous organic sources prior to 1400 cal B.P. to extremely instability and final return to steady state with allochthonous-dominant organic source since 300 cal B.P.. During the period of instability, organic matter composition during 1400-800 cal B.P. indicated a obvious bimodal distribution based on probability density distribution analysis, which reflected the lake ecosystem might stay at bistable state and switched repeatedly from more-macrophytes state (regime A with low ACL) towards less-macrophytes state (regime B with high ACL) controlled by disturbance of soil erosion. The flickering during this period could serve as the early warning signal of transition towards more-macrophytes state or less-macrophytes state in lake ecosystems.

Putting humans in ecology: consistency in science and management.

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Hobbs, Larry; Fowler, Charles W

2008-03-01

Normal and abnormal levels of human participation in ecosystems can be revealed through the use of macro-ecological patterns. Such patterns also provide consistent and objective guidance that will lead to achieving and maintaining ecosystem health and sustainability. This paper focuses on the consistency of this type of guidance and management. Such management, in sharp contrast to current management practices, ensures that our actions as individuals, institutions, political groups, societies, and as a species are applied consistently across all temporal, spatial, and organizational scales. This approach supplants management of today, where inconsistency results from debate, politics, and legal and religious polarity. Consistency is achieved when human endeavors are guided by natural patterns. Pattern-based management meets long-standing demands for enlightened management that requires humans to participate in complex systems in consistent and sustainable ways.

The historical dynamics of social-ecological traps.

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Boonstra, Wiebren J; de Boer, Florianne W

2014-04-01

Environmental degradation is a typical unintended outcome of collective human behavior. Hardin's metaphor of the "tragedy of the commons" has become a conceived wisdom that captures the social dynamics leading to environmental degradation. Recently, "traps" has gained currency as an alternative concept to explain the rigidity of social and ecological processes that produce environmental degradation and livelihood impoverishment. The trap metaphor is, however, a great deal more complex compared to Hardin's insight. This paper takes stock of studies using the trap metaphor. It argues that the concept includes time and history in the analysis, but only as background conditions and not as a factor of causality. From a historical-sociological perspective this is remarkable since social-ecological traps are clearly path-dependent processes, which are causally produced through a conjunction of events. To prove this point the paper conceptualizes social-ecological traps as a process instead of a condition, and systematically compares history and timing in one classic and three recent studies of social-ecological traps. Based on this comparison it concludes that conjunction of social and environmental events contributes profoundly to the production of trap processes. The paper further discusses the implications of this conclusion for policy intervention and outlines how future research might generalize insights from historical-sociological studies of traps.

Thinking About Education in Human Rights from an Ethical and Controversial Perspective

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Abraham Magendzo

2018-05-01

Full Text Available This paper delves into the relationship between the education in human rights and ethics from a controversial perspective. It is a direction that seeks to help people become active and participatory citizens in a pluralistic democracy. Three fundamental ethical principles are analyzed, and they allow teaching human rights through controversy: Human rights: a global ethics of human rights; human rights: an ethical minimum; human rights and moral pluralism. This article proposes to relate human rights education with the critical-dialogical pedagogy. In this perspective are identified four critical inquiry tools that serve to develop different dimensions for a critical understanding in the social sphere: the approach of the problem, the reflexive skepticism, the multiperspectivity, and systemic thinking.

What can we learn from the microbial ecological interactions associated with polymicrobial diseases?

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Antiabong, J F; Boardman, W; Ball, A S

2014-03-15

Periodontal diseases in humans and animals are model polymicrobial diseases which are associated with a shift in the microbial community structure and function; there is therefore a need to investigate these diseases from a microbial ecological perspective. This review highlights three important areas of microbial ecological investigation of polymicrobial diseases and the lessons that could be learnt: (1) identification of disease-associated microbes and the implications for choice of anti-infective treatment; (2) the implications associated with vaccine design and development and (3) application of the dynamics of microbial interaction in the discovery of novel anti-infective agents. This review emphasises the need to invigorate microbial ecological approaches to the study of periodontal diseases and other polymicrobial diseases for greater understanding of the ecological interactions between and within the biotic and abiotic factors of the environment. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Preparing them from home: A discourse on Christian parental responsibility towards ecological crisis

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George C. Nche

2017-11-01

Full Text Available Few studies have discussed the roles of parents towards addressing ecological crisis. Yet, discourses on these roles have always been approached from a secular perspective. To this end, this paper critically discusses the roles of parents towards ecological crisis from the Christian or biblical perspective of their responsibilities towards their children. Using a hermeneutic phenomenological method of analysis, the article argues that ecological disasters of tomorrow could be prevented today through effective ecologically centred Christian parenting.

Recipient design in human communication: simple heuristics or perspective taking?

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Blokpoel, Mark; van Kesteren, Marlieke; Stolk, Arjen; Haselager, Pim; Toni, Ivan; van Rooij, Iris

2012-01-01

Humans have a remarkable capacity for tuning their communicative behaviors to different addressees, a phenomenon also known as recipient design. It remains unclear how this tuning of communicative behavior is implemented during live human interactions. Classical theories of communication postulate that recipient design involves perspective taking, i.e., the communicator selects her behavior based on her hypotheses about beliefs and knowledge of the recipient. More recently, researchers have argued that perspective taking is computationally too costly to be a plausible mechanism in everyday human communication. These researchers propose that computationally simple mechanisms, or heuristics, are exploited to perform recipient design. Such heuristics may be able to adapt communicative behavior to an addressee with no consideration for the addressee's beliefs and knowledge. To test whether the simpler of the two mechanisms is sufficient for explaining the "how" of recipient design we studied communicators' behaviors in the context of a non-verbal communicative task (the Tacit Communication Game, TCG). We found that the specificity of the observed trial-by-trial adjustments made by communicators is parsimoniously explained by perspective taking, but not by simple heuristics. This finding is important as it suggests that humans do have a computationally efficient way of taking beliefs and knowledge of a recipient into account.

Recipient design in human communication: Simple heuristics or perspective taking?

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mark eBlokpoel

2012-09-01

Full Text Available Humans have a remarkable capacity for tuning their communicative behaviors to different addressees, a phenomenon also known as recipient design. It remains unclear how this tuning of communicative behavior is implemented during live human interactions. Classical theories of communication postulate that recipient design involves perspective taking, i.e., the communicator selects her behavior based on her hypotheses about beliefs and knowledge of the recipient. More recently, researchers have argued that perspective taking is computationally too costly to be a plausible mechanism in everyday human communication. These researchers propose that computationally simple mechanisms, or heuristics, are exploited to perform recipient design. Such heuristics may be able to adapt communicative behavior to an addressee with no consideration for the addressee's beliefs and knowledge. To test whether the simpler of the two mechanisms is sufficient for explaining the `how' of recipient design we studied communicators' behaviors in the context of a non-verbal communicative task (the Tacit Communication Game, TCG. We found that the specificity of the observed trial-by-trial adjustments made by communicators is parsimoniously explained by perspective taking, but not by simple heuristics. This finding is important as it suggests that humans do have a computationally efficient way of taking beliefs and knowledge of a recipient into account.

The Rise of the Anthroposphere since 50,000 Years: An Ecological Replacement of Megaherbivores by Humans in Terrestrial Ecosystems?

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Hervé Bocherens

2018-01-01

Full Text Available Megaherbivores fulfilled a number of important ecological functions in terrestrial ecosystems and behaved as ecological engineers since 300 million years until around 12,000 years ago. These essential ecological functions include opening vegetation cover, selective seed dispersal and nutrient recycling and spreading. Thanks to these effects, megaherbivores change the vegetation structure where they live, with cascading effects on smaller herbivores and also on climate. The late Pleistocene extinction strongly impacted the megaherbivores almost all over the world and led to the loss of these important ecological functions in terrestrial ecosystems. These functions were partially restored by agriculturist humans through an ecological replacement that occurred through an ecological shift within the species Homo sapiens. A better understanding of the differences and similarities between the ecological impacts of megaherbivores and those of agricultural humans should help to predict the future of terrestrial ecosystems.

Aldo Leopold's land health from a resilience point of view: self-renewal capacity of social-ecological systems.

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Berkes, Fikret; Doubleday, Nancy C; Cumming, Graeme S

2012-09-01

Health approaches to ecology have a strong basis in Aldo Leopold's thinking, and contemporary ecohealth in turn has a strong philosophical basis in Leopold. To commemorate the 125th anniversary of Leopold's birth (1887-1948), we revisit his ideas, specifically the notions of stewardship (land ethic), productive use of ecosystems (land), and ecosystem renewal. We focus on Leopold's perspective on the self-renewal capacity of the land, as understood in terms of integrity and land health, from the contemporary perspective of resilience theory and ecological theory more generally. Using a broad range of literature, we explore insights and implications of Leopold's work for today's human-environment relationships (integrated social-ecological systems), concerns for biodiversity, the development of agency with respect to stewardship, and key challenges of his time and of ours. Leopold's seminal concept of land health can be seen as a triangulation of productive use, self-renewal, and stewardship, and it can be reinterpreted through the resilience lens as the health of social-ecological systems. In contemporary language, this involves the maintenance of biodiversity and ecosystem services, and the ability to exercise agency both for conservation and for environmental justice.

Editorial: Pedagogical Media Ecologies

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Dorothee M. Meister

2014-07-01

Full Text Available From educational gaming through portable e-readers to cell phones, media are interpenetrating educational spaces and activities. Accordingly, understanding media in environmental or ecological terms has become increasingly important for education internationally. In North America, for example, the centenary of McLuhan’s birth has focused attention on approaches to media – whether oral, textual, electronic or digital– as a kind of environment in which education takes place. In parts of Europe, the so-called mediatic turn – following on the linguistic and iconic turns – has similarly emphasized the role of media as a condition for the possibility of educational activities and programs. With a few exceptions1 the papers in this special issue were first presented at the conference «Educational Media Ecologies: International Perspectives» which took place at the University of Paderborn, Germany, on March 27–28, 2012.2 The event was an interdisciplinary and transatlantic endeavor to bring together a wide range of perspectives on various issues relevant to educational media ecologies,3 and on related debates on mediation, medialization, mediatization, and mediality.4 The purpose of this volume, like the conference, is to foster and deepen international dialogue in the area of educational media. Areas of research and scholarship relevant to this dialogue include educational media, media literacy, educational philosophy, and media and cultural studies. The contributions, described below, put conceptual issues as well as social practices and applications at the center of the debate. Klaus Rummler opens the issue by clarifying the concept of ecology itself. Referencing a range of work over the past 50 years, Rummler describes how ecological models have been cast in sociological, semiotic, cultural, mediatic and other terms, and he explains the implications of these various perspectives for the study of educational contexts. Rummler also

COMPARING THE UTILITY OF MULTIMEDIA MODELS FOR HUMAN AND ECOLOGICAL EXPOSURE ANALYSIS: TWO CASES

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A number of models are available for exposure assessment; however, few are used as tools for both human and ecosystem risks. This discussion will consider two modeling frameworks that have recently been used to support human and ecological decision making. The study will compare ...

Multi-scale research of time and space differences about ecological footprint and ecological carrying capacity of the water resources

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Li, Jiahong; Lei, Xiaohui; Fu, Qiang; Li, Tianxiao; Qiao, Yu; Chen, Lei; Liao, Weihong

2018-03-01

A multi-scale assessment framework for assessing and comparing the water resource sustainability based on the ecological footprint (EF) is introduced. The study aims to manage the water resource from different views in Heilongjiang Province. First of all, from the scale of each city, the water ecological carrying capacity (ECC) was calculated from 2000 to 2011, and map the spatial distribution of the recent 3 years which show that, the water ecological carrying capacity (ECC) is uneven and has a downward trend year by year. Then, from the perspective of the five secondary partition basins in Heilongjiang Province, the paper calculated the ecological carrying capacity (ECC), the ecological footprint (EF) and ecological surplus and deficit (S&D) situation of water resources from 2000 to 2011, which show that the ecological deficit situation is more prominent in Nenjiang and Suifenhe basins which are in an unsustainable development state. Finally, from the perspective of the province, the paper calculated the ecological carrying capacity (ECC), the ecological footprint (EF) and ecological S&D of water resources from 2000 to 2011 in Heilongjiang Province, which show that the ecological footprint (EF) is in the rising trend, and the correlation coefficient between the ecological carrying capacity (ECC) and the precipitation is 0.8. There are 5 years of unsustainable development state in Heilongjiang. The proposed multi-scale assessment of WEF aims to evaluate the complex relationship between water resource supply and consumption in different spatial scales and time series. It also provides more reasonable assessment result which can be used by managers and regulators.

The ecological imperative and its application to ethical issues in human genetic technology

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W. Malcolm Byrnes

2003-08-01

Full Text Available As a species, we are on the cusp of being able to alter that which makes us uniquely human, our genome. Two new genetic technologies, embryo selection and germline engineering, are either in use today or may be developed in the future. Embryo selection acts to alter the human gene pool, reducing genetic diversity, while germline engineering will have the ability to alter directly the genomes of engineered individuals. Our genome has come to be what it is through an evolutionary process extending over millions of years, a process that has involved exceedingly complex and unpredictable interactions between ourselves or our ancestors and myriad other life forms within Earth's biosphere. In this paper, the ecological imperativ e, which states that we must not alter the human genome or the collective human genetic inheritance, will be introduced. It will be argued based on ecological principles that embryo selection and germline engineering are unethical and unwise because they will diminish our survivability as a species, will disrupt our relationship with the natural world, and will destroy the very basis of that which makes us human.

The Importance of Human Ecology at the Threshold of the Next Millennium: How Can Population Growth Be Stopped?

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Nentwig, W.

Ecology is defined as the set of complex interactions between the biotic and abiotic environments. Human ecology concerns principally the population ecology "only" of Homo sapiens, but it also includes all aspects of global ecology because humans are the most important species. Human demography is characterized by a recent decline in mortality and fertility rates. These demographic transitions have largely been completed in industrialized countries, but not in the 140 developing countries. Approximately 100 countries are following the same demographic pattern as industrialized countries, however with a time delay of several generations. China has effectively reduced its population increase by means that would be unacceptable in Western democracies. Some 44 developing countries still show increasing population growth and no detectable demographic transition in birth rate. Thus one part of the world shows limited (and, in the long run, shrinking) population growth, and another continues with a strong increase. All populations are limited in their development by their sustainability by their environment, for example, food and energy resources, and the extent of pollution which the use of these resources produces. It is argued that in the case of human population the limits of sustainability have already been reached with the 6 billion humans alive today, since at least 20% of these suffer from hunger, natural resources are overexploited, and biodiversity is threatened. In the coming 200years it is more likely that the total population will substantially oscillate rather than approach the predicted 12 billion. The most important goal of human ecology should therefore be to slow population growth as far as possible.

The pre-history of modern ecological economics

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Røpke, Inge

This paper provides a historical perspective for the discussion on ecological economics as a special field of research. By studying the historical background of ecological economics, the present discussions and tensions inside the field might become easier to understand and to relate to. The stud...

Linking behavioural syndromes and cognition: a behavioural ecology perspective.

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Sih, Andrew; Del Giudice, Marco

2012-10-05

With the exception of a few model species, individual differences in cognition remain relatively unstudied in non-human animals. One intriguing possibility is that variation in cognition is functionally related to variation in personality. Here, we review some examples and present hypotheses on relationships between personality (or behavioural syndromes) and individual differences in cognitive style. Our hypotheses are based largely on a connection between fast-slow behavioural types (BTs; e.g. boldness, aggressiveness, exploration tendency) and cognitive speed-accuracy trade-offs. We also discuss connections between BTs, cognition and ecologically important aspects of decision-making, including sampling, impulsivity, risk sensitivity and choosiness. Finally, we introduce the notion of cognition syndromes, and apply ideas from theories on adaptive behavioural syndromes to generate predictions on cognition syndromes.

A Western diet ecological module identified from the 'humanized' mouse microbiota predicts diet in adults and formula feeding in children.

Science.gov (United States)

Siddharth, Jay; Holway, Nicholas; Parkinson, Scott J

2013-01-01

The interplay between diet and the microbiota has been implicated in the growing frequency of chronic diseases associated with the Western lifestyle. However, the complexity and variability of microbial ecology in humans and preclinical models has hampered identification of the molecular mechanisms underlying the association of the microbiota in this context. We sought to address two key questions. Can the microbial ecology of preclinical models predict human populations? And can we identify underlying principles that surpass the plasticity of microbial ecology in humans? To do this, we focused our study on diet; perhaps the most influential factor determining the composition of the gut microbiota. Beginning with a study in 'humanized' mice we identified an interactive module of 9 genera allied with Western diet intake. This module was applied to a controlled dietary study in humans. The abundance of the Western ecological module correctly predicted the dietary intake of 19/21 top and 21/21 of the bottom quartile samples inclusive of all 5 Western and 'low-fat' diet subjects, respectively. In 98 volunteers the abundance of the Western module correlated appropriately with dietary intake of saturated fatty acids, fat-soluble vitamins and fiber. Furthermore, it correlated with the geographical location and dietary habits of healthy adults from the Western, developing and third world. The module was also coupled to dietary intake in children (and piglets) correlating with formula (vs breast) feeding and associated with a precipitous development of the ecological module in young children. Our study provides a conceptual platform to translate microbial ecology from preclinical models to humans and identifies an ecological network module underlying the association of the gut microbiota with Western dietary habits.

A Western diet ecological module identified from the 'humanized' mouse microbiota predicts diet in adults and formula feeding in children.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jay Siddharth

Full Text Available The interplay between diet and the microbiota has been implicated in the growing frequency of chronic diseases associated with the Western lifestyle. However, the complexity and variability of microbial ecology in humans and preclinical models has hampered identification of the molecular mechanisms underlying the association of the microbiota in this context. We sought to address two key questions. Can the microbial ecology of preclinical models predict human populations? And can we identify underlying principles that surpass the plasticity of microbial ecology in humans? To do this, we focused our study on diet; perhaps the most influential factor determining the composition of the gut microbiota. Beginning with a study in 'humanized' mice we identified an interactive module of 9 genera allied with Western diet intake. This module was applied to a controlled dietary study in humans. The abundance of the Western ecological module correctly predicted the dietary intake of 19/21 top and 21/21 of the bottom quartile samples inclusive of all 5 Western and 'low-fat' diet subjects, respectively. In 98 volunteers the abundance of the Western module correlated appropriately with dietary intake of saturated fatty acids, fat-soluble vitamins and fiber. Furthermore, it correlated with the geographical location and dietary habits of healthy adults from the Western, developing and third world. The module was also coupled to dietary intake in children (and piglets correlating with formula (vs breast feeding and associated with a precipitous development of the ecological module in young children. Our study provides a conceptual platform to translate microbial ecology from preclinical models to humans and identifies an ecological network module underlying the association of the gut microbiota with Western dietary habits.

Protected areas as social-ecological systems: perspectives from resilience and social-ecological systems theory

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Cumming, Graeme S.; Allen, Craig R.

2017-01-01

Conservation biology and applied ecology increasingly recognize that natural resource management is both an outcome and a driver of social, economic, and ecological dynamics. Protected areas offer a fundamental approach to conserving ecosystems, but they are also social-ecological systems whose ecological management and sustainability are heavily influenced by people. This editorial, and the papers in the invited feature that it introduces, discuss three emerging themes in social-ecological systems approaches to understanding protected areas: (1) the resilience and sustainability of protected areas, including analyses of their internal dynamics, their effectiveness, and the resilience of the landscapes within which they occur; (2) the relevance of spatial context and scale for protected areas, including such factors as geographic connectivity, context, exchanges between protected areas and their surrounding landscapes, and scale dependency in the provision of ecosystem services; and (3) efforts to reframe what protected areas are and how they both define and are defined by the relationships of people and nature. These emerging themes have the potential to transform management and policy approaches for protected areas and have important implications for conservation, in both theory and practice.

A system engineer's Perspective on Human Errors For a more Effective Management of Human Factors in Nuclear Power Plants

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lee, Yong-Hee; Jang, Tong-Il; Lee, Soo-Kil

2007-01-01

The management of human factors in nuclear power plants (NPPs) has become one of the burden factors during their operating period after the design and construction period. Almost every study on the major accidents emphasizes the prominent importance of the human errors. Regardless of the regulatory requirements such as Periodic Safety Review, the management of human factors would be a main issue to reduce the human errors and to enhance the performance of plants. However, it is not easy to find out a more effective perspective on human errors to establish the engineering implementation plan for preventing them. This paper describes a system engineer's perspectives on human errors and discusses its application to the recent study on the human error events in Korean NPPs

Ecologic Niche Modeling of Blastomyces dermatitidis in Wisconsin

Science.gov (United States)

Reed, Kurt D.; Meece, Jennifer K.; Archer, John R.; Peterson, A. Townsend

2008-01-01

Background Blastomycosis is a potentially fatal mycosis that is acquired by inhaling infectious spores of Blastomyces dermatitidis present in the environment. The ecology of this pathogen is poorly understood, in part because it has been extremely difficult to identify the niche(s) it occupies based on culture isolation of the organism from environmental samples. Methodology/Principal Findings We investigated the ecology of blastomycosis by performing maximum entropy modeling of exposure sites from 156 cases of human and canine blastomycosis to provide a regional-scale perspective of the geographic and ecologic distribution of B. dermatitidis in Wisconsin. Based on analysis with climatic, topographic, surface reflectance and other environmental variables, we predicted that ecologic conditions favorable for maintaining the fungus in nature occur predominantly within northern counties and counties along the western shoreline of Lake Michigan. Areas of highest predicted occurrence were often in proximity to waterways, especially in northcentral Wisconsin, where incidence of infection is highest. Ecologic conditions suitable for B. dermatitidis are present in urban and rural environments, and may differ at the extremes of distribution of the species in the state. Conclusions/Significance Our results provide a framework for a more informed search for specific environmental factors modulating B. dermatitidis occurrence and transmission and will be useful for improving public health awareness of relative exposure risks. PMID:18446224

Temporal and Spatial Distribution of Ecological Security in Arid Region Based on GIS: A Case Study in Xinjiang

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Zhang, Q.; Song, W.; Yang, J.

2017-12-01

Ecological security is close related to the people's survival and development. In the context of the global warming, with the increasingly frequent human activities, ecological and environmental problems have become increasingly prominent. Ecological security has aroused widespread concern, especially in the arid region. It has an important role in national security as well as political security, military security, economic security, social security. Taken Xinjiang as the research area, which is a typical arid region in China, this study establishes an ecological safety assessment indicator system from perspective of the generic process and the formation mechanism of the ecosystem. The framework is based on natural resources dimensions, natural environment dimensions and human disturbance dimensions. Water is the restrictive factor for the development of arid region, so the water resources carrying capacity is the main natural resource of the study area. The natural environment includes SPI(standardized precipitation index), dryness index, landscape vulnerability, NDVI. Human disturbance includes urbanization rate, population density, afforestation area, per capita GDP, water-saving irrigation area, fertilizer and pesticide application, agriculture Mechanical power, energy consumption. The expert scoring method and the coefficient of variation method are used to determine the weight of each indicator, and finally a comprehensive index is constructed to evaluate the ecological security of Xinjiang, that is, the ecological security index. The results indicate that the ecological security of Xinjiang is 0.43, which is in the critical area. The ecological security of Hami, Turpan and Karamay is the lowest, and the ecological security of the Arabian and Yili is the highest. The ecological security of the south in the Xinjiang is higher than that in the north. In short, ecological environment of Xinjiang is in a sensitive period. Effective ecological protection policy

Interactive valuation : the social construction of the value of ecological services

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Jiggins, J.; Röling, N.

1999-01-01

Two different perspectives mark the discourse about the valuation of ecological services: (i) a positivist-realist perspective, and (ii) a constructivist perspective. The implications of the constructivist perspective for valuation are presented. First, is analyzed the current dominant practice of

Spinoza, Deep Ecology and Education Informed by a (Post)Human Sensibility

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Le Grange, Lesley

2018-01-01

This article explores the influence of Spinozism on the deep ecology movement (DEM) and on new materialism. It questions the stance of supporters of the DEM because their ecosophies unwittingly anthropomorphise the more-than-human-world. It suggests that instead of humanising the 'natural' world, morality should be naturalised, that is, that the…

Hazard identification for human and ecological effects of sodium chloride road salt.

Science.gov (United States)

2007-07-01

The New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services (DES) requested an evaluation of : the human and ecological risks associated with the application of sodium chloride (NaCl) road : salt to roadways. NaCl is the major de-icing agent used in NH to...

An ecological model of the impact of sexual assault on women's mental health.

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Campbell, Rebecca; Dworkin, Emily; Cabral, Giannina

2009-07-01

This review examines the psychological impact of adult sexual assault through an ecological theoretical perspective to understand how factors at multiple levels of the social ecology contribute to post-assault sequelae. Using Bronfenbrenner's (1979, 1986, 1995) ecological theory of human development, we examine how individual-level factors (e.g., sociodemographics, biological/genetic factors), assault characteristics (e.g., victim-offender relationship, injury, alcohol use), microsystem factors (e.g., informal support from family and friends), meso/ exosystem factors (e.g., contact with the legal, medical, and mental health systems, and rape crisis centers), macrosystem factors (e.g., societal rape myth acceptance), and chronosystem factors (e.g., sexual revictimization and history of other victimizations) affect adult sexual assault survivors' mental health outcomes (e.g., post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, suicidality, and substance use). Self-blame is conceptualized as meta-construct that stems from all levels of this ecological model. Implications for curbing and/or preventing the negative mental health effects of sexual assault are discussed.

Community ecology in a changing environment: Perspectives from the Quaternary.

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Jackson, Stephen T; Blois, Jessica L

2015-04-21

Community ecology and paleoecology are both concerned with the composition and structure of biotic assemblages but are largely disconnected. Community ecology focuses on existing species assemblages and recently has begun to integrate history (phylogeny and continental or intercontinental dispersal) to constrain community processes. This division has left a "missing middle": Ecological and environmental processes occurring on timescales from decades to millennia are not yet fully incorporated into community ecology. Quaternary paleoecology has a wealth of data documenting ecological dynamics at these timescales, and both fields can benefit from greater interaction and articulation. We discuss ecological insights revealed by Quaternary terrestrial records, suggest foundations for bridging between the disciplines, and identify topics where the disciplines can engage to mutual benefit.

Statistical ecology comes of age

Science.gov (United States)

Gimenez, Olivier; Buckland, Stephen T.; Morgan, Byron J. T.; Bez, Nicolas; Bertrand, Sophie; Choquet, Rémi; Dray, Stéphane; Etienne, Marie-Pierre; Fewster, Rachel; Gosselin, Frédéric; Mérigot, Bastien; Monestiez, Pascal; Morales, Juan M.; Mortier, Frédéric; Munoz, François; Ovaskainen, Otso; Pavoine, Sandrine; Pradel, Roger; Schurr, Frank M.; Thomas, Len; Thuiller, Wilfried; Trenkel, Verena; de Valpine, Perry; Rexstad, Eric

2014-01-01

The desire to predict the consequences of global environmental change has been the driver towards more realistic models embracing the variability and uncertainties inherent in ecology. Statistical ecology has gelled over the past decade as a discipline that moves away from describing patterns towards modelling the ecological processes that generate these patterns. Following the fourth International Statistical Ecology Conference (1–4 July 2014) in Montpellier, France, we analyse current trends in statistical ecology. Important advances in the analysis of individual movement, and in the modelling of population dynamics and species distributions, are made possible by the increasing use of hierarchical and hidden process models. Exciting research perspectives include the development of methods to interpret citizen science data and of efficient, flexible computational algorithms for model fitting. Statistical ecology has come of age: it now provides a general and mathematically rigorous framework linking ecological theory and empirical data. PMID:25540151

Statistical ecology comes of age.

Science.gov (United States)

Gimenez, Olivier; Buckland, Stephen T; Morgan, Byron J T; Bez, Nicolas; Bertrand, Sophie; Choquet, Rémi; Dray, Stéphane; Etienne, Marie-Pierre; Fewster, Rachel; Gosselin, Frédéric; Mérigot, Bastien; Monestiez, Pascal; Morales, Juan M; Mortier, Frédéric; Munoz, François; Ovaskainen, Otso; Pavoine, Sandrine; Pradel, Roger; Schurr, Frank M; Thomas, Len; Thuiller, Wilfried; Trenkel, Verena; de Valpine, Perry; Rexstad, Eric

2014-12-01

The desire to predict the consequences of global environmental change has been the driver towards more realistic models embracing the variability and uncertainties inherent in ecology. Statistical ecology has gelled over the past decade as a discipline that moves away from describing patterns towards modelling the ecological processes that generate these patterns. Following the fourth International Statistical Ecology Conference (1-4 July 2014) in Montpellier, France, we analyse current trends in statistical ecology. Important advances in the analysis of individual movement, and in the modelling of population dynamics and species distributions, are made possible by the increasing use of hierarchical and hidden process models. Exciting research perspectives include the development of methods to interpret citizen science data and of efficient, flexible computational algorithms for model fitting. Statistical ecology has come of age: it now provides a general and mathematically rigorous framework linking ecological theory and empirical data.

Modelling dendritic ecological networks in space: anintegrated network perspective

Science.gov (United States)

Peterson, Erin E.; Ver Hoef, Jay M.; Isaak, Dan J.; Falke, Jeffrey A.; Fortin, Marie-Josée; Jordon, Chris E.; McNyset, Kristina; Monestiez, Pascal; Ruesch, Aaron S.; Sengupta, Aritra; Som, Nicholas; Steel, E. Ashley; Theobald, David M.; Torgersen, Christian E.; Wenger, Seth J.

2013-01-01

Dendritic ecological networks (DENs) are a unique form of ecological networks that exhibit a dendritic network topology (e.g. stream and cave networks or plant architecture). DENs have a dual spatial representation; as points within the network and as points in geographical space. Consequently, some analytical methods used to quantify relationships in other types of ecological networks, or in 2-D space, may be inadequate for studying the influence of structure and connectivity on ecological processes within DENs. We propose a conceptual taxonomy of network analysis methods that account for DEN characteristics to varying degrees and provide a synthesis of the different approaches within

A socio-ecological perspective of access to and acceptability of HIV/AIDS treatment and care services: a qualitative case study research

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Bereket Yakob

2016-02-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Access to healthcare is an essential element of health development and a fundamental human right. While access to and acceptability of healthcare are complex concepts that interact with different socio-ecological factors (individual, community, institutional and policy, it is not known how these factors affect HIV care. This study investigated the impact of socio-ecological factors on access to and acceptability of HIV/AIDS treatment and care services (HATCS in Wolaita Zone of Ethiopia. Method Qualitative case study research was conducted in six woredas (districts. Focus group discussions (FGDs were conducted with 68 participants in 11 groups (six with people using antiretroviral therapy (ART and five with general community members. Key informant interviews (KIIs were conducted with 28 people involved in HIV care, support services and health administration at different levels. Individual in-depth interviews (IDIs were conducted with eight traditional healers and seven defaulters from (ART. NVIVO 10 was used to assist qualitative content data analysis. Results A total of 111 people participated in the study, of which 51 (45.9 % were male and 60 (54.1 % were female, while 58 (53.3 % and 53 (47.7 % were urban and rural residents, respectively. The factors that affect access to and acceptability of HATCS were categorized in four socio-ecological units of analysis: client-based factors (awareness, experiences, expectations, income, employment, family, HIV disclosure and food availability; community-based factors (care and support, stigma and discrimination and traditional healing; health facility-based factors (interactions with care providers, availability of care, quality of care, distance, affordability, logistics availability, follow up and service administration; and policy and standards (healthcare financing, service standards, implementation manuals and policy documents. Conclusions A socio-ecological perspective

Presentation: Human and Ecological Health Impacts Associated with Water Reuse and Conservation Practices

Science.gov (United States)

This presentation was given by Dr. James Johnson at the STAR Human and Ecological Health Impacts Associated with Water Reuse and Conservation Practices Kick-off Meeting and Webinar held on Oct. 26-27, 2016.

A Human-Robot Interaction Perspective on Assistive and Rehabilitation Robotics.

Science.gov (United States)

Beckerle, Philipp; Salvietti, Gionata; Unal, Ramazan; Prattichizzo, Domenico; Rossi, Simone; Castellini, Claudio; Hirche, Sandra; Endo, Satoshi; Amor, Heni Ben; Ciocarlie, Matei; Mastrogiovanni, Fulvio; Argall, Brenna D; Bianchi, Matteo

2017-01-01

Assistive and rehabilitation devices are a promising and challenging field of recent robotics research. Motivated by societal needs such as aging populations, such devices can support motor functionality and subject training. The design, control, sensing, and assessment of the devices become more sophisticated due to a human in the loop. This paper gives a human-robot interaction perspective on current issues and opportunities in the field. On the topic of control and machine learning, approaches that support but do not distract subjects are reviewed. Options to provide sensory user feedback that are currently missing from robotic devices are outlined. Parallels between device acceptance and affective computing are made. Furthermore, requirements for functional assessment protocols that relate to real-world tasks are discussed. In all topic areas, the design of human-oriented frameworks and methods is dominated by challenges related to the close interaction between the human and robotic device. This paper discusses the aforementioned aspects in order to open up new perspectives for future robotic solutions.

Preparing them from home: A discourse on Christian parental responsibility towards ecological crisis

OpenAIRE

George C. Nche; Lawrence N. Okwuosa; Stanley N. Nweze

2017-01-01

Few studies have discussed the roles of parents towards addressing ecological crisis. Yet, discourses on these roles have always been approached from a secular perspective. To this end, this paper critically discusses the roles of parents towards ecological crisis from the Christian or biblical perspective of their responsibilities towards their children. Using a hermeneutic phenomenological method of analysis, the article argues that ecological disasters of tomorrow could be prevented today ...

Architecture and functional ecology of the human gastrocnemius muscle-tendon unit.

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Butler, Erin E; Dominy, Nathaniel J

2016-04-01

The gastrocnemius muscle-tendon unit (MTU) is central to human locomotion. Structural variation in the human gastrocnemius MTU is predicted to affect the efficiency of locomotion, a concept most often explored in the context of performance activities. For example, stiffness of the Achilles tendon varies among individuals with different histories of competitive running. Such a finding highlights the functional variation of individuals and raises the possibility of similar variation between populations, perhaps in response to specific ecological or environmental demands. Researchers often assume minimal variation in human populations, or that industrialized populations represent the human species as well as any other. Yet rainforest hunter-gatherers, which often express the human pygmy phenotype, contradict such assumptions. Indeed, the human pygmy phenotype is a potential model system for exploring the range of ecomorphological variation in the architecture of human hindlimb muscles, a concept we review here. © 2015 Anatomical Society.

Anatomical limits on interaural time differences: An ecological perspective

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WILLIAM MORRIS HARTMANN

2014-02-01

Full Text Available Human listeners, and other animals too, use interaural time differences (ITDto localize sounds. If the sounds are pure tones, a simple frequency factorrelates the ITD to the interaural phase difference (IPD, for which there areknown iso-IPD boundaries, 90$^circ$, 180$^circ$~ldots defining regions ofspatial perception. In this article, iso-IPD boundaries for humans aretranslated into azimuths using a spherical head model, and the calculationsare checked by free-field measurements. The translated boundaries providequantitative tests of an ecological interpretation for the dramatic onset ofITD insensitivity at high frequencies. According to this interpretation, theinsensitivity serves as a defense against misinformation and can be attributedto limits on binaural processing in the brainstem. Calculations show that theecological explanation passes the tests only if the binaural brainstemproperties evolved or developed consistent with heads that are 50% smallerthan current adult heads. Measurements on more realistic head shapes relaxthat requirement only slightly. The problem posed by the discrepancy betweenthe current head size and a smaller, ideal head size was apparently solved bythe evolution or development of central processes that discount large IPDs infavor of interaural level differences. The latter become more important withincreasing head size.

Challenges for Social-Ecological Transformations: Contributions from Social and Political Ecology

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Christoph Görg

2017-06-01

Full Text Available Transformation has become a major topic of sustainability research. This opens up new perspectives, but at the same time, runs the danger to convert into a new critical orthodoxy which narrows down analytical perspectives. Most research is committed towards a political-strategic approach towards transformation. This focus, however, clashes with ongoing transformation processes towards un-sustainability. The paper presents cornerstones of an integrative approach to social-ecological transformations (SET, which builds upon empirical work and conceptual considerations from Social Ecology and Political Ecology. We argue that a critical understanding of the challenges for societal transformations can be advanced by focusing on the interdependencies between societies and the natural environment. This starting point provides a more realistic understanding of the societal and biophysical constraints of sustainability transformations by emphasising the crisis-driven and contested character of the appropriation of nature and the power relations involved. Moreover, it pursues a transdisciplinary mode of research, decisive for adequately understanding any strategy for transformations towards sustainability. Such a conceptual approach of SET is supposed to better integrate the analytical, normative and political-strategic dimension of transformation research. We use the examples of global land use patterns, neo-extractivism in Latin America and the global water crisis to clarify our approach.

Ecological change on California's Channel Islands from the Pleistocene to the Anthropocene

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Rick, Torben C.; Sillett, T. Scott; Ghalambor, Cameron K.; Hofman, Courtney A.; Ralls, Katherine; Anderson, R. Scott; Boser, Christina L.; Braje, Todd J.; Cayan, Daniel R.; Chesser, R. Terry; Collins, Paul W.; Erlandson, Jon M.; Faulkner, Kate R.; Fleischer, Robert; Funk, W. Chris; Galipeau, Russell; Huston, Ann; King, Julie; Laughrin, Lyndal L.; Maldonado, Jesus; McEachern, Kathryn; Muhs, Daniel R.; Newsome, Seth D.; Reeder-Myers, Leslie; Still, Christopher; Morrison, Scott A.

2014-01-01

Historical ecology is becoming an important focus in conservation biology and offers a promising tool to help guide ecosystem management. Here, we integrate data from multiple disciplines to illuminate the past, present, and future of biodiversity on California's Channel Islands, an archipelago that has undergone a wide range of land-use and ecological changes. Our analysis spans approximately 20,000 years, from before human occupation and through Native American hunter–gatherers, commercial ranchers and fishers, the US military, and other land managers. We demonstrate how long-term, interdisciplinary research provides insight into conservation decisions, such as setting ecosystem restoration goals, preserving rare and endemic taxa, and reducing the impacts of climate change on natural and cultural resources. We illustrate the importance of historical perspectives for understanding modern patterns and ecological change and present an approach that can be applied generally in conservation management planning.

Human drivers of ecological and evolutionary dynamics in emerging and disappearing infectious disease systems.

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Rogalski, Mary A; Gowler, Camden D; Shaw, Clara L; Hufbauer, Ruth A; Duffy, Meghan A

2017-01-19

Humans have contributed to the increased frequency and severity of emerging infectious diseases, which pose a significant threat to wild and domestic species, as well as human health. This review examines major pathways by which humans influence parasitism by altering (co)evolutionary interactions between hosts and parasites on ecological timescales. There is still much to learn about these interactions, but a few well-studied cases show that humans influence disease emergence every step of the way. Human actions significantly increase dispersal of host, parasite and vector species, enabling greater frequency of infection in naive host populations and host switches. Very dense host populations resulting from urbanization and agriculture can drive the evolution of more virulent parasites and, in some cases, more resistant host populations. Human activities that reduce host genetic diversity or impose abiotic stress can impair the ability of hosts to adapt to disease threats. Further, evolutionary responses of hosts and parasites can thwart disease management and biocontrol efforts. Finally, in rare cases, humans influence evolution by eradicating an infectious disease. If we hope to fully understand the factors driving disease emergence and potentially control these epidemics we must consider the widespread influence of humans on host and parasite evolutionary trajectories.This article is part of the themed issue 'Human influences on evolution, and the ecological and societal consequences'. © 2016 The Author(s).

Seagrass meadows globally as a coupled social-ecological system: implications for human wellbeing.

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Cullen-Unsworth, Leanne C; Nordlund, Lina Mtwana; Paddock, Jessica; Baker, Susan; McKenzie, Len J; Unsworth, Richard K F

2014-06-30

Seagrass ecosystems are diminishing worldwide and repeated studies confirm a lack of appreciation for the value of these systems. In order to highlight their value we provide the first discussion of seagrass meadows as a coupled social-ecological system on a global scale. We consider the impact of a declining resource on people, including those for whom seagrass meadows are utilised for income generation and a source of food security through fisheries support. Case studies from across the globe are used to demonstrate the intricate relationship between seagrass meadows and people that highlight the multi-functional role of seagrasses in human wellbeing. While each case underscores unique issues, these examples simultaneously reveal social-ecological coupling that transcends cultural and geographical boundaries. We conclude that understanding seagrass meadows as a coupled social-ecological system is crucial in carving pathways for social and ecological resilience in light of current patterns of local to global environmental change. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Northern Rivers Basins ecological and human health studies : summary, relevance and recommendations

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1999-04-01

Residents in northern Alberta expressed concerns that the original Northern River Basins Study (NRBS) only examined the impacts of contaminants on ecological health and did not include impacts on human health. In response to these concerns, Alberta Health established the Northern River Basins Human Health Monitoring Program in 1994 to investigate the possible relationships between various environmental risk factors and the health of northern residents in the province. This document links the ecological information collected by the original NRBS program with the information provided by the health program. Issues regarding health impacts from pulp mills and oil sand mining were also discussed. The findings of the health program were summarized and recommendations were made for future studies. The contaminants of potential concern (COPC) arising from the original NRBS were described in terms of their sources and any known connections between exposure and human health. The COPCs included arsenic, dioxins, chlorinated furans, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) polychlorinated biphenyls (PCB) mercury, chlorinated phenolics, toxaphene, carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides, ozone, sulphur dioxide, acid sulphates and particulate matter. Examples of Canadian regulatory criteria for these contaminants were also presented. 41 refs., 1 tab

Introduction to Ecological Landscaping: A Holistic Description and Framework to Guide the Study and Management of Urban Landscape Parcels

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Parwinder Grewal

2008-01-01

Full Text Available Urbanized ecosystems and urban human populations are expanding around the world causing many negative environmental effects. A challenge for achieving sustainable urban social-ecological systems is understanding how urbanized landscapes can be designed and managed to minimize negative outcomes. To this end, an interdisciplinary Ecological Landscaping conference was organized to examine the interacting sociocultural and ecological causes and consequences of landscaping practices and products. This special issue of Cities and the Environment contains a diverse set of articles arising from that conference. In this introductory paper, we describe the meaning of ecological landscaping and a new conceptual framework that helps organize the topic’s complex issues. The essence of ecological landscaping is a holistic systems-thinking perspective for understanding the interrelationships among physical-ecological and sociocultural variables that give rise to the patterns and processes of biodiversity, abiotic conditions, and ecosystem processes within and among individually-managed urban landscape parcels. This perspective suggests that 1 variables not considered part of traditional landscaping and 2 the effects of landscaping within an individual parcel on variables outside of it must both be considered when making design and management decisions about a parcel. To illustrate how these points help create a more holistic, ecological approach to landscaping, a traditional ecosystem model is used to create a framework for discussing how sociocultural and physical-ecological inputs to a landscape parcel affect its characteristics and outputs. As exemplified by papers in this issue, an integrated sociocultural-ecological approach to the study of urban landscaping practices and products is needed to 1 understand why and how humans design and mange urban landscape parcels, 2 describe how the combined characteristics and outputs of many parcels give rise to the

Is there really such a thing as "one health"? Thinking about a more than human world from the perspective of cultural anthropology.

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Wolf, Meike

2015-03-01

Today's era of globalization is characterized by intensified interspecies encounters, growing ecological concerns and the (re-)emergence of infectious diseases, manifesting themselves in the interplay of medical and biological, but also social, cultural and political processes. One health approaches - which combine multidisciplinary efforts to stimulate collaborations between different health professionals such as veterinarians, medical practitioners, biologists, and public health professionals - can be understood as a response to this complex interconnectedness. Integrating a social science perspective might prove beneficial to this endeavor. This essay locates the one health discussion on disease ecologies in a more than human world within recent developments in cultural and medical anthropology that focus on the entanglements between health and a multitude of animals, plants or microbes, as they are characteristic of a globalized modernity. The paper aims to examine the social dimensions of human-animal-disease-interactions, claiming that disease is a biocultural phenomenon and that social factors generally play a crucial role in the emergence, spread and management of (infectious) disease. Consequently, it will be argued that there is a need to rethink our objects of inquiry and any given assumptions of human health, the human body or the constitution of "the global" as such. Incorporating the social sciences into one health approaches can help address topics such as consumption patterns, human-animal behavior or environmental conflicts in a novel way and on a grander scale than ever before. Yet, a greater sensitivity to context may entail some skepticism about the idea of one health - not in spite of the complex entanglements between humans, environments, animals and pathogens, but precisely because of them. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The Human Ecology of the American Educational Research Association. Report No. 261.

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Richards, James M., Jr.

The concepts and methods of human ecology are applied to the geographic distribution of members of the American Educational Research Association. State characteristics are measured by five factors: (1) large-scale agriculture; (2) population size; (3) affluence-urbanization; (4) white predominance; (5) emphasis on specialized agriculture. City…

Promoting Campus Cycling for Outdoor Recreation and Transportation: Investigating Factors Influencing Student Bicycle Usage on a Large, Southeastern University from an Ecological Perspective

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Shields, Margaret M.; Thomas, Katherine H.; Paschal, Angelia; Tucker, Melanie; Leeper, James; Usdan, Stuart

2017-01-01

Biking is a popular recreational activity, and understanding how to promote participation is important to college health and recreation professionals. The purpose of this study was to examine factors contributing to cycling behaviors on one large college campus from an ecological perspective. Students were surveyed at a southeastern university in…

Predicting dropout using student- and school-level factors: An ecological perspective.

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Wood, Laura; Kiperman, Sarah; Esch, Rachel C; Leroux, Audrey J; Truscott, Stephen D

2017-03-01

High school dropout has been associated with negative outcomes, including increased rates of unemployment, incarceration, and mortality. Dropout rates vary significantly depending on individual and environmental factors. The purpose of our study was to use an ecological perspective to concurrently explore student- and school-level predictors associated with dropout for the purpose of better understanding how to prevent it. We used the Education Longitudinal Study of 2002 dataset. Participants included 14,106 sophomores across 684 public and private schools. We identified variables of interest based on previous research on dropout and implemented hierarchical generalized linear modeling. In the final model, significant student-level predictors included academic achievement, retention, sex, family socioeconomic status (SES), and extracurricular involvement. Significant school-level predictors included school SES and school size. Race/ethnicity, special education status, born in the United States, English as first language, school urbanicity, and school region did not significantly predict dropout after controlling for the aforementioned predictors. Implications for prevention and intervention efforts within a multitiered intervention model are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved).

Benefits from a geographers' perspective on human-water systems - the waterscape concept

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Evers, Mariele; Höllermann, Britta; Almoradie, Adrian; Taft, Linda

2016-04-01

Recently a couple of theoretical foundations and concepts were developed such as hydro-sociology, hydro-economics and integrated water resources management in order to structure and process parameterizations of hydrological research and reflect human-water-interrelations. However, a remaining challenge in human-water-system research is that approaches like socio-hydrology still struggle to formalize hypotheses which are capable to capture the basic driving mechanisms of the dynamic human-water system beyond optimizing algorithms or the principle of optimality or entropy as the societal values and experiences may unfold diverging policy and society responses (cf. Troy et al. 2015). Another challenge that we see is the integration of physical and social sciences with regard to the different epistemologies and perspectives: positivist thinking common in natural sciences and engineering and constructivist conceptualisation common in the social sciences. Here, geographic research seeks to acknowledge multi-spatial perspectives of the different actors and entities and their integration into the physical system that needs mutual recognition of natural and social sciences concepts, theories and methods. We suggest for human-water system research a more geographic perspective, which we call waterscape concept. Water can be regarded as a key structuring element for landscape and its management and, hence, from our perspective, the dynamics in water resources and interrelation of actors and entities in its management also helps to better understand current landscape patterns, their developments and interrelations, respectively. By our definition, a waterscape includes sources and users of water, their interactions, feedbacks and external influencing factors. It is therefore not only the physical space but rather includes the arena of actors and entities interacting. Against this understanding, waterscapes are defined by reciprocal boundary conditions which allow integrating

Human health and ecological risks from environmental restoration and waste management activities

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Pehlman, P.A.; Wollert, D.A.; Phillippi, R.H.

1994-01-01

This paper summarizes the methodologies for estimating human health and ecological risks resulting from Environmental Restoration and Waste Management activities across the Department of Energy (DOE) complex. DOE is currently assessing these activities as part of the Environmental Restoration and Waste Management Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (EM-PEIS)

Emergence Unites Ecology and Society

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Ronald L. Trosper

2005-06-01

Full Text Available The effort to combine analysis of ecosystems and social systems requires a firm theoretical basis. When humans are present in an ecosystem, their actions affect emergent structures; this paper examines forms of emergence that account for the presence of humans. Humans monitor and regulate ecosystems based on their cultural systems. Cultural systems consist of concepts linked in complicated ways that can form consistent world views, can contain inconsistencies, and may or may not accurately model the properties of a social-ecological system. Consequently, human monitoring and regulating processes will differ, depending on cultural systems. Humans, as agents, change or maintain pre-existing material and cultural emergent structures. The presentation is illustrated with a case study of fire-prone forests. The paper shows that explicit attention to emergence serves very well in unifying the following requirements for social-ecological analysis: coherent and observable definitions of sustainability; ways to link ecological and social phenomena; ways to understand cultural reasons for stability and instability in dynamic social-ecological systems; and ways to include human self-evaluation and culture within dynamic models of social-ecological systems. Analysis of cultural emergent structures clarifies many differences in assumptions among the fields of economics, sociology, political science, ecology, and ecological economics. Because it can be readily applied to empirical questions, the framework provides a good way to organize policy analysis that is not dominated by one or another discipline.

Ethical issues regarding human cloning: a nursing perspective.

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Dinç, Leyla

2003-05-01

Advances in cloning technology and successful cloning experiments in animals raised concerns about the possibility of human cloning in recent years. Despite many objections, this is not only a possibility but also a reality. Human cloning is a scientific revolution. However, it also introduces the potential for physical and psychosocial harm to human beings. From this point of view, it raises profound ethical, social and health related concerns. Human cloning would have an impact on the practice of nursing because it could result in the creation of new physiological and psychosocial conditions that would require nursing care. The nursing profession must therefore evaluate the ethics of human cloning, in particular the potential role of nurses. This article reviews the ethical considerations of reproductive human cloning, discusses the main reasons for concern, and reflects a nursing perspective regarding this issue.

Aesthetic Engagement, Ecosophy C, and Ecological Appreciation

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Cheng Xiangzhan

2013-01-01

Full Text Available With the aim of healing the earth and sustain a healthy ecosystem for all life forms, not humankind alone, ecoaesthetics emerges as a critique of Enlightenment mentality and of modern aesthetics as it is embodied in it. This mentality contributes greatly to the global ecological crisis and to other problem areas, such as population, economic, political and religious ones. In my understanding of aesthetics, ecoaesthetics is defined as the theory of ecological aesthetic appreciation.[1] With ecoaesthetics as my research horizon, there are at least two reasons for me to pay special attention to American philosopher Arnold Berleant’s conception of aesthetic engagement and his aesthetic theory based on it, an aesthetics of engagement. The first is our shared theme, which is the critique of modern aesthetics. The second reason is more complex for it involves the crucial question of the proper manner of aesthetic appreciation. From the perspective of ecoaesthetics, the contemplation of objects by a separated perceiver, an approach that is based on the modern philosophical dualism of subject and object, is unsatisfactory and inadequate. Berleant’s aesthetic engagement is a more satisfactory account of appreciation that is aesthetic and ecological. This emphasizes the ecological continuity or interrelatedness between the human appreciator and objects. Of course, any theory can occasion critique and development. Based on Berleant’s idea of aesthetic engagement, I would like to propose Ecosophy C. This can be contrasted with Ecosophy T proposed by the Norwegian, Arne Naess, and with traditional Chinese aesthetic wisdom. In contrast with these, I would like to develop my own view of ecological understanding. In order to construct a more comprehensive and reasonable ecoaesthetics, my Ecosophy C contains eight points that are crucial in building an ecological model of aesthetic appreciation for this period of ecological crisis.

Teaching history of medicine in the perspective of "medical humanities".

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von Engelhardt, D

1999-03-01

The current interest in philosophical questions and ethical aspects of medicine turns attention towards the past and obtains suggestions and perspectives from previous descriptions and interpretations of sickness, therapy, and the relation between the patient and physician. Culture as therapy and therapy as culture are fundamental challenges for the present; physician, patient, and society, i.e., humans and humane medicine, need this dialogue, which should also be constitutive for teaching history of medicine. Through the separation of the natural sciences and the humanities, modern progress of medicine has produced many benefits but has, at the same time, raised many problems. Negative consequences of this development exist not only for the patient, but also for his personal environment and for the physician. In the course of modern history, there have been several reactions aimed at overcoming these one-sided tendencies: in the Renaissance, in the epoch of Romanticism and Idealism, and at the beginning and the end of the 19th century. This article outlines, with historical examples and contemporary reflections, the concept of teaching history of medicine in the perspective of "medical humanities".

When do humans spontaneously adopt another's visuospatial perspective?

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Freundlieb, Martin; Kovács, Ágnes M; Sebanz, Natalie

2016-03-01

Perspective-taking is a key component of social interactions. However, there is an ongoing controversy about whether, when and how instances of spontaneous visuospatial perspective-taking occur. The aim of this study was to investigate the underlying factors as well as boundary conditions that characterize the spontaneous adoption of another person's visuospatial perspective (VSP) during social interactions. We used a novel paradigm, in which a participant and a confederate performed a simple stimulus-response (SR) compatibility task sitting at a 90° angle to each other. In this set-up, participants would show a spatial compatibility effect only if they adopted the confederate's VSP. In a series of 5 experiments we found that participants reliably adopted the VSP of the confederate, as long as he was perceived as an intentionally acting agent. Our results therefore show that humans are able to spontaneously adopt the differing VSP of another agent and that there is a tight link between perspective-taking and performing actions together. The results suggest that spontaneous VSP-taking can effectively facilitate and speed up spatial alignment processes accruing from dynamic interactions in multiagent environments. (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved).

Contact and perspective taking improve humanness standards and perceptions of humanness of older adults and people with dementia: a cross-sectional survey study.

Science.gov (United States)

Miron, Anca M; McFadden, Susan H; Hermus, Nathan J; Buelow, Jennifer; Nazario, Amanda S; Seelman, Katarena

2017-10-01

No empirical work has systematically explored perceptions of humanness of people with dementia and of older adults and the variables that could improve these perceptions. We thus investigated the role of contact and perspective taking in improving perceptions of humanness of these social groups. To do so, we developed a new concept, humanness standards, defined as the amount of evidence of ability impairment needed to conclude that elderly people and those with dementia have lost personhood. We used a cross-sectional survey design (n = 619) to assess participants' humanness standards and perceptions of uniquely human characteristics and human nature characteristics of two social groups (people with dementia and older adults). Half the participants (n = 311) completed a survey about people with dementia and half (n = 308) assessed older adults. People with dementia were perceived as possessing humanness characteristics to a lesser extent than were older adults. For both groups, contact predicted enhanced perceptions of humanness characteristics. Participants' degree of contact with individuals with dementia also predicted humanness standards, but only under low perspective-taking conditions. As predicted, for older adults, participants set the highest humanness impairment thresholds in the high contact/high perspective-taking condition. We conclude that while social programs that bring persons with dementia and other individuals in contact could change humanness standards and perceptions of humanness characteristics of people with dementia, in the case of elderly adults, the contact must be supplemented by variables that facilitate taking the perspective of the person.

Ecology

Science.gov (United States)

Ternjej, Ivancica; Mihaljevic, Zlatko

2017-10-01

Ecology is a science that studies the mutual interactions between organisms and their environment. The fundamental subject of interest in ecology is the individual. Topics of interest to ecologists include the diversity, distribution and number of particular organisms, as well as cooperation and competition between organisms, both within and among ecosystems. Today, ecology is a multidisciplinary science. This is particularly true when the subject of interest is the ecosystem or biosphere, which requires the knowledge and input of biologists, chemists, physicists, geologists, geographists, climatologists, hydrologists and many other experts. Ecology is applied in a science of restoration, repairing disturbed sites through human intervention, in natural resource management, and in environmental impact assessments.

Ecological and human health risks associated with abandoned gold mine tailings contaminated soil

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Ngole-Jeme, Veronica Mpode; Fantke, Peter

2017-01-01

of arsenic (As), cadmium (Cd), chromium (Cr), cobalt (Co), copper (Cu), lead (Pb), manganese (Mn), nickel (Ni), and zinc (Zn) in soil samples from the area varied with the highest contamination factors (expressed as ratio of metal or metalloid concentration in the tailings contaminated soil......Gold mining is a major source of metal and metalloid emissions into the environment. Studies were carried out in Krugersdorp, South Africa, to evaluate the ecological and human health risks associated with exposure to metals and metalloids in mine tailings contaminated soils. Concentrations......×10−2 for As and Ni respectively among children, and 5×10−3 and 4×10−3 for As and Ni respectively among adults. There is significant potential ecological and human health risk associated with metal and metalloid exposure from contaminated soils around gold mine tailings dumps. This could be a potential contributing...

Conventional and ecological public health.

Science.gov (United States)

Rayner, G

2009-09-01

This paper suggests that current models of public health are no longer sufficient as a means for understanding the health challenges of the anthropogenic age, and argues for an alternative based upon an ecological model. The roots of this perspective originated within the Victorian era, although it found only limited expression at that time. Ecological thinking in public health has only been revived relatively recently. Derived from an analysis of obesity, this paper proposes the development of an approach to ecological public health based on four dimensions of existence: the material, the physiological, the social and the cultural-cognitive. The implications for public policy are considered.

Transforming Life: A Broad View of the Developmental Origins of Health and Disease Concept from an Ecological Justice Perspective.

Science.gov (United States)

Prescott, Susan L; Logan, Alan C

2016-11-03

The influential scientist Rene J. Dubos (1901-1982) conducted groundbreaking studies concerning early-life environmental exposures (e.g., diet, social interactions, commensal microbiota, housing conditions) and adult disease. However, Dubos looked beyond the scientific focus on disease, arguing that " mere survival is not enough ". He defined mental health as fulfilling human potential, and expressed concerns about urbanization occurring in tandem with disappearing access to natural environments (and elements found within them); thus modernity could interfere with health via "missing exposures". With the advantage of emerging research involving green space, the microbiome, biodiversity and positive psychology, we discuss ecological justice in the dysbiosphere and the forces-financial inequity, voids in public policy, marketing and otherwise-that interfere with the fundamental rights of children to thrive in a healthy urban ecosystem and learn respect for the natural environment. We emphasize health within the developmental origins of health and disease (DOHaD) rubric and suggest that greater focus on positive exposures might uncover mechanisms of resiliency that contribute to maximizing human potential. We will entrain our perspective to socioeconomic disadvantage in developed nations and what we have described as "grey space"; this is a mental as much as a physical environment, a space that serves to insidiously reinforce unhealthy behavior, compromise positive psychological outlook and, ultimately, trans-generational health. It is a dwelling place that cannot be fixed with encephalobiotics or the drug-class known as psychobiotics.

Messages about Sexuality: An Ecological Perspective

Science.gov (United States)

Boone, Tanya L.

2015-01-01

The goal of this two-part study was to identify the perceived influence of sexuality messages from parents, peers, school and the media--four microsystems within the Ecological Model--on emerging adult US college women's sexual attitudes. Findings suggest that parents were the most likely source of the message to "remain abstinent until…

Impact of Inter‐Basin Water Transfer Projects on Regional Ecological Security from a Telecoupling Perspective

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Yuan Quan

2016-02-01

Full Text Available Inter‐basin water transfer projects (IBWTPs offer one of the most important means to solve the mismatch between supply and demand of regional water resources. IBWTPs have impacts on the complex ecosystems of the areas from which water is diverted and to which water is received. These impacts increase damage or risk to regional ecological security and human wellbeing. However, current methods make it difficult to achieve comprehensive analysis of the impacts of whole ecosystems, because of the long distance between ecosystems and the inconsistency of impact events. In this study, a model was proposed for the analysis of the impacts of IBWTPs on regional ecological security. It is based on the telecoupling framework, and the Driver‐Pressure‐State‐ Impact‐Response (DPSIR model was used to improve the analysis procedure within the telecoupling framework. The Middle Line of the South‐to‐North Water Diversion Project was selected as a case study to illustrate the specific analysis procedure. We realized that information sharing is a key issue in the management of regional security, and that the ecological water requirement, in the form of a single index, could be used to quantitatively assess the impacts on ecological security from IBWTPs.

Valuation of ecological resources

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Scott, M.J.; Bilyard, G.R.; Link, S.O.; Ricci, P.F.; Seely, H.E.; Ulibarri, C.A.; Westerdahl, H.E.

1995-04-01

Ecological resources are resources that have functional value to ecosystems. Frequently, these functions are overlooked in terms of the value they provide to humans. Environmental economics is in search of an appropriate analysis framework for such resources. In such a framework, it is essential to distinguish between two related subsets of information: (1) ecological processes that have intrinsic value to natural ecosystems; and (2) ecological functions that are values by humans. The present study addresses these concerns by identifying a habitat that is being displaced by development, and by measuring the human and ecological values associated with the ecological resources in that habitat. It is also essential to determine which functions are mutually exclusive and which are, in effect, complementary or products of joint production. The authors apply several resource valuation tools, including contingent valuation methodology (CVM), travel cost methodology (TCM), and hedonic damage-pricing (HDP). One way to derive upper-limit values for more difficult-to-value functions is through the use of human analogs, because human-engineered systems are relatively inefficient at supplying the desired services when compared with natural systems. Where data on the relative efficiencies of natural systems and human analogs exist, it is possible to adjust the costs of providing the human analog by the relative efficiency of the natural system to obtain a more realistic value of the function under consideration. The authors demonstrate this approach in an environmental economic case study of the environmental services rendered by shrub-steppe habitats of Benton County, Washington State.

Ecological drought: Accounting for the non-human impacts of water shortage in the Upper Missouri Headwaters Basin, Montana, USA

Science.gov (United States)

McEvoy, Jamie; Bathke, Deborah J.; Burkardt, Nina; Cravens, Amanda; Haigh, Tonya; Hall, Kimberly R.; Hayes, Michael J.; Jedd, Theresa; Podebradska, Marketa; Wickham, Elliot

2018-01-01

Water laws and drought plans are used to prioritize and allocate scarce water resources. Both have historically been human-centric, failing to account for non-human water needs. In this paper, we examine the development of instream flow legislation and the evolution of drought planning to highlight the growing concern for the non-human impacts of water scarcity. Utilizing a new framework for ecological drought, we analyzed five watershed-scale drought plans in southwestern Montana, USA to understand if, and how, the ecological impacts of drought are currently being assessed. We found that while these plans do account for some ecological impacts, it is primarily through the narrow lens of impacts to fish as measured by water temperature and streamflow. The latter is typically based on the same ecological principles used to determine instream flow requirements. We also found that other resource plans in the same watersheds (e.g., Watershed Restoration Plans, Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Watershed Assessments or United States Forest Service (USFS) Forest Plans) identify a broader range of ecological drought risks. Given limited resources and the potential for mutual benefits and synergies, we suggest greater integration between various planning processes could result in a more holistic consideration of water needs and uses across the landscape.

Studying the neurobiology of human social interaction : Making the case for ecological validity

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Hogenelst, Koen; Schoevers, Robert A.; Rot, Marije Aan Het

2015-01-01

With this commentary we make the case for an increased focus on the ecological validity of the measures used to assess aspects of human social functioning. Impairments in social functioning are seen in many types of psychopathology, negatively affecting the lives of psychiatric patients and those

A Feminist Posthumanist Political Ecology of Education for Theorizing Human-Animal Relations/Relationships

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Lloro-Bidart, Teresa

2017-01-01

This paper contributes to a nascent conversation in environmental education (EE) research by using ethnographic data and extant theory to develop a feminist posthumanist political ecology of education for theorizing human-animal relations/relationships. Specifically, I (1) engage feminist methodologies and theories; (2) give epistemological and…

Annual Research Review: What is Resilience within the Social Ecology of Human Development?

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Ungar, Michael; Ghazinour, Mehdi; Richter, Jorg

2013-01-01

Background: The development of Bronfenbrenner's bio-social-ecological systems model of human development parallels advances made to the theory of resilience that progressively moved from a more individual (micro) focus on traits to a multisystemic understanding of person-environment reciprocal processes. Methods: This review uses…

Cloning humans? Current science, current views, and a perspective from Christianity.

Science.gov (United States)

Brun, Rudolf B

2002-01-01

Therapeutic cloning is urgent and should be vigorously supported. To successfully argue for this position, the distinction between a human embryo and a human nuclear transplant may be helpful. Even if current technical difficulties should be solved, global legislation should prohibit cloning for the purpose of fabricating babies. This position originates from a view on human nature in general and from a Christian perspective in particular.

Science and Ecological Economics: Integrating of the Study of Humans and the Rest of Nature

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Costanza, Robert

2009-01-01

Ecological economics is a transdisciplinary field that seeks to integrate the study of humans and the rest of nature as the basis for the creation of a sustainable and desirable future. It seeks to dissolve the barriers between the traditional disciplines and achieve a true "consilience" of all the sciences and humanities. This consilient,…

The Ecological Economics of Consumption

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Røpke, Inge; Reisch, Lucia A.

In accordance with the transdisciplinary basis of ecological economics, this volume encompasses contributions from different perspectives, often cutting across disciplines. It is divided into three parts that group contributions on · problematizing consumption both as a concept and as an economic...

The human right to sustainable development in solidarity with Nature

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Anya Teresa Parrilla Díaz

2017-06-01

Full Text Available This article addresses the issue of human development as a universal right subjected to the welfare of Nature. Nature is presented as supporter of life and supplier of the essential resources needed to achieve a complete human development. In light of the global ecological crisis, the author proposes sustainable development as the central framework for a new human development that can be fairer to Nature and to mankind. The challenge of sustainable human development consists in viewing Nature from an ethical perspective of human rights and solidarity.

A Conceptual Model for Teaching the Relationship of Daily Life and Human Environmental Impact to Ecological Function

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Wyner, Yael

2013-01-01

In the general activity of daily life, it is easy to miss our dependency on the Earth's ecology. At the same time that people are living apparently separate from the environment, our impact on the Earth is increasing. This study seeks to understand how teachers can bridge this persistent disconnect of daily life from ecology and human impact.…

The next step in health behavior research: the need for ecological moderation analyses - an application to diet and physical activity at childcare.

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Gubbels, Jessica S; Van Kann, Dave Hh; de Vries, Nanne K; Thijs, Carel; Kremers, Stef Pj

2014-04-17

The ecological perspective holds that human behavior depends on the interaction of different environmental factors and personal characteristics, but it lacks validation and operationalization. In the current paper, an ecological view was adopted to examine the interactive impact of several ecological systems on children's dietary intake and physical activity at childcare or similar facilities. The ecological view was operationalized into three types of interaction: 1) interaction between types of childcare environment (physical, social, political, economic); 2) interaction between micro-systems (the childcare and home environment) in meso-systems; and 3) interaction between childcare environment and child characteristics. The predictive value of each of these interactions was tested based on a systematic review of the literature. Several studies support the hypothesis that the influence of the childcare environment on children's physical activity and diet is moderated by child characteristics (age, gender), but interaction between environmental types as well as between micro-systems is hardly examined in the field of behavioral nutrition and physical activity. Qualitative studies and general child development research provide some valuable insights, but we advocate quantitative research adopting an ecological perspective on environmental influences. Empirical studies operationalizing a true ecological view on diet and physical activity are scarce. Theorizing and assessment of interaction is advocated to become common practice rather than an exception in behavioral nutrition and physical activity research, in order to move the field forward.

Implementation of a socio-ecological system navigation approach to human development in Sub-Saharan African communities

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Gianni Gilioli

2014-04-01

Full Text Available This paper presents a framework for the development of socio-eco- logical systems towards enhanced sustainability. Emphasis is given to the dynamic properties of complex, adaptive social-ecological systems, their structure and to the fundamental role of agriculture. The tangible components that meet the needs of specific projects executed in Kenya and Ethiopia encompass project objectives, innovation, facilitation, continuous recording and analyses of monitoring data, that allow adaptive management and system navigation. Two case studies deal with system navigation through the mitigation of key constraints; they aim to improve human health thanks to anopheline malaria vectors control in Nyabondo (Kenya, and to improve cattle health through tsetse control and antitrypanosomal drug administration to cattle in Luke (Ethiopia. The second case deals with a socio-ecological navigation system to enhance sustainability, establishing a periurban diversified enterprise in Addis Ababa (Ethiopia and developing a rural sustainable social-ecological system in Luke (Ethiopia. The project procedures are briefly described here and their outcomes are analysed in relation to the stated objectives. The methodology for human and cattle disease vector control were easier to implement than the navigation of social-ecological systems towards sustainability enhancement. The achievements considerably differed between key constraints removal and sustainability enhancement projects. Some recommendations are made to rationalise human and cattle health improvement efforts and to smoothen the road towards enhanced sustainability: i technology system implementation should be carried out through an innovation system; ii transparent monitoring information should be continuously acquired and evaluated for assessing the state of the system in relation to stated objectives for (a improving the insight into the systems behaviour and (b rationalizing decision support; iii the

Ecology and Human Destiny.

Science.gov (United States)

Haught, John F.

1999-01-01

Examines eschatology as the heart of Christian faith, suggesting that an appreciation of an eschatological interpretation of the cosmos enables acceptance of nature's transience and a grounding for an ecological ethic. Maintains that recent scientific developments present a promising, rather than pessimistic, picture of the universe. Holds that…

Assessing Global Marine Biodiversity Status within a Coupled Socio-Ecological Perspective

Science.gov (United States)

Selig, Elizabeth R.; Longo, Catherine; Halpern, Benjamin S.; Best, Benjamin D.; Hardy, Darren; Elfes, Cristiane T.; Scarborough, Courtney; Kleisner, Kristin M.; Katona, Steven K.

2013-01-01

People value the existence of a variety of marine species and habitats, many of which are negatively impacted by human activities. The Convention on Biological Diversity and other international and national policy agreements have set broad goals for reducing the rate of biodiversity loss. However, efforts to conserve biodiversity cannot be effective without comprehensive metrics both to assess progress towards meeting conservation goals and to account for measures that reduce pressures so that positive actions are encouraged. We developed an index based on a global assessment of the condition of marine biodiversity using publically available data to estimate the condition of species and habitats within 151 coastal countries. Our assessment also included data on social and ecological pressures on biodiversity as well as variables that indicate whether good governance is in place to reduce them. Thus, our index is a social as well as ecological measure of the current and likely future status of biodiversity. As part of our analyses, we set explicit reference points or targets that provide benchmarks for success and allow for comparative assessment of current conditions. Overall country-level scores ranged from 43 to 95 on a scale of 1 to 100, but countries that scored high for species did not necessarily score high for habitats. Although most current status scores were relatively high, likely future status scores for biodiversity were much lower in most countries due to negative trends for both species and habitats. We also found a strong positive relationship between the Human Development Index and resilience measures that could promote greater sustainability by reducing pressures. This relationship suggests that many developing countries lack effective governance, further jeopardizing their ability to maintain species and habitats in the future. PMID:23593188

Fit in the Body: Matching Embodied Cognition with Social-Ecological Systems

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Janne I. Hukkinen

2012-12-01

Full Text Available Analysis of fit has focused on the macrolevel fit between social institutions and ecosystems, and bypassed the microlevel fit between individual cognition and its socio-material environment. I argue that the conceptualizations we develop about social-ecological systems and our position in them should be understood as ways for a fundamentally cognitive organism to adapt to particular social and ecological situations. Since at issue is our survival as a species, we need to better understand the structure and dynamics of fit between human cognition and its social-ecological environment. I suggest that the embodied cognition perspective opens up possibilities for "nudging" evolution through the conceptual integration of the cognitively attractive but ecologically unrealistic neoclassical economics, and the cognitively less attractive but ecologically more realistic adaptive cycle theory (panarchy. The result is a conceptually integrated model, the Roller Coaster Blend, which expresses in metaphorical terms why competitive individuals are better off cooperating than competing with each other in the face of absolute resource limits. The blend enables the reframing of messages about the limits of the social-ecological system in terms of growth rather than degrowth. This is cognitively appealing, as upward growth fires in our minds the neural connections of "more," "control", and "happy." The blend's potential for nudging behavior arises from its autopoietic characteristic: it can be both an account of the social-ecological system as an emergent structure that is capable of renewing itself, and a cognitive attractor of individuals whose recruitment reinforces the integrity of the social-ecological system.

[From environmental ethics to environmental bioethics: antecedents, trajectories, and perspectives].

Science.gov (United States)

Fischer, Marta Luciane; Cunha, Thiago; Renk, Valquiria; Sganzerla, Anor; Santos, Juliana Zacarkin Dos

2017-01-01

The relationship between humans and the environment became an ethical problem in the twentieth century, when accelerated economic and scientific development was accompanied by profound alterations in global ecological systems. In response, environmental ethics called for limits in the dichotomous relationship between man and nature. In 1970, Van Potter proposed bioethics as the interdisciplinary study of "human survival." Subsequently, the discipline focused on clinical and hospital conflicts. Environmental bioethics is analyzed in this article as a theoretical perspective that has historically drawn on Van Potter's approach to bioethics, marked by the interpersonal, socioeconomic, and political dimensions of environmental ethical dilemmas.

Are Some Animals More Equal than Others? Animal Rights and Deep Ecology in Environmental Education

Science.gov (United States)

Kopnina, Helen; Gjerris, Mickey

2015-01-01

This article focuses on the role of ethical perspectives such as deep ecology and animal rights in relation to environmental education, arguing that such perspectives are well-placed to reposition students as responsible planetary citizens. We focus on the linkage between non-consequentialism, animal rights, and deep ecology in an educational…

Measuring business performance using indicators of ecologically sustainable organizations

Science.gov (United States)

Snow, Charles G., Jr.; Snow, Charles C.

2001-02-01

The purpose of this paper is to explore the use of ecology-based performance measures as a way of augmenting the Balanced Scorecard approach to organizational performance measurement. The Balanced Scorecard, as proposed by Kaplan and Norton, focuses on four primary dimensions; financial, internal-business-process, customer, and learning and growth perspectives. Recently, many 'green' organizational theorists have developed the concept of "Ecologically Sustainable Organizations" or ESOs, a concept rooted in open systems theory. The ESO is called upon to consider resource use and conservation as a strategy for long-term viability. This paper asserts that in order to achieve ESO status, an organization must not only measure but also reward resource conservation measures. Only by adding a fifth perspective for ecological dimensions will the entity be truly motivated toward ESO status.

Situating trends in environmental education within the ecological debate

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Faulconer, T.

1992-01-01

For centuries there have been two philosophical orientations toward nature; one assumes humans to be the rightful owners and managers of nature, and the other is founded on a belief that humans are equal citizens within the earth's biotic community. Today these two approaches are located within reform environmentalism and deep ecology. In 1948, Aldo Leopold wrote an essay entitled open-quotes The Land Ethicclose quotes which proposed that humans include the land and its inhabitants within their circle of ethical concern. This essay has become a focal point of the debate between these two philosophies. The purpose of this study is to discover and describe the conceptual trends in environmental education since Leopold published open-quotes The Land Ethic.close quotes Eighty-two articles, published in educational journals from 1950 to 1990, were analyzed to determine whether they expressed a reform environmentalism orientation or a deep ecology perspective. Articles were selected which provided a statement of the purposes and goals of conservation education and environmental education. Until 1969, articles were drawn from a wide variety of educational journals. After 1969, the selection was limited to articles in The Journal of Environmental Education when that journal became the leading forum for environmental education discourse. The results showed that in the 1950s and 1960s the focus was almost entirely on wise-use conservation and reform environmentalism. In the last two decades, however, even though reform environmentalism remained a dominant influence, there has been a definite trend toward incorporating deep ecology concepts in this educational discourse. Further research is needed to determine how these ideas influence curriculum design and instructional practice

Recent advances in primate nutritional ecology.

Science.gov (United States)

Righini, Nicoletta

2017-04-01

Nutritional ecology seeks to explain, in an ecological and evolutionary context, how individuals choose, acquire, and process food to satisfy their nutritional requirements. Historically, studies of primate feeding ecology have focused on characterizing diets in terms of the botanical composition of the plants consumed. Further, dietary studies have demonstrated how patch and food choice in relation to time spent foraging and feeding are influenced by the spatial and temporal distribution of resources and by social factors such as feeding competition, dominance, or partner preferences. From a nutritional perspective, several theories including energy and protein-to-fiber maximization, nutrient mixing, and toxin avoidance, have been proposed to explain the food choices of non-human primates. However, more recently, analytical frameworks such as nutritional geometry have been incorporated into primatology to explore, using a multivariate approach, the synergistic effects of multiple nutrients, secondary metabolites, and energy requirements on primate food choice. Dietary strategies associated with nutrient balancing highlight the tradeoffs that primates face in bypassing or selecting particular feeding sites and food items. In this Special Issue, the authors bring together a set of studies focusing on the nutritional ecology of a diverse set of primate taxa characterized by marked differences in dietary emphasis. The authors present, compare, and discuss the diversity of strategies used by primates in diet selection, and how species differences in ecology, physiology, anatomy, and phylogeny can affect patterns of nutrient choice and nutrient balancing. The use of a nutritionally explicit analytical framework is fundamental to identify the nutritional requirements of different individuals of a given species, and through its application, direct conservation efforts can be applied to regenerate and protect specific foods and food patches that offer the opportunity of a

The painted turtle, Chrysemys picta: a model system for vertebrate evolution, ecology, and human health.

Science.gov (United States)

Valenzuela, Nicole

2009-07-01

Painted turtles (Chrysemys picta) are representatives of a vertebrate clade whose biology and phylogenetic position hold a key to our understanding of fundamental aspects of vertebrate evolution. These features make them an ideal emerging model system. Extensive ecological and physiological research provide the context in which to place new research advances in evolutionary genetics, genomics, evolutionary developmental biology, and ecological developmental biology which are enabled by current resources, such as a bacterial artificial chromosome (BAC) library of C. picta, and the imminent development of additional ones such as genome sequences and cDNA and expressed sequence tag (EST) libraries. This integrative approach will allow the research community to continue making advances to provide functional and evolutionary explanations for the lability of biological traits found not only among reptiles but vertebrates in general. Moreover, because humans and reptiles share a common ancestor, and given the ease of using nonplacental vertebrates in experimental biology compared with mammalian embryos, painted turtles are also an emerging model system for biomedical research. For example, painted turtles have been studied to understand many biological responses to overwintering and anoxia, as potential sentinels for environmental xenobiotics, and as a model to decipher the ecology and evolution of sexual development and reproduction. Thus, painted turtles are an excellent reptilian model system for studies with human health, environmental, ecological, and evolutionary significance.

Ecological and human health sediment risk assessment for a hydrocarbon-impacted site in Lake Athabasca

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Mcdonald, B.; Wagenaar, A.; LaPorte, J.; Misfeldt, G.; Chatwell, I.

2009-01-01

The operation of a public port facility near Uranium City, Saskatchewan has resulted in elevated levels of hydrocarbons in soil, groundwater and sediment. Remedial action in the uplands portion of the site was successful and a risk management approach was initiated for the aquatic portion of the site in order to resolve human health and ecological issues. Ecological risks were assessed using a sediment weight-of-evidence approach involving chemistry, toxicity, bioaccumulation and benthic community structure. Human health risks were assessed via fish consumption, water ingestion and direct contact according to Health Canada guidance. This presentation included an overview of the general risk assessment approach as well as site-specific data and findings. The primary focus was on the challenges confronted during the risk assessment process, such as the need to include alkylated PAHs as a COPC in the human health risk assessment and to evaluate ongoing propeller wash and sediment resuspension for sediment risk management, even though the facility is no longer operational.

Why we should use animals to study economic decision making - a perspective.

Science.gov (United States)

Kalenscher, Tobias; van Wingerden, Marijn

2011-01-01

Despite the rich tradition in psychology and biology, animals as research subjects have never gained a similar acceptance in microeconomics research. With this article, we counter this trend of negligence and try to convey the message that animal models are an indispensible complement to the literature on human economic decision making. This perspective review departs from a description of the similarities in economic and evolutionary theories of human and animal decision making, with particular emphasis on the optimality aspect that both classes of theories have in common. In a second part, we outline that actual, empirically observed decisions often do not conform to the normative ideals of economic and ecological models, and that many of the behavioral violations found in humans can also be found in animals. In a third part, we make a case that the sense or nonsense of the behavioral violations of optimality principles in humans can best be understood from an evolutionary perspective, thus requiring animal research. Finally, we conclude with a critical discussion of the parallels and inherent differences in human and animal research.

Ecology and evolution of gall-forming insects. Forest Service general technical report

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Price, P.W.; Mattson, W.J.; Baranchikov, Y.N.

1994-09-21

;Partial Contents: Ecology and Population Dynamics; Effects of the Physical Environment on the Ecology of Gall Insects; Biodiversity and Distribution; Genetic Variation in Host Plant Resistance; Evolutionary Perspectives on Gall Insects.

Human perspectives and conservation of grizzly bears in Banff National Park, Canada.

Science.gov (United States)

Chamberlain, Emily C; Rutherford, Murray B; Gibeau, Michael L

2012-06-01

institutions, the solution is to prioritize conservation efforts (institutionally-oriented conservation advocates); the problems have been exaggerated, but there is a need to improve decision-making processes (optimistic decision-process reformers); the problems have been exaggerated, but managers should more actively manage the landscape (optimistic landscape managers); and the problem is politicized decision making, solutions vary (democratizers). Although these 5 groups differed on many issues, they agreed that the population of grizzly bears is vulnerable to extirpation, human use of the area should be designed around ecological constraints, and more inclusive decision-making processes are needed. We used our results to inform a series of workshops in which stakeholders developed and agreed on new management strategies that were implemented by Parks Canada. Our research demonstrates the usefulness of Q method to illuminate people's perspectives and identify common ground in settings where conservation is contested. ©2012 Society for Conservation Biology.

Valor ambiental em uma perspectiva heterodoxa institucional-ecológica: an institutional-ecological heterodox perspective Environmental value

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Maurício de Carvalho Amazona

2009-04-01

Full Text Available O presente trabalho discute a perspectiva de valoração ambiental a partir de fundamentos heterodoxos, numa abordagem aqui denominada institucional-ecológica. Inicia-se pela identificação das principais limitações da abordagem neoclássica e suas correspondentes proposições de valoração, particularmente tendo-se em vista o desafio posto pelo critério de Desenvolvimento Sustentável. Em seguida, busca resgatar princípios propositivos de abordagens heterodoxas, particularmente nas formulações do campo teórico institucionalista e do campo teórico da economia ecológica, como elementos de potencial integração analítica para a constituição de uma conceituação heterodoxa de valores ambientais. Por fim, o trabalho propõe, a partir de uma discussão sobre o processo de formação e internalização dos valores ambientais e desse potencial de integração analítica, bases de constituição de uma abordagem institucional-ecológica para interpretação da valoração ambiental e, dentro dessa perspectiva, discute ao final qual o escopo de aplicação dos métodos de valoração correntemente utilizados pela Economia Ambiental Neoclássica.This article discusses an environmental valuation perspective, based on heterodox foundations, in an approach here called institutional-ecological. First, it is identified the main limits of neoclassical approach and its corresponding valuation propositions, specially having in mind the challenge placed by Sustainable Development criteria. After, it seeks to bring up propositive principles from heterodox approaches, particularly from formulations in the institutionalist field and ecological economics field. These are considered elements potentially able to analytical integration for the constitution of a heterodox framework for environmental values. Finally, based on a discussion on the process of environmental values constitution and internalization and on the so claimed analytical integration

Regional Ecological Risk Assessment in the Huai River Watershed during 2010–2015

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Yan Lu

2017-12-01

Full Text Available Ecosystem deterioration has been and is still a serious threat to human survival and regional economic development. Theoretical and methodological challenges exist in assessing ecological risk of watershed ecosystem that is imposed by natural changes or human activities. To fill this research gap, this research proposes an interdisciplinary and quantitative methodology based on some techniques such as the Procedure for Ecological Tiered Assessment of Risk (PETAR, the Entropy, and the Celluar Automata Markov (CA-Markov. We focused on six vulnerable environmental variables, namely land-use change, water quantity, water quality, gross domestic product (GDP, environmental pollutants, and soil erosion in the Huai River watershed in the Henan Province in order to build multi-dimensional quantitative method. Further, the Coupling Coordination Degree Model is constructed, and the “threshold index” is also addressed to reflect the limitation of ecological risk. Our results show that the spatio-temperal distribution of the eco-environmental quality has greatly varied across this study area during different time spans. Natural eco-environmental quality has moderately degraded in 70% of this study area (mainly agricultural region, at a prefectural level from 2000 to 2010, and has slightly improved over the agricultural region (<170 m above sea level during 2010–2015. However, when considering negative stressors from human social system on the natural ecosystem, the extent and distribution of the ecological risk varied across the whole area during 2000–2015. The results show that there was almost 90.40% of this region under the ecological risk, with varying extents over the study time, e.g., Kaifeng, Shangqiu, Xuchang, and Xinyang, with a moderate deterioration in the eco-environmental quality, and Zhengzhou with a slight deterioration in the eco-environmental quality. This paper provides a valuable perspective for governments at all levels to manage

Conical Perspective Image of an Architectural Object Close to Human Perception

Science.gov (United States)

Dzwierzynska, Jolanta

2017-10-01

The aim of the study is to develop a method of computer aided constructing conical perspective of an architectural object, which is close to human perception. The conical perspective considered in the paper is a central projection onto a projection surface being a conical rotary surface or a fragment of it. Whereas, the centre of projection is a stationary point or a point moving on a circular path. The graphical mapping results of the perspective representation is realized directly on an unrolled flat projection surface. The projective relation between a range of points on a line and the perspective image of the same range of points received on a cylindrical projection surface permitted to derive formulas for drawing perspective. Next, the analytical algorithms for drawing perspective image of a straight line passing through any two points were formulated. It enabled drawing a perspective wireframe image of a given 3D object. The use of the moving view point as well as the application of the changeable base elements of perspective as the variables in the algorithms enable drawing conical perspective from different viewing positions. Due to this fact, the perspective drawing method is universal. The algorithms are formulated and tested in Mathcad Professional software, but can be implemented in AutoCAD and majority of computer graphical packages, which makes drawing a perspective image more efficient and easier. The presented conical perspective representation, and the convenient method of its mapping directly on the flat unrolled surface can find application for numerous advertisement and art presentations.

The Ecology of Early Settlement in Northern Europe

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

The first volume presents new archaeological and ecological data and analyses on the relation between human subsistence and survival, and the natural history of North-Western Europe throughout the period 10000 – 6000 BC. The volume contains contributions from ecological oriented archaeologists...... and from the natural sciences, throwing new light on the physical and biotic/ecological conditions of relevance to the earliest settlement. Main themes are human subsistence, subsistence technology, ecology and food availability pertaining to the first humans, and demographic patterns among humans linked...

Industrial ecology: Environmental chemistry and hazardous waste

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Manahan, S.E. [Univ. of Missouri, Columbia, MO (United States). Dept. of Chemistry

1999-01-01

Industrial ecology may be a relatively new concept -- yet it`s already proven instrumental for solving a wide variety of problems involving pollution and hazardous waste, especially where available material resources have been limited. By treating industrial systems in a manner that parallels ecological systems in nature, industrial ecology provides a substantial addition to the technologies of environmental chemistry. Stanley E. Manahan, bestselling author of many environmental chemistry books for Lewis Publishers, now examines Industrial Ecology: Environmental Chemistry and Hazardous Waste. His study of this innovative technology uses an overall framework of industrial ecology to cover hazardous wastes from an environmental chemistry perspective. Chapters one to seven focus on how industrial ecology relates to environmental science and technology, with consideration of the anthrosphere as one of five major environmental spheres. Subsequent chapters deal specifically with hazardous substances and hazardous waste, as they relate to industrial ecology and environmental chemistry.

[Identification of ecological corridors for Tibetan antelope and assessment of their human disturbances in the alpine desert of Qinghai-Tibet Plateau].

Science.gov (United States)

Zhuge, Hai-jin; Lin, Dan-qi; Li, Xiao-wen

2015-08-01

The alpine desert of Qinghai-Tibet Plateau (QTP) provides the largest habitats for those endangered ungulates (e.g., Tibetan antelope, Tibetan Kiang and wild yak) on the earth. However, human disturbance especially infrastructure constructions (e.g., railway & highway) has increasingly fragmented the habitats of those endangered ungulates by disturbing and interrupting their ecological corridors for their seasonal migration. Aiming at identifying the potential ecological corridors for Tibetan antelope, a GIS-based model-Linkage Mapper was used to model and detect the potential ecological corridors of Tibetan antelope based on the principle of least cost path. Three categories of ecological corridors, i. e., closed (inside reserves), linking (linking the reserves) and open (starting from reserve but ending outside) corridors were distinguished by their spatial interactions with existing major national nature reserves (i.e., Altun, Kekexili and Qiangtang NNRs) in the alpine desert of QTP, and their spatial patterns, conservation status associated with human disturbance were also examined. Although our research indicated a general ecological integration of both habitats and ecological corridors in the alpine desert ecosystem, increasing human disturbance should not be ignored, which particularly partially undermined the functioning of those ecological corridors linking the nature reserves. Considering disadvantages of prevailing separate administrative structure of nature reserve on the effective conservation of ecological corridors for those endangered ungulates, a coordinative conservation network among these major national nature reserves should be established to ensure the unified trans-boundary conservation efforts and to enhance its overall conservation efficacy by sharing information, knowledge and optimizing conservation resources.

Re-establishing an ecological discourse in the policy debate over how to value ecosystems and biodiversity.

Science.gov (United States)

Spash, Clive L; Aslaksen, Iulie

2015-08-15

In this paper we explore the discourses of ecology, environmental economics, new environmental pragmatism and social ecological economics as they relate to the value of ecosystems and biodiversity. Conceptualizing biodiversity and ecosystems as goods and services that can be represented by monetary values in policy processes is an economic discourse being increasingly championed by ecologists and conservation biologists. The latter promote a new environmental pragmatism internationally as hardwiring biodiversity and ecosystems services into finance. The approach adopts a narrow instrumentalism, denies value pluralism and incommensurability, and downplays the role of scientific knowledge. Re-establishing an ecological discourse in biodiversity policy implies a crucial role for biophysical indicators as independent policy targets, exemplified in this paper by the Nature Index for Norway. Yet, there is a recognisable need to go beyond a traditional ecological approach to one recognising the interconnections of social, ecological and economic problems. This requires reviving and relating to a range of alternative ecologically informed discourses, including an ecofeminist perspective, in order to transform the increasingly dominant and destructive relationship of humans separated from and domineering over Nature. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

An intelligent human-machine system based on an ecological interface design concept

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Naito, N.

1995-01-01

It seems both necessary and promising to develop an intelligent human-machine system, considering the objective of the human-machine system and the recent advance in cognitive engineering and artificial intelligence together with the ever-increasing importance of human factor issues in nuclear power plant operation and maintenance. It should support human operators in their knowledge-based behaviour and allow them to cope with unanticipated abnormal events, including recovery from erroneous human actions. A top-down design approach has been adopted based on cognitive work analysis, and (1) an ecological interface, (2) a cognitive model-based advisor and (3) a robust automatic sequence controller have been established. These functions have been integrated into an experimental control room. A validation test was carried out by the participation of experienced operators and engineers. The results showed the usefulness of this system in supporting the operator's supervisory plant control tasks. ((orig.))

The ecological century

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Worthington, E. B.

1981-01-01

This essay attempts to reconstruct the evolution of Ecology as the scientific basis for environmental conservation and human progress, as seen through the eyes of a biologist who has exercised that science during a number of tasks in various parts of the world over most of the twentieth century. From its beginnings in evolutionary thinking during the nineteenth century, ecology emerged from natural history at the beginning of the twentieth. At first the running was made by botanists; but this was soon followed by zoologists, who dealt with more mobile communities. The first quarter-century was mainly exploratory; the second was mainly descriptive (although biological exploration was still dominant in the tropics). The third quarter saw ecology developing into an experimental science, and, as the environmental revolution got into its stride, ecology became organized both nationally and internationally. Although the term is now often misused and sometimes misunderstood by laymen, the last quarter-century is seeing the wide application of ecology in environmental and human affairs, and this gives some assurance that the twenty-first century will not become one of chaos.

Towards an African theological ethic of earth care: Encountering the Tonga lwiindi of Simaamba of Zambia in the face of the ecological crisis

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Kapya Kaoma

2017-11-01

Full Text Available The mounting ecological catastrophe and its negative effects on humanity and future generations of life, demand proactive actions. The ongoing crises of deforestation, air and water pollution, land degradation and many other ecological predicaments are critical global moral and justice issues. Although postcolonial Africa’s economic theories undermine the integrity of Creation, Africans are equally responsible. Following Pope Francis’ invitation to Creation care, I argue that the lwiindi [the annual rain-calling ceremony] illustrates ecological concerns and possesses ecological insights that can aid, inform and positively transform Africa’s ecological actions. The article opens with a brief discussion on the growing ecological consciousness in global Christianity and Africa. It employs the lwiindi to illustrate the ecological role of ancestors as guardians of the land. It is from this perspective that the Enlightenment influenced concept of ‘progress’, is examined. The article concludes with some critical reflections on the environment and Tonga culture.

ECOLOGICAL ASSESSMENT OF THE HUMAN -TRANSFORMED SYSTEMS OF THE IRPIN RIVER

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Svitlana Madzhd

2017-07-01

Full Text Available Purpose: to learn the interaction of natural and anthropogenic factors and their consequences in the system “Natural environment (Irpin river – human-transformed environment (Nyvka river”. Methods: To assess the structural and functional changes of hydroecosystems, transformed under technogenic impact, hydrochemical, toxicological and biological techniques, as well as the methods of mathematical statistics for experimental data processing and summarization of obtained results, were applied. Results: it is proposed to determine the dynamics of the biotic self-regulation mechanism change under impact of the modifying (anthropogenic factors, by the example of the two-component system – “Natural environment (Irpin River – environment, transformed under technogenic impact (Nyvka River, the right-hand tributary of the Irpin River”. It is proposed to extend additionally the opportunities of the ecological assessment due to application of the integrating index – the index of ecological conformity. Discussion: obtained results stipulate necessity of the further investigation of structural and functional patterns of the Irpin River ecosystem in space and time. Assessment of anthropogenic factors impact on hydroecosystem condition will make it possible to correct the nature guard activity concerning the improvement of the fishery object ecological condition and recreation essence of the Irpin River. Integration of the Nyvka and Irpin Rivers into a single system “Natural environment – environment, transformed under technogenic impact” will make it possible to obtain the objective assessment of technogenic changes in hydroecosystems. Implementation of the index of ecological conformity will make it possible to estimate completely the inner processes in the rivers.

What is dental ecology?

Science.gov (United States)

Cuozzo, Frank P; Sauther, Michelle L

2012-06-01

Teeth have long been used as indicators of primate ecology. Early work focused on the links between dental morphology, diet, and behavior, with more recent years emphasizing dental wear, microstructure, development, and biogeochemistry, to understand primate ecology. Our study of Lemur catta at the Beza Mahafaly Special Reserve, Madagascar, has revealed an unusual pattern of severe tooth wear and frequent tooth loss, primarily the result of consuming a fallback food for which these primates are not dentally adapted. Interpreting these data was only possible by combining our areas of expertise (dental anatomy [FC] and primate ecology [MS]). By integrating theoretical, methodological, and applied aspects of both areas of research, we adopted the term "dental ecology"-defined as the broad study of how teeth respond to the environment. Specifically, we view dental ecology as an interpretive framework using teeth as a vehicle for understanding an organism's ecology, which builds upon earlier work, but creates a new synthesis of anatomy and ecology that is only possible with detailed knowledge of living primates. This framework includes (1) identifying patterns of dental pathology and tooth use-wear, within the context of feeding ecology, behavior, habitat variation, and anthropogenic change, (2) assessing ways in which dental development and biogeochemical signals can reflect habitat, environmental change and/or stress, and (3) how dental microstructure and macro-morphology are adapted to, and reflect feeding ecology. Here we define dental ecology, provide a short summary of the development of this perspective, and place our new work into this context. Copyright © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Human action perspectives based on individual plant examination results

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Forester, J.; Thompson, C.; Drouin, M.; Lois, E.

1996-01-01

This paper provides perspectives on human actions gained from reviewing 76 individual plant examination (IPE) submittals. Human actions found to be important in boiling water reactors (BWRs) and in pressurized water reactors (PWRs) are presented and the events most frequently found important are discussed. Since there are numerous factors that can influence the quantification of human error probabilities (HEPs) and introduce significant variability in the resulting HEPs (which in turn can influence which events are found to be important), the variability in HEPs for similar events across IPEs is examined to assess the extent to which variability in results is due to real versus artifactual differences. Finally, similarities and differences in human action observations across BWRs and PWRs are examined

The missing link between human ecology and public health: the case of cancer.

Science.gov (United States)

Modonesi, Carlo; Oddone, Enrico; Panizza, Celestino; Imbriani, Marcello

2017-11-01

The primary role played by the 'ecological context' in clarifying the causes and dynamics of human health and disease is the topic of this article. It emphasizes that the challenging incidence of cancer and other diseases can be charged primarily to the effects of the worldwide dominant economic model. Human culture may act as a powerful force affecting the environment, biology and health of humans and other species. Human culture can be viewed as a special and extreme case of 'niche construction', where human-specific traits, technologies and beliefs act together. The feedback between human activities and the environment can promote different trends in public health. This should provide the opportunity to rethink the consequences that our economic model produces both on the environment and on physical, mental and social health of our species. Copyright© by Aracne Editrice, Roma, Italy.

Ecological and human health risks associated with abandoned gold mine tailings contaminated soil.

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Veronica Mpode Ngole-Jeme

Full Text Available Gold mining is a major source of metal and metalloid emissions into the environment. Studies were carried out in Krugersdorp, South Africa, to evaluate the ecological and human health risks associated with exposure to metals and metalloids in mine tailings contaminated soils. Concentrations of arsenic (As, cadmium (Cd, chromium (Cr, cobalt (Co, copper (Cu, lead (Pb, manganese (Mn, nickel (Ni, and zinc (Zn in soil samples from the area varied with the highest contamination factors (expressed as ratio of metal or metalloid concentration in the tailings contaminated soil to that of the control site observed for As (3.5x102, Co (2.8x102 and Ni (1.1x102. Potential ecological risk index values for metals and metalloids determined from soil metal and metalloid concentrations and their respective risk factors were correspondingly highest for As (3.5x103 and Co (1.4x103, whereas Mn (0.6 presented the lowest ecological risk. Human health risk was assessed using Hazard Quotient (HQ, Chronic Hazard Index (CHI and carcinogenic risk levels, where values of HQ > 1, CHI > 1 and carcinogenic risk values > 1×10-4 represent elevated risks. Values for HQ indicated high exposure-related risk for As (53.7, Cr (14.8, Ni (2.2, Zn (2.64 and Mn (1.67. Children were more at risk from heavy metal and metalloid exposure than adults. Cancer-related risks associated with metal and metalloid exposure among children were also higher than in adults with cancer risk values of 3×10-2 and 4×10-2 for As and Ni respectively among children, and 5×10-3 and 4×10-3 for As and Ni respectively among adults. There is significant potential ecological and human health risk associated with metal and metalloid exposure from contaminated soils around gold mine tailings dumps. This could be a potential contributing factor to a setback in the health of residents in informal settlements dominating this mining area as the immune systems of some of these residents are already compromised by high

The Human Behavioral Ecology of Contemporary World Issues : Applications to Public Policy and International Development.

Science.gov (United States)

Tucker, Bram; Rende Taylor, Lisa

2007-09-01

Human behavioral ecology (HBE) began as an attempt to explain human economic, reproductive, and social behavior using neodarwinian theory in concert with theory from ecology and economics, and ethnographic methods. HBE has addressed subsistence decision-making, cooperation, life history trade-offs, parental investment, mate choice, and marriage strategies among hunter-gatherers, herders, peasants, and wage earners in rural and urban settings throughout the world. Despite our rich insights into human behavior, HBE has very rarely been used as a tool to help the people with whom we work. This article introduces a special issue of Human Nature which explores the application of HBE to significant world issues through the design and critique of public policy and international development projects. The articles by Tucker, Shenk, Leonetti et al., and Neil were presented at the 104th annual meeting of the American Anthropological Association (AAA) in Washington, D.C., in December 2005, in the first organized session of the nascent Evolutionary Anthropology Section (EAS). We conclude this introduction by summarizing some theoretical challenges to applying HBE, and ways in which evolutionary anthropologists can contribute to solving tough world issues.

Human influences on evolution, and the ecological and societal consequences.

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Hendry, Andrew P; Gotanda, Kiyoko M; Svensson, Erik I

2017-01-19

Humans have dramatic, diverse and far-reaching influences on the evolution of other organisms. Numerous examples of this human-induced contemporary evolution have been reported in a number of 'contexts', including hunting, harvesting, fishing, agriculture, medicine, climate change, pollution, eutrophication, urbanization, habitat fragmentation, biological invasions and emerging/disappearing diseases. Although numerous papers, journal special issues and books have addressed each of these contexts individually, the time has come to consider them together and thereby seek important similarities and differences. The goal of this special issue, and this introductory paper, is to promote and expand this nascent integration. We first develop predictions as to which human contexts might cause the strongest and most consistent directional selection, the greatest changes in evolutionary potential, the greatest genetic (as opposed to plastic) changes and the greatest effects on evolutionary diversification We then develop predictions as to the contexts where human-induced evolutionary changes might have the strongest effects on the population dynamics of the focal evolving species, the structure of their communities, the functions of their ecosystems and the benefits and costs for human societies. These qualitative predictions are intended as a rallying point for broader and more detailed future discussions of how human influences shape evolution, and how that evolution then influences species traits, biodiversity, ecosystems and humans.This article is part of the themed issue 'Human influences on evolution, and the ecological and societal consequences'. © 2016 The Author(s).

[Elderly human being with ostomy and environments of care: reflection on the perspective of complexity].

Science.gov (United States)

Barros, Edaiane Joana Lima; Santos, Silvana Sidney Costa; Lunardi, Valéria Lerch; Lunardi Filho, Wilson Danilo

2012-01-01

This is discussion about the relationship between elderly human beings with ostomy and their environments care, under the perspective of Complexity Edgar Morin. An axis holds the reflection: environments of care for elderly humans with ostomy. In this sense, we present three types of environment that surround the context of elderly humans with ostomy: home environment, group environment and hospital environment. This brings, as a social contribution, a new look about resizing caring of elderly humans with ostomy in their environment. It is considered that the environment hosting this human being contains a diversity of feelings, emotions, experiences; it binds multiple meanings, from the Complexity perspective, about the relationship between the environment and the caring process.

Why we should use animals to study economic decision making – a perspective

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Tobias eKalenscher

2011-06-01

Full Text Available Despite the rich tradition in psychology and biology, animals as research subjects have never gained a similar acceptance in microeconomics research. With this article, we counter this trend of negligence and try to convey the message that animal models are an indispensible complement to the literature on human economic decision making. This perspective review departs from a description of the similarities in economic and evolutionary theories of human and animal decision making, with particular emphasis on the optimality aspect that both classes of theories have in common. In a second part, we outline that actual, empirically observed decisions often do not conform to the normative ideals of economic and ecological models, and that many of the behavioral violations found in humans can also be found in animals. In a third part, we make a case that the sense or nonsense of the behavioral violations of optimality principles in humans can best be understood from an evolutionary perspective, thus requiring animal research. Finally, we conclude with a critical discussion of the parallels and inherent differences in human and animal research.

Why We Should Use Animals to Study Economic Decision Making – A Perspective

Science.gov (United States)

Kalenscher, Tobias; van Wingerden, Marijn

2011-01-01

Despite the rich tradition in psychology and biology, animals as research subjects have never gained a similar acceptance in microeconomics research. With this article, we counter this trend of negligence and try to convey the message that animal models are an indispensible complement to the literature on human economic decision making. This perspective review departs from a description of the similarities in economic and evolutionary theories of human and animal decision making, with particular emphasis on the optimality aspect that both classes of theories have in common. In a second part, we outline that actual, empirically observed decisions often do not conform to the normative ideals of economic and ecological models, and that many of the behavioral violations found in humans can also be found in animals. In a third part, we make a case that the sense or nonsense of the behavioral violations of optimality principles in humans can best be understood from an evolutionary perspective, thus requiring animal research. Finally, we conclude with a critical discussion of the parallels and inherent differences in human and animal research. PMID:21731558

The debt of nations and the distribution of ecological impacts from human activities.

Science.gov (United States)

Srinivasan, U Thara; Carey, Susan P; Hallstein, Eric; Higgins, Paul A T; Kerr, Amber C; Koteen, Laura E; Smith, Adam B; Watson, Reg; Harte, John; Norgaard, Richard B

2008-02-05

As human impacts to the environment accelerate, disparities in the distribution of damages between rich and poor nations mount. Globally, environmental change is dramatically affecting the flow of ecosystem services, but the distribution of ecological damages and their driving forces has not been estimated. Here, we conservatively estimate the environmental costs of human activities over 1961-2000 in six major categories (climate change, stratospheric ozone depletion, agricultural intensification and expansion, deforestation, overfishing, and mangrove conversion), quantitatively connecting costs borne by poor, middle-income, and rich nations to specific activities by each of these groups. Adjusting impact valuations for different standards of living across the groups as commonly practiced, we find striking imbalances. Climate change and ozone depletion impacts predicted for low-income nations have been overwhelmingly driven by emissions from the other two groups, a pattern also observed for overfishing damages indirectly driven by the consumption of fishery products. Indeed, through disproportionate emissions of greenhouse gases alone, the rich group may have imposed climate damages on the poor group greater than the latter's current foreign debt. Our analysis provides prima facie evidence for an uneven distribution pattern of damages across income groups. Moreover, our estimates of each group's share in various damaging activities are independent from controversies in environmental valuation methods. In a world increasingly connected ecologically and economically, our analysis is thus an early step toward reframing issues of environmental responsibility, development, and globalization in accordance with ecological costs.

Integrating Social Science into the Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) Network: Social Dimensions of Ecological Change and Ecological Dimensions of Social Change

Science.gov (United States)

Charles L. Redman; J. Morgan Grove; Lauren H. Kuby; Lauren H. Kuby

2004-01-01

The integration of the social sciences into long-term ecological research is an urgent priority. To address this need, a group of social, earth, and life scientists associated with the National Science Foundation's (NSF) Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) Network have articulated a conceptual framework for understanding the human dimensions of ecological change...

Tourism And Environment: Toward Promoting Sustainable Development Of Tourism: A Human Rights Perspective

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Ni Ketut Supasti Dharmawan

2012-01-01

Full Text Available Tourism activities in era globalization bring positive and negative impacts especially for the host countries destination. To minimize the negative impacts it is very important to always promote the sustainable development of tourism including from a human rights perspective. This paper will discuss concerning who have responsibility to promote a human rights related with sustainable development of tourism. To explore the topic in this article, Author will study both international human rights instruments and environmental convention as well as the soft law regarding the tourism sector such as the UN WTO Global Code Of Ethics. The Law No. 10 Year 2009 concerning Indonesia Tourism Law is also part of legal material studied in this paper. There are national, international legal instruments of the human rights as well as UNWTO Global Codes of Ethics which can be utilized to promote sustainable tourism through human rights perspective. It is considered that all stakeholders have responsibility to promote sustainable development of tourism.

TNR and conservation on a university campus: a political ecological perspective

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Jonathan Dombrosky

2014-03-01

Full Text Available How to manage the impact of free-ranging cats on native wildlife is a polarizing issue. Conservation biologists largely support domestic cat euthanasia to mitigate impacts of free-ranging cat predation on small animal populations. Above all else, animal welfare activists support the humane treatment of free-ranging cats, objecting to euthanasia. Clearly, this issue of how to control free-ranging cat predation on small animals is value laden, and both positions must be considered and comprehended to promote effective conservation. Here, two gaps in the free-ranging cat—small-animal conservation literature are addressed. First, the importance of understanding the processes of domestication and evolution and how each relates to felid behavioral ecology is discussed. The leading hypothesis to explain domestication of wildcats (Felis silvestris relates to their behavioral ecology as a solitary predator, which made them suited for pest control in early agricultural villages of the Old World. The relationship humans once had with cats, however, has changed because today domesticated cats are usually household pets. As a result, concerns of conservation biologists may relate to cats as predators, but cat welfare proponents come from the position of assuming responsibility for free-ranging household pets (and their feral offspring. Thus, the perceptions of pet owners and other members of the general public provide an important context that frames the relationship between free-ranging cats and small animal conservation. The second part of this paper assesses the effects of an information-based conservation approach on shifting student’s perception of a local Trap–Neuter–Return (TNR program in introductory core science classes at the University of North Texas (UNT. UNT students are (knowingly or unknowingly regularly in close proximity to a TNR program on campus that supports cat houses and feeding stations. A survey design implementing a tailored

The Ecology of Human Mobility

KAUST Repository

Meekan, Mark G.; Duarte, Carlos M.; Ferná ndez-Gracia, Juan; Thums, Michele; Sequeira, Ana M.M.; Harcourt, Rob; Eguí luz, Ví ctor M.

2017-01-01

parallels in animals across a diverse array of phenomena including commuting, epidemics, the spread of innovations and culture, and collective behaviour. Movement ecology, which explores how animals cope with and optimize variability in resources, has

Bringing an ecological view of change to Landsat-based remote sensing

Science.gov (United States)

Kennedy, Robert E.; Andrefouet, Serge; Cohen, Warren; Gomez, Cristina; Griffiths, Patrick; Hais, Martin; Healey, Sean; Helmer, Eileen H.; Hostert, Patrick; Lyons, Mitchell; Meigs, Garrett; Pflugmacher, Dirk; Phinn, Stuart; Powell, Scott; Scarth, Peter; Susmita, Sen; Schroeder, Todd A.; Schneider, Annemarie; Sonnenschein, Ruth; Vogelmann, James; Wulder, Michael A.; Zhu, Zhe

2014-01-01

When characterizing the processes that shape ecosystems, ecologists increasingly use the unique perspective offered by repeat observations of remotely sensed imagery. However, the concept of change embodied in much of the traditional remote-sensing literature was primarily limited to capturing large or extreme changes occurring in natural systems, omitting many more subtle processes of interest to ecologists. Recent technical advances have led to a fundamental shift toward an ecological view of change. Although this conceptual shift began with coarser-scale global imagery, it has now reached users of Landsat imagery, since these datasets have temporal and spatial characteristics appropriate to many ecological questions. We argue that this ecologically relevant perspective of change allows the novel characterization of important dynamic processes, including disturbances, long-term trends, cyclical functions, and feedbacks, and that these improvements are already facilitating our understanding of critical driving forces, such as climate change, ecological interactions, and economic pressures.

EU Trade Governance and Policy: A Critical Perspective

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Lucy Ford

2013-10-01

Full Text Available This article offers a critical analysis of EU trade policy. It does so by highlighting the political and economic enclosures within which EU trade policy is embedded and that continue to hamper more holistic and interdisciplinary analyses that are argued to be necessary in order to comprehend the obstacles to and avenues towards a more sustainable and socially just world. The article critically analyses economic and political hegemony by drawing on two strands of critical international thought, namely neo-Gramscian analysis and global political ecology, employing a critical realist approach. The article identifies the perceived twin short-comings of conventional analyses: firstly, the neglect of understandings of power relations and social justice, and secondly the lack of attention to criteria of sustainability. Within critical debates about European governance, including the governance of trade and trade policy, neo-Gramscian perspectives highlight the power relations within EU governance, exposing the mechanisms of hegemony as well as identifying potential counter-hegemonic forces. While this offers important insights, the article argues that a critical perspective cannot be complete without attention to sustainability. Political ecology makes a vital contribution to critical perspectives by highlighting the natural limits within which by necessity all human activity takes place. Using illustrations from trade policy debates, the article argues that current EU trade policy and governance is not best placed to meet the challenges of sustainability and social justice and it points to the need for more holistic systems thinking to challenge orthodoxy.

Teachers' Pedagogical Perspectives and Teaching Practices on Human Rights in Cyprus: An Empirical Exploration and Implications for Human Rights Education

Science.gov (United States)

Zembylas, Michalinos; Charalambous, Constadina; Charalambous, Panayiota

2016-01-01

This paper describes a qualitative study that explored the understandings of human rights, pedagogical perspectives and practices in human rights teaching of three Greek-Cypriot elementary teachers. The study revealed some significant challenges in human rights teaching that seemed to be common for all three participating teachers. First, all of…

Holistic and Ecological Approaches in Talent Development

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Henriksen, Kristoffer

the somewhat opposing talent discovery and development approaches by focusing on how an environment manages the balance between these two, and how this balance becomes a part of the environment’s identity. Ecological perspectives on talent development hold rich insights for developing theories, research......Research on athletic talent has evolved from talent detection to talent development with both perspectives focusing on an individual athlete. This individual focus has been mirrored in the applied work of the sport psychology practitioner in youth competitive sport who has primarily focused...... on equipping individual athletes with the psychosocial skills required in a sport career. In contrast, the holistic ecological approach (HEA) to talent development in sport (Henriksen, Stambulova & Roessler, 2010) acknowledges the role of the overall environment in athletes’ development. The HEA integrates...

THE ROLE OF ENERGY IN ECOLOGICAL SUSTAINABILITY

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Popescu Maria-Floriana

2015-07-01

Full Text Available The rapid population growth leads to greater daily demand for energy, causing nations to diversify their portfolios and seek new sources of energy, including renewable to provide more energy. In a universe with seriously exhausted natural resources, severe urbanization, climate change and conflicts that go beyond borders, the issue of overpopulation unquestionably causes worldwide debates and can generate a snowball effect for the global economy or human society. Population’s increase in the nearby future will have a central role in challenges such as: global warming, air and water contamination, increase in the level of poverty, food scarcity, deforestation, desertification, health problems and resource shortages. The transformation into a sustainable environmental model, situated in a post-carbon economy, will imply setting barriers to industrial progress (will have to be sustainable and environmental friendly and also to population growth (will have to follow a normal pace. But, the level on vulnerability and uncertainty in the evolution of energy has been threatened lately by major events that took place all around the world. Security of supply, new geopolitical perspectives and ecological and sustainability issues are yet again on the bleeding line. Therefore, the goal of this theoretical article is to give an overview of the current situation concerning the role of energy in ecological sustainability. It expresses routes in which humans and enterprises can act in order to contribute to ecologically sustainable development. The subject of how we live on a congested planet represents the most critical sustainability of all. We are witnessing our current risks and we can also envision our possible, and particularly desirable, future: a steady human population, living and protecting the nature and planet, having finite needs of goods, services, or energy, and maintaining a healthy Earth for us and the animals that also depend on it. This is

Did you say reference conditions? Ecological and socio-economic perspectives on the European Water Framework Directive

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bouleau, Gabrielle; Pont, Didier

2015-01-01

Highlights: • Reference conditions refer to a stable state, ignoring non-linear and chaotic changes. • References were needed to set legally binding standards. • The DPSIR framework is based on a mitigation logic, which implies a stable reference. • Human activities do not equate pressures; Humans can create landscapes and ecosystems. • Setting goals for restoration requires a more adaptive management. - Abstract: Reference conditions are a key concept in the European Water Framework Directive (WFD). The WFD stipulates that the ecological status of a given water body shall be assessed by quantifying the deviation from a set of reference conditions that represent the stable state of an ecosystem in the absence of significant human disturbance. This concept is subject to criticism from several authors, particularly because underlying ecological concepts are weak and the distinction between natural variability and the effects of anthropogenic activities on ecosystem function will become increasingly artificial. In this paper, a sociologist and an aquatic ecologist examine the origin, successes and limits of the reference conditions concept and raise important questions about applying this concept in practice. We argue that this concept fitted specific needs from different institutions and stakeholders which promoted the WFD. Monitoring practices using this concept require some adaptations. Setting goals for restoration based on reference conditions is more problematic. A more adaptive management approach would be wiser

World-Ecology and Ireland: The Neoliberal Ecological Regime

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Sharae Deckard

2016-03-01

Full Text Available Since the collapse of the Celtic Tiger, the socio-economic particularity of neoliberal capitalism in its Irish manifestation has increasingly been critiqued, but little attention has been paid to neoliberalism as ecology within Ireland. This article conducts an exploratory survey of the characteristics of the Irish neoliberal ecological regime during and after the Celtic Tiger, identifying the opening of new commodity frontiers (such as fracking, water, agro-biotechnology, and biopharma constituted in the neoliberal drive to appropriate and financialize nature. I argue for the usefulness of applying not only the tools of world-systems analysis, but also Jason W. Moore’s world-ecological paradigm, to analysis of Ireland as a semi-periphery. What is crucial to a macro-ecological understanding of Ireland’s role in the neoliberal regime of the world-ecology is the inextricability of its financial role as a tax haven and secrecy jurisdiction zone from its environmental function as a semi-peripheral pollution and water haven. We can adapt Jason W. Moore’s slogan that “Wall Street…becomes a way of organizing all of nature, characterized by the financialization of any income-generating activity” (Moore 2011b: 39 to say that to say that the “IFSC is a way of organizing nature,” with pernicious consequences for water, energy, and food systems in Ireland. Financial service centers and pharmaceutical factories, plantations and cattle ranches, tax havens and pollution havens, empires and common markets are all forms of environment-making that constellate human relations and extra-human processes into new ecological regimes. More expansive, dialectical understandings of “ecology” as comprising the whole of socio-ecological relations within the capitalist world-ecology—from farming to pharma to financialization—are crucial to forming configurations of knowledge able not only to take account of Ireland’s role in the environmental

Access to health care for undocumented migrants from a human rights perspective:

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Biswas, Dan; Toebes, Brigit; Hjern, Anders

2012-01-01

Undocumented migrants' access to health care varies across Europe, and entitlements on national levels are often at odds with the rights stated in international human rights law. The aim of this study is to address undocumented migrants' access to health care in Denmark, Sweden, and the Netherlands...... from a human rights perspective....

The ecology of dust: local- to global-scale perspectives

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Whicker, Jeffrey J [Los Alamos National Laboratory; Field, Jason P [UA; Belnap, Jayne [NON LANL; Breshears, David D [UA; Neff, Jason [CU; Okin, Gregory S [UCLA; Painter, Thomas H [UNIV OF ARIZONA; Ravi, Sujith [UNIV OF ARIZONA; Reheis, Marith C [UCLA; Reynolds, Richard L [NON LANL

2009-01-01

Emission and redistribution of dust due to wind erosion in drylands drives major biogeochemical dynamics and provides important aeolian environmental connectivity at scales from individual plants up to the global scale. Yet, perhaps because most relevant research on aeolian processes has been presented in a geosciences rather than ecological context, most ecological studies do not explicitly consider dust-driven processes. To bridge this disciplinary gap, we provide a general overview of the ecological importance of dust, examine complex interactions between wind erosion and ecosystem dynamics from the plant-interspace scale to regional and global scales, and highlight specific examples of how disturbance affects these interactions and their consequences. Changes in climate and intensification of land use will both likely lead to increased dust production. To address these challenges, environmental scientists, land managers and policy makers need to more explicitly consider dust in resource management decisions.

Assessment of soil contamination--a functional perspective.

Science.gov (United States)

van Straalen, Nico M

2002-01-01

In many industrialized countries the use of land is impeded by soil pollution from a variety of sources. Decisions on clean-up, management or set-aside of contaminated land are based on various considerations, including human health risks, but ecological arguments do not have a strong position in such assessments. This paper analyses why this should be so, and what ecotoxicology and theoretical ecology can improve on the situation. It seems that soil assessment suffers from a fundamental weakness, which relates to the absence of a commonly accepted framework that may act as a reference. Soil contamination can be assessed both from a functional perspective and a structural perspective. The relationship between structure and function in ecosystems is a fundamental question of ecology which receives a lot of attention in recent literature, however, a general concept that may guide ecotoxicological assessments has not yet arisen. On the experimental side, a good deal of progress has been made in the development and standardized use of terrestrial model ecosystems (TME). In such systems, usually consisting of intact soil columns incubated in the laboratory under conditions allowing plant growth and drainage of water, a compromise is sought between field relevance and experimental manageability. A great variety of measurements can be made on such systems, including microbiological processes and activities, but also activities of the decomposer soil fauna. I propose that these TMEs can be useful instruments in ecological soil quality assessments. In addition a "bioinformatics approach" to the analysis of data obtained in TME experiments is proposed. Soil function should be considered as a multidimensional concept and the various measurements can be considered as indicators, whose combined values define the "normal operating range" of the system. Deviations from the normal operating range indicate that the system is in a condition of stress. It is hoped that more work

The Importance of Ecology-Based Nature Education Project in Terms of Nature Integration and Understanding the Human-Ecosystem Relationship

Science.gov (United States)

Meydan, Ali

2011-01-01

The aim of this project is to define the importance of 12-day ecology-based education training upon integration with nature and understanding the human-ecosystem relationship. In accordance with this purpose, there has been collected some survey data interviewing with the participants of "Lake Beysehir National Park and Ecology-based Nature…

Key properties of expert movement systems in sport : an ecological dynamics perspective.

Science.gov (United States)

Seifert, Ludovic; Button, Chris; Davids, Keith

2013-03-01

This paper identifies key properties of expertise in sport predicated on the performer-environment relationship. Weaknesses of traditional approaches to expert performance, which uniquely focus on the performer and the environment separately, are highlighted by an ecological dynamics perspective. Key properties of expert movement systems include 'multi- and meta-stability', 'adaptive variability', 'redundancy', 'degeneracy' and the 'attunement to affordances'. Empirical research on these expert system properties indicates that skill acquisition does not emerge from the internal representation of declarative and procedural knowledge, or the imitation of expert behaviours to linearly reduce a perceived 'gap' separating movements of beginners and a putative expert model. Rather, expert performance corresponds with the ongoing co-adaptation of an individual's behaviours to dynamically changing, interacting constraints, individually perceived and encountered. The functional role of adaptive movement variability is essential to expert performance in many different sports (involving individuals and teams; ball games and outdoor activities; land and aquatic environments). These key properties signify that, in sport performance, although basic movement patterns need to be acquired by developing athletes, there exists no ideal movement template towards which all learners should aspire, since relatively unique functional movement solutions emerge from the interaction of key constraints.

Economy and political ecology perspective of Indonesian food security at South Sulawesi

Science.gov (United States)

Fahmid, I. M.; Harun, H.; Fahmid, M. M.; Saadah; Busthanul, N.

2018-05-01

The purposes of this study are: firstly, to demonstrate the relations of agro-ecological function, agricultural innovation system, social-ecological system and political ecology to encourage production for Indonesian Food Security Program (PKP) in South Sulawesi. Secondly, to identify the most influential and interested stakeholders in the success of PKP program. The study conducted by applying an interdisciplinary analysis of triangulation method. The result showed, the success of PKP in South Sulawesi with the achievement of 2 million rice overstock mainly impacted by the application of agro-ecological concept, agricultural innovation system, and political ecology while disregarding the concept of social agroecology.

Why Finance Should Care about Ecology.

Science.gov (United States)

Scholtens, Bert

2017-07-01

Finance ignores ecosystems, which has resulted in a growing list of environmental and social problems. In this article, the importance of ecology for finance is assessed. We suggest The piece also suggests that the financial intermediation perspective can align finance and ecology for the benefit of society. This requires that financial institutions account for information about the impact of finance on the environment and vice versa, and that they are held accountable by their supervisors in this domain. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Examining antecedents of infant attachment security with mothers and fathers: An ecological systems perspective.

Science.gov (United States)

Lickenbrock, Diane M; Braungart-Rieker, Julia M

2015-05-01

Taking an ecological systems perspective, early parent-child relationships can be affected by interactions between systems where some are more proximally linked to the child than others. Socioeconomic status, a distal factor, is associated with social functioning during childhood, but research on its association with functioning during infancy, particularly attachment, is scant and inconsistent. Moreover, it is not clear how distal factors affect infant functioning. Other systems such as marital adjustment and parenting may moderate or mediate relations between distal factors and infant attachment. The current longitudinal study (n=135) examined the role of various systems - parental resources, marital functioning, parental sensitivity and involvement - in early infancy (3-, 5-, 7-months) on infant-mother (12-months) and infant-father (14-months) attachment security. Findings supported moderating processes but in different ways for infant-mother versus infant-father dyads. Implications for future studies and interventions are discussed. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Poverty alleviation strategies in eastern China lead to critical ecological dynamics

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Zhang, Ke; Dearing, John A.; Dawson, Terence P.

2015-01-01

the likelihood of sustainable agriculture or ecological collapse.We show how the analyses of 55 time-series of social, economic and ecological conditions can provide an evolutionary perspective for the modern Lower Yangtze River Basin region since the 1950s with powerful insights about the sustainability...

Urbanism from the Perspective of Ecological Psychologists

Science.gov (United States)

Gump, Paul V.; Adelgerg, Bettina

1978-01-01

A perception of ecological psychology on urbanism is presented, with emphasis on the following premises: (1) Urban milieu consists of complexes of behavior settings; and (2) Size of a city should be understood in relationship to the number and variety of its settings, rather than in terms of population size. (Author/MA)

Remote Sensing of Ecology, Biodiversity and Conservation: A Review from the Perspective of Remote Sensing Specialists

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Marc Cattet

2010-11-01

Full Text Available Remote sensing, the science of obtaining information via noncontact recording, has swept the fields of ecology, biodiversity and conservation (EBC. Several quality review papers have contributed to this field. However, these papers often discuss the issues from the standpoint of an ecologist or a biodiversity specialist. This review focuses on the spaceborne remote sensing of EBC from the perspective of remote sensing specialists, i.e., it is organized in the context of state-of-the-art remote sensing technology, including instruments and techniques. Herein, the instruments to be discussed consist of high spatial resolution, hyperspectral, thermal infrared, small-satellite constellation, and LIDAR sensors; and the techniques refer to image classification, vegetation index (VI, inversion algorithm, data fusion, and the integration of remote sensing (RS and geographic information system (GIS.

Remote sensing of ecology, biodiversity and conservation: a review from the perspective of remote sensing specialists.

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Kai; Franklin, Steven E; Guo, Xulin; Cattet, Marc

2010-01-01

Remote sensing, the science of obtaining information via noncontact recording, has swept the fields of ecology, biodiversity and conservation (EBC). Several quality review papers have contributed to this field. However, these papers often discuss the issues from the standpoint of an ecologist or a biodiversity specialist. This review focuses on the spaceborne remote sensing of EBC from the perspective of remote sensing specialists, i.e., it is organized in the context of state-of-the-art remote sensing technology, including instruments and techniques. Herein, the instruments to be discussed consist of high spatial resolution, hyperspectral, thermal infrared, small-satellite constellation, and LIDAR sensors; and the techniques refer to image classification, vegetation index (VI), inversion algorithm, data fusion, and the integration of remote sensing (RS) and geographic information system (GIS).

Laboratory containment practices for arthropod vectors of human and animal pathogens.

Science.gov (United States)

Tabachnick, Walter J

2006-03-01

Arthropod-borne pathogens have an impact on the health and well-being of humans and animals throughout the world. Research involving arthropod vectors of disease is often dependent on the ability to maintain the specific arthropod species in laboratory colonies. The author reviews current arthropod containment practices and discusses their importance from public health and ecological perspectives.

Modelling dendritic ecological networks in space: An integrated network perspective

Science.gov (United States)

Erin E. Peterson; Jay M. Ver Hoef; Dan J. Isaak; Jeffrey A. Falke; Marie-Josee Fortin; Chris E. Jordan; Kristina McNyset; Pascal Monestiez; Aaron S. Ruesch; Aritra Sengupta; Nicholas Som; E. Ashley Steel; David M. Theobald; Christian E. Torgersen; Seth J. Wenger

2013-01-01

Dendritic ecological networks (DENs) are a unique form of ecological networks that exhibit a dendritic network topology (e.g. stream and cave networks or plant architecture). DENs have a dual spatial representation; as points within the network and as points in geographical space. Consequently, some analytical methods used to quantify relationships in other types of...

Toward a Developmental Ecological Psychology.

Science.gov (United States)

Goldfield, Eugene C.

1997-01-01

Discusses Adolph's research on locomotion with regard to the requirements of an ecological psychology, especially the use of control laws; her examination of individual styles and normative patterns as it reflects a dynamic systems perspective; and her use of cognitive processes of decision making in explaining why infants approach or avoid a…

Automated experimentation in ecological networks.

Science.gov (United States)

Lurgi, Miguel; Robertson, David

2011-05-09

In ecological networks, natural communities are studied from a complex systems perspective by representing interactions among species within them in the form of a graph, which is in turn analysed using mathematical tools. Topological features encountered in complex networks have been proved to provide the systems they represent with interesting attributes such as robustness and stability, which in ecological systems translates into the ability of communities to resist perturbations of different kinds. A focus of research in community ecology is on understanding the mechanisms by which these complex networks of interactions among species in a community arise. We employ an agent-based approach to model ecological processes operating at the species' interaction level for the study of the emergence of organisation in ecological networks. We have designed protocols of interaction among agents in a multi-agent system based on ecological processes occurring at the interaction level between species in plant-animal mutualistic communities. Interaction models for agents coordination thus engineered facilitate the emergence of network features such as those found in ecological networks of interacting species, in our artificial societies of agents. Agent based models developed in this way facilitate the automation of the design an execution of simulation experiments that allow for the exploration of diverse behavioural mechanisms believed to be responsible for community organisation in ecological communities. This automated way of conducting experiments empowers the study of ecological networks by exploiting the expressive power of interaction models specification in agent systems.

Ecological balance between supply and demand based on cultivated land ecological footprint method in Guizhou Province

Science.gov (United States)

Qian, Qinghuan; Zhou, Dequan; Bai, Xiaoyong; Xiao, Jianyong; Chen, Fei; Zeng, Cheng

2018-01-01

In order to construct the indicators of the balance between supply and demand of the cultivated land ecological carrying capacity, basing on the relation of the cultivated land ecological carrying capacity supply and demand, applying the model of Cultivated Land Ecological Footprints and the method of CIS and considering the factors of cultivated land production, taking the statistical data of 2015 as an example, and then made a systematic evaluation of the balance between supply and demand of the cultivated land ecological carrying capacity in Guizhou Province. The results show that (1) the spatial distribution of supply and demand of cultivated land ecological carrying capacity in Guizhou is unbalanced, and the northern and eastern parts are the overloading area, the middle, the south and the west parts are the balance area. (2) From the perspective of cultivated land structure, the crops with ecological carrying capacity surplus were rice, vegetables and peanuts, among which rice was the highest and the ecological balance index was 0.7354. The crops with ecological carrying capacity overload were potato, wheat, maize, rapeseeds, soybeans and cured tobacco, of which the index of potato up to 7.11, other types of indices are less than 1.5. The research can provide the ecological security early warning, the overall plan of land use and sustainable development of the area cultivated land with scientific evidence and decision support.

Radiation hormesis: an ecological and energetic perspective.

Science.gov (United States)

Parsons, P A

2001-09-01

Organisms in natural habitats are exposed to an array of environmental stresses, which all have energetic costs. Under this ecological scenario, hormesis for ionizing radiation becomes an evolutionary expectation at exposures substantially exceeding background. This conclusion implies that some relaxation of radiation protection criteria is worthy of serious consideration. Copyright 2001 Harcourt Publishers Ltd.

Remote sensing in landscape ecology: experiences and perspectives in a European context

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Groom, G.; Mücher, C.A.; Ihse, M.; Wrbka, T.

2006-01-01

That the relationship between remote sensing and landscape ecology is significant is due in large part to the strong spatial component within landscape ecology. However it is nevertheless necessary to have frequent overview of the interface between remote sensing and landscape ecology, particularly

Resilience, political ecology, and well-being: an interdisciplinary approach to understanding social-ecological change in coastal Bangladesh

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sonia F. Hoque

2017-06-01

Full Text Available The commodification of peasant livelihoods through export-oriented aquaculture has brought about significant social-ecological changes in low-lying coastal areas in many parts of Asia. A better understanding of the underlying drivers and distributional effects of these changes requires integration of social and ecological approaches that often have different epistemological origins. Resilience thinking has gained increased traction in social-ecological systems research because it provides a dynamic analysis of the cross-scalar interactions between multiple conditions and processes. However, the system-oriented perspective inherent in resilience thinking fails to acknowledge the heterogeneous values, interests, and power of social actors and their roles in navigating social-ecological change. Incorporation of political ecology and well-being perspectives can provide an actor-oriented analysis of the trade-offs associated with change and help to determine which state is desirable for whom. However, empirical demonstrations of such interdisciplinary approaches remain scarce. Here, we explore the combined application of resilience, political ecology, and well-being in investigating the root causes of social-ecological change and identifying the winners and losers of system transformation through empirical analysis of the differential changes in farming systems in two villages in coastal Bangladesh. Using the adaptive cycle as a structuring model, we examine the evolution of the shrimp aquaculture system over the past few decades, particularly looking at the power dynamics between households of different wealth classes. We found that although asymmetric land ownership and political ties enabled the wealthier households to reach their desired farming system in one village, social resilience achieved through memory, leadership, and crisis empowered poorer households to exercise their agency in another village. Material dimensions such as improved

[Human ecology and interdisciplinary cooperation for primary prevention of environmental risk factors for public health].

Science.gov (United States)

Dobrowolski, Jan W

2007-01-01

Human ecology makes a scientific base for more effective prevention against contamination of the air, water and food, and other environmental factors making common risk factors for human health. It integrates interdisciplinary cooperation of experts from natural, technological, socio-economical and other sciences. Complex study is necessary for better estimation of real risk factors for an individual person. This risk is connected with the exposure of people to pollutants in working places, housing environment, areas for recreation and by food (including synergistic effects). Such study implicates real tasks for representatives of different sciences (technological and agricultural in particular) as well as for teachers and journalists. Especially dangerous are environmental risk factors when principles of human ecology are not taking into consideration at the intensification of food production, processing and conservation, as well as at designing of housing environment (where the exposure to harmful physical, chemical and biological factors is the longest) and also while selecting of the main directions of development of technical infrastructure for motorization (e.g. designing of cars, roads and their surrounding). EU recognize study of the human ecology as basis for sustainable development (sponsoring e.g. diploma and doctoral studies in this field at the Free University of Brussels). Author's experiences connected with the participation as a visiting professor taking part in related training activity at this University as well as during study visits in several countries were useful for the introduction of human ecology in linkage with ecotoxicology and environmental biotechnology as the subject of study at environmental engineering at the Faculty of Mining Surveying and Environmental Engineering at AGH-UST. Methodological experience of 40 years of interdisciplinary case studies and problem-oriented education in this field may be useful for modernization of

Acoustic environments matter: Synergistic benefits to humans and ecological communities.

Science.gov (United States)

Francis, Clinton D; Newman, Peter; Taff, B Derrick; White, Crow; Monz, Christopher A; Levenhagen, Mitchell; Petrelli, Alissa R; Abbott, Lauren C; Newton, Jennifer; Burson, Shan; Cooper, Caren B; Fristrup, Kurt M; McClure, Christopher J W; Mennitt, Daniel; Giamellaro, Michael; Barber, Jesse R

2017-12-01

Protected areas are critical locations worldwide for biodiversity preservation and offer important opportunities for increasingly urbanized humans to experience nature. However, biodiversity preservation and visitor access are often at odds and creative solutions are needed to safeguard protected area natural resources in the face of high visitor use. Managing human impacts to natural soundscapes could serve as a powerful tool for resolving these conflicting objectives. Here, we review emerging research that demonstrates that the acoustic environment is critical to wildlife and that sounds shape the quality of nature-based experiences for humans. Human-made noise is known to affect animal behavior, distributions and reproductive success, and the organization of ecological communities. Additionally, new research suggests that interactions with nature, including natural sounds, confer benefits to human welfare termed psychological ecosystem services. In areas influenced by noise, elevated human-made noise not only limits the variety and abundance of organisms accessible to outdoor recreationists, but also impairs their capacity to perceive the wildlife that remains. Thus soundscape changes can degrade, and potentially limit the benefits derived from experiences with nature via indirect and direct mechanisms. We discuss the effects of noise on wildlife and visitors through the concept of listening area and demonstrate how the perceptual worlds of both birds and humans are reduced by noise. Finally, we discuss how management of soundscapes in protected areas may be an innovative solution to safeguarding both and recommend several key questions and research directions to stimulate new research. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Taking the conservation biology perspective to secondary school classrooms.

Science.gov (United States)

Wyner, Yael; Desalle, Rob

2010-06-01

The influence of conservation biology can be enhanced greatly if it reaches beyond undergraduate biology to students at the middle and high school levels. If a conservation perspective were taught in secondary schools, students who are not interested in biology could be influenced to pursue careers or live lifestyles that would reduce the negative impact of humans on the world. We use what we call the ecology-disrupted approach to transform the topics of conservation biology research into environmental-issue and ecology topics, the major themes of secondary school courses in environmental science. In this model, students learn about the importance and complexity of normal ecological processes by studying what goes wrong when people disrupt them (environmental issues). Many studies published in Conservation Biology are related in some way to the ecological principles being taught in secondary schools. Describing research in conservation biology in the language of ecology curricula in secondary schools can help bring these science stories to the classroom and give them a context in which they can be understood by students. Without this context in the curriculum, a science story can devolve into just another environmental issue that has no immediate effect on the daily lives of students. Nevertheless, if the research is placed in the context of larger ecological processes that are being taught, students can gain a better understanding of ecology and a better understanding of their effect on the world.

The Ecology of Human Fear: Survival Optimization and the Nervous System

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Dean eMobbs

2015-03-01

Full Text Available We propose a Survival Optimization System (SOS to account for the strategies that humans and other animals use to defend against recurring and novel threats. The SOS attempts to merge ecological models that define a repertoire of contextually relevant threat induced survival behaviors with contemporary approaches to human affective science. We first propose that the goal of the nervous system is to reduce surprise and optimize actions by (i predicting the sensory landscape, through simulation of possible encounters with threat, selecting appropriate action by pre-encounter avoidance and (ii prevention strategies in which the organism manufactures safe environments. When a potential threat is encountered the (iii threat orienting system is engaged to determine whether the organism ignores the stimulus or switches into a process of (iv assessment, where the organism monitors the stimulus, weighs the threat value, predicts the actions of the threat, searches for safety, and guides behavioral actions crucial to directed escape. When under imminent attack, (v defensive systems evoke fast reflexive indirect escape behaviors (i.e. fight or flight. This cascade of responses to threat of increasing magnitude are underwritten by an interconnected neural architecture that extends from cortical and hippocampal circuits, to attention, action and threat systems including the amygdala, striatum, and hard-wired defensive systems in the midbrain. The SOS also includes a modulatory feature consisting of cognitive appraisal systems that flexibly guide perception, risk and action. Moreover, personal and vicarious threat encounters fine-tune avoidance behaviors via model-based learning, with higher organisms bridging data to reduce face-to-face encounters with predators. Our theory unifies the divergent field of human affective science, proposing the highly integrated, interconnected nervous systems are optimized to avoid ecological dangers.

Integrating Ecological and Evolutionary Context in the Study of Maternal Stress.

Science.gov (United States)

Sheriff, Michael J; Bell, Alison; Boonstra, Rudy; Dantzer, Ben; Lavergne, Sophia G; McGhee, Katie E; MacLeod, Kirsty J; Winandy, Laurane; Zimmer, Cedric; Love, Oliver P

2017-09-01

Maternal stress can prenatally influence offspring phenotypes and there are an increasing number of ecological studies that are bringing to bear biomedical findings to natural systems. This is resulting in a shift from the perspective that maternal stress is unanimously costly, to one in which maternal stress may be beneficial to offspring. However, this adaptive perspective is in its infancy with much progress to still be made in understanding the role of maternal stress in natural systems. Our aim is to emphasize the importance of the ecological and evolutionary context within which adaptive hypotheses of maternal stress can be evaluated. We present five primary research areas where we think future research can make substantial progress: (1) understanding maternal and offspring control mechanisms that modulate exposure between maternal stress and subsequent offspring phenotype response; (2) understanding the dynamic nature of the interaction between mothers and their environment; (3) integrating offspring phenotypic responses and measuring both maternal and offspring fitness outcomes under real-life (either free-living or semi-natural) conditions; (4) empirically testing these fitness outcomes across relevant spatial and temporal environmental contexts (both pre- and post-natal environments); (5) examining the role of maternal stress effects in human-altered environments-i.e., do they limit or enhance fitness. To make progress, it is critical to understand the role of maternal stress in an ecological context and to do that, we must integrate across physiology, behavior, genetics, and evolution. © The Author 2017. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology. All rights reserved. For permissions please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.

A pharm-ecological perspective of terrestrial and aquatic plant-herbivore interactions.

Science.gov (United States)

Forbey, Jennifer Sorensen; Dearing, M Denise; Gross, Elisabeth M; Orians, Colin M; Sotka, Erik E; Foley, William J

2013-04-01

We describe some recent themes in the nutritional and chemical ecology of herbivores and the importance of a broad pharmacological view of plant nutrients and chemical defenses that we integrate as "Pharm-ecology". The central role that dose, concentration, and response to plant components (nutrients and secondary metabolites) play in herbivore foraging behavior argues for broader application of approaches derived from pharmacology to both terrestrial and aquatic plant-herbivore systems. We describe how concepts of pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics are used to better understand the foraging phenotype of herbivores relative to nutrient and secondary metabolites in food. Implementing these concepts into the field remains a challenge, but new modeling approaches that emphasize tradeoffs and the properties of individual animals show promise. Throughout, we highlight similarities and differences between the historic and future applications of pharm-ecological concepts in understanding the ecology and evolution of terrestrial and aquatic interactions between herbivores and plants. We offer several pharm-ecology related questions and hypotheses that could strengthen our understanding of the nutritional and chemical factors that modulate foraging behavior of herbivores across terrestrial and aquatic systems.

Socio-Ecohydrologic Agents And Services: Integrating Human And Natural Components To Address Coupled System Resilience

Science.gov (United States)

Pavao-zuckerman, M.; Pope, A.; Chan, D.; Curl, K.; Gimblett, H. R.; Hough, M.; House-Peters, L.; Lee, R.; Scott, C. A.

2012-12-01

Riparian corridors in arid regions are highly valued for their relative scarcity, and because healthy riparian systems support high levels of biodiversity, can meet human demand for water and water-related resources and functions. Our team is taking a transdiciplinary social-ecological systems approach to assessing riparian corridor resilience in two watersheds (the San Pedro River in USA and Mexico, and the Rio San Miguel in Mexico) through a project funded by the NSF CNH program ("Strengthening Resilience of Arid Region Riparian Corridors"). Multiple perspectives are integrated in the project, including hydrology, ecology, institutional dynamics, and decision making (at the level of both policy and individual choice), as well as the perspectives of various stakeholder groups and individuals in the watersheds. Here we discuss initial findings that center around linking changes in ecohydrology and livelihoods related to decisions in response to climatic, ecological, and social change. The research team is implementing two approaches to integrate the disparate disciplines participating in the research (and the varied perspectives among the stakeholders in this binational riparian context): (1) ecosystem service assessment, and (2) agent based model simulation. We are developing an ecosystem service perspective that provides a bridge between ecological dynamics in the landscape and varied stakeholder perspectives on the implications of ecohydrology for well-being (economic, cultural, ecological). Services are linked on one hand to the spatial patterns of traits of individuals within species (allowing a more predictive application of ecosystem services as they vary with community change in time), and to stakeholder perspectives (facilitating integration of ecosystem services into our understanding of decision making processes) in a case study in the San Pedro River National Conservation Area. The agent- based model (ABM) approach incorporates the influence of human

Brief communication: the ecosystem perspective in ecotoxicology as a way forward for the ecological risk assessment of chemicals.

Science.gov (United States)

De Laender, Frederik; Janssen, Colin R

2013-07-01

One of the objectives of the European Union (EU) ecological risk assessment of chemicals (ERA) is to derive maximum environmental concentrations that are not expected to cause adverse ecological effects. To this end, related EU directives list protection goals as well as guidelines that should be used to reach these goals. It is generally accepted that the individual-level endpoints on which these guidelines are based do not correspond to the listed population- and ecosystem-level protection goals. In this article, we identify 5 research topics that are key to bridging this gap: 1) the refinement of population-level effects and recovery rates by explicitly taking into account competition and 2) predation, 3) the assessment of chemical effects on biodiversity, 4) the assessment of chemical stress on ecosystem functions and services, and 5) the quantification of the effects of chemical mixtures. In addition, we illustrate why an ecosystem perspective is needed to address these topics and to inform the risk assessment process. We propose the use of existing ecotoxicological community, food web, and ecosystem models to tackle these issues and discuss why new models are needed to predict chemical effects on biodiversity. Copyright © 2013 SETAC.

Downstream ecological effects of dams: A geomorphic perspective

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ligon, F.K.; Dietrich, W.E.; Trush, W.J.

1995-01-01

The damming of a river changes the flow of water, sediment, nutrients, energy, and biota, interrupting and altering most of a river's ecological processes. This article discusses the importance of geomorphological analysis in river conservation and management. To illustrate how subtle geomorphological adjustments may profoundly influence the ecological relationships downstream from dames, three case studies are presented. Then a geomorphically based approach for assessing and possibly mitigating some of the environmental effects of dams by tailoring dam designed and operation is outlined. The cases are as follows: channel simplification and salmon decline on the McKenzie River in Oregon; Channel incision and reduced floodplain inundation on the Oconee river in Georgia; Increased stability of a braided river in New Zealand's south island. 41 refs., 10 figs., 1 tab

Vertical ecology of the pelagic ocean: classical patterns and new perspectives.

Science.gov (United States)

Sutton, T T

2013-12-01

Applications of acoustic and optical sensing and intensive, discrete-depth sampling, in concert with collaborative international research programmes, have substantially advanced knowledge of pelagic ecosystems in the 17 years since the 1996 Deepwater Fishes Symposium of the Fisheries Society of the British Isles. Although the epipelagic habitat is the best-known, and remote sensing and high-resolution modelling allow near-synoptic investigation of upper layer biophysical dynamics, ecological studies within the mesopelagic and deep-demersal habitats have begun to link lower and upper trophic level processes. Bathypelagic taxonomic inventories are far from complete, but recent projects (e.g. MAR-ECO and CMarZ, supported by the Census of Marine Life programme) have quantitatively strengthened distribution patterns previously described for fishes and have provided new perspectives. Synthesis of net and acoustic studies suggests that the biomass of deep-pelagic fishes may be two to three orders of magnitude greater than the total global commercial fisheries landings. Discrete-depth net sampling has revealed relatively high pelagic fish biomass below 1000 m in some regions, and that gelatinous zooplankton may be key energy vectors for deep-pelagic fish production. Lastly, perhaps, the most substantive paradigm shift is that vertical connectivity among fishes across classical depth zones is prevalent- suggesting that a whole-water column approach is warranted for deep ocean conservation and management. © 2013 The Fisheries Society of the British Isles.

ecological geological maps: GIS-based evaluation of the Geo-Ecological Quality Index (GEQUI) in Sicily (Central Mediterranean)

Science.gov (United States)

Nigro, Fabrizio; Arisco, Giuseppe; Perricone, Marcella; Renda, Pietro; Favara, Rocco

2010-05-01

The condition of landscapes and the ecological communities within them is strongly related to levels of human activity. As a consequence, determining status and trends in the pattern of human-dominated landscapes can be useful for understanding the overall conditions of geo-ecological resources. Ecological geological maps are recent tools providing useful informations about a-biotic and biotic features worldwide. These maps represents a new generation of geological maps and depict the lithospheric components conditions on surface, where ecological dynamics (functions and properties) and human activities develop. Thus, these maps are too a fundamental political tool to plan the human activities management in relationship to the territorial/environmental patterns of a date region. Different types of ecological geological maps can be develop regarding the: conditions (situations), zoning, prognosis and recommendations. The ecological geological conditions maps reflects the complex of parameters or individual characteristics of lithosphere, which characterized the opportunity of the influence of lithosphere components on the biota (man, fauna, flora, and ecosystem). The ecological geological zoning maps are foundamental basis for prognosis estimation and nature defenses measures. Estimation from the position of comfort and safety of human life and function of ecosystem is given on these maps. The ecological geological prognosis maps reflect the spatial-temporary prognoses of ecological geological conditions changing during the natural dynamic of natural surrounding and the main-during the economic mastering of territory and natural technical systems. Finally, the ecological geological recommendation maps are based on the ecological geological and social-economical informations, aiming the regulation of territory by the regulation of economic activities and the defense of bio- and socio-sphere extents. Each of these maps may also be computed or in analytic or in

Landscape and biodiversity as new resources for agro-ecology? Insights from farmers' perspectives

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Nicolas Salliou

2017-06-01

Full Text Available Pesticide reduction is a key current challenge. Scientific findings in landscape ecology suggest that complex landscapes favor insect pest biological control by conservation of natural enemy habitats. A potential agro-ecological innovation is to conserve or engineer such complex landscapes to reduce pesticide use. However, whereas the relevant resources are often well known in most natural resource management situations, potential resources involved in this innovation (natural enemies and the landscape are not necessarily considered as resources in the eyes of their potential users. From the perspective that resources are socially constructed, our objective was to investigate whether and how these resources are considered by their potential users. To do so, we conducted research in an area specializing in tree-fruit (apple production in southwestern France. This site was selected for its high pest incidence and high use of insecticides on orchards and, consequently, high stakes involved for any alternative. We conducted 30 comprehensive interviews with stakeholders (farmers and crop advisors about their pest control strategies to explore their representation of their landscape and natural enemies. Our results show that natural enemies are considered by local stakeholders as public good resources, especially in the context of interventions by public institutions for their conservation, acclimation, and management. Farmers sometimes consider natural enemies as private goods when they can isolate the crop, enclosing it with nets or some other type of boundary. We also show that the landscape was not considered as a resource for biological pest control by conservation, but rather as a source of pests. We advocate for more research on the effects of landscapes on natural enemies, including participatory research based on dialogue among farmers, crop advisors, and scientists.

Ecology for a changing earth

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Brown, J.H.; Roughgarden, J.

1990-01-01

To forecast the ecological impact of global change, research initiatives are needed on the explicit role of humans in ecological systems, and on how ecological processes functioning at different spatial and temporal scales are coupled. Furthermore, to synthesize the results of ecological research for Congress, policymakers, and the general public, a new agency, called the United States Ecological Survey (USES) is urgently required. Also, a national commitment to environmental health, as exemplified by establishing a National Institutes of the Environment (NIE), should be a goal

Aspects of elephant behavior, ecology, and interactions with humans

Science.gov (United States)

O'Connell, Caitlin Elizabeth

This dissertation is comprised of two chapters relating to the acoustic behavior of elephants, their surrounding ecology and interactions with humans. The first chapter investigates the seismic aspects of Asian elephant (Elephus maximus) acoustic communication. The second chapter is comprised of a synthesis of two separate studies conducted on the African elephant (Loxodonta africana) in Namibia, both in Etosha National Park and the Caprivi region. The two studies were combined and published in Biological Conservation as one large study on aspects of the economic and social impacts of elephant/human conflict and experiments conducted to reduce conflict. In chapter one, seismic and acoustic data were recorded simultaneously from Asian elephants during periods of vocalizations and locomotion. Acoustic and seismic signals from rumbles were highly correlated at near and far distances and were in phase near the elephant and were out of phase at an increased distance from the elephant. Data analyses indicated that elephant generated signals associated with rumbles and "foot stomps" propagated at different velocities in the two media, the acoustic signals traveling at 309 m/s and the seismic signals at 248--264 m/s. Both types of signals had predominant frequencies in the range of 20 Hz. Seismic signal amplitudes considerably above background noise were recorded at 40 m from the generating elephants for both the rumble and the stomp. Seismic propagation models suggest that seismic waveforms from vocalizations are potentially detectable by instruments at distances of up to 16 km, and up to 32 km for locomotion generated signals. Thus, if detectable by elephants, these seismic signals could be useful for long distance communication. In chapter two, the economic impact of elephants, Loxodonta africana , and predators, particularly lions, Panthera leo, on rural agriculturists in the Kwando region of the East Caprivi, Namibia was assessed from the years 1991 to 1995. Elephants

Integrating Ethno-Ecological and Scientific Knowledge of Termites for Sustainable Termite Management and Human Welfare in Africa

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Gudeta W. Sileshi

2009-06-01

Full Text Available Despite their well-known role as pests, termites also provide essential ecosystem services. In this paper, we undertook a comprehensive review of studies on human-termite interactions and farmers' indigenous knowledge across Sub-Saharan Africa in an effort to build coherent principles for termite management. The review revealed that local communities have comprehensive indigenous knowledge of termite ecology and taxonomy, and apply various indigenous control practices. Many communities also have elaborate knowledge of the nutritional and medicinal value of termites and mushrooms associated with termite nests. Children and women also widely consume termite mound soil for nutritional or other benefits encouraged by indigenous belief systems. In addition, subsistence farmers use termites as indicators of soil fertility, and use termite mound soil in low-risk farming strategies for crop production. In the past, chemical control of termites has been initiated without empirical data on the termite species, their damage threshold, and the social, ecological, or economic risks and trade-offs of the control. This review has provided new insights into the intimate nature of human-termite interactions in Africa and the risks of chemical control of termites to human welfare and the environment. We recommend that management of termites in future should be built on farmers' indigenous knowledge and adequate understanding of the ecology of the local termite species.

Evaluation of cadmium, lead, zinc and copper levels in selected ecological cereal food products and their non-ecological counterparts

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Slepecka Katarzyna

2017-09-01

Full Text Available In the everyday human diet, cereal products are considered to be basics. Such food should have healthy properties and not contain harmful additives, especially heavy metals as exposure to low doses of such xenobiotics can adversely affect human health. Ecological farming is the answer to consumer expectations regarding food safety, and ecological products are recommended as a basis for proper nutrition, despite the higher cost of their purchase. The present study was carried out to evaluate the content of heavy metals in ecological cereal products and their non-ecological analogues.

Coasts under stress: restructuring and social-ecological health

National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

Ommer, Rosemary E

2007-01-01

... the human impact of restructuring and social-ecological health 9 The Restructuring of Health Care on Both Coasts since the 1980 s 183 The Statistical Face of Restructuring and Human Health 210 The Human Voice of Social-Ecological Restructuring: Jobs, Incomes, Livelihoods, Ways of Life, and Human Health 241vi Contents 10 11 Restructuring, Nutrition,...

Crisis on campus: Eating disorder intervention from a developmental-ecological perspective.

Science.gov (United States)

Taylor, Julia V; Gibson, Donna M

2016-01-01

The purpose of this article is to review a crisis intervention using the developmental-ecological protocol (Collins and Collins, 2005) with a college student presenting with symptomatology of an active eating disorder. Participants included University Wellness Center employees responding to the crisis. Methods include an informal review of the crisis intervention response and application of the ABCDE developmental-ecological crisis model. Results reported include insight into crisis intervention when university counseling and health center is not available as resources. ABCDE Developmental-ecological model recommendations for university faculty and staff are included.

An ecological perspective on U.S. industrial poultry production: the role of anthropogenic ecosystems on the emergence of drug-resistant bacteria from agricultural environments.

Science.gov (United States)

Davis, Meghan F; Price, Lance B; Liu, Cindy Meng-Hsin; Silbergeld, Ellen K

2011-06-01

The industrialization of food animal production, specifically the widespread use of antimicrobials, not only increased pressure on microbial populations, but also changed the ecosystems in which antimicrobials and bacteria interact. In this review, we argue that industrial food animal production (IFAP) is appropriately defined as an anthropogenic ecosystem. This paper uses an ecosystem perspective to frame an examination of these changes in the context of U.S. broiler chicken production. This perspective emphasizes multiple modes by which IFAP has altered microbiomes and also suggests a means of generating hypotheses for understanding and predicting the ecological impacts of IFAP in terms of the resistome and the flow of resistance within and between microbiomes. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Long-term ecological research in a human-dominated world

Science.gov (United States)

G. Philip Robertson; Scott L. Collins; David R. Foster; Nicholas Brokaw; Hugh W. Ducklow; Ted L. Gragson; Corinna Gries; Stephen K. Hamilton; A. David McGuire; John C. Moore; Emily H. Stanley; Robert B. Waide; Mark W. Williams

2012-01-01

The US Long Term Ecological Research (LTER) Network enters its fourth decade with a distinguished record of achievement in ecological science. The value of long-term observations and experiments has never been more important for testing ecological theory and for addressing today’s most difficult environmental challenges. The network’s potential for tackling emergent...

Exposure to violence across the social ecosystem and the development of aggression: a test of ecological theory in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Science.gov (United States)

Boxer, Paul; Rowell Huesmann, L; Dubow, Eric F; Landau, Simha F; Gvirsman, Shira Dvir; Shikaki, Khalil; Ginges, Jeremy

2013-01-01

Bronfenbrenner's (1979) ecological model proposes that events in higher order social ecosystems should influence human development through their impact on events in lower order social ecosystems. This proposition was tested with respect to ecological violence and the development of children's aggression via analyses of 3 waves of data (1 wave yearly for 3 years) from 3 age cohorts (starting ages: 8, 11, and 14) representing three populations in the Middle East: Palestinians (N = 600), Israeli Jews (N = 451), and Israeli Arabs (N = 450). Results supported a hypothesized model in which ethnopolitical violence increases community, family, and school violence and children's aggression. Findings are discussed with respect to ecological and observational learning perspectives on the development of aggressive behavior. © 2012 The Authors. Child Development © 2012 Society for Research in Child Development, Inc.

Using network analysis to explore if professional opinions on Japanese encephalitis risk factors in Nepal reflect a socio-ecological system perspective.

Science.gov (United States)

Hecker, Kent; El Kurdi, Syliva; Joshi, Durgadatt; Stephen, Craig

2013-12-01

Japanese encephalitis (JE) is the leading cause of viral encephalitis in Asia and a significant public health problem in Nepal. Its epidemiology is influenced by factors affecting its amplifying hosts (pigs), vectors (mosquitoes), and dead-end hosts (including people). While most control efforts target reduced susceptibility to infection either by vaccination of people or pigs or by reduced exposure to mosquitoes; the economic reality of Nepal makes it challenging to implement standard JE control measures. An ecohealth approach has been nominated as a way to assist in finding and prioritizing locally relevant strategies for JE control that may be viable, feasible, and acceptable. We sought to understand if Nepalese experts responsible for JE management conceived of its epidemiology in terms of a socio-ecological system to determine if they would consider ecohealth approaches. Network analysis suggested that they did not conceive JE risk as a product of a socio-ecological system. Traditional proximal risk factors of pigs, mosquitoes, and vaccination predominated experts' conception of JE risk. People seeking to encourage an ecohealth approach or social change models to JE management in Nepal may benefit from adopting social marketing concepts to encourage and empower local experts to examine JE from a socio-ecological perspective.

The social structural foundations of adaptation and transformation in social-ecological systems

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Michele L. Barnes

2017-12-01

Full Text Available Social networks are frequently cited as vital for facilitating successful adaptation and transformation in linked social-ecological systems to overcome pressing resource management challenges. Yet confusion remains over the precise nature of adaptation vs. transformation and the specific social network structures that facilitate these processes. Here, we adopt a network perspective to theorize a continuum of structural capacities in social-ecological systems that set the stage for effective adaptation and transformation. We begin by drawing on the resilience literature and the multilayered action situation to link processes of change in social-ecological systems to decision making across multiple layers of rules underpinning societal organization. We then present a framework that hypothesizes seven specific social-ecological network configurations that lay the structural foundation necessary for facilitating adaptation and transformation, given the type and magnitude of human action required. A key contribution of the framework is explicit consideration of how social networks relate to ecological structures and the particular environmental problem at hand. Of the seven configurations identified, three are linked to capacities conducive to adaptation and three to transformation, and one is hypothesized to be important for facilitating both processes. We discuss how our theoretical framework can be applied in practice by highlighting existing empirical examples from related environmental governance contexts. Further extension of our hypotheses, particularly as more data become available, can ultimately help guide the design of institutional arrangements to be more effective at dealing with change.

Benefits of using a Social-Ecological Systems Approach to Conceptualize and Model Wetlands Restoration

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Using a social-ecological systems (SES) perspective to examine wetland restoration helps decision-makers recognize interdependencies and relations between ecological and social components of coupled systems. Conceptual models are an invaluable tool to capture, visualize, and orga...

Teachers' Perspectives on the Human-Nature Relationship: Implications for Environmental Education

Science.gov (United States)

Almeida, Antonio; Vasconcelos, Clara

2013-01-01

This study based on a theoretical framework of three main environmental perspectives in the human-nature relationship (anthropocentrism, biocentrism and ecocentrism), aimed to identify their incidence in teachers involved with environmental projects when confronted with diverse environmental issues. 60 teachers drawn from four school cycles in…

Understanding the earth systems of Malawi: Ecological sustainability, culture, and place-based education

Science.gov (United States)

Glasson, George E.; Frykholm, Jeffrey A.; Mhango, Ndalapa A.; Phiri, Absalom D.

2006-07-01

The purpose of this 2-year study was to investigate Malawian teacher educators' perspectives and dispositions toward teaching about ecological sustainability issues in Malawi, a developing country in sub-Sahara Africa. This study was embedded in a larger theoretical framework of investigating earth systems science through the understanding of nature-knowledge-culture systems from local, place-based perspectives. Specifically, we were interested in learning more about eco-justice issues that are related to environmental degradation in Malawi and the potential role of inquiry-oriented pedagogies in addressing these issues. In a science methods course, the African educators' views on deforestation and teaching about ecological sustainability were explored within the context of the local environment and culture. Teachers participated in inquiry pedagogies designed to promote the sharing of perspectives related to the connections between culture and ecological degradation. Strategies encouraging dialogue and reflection included role-playing, class discussions, curriculum development activities, teaching experiences with children, and field trips to a nature preserve. Data were analyzed from postcolonial and critical pedagogy of place theoretical perspectives to better understand the hybridization of viewpoints influenced by both Western and indigenous science and the political hegemonies that impact sustainable living in Malawi. Findings suggested that the colonial legacy of Malawi continues to impact the ecological sustainability issue of deforestation. Inquiry-oriented pedagogies and connections to indigenous science were embraced by the Malawian educators as a means to involve children in investigation, decision making, and ownership of critical environmental issues.

Decision science a human-oriented perspective

CERN Document Server

Mengov, George

2015-01-01

This book offers a new perspective on human decision-making by comparing the established methods in decision science with innovative modelling at the level of neurons and neural interactions. The book presents a new generation of computer models, which can predict with astonishing accuracy individual economic choices when people make them by quick intuition rather than by effort. A vision for a new kind of social science is outlined, whereby neural models of emotion and cognition capture the dynamics of socioeconomic systems and virtual social networks. The exposition is approachable by experts as well as by advanced students. The author is an Associate Professor of Decision Science with a doctorate in Computational Neuroscience, and a former software consultant to banks in the City of London.  .

Social vulnerability from a social ecology perspective: a cohort study of older adults from the National Population Health Survey of Canada

Science.gov (United States)

2014-01-01

Background Numerous social factors, generally studied in isolation, have been associated with older adults’ health. Even so, older people’s social circumstances are complex and an approach which embraces this complexity is desirable. Here we investigate many social factors in relation to one another and to survival among older adults using a social ecology perspective to measure social vulnerability among older adults. Methods 2740 adults aged 65 and older were followed for ten years in the Canadian National Population Health Survey (NPHS). Twenty-three individual-level social variables were drawn from the 1994 NPHS and five Enumeration Area (EA)-level variables were abstracted from the 1996 Canadian Census using postal code linkage. Principal Component Analysis (PCA) was used to identify dimensions of social vulnerability. All social variables were summed to create a social vulnerability index which was studied in relation to ten-year mortality. Results The PCA was limited by low variance (47%) explained by emergent factors. Seven dimensions of social vulnerability emerged in the most robust, yet limited, model: social support, engagement, living situation, self-esteem, sense of control, relations with others and contextual socio-economic status. These dimensions showed complex inter-relationships and were situated within a social ecology framework, considering spheres of influence from the individual through to group, neighbourhood and broader societal levels. Adjusting for age, sex, and frailty, increasing social vulnerability measured using the cumulative social vulnerability index was associated with increased risk of mortality over ten years in a Cox regression model (HR 1.04, 95% CI:1.01-1.07, p = 0.01). Conclusions Social vulnerability has important independent influence on older adults’ health though relationships between contributing variables are complex and do not lend themselves well to fragmentation into a small number of discrete factors. A

Benefits of using a Social-Ecological Systems Approach to ...

Science.gov (United States)

Using a social-ecological systems (SES) perspective to examine wetland restoration helps decision-makers recognize interdependencies and relations between ecological and social components of coupled systems. Conceptual models are an invaluable tool to capture, visualize, and organize the key factors in complex social-ecological systems, but can be overwhelming to generate and lead to key concepts being overlooked if development is unstructured. Using a DPSIR approach (Drivers, Pressures, State, Impact, Responses), conceptual models can be developed to link decision scenarios and stressors to impacts on ecosystem services. These impacts on priority ecosystem services can then be linked to changes in human health and well-being through benefit functions. Expert input and contributions across disciplines provides appropriate temporal and spatial scales for determination of targets, project implementation, and monitoring strategies. This approach is being applied to create descriptive SES models of two wetland restoration projects. The first, the dredging of a degraded estuarine channel and restoration of mangrove forests in Caño Martìn Peña in San Juan, Puerto Rico is in the planning stage. The second, the restoration of a former cranberry farm in Plymouth, Massachusetts has completed a large restoration of freshwater wetland, and is gearing up for a second phase. Through the development of conceptual models, we are connecting driving forces wi

Fast Growing Plantations for Wood Production - Integration of Ecological Effects and Economic Perspectives.

Science.gov (United States)

Bredemeier, Michael; Busch, Gerald; Hartmann, Linda; Jansen, Martin; Richter, Falk; Lamersdorf, Norbert P

2015-01-01

offer viable and attractive economic perspectives to farmers and other land managers besides of the potential ecological benefits of SRCs. For this reason, an integrated tool for scenario analysis was developed within the BEST project ("BEAST - Bio-Energy Allocation and Scenario Tool"). It combines ecological assessments with calculations of economic revenue as a basis for a participative regional dialog on sustainable land use and climate protection goals. Results show a substantial capacity for providing renewable energy from economically competitive arable SRC sites while generating ecological synergies.

Exploring the Human Ecology of the Younger Dryas Extraterrestrial Impact Event

Science.gov (United States)

Kennett, D. J.; Erlandson, J. M.; Braje, T. J.; Culleton, B. J.

2007-05-01

Several lines of evidence now exist for a major extraterrestrial impact event in North America at 12.9 ka (the YDB). This impact partially destabilized the Laurentide and Cordilleran ice sheets, triggered abrupt Younger Dryas cooling and extensive wildfires, and contributed to megafaunal extinction. This event also occurred soon after the well established colonization of the Americas by anatomically modern humans. Confirmation of this event would represent the first near-time extraterrestrial impact with significant effects on human populations. These likely included widespread, abrupt human mortality, population displacement, migration into less effected or newly established habitats, loss of cultural traditions, and resource diversification in the face of the massive megafaunal extinction and population reductions in surviving animal populations. Ultimately, these transformations established the context for the special character of plant and animal domestication and the emergence of agricultural economies in North America. We explore the Late Pleistocene archaeological record in North America within the context of documented major biotic changes associated with the YDB in North America and of the massive ecological affects hypothesized for this event.

Combining aesthetic with ecological values for landscape sustainability.

Science.gov (United States)

Yang, Dewei; Luo, Tao; Lin, Tao; Qiu, Quanyi; Luo, Yunjian

2014-01-01

Humans receive multiple benefits from various landscapes that foster ecological services and aesthetic attractiveness. In this study, a hybrid framework was proposed to evaluate ecological and aesthetic values of five landscape types in Houguanhu Region of central China. Data from the public aesthetic survey and professional ecological assessment were converted into a two-dimensional coordinate system and distribution maps of landscape values. Results showed that natural landscapes (i.e. water body and forest) contributed positively more to both aesthetic and ecological values than semi-natural and human-dominated landscapes (i.e. farmland and non-ecological land). The distribution maps of landscape values indicated that the aesthetic, ecological and integrated landscape values were significantly associated with landscape attributes and human activity intensity. To combine aesthetic preferences with ecological services, the methods (i.e. field survey, landscape value coefficients, normalized method, a two-dimensional coordinate system, and landscape value distribution maps) were employed in landscape assessment. Our results could facilitate to identify the underlying structure-function-value chain, and also improve the understanding of multiple functions in landscape planning. The situation context could also be emphasized to bring ecological and aesthetic goals into better alignment.

Human and animal health risk assessments of chemicals in the food chain: Comparative aspects and future perspectives

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Dorne, J.L.C.M.; Fink-Gremmels, J.

2013-01-01

Chemicals from anthropogenic and natural origins enter animal feed, human food and water either as undesirable contaminants or as part of the components of a diet. Over the last five decades, considerable efforts and progress to develop methodologies to protect humans and animals against potential risks associated with exposure to such potentially toxic chemicals have been made. This special issue presents relevant methodological developments and examples of risk assessments of undesirable substances in the food chain integrating the animal health and the human health perspective and refers to recent Opinions of the Scientific Panel on Contaminants in the Food Chain (CONTAM) of the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA). This introductory review aims to give a comparative account of the risk assessment steps used in human health and animal health risk assessments for chemicals in the food chain and provides a critical view of the data gaps and future perspectives for this cross-disciplinary field. - Highlights: ► Principles of human and animal health risk assessment. ► Data gaps for each step of animal health risk assessment. ► Implications of animal risk assessment on human risk assessment. ► Future perspectives on chemical risk assessment

Human and animal health risk assessments of chemicals in the food chain: Comparative aspects and future perspectives

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Dorne, J.L.C.M., E-mail: jean-lou.dorne@efsa.europa.eu [Emerging Risk Unit, Via Carlo Magno 1A, 43126 Parma (Italy); Fink-Gremmels, J. [Utrecht University, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Institute for Risk Assessment Sciences, Yalelaan 104, 3584 CM Utrecht (Netherlands)

2013-08-01

Chemicals from anthropogenic and natural origins enter animal feed, human food and water either as undesirable contaminants or as part of the components of a diet. Over the last five decades, considerable efforts and progress to develop methodologies to protect humans and animals against potential risks associated with exposure to such potentially toxic chemicals have been made. This special issue presents relevant methodological developments and examples of risk assessments of undesirable substances in the food chain integrating the animal health and the human health perspective and refers to recent Opinions of the Scientific Panel on Contaminants in the Food Chain (CONTAM) of the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA). This introductory review aims to give a comparative account of the risk assessment steps used in human health and animal health risk assessments for chemicals in the food chain and provides a critical view of the data gaps and future perspectives for this cross-disciplinary field. - Highlights: ► Principles of human and animal health risk assessment. ► Data gaps for each step of animal health risk assessment. ► Implications of animal risk assessment on human risk assessment. ► Future perspectives on chemical risk assessment.

The Outward Extension of an Ecological Footprint in City Expansion: The Case of Beijing

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Gaodi Xie

2014-12-01

Full Text Available A biologically productive area was used in the ecological footprint method to measure the demand and impact of human activities on the natural capital, and further, to judge whether the impact is within the scope of the regional bio-capacity. In this presentation, an indicator “ecological footprint distance (Def” is proposed. The results indicated that the proposed indicator Def could identify the outward extension of a city’s ecological footprint with the city’s rapid expansion. From 2008 to 2012, the proportion of imported bio-capacity increased approximately from 48% to 64%, which implied that the ecological impact of Beijing had expanded year by year. The Def of Beijing increased from 567 km in 2008 to 677 km in 2012, with an average annual increase of about 25 km. From the perspective of seasonal change, Beijing’s ecological footprint distance in winter and spring was much higher than in summer and fall. The main features of provincial-spatial distribution of Beijing’s Def were as follows: grain and oil and meat and eggs were mainly supplied by Heilongjiang, Jilin, Liaoning, Hebei and Inner Mongolia; yet vegetable and fruit were mainly supplied by Hainan, Guangdong, Hebei and Shandong. Measures should be taken to decentralize the sources of imported bio-capacity, so as to ensure a sustainable development in Metropolitan cities.

Why history matters in ecology: an interdisciplinary perspective

Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

Szabó, Péter

2010-01-01

Roč. 37, č. 4 (2010), s. 380-387 ISSN 0376-8929 R&D Projects: GA AV ČR IAA600050812 Institutional research plan: CEZ:AV0Z60050516 Keywords : historical ecology * interdisciplinarity * complexs ecosystems Subject RIV: EF - Botanics Impact factor: 2.000, year: 2010

The Impact of a Novel Curriculum on Secondary Biology Teachers' Dispositions toward Using Authentic Data and Media in Their Human Impact and Ecology Lessons

Science.gov (United States)

Wyner, Yael

2013-01-01

This study examines how the implementation of a novel curriculum, that emphasizes the use of published scientific data and media to learn about human impact and ecological function, influenced ninth-grade biology teacher (N - 36) dispositions toward using data and media in their ecology and human impact lesson plans. It explores how integration of…

Climate Vulnerability and Human Migration in Global Perspective

Science.gov (United States)

Grecequet, Martina; DeWaard, Jack; Hellmann, Jessica J.; Abel, Guy J.

2018-01-01

The relationship between climate change and human migration is not homogenous and depends critically on the differential vulnerability of population and places. If places and populations are not vulnerable, or susceptible, to climate change, then the climate–migration relationship may not materialize. The key to understanding and, from a policy perspective, planning for whether and how climate change will impact future migration patterns is therefore knowledge of the link between climate vulnerability and migration. However, beyond specific case studies, little is known about this association in global perspective. We therefore provide a descriptive, country-level portrait of this relationship. We show that the negative association between climate vulnerability and international migration holds only for countries least vulnerable to climate change, which suggests the potential for trapped populations in more vulnerable countries. However, when analyzed separately by life supporting sector (food, water, health, ecosystem services, human habitat, and infrastructure) and vulnerability dimension (exposure, sensitivity, and adaptive capacity), we detect evidence of a relationship among more, but not the most, vulnerable countries. The bilateral (i.e., country-to-country) migration show that, on average, people move from countries of higher vulnerability to lower vulnerability, reducing global risk by 15%. This finding is consistent with the idea that migration is a climate adaptation strategy. Still, ~6% of bilateral migration is maladaptive with respect to climate change, with some movement toward countries with greater climate change vulnerability. PMID:29707262

Climate Vulnerability and Human Migration in Global Perspective.

Science.gov (United States)

Grecequet, Martina; DeWaard, Jack; Hellmann, Jessica J; Abel, Guy J

2017-05-01

The relationship between climate change and human migration is not homogenous and depends critically on the differential vulnerability of population and places. If places and populations are not vulnerable, or susceptible, to climate change, then the climate-migration relationship may not materialize. The key to understanding and, from a policy perspective, planning for whether and how climate change will impact future migration patterns is therefore knowledge of the link between climate vulnerability and migration. However, beyond specific case studies, little is known about this association in global perspective. We therefore provide a descriptive, country-level portrait of this relationship. We show that the negative association between climate vulnerability and international migration holds only for countries least vulnerable to climate change, which suggests the potential for trapped populations in more vulnerable countries. However, when analyzed separately by life supporting sector (food, water, health, ecosystem services, human habitat, and infrastructure) and vulnerability dimension (exposure, sensitivity, and adaptive capacity), we detect evidence of a relationship among more, but not the most, vulnerable countries. The bilateral (i.e., country-to-country) migration show that, on average, people move from countries of higher vulnerability to lower vulnerability, reducing global risk by 15%. This finding is consistent with the idea that migration is a climate adaptation strategy. Still, ~6% of bilateral migration is maladaptive with respect to climate change, with some movement toward countries with greater climate change vulnerability.

Ecological Niche Modeling of Risk Factors for H7N9 Human Infection in China

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Min Xu

2016-06-01

Full Text Available China was attacked by a serious influenza A (H7N9 virus in 2013. The first human infection case was confirmed in Shanghai City and soon spread across most of eastern China. Using the methods of Geographic Information Systems (GIS and ecological niche modeling (ENM, this research quantitatively analyzed the relationships between the H7N9 occurrence and the main environmental factors, including meteorological variables, human population density, bird migratory routes, wetland distribution, and live poultry farms, markets, and processing factories. Based on these relationships the probability of the presence of H7N9 was predicted. Results indicated that the distribution of live poultry processing factories, farms, and human population density were the top three most important determinants of the H7N9 human infection. The relative contributions to the model of live poultry processing factories, farms and human population density were 39.9%, 17.7% and 17.7%, respectively, while the maximum temperature of the warmest month and mean relative humidity had nearly no contribution to the model. The paper has developed an ecological niche model (ENM that predicts the spatial distribution of H7N9 cases in China using environmental variables. The area under the curve (AUC values of the model were greater than 0.9 (0.992 for the training samples and 0.961 for the test data. The findings indicated that most of the high risk areas were distributed in the Yangtze River Delta. These findings have important significance for the Chinese government to enhance the environmental surveillance at multiple human poultry interfaces in the high risk area.

Simultaneous assessments of occurrence, ecological, human health, and organoleptic hazards for 77 VOCs in typical drinking water sources from 5 major river basins, China

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Chen, Xichao; Luo, Qian; Wang, Donghong; Gao, Jijun; Wei, Zi; Wang, Zijian; Zhou, Huaidong; Mazumder, Asit

2015-01-01

Owing to the growing public awareness on the safety and aesthetics in water sources, more attention has been given to the adverse effects of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) on aquatic organisms and human beings. In this study, 77 target VOCs (including 54 common VOCs, 13 carbonyl compounds, and 10 taste and odor compounds) were detected in typical drinking water sources from 5 major river basins (the Yangtze, the Huaihe, the Yellow, the Haihe and the Liaohe River basins) and their occurrences were characterized. The ecological, human health, and olfactory assessments were performed to assess the major hazards in source water. The investigation showed that there existed potential ecological risks (1.30 × 10 ≤ RQ_t_o_t_a_ls ≤ 8.99 × 10) but little human health risks (6.84 × 10"−"7 ≤ RQ_t_o_t_a_ls ≤ 4.24 × 10"−"4) by VOCs, while that odor problems occurred extensively. The priority contaminants in drinking water sources of China were also listed based on the present assessment criteria. - Highlights: • VOCs with various polarities were screened in typical water sources of China. • Ecological, human health and olfactory assessments were simultaneously performed. • The risk assessments were used to identify the major hazards by VOCs. • The detected VOCs posed potential ecological risks but little human health risks. • Odor problems occurred extensively in source water of China. - Detected VOCs with various polarities caused odor problems and posed potential ecological risks but little human health risks in drinking water sources in China.

Synthesis of Household Yard Area Dynamics in the City of San Juan Using Multi-Scalar Social-Ecological Perspectives

Science.gov (United States)

Elvia Melendez-Ackerman; Christopher Nytch; Luis Santiago-Acevedo; Julio Verdejo-Ortiz; Raul Santiago-Bartolomei; Luis Ramos-Santiago; Tischa Munoz-Erickson

2016-01-01

Urban sustainability discourse promotes the increased use of green infrastructure (GI) because of its contribution of important ecosystem services to city dwellers. Under this vision, all urban green spaces, including those at the household scale, are valued for their potential contributions to a city’s social-ecological functioning and associated benefits for human...

Experiential Learning as a Constraint-Led Process: An Ecological Dynamics Perspective

Science.gov (United States)

Brymer, Eric; Davids, Keith

2014-01-01

In this paper we present key ideas for an ecological dynamics approach to learning that reveal the importance of learner-environment interactions to frame outdoor experiential learning. We propose that ecological dynamics provides a useful framework for understanding the interacting constraints of the learning process and for designing learning…

Meaning Emergence in the Ecology of Dialogical Systems

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Trasmundi Sarah Bro

2016-12-01

Full Text Available This article is an empirically based theoretical contribution to the investigation of meaningmaking in the ecology of human interaction and interactivity. It presents an ecological perspective on meaning-making that pivots on how agents pick up information directly in their organism-environment-system; i.e. as an activity that does not presuppose inner cognitive operations. We pursue this line of thought by presenting an analysis of how a doctor and a nurse make a decision about a specific medical procedure (catheterisation based on meaning-making activity. As we do not see meaning as a linguistic (symbolic or a cognitive (representational phenomenon external to an agent/user, but as emergent in coordinated interaction, we zoom in on how the practitioners recalibrate the organism-environmentsystem by shift ing between a multi-agentive mode and an individual mode. We use Cognitive Event Analysis to investigate how the agents oscillate between being a multi-agent-system with shared, tightly coordinated agency and a loosely coupled dialogical system where the individuals bring forth an understanding based on their professional backgrounds and expertise. On this view, an ecological approach to meaning-making takes a starting point in how local interaction is constrained by previous events, emergent affordances in the environment, and real-time inter-bodily dynamics. Accordingly, meaning-making is seen as a joint activity emerging from the system’s coordinative actions rather than as a result of individual interpretation of symbolic content.

A social–ecological perspective for riverscape management in the Columbia River Basin

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Hand, Brian K.; Flint, Courtney G.; Frissell, Chris A.; Muhlfeld, Clint C.; Devlin, Shawn P.; Kennedy, Brian P.; Crabtree, Robert L.; McKee, W. Arthur; Luikart, Gordon; Stanford, Jack A.

2018-01-01

Riverscapes are complex, landscape-scale mosaics of connected river and stream habitats embedded in diverse ecological and socioeconomic settings. Social–ecological interactions among stakeholders often complicate natural-resource conservation and management of riverscapes. The management challenges posed by the conservation and restoration of wild salmonid populations in the Columbia River Basin (CRB) of western North America are one such example. Because of their ecological, cultural, and socioeconomic importance, salmonids present a complex management landscape due to interacting environmental factors (eg climate change, invasive species) as well as socioeconomic and political factors (eg dams, hatcheries, land-use change, transboundary agreements). Many of the problems in the CRB can be linked to social–ecological interactions occurring within integrated ecological, human–social, and regional–climatic spheres. Future management and conservation of salmonid populations therefore depends on how well the issues are understood and whether they can be resolved through effective communication and collaboration among ecologists, social scientists, stakeholders, and policy makers.

Biodiversity and disease: a synthesis of ecological perspectives on Lyme disease transmission.

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Wood, Chelsea L.; Lafferty, Kevin D.

2013-01-01

Recent reviews have argued that disease control is among the ecosystem services yielded by biodiversity. Lyme disease (LD) is commonly cited as the best example of the ‘diluting’ effect of biodiversity on disease transmission, but many studies document the opposite relationship, showing that human LD risk can increase with forestation. Here, we unify these divergent perspectives and find strong evidence for a positive link between biodiversity and LD at broad spatial scales (urban to suburban to rural) and equivocal evidence for a negative link between biodiversity and LD at varying levels of biodiversity within forests. This finding suggests that, across zoonotic disease agents, the biodiversity–disease relationship is scale dependent and complex.

The Human Threat to River Ecosystems at the Watershed Scale: An Ecological Security Assessment of the Songhua River Basin, Northeast China

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Yuan Shen

2017-03-01

Full Text Available Human disturbances impact river basins by reducing the quality of, and services provided by, aquatic ecosystems. Conducting quantitative assessments of ecological security at the watershed scale is important for enhancing the water quality of river basins and promoting environmental management. In this study, China’s Songhua River Basin was divided into 204 assessment units by combining watershed and administrative boundaries. Ten human threat factors were identified based on their significant influence on the river ecosystem. A modified ecological threat index was used to synthetically evaluate the ecological security, where frequency was weighted by flow length from the grids to the main rivers, while severity was weighted by the potential hazard of the factors on variables of river ecosystem integrity. The results showed that individual factors related to urbanization, agricultural development and facility construction presented different spatial distribution characteristics. At the center of the plain area, the provincial capital cities posed the highest level of threat, as did the municipal districts of prefecture-level cities. The spatial relationships between hot spot locations of the ecological threat index and water quality, as well as the distribution areas of critically endangered species, were analyzed. The sensitivity analysis illustrated that alteration of agricultural development largely changed the ecological security level of the basin. By offering a reference for assessing ecological security, this study can enhance water environmental planning and management.

Understanding and enhancing future infrastructure resiliency: a socio-ecological approach.

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Sage, Daniel; Sircar, Indraneel; Dainty, Andrew; Fussey, Pete; Goodier, Chris

2015-07-01

The resilience of any system, human or natural, centres on its capacity to adapt its structure, but not necessarily its function, to a new configuration in response to long-term socio-ecological change. In the long term, therefore, enhancing resilience involves more than simply improving a system's ability to resist an immediate threat or to recover to a stable past state. However, despite the prevalence of adaptive notions of resilience in academic discourse, it is apparent that infrastructure planners and policies largely continue to struggle to comprehend longer-term system adaptation in their understanding of resilience. Instead, a short-term, stable system (STSS) perspective on resilience is prevalent. This paper seeks to identify and problematise this perspective, presenting research based on the development of a heuristic 'scenario-episode' tool to address, and challenge, it in the context of United Kingdom infrastructure resilience. The aim is to help resilience practitioners to understand better the capacities of future infrastructure systems to respond to natural, malicious threats. © 2015 The Author(s). Disasters © Overseas Development Institute, 2015.

Children and political violence from a social ecological perspective: implications from research on children and families in Northern Ireland.

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Cummings, E Mark; Goeke-Morey, Marcie C; Schermerhorn, Alice C; Merrilees, Christine E; Cairns, Ed

2009-03-01

The effects on children of political violence are matters of international concern, with many negative effects well-documented. At the same time, relations between war, terrorism, or other forms of political violence and child development do not occur in a vacuum. The impact can be understood as related to changes in the communities, families and other social contexts in which children live, and in the psychological processes engaged by these social ecologies. To advance this process-oriented perspective, a social ecological model for the effects of political violence on children is advanced. This approach is illustrated by findings and methods from an ongoing research project on political violence and children in Northern Ireland. Aims of this project include both greater insight into this particular context for political violence and the provision of a template for study of the impact of children's exposure to violence in other regions of the world. Accordingly, the applicability of this approach is considered for other social contexts, including (a) another area in the world with histories of political violence and (b) a context of community violence in the US.

The Ecology of Exercise: Mechanisms Underlying Individual Variation in Behavior, Activity, and Performance: An Introduction to Symposium.

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Killen, Shaun S; Calsbeek, Ryan; Williams, Tony D

2017-08-01

Wild animals often engage in intense physical activity while performing tasks vital for their survival and reproduction associated with foraging, avoiding predators, fighting, providing parental care, and migrating. In this theme issue we consider how viewing these tasks as "exercise"-analogous to that performed by human athletes-may help provide insight into the mechanisms underlying individual variation in these types of behaviors and the importance of physical activity in an ecological context. In this article and throughout this issue, we focus on four key questions relevant to the study of behavioral ecology that may be addressed by studying wild animal behavior from the perspective of exercise physiology: (1) How hard do individual animals work in response to ecological (or evolutionary) demands?; (2) Do lab-based studies of activity provide good models for understanding activity in free-living animals and individual variation in traits?; (3) Can animals work too hard during "routine" activities?; and (4) Can paradigms of "exercise" and "training" be applied to free-living animals? Attempts to address these issues are currently being facilitated by rapid technological developments associated with physiological measurements and the remote tracking of wild animals, to provide mechanistic insights into the behavior of free-ranging animals at spatial and temporal scales that were previously impossible. We further suggest that viewing the behaviors of non-human animals in terms of the physical exercise performed will allow us to fully take advantage of these technological advances, draw from knowledge and conceptual frameworks already in use by human exercise physiologists, and identify key traits that constrain performance and generate variation in performance among individuals. It is our hope that, by highlighting mechanisms of behavior and performance, the articles in this issue will spur on further synergies between physiologists and ecologists, to take

Emergy evaluation of water utilization benefits in water-ecological-economic system based on water cycle process

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Guo, X.; Wu, Z.; Lv, C.

2017-12-01

The water utilization benefits are formed by the material flow, energy flow, information flow and value stream in the whole water cycle process, and reflected along with the material circulation of inner system. But most of traditional water utilization benefits evaluation are based on the macro level, only consider the whole material input and output and energy conversion relation, and lack the characterization of water utilization benefits accompanying with water cycle process from the formation mechanism. In addition, most studies are from the perspective of economics, only pay attention to the whole economic output and sewage treatment economic investment, but neglect the ecological function benefits of water cycle, Therefore, from the perspective of internal material circulation in the whole system, taking water cycle process as the process of material circulation and energy flow, the circulation and flow process of water and other ecological environment, social economic elements were described, and the composition of water utilization positive and negative benefits in water-ecological-economic system was explored, and the performance of each benefit was analyzed. On this basis, the emergy calculation method of each benefit was proposed by emergy quantitative analysis technique, which can realize the unified measurement and evaluation of water utilization benefits in water-ecological-economic system. Then, taking Zhengzhou city as an example, the corresponding benefits of different water cycle links were calculated quantitatively by emergy method, and the results showed that the emergy evaluation method of water utilization benefits can unify the ecosystem and the economic system, achieve uniform quantitative analysis, and measure the true value of natural resources and human economic activities comprehensively.

The Nature of Geography and Its Perspectives in AP® Human Geography

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Murphy, Alexander B.; Hare, Phillip R.

2016-01-01

AP Human Geography students need to develop an understanding of what it means to examine the world around them from a geographic perspective. Focusing attention on geography's concern with spatial relationships, place characteristics, and geographic context helps student appreciate the nature of the discipline and the insights it offers. These…

Ecological sustainability and personal behavior: relations demonstrated by the decision-making process of selecting a certain transportation mean

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Priewasser, Reinhold [Linz Univ., Inst. for Environmental Management in Enterprises and Regions, Linz (Austria)

1999-07-01

Facing the aim of ecological sustainability only little emphasis has been placed on the fact that the extent of environmental stresses is not only a consequence of certain factual or structural conditions but also essentially determined by varying human behaviour patterns. Technologies and structures are not ecologically effective by themselves, their environmental relevance strongly depends on the persons' way of acting within the prevailing system. Recognising the importance of that perspective psychological and social theories about the generation of personal behaviour as well as the theoretical models of learning can offer useful indications concerning the interpersonal and extrapersonal preconditions of environmentally oriented acting. With reference to the decision-making process of selecting a certain transportation mean, the influences of rational and emotional factors and obstacles to an ecologically sustainable personal act should be exemplary demonstrated. At the same time very effective points of departure for behavioural change can be identified. (Author)

The Methodology of Psychological Research of Ecological Consciousness

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Irina A. Shmeleva

2009-01-01

Full Text Available The paper examines the methodological principles of the psychological study of ecological consciousness as one of the urgent interdisciplinary problems of XX–XXI century, caused by the aggravation of global ecological problems and the need for the realization of the “sustainable development”ideas. Ecological consciousness is considered as multilayered, dynamic, reflexive element of human consciousness, incorporating multivariate, holistic aspects of interaction of the human being as the H.S. and the Humanity representative with the environment and the Planet. The possibility of the more active introduction of Russian psychology in the process is argued for in connection with the existing conceptual approaches, which compose the methodological basis for ecological consciousness research. Among these approaches are considered: the principles of holistic study of the human being by B. Ananyev, the methodology of system psychological description by V. Gansen and G. Sukhodolsky, the idea of reflexivity of consciousness by S. Rubinstein, the humanitarian- ecological imperative of the development of consciousness by V. Zinchenko, the theory of relations by V. Myasishev, consideration of ecological consciousness as relation to nature by S. Deryabo and V. Yasvin, theories of consciousness by V. Petrenko, V. Allakhverdov and other Russian psychologists. The value component of ecological consciousness is distinguished as the most significant. The possibility of applying the Values’ theory of the by S. Schwartz for studying the ecological values is discussed along with the prognostic potential of the universalism value.

A perspective on the history and evolution of an Oceans and Human Health "metadiscipline" in the USA.

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Sandifer, Paul A; Trtanj, Juli M; Collier, Tracy K

2013-05-01

We review recent history and evolution of Oceans and Human Health programs and related activities in the USA from a perspective within the Federal government. As a result of about a decade of support by the US Congress and through a few Federal agencies, notably the National Science Foundation, National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, and National Ocean and Atmospheric Administration, robust Oceans and Human Health (OHH) research and application activities are now relatively widespread, although still small, in a number of agencies and academic institutions. OHH themes and issues have been incorporated into comprehensive federal ocean research plans and are reflected in the new National Ocean Policy enunciated by Executive Order 13547. In just a decade, OHH has matured into a recognized "metadiscipline," with development of a small, but robust and diverse community of science and practice, incorporation into academic educational programs, regular participation in ocean and coastal science and public health societies, and active engagement with public health decision makers. In addition to substantial increases in scientific information, the OHH community has demonstrated ability to respond rapidly and effectively to emergency situations such as those associated with extreme weather events (e.g., hurricanes, floods) and human-caused disasters (e.g., the Deep Water Horizon oil spill). Among many other things, next steps include development and implementation of agency health strategies and provision of specific services, such as ecological forecasts to provide routine early warnings for ocean health threats and opportunities for prevention and mitigation of these risks.

Child mental-health policy development in sub-Saharan Africa: broadening the perspectives using Bronfenbrenner's ecological model.

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Atilola, Olayinka

2017-04-01

Despite socio-economic, demographic and epidemiological facts and realities that point to a potential risk for explosion in the prevalence of childhood mental health problems in sub-Saharan Africa, there is still a severe dearth of child and adolescent mental health (CAMH) policy or strategy to respond to the situation in the region. Unfortunately, current attempts at suggesting courses of action in this regard appear to be focused on narrow reactionary approaches. There is a need for theoretical frameworks to capture the full ramification of childhood in sub-Saharan Africa, from which multi-level, context-appropriate and holistic CAMH policy directions can be understood. In this commentary, we propose an amended version of the Bronfenbrenner's ecological model of childhood as such framework that captures proximal, intermediate and distal factors that influence the care environment of children. We then used the insights provided by the model to identify and prioritize intervention points and appropriate intervention strategies in charting a tentative course for CAMH policy development in the region. Though the ecological model provides a distinct perspective to the structure and dynamics of the care environment of children, the proposed framework using the model is still largely theoretical and need to be further integrated into future studies on CAMH policy development in the region. © The Author 2014. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.

Gambling, games of skill and human ecology: a pilot study by a multidimensional analysis approach

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Luca Valera

2015-12-01

Full Text Available The present pilot study aims at analyzing the human activity of playing in the light of an indicator of human ecology (HE. We highlighted the four essential anthropological dimensions (FEAD, starting from the analysis of questionnaires administered to actual gamers. The coherence between theoretical construct and observational data is a remarkable proof-of-concept of the possibility of establishing an experimentally motivated link between a philosophical construct (coming from Huizinga's Homo ludens definition and actual gamers' motivation pattern. The starting hypothesis is that the activity of playing becomes ecological (and thus not harmful when it achieves the harmony between the FEAD, thus realizing HE; conversely, it becomes at risk of creating some form of addiction, when destroying FEAD balance. We analyzed the data by means of variable clustering (oblique principal components so to experimentally verify the existence of the hypothesized dimensions. The subsequent projection of statistical units (gamers on the orthogonal space spanned by principal components allowed us to generate a meaningful, albeit preliminary, clusterization of gamer profiles.

Revitalizing Traditional Chinese Concepts in the Modern Ecological Civilization Debate

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Arler, Finn

2018-01-01

The subject of this paper is the question of China’s contribution to the establishment of an association of ecological civilizations—as seen from the perspective of a European—given the growing economic, political, and ecological influence that China has in the world today. The question is which...... worldviews? The paper discusses a number of modern interpretations that have argued that some basic concepts in the Chinese tradition are not only congenial with, but even provide fruitful additions to the modern debate about the establishment of cooperative ecological civilizations. In the final part...

Sustainability of animal production systems: an ecological perspective.

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Vavra, M

1996-06-01

The question of sustainability of agricultural production and the use of natural resources has become a popular topic. Most scientists agree that current systems are generally non-sustainable. Current rates of resource extraction will lead us to a depleted earth in the future. Sustainability is defined in many ways. For this paper sustainability should be considered the overlap of what is wanted and what is ecologically possible. Attempts have been made to place a quantitative measure on sustainability. However, it should be considered a trajectory or goal, a direction that guides constructive change, rather than a single quantitative measure. Research and extension personnel may have to take a broader look at their efforts and expand their knowledge base in order to address the issue of sustainable production systems. Both natural events and those caused by humans bring about changes in production potential that require shifts in management. Uncertainty and change should be incorporated into adaptive management strategies. Interdisciplinary efforts are needed to confront these issues. Animal scientists need to formulate management systems that are environmentally compatible or face restrictive legislation that will force change. Members of the American Society of Animal Science seem to agree: efficient and sustainable use of natural resources appears in the draft of the Strategic Plan of the Society, and a poll of members revealed that environmental concerns about animal agriculture was a primary issue facing animal scientists.

Biodiversity, the Human Microbiome and Mental Health: Moving toward a New Clinical Ecology for the 21st Century?

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Susan L. Prescott

2016-01-01

Full Text Available Advances in research concerning the brain-related influences of the microbiome have been paradigm shifting, although at an early stage, clinical research involving beneficial microbes lends credence to the notion that the microbiome may be an important target in supporting mental health (defined here along the continuum between quality of life and the criteria for specific disorders. Through metagenomics, proteomics, metabolomics, and systems biology, a new emphasis to personalized medicine is on the horizon. Humans can now be viewed as multispecies organisms operating within an ecological theatre; it is important that clinicians increasingly see their patients in this context. Historically marginalized ecological aspects of health are destined to become an important consideration in the new frontiers of practicing medicine with the microbiome in mind. Emerging evidence indicates that macrobiodiversity in the external environment can influence mental well-being. Local biodiversity may also drive differences in human-associated microbiota; microbial diversity as a product of external biodiversity may have far-reaching effects on immune function and mood. With a focus on the microbiome as it pertains to mental health, we define environmental “grey space” and emphasize a new frontier involving bio-eco-psychological medicine. Within this concept the ecological terrain can link dysbiotic lifestyles and biodiversity on the grand scale to the local human-associated microbial ecosystems that might otherwise seem far removed from one another.

Ecological and human health risks arising from exposure to metals in urban soils under different land use in Nigeria.

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Iwegbue, Chukwujindu M A; Martincigh, Bice S

2018-05-01

The concentrations of eight metals (Cd, Pb, Cr, Ni, Cu, Mn, Zn and Fe) were measured in soils under different land use in an urban environment of the Niger Delta in Nigeria. The aim was to provide information on the potential ecological and human health risks associated with human exposure to metals in these soils. The potential ecological risk due to metals in soils of these land use types falls in the range of low to moderate ecological risk with a significant contribution from Cd. The severity of the individual metals to ecological risk in these land use types followed the order Cd > Pb > Zn > Cu > Ni > Cr > Mn. The non-carcinogenic risk, expressed in terms of the hazard index (HI), arising through exposure to metals through oral, dermal and inhalation pathways, was greater than 1 for children in the majority of the land use types and less than 1 for adults for all land use types. This indicated that there are considerable non-cancer risks arising from childhood exposure to metals in soils of these land use types. The cancer risk values were within acceptable threshold values indicating a negligible cancer risk for both children and adults exposed to metals in these urban soils.

Domain-specific reasoning: social contracts, cheating, and perspective change.

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Gigerenzer, G; Hug, K

1992-05-01

What counts as human rationality: reasoning processes that embody content-independent formal theories, such as propositional logic, or reasoning processes that are well designed for solving important adaptive problems? Most theories of human reasoning have been based on content-independent formal rationality, whereas adaptive reasoning, ecological or evolutionary, has been little explored. We elaborate and test an evolutionary approach. Cosmides' (1989) social contract theory, using the Wason selection task. In the first part, we disentangle the theoretical concept of a "social contract" from that of a "cheater-detection algorithm". We demonstrate that the fact that a rule is perceived as a social contract--or a conditional permission or obligation, as Cheng and Holyoak (1985) proposed--is not sufficient to elicit Cosmides' striking results, which we replicated. The crucial issue is not semantic (the meaning of the rule), but pragmatic: whether a person is cued into the perspective of a party who can be cheated. In the second part, we distinguish between social contracts with bilateral and unilateral cheating options. Perspective change in contracts with bilateral cheating options turns P & not-Q responses into not-P & Q responses. The results strongly support social contract theory, contradict availability theory, and cannot be accounted for by pragmatic reasoning schema theory, which lacks the pragmatic concepts of perspectives and cheating detection.

The early history of modern ecological economics

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Røpke, Inge

2004-01-01

This paper provides a historical perspective for the discussion on ecological economics as a special field of research. By studying the historical background of ecological economics, the present discussions and tensions inside the field might become easier to understand and to relate to. The study...... is inspired by other studies of the emergence of new research areas done by sociologists and historians of science, and includes both cognitive and social aspects, macro trends and the role of individuals. The basis for the paper is a combination of literature studies and interviews with key researchers from...... the field. The story opens with the emergence of the new environmental agenda in the 1960s, which was influenced by the scientific development in biology and ecology. Then it is outlined how the environmental challenge was met by economics in the 1960s. Around 1970 the basic ideas of ecological economics...

Aging and human sexual behavior: biocultural perspectives - a mini-review.

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Gray, Peter B; Garcia, Justin R

2012-01-01

In this mini-review, we consider an evolutionary biocultural perspective on human aging and sexuality. An evolutionary approach to senescence highlights the energetic trade-offs between fertility and mortality. By comparing humans to other primates, we situate human senescence as an evolutionary process, with shifts in postreproductive sexual behavior in this light. Age-related declines in sexual behavior are typical for humans but also highly contingent on the sociocultural context within which aging individuals express their sexuality. We briefly review some of the most comprehensive studies of aging and sexual behavior, both from the USA and cross-culturally. We frame these patterns with respect to the long-term relationships within which human sexual behavior typically occurs. Because sexuality is typically expressed within pair-bonds, sexual behavior sometimes declines in both members of a couple with age, but also exhibits sex-specific effects that have their roots in evolved sex differences. Copyright © 2012 S. Karger AG, Basel.

Summary and perspective on evolutionary ecology of fishes

Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

Mehner, T.; Freyhof, J.; Reichard, Martin

2011-01-01

Roč. 25, č. 3 (2011), s. 547-556 ISSN 0269-7653 R&D Projects: GA ČR GA206/09/0815 Institutional research plan: CEZ:AV0Z60930519 Keywords : non-model systems * ecological speciation * behavioural interactions * local adaptation Subject RIV: EG - Zoology Impact factor: 2.453, year: 2011

An evolutionary ecology of individual differences

Science.gov (United States)

Dall, Sasha R. X.; Bell, Alison M.; Bolnick, Daniel I.; Ratnieks, Francis L. W.

2014-01-01

Individuals often differ in what they do. This has been recognised since antiquity. Nevertheless, the ecological and evolutionary significance of such variation is attracting widespread interest, which is burgeoning to an extent that is fragmenting the literature. As a first attempt at synthesis, we focus on individual differences in behaviour within populations that exceed the day-to-day variation in individual behaviour (i.e. behavioural specialisation). Indeed, the factors promoting ecologically relevant behavioural specialisation within natural populations are likely to have far-reaching ecological and evolutionary consequences. We discuss such individual differences from three distinct perspectives: individual niche specialisations, the division of labour within insect societies and animal personality variation. In the process, while recognising that each area has its own unique motivations, we identify a number of opportunities for productive ‘crossfertilisation’ among the (largely independent) bodies of work. We conclude that a complete understanding of evolutionarily and ecologically relevant individual differences must specify how ecological interactions impact the basic biological process (e.g. Darwinian selection, development and information processing) that underpin the organismal features determining behavioural specialisations. Moreover, there is likely to be covariation amongst behavioural specialisations. Thus, we sketch the key elements of a general framework for studying the evolutionary ecology of individual differences. PMID:22897772

Proceedings of the NOAMI workshop : a workshop to explore perspectives on risk assessment for orphaned and abandoned mines

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2009-03-01

This workshop hosted by the National Orphaned/Abandoned Mines Initiative (NOAMI) discussed risk assessment strategies and perspectives for orphaned and abandoned mines in Canada. Different perspectives related to the risk assessment process were considered by participants from local, provincial, federal, and territorial agencies as well as non-governmental, academic, and mining industry organizations. Strategies for effectively communicating with local communities were discussed. New methods of assessing risk related to bioavailability and bioaccessibility were reviewed along with approaches to risk assessment and risk management in relation to the Environmental Management Act. Case studies of risk assessment and remediation projects were presented. The workshop presentations were divided into the following 6 sessions: (1) keynote, (2) opening panel, (3) human health panel, (4) ecological panel, (5) geotechnical-safety risk assessment panel, and (6) case studies and perspectives. The workshop featured 22 presentations, of which 2 have been catalogued separately for inclusion in this database. A report on detailed ecological risk assessment (DERA) in British Columbia prepared by the Science Advisory Board for Contaminated Sites in British Columbia (BC) was included, as well as a final report that summarized presentations given at the workshop. refs., tabs., figs

[The vegetation adventivisation through perspective of modern ecological ideas].

Science.gov (United States)

Mirkin, B M; Naumova, L G

2002-01-01

Results of study of vegetation adventivisation (increase in proportion of invasive species) correspond to the theory of present ecology that denies general universal laws. Diverse features of invasive species play different role under various ecological conditions and at various time and space scale. The invasibility of communities under various conditions is determined by combination of different biotic and abiotic factors though it is obvious that most of invasive species are characterized with the high seed production, well developed vegetative propagation, windblown pollination, high plasticity and effective use of resources, low consumption by herbivores. The definition of an "ideal invasive species" or an "ideal invasible community" is impossible. The regularities of vegetation adventivisation can be observed clearly only at very large scale.

Bio-ecology and language: a necessary unity

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Cowley, Stephen

2014-01-01

-ecology. While shaped by discourse and beliefs about language-systems (and representations), the language and actions of human organism–environment systems change the world. As Garner (2004) argues, ecolinguistics can do more than invoke ‘interaction’ between language and ecology. While ‘realities’ are partly...... shared, much is biophysical. Living subjects link language and languaging with experience and technologies that have transformed the bio-ecology. Once these dynamics are subject to investigation, macrosocial issues can be reconnected with biological, human and linguistic concerns. Ecolinguistics can thus...

Paixões desnaturadas? Notas para uma ecologia queer Unnatural passions: notes for a queer Ecology

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Catriona Mortimer-Sandilands

2011-04-01

Full Text Available O presente artigo se propõe a pensar uma perspectiva queer para a ecologia política. Percebendo o heterossexismo como parte da rede opressiva de relações de poder, por meio da qual as relações humanas com a natureza são organizadas, Sandilands preocupase em propor um outro modo de vermos as relações entre natureza, seres humanos e sexualidade. O artigo trata dos primórdios dos movimentos ambientais na América do Norte e das diferentes ideologias que ligam, heteronormativamente, espaços naturais à heterossexualidade e homossexualidade a uma degeneração urbana. Para confrontar essa oposição entre natureza e homossexualidade, vai buscar na literatura e na história do movimento LGBTT (Lésbicas, Gays, Bisexuais, Travestis, Transexuais e Transgêneros na América do Norte inspiração para propor uma ecologia queer; com esse propósito, nos apresenta Zita Grover com sua conexão metafórica entre a "AIDS e outros desmatamentos" como uma das grandes inspirações para essa tarefa. Sua perspectiva ambiental, fundada na experiência dolorosa partilhada por uma comunidade que se encontrou de repente fortemente afetada pela AIDS, possibilita a ela um olhar ecologicamente sensível.This paper advocates for a queer perspective in political ecology. Understanding heterossexism as part of the oppressive network of relations that organizes the human-nature connections, Sandilands proposes another way to view nature-human-sexuality relations. She tells us about the beginning of the environmental movement in North America and the different heteronormative ideologies that connect natural spaces to heterossexuality while seeing homosexuality as related to an urban degenerescence. She seeks inspiration in LGBT literature and history to confront this opposition of nature and homossexuality to propose a queer ecology. The most inspirational words come from Zita Grover, whose perspective in ecology marked by the painful experience of being affected

The beauty of sensory ecology.

Science.gov (United States)

Otálora-Luna, Fernando; Aldana, Elis

2017-08-10

Sensory ecology is a discipline that focuses on how living creatures use information to survive, but not to live. By trans-defining the orthodox concept of sensory ecology, a serious heterodox question arises: how do organisms use their senses to live, i.e. to enjoy or suffer life? To respond to such a query the objective (time-independent) and emotional (non-rational) meaning of symbols must be revealed. Our program is distinct from both the neo-Darwinian and the classical ecological perspective because it does not focus on survival values of phenotypes and their functions, but asks for the aesthetic effect of biological structures and their symbolism. Our message recognizes that sensing apart from having a survival value also has a beauty value. Thus, we offer a provoking and inspiring new view on the sensory relations of 'living things' and their surroundings, where the innovating power of feelings have more weight than the privative power of reason.

[Research advances in ecological stoichiometry of marine plankton].

Science.gov (United States)

Chen, Lei; Li, Chao-Lun

2014-10-01

Ecological stoichiometry can be simply defined as: The biology of elements from molecules to the biosphere, which spans all levels of the environment and of the life. It's a new idea to build a unified theory and becomes an inevitable trend to develop the ecological science. Marine ecosystems, which contribute to 50% of the biosphere biomass, are the important component of the global biogeochemical cycles. Marine zooplankton plays an important role in the material circulation and energy flow of marine ecosystems and serves as a connecting link between the preceding and the following in a more precise understanding of the key elemental cycles. However, research on ecological stoichiometry of marine plankton is fragmentary and rare. This article summarized the ecological phenomena and mechanisms of limiting elements affecting marine plankton, the response of biochemical substances to nutrition limitation, and the food chain transmission and feedback of nutrition limitation. Meanwhile, we also put forward some perspectives for future research of ecological stoichiometry of plankton in China' s seas.

Interim balance: Ecology

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kogon, E.; Jungk, R.

1981-01-01

Subjects: The ecology problem - world wide. Sectoral balances: The examples of energy, transportation, chemistry, agriculture and food industry, water supply. Destruction of nature and human discord. Conservatives in our political parties and their views on environmental protection. Alliance between reds and 'greens', integration between reds and greens. The Rhine initiative. Lead respects no borders, experiences of citizens' action groups in Lothringia and the Saar district. International airport Munich-II/comments by a protestant. 'Give priority to life'/A hearing on environmental protection. 4:96 - 'greens' in the Bremen Senate. Policy in a hard-hearing world/psychology of citizens' action groups. Critical ecological research and scientific establishment. Full productivity and ecology. The deluge to follow/Hints on how to build an ark. Symbiosis is more than coexistence/Ecologists' social theory. Throwing in two hundred elementary particles/on the way to an ecological concept of science. Scientific journals. Alternative literature. Teaching model for a teaching subject 'ecology'. (orig.) [de

Predictive systems ecology.

Science.gov (United States)

Evans, Matthew R; Bithell, Mike; Cornell, Stephen J; Dall, Sasha R X; Díaz, Sandra; Emmott, Stephen; Ernande, Bruno; Grimm, Volker; Hodgson, David J; Lewis, Simon L; Mace, Georgina M; Morecroft, Michael; Moustakas, Aristides; Murphy, Eugene; Newbold, Tim; Norris, K J; Petchey, Owen; Smith, Matthew; Travis, Justin M J; Benton, Tim G

2013-11-22

Human societies, and their well-being, depend to a significant extent on the state of the ecosystems that surround them. These ecosystems are changing rapidly usually in response to anthropogenic changes in the environment. To determine the likely impact of environmental change on ecosystems and the best ways to manage them, it would be desirable to be able to predict their future states. We present a proposal to develop the paradigm of predictive systems ecology, explicitly to understand and predict the properties and behaviour of ecological systems. We discuss the necessary and desirable features of predictive systems ecology models. There are places where predictive systems ecology is already being practised and we summarize a range of terrestrial and marine examples. Significant challenges remain but we suggest that ecology would benefit both as a scientific discipline and increase its impact in society if it were to embrace the need to become more predictive.

LEGAL PROTECTION AGAINST CHILDREN WHO ARE VICTIMS OF HUMAN TRAFFICKING IN CIANJUR DISTRICT STUDIED BY HUMAN RIGHTS PERSPECTIVE

OpenAIRE

Henny Nuraeny; Tanti Kirana Utami

2015-01-01

Trafficking in persons is a modern form of slavery. The eradication of human trafficking has been on the agenda in law enforcement because of its effects can interfere with social welfare. One form of trafficking in persons who lately is rampant child trafficking. The problems that can be studied is how the perspective of Human Rights in providing protection to children who are victims of trafficking and whether the implementation of legal protection for child victims of trafficki...

Panglobalism and pandemics: ecological and ethical concerns.

Science.gov (United States)

Rolston, Holmes

2005-10-01

A pandemic is a human medical problem but must be understood at multiple levels. Analysis of social and commercial forces is vital, and, more comprehensively, an ecological framework is necessary for an inclusive picture. Ecological health webworked with political and social determinants surrounds issues of human health. In this constellation of both natural and social factors, ethical concerns will arise at these multiple levels, from human health to the conservation and health of wild nature.

Reverse zoonosis of influenza to swine: new perspectives on the human-animal interface.

Science.gov (United States)

Nelson, Martha I; Vincent, Amy L

2015-03-01

The origins of the 2009 influenza A (H1N1) pandemic in swine are unknown, highlighting gaps in our understanding of influenza A virus (IAV) ecology and evolution. We review how recently strengthened influenza virus surveillance in pigs has revealed that influenza virus transmission from humans to swine is far more frequent than swine-to-human zoonosis, and is central in seeding swine globally with new viral diversity. The scale of global human-to-swine transmission represents the largest 'reverse zoonosis' of a pathogen documented to date. Overcoming the bias towards perceiving swine as sources of human viruses, rather than recipients, is key to understanding how the bidirectional nature of the human-animal interface produces influenza threats to both hosts. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Wasteland ecologies

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Hoag, Colin Brewster; Bertoni, Filippo; Bubandt, Nils Ole

2018-01-01

landscapes, this article argues, are the result of unheralded multispecies collaboration that can be traced empirically by attending ethnographically to multispecies forms of “gain-making,” the ways in which humans and other species leverage difference to find economic and ecological opportunity....... in the 1970s, when prevailing perceptions were that the entire mining area was a polluted wasteland, the AFLD Fasterholt waste and recycling plant has since changed in response to new EU waste management regulations, as well as the unexpected proliferation of non-human life in the area. Based on field...... research at this site—an Anthropocene landscape in the heartland of an EU-configured welfare state — this article is a contribution to the multispecies ethnography and political ecology of wastelands. We argue that “waste” is a co-species, biopolitical happening — a complex symbolic, political, biological...

Targeting the ecology within: The role of the gut-brain axis and human microbiota in drug addiction.

Science.gov (United States)

Skosnik, Patrick D; Cortes-Briones, Jose A

2016-08-01

Despite major advances in our understanding of the brain using traditional neuroscience, reliable and efficacious treatments for drug addiction have remained elusive. Hence, the time has come to utilize novel approaches, particularly those drawing upon contemporary advances in fields outside of established neuroscience and psychiatry. Put another way, the time has come for a paradigm shift in the addiction sciences. Apropos, a revolution in the area of human health is underway, which is occurring at the nexus between enteric microbiology and neuroscience. It has become increasingly clear that the human microbiota (the vast ecology of bacteria residing within the human organism), plays an important role in health and disease. This is not surprising, as it has been estimated that bacteria living in the human body (approximately 1kg of mass, roughly equivalent to that of the human brain) outnumber human cells 10 to 1. While advances in the understanding of the role of microbiota in other areas of human health have yielded intriguing results (e.g., Clostridium difficile, irritable bowel syndrome, autism, etc.), to date, no systematic programs of research have examined the role of microbiota in drug addiction. The current hypothesis, therefore, is that gut dysbiosis plays a key role in addictive disorders. In the context of this hypothesis, this paper provides a rationale for future research to target the "gut-brain axis" in addiction. A brief background of the gut-brain axis is provided, along with a series of hypothesis-driven ideas outlining potential treatments for addiction via manipulations of the "ecology within." Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Hungry Unlike the Wolf: Ecology, Posthumanism, Narratology in Fred Vargas’s Seeking Whom He May Devour

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

John Parham

2012-01-01

Full Text Available This paper examines posthumanism as a philosophical position equipped to inform ecocriticism and the potential of popular fiction to articulate ecological complexity. Posthumanism will be reappraised as a dialectical model that decentres the human in relation to ‘evolutionary, ecological, or technological coordinates’ (Wolfe 2010: xvi while nevertheless retaining a sense of the integrity of, and boundaries between, human and nonhuman species or phenomena. It will be argued that a novelistic emphasis on human being, agency, and action, coupled with devices of genre, plot, atnd narrative – are consistent with the process of human self‐examinaion engendered by posthumanism. The essay will, thereafter, illustrate and examine this approach through the French crime writer Fred Vargas’s1999 novel Seeking Whom He May Devour. Identifying two human protagonists – the Canadian conservationist Johnstone and his girlfriend Camille – an initial decentring of the human subject will be examined in relation to two equivalent, nonhuman protagonists, the French Alps and the wolf. Utilising newspaper interviews that highlight Vargas’s own posthumanist perspective (grounded in her profession as an archaeologist, I will examine a how the novel explores appropriate relationships between human and nonhuman animals; b how Vargas utilises both the generic features of the crime novel – e.g. the resolution of a ‘crime’ – and the subtle narrative manipulations of character focalisation to construct (via the preferred ‘point of iew’ offered by Camille a posthumanist position on human/animal relations which argas explicitly opposes to the inhumanism represented by Johnstone.

How Pollination Ecology research can help answer important questions

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Carvalheiro, Luisa G.

2011-06-01

Full Text Available Pollination Ecology is a dynamic field of scientific research constantly adopting novel methods and making progress in understanding the interactions between plants and their pollinators. A recent paper listed the main scientific questions in this field focussing on the ecological and biological system itself. Here, we follow up on that paper and present some ideas on how to broaden our perspective and explore the role that pollination research can play in answering both ecological and societal questions relevant to a range of different stakeholders. We hope this paper may be useful to researchers aiming at improving both the scientific and societal impact of their research.

Coping with human errors through system design: Implications for ecological interface design

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Rasmussen, Jens; Vicente, Kim J.

1989-01-01

Research during recent years has revealed that human errors are not stochastic events which can be removed through improved training programs or optimal interface design. Rather, errors tend to reflect either systematic interference between various models, rules, and schemata, or the effects...... of the adaptive mechanisms involved in learning. In terms of design implications, these findings suggest that reliable human-system interaction will be achieved by designing interfaces which tend to minimize the potential for control interference and support recovery from errors. In other words, the focus should...... be on control of the effects of errors rather than on the elimination of errors per se. In this paper, we propose a theoretical framework for interface design that attempts to satisfy these objectives. The goal of our framework, called ecological interface design, is to develop a meaningful representation...

Ecological mechanisms linking protected areas to surrounding lands.

Science.gov (United States)

Hansen, Andrew J; DeFries, Ruth

2007-06-01

Land use is expanding and intensifying in the unprotected lands surrounding many of the world's protected areas. The influence of this land use change on ecological processes is poorly understood. The goal of this paper is to draw on ecological theory to provide a synthetic framework for understanding how land use change around protected areas may alter ecological processes and biodiversity within protected areas and to provide a basis for identifying scientifically based management alternatives. We first present a conceptual model of protected areas embedded within larger ecosystems that often include surrounding human land use. Drawing on case studies in this Invited Feature, we then explore a comprehensive set of ecological mechanisms by which land use on surrounding lands may influence ecological processes and biodiversity within reserves. These mechanisms involve changes in ecosystem size, with implications for minimum dynamic area, species-area effect, and trophic structure; altered flows of materials and disturbances into and out of reserves; effects on crucial habitats for seasonal and migration movements and population source/sink dynamics; and exposure to humans through hunting, poaching, exotics species, and disease. These ecological mechanisms provide a basis for assessing the vulnerability of protected areas to land use. They also suggest criteria for designing regional management to sustain protected areas in the context of surrounding human land use. These design criteria include maximizing the area of functional habitats, identifying and maintaining ecological process zones, maintaining key migration and source habitats, and managing human proximity and edge effects.

Human Impacts on Seals, Sea Lions, and Sea Otters: Integrating Archaeology and Ecology of the Northeast Pacific

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ray Pierotti

2013-03-01

Full Text Available Review of Human Impacts on Seals, Sea Lions, and Sea Otters: Integrating Archaeology and Ecology of the Northeast Pacific. Todd J. Braje and Torben C. Rick, editors. 2011. University of California Press, Berkeley. Pp. 328. $65.00 (hardcover. ISBN 9780520267268.

The emergence of green infrastructure as promoting the centralisation of a landscape perspective in spatial planning - the case of Ireland

OpenAIRE

Lennon, Mick; Scott, Mark J.; Collier, Marcus; Foley, Karen

2016-01-01

The 'landscape' approach to planning and design has long since advanced a social ecological perspective that conceives ecosystems health and human well-being as mutually constitutive. However, conventional public sector organisational arrangements segregate and discretely administer development issues, thereby militating against the holistic viewpoint necessary to redress the entwined nature of complex planning issues. The emergence and continuing evolution of green infrastructure (GI) thinki...

Communication as an ecological system.

Science.gov (United States)

Borg, Erik; Bergkvist, Christina; Olsson, Inga-Stina; Wikström, Carina; Borg, Birgitta

2008-11-01

A conceptual framework for human communication, based on traditional biological ecology, is further developed. The difference between communication at the message and behavioural levels is emphasized. Empirical data are presented from various studies, showing that degree of satisfaction with communication is correlated with how close the outcome is to the memory of function prior to hearing impairment. We found no indication that hearing-impaired subjects overestimated their previous hearing or the hearing of normal-hearing people. Satisfaction was also correlated with the outcome and degree of fulfillment of expectations. It did not correlate with improvement of function. The concept of balance was presented and tested using a semi-quantitative approach. Several projects were presented in which the framework was applied: the hearing impaired as counsellor, choosing sides in unilateral deafness, a monitoring device for the deafblind, interaction between Swedish as a second language and hearing impairment, language development in hearing impaired children. By regarding hearing as a component of a communicative system, the perspective of audiological analysis and rehabilitation is broadened.

Human dignity and sexual behavious � A theological perspective

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

N Vorster

2005-10-01

Full Text Available This article compares the sex ethic of Scripture with the anthropological values that underlie modern sexual morality and gives guidelines for a responsible� sex ethics that can safeguard human dignity. As point of departure it states that the biblical view of sexuality must be understood from the perspective of creation and re-creation and not the fall. The creation narratives teach that humanity possesses qualities of sameness and difference that constitutes our being. Sexuality forms the dynamic which bonds the dialectic of sameness and difference into a unity of persons. The� article concludes that the� African concept of gender , the radical freedom concept of secular society, the utilitarian view of sex, and the postmodern view that sexual behaviour and marriage are social constructs, aggravate sexual promiscuity. In order to fight HIV/AIDS and preserve human dignity the exclusiveness of the sex act, the importance of faithfulness and the sanctity of marriage must be proclaimed.

HIV/AIDS and tourism in the Caribbean: an ecological systems perspective.

Science.gov (United States)

Padilla, Mark B; Guilamo-Ramos, Vincent; Bouris, Alida; Reyes, Armando Matiz

2010-01-01

The Caribbean has the highest HIV rates outside of sub-Saharan Africa. In recent decades, tourism has become the most important Caribbean industry. Studies suggest that tourism areas are epicenters of demographic and social changes linked to HIV risk, such as transactional sex, elevated alcohol and substance use, and internal migration. Despite this, no formative HIV-prevention studies have examined tourism areas as ecologies that heighten HIV vulnerability. HIV/AIDS research needs to place emphasis on the ecological context of sexual vulnerability in tourism areas and develop multilevel interventions that are sensitive to this context. From our review and integration of a broad literature across the social and health sciences, we argue for an ecological approach to sexual health in Caribbean tourism areas, point to gaps in knowledge, and provide direction for future research.

Toward a Theoretical Model of Employee Turnover: A Human Resource Development Perspective

Science.gov (United States)

Peterson, Shari L.

2004-01-01

This article sets forth the Organizational Model of Employee Persistence, influenced by traditional turnover models and a student attrition model. The model was developed to clarify the impact of organizational practices on employee turnover from a human resource development (HRD) perspective and provide a theoretical foundation for research on…

Manager Perspectives on Communication and Public Engagement in Ecological Restoration Project Success

Science.gov (United States)

We argue that public engagement is crucial to achieving lasting ecological success in aquatic restoration efforts, and that the most effective public engagement mechanisms are what we term iterative mechanisms. Here we look to a particular social-ecological system – the restorati...

The ecology and evolutionary endocrinology of reproduction in the human female.

Science.gov (United States)

Vitzthum, Virginia J

2009-01-01

Human reproductive ecology (HRE) is the study of the mechanisms that link variation in reproductive traits with variation in local habitats. Empirical and theoretical contributions from biological anthropology, physiology, and demography have established the foundation necessary for developing a comprehensive understanding, grounded in life history theory (LHT), of temporal, individual, and populational variation in women's reproductive functioning. LHT posits that natural selection leads to the evolution of mechanisms that tend to allocate resources to the competing demands of growth, reproduction, and survival such that fitness is locally maximized. (That is, among alternative allocation patterns exhibited in a population, those having the highest inclusive fitness will become more common over generational time.) Hence, strategic modulation of reproductive effort is potentially adaptive because investment in a new conception may risk one's own survival, future reproductive opportunities, and/or current offspring survival. The hypothalamic-pituitary-ovarian (HPO) axis is the principal neuroendocrine pathway by which the human female modulates reproductive functioning according to the changing conditions in her habitat. Adjustments of reproductive investment in a potential conception are manifested in temporal and individual variation in ovarian cycle length, ovulation, hormone levels, and the probability of conception. Understanding the extent and causes of adaptive and non-adaptive variation in ovarian functioning is fundamental to ascertaining the proximate and remote determinants of human reproductive patterns. In this review I consider what is known and what still needs to be learned of the ecology of women's reproductive biology, beginning with a discussion of the principal explanatory frameworks in HRE and the biometry of ovarian functioning. Turning next to empirical studies, it is evident that marked variation between cycles, women, and populations is the

Human health and ecological toxicity potentials due to heavy metal content in waste electronic devices with flat panel displays

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lim, Seong-Rin; Schoenung, Julie M.

2010-01-01

Display devices such as cathode-ray tube (CRT) televisions and computer monitors are known to contain toxic substances and have consequently been banned from disposal in landfills in the State of California and elsewhere. New types of flat panel display (FPD) devices, millions of which are now purchased each year, also contain toxic substances, but have not previously been systematically studied and compared to assess the potential impact that could result from their ultimate disposal. In the current work, the focus is on the evaluation of end-of-life toxicity potential from the heavy metal content in select FPD devices with the intent to inform material selection and design-for-environment (DfE) decisions. Specifically, the metals antimony, arsenic, barium, beryllium, cadmium, chromium, cobalt, copper, lead, mercury, molybdenum, nickel, selenium, silver, vanadium, and zinc in plasma TVs, LCD (liquid crystal display) TVs, LCD computer monitors and laptop computers are considered. The human health and ecotoxicity potentials are evaluated through a life cycle assessment perspective by combining data on the respective heavy metal contents, the characterization factors in the U.S. EPA Tool for the Reduction and Assessment of Chemical and other environmental Impacts (TRACI), and a pathway and impact model. Principal contributors to the toxicity potentials are lead, arsenic, copper, and mercury. Although the heavy metal content in newer flat panel display devices creates less human health toxicity potential than that in CRTs, for ecological toxicity, the new devices are worse, especially because of the mercury in LCD TVs and the copper in plasma TVs.

Study on green technologies and skills of tourism enterprises in Huangshan City based on environmental protection perspective

Science.gov (United States)

Bao, Jun

2018-01-01

With the rapid development of China's economy, air pollution, environmental degradation and other ecological problems emerge in an endless stream, a great threat to human health. In this context, the ecological civilization, sustainable development, economic transformation and upgrading and other green ideas emerge as the times require, and are highly concerned by the government, enterprises, academia and the public. From the perspective of tourism enterprises, through empirical research, this paper analyzes the influencing factors of green technologies and skills in tourism enterprises, and constructs the impact mechanism model of green technologies and skills. Put forward to promote enterprises to implement green management intention, suggestions to promote the practice of green technologies and skills.

The Study on the Ecological Ethics Thoughts of Huai Naizi%《淮南子》的生态伦理思想研究

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

王巧慧

2012-01-01

生态伦理学是一种全新意义的伦理学说,它研究人类对待生态环境的道德态度和在生态中人的行为规范准则,最终目的是达到人与自然的和谐统一,以实现人类的可持续发展。从生态伦理学的视角看,《淮南子》一书所蕴涵丰富的生态伦理思想,对其进行研究可以为当前和谐社会的构建提供理论依据和思想资源。%Ecological ethics are an ethics theory with a new meaning, which studies the human moral attitude towards ecological environment and human code of conduct in ecological environment. The ultimate goal of the subject is to achieve the harmony between man and nature so as to realize the sustainable development of hu- man beings. From the perspective of ecological ethics, this paper explores the essence of the ecological ethic thoughts that Huai Nanzi contains in the hope of providing the theoretical basis and ideological resources for the construction of present harmonious society.

[50 years anniversary of Research Institute for Occupational Medicine and Human Ecology with Siberian Division of RAMSc].

Science.gov (United States)

Rukavishnikov, V S; Shaiakhmetov, S F; Gus'kova, T M

2010-01-01

The article covers main steps of establishment and development of Research Institute for Occupational medicine and Human ecology with Siberian Division of RAMSc over 50 years of activities, major results of research, contribution of the Institute personnel into development of hygienic science and practical medicine in Siberia.

Current ecological understanding of fungal-like pathogens of fish: what lies beneath?

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Rodolphe Elie Gozlan

2014-02-01

Full Text Available Despite increasingly sophisticated microbiological techniques, and long after the first discovery of microbes, basic knowledge is still lacking to fully appreciate the ecological importance of microbial parasites in fish. This is likely due to the nature of their habitats as many species of fish suffer from living beneath turbid water away from easy recording. However, fishes represent key ecosystem services for millions of people around the world and the absence of a functional ecological understanding of viruses, prokaryotes, and small eukaryotes in the maintenance of fish populations and of their diversity represents an inherent barrier to aquatic conservation and food security. Among recent emerging infectious diseases responsible for severe population declines in plant and animal taxa, fungal and fungal-like microbes have emerged as significant contributors. Here, we review the current knowledge gaps of fungal and fungal-like parasites and pathogens in fish and put them into an ecological perspective with direct implications for the monitoring of fungal fish pathogens in the wild, their phylogeography as well as their associated ecological impact on fish populations. With increasing fish movement around the world for farming, releases into the wild for sport fishing and human-driven habitat changes, it is expected, along with improved environmental monitoring of fungal and fungal-like infections, that the full extent of the impact of these pathogens on wild fish populations will soon emerge as a major threat to freshwater biodiversity.

Accidental naturalism: criticism of a theoretical model of socio-ecological legitimacy

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Santiago M. Cruzada

2017-11-01

Full Text Available This article proposes the need for a theoretical review on the current epistemological assumption that establishes the dichotomy nature-society as a cornerstone of a broad worldview for western contexts. We will discuss the anthropological perspectives that assume that in these spaces, generically without nuances, social practice and ideas are not constructed in such a close relationship to the environment, falling under a belief that nature exists outside the human will. We will debate the naive ethnological essentialism that position naturalism as a central model of a socio-european worldview, characterized by dualistic patterns that have enabled monistic paradigms of socio-ecological relationships to be established at the same time, and in contrast to this, in other parts of the world.

Provincial-level Land Consolidation and Ecological Environment Protection Based on the Perspective of Planning

OpenAIRE

Li, Chen; Liu, Xin-feng; Peng, Zhe; Si, Tao; Yang, Lin-li

2012-01-01

Based on the understanding of current land ecological environment in Anhui Province, we mainly analyze the relationship between land consolidation planning and ecological environment, and point out the problems concerning ecological environment, such as great soil erosion, serious soil pollution, frequent geological disasters in local areas, and forest vegetation destruction. We divide the key ecological function conservation areas into the following areas: River Source Area, River and Flood ...

The South Florida Ecosystem Portfolio Model - A Map-Based Multicriteria Ecological, Economic, and Community Land-Use Planning Tool

Science.gov (United States)

Labiosa, William B.; Bernknopf, Richard; Hearn, Paul; Hogan, Dianna; Strong, David; Pearlstine, Leonard; Mathie, Amy M.; Wein, Anne M.; Gillen, Kevin; Wachter, Susan

2009-01-01

issues of regional ecological sustainability can be explored with the EPM (for example, changes in biodiversity potential and regional habitat fragmentation), it does not attempt to define or evaluate long-term ecological sustainability as such. Instead, the EPM is intended to provide transparent first-order indications of the direction of ecological, economic, and community change, not to make detailed predictions of ecological, economic, and social outcomes. In short, the EPM is an attempt to widen the perspectives of its users by integrating natural and social scientific information in a framework that recognizes the diversity of values at stake in South Florida land-use planning. For terrestrial ecosystems, land-cover change is one of the most important direct drivers of changes in ecosystem services (Hassan and others, 2005). More specifically, the fragmentation of habitat from expanding low-density development across landscapes appears to be a major driver of terrestrial species decline and the impairment of terrestrial ecosystem integrity, in some cases causing irreversible impairment from a land-use planning perspective (Brody, 2008; Peck, 1998). Many resource managers and land-use planners have come to realize that evaluating land-use conversions on a parcel-by-parcel basis leads to a fragmented and narrow view of the regional effects of natural land-cover loss to development (Marsh and Lallas, 1995). The EPM is an attempt to integrate important aspects of the coupled natural-system/human-system view from a regional planning perspective. The EPM evaluates proposed land-use changes, both conversion and intensification, in terms of relevant ecological, economic, and social criteria that combine information about probable land-use outcomes, based on ecological and environmental models, as well as value judgments, as expressed in user-modifiable preference models. Based on on-going meetings and interviews with stakeholders and potential tool users we foc

A Conceptual Framework for Evaluating the Domains of Applicability of Ecological Models and its Implementation in the Ecological Production Function Library - International Society for Ecological Modelling Conference

Science.gov (United States)

The use of computational ecological models to inform environmental management and policy has proliferated in the past 25 years. These models have become essential tools as linkages and feedbacks between human actions and ecological responses can be complex, and as funds for sampl...

Seeing the Hani People’s Traditional Ecological Understanding from the Perspective of Folk Literature

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

Li Guangrong

2016-01-01

The Hani’s rich folk literature has preserved their traditional culture. Interpreting it from the perspective of ecological culture may lead us to the conclusion that the Hani’s traditional eco-logical understanding is that of a harmonious rela-tionship between man and nature. This ecological understanding is similar to that of other ethnic groups in Yunnan, such as the Bai, Dai, Wa, Yao, Naxi, Jingpo, Bulang, and other ethnic groups, which shows that this ecological under-standing is common across the Chinese nation. Meanwhile, this ecological understanding has an enlightening role for human beings to keep the eco-logical balance in the present day. This article tries to investigate the deep connection between the Hani’s folk literature and the natural ecology, and reveals the Hani’s traditional ecological under-standing. 1 . The Hani’s traditional ecological under-standing is revealed in their folk literature The Hani have no fairy tales in the strict sense, their literature is a kind of“universal litera-ture” enjoyed by both adults and children. Howev-er, the Hani’s folk literature also created a roman-tic world similar to that of fairy tales. This “fairy tale world” is just the world of nature reflected in the Hani’s literature. The typical characteristics of this world are harmony and happiness. In this har-monious and happy world, mountains are a para-dise for man and all other things on earth. In this paradise, man is only a part of nature, they are not the spirit or the core of the world. Man, animals and plants have their own places, and their own happiness. Meanwhile, they support each other, and have a common development. In a word, man and nature have a highly harmonious relationship. When environmental protection and ecological bal-ance become a common topic in today’s discourse, one can gain some insight by reading Hani fairy tales and legends. Therefore, digging out the eco-logical beauty from Hani folk literature still has a

Preliminary perspectives on DNA collection in anti-human trafficking efforts.

Science.gov (United States)

Katsanis, Sara H; Kim, Joyce; Minear, Mollie A; Chandrasekharan, Subhashini; Wagner, Jennifer K

2014-01-01

Forensic DNA methodologies have potential applications in the investigation of human trafficking cases. DNA and relationship testing may be useful for confirmation of biological relationship claims in immigration, identification of trafficked individuals who are missing persons, and family reunification of displaced individuals after mass disasters and conflicts. As these applications rely on the collection of DNA from non-criminals and potentially vulnerable individuals, questions arise as to how to address the ethical challenges of collection, security, and privacy of collected samples and DNA profiles. We administered a survey targeted to victims' advocates to gain preliminary understanding of perspectives regarding human trafficking definitions, DNA and sex workers, and perceived trust of authorities potentially involved in DNA collection. We asked respondents to consider the use of DNA for investigating adoption fraud, sex trafficking, and post-conflict child soldier cases. We found some key differences in perspectives on defining what qualifies as "trafficking." When we varied terminology between "sex worker" and "sex trafficking victim" we detected differences in perception on which authorities can be trusted. Respondents were supportive of the hypothetical models proposed to collect DNA. Most were favorable of DNA specimens being controlled by an authority outside of law enforcement. Participants voiced concerns focused on privacy, misuse of DNA samples and data, unintentional harms, data security, and infrastructure. These preliminary data indicate that while there is perceived value in programs to use DNA for investigating cases of human trafficking, these programs may need to consider levels of trust in authorities as their logistics are developed and implemented.

Long-term ecological research in the Czech Republic - case study with a 3-year project

Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

Jelínková, E.; Straškrábová, Viera

2001-01-01

Roč. 20, č. 2 (2001), s. 50-56 ISSN 1335-342X. [Long-Term Ecological Research Current State and Perspectives in the Central and Eastern Europe ILTER Regional Workshop /3./. Nitra, 23.05.2000-25.05.2000] R&D Projects: GA ČR GA206/98/0727 Keywords : long-term ecological research * acidification * eutrophication Subject RIV: EH - Ecology, Behaviour Impact factor: 0.192, year: 2001

Construction and Application of Enhanced Remote Sensing Ecological Index

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, X.; Liu, C.; Fu, Q.; Yin, B.

2018-04-01

In order to monitor the change of regional ecological environment quality, this paper use MODIS and DMSP / OLS remote sensing data, from the production capacity, external disturbance changes and human socio-economic development of the three main factors affecting the quality of ecosystems, select the net primary productivity, vegetation index and light index, using the principal component analysis method to automatically determine the weight coefficient, construction of the formation of enhanced remote sensing ecological index, and the ecological environment quality of Hainan Island from 2001 to 2013 was monitored and analyzed. The enhanced remote sensing ecological index combines the effects of the natural environment and human activities on ecosystems, and according to the contribution of each principal component automatically determine the weight coefficient, avoid the design of the weight of the parameters caused by the calculation of the human error, which provides a new method for the operational operation of regional macro ecological environment quality monitoring. During the period from 2001 to 2013, the ecological environment quality of Hainan Island showed the characteristics of decend first and then rise, the ecological environment in 2005 was affected by severe natural disasters, and the quality of ecological environment dropped sharply. Compared with 2001, in 2013 about 20000 square kilometers regional ecological environmental quality has improved, about 8760 square kilometers regional ecological environment quality is relatively stable, about 5272 square kilometers regional ecological environment quality has decreased. On the whole, the quality of ecological environment in the study area is good, the frequent occurrence of natural disasters, on the quality of the ecological environment to a certain extent.

Radical Transformation in the Human - Nature Perception: Deep Ecology

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Hasan YAYLI

2015-07-01

Full Text Available There have been numerous endeavors to date the green thought. As the environmental problems have begun to be apparent in the aftermath of the second world war, the year of 1952, a traumatic incident is noted where more than four thousand people have died d ue to air pollution in London, while in 1970, Rome Club have initiated within the Project of Predicament of Mankind in collaboration with Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT, in which zero growth thesis put forward in its famed report. Both the for mer and the latter ignited environmental awareness and regarded as the point of origins for the green thought. Regardless of where it begins from, ecological movements have mainly followed the paths of two movements of thought and tried to develop their p aradigms on the basis of these two main thoughts. The environmentalists that named as socialist or Marxist asserts that only through a radical transformation where capitalist way of production is abandoned, the prevention of environmental degradation cou ld be achieved. Whereas the environmentalists who follow the capitalist paradigm believed the protection of environment could be achieved by means of the sustainability in terms of natural resource pool and waste - disposal practices. If we look closely, both of these two movements of thought are anthropocentric. An alternative ecological movement of thought has proposed in 1973 by Norwegian philosopher, Arne Naess, in his work named, “The Shallow and the Deep, Long - Range Ecology Moveme nt: A Summary”. This Deep Ecology approach moves through the commitment to the inner value of the nature aside from mankind and by this way, differs from anthropocentric approaches. Within forty two years, Deep Ecology has led various discussions. The the mes as “ecosophy” which has proposed to define itself and the “bio - regions” conception which put forward to actualize its philosophy could be counted among the reference points of the

Change: Threat or opportunity for human progress V. 5. Ecological change: Environment, development and poverty linkages

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Kirdar, U [ed.

1992-01-01