Persistence of central Australian aquatic invertebrate communities

2014 ◽  
Vol 65 (6) ◽  
pp. 562 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Brim-Box ◽  
J. Davis ◽  
K. Strehlow ◽  
G. McBurnie ◽  
A. Duguid ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
National Parks ◽  
Social Factors ◽  
Aquatic Insects ◽  
Aquatic Invertebrate ◽  
Invertebrate Fauna ◽  
Significant Percentage ◽  
European Settlement ◽  
Central Australia ◽  
Terrestrial Biodiversity

Central Australia supports a restricted but important range of freshwater systems, including small, permanent spring-fed streams and larger riverine pools ranging from permanent to ephemeral. These sites support a significant percentage of the aquatic and terrestrial biodiversity within the region. Comparison of records from the first exploratory scientific expedition to the area in 1894, and surveys conducted in 1986, 1994 and 2008, revealed the persistence of the aquatic invertebrate fauna, despite the recent impacts of European settlement. The presence of aquatic insects with Gondwanan origins suggests affinities with assemblages present in a much wetter era (~18 000 years ago). Persistence can be attributed to multiple environmental and social factors, including the role of local aquifers in sustaining permanent systems, the remote and inaccessible nature of the sites, and the protection and management afforded by reservation within national parks. Characterisation of the drivers and stressors that influence these ecosystems suggests that climate change could potentially result in a loss of endemic and relictual species. Hence, the relictual waterbodies of central Australia can be viewed as potential ‘sentinel’ sites for assessing the impacts of changing conditions.

Ecology of benthic crustaceans in the Cautin river (38°S, Araucania region, Chile)

Crustaceana ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 90 (6) ◽  
pp. 709-719 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rolando Vega ◽  
Patricio De los Ríos-Escalante ◽  
Francisco Encina ◽  
Alfonso Mardones
Keyword(s):  
Aquatic Insects ◽  
Ecological Role ◽  
Invertebrate Fauna ◽  
Widespread Species ◽  
Melting Snow ◽  
Human Interference ◽  
Freshwater Crabs ◽  
Mixed Regime ◽  
Native Fishes

The Cautin river is located in the Araucania region, Chile (38°S), and is characterized by alterations through human interference in its surrounding basin, by the presence of introduced salmonids, and by its mixed regime, which originates from melting snow in summer and rains in winter. The fauna of this river includes an invertebrate fauna composed of both endemic and widespread species, which has, however, been only poorly studied until now. The aim of the present study was to make a review of the ecological role of the benthic inland water crustaceans of the River Cautin, in order to understand their importance in the ecosystem of the river. The literature revealed the presence of abundant populations of amphipods and freshwater crabs as well as of aquatic insects along the river’s course. Many of these crustaceans are prey for both introduced salmonids and native fishes. Similar results have been reported for other southern Argentinean and Chilean Patagonian rivers.

scholarly journals Long-term changes in the plant ecology of an African savanna landscape and the implications for ecosystem theory and conservation management

2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
David Western ◽  
Victor N. Mose ◽  
David Maitumo ◽  
Caroline Mburu
Keyword(s):  
Human Impact ◽  
National Parks ◽  
Conservation Management ◽  
Plant Ecology ◽  
Ecological Resilience ◽  
Pasture Production ◽  
Ecosystem Theory ◽  
The Impact

Abstract Background Studies of the African savannas have used national parks to test ecological theories of natural ecosystems, including equilibrium, non-equilibrium, complex adaptive systems, and the role of top-down and bottom-up physical and biotic forces. Most such studies have excluded the impact of pastoralists in shaping grassland ecosystems and, over the last half century, the growing human impact on the world’s rangelands. The mounting human impact calls for selecting indicators and integrated monitoring methods able to track ecosystem changes and the role of natural and human agencies. Our study draws on five decades of monitoring the Amboseli landscape in southern Kenya to document the declining role of natural agencies in shaping plant ecology with rising human impact. Results We show that plant diversity and productivity have declined, biomass turnover has increased in response to a downsizing of mean plant size, and that ecological resilience has declined with the rising probability of extreme shortfalls in pasture production. The signature of rainfall and physical agencies in driving ecosystem properties has decreased sharply with growing human impact. We compare the Amboseli findings to the long-term studies of Kruger and Serengeti national parks to show that the human influence, whether by design or default, is increasingly shaping the ecology of savanna ecosystems. We look at the findings in the larger perspective of human impact on African grasslands and the world rangelands, in general, and discuss the implications for ecosystem theory and conservation policy and management. Conclusions The Amboseli study shows the value of using long-term integrated ecological monitoring to track the spatial and temporal changes in the species composition, structure, and function of rangeland ecosystems and the role of natural and human agencies in the process of change. The study echoes the widespread changes underway across African savannas and world’s rangelands, concluding that some level of ecosystem management is needed to prevent land degradation and the erosion of ecological function, services, and resilience. Despite the weak application of ecological theory to conservation management, a plant trait-based approach is shown to be useful in explaining the macroecological changes underway.

scholarly journals Invasion landscapes as social‐ecological systems: Role of social factors in invasive plant species control

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Johanna Yletyinen ◽  
George L. W. Perry ◽  
Olivia R. Burge ◽  
Norman W. H. Mason ◽  
Philip Stahlmann‐Brown
Keyword(s):  
Plant Species ◽  
Social Factors ◽  
Invasive Plant ◽  
Ecological Systems ◽  
Invasive Plant Species ◽  
Social Ecological Systems ◽  
Social Ecological

scholarly journals Reopening Selves: Phenomenological Considerations on Psychiatric Spaces and the Therapeutic Stance

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-12
Author(s):  
Samuel Thoma ◽  
Isabelle Schwänzl ◽  
Laura Galbusera
Keyword(s):  
Social Factors ◽  
Phenomenological Research ◽  
Social World ◽  
Societal Implications ◽  
Structural Level ◽  
Open Door ◽  
Coercive Treatment ◽  
Psychiatric Institutions ◽  
The Individual

Classical and contemporary phenomenological approaches in psychiatry describe schizophrenia as a disorder of common sense and self-affection. Although taking into account intersubjectivity, this conceptualization still puts forward an individualistic view of the disorder, that is, the intersubjective deficit resides within the person. To overcome such individualism, in this article, we first propose that schizophrenic experience might be understood as arising from a dialectic relation between the self’s loss of openness to the world and the world’s loss of openness to the self. To show the relevance of social factors at the onset of schizophrenic experience, we propose a phenomenological analysis of trigger situations. In the second and main part of this article, we then focus on the implications of these phenomenological insights for the clinical practice: we argue that if schizophrenia is understood as a loss of openness between self and social world, psychiatric institutions should be transformed into spaces that enable a reopening of selves. We first describe <i>enclosing</i> phenomena such as coercive treatment to then, in contrast, present particular forms of <i>open psychiatric spaces</i> such as open door approaches and open dialogue. Besides the institutional-structural level, we also highlight aspects of openness at the intersubjective level of the individual agents, thus particularly emphasizing the role of an open therapeutic stance. We thus speak of (re)opening <i>selves</i> as we believe that the reopening of the patients’ self cannot but be related to and fostered by a reopening of the professionals’ self and stance. We thus argue that openness in the therapeutic stance is key to initiating the further process of recovery, which we describe as a reattunement of selves both at the bodily and narrative level. Last but not least, we sketch out possibilities for future phenomenological research on the question of psychiatric space and draw some broader societal implications.

The Role of Politics in the Historical Transport Networks of the Iberian Peninsula and the Pyrenees from Roman Times to the Nineteenth Century

2021 ◽  
Vol 45 (2) ◽  
pp. 233-260
Author(s):  
Pau de Soto ◽  
Cèsar Carreras
Keyword(s):  
Iberian Peninsula ◽  
Social Factors ◽  
Transport Network ◽  
Political Organization ◽  
Transport Systems ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Systems ◽  
Transport Networks ◽  
Political Economic

AbstractTransport routes are basic elements that are inextricably linked to diverse political, economic, and social factors. Transport networks may be the cause or result of complex historical conjunctions that reflect to some extent a structural conception of the political systems that govern each territory. It is for this reason that analyzing the evolution of the transport routes layout in a wide territory allows us to recognize the role of the political organization and its economic influence in territorial design. In this article, the evolution of the transport network in the Iberian Peninsula has been studied in a broad chronological framework to observe how the different political systems of each period understood and modified the transport systems. Subsequently, a second analysis of the evolution of transport networks in the northeast of the Iberian Peninsula is included in this article. This more detailed and geographically restricted study allows us to visualize in a different way the evolution and impact of changes in transport networks. This article focuses on the calculation of the connectivity to analyze the intermodal transport systems. The use of network science analyses to study historical roads has resulted in a great tool to visualize and understand the connectivity of the territories of each studied period and compare the evolution, changes, and continuities of the transport network.

scholarly journals Role of clinical, functional and social factors in the association between multimorbidity and quality of life: Findings from the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE)

PLoS ONE ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 15 (10) ◽  
pp. e0240024 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tatjana T. Makovski ◽  
Gwenaëlle Le Coroller ◽  
Polina Putrik ◽  
Yun Hee Choi ◽  
Maurice P. Zeegers ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Quality Of Life ◽  
Social Factors

The acquisition of routines in child language

1976 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 129-136 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jean Berko Gleason ◽  
Sandra Weintraub
Keyword(s):  
Language Development ◽  
Social Factors ◽  
Child Language ◽  
Ethnographic Research ◽  
Age Changes ◽  
Adult Participation ◽  
Parental Input

ABSTRACTThe acquisition of routines is one aspect of language development. Routines such as Bye-bye, in contrast to more referential language, appear to be among the earliest acquisitions and are congruent with the sensori-motor child's capacities. This study investigates performance of the highly constrained Hallowe'en Trick or treat routine in 115 children from 2 to 16 years of age. Changes in competence and the role of parental input are examined in relation to cognitive and social factors. (First routines; the Hallowe'en interaction; children's production; adult participation; adult metalanguage; implications for ethnographic research.)

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