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Ren, Bo. "Who was in charge of the water conservation? : investigation of water conservation and management in the upper reaches of the Huai, 1912-1949." Thesis, University of Nottingham, 2017. http://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/41089/.
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This thesis examines water conservation in the upper valley of the Huai River in Anhui Province, close to the border between north and south China, during the Republic of China (ROC) era (1912-1949). Two main flood relief and water conservation projects are studied in detail. In order to gain a deeper and broader understanding of water conservation policies and practices in China during that period, additional comparative studies were undertaken of two water conservation projects in the lower areas of the Yangtze River in south and northwest China. The main question addressed in the thesis is: What are the key factors affecting the conservation and management of water in China during the ROC era? A further aim of the thesis is to reveal the inter-relationships between water conservation and ROC government policies, and the influence of grass roots actors and international powers in that period. This thesis includes a review of the literature on environmental history, in particular the history of water conservation. For the empirical investigation, a multi-disciplinary, mixed method was adopted, combining the study of historical documents and fieldwork in a series of detailed case studies. Firstly, this study investigates the relief work project in the upper area of the Huai River. The work and the lives of peasant labourers in a water conservation project, including their cooperation and conflicts with upper class engineers and officials are considered in order to provide a vivid and thorough exploration of the worksite. Secondly, the thesis describes and analyses the relationships between various groups (including engineers, the gentry, residents and officials of the Anfengtang Pond community), through a series of stories that highlight their activities, roles and priorities within water conservation and management initiatives. Thirdly, the thesis considers the history of the Lotus Polder and the story of the Jinghui Channel. Fourth, it explores the relationship between international politics and water conservation in the ROC to explain how modern culture and industry penetrated an old water conservation community. The interplay and influence of a wide variety of factors that affected water conservation in the ROC era, such as land policies, economic situation, national finance, wars, traditions and western factors, are addressed and analysed in this thesis.
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Barthelmé, Régine. "Le problème de conservation de la charge dans le couplage des équations de Vlasov et de Maxwell." Université Louis Pasteur (Strasbourg) (1971-2008), 2005. https://publication-theses.unistra.fr/public/theses_doctorat/2005/BARTHELME_Regine_2005.pdf.
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Nicodemus, Joshua. "An implementation of the usf/ calvo model in verilog-a to enforce charge conservation in applicable fet models." [Tampa, Fla.] : University of South Florida, 2005. http://purl.fcla.edu/fcla/etd/SFE0001107.
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Nasrallah, Yamen. "Energy-Efficient Battery-Aware MAC protocol for Wireless Sensor Networks." Thèse, Université d'Ottawa / University of Ottawa, 2012. http://hdl.handle.net/10393/22656.
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Wireless sensor networks suffer from limited power resources. Therefore, managing the energy
constraints and exploring new ways to minimize the power consumption during the operation of
the nodes are critical issues. Conventional MAC protocols deal with this problem without
considering the internal properties of the sensor nodes’ batteries. However, recent studies about
battery modeling and behaviour showed that the pulsed discharge mechanism and the charge
recovery effect may have a significant impact on wireless communication in terms of power
saving. In this thesis we propose two battery-aware MAC protocols that take benefit of these
factors to save more energy and to prolong the lifetime of the nodes/network without affecting
the throughput. In both protocols we measure the remaining battery capacity of the node and use
that measurement in the back-off scheme. The first protocol gives the nodes with higher
remaining battery capacity more priority to access the medium, while the other one provides
more medium access priority to the nodes with lower remaining battery capacity. The objective
is to investigate, through simulations, which protocol reduces the power consumption of the
nodes, improve the lifetime of the network, and compare the results with the CSMA-CA
protocol.
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Kacimi, Rahim. "Techniques de conservation d'énergie pour les réseaux de capteurs sans fil." Thesis, Toulouse, INPT, 2009. http://www.theses.fr/2009INPT035H/document.
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Les progrès technologiques réalisés ces dernières années ont permis le développement de nouveaux types de capteurs dotés de moyens de communication sans fil, peu onéreux et pouvant être configurés pour former des réseaux autonomes. Les domaines d'application sont nombreux : domotique, santé, domaine militaire ou bien encore surveillance de phénomènes environnementaux. Les limites imposées sont la limitation des capacités de traitement, de stockage et surtout d'énergie. La liberté laissée à l'implantation est forte et impose de concevoir complètement l'infrastructure, les mécanismes et les protocoles en fonction de l'application visée. Dans cette thèse, nous nous sommes tout d'abord focalisés sur des réseaux de petites tailles. Nous avons conçu une solution protocolaire "Placide" pour le suivi de la chaîne du froid proposée dans le cadre du projet ANR-CAPTEURS. L'originalité première de la solution repose sur l'absence d'infrastructure et de Station de Base. Elle est composée de protocoles performants fondés sur la formation d'un anneau virtuel entre les noeuds, auto-organisants et très économes en énergie. Le second axe est dédié à une étude expérimentale de la qualité du lien.L'objectif est double. Nous souhaitions tout d'abord étayer certaines hypothèses effectuées dans la première partie du travail. Il s'agissait ensuite de proposer des protocoles et des algorithmes fondés sur la qualité du lien. Nous nous sommes focalisés sur la variation de la qualité du lien en fonction de la distance entre les noeuds et de la puissance de transmission. Par la suite, l'impact de la qualité du lien sur la topologie du réseau a été étudiée. Les retours d'expérience sont importants quant à la compréhension des facteurs affectant la durée de vie du réseau. La dernière contribution concerne l'exploitation de ces observations en proposant des stratégies de partage decharge. Notre idée est que des protocoles très réduits et des mécanismes simples peuvent être mis en oeuvre pour le routage. Nous illustrons ces principes au travers d'exemples pour lesquels nous montrons la supériorité de ces solutions par rapport à des routages de type plus court cheminTechnological advances during the last few years allowed the development of new and cheap sensors equiped with wireless communication which can be configured to form autonomous networks. The application areas for wireless sensor networks (WSN) are various: home automations, health care services, military domain, and environment monitoring. The imposed constraints are limited capacity of processing, storage, and especially energy. In addition, implementing WSN solutions is highly open and requires that the infrastructure, the mechanisms and the protocols should be completely designed based on each specific application.In this thesis, we first focused on small networks. We designed « Placide », a protocol stack solution for cold chain monitoring proposed within the ANR-CAPTEURS project. The first originality of this solution is based on the absence of infrastructure and base stations. « Placide » is composed of self-organizing and energy-efficient protocols based on a virtual ring construction between nodes. The second topic is devoted to an experimental study on Link Quality Indicator (LQI). There are two main objectives. Firstly, we want to endorse our precise assumptions of the first part of the work. Secondly, our poposed link quality based protocols and algorithms willbe described. We focused on LQI variations according to distance between nodes and transmission power.Thereafter, the impact of LQI on the network topology has been studied. Feedbacks are important to understand which factors affect the network lifetime. The last contribution relates to the use of these observations by proposing load balancing strategies. Our idea is that very reduced protocols and simple mechanisms can be used in routing protocols. We illustrate these principles through simple examples where we show the superiority of these solutions compared to standard routing like shortest path for example
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Josserand, Rémy. "Dégradation de l'habitat et réponse au stress : de la physiologie a la biologie de la conservation." Thesis, Paris 6, 2016. http://www.theses.fr/2016PA066711/document.
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L'anthropisation croissante et les changements globaux entrainent de nombreuses perturbations dans l'environnement conduisant à la dégradation, et même à la destruction d'habitat. Le modèle allostatique proposé par McEwen et Wingfield en 2003 permet de mieux appréhender les relations entre physiologie et réponses démographique dans le cadre de la physiologie de la conservation. A travers des approches expérimentales en milieux controlé et semi-naturel nous avons testé l'effet de d'un stress chronique sur les changements des traits d'histoires de vie et les paramétres physiologique chez le lézard vivipare (Zootoca vivipara). Nous discutons de la caractérisation de la charge allostatique et des effets à court terme et long terme d'un stress chronique et l'utilisation de la charge allostatique comme indicateur de la dégradation de l'habitat. Ce travail pourra être utilisé afin de mieux comprendre et prédire la dynamique des populations naturelles soumises aux changements globauxIncreasing anthropogenic and global changes are causing many disturbances in the environment leading to degradation and even destruction of habitat. The allostatic model proposed by McEwen and Wingfield in 2003 provides a better understanding of the relationships between physiology and demographic responses within the framework of conservation physiology. Experimental approaches in controlled and semi-natural environments have tested the effect of chronic stress on changes in life histories and physiological parameters in the viviparous lizard (Zootoca vivipara). We discuss the characterization of allostatic charge and the short-term and long-term effects of chronic stress and the use of allostatic charge as an indicator of habitat degradation. This work can be used to better understand and predict the dynamics of natural populations subjected to global changes
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Respaud, Thomas. "Etude du couplage de méthodes numériques pour les équations de Vlasov-Maxwell." Phd thesis, Université de Strasbourg, 2010. http://tel.archives-ouvertes.fr/tel-00526817.
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Une nouvelle méthode est proposée pour la simulation des plasmas utilisant le modèle cinétique qui couple les équations de Vlasov pour la distribution des particules et de Maxwell pour la contribution des champs électromagnétiques. Cette méthode est semi-Lagrangienne, elle utilise une grille de l'espace des phases et se sert des caractéristiques de l'équation de Vlasov. Ces caractéristiques sont suivies en avançant dans le temps, ce qui permet plusieurs avantages par rapport à la méthode classique. Déjà, cette méthode est explicite, ce qui permet une montée en ordre facilitée qui peut offrir davantage de stabilité, et la possibilité de construire des schémas qui conservent la charge en utilisant ses similitudes avec les méthodes PIC. Ceci est fondamental pour s'assurer que les solutions calculées sont bien physiques.
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Khaddour, Bassem. "Modélisation du champ électrique modifié par la charge d'espace injectée." Phd thesis, Grenoble INPG, 2006. http://tel.archives-ouvertes.fr/tel-00130130.
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Un certain nombre d'applications électrostatiques, notamment les dépoussiéreurs électrostatiques, mettent en oeuvre le phénomène de décharge couronne dans les gaz à partir d'électrodes ayant une forte courbure. Ces électrodes injectent des charges dans le gaz et la charge d'espace qui en résulte modifie la distribution du champ électrique. Le but de notre travail a été de développer un code numérique pour déterminer les distributions de champ électrique et de densité de charge dans la configuration lame-plan, la création de charge se faisant par effet couronne sur le bord de la lame. Nous utilisons la méthode des éléments finis MEF pour résoudre l'équation de Poisson et la méthode des caractéristiques MC pour résoudre l'équation de conservation de la charge. Les deux équations couplées sont résolues par approximations successives en redéfinissant le maillage structuré à chaque itération pour éliminer la diffusion numérique. La redéfinition du maillage structuré est la partie la plus importante du travail. L'algorithme converge bien pour différentes distributions de la charge définies sur la lame injectrice. Les solutions numériques obtenues pour une loi d'injection imposée sur la lame plate donnent des résultats en très bon accord avec les mesures de densité de courant sur l'électrode plane d'un dispositif lame-plan.
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Wolff, Anastasia. "Responsabilité sociétale : quelles contributions des entreprises à la conservation de la biodiversité ?" Thesis, Lyon, 2017. http://www.theses.fr/2017LYSEM039/document.
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Alors que nous faisons face à une crise biologique majeure, acteurs institutionnel et ONGs exhortent les entreprises à s’engager pour enrayer cette érosion écologique. L’objectif de la thèse est d’analyser, évaluer et faire évoluer la contribution potentielle des entreprises à la conservation de la biodiversité dans le cadre de leur responsabilité sociétale (RSE).Un cadre d’analyse est développé pour évaluer la prise en charge par une entreprise de ses responsabilités écologiques en termes de moyens – les initiatives RSE a priori favorables à la biodiversité mises en œuvre – et de résultats – la compatibilité des activités de l’entreprise avec la conservation de la biodiversité. Après avoir caractérisé les initiatives RSE à partir de l’étude d’engagements d’entreprises endossés comme contributions à la Stratégie nationale pour la biodiversité, une méthode est proposée pour détecter si les activités d’une entreprise sont écologiquement non-durables. Le postulat est que le respect des capacités de charge des écosystèmes est un prérequis à la conservation effective de la biodiversité. Cette méthode, adaptée de l’évaluation environnementale absolue de la durabilité, est appliquée, dans le cadre de deux projets de recherche-intervention, au portfolio alimentaire du Groupe Casino et au cycle de vie de deux installations de stockage de déchets dangereux de SARP Industries. Des orientations stratégiques visant à éviter-réduire-compenser les pressions non durables sont proposées. Soulignant l’importance de renforcer la prise en charge des pressions étendues, cette thèse ouvre plus largement des perspectives pour les secteurs d’activité et les politiques publiquesAs we are experiencing a major biological crisis, institutional actors and NGOs are calling on businesses to engage efforts aiming at halting biodiversity loss. The objective of the thesis is to analyze and evaluate the potential contribution of corporate social responsibility (CSR) to biodiversity conservation.A framework is developed to analyze to which extent a company takes in charge its ecological responsibilities. After characterizing CSR initiatives based on the case study of business commitments to contribute to the French National Biodiversity Strategy, a method is proposed to test whether business activities exert unsustainable pressures on ecosystems. It is assumed that compatibility with ecosystems’ carrying capacities is a prerequisite for effective biodiversity conservation. This method, adapted from the “absolute environmental sustainability assessment” (AESA) approach, is applied in the context of research-intervention projects to the food portfolio of the mass-market retailer Groupe Casino and to the life cycle of two facilities of SARP Industrie specialized in the disposal and storage of hazardous waste. The comparison of the company’s environmental footprints with the ecological constraints is used to draw a comprehensive strategy based on the mitigation hierarchy. As our results highlight the opportunity to strengthen the management of extended pressures through CSR, possible implications for sectors and public policies are discussed
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Mounier, Marie. "Résolution des équations de Maxwell-Vlasov sur maillage cartésien non conforme 2D par un solveur Galerkin discontinu." Thesis, Strasbourg, 2014. http://www.theses.fr/2014STRAD028/document.
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Cette thèse propose l’étude d’une méthode numérique permettant de simuler un plasma. On considère un ensemble de particules, dont le mouvement est régi par l’équation de Vlasov, et qui est sensible aux forces électromagnétiques, qui proviennent des équations de Maxwell. La résolution numérique des équations de Vlasov-Maxwell est réalisée par une méthode Particle In Cell (PIC). La résolution des équations de Maxwell nécessite un maillage suffisamment fin afin de modéliser correctement les problémes multi-échelles que nous souhaitons traiter. Cependant, mailler finement tout le domaine de calcul a un coût. La nouveauté de cette thèse est de proposer un solveur PIC sur des maillages cartésiens localement raffinés, des maillages non conformes, afin de garantir la bonne modélisation du phénomène physique et d’éviter une trop forte pénalisation des temps de calcul.Nous utilisons une méthode Galerkin Discontinue en domaine temporelle (GDDT), qui offre l’avantage d’être d'une grande flexibilité dans le choix du maillage et qui est une méthode d’ordre élevé. Un point fondamental dans l’étude des solveurs PIC concerne le respect de la conservation de la charge. Nous proposons deux approches afin de traiter cet aspect. La première concerne les méthodes utilisant un système de Maxwell augmenté, dont la nouveauté a été de les étendre aux maillages non conformes. La seconde approche repose sur une méthode originale de pré-traitement du calcul du terme source de courantThis thesis deals with the study of a numerical method to simulate a plasma. We consider a set of particles whose displacement is governed by the Vlasov equation and which creates an electromagnetic field thanks to Maxwell equations. The numerical resolution of the Vlasov-Maxwell system is performed by a Particle In Cell (PIC) method. The resolution of Maxwell equations needs a sufficiently fine mesh to correctly simulate the multi scaled problems that we have to face. Yet, a uniform fine mesh of the whole domain has a prohibitive cost. The novelty of this thesis is a PIC solver on locally refined Cartesian meshes : non conforming meshes, to guarantee the good modeling of the physical phenomena and to avoid too large CPU time. We use the Discontinuous Galerkin in Time Domain (DGTD) method which has the advantage of a great flexibility in the choice of the mesh and which is a high order method. A fundamental point in the study of PIC solvers is the respect of the charge conserving law. We propose two approaches to tackle this point. The first one deals with augmented Maxwell systems, that we have adapted to non conforming meshes. The second one deals with an original method of preprocessing of the calculation of the current source term
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Ozsel, Dogancan. "Challenging the conservative exceptionalism : theme of change in the conservative canon." Thesis, University of Manchester, 2011. https://www.research.manchester.ac.uk/portal/en/theses/challenging-the-conservative-exceptionalism-theme-of-change-in-the-conservative-canon(df168b18-085e-49d3-8055-ca9b25806bb0).html.
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The thesis focuses on the conservative canon and analyses the validity of exceptionalist claims of conservative thinking through a deconstructive reading of conservatism. The comparison of classical and radical conservatisms provides the grounds for this analysis. After the introductory chapter, the second chapter of this thesis focuses on the general characteristics of the conservative ideology. It consists of three sub-sections. The first of these presents the characteristics of classical conservatism, while the second turns to consider radical conservatism. Then, in the third sub-section, a discussion of the similarities and differences between these two conservatisms leads to a proposed definition of a core of the conservative canon. Here, it is argued that the epistemological and ontological imperfection of individuals can be regarded as the definitive core, or as the precept which the justification of conservative policies relies upon. The third chapter then focuses on the views of a number of significant figures in the development of political thought on ideology, which is used by these thinkers as a critical tool. A narrative of the historical developments in the analyses of ideology and ideologies is presented in this chapter. In the last part of the chapter, Derridian thinking is introduced. The fourth chapter problematises conservative exceptionalism, or the belief that there is a fundamental difference between conservatism and other ideologies. This chapter is founded upon the analyses of the previous two chapters, using the Derridian reading and referring to the characteristics and commonalities of the conservative canon presented. In this chapter, radicalism is argued to be a persistent theme in conservative thinking, and conservatism is claimed to be founded upon its impossibility.
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Salem, Manel. "The british Conservative Party under Margaret Thatcher's leadership : conservatism seen from within." Thesis, Montpellier 3, 2017. http://www.theses.fr/2017MON30041.
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Cette thèse aborde le sujet du conservatisme britannique, notamment le conservatisme de1979 jusqu’à 1990, la période qui correspond aux mandats de Margaret Thatcher. Ce travail vise à démontrer que la continuité a été l’aspect déterminant du parti conservateur depuis les XVIIIe et XIXe siècles. Les valeurs premières du conservatisme ont continué à être appliquées avec l’avènement de Margaret Thatcher au pouvoir même si elle incarnait, pour beaucoup de gens, le changement. Ceci apparait dans les discours que Margaret Thatcher tenait quand elle était leader de l’opposition. Le changement était nécessaire selon elle car la société britannique était stagnante. En effet, Thatcher ne pouvait pas accepter ce qu’elle considérait comme étant une « société oisive ».Dès son jeune âge, elle avait appris que travailler dur était à la fois une responsabilité et un plaisir. Ce plaisir-là émane des principes d’indépendance et de persévérance auxquels elle a toujours cru très profondément. Dans ce sens, le changement signifie essentiellement la remise en question du consensus de l’après-guerre, conçu pour aider le pays et ses habitants à se reconstruire. Margaret Thatcher était déterminée à démanteler la social-démocratie keynésienne qui avait imprégné la politique britannique depuis la Seconde Guerre mondiale à cause des circonstances changeantes. L’originalité de sa politique réside dans l’abandon du consensus de l’après-guerre largement basé sur l’état providence et l’intervention de l’état ainsi que l’encouragement des membres de la société à être autonomes et indépendants en plus d’une économie forte et capable de s’autoréguler sans avoir besoin d’intervention de la part du gouvernement. La liberté, l’individualisme et l’autonomie sont les conséquences ultimes de la dérégulation. Ces valeurs étaient les valeurs premières du conservatisme et leur application durant les années quatre-vingt n’étaient que retour au vieux parti conservateur. La continuité du parti conservateur, qui a été interrompue par le keynésianisme du parti travailliste, a été alors rétablie. Pour prouver de cette continuité, un nombre de documents d’archives ont été étudiés au Churchill Archives Centre à Cambridge; des archives telles que les procès-verbaux des réunions du parti conservateur et les discussions qui se sont déroulées entre conservateurs. Par ailleurs, savoir comment les conservateurs eux-mêmes définissent le conservatisme britannique élucide la nature du conservatisme. Pendant longtemps, le parti conservateur a été considéré comme étant le parti monolithique par excellence. Mais le retour en force d’autres partis, comme le parti travailliste après la Seconde Guerre mondiale, a poussé les conservateurs à réfléchir davantage, à innover, à créer des thinks tanks et à ne plus avoir peur d’exprimer leurs opinions diverses. Désormais, ils ne craignent plus le changement, partant du principe que « les choses doivent changer pour qu’elles restent identiques » (The Leopard by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa). Une large partie de cette thèse porte sur la politique économique. La variable de la politique économique constitue peut-être le critère de réussite le plus visible notamment du fait qu’il est aisément quantifiable, et révèle que l’économie a toujours été une priorité chez les conservateurs. Selon Margaret Thatcher par exemple, le keynésianisme de l’après-guerre avait échoué et devait être abandonné. Pour Thatcher, le problème majeur à résoudre n’était pas le chômage mais l’inflation. La dichotomie entre continuité et changement sera analysée non seulement dans les discours publics de Margaret Thatcher mais aussi dans les discussions internes du parti conservateur. La pléthore de définitions et opinions pose également la question de l’héritage de la dame de fer, à travers son successeur John Major et des événements contemporains tels que le BrexitThis thesis focuses on the dynamics of continuity and change within the Conservative Party from 1979 to 1990, the period of Margaret Thatcher’s premierships. The aim of this thesis is to demonstrate that continuity had been the defining feature of the Conservative Party since the 18th and 19th centuries. The implementation of the primary values of early Conservatism continued with the advent of M. Thatcher to power although she represented, for many people, the epitome of change. This was all the more obvious in Margaret Thatcher’s public speeches when she was Leader of the Opposition. Change was, to her, necessary since British society was stagnant. In fact, Mrs. Thatcher could not accept what she considered as an “idle society.” When she was very little, Mrs. Thatcher learned that working hard was not only a duty but also an enjoyment. These feelings emanated from the values that she dearly cherished such as independence and perseverance. In this sense, therefore, change only meant the questioning of the postwar consensus. The policies implemented during the consensus period aimed at helping Britain and her citizens reconstruct. Margaret Thatcher was determined to dismantle the Keynesian social democracy that had permeated British politics since World War Two because of changing circumstances. The novelty of her politics lay in getting rid of the postwar consensus, broadly based on the welfare state and government intervention and encouraging a society whose members should be self-reliant and independent in addition to a strong economy capable of self-regulating without the need for regulation from the government. Freedom, individualism and autonomy were the ultimate consequences of deregulation. These values were the original values of Conservatism and their implementation in the 1980s was nothing but a return to Old Tory Conservatism. The continuity of the Conservative Party, which was interrupted by the politics of Keynesianism of the Labour Party, had therefore been reestablished. In order to trace this continuity, a number of archival material have been studied in the Churchill Archives Centre in Cambridge; archival material such as the minutes of the Conservative Party or the discussions that took place among Conservatives. Besides, how members of the Conservative Party themselves define British Conservatism sheds light on the nature of Conservatism. The Conservative Party has been considered to be the monolithic party par excellence but as a result of the increasing influence of other parties, notably the Labour Party after World War Two, Conservatives became more aware of the need to think more, innovate, create thinks tanks and express their distinct opinions more widely. They were no longer afraid of change given that “Everything needs to change, so that everything can stay the same” (The Leopard by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa). An important part of this thesis deals with the economy. The variable of economic policy is perhaps the most visible criterion of success namely because it is easily quantifiable. It also reveals that economy has always been a priority among Conservatives. For Margaret Thatcher for instance, the Keynesianism of the postwar era had failed and should be abandoned. According to Thatcher, inflation was the problem to solve, not unemployment. The dichotomy between continuity and change will be analyzed not only in the public speeches of Margaret Thatcher but also the internal discussions of Conservatives. This plethora of definitions and opinions also concerns the legacy of the Iron Lady mainly through her successor, John Major, in addition to contemporary events such as the Brexit
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Friedman, Steven Kevin 1953. "Assessment of landscape change: Considerations for conservation planning." Thesis, The University of Arizona, 1989. http://hdl.handle.net/10150/291556.
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Landscapes are changing environments. Conservation of the amenities associated with landscapes must take into account the tendency of a landscape to change over time. Change is considered to be influenced by both cultural land use practices and natural resource processes which act on the landscape. A technique is developed which demonstrates an approach to measure the stability of landscapes. This approach also provides a means to qualify the importance of the elements which make up the landscape, thus defining the matrix of the landscape. A case study of the San Pedro National Conservation Area is used to demonstrate the technique. Sampled at three intervals 1935, 1973 and 1986 the landscape is shown to be stable, identifying this area with intrinsic value for conservation. Landscape scale assessments are shown to be inappropriate for ecosystem scale changes.
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Muir, Martin C. A. "Climate change and conservation policy : developing adaptation strategies to minimise climate change impacts to the conservation interest of Scotland's standing freshwaters." Thesis, University of Dundee, 2016. https://discovery.dundee.ac.uk/en/studentTheses/514a1848-7417-49ac-9fff-a1da69913939.
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There is little doubt that anthropogenic climate change will have long lasting, unavoidable, large scale and cross sector effects. Having a clear understanding of the scale and rate of projected future changes, and the potential impacts of those changes at multiple spatial and temporal scales, will be important to allow environmental managers the best chance of adapting to changing conditions. There are particular concerns about impacts on freshwater systems due to the coupling of direct impacts to both hydrology and ecology. Expected changes can be grouped into three functional categories: those affecting physico-chemical (broadly water quality), hydromorphological (physical structure and habitat) and biological elements of the lake system. The Lake-Landscape Context framework provides a way of approaching the sensitivity or resilience of an individual lake to change by exploring the complex and multi-layered relations between water, land and human activity. However, the exact combination of strategies and actions available to environmental managers is yet to be comprehensively documented beyond broad principles. To reach this goal, to manage our ecosystems in the most comprehensive and responsible way, we need to have a clear understanding of what and where that resource is, what the conservation priorities currently are and where threats to these priorities are likely to emerge. Therefore, the overall aim of this thesis was to develop adaptation strategies to minimise climate change impacts on the conservation interests of Scotland’s standing freshwater. This was approached through the adoption of the ESVRA conceptual framework, intended to assist policymakers and practitioners in adaptation planning. Practical actions can be guided by working through the framework’s four key stages: understanding exposure to the pressure (external drivers); considering the sensitivity and resilience of the system at multiple scales (internal functions); exploring areas of vulnerability (a measure of sensitivity plus exposure); and consideration of multiple possible responses across spatial and temporal scales. Chapter 2 explores the lake resource making use of the latest geospatial data and GIS techniques to investigate Scottish standing freshwaters in depth. 5,165 Scottish lakes exhibit an outstanding myriad of forms and sizes ranging across the country. This variety of form, density and distribution contribute to habitats of international importance for numerous species. Perhaps because of this diversity, no natural grouping of lakes were found based on simple hydromorphological categorisations. The use of landscape and wildness ‘scoring’ is a novel geographic approach, which may be an important factor in how landscapes are valued in the future. Chapter 3 investigates the direct exposure to global climate change facing Scotland. Projected changes to global climate were downscaled to illustrate impact on the UK and Scotland using both the UKCP09 and HadGEM2-ES climate models. Climate change by the 2050s will impact the UK in the range 1.1°C to 2.7°C with a clear South-East/North-West gradient. Precipitation too is projected to change in the UK in this time, with annual precipitation varying from -65 to +116 mm/yr. By incorporating the climate model data into a GIS it was possible to further interrogate the results for specific locations, with a detailed water balance model created for all 5165 lakes. This model suggests that during the summer months there will be sustained periods of water scarcity and deficit. Finally, in this chapter, a climate change spatial risk assessment was undertaken, identifying 200 lakes in the area of greatest projected change. Leading on from these findings, Chapter 4 explores the vulnerability of Scotland’s standing freshwaters. A vulnerability framework attempts to place resilience as a key part of the model, which has to date been missing from similar assessments. The expert weighted scoring mechanism highlights 851 of Scotland’s standing freshwaters, geographically spread across the country, as being highly vulnerable to projected climate changes. The results were mapped to show the vulnerability across Scotland and a display system for individual lakes proposed that allows a transparent and coherent structure that can shed light on distinct components of vulnerability, so that each can be evaluated individually, and in combination. Finally, in Chapter 5, a multipart online survey with key stakeholder experts actively involved in freshwater environmental management was produced to approach adaptation strategies and actions themselves. Over 80 adaptation actions specifically applicable to Scotland’s standing freshwaters were collated and grouped into 12 adaptation strategies. All 12 strategies were considered desirable with six strategies considered ‘Definitely feasible’, a further four considered ‘Likely feasible’. This provides a framework of potential actions that could help to reduce system sensitivity by increasing adaptive capacity or system resilience. In conclusion, while there are undoubtedly challenges ahead for Scotland’s standing freshwaters and for those who manage them, there is clear opportunity to make proactive and engaged decisions to minimise the impact of climate changes on the conservation interest of these important habitats.
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Batdorf, Katharine E. "Distributional Changes in Ohio's Breeding Birds and the Importance of Climate and Land Cover Change." The Ohio State University, 2012. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1354560319.
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Wheatley, Christopher John. "Biodiversity under climate change : biogeography, prospects and conservation opportunities." Thesis, University of York, 2018. http://etheses.whiterose.ac.uk/22014/.
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Global climate change is one of the largest threats faced by biodiversity globally, with a wide range of impacts already observed and greater impacts projected to occur by the end of this century. Early identification of which species are most threatened by climate change is crucial to ensuring conservation action can be taken to prevent species losses. In this thesis I analyse the performance of a wide range of methodologies used to assess the risk to individual species from climate change, finding overall poor agreement between the different methods and validation using historic data sources demonstrated few were good predictors of climate change risk. A comprehensive trend-based climate change vulnerability assessment for European birds and butterflies was carried out, using the best performing methodology identified in this thesis. Differing patterns of climate change risk were identified for the two taxonomic groups, with a mix of risk and opportunities for birds but an overall substantially higher level of risk for butterflies. A large proportion of the species categorised as high climate risk are not of conservation concern currently and may be important targets for conservation intervention in the near future. Finally, a spatial prioritisation analysis for Europe identified where geographically the most important areas for conservation are located, and how the distribution of highest priority areas may change in the future. An examination of how the spatial scale at which conservation prioritisation is performed at can influence the effectiveness of the process found the currently used national scale approach within Europe is significantly less effective than either a full continental scale or a rescaled continental approach. Comparisons of these spatial prioritisations with the European protected area network show that under climate change existing sites are likely to become increasingly important in preventing the loss of species across the continent.
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Rankou, Hassan. "The Moroccan flora biodiversity, conservation & climate change effects." Thesis, University of Reading, 2017. http://centaur.reading.ac.uk/74986/.
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The integrated approach of combining floristic studies, IUCN conservation assessments, threat evaluation and Ecological Niche Modelling embraced in this research shows the importance and the value of the threatened Moroccan flora within the Mediterranean basin hotspot. Morocco is characterized by a high vascular plant diversity with approximately 3193 species and subspecies of which 22% are endemic. The new checklist of the endemic Moroccan flora following the new classification of APG III is elaborated in this research. It contains 879 species and subspecies in 55 families and 287 genera with comments on their geographical distribution and ecoregions. The conservation assessments and red listing of the Moroccan flora, according to IUCN criteria and categories, reveals a high extinction risk and thus the flora is of conservation concern, which is poorly recognized at present, both nationally and internationally. This research presents the initial part of the Moroccan Red Book as an important first step towards the recognition of the dangers to Moroccan biodiversity hotspots, the conservation of threatened species and the raising of public awareness at both national and international levels. The Ecological Niche Modelling approach identifies the current and future areas of high biodiversity richness, confirms that climate change is affecting the Moroccan flora and recognises the areas where species are most at risk, and refugia where the threatened species could be transferred and conserved. Current natural plant distribution ranges and their associated habitats will either reduce, or disappear in some cases, or shift to new refugia. This latter highlights the places to be prioritised in terms of optimising biodiversity conservation efforts: the Atlas Mountains (High Atlas, Anti Atlas and Middle Atlas), Rif Mountains and coastal areas (North Atlantic and the Middle Atlantic of Morocco). The approach adopted here of combining floristic studies, IUCN Red listing, Ecological Niche Modelling and threat evaluations provides powerful tools for conservation assessments, highlights species richness in specific floristic hotspots and estimates the predicted actual or potential species geographic range. This research has combined these new techniques to set the conservation priorities for the Moroccan flora and to inform stakeholders and policy makers. This is key to identifying and ameliorating the effects of the threats endangering the Moroccan plant diversity mainly habitat loss and degradation, direct and indirect human disturbance, changes in vegetation dynamics and climate change. A set of conservation action priorities are elaborated and include; species and habitat protection, ecological monitoring and research, communication and education.
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Rice, Wayne Stanley. "Change begets change: employing a change perspective to inform South Africa's coastal community conservation policy-praxis disjuncture." Doctoral thesis, Faculty of Science, 2021. http://hdl.handle.net/11427/33904.
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Contemporary biodiversity conservation is ‘wickedly complex'. This complexity stems from the need to address the diverse objectives of protecting biodiversity and enhancing social wellbeing. However, centralized and exclusionary conservation approaches are often ill-suited to tackling these coupled objectives. Consequently, increasingly calls have been made for the development of more holistic, participatory, nuanced and context-specific conservation governance approaches. Community-based conservation – which seeks to include local communities and their knowledge and priorities in conservation governance – offers a viable though context-specific alternative. However, thus far communitybased conservation initiatives have produced mixed results, largely due to a lack of understanding of how to effectively initiate, implement and manage such ‘wickedly complex' conservation initiatives. South Africa possesses enabling legislation for community-based conservation, but to date there has been no implementation of legally recognized communityconserved areas in the coastal zone. Accordingly, this research is guided by a desire to better understand this ‘policy-praxis disjuncture', and explores what factors, conditions and processes are required to enable South Africa to embrace a more community-orientated approach to conservation. It is proposed that greater understanding and potentially success can be gained by viewing communitybased conservation including, the initiation, implementation and governance of community-conserved areas, as a ‘change process'. Drawing on Commons Theory, Governance Theory, and the Theory of Change approach, a framework was developed to guide the exploration of the factors, conditions and processes that enable the shift to a community-based mode of conservation governance. Case study investigations were conducted in two established regional community coastal conservation cases, and one South African ‘case-in-progress'. Based on the findings of these cases, and the perceptions of South African conservation actors, this dissertation offers insights for tackling South Africa's policy-praxis disjuncture by developing a South African Empirical Community-Based Conservation Theory of Change Pathway. By exploring the initiation, implementation and governance of community-based conservation initiatives as a change process, this dissertation provides a framework for designing a process to facilitate and implement community-based conservation where contextually appropriate. More specifically, it emphasizes the need to develop a context-appropriate, strategic, systematic and iterative set of actions, with clearly articulated assumptions, which strive to address present or potential issues, to support the change to community-based governance. Consequently, this dissertation provides a framework for understanding how a shift to a community-based mode of conservation governance takes place, and offers a South African specific design pathway, with potential application by diverse conservation actors in other countries.
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Cope, David Roger. "The use of individuals-based and depletion models in conservation." Thesis, University College London (University of London), 2002. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.269748.
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McBride, Patrick. "How conservation has changed from 1975 to 2005." Thesis, University of the Arts London, 2015. http://ualresearchonline.arts.ac.uk/13456/.
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The aim of this thesis is to examine the nature of the changes that took place within paper conservation, a section of the practice/occupation of material conservation, in the United Kingdom during the period from 1975 to 2005. In the 1970s, conservation emerged as a distinct practice within the museum sector from two sources: semi-skilled cleaners and movers of art objects, and the traditional restorers of cultural objects. From then until the end of the century, it continued to grow and mature. The nature of this growth and the changes that took place within it will be modelled with the objective of enabling future changes within conservation to be evaluated. The evaluation of conservation in this manner will determine its definition as an industry. The changes will be assessed by highlighting their effect on one section of conservation practice, namely paper conservation. This practice concentrates on the conservation of cultural material created using paper, including such categories of artefacts as watercolours, fine art prints, drawings, ephemera, archival materials, books and all paper-based sculpture. During the period between 1970 and 2000, paper conservation developed from being a fledgling practice to becoming an accepted standard within the museum sector. In becoming so, it placed great emphasis on professionalism. This provided paper conservation with a template for change, a process through which it could develop and grow. Paper conservation embraced this process as a means of providing a set of standards to which it could adhere, but also as a means of garnering greater acceptability for its approach within the wider museum sector. Issues relating to the development of a profession and professionalism will be further explored as part of the literature review. Organisational change was also considered to have a relevance to the development of paper conservation, and this, too, will be explored within the literature review. Steps to professionalise conservation and subsequent changes in the wider museum sector were seen to have had the most impact on the structure of conservation. They may also have had relevance for the practice itself. Paper conservation was successful in having its occupational aims accepted throughout the museum sector, and this has further implications for those interested in researching by occupations of the professionalisation process. An understanding of the nature of this change, and how paper conservation reached its goal of acceptance for its values, is indispensable for those involved in decision-making within conservation today, and in the future. The thesis is based on an analysis of documents from the period directly relating to change within the field of conservation. It also includes interviews with personnel who were practising conservators, the providers of conservation education, and officers of the different agencies representing conservation. Research questions were formed from this analysis, and multiple case studies were undertaken to analyse these questions.
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Stuch, Benjamin [Verfasser]. "Food Security and Biodiversity Conservation under Global Change / Benjamin Stuch." Kassel : Kassel University Press, 2016. http://d-nb.info/1123731233/34.
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Trivedi, Mandar R. "Conservation under climate change : the potential role of microclimatic heterogeneity." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2007. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.487095.
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Species have responded to recent increases in global temperatures by shifting their geographical ranges poleward and to higher altitudes. As the climate changes in the future, species ranges are predicted to shift out of existing nature reserves. One suggestion to mitigate this effect is to conserve areas which contain a range of microclimates in the hope that species will find refuge in some suitable locations even though the global climate changes. However, such potential conservation strategies require evaluation oftheir likely success before they can be implemented. This thesis addresses this issue through the application of ecological and microclimatic surveying and modelling techniques to investigate the role ofmicroclimatic heterogeneity in shaping plant distributions within mountain nature reserves in Scotland, UK. The main aim is to quantify the variation in microclimate across the reserves and determine whether this will be sufficient to conserve species under climate change. Mountain plants are often identified as being particularly sensitive to climate change, however this has mostly been investigated at a single, often large, spatial scale. In this study, plant-climate relationships are investigated at a range of scales, from continental to local. It is argued that a thorough understanding of climate change impacts can only be achieved through such a multi-scale approach. At the local scale, microclimate measurements across the study site are related to local long-term climate records and future climate projections, revealing that the topographically-driven heterogeneity in surface temperature is smaller than the projected future temperature changes at the site. The long-term climate records also indicate that snow cover may decline at high altitudes, leading to a reduction in suitable climate space for snow bed plants. In summary, the study develops methods to estimate climate change impacts within mountain environments and informs current discussions over how conservation policy and management should be adapted in response.
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Knapp, Corrine Noel. "Engaging local perspectives for improved conservation and climate change adaptation." Thesis, University of Alaska Fairbanks, 2014. http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/#viewpdf?dispub=3607055.
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Climate change is a global process that will impact local places in heterogeneous and unpredictable manners. This dissertation considers whose knowledge and observations could contribute to conservation and climate adaptation planning, how perceptions influence social-ecological feedbacks, and how science could be more relevant to decision-makers and local residents. In Chapter 2, I report on interviews (n=36) conducted with ranchers and recreation-based business owners in Colorado to understand their self-perceptions of resilience and vulnerability. I find that ranchers perceive more exposure and sensitivity to climate change and they also demonstrate more adaptive capacity than recreation businesses. In Chapter 3, I convey results from interviews (n=83) completed with various long-term residents of the region surrounding Denali National Park and Preserve. I find that people who have more direct and ongoing experience with natural resources (subsistence users, bus drivers, business owners) have a greater number and more diverse observations of change than Park employees or scientists. In Chapter 4, I describe results from interviews (n=26) with community-defined Gunnison Sage-grouse experts. I find that formal and observational experts had very different explanations of the decline of Gunnison Sage-grouse and disagreed about potential conservation strategies. In Chapter 5, I describe multi-method surveys (41) conducted with ranchers in the Gunnison Basin to understand their perceptions of the potential listing of the Gunnison Sage-grouse under the Endangered Species Act, and their planned responses. I find that ranchers tend to have negative perceptions of the listing and that they plan to take actions, including sales of land and water and decreased participation in conservation efforts, which may result in harm to the Gunnison Sage-grouse. In Chapter 6, I review stakeholder-generated climate change needs assessments (63) to assess the suggestions made to make science more relevant to decision-making. Their suggestions include: interdisciplinary approaches, place-based focus, increased data-sharing and collaboration, and user-driven research. This dissertation demonstrates the importance of understanding perceptions for effective conservation and adaptation, identifies the existence of proactive adaptation strategies, highlights the value of local knowledge in specific situations, and reveals how failure to engage local people may lead to inequitable outcomes.
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Voskamp, Alke. "Climate change, modelling and conservation of the world's terrestrial birds." Thesis, Durham University, 2017. http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/12461/.
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Global climate change is an important threat to biodiversity and is predicted to be a major driver of wildlife population extinctions throughout the current century. Across a wide range of taxa, a well-documented response to climate change has been changes in species distributions, often towards higher latitudes and altitudes. Species distribution models (SDMs) have been widely used to predict further range changes in future but their use has often focused on discrete geographical areas. Moreover, SDMs have typically been correlative, ignoring biological traits. Here, I use SDMs to project future ranges for the world’s terrestrial birds under climate change. To improve the realism of projected range changes, I incorporate biological traits, including species’ age at first breeding and natal dispersal range. I use these projections to predict large-scale patterns in the responses of terrestrial birds to climate change, and to explore the implications of these models for avian conservation. There is little consensus on the most useful predictors for SDMs, so I begin by exploring how this varies geographically. With this knowledge, I develop SDMs for the world’s terrestrial birds and project future species ranges using three different global climate models (CCSM4, GFDL-CM3, HadGEM2-ES) under a low (rcp26), a medium (rcp45) and a high (rcp85) representative concentration pathway. The projected ranges are used to identify species most at risk from climate change and to highlight global hotspots where species are projected to experience the highest range losses. I explore how the projected range changes affect global species communities and I identify areas where species communities are projected to change or novel communities will emerge. I assess how projected changes will affect the ability of the global Important Bird and Biodiversity Areas (IBAs) network to confer protection on the world’s terrestrial bird species. Additionally, I highlight - based on projected range loss and suitable habitat and climate space beyond the dispersal range - species that will be unable to track climate change and that could be candidates for Assisted Colonization (AC). Finally, I explore the divergence between global species richness (SR) patterns and phylogenetic diversity (PD) for the world’s terrestrial birds, to assess if measuring biodiversity and setting conservation targets based on SR can be expected to cover their PD as well. Identifying the global consequences of projected range changes can inform future conservation efforts and research priorities. Changes in range extent and overlap were projected for the vast majority of the world’s terrestrial birds, with one-fifth projected to experience major range losses (>75% decline in range extent projected). This has far reaching consequences for the IBA network, with an overall trend of species moving out of the IBA coverage. Furthermore 13% of the world’s terrestrial birds are projected to have severe range losses that, combined with an inability to follow suitable habitat and climate space, mean they could benefit from AC as a conservation tool. Overall, PD was found to be highly correlated to SR on a global scale; however, there are localized differences where PD is higher or lower than could be expected from SR alone. These differences suggest that considering PD could enhance conservation planning. The results demonstrate the major threat that climate change poses for the world’s terrestrial bird species across all areas of the globe, and highlight the importance of considering climate change impacts to enhance their protection.
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Gardner, Ambar Alexis, and Ambar Alexis Gardner. "Sustainability Toolkit: An Education Tool for Behavioral Change Strategies." Thesis, The University of Arizona, 2017. http://hdl.handle.net/10150/625288.
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Purpose: There is a worldwide movement towards sustainability. A stepping-stone towards a sustainability conscience population starts in the education of the younger generation. Focusing on improving sustainability education will shift and shape youths' interests and lifestyles into an educated community that will work sustainably. A sustainability conscience community will continue to make moral sustainable decisions in their future endeavors.
The gap between theory and practice of sustainability is substantial. Educational institutions must be the leaders in this subject to mold future generations’ incoming leaders into sustainability conscious critical thinkers. Current environmental issues such as climate change, CO2 Emissions, poverty and so on must impact these educational institutions to make sustainability education a priority in its curriculum. Addressing this problem requires a holistic approach which integrates sustainability education earlier on to grasp further understanding of sustainability actions in higher education and in society.
Sustainability education exists in all levels. Although, sustainability education is much more prominent in higher education institutions as opposed to Elementary, Middle, and High Schools. Consequently, less students are prepared with the desired sustainability knowledge needed in higher education and students' future careers to instill in their disciplines since behavior is achieved through repetitive actions that were not set as a foundation earlier in their education.
Approach: There were two approaches in this research. The first research approach was conducting a survey in 120 students, half of them in secondary education and the other half in higher education. The survey was formatted to analyze three different questions: 1) whether students in high school and higher education knew about sustainability 2) whether students' lifestyle consisted of pro-environmental actions, 3) and whether they learned to perform these actions in secondary education or higher education. The second approach was to create an educational tool to implement sustainability behavioral change strategies in their everyday lifestyles.
Findings: Study found that most students are aware about sustainability. However, most students engage in pro-environmental actions in higher education because they started learning about them in higher education. Therefore, although most secondary education students are aware about sustainability, they aren't engaging in pro-environmental actions. In conclusion, a sustainability toolkit was created based on behavioral change strategies to reduce water usage, CO2 emissions, energy consumption, and waste output in their school and everyday lifestyles.
Value: The efforts of sustainability in Higher Education have been clear in most recent years, although, there is still much resistance to change, transform and reimagine society and education for sustainability. The future of life and social world on Earth is in jeopardy since poverty, climate change, and lack of peace is occurring worldwide. Sustainability education must respond and act on this challenge subsequently to respect all forms of life and future generations. The mission of the sustainability toolkit is to create a pedagogy to assist educational institutions and communities to develop the skills and knowledge to work sustainably.
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Cuaron, Alfredo D. "Land-cover changes and mammal conservation in Mesoamerica." Thesis, University of Cambridge, 1997. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.368617.
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Mustin, Karen. "The spatial dynamics of biogeographic range shifts under climate change." Thesis, University of Aberdeen, 2010. http://digitool.abdn.ac.uk:80/webclient/DeliveryManager?pid=165125.
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There is currently widespread concern about the impact of continuing climate change on the distribution, and ultimately persistence of species across all the major taxa. While much previous work has focussed on using climate envelope models to make projections of the location of potential future suitable climate space for a variety of species, these can at best give an indication of the likely direction and potential magnitude of distributional change. They lack information on spatial population dynamics, dispersal, habitat suitability, local adaptation and inter-specific interactions. The aim of this thesis was to explore how some of these other factors might alter projections regarding species’ distributional change in response to climate change, using both theoretical models, and garden warbler (Sylvia borin) as a model system. A key aspect which has been largely over-looked until very recently is the complex range dynamics which can result from spatial variation in population dynamics, and the impacts of inter-annual variability rather than simply mean climate, both of which can impact extinction risk. Much insight into future impacts of climate change can also be gained through studies of past distributional changes, such as that observed in the British breeding population of garden warbler in the last three decades. In many cases, studies at smaller-scales are necessary to elucidate the mechanisms of climate change impacts and further explore potential synergies with other drivers of ecosystem change such as habitat loss and species invasions. The particular combination of factors which should be included to make projections of distributional change will be species-specific and scale-dependent, therefore modelling exercises should be carefully designed depending on the intended outcome for conservation.
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Duncan, John A. "Aloe Pillansii on Cornell's Kop : are population changes a result of intrinsic life history patterns or climate change?" Bachelor's thesis, University of Cape Town, 2004. http://hdl.handle.net/11427/25928.
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Aloe pillansii populations in the biodiversity hotspot of the Succulent Karoo in Southern Africa are thought to be under threat of extinction. This study investigated the population at the type locality; Cornell's Kop in the Richtersveld, South Africa. It has been suggested that theft, animal damage and more recently climate change have caused a decline in the population by over 50% in the last decade, however very little is known about this rare species. Repeat photography and surveys were used to analyse life history patterns and dynamics of the population and thus establish what the potential threats to this keystone species actually are. Repeat photography indicates that there have been high rates of adult mortality over the last fifty years (1.8% of the population dies annually), which results in an average predicted lifespan of 39 years for the remaining adult population on Cornell's Kop. However, a recent survey reported that over 40% of the population recorded were seedlings, which weren't found in a 1995 survey, which is indicative of a recent recruitment pulse on Cornell's Kop and that conditions on the hill are still habitable for A. pillansii. Growth analyses suggest that A. pillansii has an average annual growth rate of 20 mm.yr⁻¹, which in tum means that 8 m individuals may be up to 453 years old. This long-lived strategy would require A. pillansii to only recruit infrequently, during periods of high rainfall, in order to sustain a viable population, which is consistent with findings on other large desert succulents. Seedling ages were estimated from their heights and it was found that 50% of the seedlings appear to have germinated five to ten years ago; this is consistent with rainfall records from the area which indicate that rainfall was consistently above the annual average for this same period. The findings indicate that although the adult A. pillansii population is declining, the presence of 30 seedlings suggest that the population is entering a recruitment phase after just coming out of a lengthy senescent phase. Although A. pillansii 's extensive lifespan makes it a potentially useful indicator species of climate change, the evidence presented in this study does not suggest that climate change has affected the dynamics of this population.
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Sumner, Daniel Mark. "Gendered dimensions of Conservation Agriculture in Northwestern Cambodia." Thesis, Virginia Tech, 2014. http://hdl.handle.net/10919/63896.
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This research investigates gender-based constraints and opportunities to the dissemination of conservation agriculture based on a case study with smallholder farmers in the village of Pichangva, Rattanakmondol, Battambang Province, Royal Kingdom of Cambodia. Using qualitative and quantitative methods, including focus group discussions, semi-structured interviews, household surveys, and participatory mapping, we explore the effect of conservation agriculture on men's and women's allocation of labor, gendered power relations in intra-household negotiations, and access to resources and information. I found that conservation agriculture has the potential to decrease men's and women's workload and drudgery in cash crop production and generates opportunities for other work; however, this may contribute to an increase in women's "triple workload" as they invest part of this "extra time" in additional domestic and community responsibilities. I also found that gender intersects with other factors to limit men's and women's access to and control over resources, access to information, and participation in household negotiations. These findings could have implications on smallholder farmers' decision to experiment with conservation agriculture.Master of Science
CCRA-7 (Gendered Knowledge)
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Wright, Pamela A. "Perceived structure of the environmental/conservation organization market /." The Ohio State University, 1992. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1487760357823173.
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Peach, Michelle. "Evaluating the Role of Protected Areas in Mitigating Avian Responses to Climate and Land Use Change." Thesis, State University of New York Col. of Environmental Science & Forestry, 2017. http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/#viewpdf?dispub=10623168.
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Billions of dollars have been invested in land protection as a strategy to conserve biodiversity based on the assumption that protected areas buffer species from processes that drive extinction. Increasingly, protected area expansion and connectivity are being incorporated into climate change adaptation strategies to facilitate anticipated shifts in species ranges in response to predicted changes in temperature and precipitation. However, the effectiveness of protected areas at maintaining biodiversity, either by reducing the risk of extinction or facilitating colonization into new areas, has not been well established. In addition, the growing reliance on multiple-use protected areas that allow resource extraction, such as timber harvest and mineral mining, has raised questions about whether multiple-use protected areas are equally beneficial for long-term biodiversity conservation as more strictly protected areas that limit active resource management. In order to address these questions using repeated Breeding Bird Atlas data, I first had to confront the limitations of existing approaches to account for imperfect detection by developing a novel modelling approach to addresses the gap between requirements of other multi-season occupancy models (i.e. repeated sampling) and existing datasets. I then applied that single-visit dynamic occupancy modelling approach to Atlas data in New York and Pennsylvania for 97 species to quantify drivers of colonization and extinction while accounting for imperfect detection in landscapes that varied by type and amount of land cover and area under protection. In general, protected areas increased colonization and lowered extinction probabilities to an increasing degree as both forest cover and neighborhood protection decreased, with particular benefits for forest breeding birds. Both strict and multiple-use protected areas increased colonization and reduced extinction more for mature forest species than early forest species, with the greatest benefits accruing when forest cover was relatively low. These results provided the most comprehensive evidence to date that protected areas can facilitate species persistence by both reducing the risk of extinction and providing attractive colonization sites as species? ranges shift and that biodiversity conservation can be compatible with renewable resource extraction.
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Fleury, Gabriela. "Environmental change in Riemvasmaak, Northern Cape, South Africa twenty years after resettlement." Master's thesis, University of Cape Town, 2016. http://hdl.handle.net/11427/20992.
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The 75,000 ha area of Riemvasmaak, located north of the Orange River within the Northern Cape Province, is an important case study with regard to land restitution and livestock impacts upon arid rangelands hypothesized to be at disequilibrium. As part of a 'black spot' removal program during apartheid, about 1,500 people from Riemvasmaak were forcibly moved off their land in 1974. With many returning to the area in January 1995, Riemvasmaak represented the first successful land restitution case in post-apartheid South Africa. This study follows up on a long-term environmental monitoring project set up in 1995 and revisited in 2005 and early 2015 to determine the impact of the returnees on the vegetation and ecology of the region. It builds upon the repeat photography methodology utilized by Hoffman et al. (1995) and Hoffman and Todd (2010) in order to provide a robust and accessible measure of change in the herbaceous and woody components of the vegetation. The percentage cover of herbaceous and woody vegetation was visually estimated in repeat photographs from 27 photo stations for the years 1995, 2005, and 2015. The results of a linear mixed-effects model suggest that herbaceous vegetation decreased significantly from 1995 to 2005 (p< 0.001) and increased significantly from 2005 to 2015 (p< 0.001) while woody cover did not change significantly from 1995-2015. There was no difference in these trends between the three landform units assessed (rivers, sandy pediments and rocky slopes). Linear regressions utilizing size class and density of individuals for Acacia erioloba (Vachellia erioloba) indicated that there had been little recruitment over the period 1995-2015 in comparison to the period prior to the initial survey in 1995. Fifteen face-to-face interviews with livestock owners, herders, and the local Agricultural Collective in 2015 outlined the socioeconomic and cultural changes that had occurred in Riemvasmaak since 1995. One such change, a directive issued by the Riemvasmaak Municipality in 2009, that ownership of livestock would no longer be allowed within Municipality boundaries, resulted in the removal of livestock from Riemvasmaak in the years directly before 2015 and corresponded temporally with the rise in herbaceous cover seen in 2015.
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Kissoon, Ian. "Using tropical forests to combat global climate change without comprimising local livelihoods." Master's thesis, University of Cape Town, 2010. http://hdl.handle.net/11427/4752.
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Ingram, Jane Carter. "Forest change, condition and composition with implications for conservation in Madagascar." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2004. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.402980.
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Mohammed, Amin Hanaw Mohammed Taqi. "Conservation planning, urban change and social life in Sulaimaniyah, Kurdistan-Iraq." Thesis, University of Sheffield, 2017. http://etheses.whiterose.ac.uk/16733/.
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This thesis examines how significant redevelopment of the historic centre of Sulaimaniyah in Kurdistan-Iraq has impacted on the social life of established residents. A key starting point for the thesis is concern that the city has weak frameworks for managing rapid urban change. The impacts are being felt in terms of displacement of residents, but changes to historic buildings have implications for patterns of everyday social life, belonging and identity. The thesis documents the changing character of Sulaimaniyah, exploring patterns of change and their implications for everyday life and lived experience in the city. Detailed interviews with residents are used to explore those experiential impacts, focusing particularly on individuals and groups who are negatively affected by change. Central to that experience is the embedded nature of everyday spiritual experience that is embedded in the cultural built environment. The thesis makes a distinctive contribution in a number of ways. First, it offers a rare and important example of research on Kurdish cities (and cultural built heritage in the global Middle East). Second, researching those contexts highlights forms of lived experience that are not always addressed in conceptions of cultural built heritage based on ‘western’ experience. Third, the thesis provides further evidence of the importance of cultural built heritage in protecting the living space and ontological security of vulnerable residents.
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Alagador, Diogo André Alves Salgado Rodrigues. "Quantitative methods in spatial conservation planning integrating climate change and uncertainties." Doctoral thesis, ISA/UTL, 2011. http://hdl.handle.net/10400.5/3877.
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Doutoramento em Biologia - Instituto Superior de AgronomiaSpatial Conservation Planning is a scientific-driven procedure to identify cost effective networks of areas capable of representing biodiversity through time. This conceptually simple task accommodates sufficient complexity to justify the existence of an active research line with more than 20 years already. But costefficiency and representation of biodiversity is only part of the whole challenge of Spatial Conservation Planning.The recognition that Nature operates dynamically has stimulated researchers to embrace the additional challenges of developing methods to make conventional (static) conservation approaches more dynamic and therefore increase the chances that biodiversity are preserved in the longer term. In this thesis, I present a set of tools to assist spatial conservation decision-making and address issues such as uncertainty and spatial dynamics of species ranges. These two topics are particularly relevant in the context of ongoing climate changes. I start by investigating two connectivity paradigms for the identification of conservation areas. In the first, a distance-based approach is applied for the identification of areas representing a set of species. In the second, I present a conceptual framework based on the analysis of environmental similarity between protected areas. The framework seeks to identify effective spatial linkages between protected areas while ensuring that these linkages are as efficient as possible. Then, I introduce a methodology to refine the matching of species distributions and protected area data in gap analysis. Forth, I present a comprehensive assessment for the expected impacts of climate change among European conservation areas. Finally, I address a framework for cost-efficient identification of the best areas that, in each time period, assist species’ range adjustments induced by severe climate changes. There exists a wealth of theoretical insight and algorithmic power available to ecologists. This thesis took advantage of it and (I hope) it offers useful guidance for genuine biodiversity protection.
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Souter, Robert. "The ecology and conservation of the Ringlet butterfly (Aphantopus hyperantus)." Thesis, University of Hertfordshire, 2000. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.340040.
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Wiseman, Ruth. "Woody vegetation change in response to browsing in Ithala Game Reserve, South Africa." Master's thesis, University of Cape Town, 2001. http://hdl.handle.net/11427/10786.
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Bibliography: leaves 43-49.Wildlife populations in southern Africa are increasingly forced into smaller areas by the demand for agricultural and residential land, and many are now restricted by protective fences. Although numerous studies have focused on the impacts of elephants and other browsers on vegetation in large, open areas, less is known of their effects in restricted areas. The woody vegetation in Ithala Game Reserve, a fenced conservation area of almost 30 000 ha, was monitored annually from 1992 to 2000 to assess the impact of browsers on vegetation structure and composition. Three categories of tree were identified: those declining in abundance (e.g. Aloe marlothii and A. davyi), those increasing in abundance (e.g. Seolopia zeyheri and Euclea erispa), and those with stable populations (e.g. Rhus lucida and Gymnosporia buxifolia).
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Simón, Gutiérrez Ana Alí. "Policy coherence between biodiversity conservation, climate change and poverty alleviation in Mexico." Master's thesis, Faculty of Science, 2021. http://hdl.handle.net/11427/33026.
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In the last decades, the impacts of climate change have affected people, societies, economic sectors and ecosystems in all the continents and oceans. Climate change will make povertyalleviation harder by slowing down economic growth, eroding food security, and increasing and creating poverty traps. The poor, that are highly dependent on wildlife and natural resources for their persistence, will be affected the most. However, it seems that environmental priorities are not considered in the developmental agendas. If biodiversity and climate change are not included in policy domains other than the environmental, many negative effects will not be adequately mitigated or minimised. Addressing these multidimensional problems requires policy coherence for improving the outcomes of social and environmental policies, and for using more efficiently the limited resources that developing countries have. The overall aim of this study is to determine if there is coherence between the objectives of the National Development Plan and the sectoral programs of Mexico, with a special focus on climate change adaptation and mitigation, povertyalleviation, and biodiversity conservation. Through a discourse network analysis, it was possible to determine the policy components within each program and to systematically identify the connections between them and investigate if there was policy coherence. Since the documents analysed belong to two different levels of the government, it was possible to analyse vertical and horizontal coherence. The analysis showed that there is vertical coherence between the NDP and the sectoral programs, low coherence between the sectoral programs, as well as low coherence between the four policy components of major interest. This analysis increases the very scarce literature on Mexico's policy coherence, providing empirical evidence that allows finding windows of opportunity for improving the coherence between sectoral programs in the future.
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Sansum, Philip Andrew. "Historical resource use and ecological change in semi-natural woodland : western oakwoods in Argyll, Scotland." Thesis, University of Stirling, 2004. http://hdl.handle.net/1893/11840.
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This thesis investigates the ecological history of western oakwoods in the Loch Awe area,Argyll, Scotland. By combining historical evidence for human use of woodland resources with palaeoecological evidence for past ecological change the influence of man on the current condition of biologically important semi-natural woods is assessed. A chronology of human activities relevant to the woodland ecology of the study area is assembled from estate papers and other documentary sources. Vegetation change during the last c. 1000 years is elucidated by pollen analysis of radioisotope dated sediments from small hollows located within three areas of western oakwood believed to be ancient. The results are related to current condition and the hypothesis that the species composition of the woods exhibited temporal stability in the recent past is tested. Mechanisms of change culminating in the modem species compositions of the woods are suggested by synthesizing independent findings from historical and palaeoecological approaches. The documentary record indicates management in the 18th and 19th centuries to supply oak bark and coppice wood for commercial purposes. In the 20th century woodland use has been relatively minor except as a grazing resource. In the period before 1700 AD the woods were used for wood for local domestic needs and to shelter livestock. The palaeoecological record indicates a lack of stability in species composition during the last millennium. Relatively diverse woods still containing natural features such as old-growth were transformed in the medieval period into disturbed open stands depleted in natural features. Declining productivity was locally alleviated by the introduction of new modes of exploitation around or prior to 1700 AD. The current condition of the woods, rather than being the direct result of an economic design, is the consequence of post-disturbance biotic processes following the abandonment of management in the late 19th century. The findings are related to the conservation of the wider western oakwood resource.
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Segale, Rodney Daniel. "Learning conservation of matter in phase changes / R.D. Segale." Thesis, North-West University, 2009. http://hdl.handle.net/10394/4558.
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Learners regard Chemistry as one of their most difficult courses at secondary and undergraduate levels, because they have to link several modes of representing matter and their interactions. Phase changes are one of the topics that learners of Chemistry experience problems with. On microscopic level phase changes can be explained in terms of the particulate nature of matter. During a phase change the outward appearance of a substance change, while the substance itself remains the same. In order to learn this concept, learners performed experiments on conservation of mass in an empirical study.
The empirical study was conducted amongst 46 Grade 10 learners of Kgabutle High School in the Bojanala region, in the North-West Province, South Africa, following the Curriculum Statement for Physical Sciences.
The investigation was done with the aid of a questionnaire. This was followed by an intervention that consisted of guided inquiry lessons aimed at enhancing the learners' understanding of conservation of matter in phase changes. Constructivist learning principles were implemented in the lessons. The effectiveness of the intervention was determined by administering the same questionnaire as pre- and posttest and calculation of normalized learning gains.
The results of the empirical study were used to identify alternative conceptions and other problems that hampered learners' understanding, such as language and in-depth knowledge about the kinetic molecular theory.
Constructivist principles of learning are recommended to be used to enhance learners' understanding of conversation of matter in phase changes.Thesis (M.Ed.)--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2009.
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Weiss, Joshua A. "Spatio-temporal change in riparian woodlands of the Kruger National Park: drivers and implications." Master's thesis, Faculty of Science, 2019. http://hdl.handle.net/11427/31000.
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Verbal accounts, supported by limited ground-based and satellite images, reveal decreasing riparian woodland and a loss of large trees along the rivers of the Kruger National Park (KNP) over the last century. These habitats occupy a tiny fraction of the park’s surface area but fulfil critical ecological functions and provide several ecosystem services. Little research has, however, focused on riparian woodland dynamics across the park. Here a multi-decadal time-series analysis of riparian woodland extent was conducted to identify trends in extent and possible drivers of riparian woody vegetation change. Aerial and satellite imagery (1936 to 2018) was used to measure changes in the extent of riparian woodland tree cover for 18 approx. 10 km long sites along five perennial and nine non-perennial rivers in KNP. This change was compared in a multivariate time-series with river flow and rainfall data from nearby gauging and weather stations, respectively. Particular attention was paid to cumulative flow effects, as well as the frequency and magnitude of large infrequent disturbances (LIDs) such as droughts and floods, which regulate the depth of the water table and may manifest as a physical disturbance. Tree cover fluctuated over the time period and the trajectory of change varied between sites. Most sites (n=11) experienced a decline in overall tree cover over the period while 14 showed a downward trend, six significantly. Overall tree cover increased at six sites, three of which showed an increasing trend (one significantly). There tended to be proportionately higher tree cover loss per year at sites with higher median tree cover. It appears that tree cover decreased substantially at a number of sites following the mega-flood event of 2000 and subsequent large floods over the last decade. It was not possible to generalise responses for the different sites, no doubt because of varying geology, flow regimes and vegetation characteristics at each site, resulting in differing responses to aspects of river flow and rainfall. Peak flow and maximum rainfall events, however, were the strongest significant association with decreases in riparian tree cover, indicating that floods are potentially the biggest drivers of tree loss. Flow variability and cumulative rainfall appear to significantly influence woodland expansion. The initial findings from this study should prompt increased attention to riparian habitats through fine-scale, detailed work aimed at further understanding the dynamics of these systems and determining thresholds for conservation concern in an attempt to ensure persistence of these important ecosystems.
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Layouni, Siham. "Etude d'une méthode de volumes finis pour la résolution des équations de Maxwell en deux dimensions d'espace sur des maillages quelconques et couplage avec l'équation de Vlasov." Toulouse 3, 2008. http://thesesups.ups-tlse.fr/562/.
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Nous développons et étudions une méthode de volumes finis pour résoudre le système de Maxwell instationnaire bidimensionnel sur des maillages presque quelconques (non-conformes, non-convexes, aplatis. . ). Nous commençons par la construction du schéma, qui est basé sur l'utilisation des opérateurs discrets de la méthode DDFV et sur un choix pertinent pour la discrétisation des conditions initiales et des conditions aux limites. Ensuite, nous prouvons que ce schéma préserve localement la condition de divergence, que l'énergie électromagnétique discrète est conservée ou décroissante (selon les conditions aux limites) et qu'elle est positive sous condition CFL. Nous montrons aussi la stabilité du schéma sous condition CFL et sa convergence dans les cas de champs réguliers et non réguliers. Ces résultats sont ensuite validés, numériquement avec quelques cas tests sur différents types de maillages. Nous vérifions aussi que l'utilisation des maillages non conformes n'amplifie pas les réflexions parasites. Enfin nous couplons ce schéma avec une méthode PIC pour résoudre le système de Maxwell-Vlasov. Nous calculons la densité de courant avec une généralisation de la méthode de Buneman à des maillages quelconques et nous montrons la conservation des équations de charge discrètes, ce qui permet de conserver la loi de Gauss. Le problème couplé est validé numériquement et la simulation de l'amortissement Landau confirme la décroissance de l'énergie, portée par le champ électrique, avec une précision dépendant du nombre de particules par mailleWe develop and study a finite volume method to solve the bidimensional nonstationary Maxwell equations on arbitrary (non-conforming, non-convex, flat. . . ) meshes. We start by the construction of the scheme, which is based on the use of the DDFV discrete operators and a pertinent choice to discretize initial and boundary conditions. Then, we prove that the scheme locally preserves the divergence condition, that a discrete electromagnetic energy is conserved or decreasing (depending on boundary conditions) and that it is positive under a CFL condition. We also show the stability of the scheme under a CFL condition and its convergence for regular and non-regular fields. Then, these results are numerically validated with some tests using different types of meshes. We verify, also, that the use of non-conforming meshes doesn't amplify parasitic reflections. Finally, we coupled the scheme with a PIC method to solve the Maxwell-Vlasov system. We calculate the current density using a generalization of Buneman's method to arbitrary meshes and we prove that discrete charge equations, and thus Gauss' law, are conserved. The coupled problem is numerically validated and the simulation of Landau damping confirms the electric energy decrease with a precision depending on the number of particles per cell
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Wright, Patrick. "Monitoring population size, structure and change in Bechstein's bat (Myotis bechsteinii) : combined approaches using molecular and landscape ecology." Thesis, University of Exeter, 2018. http://hdl.handle.net/10871/33818.
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The Bechstein’s bat, Myotis bechsteinii, is known as one of Britain’s most elusive mammals. Critical information on the species is lacking, hindering evidence-based conservation and management in a human-dominated landscape. In this thesis, I used a combination of molecular and landscape approaches to assess the genetic health and population genetic structure of M. bechsteinii and understand how the British landscape affects the species habitat and its connectivity. I also aimed to develop new molecular tools, such as non-invasive genetic sampling and molecular ageing, which could then be used to better monitor the species. Data from nuclear markers (microsatellites) showed high levels of genetic diversity and little inbreeding across the species range, though genetic diversity was slightly lower in Britain than in mainland Europe. Bayesian and spatial Principal Components (sPCA) analysis showed a clear separation between British and European populations. This analysis also revealed that in Europe the Italian population south of the Alps was found to constitute a different group from other sites. In Britain, there was genetic structuring between the northern and southern part of the species range. Despite there being little genetic divergence in mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) sequences throughout most of Europe, the mtDNA patterns in Britain confirmed this separation of northern and southern populations. Such genetic structuring within Britain — in the absence of any obvious physical barriers — suggested that other features such as landuse may limit gene-flow. To better understand how the species interacts with 4 the British landscape, I used a landscape genetic approach, habitat suitability modelling using presence-only data and a landscape connectivity analysis. The negative association of M. bechsteinii presence with distance from woodland was identified as the main variable determining habitat suitability, while the landscape genetics results highlighted the importance of woodlands for gene flow. M. bechsteinii habitat was highly fragmented and only showed good connectivity if the species was able to disperse over 5,000 m. These results subsequently highlight the importance of woodlands not only for providing suitable habitat, but also in maintaining genetic connectivity between populations. Then, I investigated the use of non-invasive capture-mark-recapture (CMR) and demographic history models to estimate the population size and changes of M. bechsteinii. Bat droppings were collected below roosting sites of a single colony. After species identification, the 123 droppings belonging to M. bechsteinii were genotyped at nine DNA microsatellite loci in order to differentiate all individuals. All microsatellites showed very low amplification rates indicating low quality samples. However, at a larger scale, the use of population demographic models to assess effective population size variation using a dataset of 260 bats of the British population gave an estimate of the effective population size of 6,569 (CI: 5,307-8,006) and suggested that the British population of Myotis bechsteinii is stable and possibly expanding. Finally, I developed an epigenetic assay to estimate the age of individual bats. For this, I measured DNA methylation on bats of known age at seven CpG sites from three genes. All CpG sites from the tested genes showed a significant relationship between DNA methylation and age and provided reliable age estimates. 5 The findings presented in this thesis show that despite exhibiting high levels of genetic diversity throughout its range, the genetic structure, habitat and connectivity of M. bechsteinii populations is highly influenced by woodlands. It also offers a novel method to monitor the species by developing an assay which can provide information on the age structure of an entire colony from a single sampling session. Such approaches are much needed in the field of conservation and could in the future help preserve a wider range of species.
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Lawson, Callum Robert. "From microhabitat to metapopulations : a model system for conservation under climate change." Thesis, University of Exeter, 2013. http://hdl.handle.net/10871/9557.
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Fox, Sarah-Jane Caroline. "An analysis of vegetation pattern and its relationship to NDVI data in the Namaqualand area, South Africa." Bachelor's thesis, University of Cape Town, 2003. http://hdl.handle.net/11427/25784.
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The Namaqualand area in the North Western Cape, South Africa is unique in comparison to other similar semi-arid areas of the world. It has a high biodiversity and endemism and is consequently an area of interest for a growing number of conservation initiatives. Climate plays an important role in influencing the phenology and growth of the vegetation in the area. Remote sensing techniques were used to reveal the vegetation patterns in the greater Namaqualand area and to relate them to climatic variables. To do this we used the normalised difference vegetation index (NDVI) to relate biomass to altitude, rainfall and vegetation type. Each vegetation type in the area had a unique temporal signature and the climatic variables influencing the summer rainfall and winter rainfall vegetation types differed significantly from each other. Mean annual NDVI was significantly correlated to precipitation and potential evapotranspiration (PET) (r = 0.60, -0.63 respectively). A multiple regression model explained 52% of the variance when Mean Annual NDVI was related to climatic variables. Mean NDVI in August (the month of maximum NDVI in most of Namaqualand) was significantly related to PET and the current plus two previous months of precipitation (r = -0.72 and 0.74 respectively). A multiple regression model for mean NDVI in August and climatic variables explained almost 58% of the variance. The results suggest that NDVI can be used successfully as a measure of growth and phenology in the Namaqualand area and that NDVI could be used in climate models, drought prediction, desertification predictions and a number of other applications in the future.
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Abdu, Salamatu. "Does the availability of shade limit use of water troughs by desert birds?" Master's thesis, University of Cape Town, 2015. http://hdl.handle.net/11427/15461.
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Includes bibliographical referencesClimate change poses a major threat to living organisms, with maximum temperatures expected to continue to rise over the next few decades. Hot desert environments are particularly at risk because they experience high environmental temperatures, scarce vegetation, low productivity and unpredictable water sources. Endotherms such as birds face the challenge of maintaining a stable body temperature while avoiding dehydration. This study was carried out in the southern Kalahari, in South Africa's Northern Cape, where about 50% of bird species (36 species) depend on free-standing drinking water. Livestock farms within this area provide artificial water points, which benefit birds as well as livestock. This study determined the role of shade and cover in the use of these artificial water points by birds. An experiment was conducted at six waterholes using the Before-After, Control-Impact (BACI) design. After an initial baseline was established, three waterholes were shaded while the other three were left unshaded. Camera traps were used to record the pattern and intensity of water use by bird species at different times of the day and at varying air temperatures. A total of 36 bird species drank at the water holes, but data analysis was confined to the ten most abundant species. Of the ten, six species responded to the presence of shade/cover, with four species reacting positively (Cape Glossy Starling Lamprotornis nitens , Red - headed Finch Amadina erythrocephala , Black - throated Canary Serinus atrogularis , and Laughing Dove Spilopelia senegalensis ), four showing no significant change in drinking patterns, and two showing a decrease in visitor numbers when the site was shaded (Cape Turtle - Dove Streptopelia capicola, Namaqua Dove Oena capensis). This suggests that providing shade at waterholes is not a universal solution to the problem of increasing heat stress experienced by birds coming to drink. Certain species such as the Laughing Doves and Cape Turtle-Doves avoided waterholes during the warmest time of the day while the Namaqua Doves were frequent visitors at this time. However, the Laughing Dove took advantage of the shade provided at midday (warmest temperatures) as their numbers increased. The Red-headed Finch and Black-throated Canary also increased at water holes with temperature irrespective of the time of day. These patterns imply that the provision of shade modifies the behavior of some bird species in response to predation risk or heat stress. These species utilized shade at different times of day and with varying intensities as temperatures rose.
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Reid, Joanna Isabel Emslie. "Grassland debates : conservation and social change in the Cariboo-Chilcotin, British Columbia." Thesis, University of British Columbia, 2010. http://hdl.handle.net/2429/29694.
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This thesis explores how a rural landscape – the area from Lillooet to Williams Lake along the Fraser River in British Columbia’s Cariboo-Chilcotin region – becomes the subject of increasing grassland conservation activity and with what consequences. Along the Fraser River lies the northern extent of a once vast, now endangered ecosystem called the Pacific Northwest Bunchgrass Grasslands. The landscape is the traditional, unceded territory of the Secwepemc, St’at’imc and Tsilhqot’in Nations. Ranchers have occupied and used the land since the late 1860s; for many years, the well-known Gang Ranch was the largest in North America. It is a dramatic and ecologically significant landscape to which many people hold strong attachments.
Since the 1930s, scientists, government officials, activists, and academics have travelled the region within a broad framework of conservation; these practices have intensified dramatically since the 1990s. My central research questions are: (a) how has scientific conservation extended over this rural landscape and created new social forms; and, (b) how do different people – conservationists, ranchers, and Aboriginal community members – relate to subsequent changes. I argue that ecological ideas, travelling through conservation networks, change the social meaning of the landscape, though in unpredictable ways.
I explore the middle Fraser as a site of growing conservation interest and activity. This work is situated within literatures on resource geography and environmental politics in British Columbia, which emphasize complex interrelationships among environmentalists, Aboriginal communities, and rural, non-Aboriginal people who depend on resource use activities for their livelihoods. I am also interested in the productive, disciplinary nature of scientific and state knowledge, as described in the literature on eco-governmentality. However, I see conservation as a set of discourses and practices, dynamic and emergent in a very active material, social world. In this view, I am influenced by Actor-Network Theory, which emphasizes a decentering of agency. Even as conservation changes the meaning of the middle Fraser, it is always through constant, complex negotiation with many different people and diverse non-human elements.
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Stuckenberg, Tristan. "Land-cover change in the Berg River catchment : implications for biodiversity conservation." Thesis, Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2012. http://hdl.handle.net/10019.1/71641.
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ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Biodiversity refers to the variety of life on earth at all scales of observation. Its persistence underlies ecological and evolutionary processes and is pivotal for the sustenance and future development of human societies through the provision of ecosystem services. Especially since the industrial revolution, anthropogenic land-cover change has placed ever-increasing strain on natural systems through the destruction and degradation of habitat. The Cape Floristic Region (CFR) is a global biodiversity hot spot which contains some of the highest levels of floristic diversity and endemism on the planet. Since European settlement large swathes of this region have been transformed to facilitate socio-economic development, placing tremendous pressure on indigenous biodiversity.
Due to the intimate relationship that exists between land cover and biodiversity it is possible to draw inferences on the current state of the biodiversity of an area, assess the pressures that will likely face it in the future and plan accordingly based on an analysis of land-cover change. As a means of assessing the state of biodiversity in the CFR, this thesis has developed a series of three land-cover maps for the Berg River catchment in the Western Cape province for 1986/1987, 1999/2000 and 2007 using Landsat TM and ETM+ data. Areas of natural vegetation were delineated on the land-cover maps using an object-orientated nearest neighbour supervised classification. Remnants of natural vegetation were classified according to potential vegetation boundaries described by Mucina and Rutherford’s map of the vegetation of South Africa, Lesotho and Swaziland.
Contrary to initial expectations, the area occupied by natural vegetation had increased by 14%. However, considerable variation was recorded between vegetation types with certain types exhibiting marked increases in extent while others had been encroached by expanding cultivated and urban areas. An assessment of the accuracy of the 2007 land-cover map showed that significant swathes of natural vegetation were infested with alien invasive species or dominated by particularly resilient species which are not as severely affected by anthropogenic activities as other species. It is concluded that the methodology employed in this study provides a scoping mechanism by which more intensive research may be directed toward areas exhibiting significant land-cover change.AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Biodiversiteit verwys na die verskeidenheid lewe op aarde op alle waarnemingsvlakke. Die volhouding daarvan onderlê ekologiese en ewolusionêre prosesse en die verskaffing van ekosisteemdienste is deurslaggewend vir die onderhoud en toekomstige ontwikkeling van menslike samelewings deur. Veral sedert die industriële rewolusie het veranderinge in antropologiese gronddekking toenemende druk op natuurlike sisteme geplaas, grootliks deur die vernietiging en ontaarding van habitatte. Die Kaapse Floristiese Streek (KFS) met van die hoogste vlakke van floristiese diversiteit en endemisiteit op aarde, is ‘n brandpunt van wêreldwye biodiversiteit. Sedert die vestiging van Europese setlaars is uitgebreide dele van hierdie streek omskep om sosio-ekonomiese ontwikkeling te bevorder, wat geweldige druk op inheemse biodiversiteit geplaas het. Te wyte aan die intieme verhouding wat tussen gronddekking en biodiversiteit bestaan, is dit moontlik om deur middel van ‘n ontleding van gronddekkingsveranderinge afleidings te maak rakende die huidige stand van biodiversiteit in ‘n streek. Sodoende kan bepaal word watter druk ʼn streek moontlik in die toekoms sal moet weerstaan. Vooruitbeplanning kan dienooreenkomstig gedoen word. Ten einde die stand van biodiversiteit in die KFS te beraam, het hierdie tesis ‘n reeks van drie gronddekkingskaarte (1986/1987, 1999/2000 en 2007) vir die Bergrivier-opvangsgebied in die Wes-Kaapprovinsie met behulp van Landsat TM en ETM+ data ontwikkel. Areas met natuurlike plantegroei is met behulp van ‘n voorwerp-georiënteerde naaste-buurman klassifikasie afgebaken. Oorblyfsels van natuurlike plantegroei is volgens potensiële plantegroeigrense, soos beskryf deur Mucina en Rutherford se kaart van die plantegroei van Suid-Afrika, Lesotho en Swaziland, geklassifiseer. In teenstelling met aanvanklike verwagtinge, het die area wat deur natuurlike plantegroei bedek word met 14% toegeneem. Tog is aansienlike variasie tussen plantegroeitipes opgemerk, met sekere soorte wat opvallende omvangstoename toon, terwyl ander plantegroeitipes deur landbou en stedelike groei vervang is. ‘n Beraming van die akkuraatheid van die 2007-gronddekkingkaart toon dat noemenswaardige stroke natuurlike plantegroei deur uitheemse indringerspesies besmet word of deur uiters weerstandige spesies, wat nie so ernstig as ander spesies deur antropologiese aktiwiteite beïnvloed word nie, gedomineer word. Die gevolgtrekking is dat die metodologie wat in hierdie studie gebruik is ‘n meganisme verskaf waardeur meer intensiewe navorsing op areas wat aansienlike verandering in gronddekking ten toon stel, gerig kan word.
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Jeanrenaud, Sally. "Can the leopard change its spots? Exploring people-oriented conservation in WWF." Thesis, University of East Anglia, 1998. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.267729.
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