Landscape Ecology

Context Understanding the variability and dynamics of ecosystems, as well as their responses to climate or land use change, is challenging for policy makers and natural resource managers. Virtual reality (VR) can be used to render virtual landscapes as immersive, visceral experiences and communicate ecosystem dynamics to users in an effective and engaging way. Objectives To illustrate the potential and believability of VR, a team of landscape ecologists and immersive visualisation researchers modelled a reference Australian Box Gum Grassy Woodland landscape, an endangered eucalypt woodland ecosystem that is difficult to observe in its pre-European colonisation form. Methods We document considerations for designing the immersive virtual landscape, including the creation of animated three-dimensional (3D) plants that alternate between the seasons, and soundscapes that change through the course of a simulated day. We used a heuristic evaluation with experts to assess the potential of i...

La investigación arqueológica de las últimas décadas ha desarrollado importantes aportes para entender la emergencia de sociedades complejas en los ecosistemas de la foresta tropical amazónica, específicamente en la cuenca alta del Upano, -en la alta Amazonía del Ecuador. Una amplia extensión en los piedemontes peri-andinos modificada por la presencia de montículos artificiales, organizados en complejos patrones de asentamiento. Estos procesos constructivos, iniciados hacia el 380 a.C., dan lugar a casi un milenio de ocupación, caracterizados por la presencia de la tradición cerámica Upano. La concentración de montículos, trae consigo las interrogantes sobre los efectos de la ocupación humana en los paisajes amazónicos y la necesidad de incorporar métodos analíticos para la obtención de nueva información. Este trabajo trae el debate de los suelos antrópicos a un estudio de caso en la Amazonía Ecuatoriana, con la aplicación de análisis químicos a muestras de suelo del Basural La Lomi...

This research has been carried out in the Savu Sea Waters. The method used in data collection through interviews and questionnaires. Data collected and analyzed in this study are Direct Use, Indirect, Option, Existence and Bequest Value. The types of benefits identified and quantified are coral reef resources in the Savu Sea, especially those in Kupang Regency Coastal Area for Use Value, the Direct, Indirect, Option, Bequest, and Existence Value. Then a comparison is made between the direct value of coral reefs consisting of capture fisheries, aquaculture and tourism. While the value of indirect of coral reefs includes abrasion, carbon sink, fish nursery, spawning and Feeding Ground. And Non Use Value which consists of Option Value, Bequest, and Existence. The results of the analysis show that the value of direct is Rp. 218,027,971,623, 69 / year, indirect is Rp. 20,795,211,891.89 / year, option value is Rp. 3,967,284,324.32 / year, the existence is Rp. 4,121,520,000 / year, and the...

La capacidad de un algoritmo para detectar cambios varia segun el tipo de cambio, y depende de la metodologia seleccionada. Existe una serie de tecnicas digitales de deteccion de cambios que, en general, se pueden agrupar en dos categorias: aquellas en las que se detecta informacion binaria cambio o no cambio, y aquellas en las que se detecta al detalle "origen-destino" en la trayectoria del cambio. Sin embargo no existe una metodologia de deteccion de cambios universalmente optima: la eleccion depende de la aplicacion. Los metodos no supervisados no necesitan datos de referencia de campo para la produccion del mapa (binario) de deteccion de cambios y por lo tanto son mas atractivos desde el punto de vista operativo. En este sentido, se propone una deteccion de cambios automatica no supervisada en imagenes multitemporales SPOT-Pan. Se aplican dos indicadores de deteccion de cambios y se sugiere un tipo de fusion de la informacion de los dos mapas binarios para realizar el ...

The starting point of this dissertation is the realization of two facts. On one side, the need of methodologies to develop the research around social aspects of Sustainable Development (SD). Social aspects have been usually underestimated in favour of technical and environmental ones, though being equally (or even more) decisive (Folch, 2005). The second fact is the emergence of a research field focused on the interplay among structure and dynamics, observed in many complex systems (called by some authors “Science of Networks” (Barabási, 2002)). Within this new field, works dealing with social systems have stood out because of their quantity and relevance. Taking into account this scenario, the objective of this dissertation is to highlight the potentialities of applying tools, concepts and methodologies normally found in the “Science of the Networks” to the analysis of certain social aspects of SD (paying special attention to those ones related to social organization). In order to ...

Una elevada proporción del territorio argentino corresponde a tierras secas yuna tercera parte de éstas se hallan en la Patagonia. Esta región históricamenteha sufrido procesos de deterioro del pastizal. Generalmente, la degradación es atribuida al uso ganadero; sin embargo, el efecto del clima sobre estos sistemas ha sido poco analizado. El objetivo de este trabajo fue analizar la evolución del clima y de los pastizales naturales, a través de la identificación de variables que permitan comprender los posibles cambios en las existencias ganaderas para el noroeste de la provincia de Chubut, en el período 2000-2014. Para ello se analizaron diferentes tipos de datos: climáticos, índice verde normalizado (NDVI), lecturas de monitores MARAS y existencias ganaderas. Los resultados indican incrementos de temperatura y tendencias negativas de la productividad y estructura del pastizal. Asimismo se observó una disminución de las existencias ganaderas. El incremento de las temperaturas podría...

Research on the species of Plants of the Fabaceae Tribe Subfamili Caesalpinioideae at the area of Tadulako University Campus has been conducted from January to April 2019. This study aims to record, describe and determine the invasive status of plant species Fabaceae subfamili Caesalpinioideae. The research was based on botanical exploration method. The results showed there were 10 species from subfamily Caesalpinioideae including Acacia farnesiana (L.) Willd., Albizia saman (Jacq.) Merr., Caesalpinia pulcherrima (L.) Sw., Cassia javanica L., Delonix regia (Hook.) Raf., Desmanthus virgatus (L.) Willd., Leucaena leucocephala (Lam.) de Wit, Mimosa pigra L., Mimosa pudica L., Senna siamea (Lam.) H.S.Irwin & Barneby. Number of Species have been used as protective plants (5 species), as ornamental plants (2 species) and potentially as invasive species (3 species).

Herman Melville’s Moby-Dick, a whaling story at the surface, wrenches out from its confines the deep-seated dilemma in human–nature relationship. Like all the other characters, Starbuck, the ship’s first mate, has a loosely bound but matter–of–fact association to Moby Dick, the white whale. His attitude towards Moby Dick is one of what he holds as a general outlook towards a whale. Unlike Captain Ahab, he is not obsessed with that particular animal. He commoditizes it, and thereby takes an anthropocentric stance as he sets himself on a mission to hunt down the great beast. The questions, however, remain whether his approach towards the whale(s) is justifiable and whether the counterstrike that he, together with his shipmates, faces in the end of the novel has any connection to such an approach or not. This paper intends to address such issues from the perspective of animal studies.

Este trabajo parte de la hipotesis siguiente: Conforme mas intensa es la heterogeneidad, la densidad poblacional y la diversidad cultural en el espacio urbano, mayor es tambien la fragmentacion social. Ante esta situacion fragmentada se despliega el ritual cuya estrategia fundamental, en contextos megalopolitanos, es la de hacer sentir la unidad social a los habitantes. El estudio parte de un caso en especifico: el carnaval de Huitzizilapan, ubicado en el municipio de Lerma, es decir, en medio de las dos metropolis del centro del pais, los valles de Toluca y Mexico.

Biodiversity can be simply defined as the variety of all types of living organism. Spiders are among the most diverge groups on earth, which received the seventh ranking in global diversity after the sixth largest insect orders. Spiders are major playing a vital role in the forest ecosystem is the spiders. The spotted spider specimens were taken photographed identified without disturbing it. A total of 17 species of spiders under 15 genera and 9 families were recorded during the Four months survey in five falls in Coutrallam, Tenkasi district, Tamilnadu state, India.

Neste estudo, objetivou-se mapear as classes de uso e ocupação da terra e analisar e quantificar as mudanças estruturais ocorridas entre os anos de 1970 e 2007, no entorno da Unidade de Conservação (UC) Reserva Particular de Patrimônio Natural (RPPN) Cafundó, por meio do uso de índices de ecologia de paisagem. Com o mapa de uso e ocupação da terra foi possível caracterizar, quantitativamente, em termos de área, as classes presentes no entorno da unidade. No período estudado (1970 e 2007), houve poucas mudanças no uso e ocupação da terra no entorno da reserva, estando as áreas dominadas, em sua maioria, por pastagem. As métricas ou índices de ecologia da paisagem foram obtidos por meio da extensão Patch Analyst ao nível de paisagem e de classe, sendo obtidos valores para as 10 classes de uso e ocupação da terra mapeadas. Os resultados da análise quantitativa, por meio de métricas, apontaram para um aumento na fragmentação da paisagem no entorno da Unidade de Conservação RPPN Cafundó.

De roman Die troebel tyd van de Zuid-Afrikaanse schrijfster Ingrid Winterbach, zo betoogt Hanneke Stuit, neemt afstand van het idyllische genre van de plaasroman waarin de plaas of boerderij een Afrikaner nationalisme verankert in het land. Doordat Winterbachs roman zich afspeelt
op meerdere plekken – een wijndorp, een kustdorp en een provinciestadje – ondermijnt zij het idyllische idee dat het plattelandsleven aan een  geïsoleerde locatie gebonden is. Verder is de temporaliteit van het
platteland niet die van de impasse, maar wordt een complexe wisselwerking tot stand gebracht tussen de tijdslijn van het leven van de hoofdpersoon, een doctor in de zoölogie, en een geologische temporaliteit of deep history.

The panel is focusing on the recent ecological outcome and effect of the Anthropocene in the paths of myths and artistic/cultural/anthropological interdisciplinary narratives. Under the lights of the theoretical frame of post-humanism; this panel will discuss practices and field experiences in diverse geographies and cultural backgrounds of Italy, Greece, and Turkey by focusing on several cultural myths more-than-human world and the impact of the era of the Anthropocene.

Panel: https://vimeo.com/876852595
Batman University, https://ijephss.com/

Forest has always been a confusing place to social order and conventional logic, even after losing their wild character. This work aims to offer a global picture about the ways in which, as a symbolic landscape, forest has survived in the western collective imagination through the narrative, essay and poetry of the 20th century. These ways have to do with its versatility as the image of complexity and an intimate place that provokes introspection, revelation of identity characters and resistance to political powers or social movements. The scarcity of studies extensively engaged in this figure and the amount of works in which forest has a pre-eminent role allows us to use a phenomenological approach that it will be completed with a justification of the symbol from the study of the evocations throughout the history of the West.

The biogeographic region of Argentinean Puna mainly extends at elevations higher than 3,000 m within the Andean Plateau and hosts diverse ecological communities highly adapted to extreme aridity and low temperatures. Soils of Puna are typically poorly evolved and geomorphology is shaped by drainage networks, resulting in highly vegetated endorheic basins and hypersaline basins known as salar or salt flats. Local communities rely on soil fertility for agricultural practices and on pastures for livestock rearing. From this perspective, investigating the scarcely explored microbiological diversity of these soils as indicators of ecosystems functioning might help to predict the fragility of these harsh environments. In this study we collected soil samples from 28 points, following a nested design within three different macro-habitats, i.e., Puna grassland, hypersaline salar and family-run crop fields. Total fungi and arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) occurrence were analyzed using eDNA...