Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Environmental history'
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Tejada, Matthew Steven. "A history of Bulgaria's environmental movement." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2006. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.432268.
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Wills, John. "The Diablo Canyon, California : an environmental history." Thesis, University of Bristol, 2000. http://hdl.handle.net/1983/9e9428ca-3e80-49f8-8260-8b4f3f10c4f3.
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Johnson, Ylva. "Procedural environmental rights - a tool for sustainable development?" Thesis, Stockholms universitet, Institutionen för ekonomisk historia och internationella relationer, 2021. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:su:diva-194039.
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Nolan-Spohn, Hannah Katherine. "Urban Ecology: History and Practice." Thesis, Boston College, 2005. http://hdl.handle.net/2345/483.
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Thesis advisor: Eric G. StraussThe study of human interactions with nature in the context of urban environments has evolved over the past fifty years. Early writers who were able to view urban areas as ecosystems planted the seeds for what is today an important and growing movement across the United States. They paved the way for later scholars to develop human- and ecologically-based natural histories, to imagine land uses, urban planning and development in new and sustainable ways, and to reinforce the spiritual and emotional bond between humanity and nature. In the last ten to fifteen years, organizations in urban areas around the United States have begun to look at planning and development with both an ecological lens and a focus on community-based, grassroots organizing. The layers of information available for study in an urban area are many and complex, providing an immense amount of data to those who choose to study cities. This study will first trace the theoretical development in understanding urban ecosystems, touching on important themes and groundbreaking authors. Subsequent chapters will build on the foundation laid by these authors in an exploration of the current practical use of urban ecology in the field, focusing on community-based organizations throughout the country
Thesis (BS) — Boston College, 2005
Submitted to: Boston College. College of Arts and Sciences
Discipline: College Honors Program
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Lang, Kenna Renee Bratton Susan. "An environmental history William Cameron Park, Waco, Texas /." Waco, Tex. : Baylor University, 2007. http://hdl.handle.net/2104/5072.
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Kitto, Stephen G. "The Environmental History of Te Waihora – Lake Ellesmere." Thesis, University of Canterbury. Geological Sciences, 2010. http://hdl.handle.net/10092/5028.
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Te Waihora – Lake Ellesmere is an expansive, shallow, turbid, brackish, hyper-eutrophic, lowland lake located on the east coast of New Zealand’s South Island. The catchment and lake are in a highly modified state, with much of the catchment used for intensive agriculture and the lake’s level artificially controlled by cutting a channel through the barrier separating the lake from the sea. Although it is known that Waihora is highly modified, it is difficult to determine the factors contributing to the current lake state and what constitutes a natural state for this lake. In order to plan management strategies, it is important to have this information. This study aims to provide insight into these matters using paleoecological techniques, in particular, analysis of sediment characteristics, palynology and diatom analysis, on cores obtained from the lake bed.
The results of these analyses show that Waihora has had a diverse history, beginning as a freshwater lake, low in nutrients, not long before c. 7500 years ago, following the fusion of Kaitorete ‘Spit’ with Bank Peninsula. This freshwater state was interrupted by the discharge of a large river into the basin, causing a permanent barrier opening and tidal, brackish conditions to prevail. A second brackish state formed after this, caused either by a shift in the discharge point through the barrier or, more likely, a second avulsion event of the Waimakariri River to a discharge point into Waihora. Upon the avulsion of this river to a discharge point north of Banks Peninsula, a freshwater, nutrient rich lake formed. Subsequently, human influenced lake changes became evident, with a hypereutrophic, shallow, brackish lake forming. This research provides evidence that modern lake management has led to decreased lake levels and increasing salinity within Waihora. Intensive agriculture, particularly since the 1970’s has led to an increase in nutrients within the lake and its current hypereutrophic state. A combination of lake level management and the ‘Wahine Storm’ (1968) has led to the lake’s current turbid, phytoplankton dominated state. Therefore, sediment characteristics, palynological and diatom data suggest that a natural condition for the lake is one with lower nutrient levels, lower salinity with greater depth and area than the current lake, with a large distribution of freshwater riparian vegetation and little halophytic vegetation.
If restoration of the lake is a target then (1) the lake should be opened to the sea less frequently, allowing a decrease in lake salinity and conditions conducive to the prevalence of freshwater riparian vegetation to prevail, and (2) a transition from a phytoplankton dominated state to a macrophyte dominated state should be targeted, by maintaining the lake at greater depths, the use of riparian planting practices and decreasing nutrient input. However, the latter will be costly and involve questionable trade-offs between lake values and stakeholders. Regardless of whether or not restoration of Waihora to something resembling a natural state is, or will be, a management aim, a decrease in nutrient input catchment wide and riparian planting in the area surrounding the lake should be a priority and may present a more realistic, short term management objective.
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Ventris, P. A. "Pleistocene environmental history of the Nar Valley, Norfolk." Thesis, University of Cambridge, 1985. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.372911.
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Bunting, M. J. "Environmental history and human impact in Orkney, Scotland." Thesis, University of Cambridge, 1993. https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/271916.
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Christopher, Terry. "Paleolimnology in an urban environment, the history of environmental change in St. John's, Newfoundland." Thesis, National Library of Canada = Bibliothèque nationale du Canada, 1999. http://www.collectionscanada.ca/obj/s4/f2/dsk1/tape8/PQDD_0001/NQ42474.pdf.
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Wilson, Mark. "The British environmental movement : the development of an environmental consciousness and environmental activism, 1945-1975." Thesis, Northumbria University, 2014. http://nrl.northumbria.ac.uk/21603/.
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This work investigates the development of an environmental consciousness and environmental activism in Britain, 1945-1975. The 1970s have been described as ‘the decade of the environment’ and was the period when the modern environmental movement emerged. In this thesis, the environmental movement is considered to be a broad network of individuals and pressure groups engaging in collective action with shared environmental beliefs. Much of the work on the movement has ignored or played down the importance of the post-war period on its development. This project challenges that, dealing less with the movement itself and more with the developments which led to its emergence: through analysing events like the great London smog of 1952 and the Torrey Canyon oil spill of 1967, as well as through television programmes, this thesis traces the post-war influences of the movement and the growth of environmental awareness. Environmental pressure groups form part of the movement and a number of them are studied here, such as the Newcastle-based group Save Our City from Environmental Mess and the London-based group Commitment, WWF, Friends of the Earth and the National Smoke Abatement Society. From analysing the resources of these groups and the political processes within which they appear (resource mobilisation theory and political process theory) a better understanding is made about their successes, failures and how they fed into a growing environmental awareness. Television programmes from the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s – notably natural history programmes such as Look, Zoo Quest, Doctor Who and Doomwatch – also helped an environmental consciousness develop. In marrying together these different issues, this work provides an original contribution to knowledge, and assesses some of the influences which led to the environmental movement emerging in 1970s Britain.
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Thomson, Jennifer Christine. "From Wilderness to the Toxic Environment: Health in American Environmental Politics, 1945-Present." Thesis, Harvard University, 2013. http://dissertations.umi.com/gsas.harvard:10876.
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This dissertation joins the history of science and medicine with environmental history to explore the language of health in environmental politics. Today, in government policy briefs and mission statements of environmental non-profits, newspaper editorials and activist journals, claims about the health of the planet and its human and non-human inhabitants abound. Yet despite this rhetorical ubiquity, modern environmental politics are ideologically and organizationally fractured along the themes of whose health is at stake and how that health should be protected. This dissertation traces how these competing conceptions of health came to structure the landscape of American environmental politics. Beginning in the early 1950s, an expanding network of environmental activists began to think in terms of protecting the health of the planet and its inhabitants from the unprecedented hazards of nuclear energy and chemical proliferation. They did this by appropriating models and metaphors of health developed by postwar ecologists, philosophers, epidemiologists and nuclear physicians. Through this process of appropriation, scientists and philosophers were likewise drawn into environmental activism. Through five case studies, this dissertation traces the collaborations between scientists, environmental activists, philosophers, and medical doctors which enabled a broad range of articulations of health: the health of the wild, the health of the environment, the health of the planet, and the health of humans within the environment. Each case study attends to the intersection of political thought and practice, and explores how science and environmental activism were in constant dialogue in the postwar period. Drawing on archival materials and extensive oral history interviews, this dissertation demonstrates the centrality of health to American environmental politics from the end of World War Two until the present day.History of Science
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Hougland, Uchwat Gail Ann. "Natural history of the saguaro." CSUSB ScholarWorks, 1997. https://scholarworks.lib.csusb.edu/etd-project/1466.
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Vileisis, Ann E. "Working on Desert Rails: A Social and Environmental History." DigitalCommons@USU, 1992. https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/etd/4691.
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Focusing on the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railway from Grand Junction, Colorado to Green River, Utah, this study examines the working circumstances of nineteenth-century railroad laborers, the ecological limitations of the isolating desert where they worked, and their relations with railroad management and local communities. It begins by investigating the experiences of the railroad surveyors and construction laborers. The study then examines the experiences of workers' response to labor organization in the communities of Green River, Utah and Grand Junction, Colorado. The study identifies ecological changes spawned by the railroad and addresses issues of worker autonomy and labor organization in the American West in the late nineteenth century.
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Jamieson, Robyn E. "Environmental history of northern cod from otolith isotopic analysis /." *McMaster only, 2001.
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Ekblom, Anneli. "Changing landscapes : an environmental history of Chibuene, Southern Mozambique /." Uppsala : Department of Archaeology and Ancient History, Uppsala University, 2004. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-4587.
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Kotsakis, Andreas. "The biological diversity complex : a history of environmental government." Thesis, London School of Economics and Political Science (University of London), 2011. http://etheses.lse.ac.uk/216/.
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The thesis understands biodiversity as a complex consisting of a form of environmentalism, a mode of governance for the global South, and a set of policy prescriptions all mobilized by the guiding idea of ‘genetic gold,’ the belief that biodiversity possesses significant latent economic value. The thesis primarily analyses the historical origins of biodiversity and the formation of a rationality of governing centred on genetic gold, deploying tools and methods from the work of Michel Foucault. It further applies these insights into the examination of two specific regulatory mechanisms developed within this project of environmental governance: the mechanism for securing access to genetic resources and the fair and equitable sharing of benefits arising from their utilisation, and local and indigenous community participation in biodiversity conservation and utilisation. The aim of this research is a dual critique. First, the unpacking of the complexity of the biodiversity concept and its integrative rendering of biodiversity loss as a governance problem constitutes a critique of environmental law’s enthusiastic acceptance and subsequent regulation of biodiversity as genetic gold. Secondly, the conception of a broader governance complex pervaded by non-legal forms of knowledge, expertise and practices challenges an international environmental law that continues to regard itself as the instrumental centre of environmental concern and discourse.
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Weir, David Alan. "An environmental history of the Navan area, Co. Armagh." Thesis, Queen's University Belfast, 1993. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.296796.
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Lawson, Ian Thomas. "The late glacial and holocene environmental history of Greece." Thesis, University of Cambridge, 2001. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.621354.
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Springthorpe, Victoria. "Environmental regulation of life history phenology in Arabidopsis thaliana." Thesis, University of York, 2014. http://etheses.whiterose.ac.uk/7756/.
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The seasonal timing of plant development is regulated by environmental cues. Flowering time is influenced by the temperature and photoperiod experienced during vegetative growth, while germination timing is affected by temperatures during seed maturation and after dispersal. The timing of each developmental transition also determines seasonal conditions experienced during subsequent life stages, however the significance and stability of these interactions are not well understood. This work aimed to further an understanding of the environmental regulation of plant phenology by creating a multi-stage life history model based on Arabidopsis thaliana. Laboratory and field studies were used to inform predictive models of seed development and seed dormancy. The time required to complete seed development was mainly affected by temperature, and was therefore sensitive to seasonal flowering time. Mean daily temperatures at the end of seed maturation had the greatest influence on rates of primary dormancy loss, and post-dispersal temperatures determined rates of secondary dormancy induction. Germination probabilities were predicted by modelling frequencies of primary and secondary dormancy within the seed population. This revealed an abrupt switch from low to high germination when mean daily temperatures exceeded 14°C. Thermoinhibition was also predicted at high temperatures due to rapid secondary dormancy induction. Combining models with a previously described model of flowering time provided a framework for investigating the effects of perturbations on entire life history phenology. Seed set timing in spring and winter annuals was consistently predicted to coincide with mean daily temperatures of 14°C in locations across Northern Europe, resulting in the production of both dormant and non-dormant offspring. Phenotypic plasticity at each growth phase also served to buffer against modest perturbations in germination date, flowering date, and climate in order to maintain these specific dispersal conditions. This result was interpreted as evidence for a robust bet-hedging germination strategy.
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Bower, Matthew S. "Catastrophe in Permanence: Benjamin's Natural History of Environmental Crisis." Thesis, University of North Texas, 2017. https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc984263/.
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Walter Benjamin warned in 1940 of a certain inconspicuous threat to political thinking, not least of all to materialism, that takes progress as an historical norm. Implicit in this conception is what he describes as an empty continuum of time along which the prevailing tradition chronicles its own mythic development and drains everyday life of genuine historical experience. The myth of progressive history advances insidiously today in consumeristic and technocratic attempts at reconciling cultural imagery with organic nature. In this dissertation, I pursue the contradictions of such images as they crystallize around the natural history of twenty-first century commodity society, where promises of ecological remediation, sustainable urban development, and climate change mitigation have yet to introduce a true crisis of historical experience to the ongoing environmental crisis of capitalism. A more radical way of seeing the cultural representation of nature would, I argue, penetrate its mythic determination by market forces and bear witness to the natural-historical ruins and traces that constitute, in Benjamin's terms, a single "catastrophe" where others perceive historical continuity. I argue that Benjamin's critique of progress is instructive to interpreting those utopian dreams, ablaze in consumer life and technological fantasy, that recent decades of growing environmental concern have channeled into the recovery of an experience of the natural world. His dialectics of nature and alienated history confront the wish-image of organic abundance with the transience of its appropriated expression in the commodity-form. Drawing together this confrontation with a varied literature on collective memory, nature, and the city, I suggest that our poverty of experience is more than simply a technical, economic, or even ecological problem, but rather follows from the commodification of history itself. The goal of this work is to reflect upon the potentiality of communal politics that subsist not in rushing headlong into a progressive future but, as Benjamin urges, in reaching for the emergency brake on the runaway train of progress.
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Beattie, James John, and james beattie@stonebow otago ac nz. "Environmental anxiety in New Zealand, 1850-1920 : settlers, climate, conservation, health, environment." University of Otago. School of Liberal Arts, 2004. http://adt.otago.ac.nz./public/adt-NZDU20051020.183413.
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Using a series of interlocking case-studies, this thesis investigates environmental anxieties in New Zealand�s settler society in the period 1830-1920. A central premise of this study is that the rapid environmental transformation of New Zealand stimulated widespread anxieties and reforms within settler society. These anxieties focussed as much on the changes already begun as on apprehensions of the results of these changes. Applying the concept of environmental anxiety to settler New Zealand expands understandings about colonial culture and its environmental history. It moves debate beyond simple narratives of colonial environmental destruction. Instead, this thesis highlights the ambiguities and complexities of colonial views of the natural world. This thesis points to the insecurities behind seeming Victorian confidence, even arrogance, in the ability of science and technology to bring constant material improvement. Europeans recognised that modern living brought material advantages but that the rapid environmental changes that underpinned these improvements also brought and threatened to bring unwanted outcomes.
A diverse range of settlers worried about the effects of environmental changes. Individuals, institutions, committees, councils, doctors, scientists, artists, governments, engineers and politicians expressed environmental anxieties of one kind or another. Some farmers, politicians and scientists held that deforestation decreased rainfall but increased temperatures. Other scientists and politicians feared that it brought devastating floods and soil erosion. Some Maori, travellers, politicians and scientists held that it destabilised sand that would inundate fertile fields. Councillors, engineers and doctors constantly debated ways of improving the healthiness of towns and cities, areas seen as particularly dangerous places in which to live. Doctors� and settlers� anxieties focused on the effects of New Zealand�s climate on health and racial development. The impact of environmental change on the healthiness of certain areas, as well as the role played by humans in climate change, also provoked lively discussion.
The effects of these anxieties are evident in some of the land policies, artworks, legislation, parliamentary and scientific debates, and writings of this period. Settlers believed curbing pollution, laying out parks, planting trees and restricting the construction of unhealthy properties improved living conditions in cities. Some scientists and politicians thought setting aside forest �climate reserves� in highland areas, tree-planting legislation and sustainable forestry practices prevented flooding and climate change. Individuals and authorities also established sanatoria and spas in particularly healthy spots, such as at the seaside and in high, dry places.
In investigating these topics, this thesis expands the discipline of environmental history, bringing to light the importance of studying urban environments, aesthetics, climate change, desertification and health. It expands the largely �national� narratives of New Zealand�s environmental histories by acknowledging that local environments, events and attitudes as well as global environments, events and attitudes shaped anxieties and policies. Global ideas, often operating at a local level, played a role in reinforcing and providing solutions to New Zealand�s environmental anxieties. This thesis also acknowledges the on-going significance of Christianity in under-girding ideas about improvement and environmental protection. Most significantly, perhaps, this study underlines both that many settlers displayed an emotional attachment to the New Zealand environment and that most colonists wanted to ensure the long-term productivity of its lands.
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Ragland, Gregory J. Kingsolver Joel G. "Life history evolution in seasonal environments phenological and environmental determinants of thermal adaptation in Wyeomyia smithii /." Chapel Hill, N.C. : University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 2007. http://dc.lib.unc.edu/u?/etd,1147.
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Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 2007.Title from electronic title page (viewed Mar. 27, 2008). "... in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of Biology." Discipline: Biology; Department/School: Biology.
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Michor, Daniel J. "People in Nature: Environmental History of the Kennebec River, Maine." Fogler Library, University of Maine, 2003. http://www.library.umaine.edu/theses/pdf/MichorDJ2003.pdf.
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Strömsten, Henrik. "Military and Nature : An environmental history of Swedish military landscapes." Thesis, Uppsala universitet, Institutionen för arkeologi och antik historia, 2016. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-302652.
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This thesis, an environmental history of a selected number of Swedish military training environments, is based on observation of military landscapes with a permanent presence of military-related objects and activities, all of which leave their traces in the environment, and how continued military activity is legitimised with environmental arguments. By also observing military policies and documents, I look into how the Swedish military frame their own training environments, and how ‘environmentalist’ discourses is adopted to justify past and present activities. The military landscapes must also be considered in a wider context of geopolitics and security; hence I also include an historical analysis of military land appropriation and defense policy in Sweden. An important contribution with this thesis, besides provide a Swedish context to studies of military landscapes, lies also in testing a historical ecological framework in analyses and methods when approaching research on military landscapes, as I consider this thesis as a pilot-project on Swedish military landscapes providing incentives for further studies. The Swedish military landscapes studied in this thesis have both a centennial and decadal presence of military activities. Some training sites such as Marma and Revinge, which are also Natura 2000 areas, have had a military presence since the 19th century, and the various military structures and buildings promote a kind of military biography, an identity tied to landscapes, reinforcing military presence. The presentation of military sites as ecological refuges for rare species and habitats is evident in the management plans for the studied landscapes. The way military space is understood, legitimised and produced from the perspectives of the military policy level is, as I will argue, centred on two core motivations. First, it is that military presence in a landscape is the product of a militarisation processes, considering a geopolitical context and defense policies. The military presence has long-term effects in form of an alteration of physical nature and development of a high biodiversity. Second, the long-term positive effects, enhances an environmentalist discourse within the military when it comes to legitimise past and present military space, and to justify a continued military presence in a landscape.Denna uppsats, en miljöhistoria av ett utvalt antal svenska militära övningsområden, är baserat på en observation av militära landskap med en permanent närvaro av militärrelaterade objekt och aktiviteter vilka lämnar sina spår i miljön, och hur fortsatt militär aktivitet legitimeras genom miljöargument. Jag analyserar militära riktlinjer och dokument, för att se på hur svensk militär förhåller sig till dess övningsområden, och hur diskurser om miljövård används för att motivera fortsatt militär aktivitet. De militära landskapen bör studeras i en större geopolitisk säkerhetskontext; därför inkluderar jag också en historisk studie av svensk försvarspolitik och militära markanskaffningar. En viktig insats med denna uppsats, förutom att bidra med en svensk kontext till militära landskapsstudier, är att testa ett historiskt-ekologiskt ramverk i analys och metod vid studier av militära landskap då jag anser att denna uppsats är ett pilot-projekt för militära landskapsstudier i Sverige och ger incitament till vidare forskning i ämnet. De svenska militära landskapen som studeras här har upp till en hundraårig närvaro av militär aktivitet. Vissa övnings- och skjutfält såsom Marma och Revingehed, vilka också är Natura 2000- områden, har haft militär aktivitet sedan slutet av 1800- talet, och de varierande militära ytorna och byggnaderna främjar en militär biografi, en identitet knuten till landskapet, vilken förstärker fortsatt militär närvaro. Presentationen av de militära fälten som ekologiska refuger av sällsynta arter och habitat är uppenbar i skötsel- och vårdplanerna av de studerade landskapen. Sättet som det militära landskapet förstås, legitimeras och produceras ur militärperspektiv i policy och dokument är, som jag kommer argumentera, koncentrerade kring två faktorer. För det första, militär närvaro i ett landskap är ett resultat av en militariseringsprocess baserat på en geopolitisk kontext och försvarsbeslut. Militär närvaro har en långsiktig effekt i form av en förändring av den fysiska naturen och utvecklingen av en biologisk mångfald. För det andra, de långsiktiga positiva effekterna underbygger en naturvårdsdiskurs inom militären när det kommer till att motivera dåtida och nuvarande militär landskapsanvändning, och för att rättfärdiga en fortsatt militär närvaro.
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Diaz-Palacios, Sylvia Anaid. "Environmental variation and life-history evolution : experiments on Caenorhabditis remanei." Thesis, University of Glasgow, 2009. http://theses.gla.ac.uk/744/.
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Organisms are constantly altering their phenotypes in response to changing environments. Many of these differences are known to be due to genetic changes. However, some of the differences between individuals will be due to phenotypic plasticity. Phenotypic plasticity is the property of a given genotype to produce different phenotypes in response to distinct environments (Pigliucci 2001). Phenotypic plasticity can be adaptive and may provide with the means to thrive across a wide range of environments. Thus it represents one solution to surviving in a variable environment. Maintaining high population genetic variance is also recognized as enabling a population to respond to a changing environment. Both constitute phenotypic responses to changing environments, but rely on quite different mechanisms. The purpose of my project is to examine by what means, population history can influence the responsiveness of populations to environmental change. In order to approach this question I used a model species (Caenorhabditis remanei) and selection experiments in the laboratory. Caenorhabditis species are widely used in research, for instance, to study mechanisms affecting gene expression and their effects on individual’s phenotype. Despite this, we have a limited understanding of the importance of environmental factors that control their demography in the laboratory or in nature. Particularly, the demography of other nematode species other than C. elegans has until very recently been ignored. Thus, I described the basic demography of C. remanei cultured under standard laboratory conditions. I compared the life history of two geographically distant populations of C. remanei under standard laboratory conditions. Differences between populations were expected to be present as a consequence of local adaptation to environmental conditions. My results show that C. remanei cultured in the laboratory has a short generation time, but it is surprisingly similar to the generation time of C. elegans. Moreover, I found that there was little difference in the life history across populations. Between individuals, I found high phenotypic variance, which would be partially the result of high genetic diversity within the population. C. elegans and C. remanei are morphologically indistinguishable. However, they differ in their reproductive biology; the former facutatively reproduces by selfing, whereas the latter can only produce progeny by crossing (hermaphroditism and gonochorism, respectively). Sexual conflict, different reproductive strategies between males and females, has previously been identified in the soil nematode of C. elegans. However, evidence of sexual conflict is lacking in gonochoristic species of nematode. Thus, I conducted an experiment to examine the effect of the number of males present on females’ fecundity and survival rate. My results show that increasing the number of males increases female fecundity. Thus, suggesting that C. remanei females are sperm limited. However, there is a threshold, a further increase in the number of males reduced survival rate. These results are in agreement with the theory of sexual conflict. Environmentally-dependent traits are universally common across species. For C. remanei, life-history traits such as fecundity and survival are expected to be genetic and environmentally dependent, but these dependencies remain very poorly understood. Thus, in order to improve our understanding of the response of C. remanei’s life history traits to changing environments; I exposed three populations of worms (two wild type isolates and a half-diall cross between them) to six temperatures and assessed their response. I used a half-sib breeding design as a means to estimate gene-environment interaction for all traits. Differences between populations were expected to be due to differences in genetic composition. I found that C. remanei fecundity is optimal at 17 °C, a higher growth temperature than that established for C. elegans. Although worms cultured at 5 and 30 °C significantly reduced their fecundity, it was still permissive for some individuals. Not all plastic traits are expected to be adaptive. It is recognised that heterogeneous environments select for plasticity. Thus, in order to manipulate the plasticity levels, I maintained populations for 50 generations in two different environments: constant temperature and predictably fluctuating temperature. Life-history components were quantified at three times during the course of the experiment (generation 1, 20 and 50). If plasticity is adaptive, it could be under strong selection in the fluctuating environment. After the selection experiment, comparisons between populations evolved in these different environments allowed me to quantify how two different evolutionary pressures shaped strains’ life history, and how this response depended on likely levels of genetic diversity (i.e. between the pure strains and the hybrid). In both environments, I found changes in the reproductive schedules. Although I did not detect significant changes in the lifetime fecundity after the selection experiment, females showed an increase in their early fecundity. This shift in reproductive parameters shows adaptation as a consequence of the environmental pressures. These results are in agreement with the theory of life-history evolution. In theory, a plastic genotype has a wider ecological breath compared with one with reduced or no plasticity. After 50 generations in each environment, populations were assayed at three temperatures to assess whether population history can influence the responsiveness of populations (e.g. tolerance to temperature). Higher levels of plasticity (i.e. tolerance) were expected in populations maintained in a fluctuating environment compared to the more stable environment. I found that worms from a fluctuating environment showed an increase in their tolerance to stressful conditions, while worms cultured in a constant environment showed no change. Thus, I successfully selected for populations with high and low levels of plasticity. Adaptive plasticity is expected to increase individual’s fitness across a range of environments because it expresses the “matching” phenotype according to environmental cues. However, a plastic genotype with the machinery to match the environment could be at disadvantage compared to a less plastic genotype when the environment is not changing. This disadvantage is expected to be linked to the reallocation of resources in the maintenance of genetic and cellular machinery that enables it to detect changes in the environment and in the production of the matching phenotype. Thus, to test this hypothesis, I translocated populations between the two environments. After the translocation, plastic worms moved back into the constant environment reproduced very poorly compared to worms before the selection took place and compared to the less plastic worms (reared in a constant environment). This strongly supports the idea that plastic strategies can turn an individual into “The Jack of all trades, but Master of none”.
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Oostheok, Kornelis Jan Willem. "An environmental history of state forestry in Scotland, 1919-1970." Thesis, University of Stirling, 2001. http://hdl.handle.net/1893/1450.
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The present single species geometric forest plantations in the Scottish landscape suggest that foresters were not interested in conservation issues and landscape aesthetics. This thesis argues that the appearance of the forests is not so much the result of the foresters' lack of interest in conservation and nature but the social, economic and political pressures that underpinned their creation as well as the Scottish physical environment. Scottish foresters have had a long-standing interest in conservation issues that dates back to the colonial roots of Scottish forestry in mid- 19th century India. The concept of conservation was introduced in Scotland through foresters returning from their service in India and other parts of the Empire. The root of the interest in landscape aesthetics dates back even to the 18th century when Scottsh landowners started to plant trees, both exotic and native, to beautify their estates. By the second half of the 19th century influential landowners became concerned about the fact that Scotland could not produce sufficient timber to provide for its own needs. They also thought that forestry could provide jobs in the Highlands of Scotland and thus contribute to strengthening the social and economic fabric of rural Scotland. To increase timber production and improve the rural economy, influential landowners lobbied for the creation of a forestry agency. It was from these roots - aesthetics, conservation and social and economic concerns - that forestry policy in Scotland developed. It was only after the First World War, when Britain was confronted with severe timber shortages, that a state forestry organisation, the Forestry Commission, was created. Its initial task was to create a strategic timber reserve but over time conservation objectives came on board forest policy. The lands available for forestry were poor upland areas where only a handful introduced conifers were able to survive the harsh condition and, because of their fast growth, created in a relatively short time-span the desired timber reserve. It was for this reason that the forests created by the Forestry Commission were mainly made up of fast growing conifers introduced from the Pacific coast of North America. Technical improvements such as the introduction of mechanical ploughing and the use of fertilisers expanded the range of planting and pushed planting even further uphil. The coincidence of ploughing and the use of conifers on a large scale also led to an increasing monotonous appearance of the new plantations. It was this monotonous and artificial appearance that attracted the first opposition to the planting of conifers in the Lake District, but not in the Scottish Highlands. The development of an environmental policy as part of state forestry in Scotland was not so much driven by external pressures from conservation organisations but by a combination of economic and social pressures in the Highlands and the fact that many foresters ar.e sensitive to the environment in which they work. The general public and nature conservation organisations were until the 1970s not much concerned about the emergence of coniferous plantations in the landscape. Other more pressing environmental issues, such as the impact of build structures on the landscape, the use of herbicides, and the creation of nature reserves, occupied public environmental concern and nature conservation organisations alike. In the meantime the Commission developed the fundaments on which the broadleaf and conservation policies of the 1990s became based. It was the pressure from the Treasury and the wood processing industry that made it hard to change direction because hard economics were dominant. But when change came, the Commission was able to adapt to the new situation thanks to the deep-rooted interest of its staff in nature conservation.
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Ottke, Doug. "An environmental history of the 19th century Marquette Iron Range." Reston, Va. : U.S. Geological Survey, 2000. http://purl.access.gpo.gov/GPO/LPS10143.
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Patrick, Andrew P. "BLUEGRASS CAPITAL: AN ENVIRONMENTAL HISTORY OF CENTRAL KENTUCKY TO 1860." UKnowledge, 2017. http://uknowledge.uky.edu/history_etds/51.
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This dissertation traces the long-term evolution of the Inner Bluegrass region of central Kentucky with a focus on the period between the first Euro-American incursions into the area and the Civil War era. Utilizing an agroecological perspective that analyzes cultivated landscapes for their ecological features, it explores the ever-shifting mix of cultural and natural influences that shaped the local environment. Most prominently, it reveals the extent to which intertwined strands of capitalism and slavery mingled with biology to produce the celebrated Bluegrass agricultural system.
It begins with an appraisal of the landscape before white men like Daniel Boone arrived, emphasizing the roles native cultures played in shaping regional ecology and arguing for a more complex periodization of eighteenth century Kentucky. The frontier period from the 1770s through the 1790s witnessed a struggle for control over the region linked to competing ideas about how the local landscape might best be used by humans. That Euro-Americans ultimately emerged victorious in this contest held tremendous ecological consequences as domesticated species, organized according to Euro-American agricultural principles, spread across the region. Introduced plants, such as corn, hemp, and bluegrass, and livestock, including hogs, cattle, sheep and horses, increasingly filled ecological niches previously held by native flora and fauna like cane, elk, and buffalo.
As Kentuckians set about refining their influence over the surrounding natural world during the final decades of the eighteenth century and into the nineteenth, their actions demonstrated the varied ecological, economic, and cultural connections and incentives engendered by their slave-reliant, market-oriented agricultural system. These connections exposed the Bluegrass landscape to national and international currents that enriched some Kentuckians, encouraged the exploitation of others, and facilitated a dramatic simplification of the regional ecology in pursuit of economic gain. Yet, the transformations of the local ecology and the demands of those cultivating it also affected national and international events such as the American Revolution, Louisiana Purchase, and the Civil War. The environmental history of the Bluegrass agricultural landscape demonstrates the complexity of influences on the antebellum world and suggests that complexity continues to affect the regional ecology and culture well into the twenty-first century.
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Lascelles, D. B. "Holocene environmental and pedogenic history of the Hiraethog Moors, Clwyd." Thesis, Bangor University, 1995. https://research.bangor.ac.uk/portal/en/theses/holocene-environmental-and-pedogenic-history-of-the-hiraethog-moors-clwyd(3c8e72ad-217e-4927-9aba-8ab6143d6594).html.
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This project describes the Holocene environmental and pedogenic history of the Hiraethog Moors, particularly in relation to archaeological evidence. Ironpan stagnopodzol, brown podzolic and stagnohumic gley profiles have been studied from Aled Isaf together with cores from Cefn Mawr and Llyn y Foel-frech. Physical, chemical, clay mineralogical, micromorphological and palynological analyses have been undertaken and a time framework has been achieved by radiocarbon dating, including AMS 14C dating of ironpan and charcoal samples. A search for tephra has been undertaken and, although none was located, the presence of a biolith bloom in a core from Llyn Cororion on the Arfon Platform raises the possibility of a geochemical reconstitution of a low volume, fine-grained tephra fall. Parent material was reworked by periglacial processes during the Late-glacial resulting in an oriented fabric, cracked stones and a redistribution of clay and fine siltsized material. Until 6-7,000 years BP soils remained shallow and stony, with a clay mineralogy dominated by hydrous mica and chlorite. Between 6,000 and 4,000 years BP erosion led to deeper soil profiles on the lower slopes, burying flints and charcoal, and the woodland was periodically disturbed by humans. However, man was relatively inactive between 4,500 and 3,500 years BP. At 3,500 years BP woodland cover declined rapidly due to human activity with a subsequent change to a Gramineae- and then a Calluna-dominated vegetation community. In low lying sites the result was increased waterlogging, gleying, structural collapse and the build up of organic matter at the surface i. e. stagnohumic gley. In better drained sites podzolisation occurred to produce the Bs horizon, i.e. brown podzolic soil. In profiles most intensively leached, mor humus and then peat accumulated. This induced surface waterlogging resulting in a mobilisation of iron, structural collapse and the formation of an Eag horizon, within which chlorite was destroyed and hydrous mica weathered to vermiculite, and an ironpan i.e. ironpan stagnopodzol. Through the integration of soil and pollen analysis, 14C dating and archaeological information our understanding of soil development and human activity on Hiraethog has been increased.
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Hansen, Bradley Paul. "An Environmental History of the Bear River Range, 1860-1910." DigitalCommons@USU, 2013. https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/etd/1724.
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The study of environmental history suggests that nature and culture change all the time, but that the rate and scale of such change can vary enormously. During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Anglo settlement in the American West transformed landscapes and ecologies, creating new and complex environmental problems. This transformation was particularly impressive in Cache Valley, Utah's Bear River Range. From 1860 to 1910, Mormon settlers overused or misused the Bear River Range's lumber, grazing forage, wild game, and water resources and introduced invasive plant and animal species throughout the area. By the turn of the 20th century, broad overuse of natural resources caused rivers originating in the Bear River Range to decline. To address the water shortage, a small group of conservation-minded intellectuals and businessmen in Cache Valley persuaded local stockmen and farmers to support the creation of the Logan Forest Reserve in 1903. From 1903 to1910, forest managers and forest users attempted to restore the utility of the landscape (i.e., bring back forage and improve watershed conditions) however, they quickly discovered that the landscape had changed too much; nature would not cooperate with their human-imposed restoration timelines and desires for greater profit margins. Keeping in mind the impressive rate and scale of environmental decline, this thesis tells the heretofore untold environmental history of the Bear River Range from 1860 to 1910. It engages this history from an ecological and social perspective by (1) exploring how Mormon settlers altered the landscape ecology of the Bear River Range and (2) discussing the reasons why forest managers and forest users failed to quickly restore profitability to the mountain landscape from 1903-1910. As its value, a study of the Bear River Range offers an intimate case study of environmental decline and attempted restoration in the western United States, and is a reminder of how sensitive our mountain ranges really are.
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Warrick, Alyssa Diane. ""Deep" South| Mammoth Cave, Kentucky, and Environmental Knowledge, 1800-1974." Thesis, Mississippi State University, 2018. http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/#viewpdf?dispub=10642996.
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Mammoth Cave in Kentucky is the longest known cave in the world. This dissertation examines the history of how scientists and non-scientists alike contributed to a growing body of knowledge about Mammoth Cave and how that knowledge in turn affected land use decisions in the surrounding neighborhood. During the nineteenth century visitors traveled through Mammoth Cave along with their guides, gaining knowledge of the cave by using their senses and spreading that knowledge through travel narratives. After the Civil War, cave guides, now free men who chose to stay in the neighborhood, used the cave as a way to build and support their community. New technologies and new visitors reconstructed the Mammoth Cave experience. Competing knowledge of locals and science-minded individuals, new technologies to spread the cave experience, and a growing tourism industry in America spurred the Kentucky Cave Wars during the late-nineteenth century. In the twentieth century, cutthroat competition between caves crystallized support for a national park at Mammoth Cave. Park promoters met resistance. Cave owners’ knowledge of what they owned underground helped them resist condemnation. Those affected by the coming of the national park made their protests known on the landscape, in newspapers, and in courtrooms. The introduction of New Deal workers, primarily the Civilian Conservation Corps, at Mammoth Cave and a skeleton staff of National Park Service officials faced antagonism from the local community. Important discoveries inside Mammoth Cave hastened the park’s creation, but not without lingering bitterness that would affect later preservation efforts. The inability of the park promoters to acquire two caves around Mammoth Cave was a failure for the national park campaign but a boon for exploration. The postwar period saw returning veterans and their families swarming national parks. While the parking lots at Mammoth Cave grew crowded and the Park Service attempted to balance preservation and development for the enjoyment of the visiting public, underground explorers were pushing the cave’s known extent to new lengths. This new knowledge inspired a new generation of environmentalists and preservationists to use the Wilderness Act to advocate for a cave wilderness designation at Mammoth Cave National Park.
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Koroglu, Nuri Tunga. "The Environmental History Of Land And Water Usage In The Modernity Period Of Turkey." Phd thesis, METU, 2005. http://etd.lib.metu.edu.tr/upload/2/12605991/index.pdf.
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The thesis is an attempt to write the environmental history of the Modern Turkey from the second half of the 19th century to today. The central research focus and aim of the thesis is to explore the role of the modernity project at the transformation of the environment of Turkey during the republican period. For this, water and soil resources are taken to the core of the research, as both water and soil have the potential to highlight the transformative impacts of modernity project in most detail.
Because of this, the conceptual framework of environmental history has been examined to outline its characteristics within the environmental sciences. Next, the development of the modern though has been scrutinized by the means of the transforming relation between human and nature, and through the development of human culture and society. For this, the shift from biological evolution to cultural evolution and its outcomes have been summarized. Finally, and the emerge of modernity and the development of the market society has been highlighted to define the relation between nature and human in according to the supply and demand relation in society.
An institutional analysis is adopted to analyze the social, political and ideological forces that influenced the environmental impacts of the modernity project of Turkey. The impact of modernity project is analyzed through the relation between the increasing demand for natural resources, and the organization of supply processes within the modernization of Turkey.
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Wright, Crystal T. "Through Her Own Eyes: Environmental Rhetoric in Women's Autobiographical Frontier Writing." Digital Archive @ GSU, 2013. http://digitalarchive.gsu.edu/english_diss/108.
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Through Her Own Eyes: Environmental Rhetoric in Women’s Autobiographical Frontier Writing identifies frontier women, those who traveled overland to the West and those who homesteaded, as historical ecofeminists. The purpose of this study is to analyze frontier women’s environmental rhetoric in their journals and letters, which encouraged readers to become closer to nature and get to know it while encountering new land in the West. Promoting a close relationship with nature, frontier women’s writing also implied conserving and protecting nature for future generations, which demonstrates how they can be retroactively labeled ecofeminists. Frontier women’s environmental rhetoric reveals their alignment with Carolyn Merchant’s theory for harmony between humankind and nature: partnership ethics. Although many historians have mentioned frontier women’s emphasis on nature in their narratives, few have explored frontier women’s nature writing at length. Glenda Riley has completed a book-length study of early American women environmentalists, but she mentions only women whose environmental work led to documented activism or membership in conservation organizations. Annette Kolodny’s work focused on frontier women’s fantasies about the west, rather than their environmental rhetoric as a way of persuading readers, whereas my work uses frontier women’s daily writing to demonstrate an evolving environmental ethic that helps to categorize them as historical ecofeminists. An archival project, this study relies upon the archived overland journals of Sarah Sutton and Nancy Sherwin, both housed at UC Berkeley’s Bancroft Library as well as the letters of female homesteader Elinore Pruitt Stewart, archived at the Sweetwater County Museum. A visit to the archives at the Sweetwater County Museum yielded the treasure of Elinore Pruitt Stewart’s numerous unpublished letters. Frontier women’s philosophical alignment with ecofeminism made it possible for ecological philosophies to begin taking root in the American West. As historical ecofeminists, frontier women’s writing laid the foundation for the modern-day ecological conscience that makes individuals work to conserve nature for future generations.
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Gleave, Daniel Richard. "History and technology of Lemuel Chenoweth's covered bridges." Thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2014. http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/89849.
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Thesis: M. Eng., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, 2014.This electronic version was submitted by the student author. The certified thesis is available in the Institute Archives and Special Collections.
Cataloged from student-submitted PDF version of thesis.
Includes bibliographical references (pages 100-102).
Lemuel Chenoweth was a carpenter and bridge builder who played a key role in the development of the infrastructure of antebellum Virginia. Theodore Burr and Lewis Wernwag are among the designers who influenced the structure and construction of his bridges, two of which are currently standing in West Virginia. The timber covered bridge at Beverly is one of Chenoweth's key creations that have been lost, which was at the time located on a key turnpike running through the county seat. The first goal of the following study is to establish the geometry of the Beverly Bridge. To do this, historical photographs of the construction and the finished bridge were studied. Salvaged timbers from the bridge were observed to establish the cross-sectional dimensions and species of the wood. Finally, surveys of Chenoweth's existing bridges were performed to determine the probable joinery and truss dimensions. A second goal is to perform a simplified and finite element analysis of the bridge in order to determine its performance under modern vehicle loading. A third goal is to determine the feasibility of reconstruction of the bridge. The Beverly Bridge is compared to other existing timber covered bridges of a similar span and type in order to prove that similar bridges can withstand modern loads adequately. Modifications that may be made to the bridge are then discussed, covering both structural and nonstructural considerations. Finally, the cost of reconstructing the bridge today is assessed.
by Daniel Richard Gleave.
M. Eng.
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Chang, Sheng-Po Grabill Joseph L. "Teaching American history in Taiwan from an environmental point of view." Normal, Ill. Illinois State University, 1998. http://wwwlib.umi.com/cr/ilstu/fullcit?p9914565.
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Thesis (D.A.)--Illinois State University, 1998.Title from title page screen, viewed July 10, 2006. Dissertation Committee: Joseph L. Grabill (chair), Frederick D. Drake, Lawrence W. McBride. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 177-185) and abstract. Also available in print.
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von, Euler Tove. "Environmental heterogeneity, population dynamics and life-history differentiation in Primula farinosa." Doctoral thesis, Stockholms universitet, Botaniska institutionen, 2012. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:su:diva-79566.
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Allocation to reproduction is a key life-history trait. Optimal allocation to reproduction depends on environmental conditions because of their effects both on costs and benefits of reproduction and on patterns of growth, fecundity, and mortality. In this thesis, I studied 24 populations of the perennial herb Primula farinosa in the northern part of the Great Alvar on Öland, SE Sweden, and in an experimental garden at Stockholm University to investigate how plant allocation patterns and population dynamics vary along environmental gradients. In the first study, I performed experimental manipulations of reproduction to study costs of reproduction in relation to water availability. In the second study, I performed a demographic survey to investigate the effects of pre-dispersal seed predation on host-plant population dynamics in relation to environmental context. In the third study, I used a common garden experiment to investigate whether environmental variation among natural populations was correlated with genetic differentiation in reproductive effort, and in the fourth study, I performed reciprocal transplantations among four populations to investigate whether genetically based adaptive differentiation among local populations could be detected. The results showed that under natural conditions, plant reproductive costs, intensity of pre-dispersal seed predation, population growth rate and reproductive effort varied with water availability and vegetation height. Costs of reproduction were detected at high and low water availability but not under intermediate soil moisture conditions (paper I). Population dynamics of P. farinosa were affected by environmental conditions both directly, through effects on potential population growth rate (in the absence of seed predation) and indirectly, through effects on seed predation intensity and sensitivity to seed predation (paper II). Among-population genetic differentiation in reproductive allocation was documented in the common-garden experiment (paper III). However, reciprocal transplantations among populations separated by up to 6.2 km provided no evidence of local adaptation to current environmental conditions. Moreover, large differences in the performance of individuals transplanted to different study sites suggest that the study populations display considerable phenotypic plasticity (paper IV). Taken together, the results of these studies suggest that environmental variation has important direct and indirect effects on population dynamics and life history trade-offs in P. farinosa, and that differences in reproductive effort partly reflect genetic differentiation, but that phenotypic variation observed among natural populations does not reflect adaptations to current environmental conditions.At the time of the doctoral defense, the following papers were unpublished and had a status as follows: Paper 2: Manuscript. Paper 3: Manuscript. Paper 4: Manuscript.
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Burbidge, Susan Margot. "Holocene environmental history of Lake Winnipeg, thecamoebians and stable lead isotopes." Thesis, National Library of Canada = Bibliothèque nationale du Canada, 1997. http://www.collectionscanada.ca/obj/s4/f2/dsk2/ftp03/NQ26848.pdf.
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Maier, Kevin. "Environmental rhetoric of American hunting and fishing narratives : a revisionist history /." view abstract or download file of text, 2006. http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?did=1232423281&sid=1&Fmt=2&clientId=11238&RQT=309&VName=PQD.
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Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Oregon, 2006.Typescript. Includes vita and abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 249-256). Also available for download via the World Wide Web; free to University of Oregon users.
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Newman, Lareen A. "Environmental history of the Willunga Basin, 1830's to 1990's /." Title page, contents and abstract only, 1994. http://web4.library.adelaide.edu.au/theses/09AR/09arn553.pdf.
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Allen, H. D. "Late Quaternary of the Kopais Basin, Greece : Sedimentary and environmental history." Thesis, University of Cambridge, 1986. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.383701.
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Edenbrow, Mathew. "Behavioural phenotypes : associated life-history traits and environmental effects on development." Thesis, University of Exeter, 2011. http://hdl.handle.net/10036/3278.
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It is widely documented that non-human organisms express individual differences in behavioural patterns. For example individuals can be categorised as bold or shy and when these individual behavioural differences are consistent through time, they are termed behavioural types (BTs). In recent years research has identified that BTs often correlate across contexts/situations and these correlations are referred to as behavioural syndromes. Behavioural types and syndromes (i.e. personality) have also been implicated as major factors shaping population dynamics and the ability to buffer environmental disturbance. Recent theoretical predictions have proposed that BT variation may be underpinned by life-history strategies; however, these predictions have been little studied to date. Moreover, little research has focused upon environmental influences and the ontogeny of personality. In this thesis I use the Mangrove killifish (Kryptolebias marmoratus), a naturally occurring clonal vertebrate, as a model organism. This species presents a powerful tool providing the ability to replicate within and between isogenic genotypes in a controlled manner. Moreover the natural clonality expressed by this species permits environmental effects upon BT plasticity and BT-life-history interactions to be investigated within a developmental framework. In chapter 2, I present microsatellite genotyping results which show that the founding individuals used to propagate a laboratory population at The University of Exeter represent 20 genetically distinct homozygous genotypes. I additionally address five research questions exploring genotypic, environmental, and developmental effects upon three commonly studied BTs (exploration, boldness and aggression): Firstly; I ask do adult hermaphrodite and secondary males exhibit personality i.e. repeatable BT expression? In chapter 3, I present results showing that both of the sexes express short term personality. Moreover, I show that that genotype is an important factor influencing BTs expressed, regardless of sex, indicating underlying genetic control. Secondly I ask; does genotype level life-history variation underpin personality trait variation during ontogeny? In chapter 4, I show considerable developmental plasticity in behavioural expression between genotypes but not life-history and I find limited behaviour-life-history relationships during development. Thirdly I ask; does the rearing environment influence life-history and behavioural plasticity? In chapter 5, I show that in comparison to a control treatment, the presence of conspecifics during ontogeny results in an average reduction in behavioural scores; however, life-history was unaffected. In addition, I show that development in a low food environment lowered average exploration and growth rate but had no effect on boldness or aggression. Furthermore, fish exposed to a predation risk simulation during ontogeny exhibited similar behavioural scores as the control, yet this treatment generated BTs i.e. personality. My fourth question asks; does the parental rearing environment (utilised in chapter 5) influence behavioural expression in the next generation? In chapter 6, I show that transgeneratonal effects of each parental rearing environment influenced life-history but had a minimal effect upon behaviour in the next generation. Finally I ask; does kin or familiarity influence plasticity in associations and aggression? In chapter 7, I show that genotypes have the ability to discriminate kin and familiars and modulate aggression and association accordingly. These results support the concept that developmental and environmental induced plasticity may be more important than life-history in shaping behaviour. Furthermore, although adults exhibit personality and genotypic effects appear important, genotype interacts with environmental/experiential influences to differentially shape behavioural plasticity during ontogeny. I suggest that theoretical predictions regarding life-history may be insufficient to explain the complexity of animal personality in this species. I discuss these results within developmental and epigenetic frameworks with reference to the ecological significance of these patterns within this species and the animal kingdom as a whole.
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Browne, B. J. "The environmental history of Washing Lough, Kilrea, Co. Derry, Northern Ireland." Thesis, University of Ulster, 1989. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.281430.
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Lumley, Susanne Helen. "Late Quaternary vegetational and environmental history of the Taitao Peninsula, Chile." Thesis, University of Cambridge, 1993. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.320035.
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King, Giorgina F. J. ""Skarrelling" : a socio-environmental history of household waste in South Africa." Thesis, Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2014. http://hdl.handle.net/10019.1/86689.
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Thesis(MA)--Stellenbosch University, 2014.ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This study excavates a century’s worth of the history of household waste in South Africa, from 1890-1996. It shows that waste history is entangled with histories of disease and poor sanitation, advances in technology, the impact of war, environmental concerns and – perhaps above all – shifting socio-economic circumstances. Using a socio-environmental analytical framework, this analysis of waste history unearths empirical archival data and oral testimony, to contextualise themes of gender, race, class and nationalism in order to place rubbish within the wider historical debates in South Africa. This study uses Rubbish Theory and Broken Windows Theory as well as concepts of “Othering” and the “Sanitation Syndrome” to explore the role of waste in the construction of racial identities and perceptions. This thesis shows that Apartheid should not be seen as a watershed within this waste history, but rather as a continuation of colonial ideas of cleanliness that helped to perpetuate racist stereotypes. This study argues that the lack of waste services in “locations” during this time helped to contribute to the perception of the urban African as the unsanitary Other. The state and civic societies fostered gender roles, which (coupled with wartime nationalist propaganda) helped in shaping waste behaviour promoted by the National Anti-Waste Organisation (NAWO) during the Second World War (WWII). In the years after WWII, the threats of wartime shortages and enthusiastic solutions suggested to municipalities to “end the waste problem” were thwarted by the spread of the landfill as an even more convenient disposal method. The implementation of Apartheid, especially the Group Areas Act (No 41 of 1950) and the rise of consumer society, led to increasingly divergent experiences of waste for urban Africans and whites. The thesis uses a case study of the Devon Valley Landfill community outside of Stellenbosch. This ethnographic history explores notions of the “Subaltern” in order to give this history a human face. The diachronic analysis of this community offers a lens into ideas of “ordentlikheid” (decency), “weggooi mense” (throwaway people) and how these waste-pickers experience the environment in which they live.
AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Hierdie studie grawe ’n eeu se geskiedenis van huishoudelike afval in Suid-Afrika op, van 1890-1996. Dit toon dat die geskiedenis van afval verweef is met geskiedenisse van siekte en swak sanitasie, tegnologiese vooruitgang, die impak van oorlog, omgewingskwessies en – dalk bowenal – veranderende sosio-ekonomiese omstandighede. Deur middel van ’n sosio-omgewings-analitiese raamwerk ontgin hierdie analise empiriese argiefdata en mondelingse getuienis om temas van geslag, ras, klas en nasionalisme te kontekstualiseer ten einde afval binne die breër historiese debatte in Suid-Afrika te plaas. Die studie gebruik Afval-teorie en Gebreekte Vensters-teorie sowel as begrippe van “Othering” en die “Sanitasie-sindroom” om die rol van afval in die totstandkoming van rasse-identiteite en -persepsies te ondersoek. Die tesis toon dat Apartheid nie as ’n waterskeiding in hierdie afval-geskiedenis gesien moet word nie, maar eerder as ’n voortsetting van koloniale idees oor higiëne wat gehelp het om rasse-stereotipes te perpetueer. Die studie argumenteer dat die gebrek aan afvalverwyderingsdienste in “lokasies” in die tyd bygedra het tot die persepsie van die stedelike Afrikaan as die onhigiëniese Ander. Die staat en burgerlike samelewings het geslagsrolle gekweek, wat (tesame met oorlogtydse nasionalistiese propaganda) gehelp het met die vestiging van afval-gedrag wat bevorder is deur die National Anti-Waste Organisation (NAWO) gedurende die Tweede Wêreldoorlog. In die jare na dié oorlog is die bedreigings van oorlogtydse tekorte en die entoesiastiese oplossings wat vir munisipaliteite aanbeveel is om die “afvalprobleem te beëindig”, gefnuik deur die toenemende gebruik van stortingsterreine as ’n selfs geriefliker afvalverwyderingsmetode. Die implementering van Apartheid, veral die Groepsgebiedewet (No. 41 van 1950) en die opkoms van die verbruikersamelewing, het gelei tot toenemend uiteenlopende ervarings van afval onder stedelike Afrikane en wit mense. Die tesis maak gebruik van ’n gevallestudie van die gemeenskap van die Devonvallei-stortingsterrein buite Stellenbosch. Hierdie etnografiese geskiedenis verken denkbeelde van die “Ondergeskikte” om ’n menslike gesig aan die geskiedenis te gee. Die diakroniese analise van die gemeenskap is ’n venster op idees van “ordentlikheid”, “weggooimense” en hoe hierdie afvalontginners die omgewing waarin hulle woon, beleef.
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McLennan, Darryl. "Life history & environmental effects on telomere dynamics in Atlantic salmon." Thesis, University of Glasgow, 2016. http://theses.gla.ac.uk/7833/.
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While much of the study of molecular biology inevitably focuses on the parts of the genome that contain active genes, there are also non-coding regions that nonetheless play an essential role in maintaining genome integrity. One such region are telomeres, which cap the ends of all eukaryotic chromosomes and play an important role in chromosome protection. Telomere loss occurs at each cell division as a result of the ‘end replication problem’ and a relatively short telomere length is indicative of poor biological state. Thus far, the majority of studies on the dynamics and role of telomeres have been biased towards certain taxa. Research to date has mostly focussed on humans, other mammals and birds. There has been far less research on the telomere dynamics of ectotherms. It is important that we do so, especially since ectothermic vertebrates do not seem to down-regulate telomerase expression in the same way as endotherms, suggesting that their telomere dynamics may be less predictable in the later life stages. The main objective of this thesis was therefore to investigate how life history and environmental effects may influence telomere dynamics in Atlantic salmon Salmo salar. I carried out carefully designed experiments, both in the laboratory and in the wild, using a longitudinal approach where possible, in order to address a number of specific questions that are connected to this central theme. In chapter 2, I demonstrate that there can be significant links between parental life history and offspring telomere dynamics. Maternal life history traits, in particular egg size, were most strongly related to offspring telomere length at the embryonic stages. Paternal life history traits, such as early life growth rate, had a greater association with offspring telomere dynamics in the later stages of development. In chapter 3, using a wild Atlantic salmon population, I found that most individuals experienced a reduction in telomere length during the migratory phase of their life cycle; however the relative rate of telomere loss was dependent on sex, with males experiencing a relatively greater loss. Unexpectedly, I also found that juvenile salmon that had the shortest telomeres at the time of outward migration, had the greatest probability of surviving through to the return migration. In chapter 4, again using a wild system involving experimental manipulations of juvenile Atlantic salmon in Scottish streams, I found that telomere length in juvenile fish was influenced by parental traits and by direct environmental effects. Faster-growing fish had shorter telomeres and there was a greater cost (in terms of reduced telomere length) if the growth occurred in a harsher environment. I also found a positive association between offspring telomere length and the growth history of their fathers (but not mothers), represented by the number of years that fathers had spent at sea. Chapter 5 explored the hypotheses that oxidative DNA damage, catalase (CAT) antioxidant activity and cell proliferation rate are underlying mechanisms linking incubation temperature and telomere dynamics in salmon embryos. No evidence was found for any such effects, but telomere lengths in salmon embryos were found to be significantly affected by the temperature of the water in which they were living. There is also evidence that telomere length significantly increases during embryonic development. In summary, this thesis has shown that a complex mix of environmental and parental effects appear to influence telomere dynamics in Atlantic salmon, with parental effects especially evident during early life stages. It also demonstrated that telomeres lengthen through the embryo stages of development before reducing once the fry begin feeding, indicating that the patterns of telomere loss commonly found in endotherms may differ in ectotherms. Reasons for this variation in telomere dynamics are presented in the final Discussion chapter of the thesis.
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Burbidge, Susan M. (Susan Margot) Carleton University Dissertation Earth Sciences. "Holocene environmental history of lake Winnipeg; thecamoebians and stable lead isotopes." Ottawa, 1997.
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Smurr, Robert Welling. "Perceptions of nature, expressions of nation : an environmental history of Estonia /." Thesis, Connect to this title online; UW restricted, 2002. http://hdl.handle.net/1773/10338.
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Zhou, Yuxin. "Situating Asian American Environmental (In)Justices through Radical History Walking Tours." Scholarship @ Claremont, 2020. https://scholarship.claremont.edu/pomona_theses/213.
Full textAbstract:
By analyzing two radical history walking tours in Seattle, WA, and Berkeley, CA, this thesis aims to examine how Asian American communities can find their places in the U.S. environmental movement. I argue that these walking tours provide generative pedagogical tools to engage the general public to unpack the complex Asian American history embedded within urban spaces. I also articulate how these walking tours have the capacity to situate environmental struggles and activism within urban spaces, illustrating that various Asian American social and political activism has always been addressing environmental concerns. Furthermore, I argue that these walking tours of Asian American cultural landscapes enable us to recognize the long history of cross-ethnic organizing in Asian American activist movements. Lastly, I advocate for an Asian American environmental movement that incorporates a decolonial/indigenous framework, which could allow all marginalized communities to envision more just practices of spatial organizing and land use in the future.
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Hince, Bernadette. "The teeth of the wind : an environmental history of subantarctic islands." Phd thesis, Canberra, ACT : The Australian National University, 2005. http://hdl.handle.net/1885/10859.
Full textAbstract:
Since the discovery of Amsterdam Island in 1552, the subantarctic islands have come slowly into view at the edge of European peripheral vision. During the twentieth century the quest for a polar continent was the one goal of southern exploration, and the subantarctic remained as little known as it is isolated. Its islands are minute in size, ranging from the few square kilometres of St Paul to the largest, Kerguelen, which at 6675 square kilometres (2580 square miles) is less than half the size of Australia's largest cattle stations. Unlike Antarctica and it is unlike Antarctica in almost every way - the subantarctic lacks any unity conferred by political or apolitical treaties. Its islands are the territories of a
handful of widely spread nations, not only the southern hemisphere countries of South Africa, Australia and New Zealand, but also Great Britain, France and Norway. Despite this, and the different personalities of each island, there is a connecting thread of common history and environment. The pattern of human contact is repeated on one island after another. None of the
islands was inhabited when Europeans or North Americans discovered them, and
all of them were quickly exploited for seals (first the fur seal, then the elephant seal). On each one, attempts at economically-motivated settlement for whaling,
farming or fishing failed and, on most of them today, some kind of scientific and meteorological presence justifies their continuing possession by a parent nation.
Though the islands are described as 'pristine' and 'remote' , humans have considerably influenced the subantarctic, even though they have conspicuously failed to settle it. In historical times, almost all of the island groups of the subantarctic (of which there are more than 20) has received a steady invasion of foreign animals (and fewer plants) - rats, mice, rabbits, dogs, cats, reindeer, horses, pigs, sheep, mouflon, goats, cattle, mink, brushtail possums, wekas, trout, salmon, hens, muscovy ducks, geese, diamond moth, sagina, annual bluegrass, dandelions. These introductions have often become established, at the cost of the native animals, including the millions of Southern Ocean seabirds which flock to the tiny islands to breed each summer. In the late twentieth century, costly pest control programs have removed some naturalised animals from some of the islands, occasionally preserving these animals for their interest to science and as potential breeding stock.
This thesis examines the history of StPaul, Kerguelen, Heard, Macquarie, Auckland and Campbell (respectively two French, two Australian, and two New Zealand islands). These six islands provide examples of the commonalities which exist between subantarctic islands, as well as insights into the differences imposed by different parent nations. The islands have a biological and geographical unity as well as a common history, and they share the same execrably windy, cold, wet weather so inimical to human settlement. In recent times there have been the beginnings of fishing industries in the waters around
the islands, and glimmerings of tourism. Travellers to the subantarctic islands are attracted by the abundant and spectacular animals and plants, and by their
remoteness and remove from the more familiar signs of modem life. The human presence on subantarctic islands has been as disconnected in time as the islands are in space. For this reason, as well as the islands' obscurity, few have looked there for any historical unity, and this has to be constructed using a diversity of primary and secondary sources. This thesis uses these diverse sources, and follows the westerly winds driving around the globe, as it elucidates the unity of the apparently scattered set of islands that constitute the subantarctic.
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Otter, Robert. "Aspects of environmental public health in Portsmouth, 1764-1864." Thesis, University of Portsmouth, 1994. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.387284.
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