Journal articles on the topic 'Lucio fauno'

AbstractIn 2003, the parasite fauna of 197 European eelsAnguilla anguilla, captured at three different locations (Laufenburg, Karlsruhe and Beneeden Leeuwen) in the River Rhine, was analysed. The eels harboured a total of 18 species, among them the protozoa (Myxidium giardi, Myxobolus kotlaniandTrypanosoma granulosum), acanthocephalans (Acanthocephalus anguillae, Acanthocephalus lucii, Echinorhynchus truttae, Pomphorhynchus laevis), nematodes (Paraquimperia tenerrima, Pseudocapillaria tomentosa, Camallanus lacustris, Raphidascaris acus, Spinitectus inermisandAnguillicola crassus), cestodes (Bothriocephalus clavicepsandProteocephalus macrocephalus) and monogeneans (Pseudodactylogyrussp.). The parasite fauna at the different locations is discussed with respect to the crustacean fauna present at these locations. The investigation shows that changes in the composition of the crustacean fauna, due to the anthropogenic breakdown of a biogeographic barrier, are reflected in the composition of the intestinal eel parasite fauna.

This study aims to study the pike (Esox lucius) parasitic fauna in the Vyatka River of the Kirov region. Studies were conducted at two sites in the middle of the river Vyatka in 2016–2018 The distance between them is 300 km. A total of 26 individuals were investigated. Caught specimens of fish were examined for the presence of parasites in accordance with generally accepted methods. Over the entire period of studying the pike parasite fauna in the Vyatka River, 24 different parasite species were recorded by various researchers. As a result of our research, 9 species of parasites were recorded, trematodes – 1 species – Azygia lucii, cestodes – 1 species - Triaenophorus nodulosus, nematodes – 2 species – Сamallanus lacustris, Raphidascaris acus, proboscis worm – 3 species – Acanthocephalus anguillae, Acanthocephalus lucii, Neoechinorhynchus rutili, crustaceans 1 species – Ergasilus sieboldi and glochidia 1 species – Anodonta cygnea. The total infection of pike with all kinds of parasites was 100%, with intestinal species – 66.6%. The high extensiveness of invasion is marked by crustaceans Ergasilus sieboldi – 73.1%. The study provides a comparative analysis of the parasite fauna of the common pike in the Vyatka River over 80 years. There is a tendency to reduce the species diversity of pike parasites from 24 species to 9, the disappearance of some species and the acquisition of new ones – proboscis worm Acanthocephalus anguillae with extensiveness of invasion – 15.4%, intensity of invasion – 5.3 specimen, abundance index – 0.81 specimen. The results obtained allow us to conclude that there is a significant decrease in the species diversity of pike parasites, which is probably due to the influence of the anthropogenic factor.

Apresenta-se uma reflexão crítica sobre os caminhos da técnica com destaque para a sua relação com uma economia capitalista que vê na natureza apenas uma fonte de lucro. Analisam-se as relações entre a teoria da sociedade do risco, a formação dos refugiados ambientais e as históricas violências estruturais que demarcam o Brasil Contemporâneo. Por outro lado, a realidade da fauna brasileira e o cenário de violação causado pelo ser humano como uma força geológica prejudicial à preservação dos animais não humanos, têm sido fator que contribui para o agravamento da situação ambiental. Discutem-se as contradições do contrato político quando se trata da proteção dos animais não humanos.

The composition of the helminth fauna of the main commercial fish species in the lake ecosystem of the Narochansky National Park was determined. It is represented by 10 species of helminths having a complex development cycle with the participation of intermediate hosts, as well as 1 species of helminths (Gyrodactylus sp.), a representative of cl. Monogenea, having a direct development cycle. It was noted that the highest level of invasion was typical for larvae of trematodes Tylodelphys conifera. The greatest variety of parasitic helminths is observed in fish from lake Miastro and Naroch (7 species of helminths each). It was revealed that the most common representatives of the helminth fauna of fish inhabiting the lakes of Narochansky National Park are metacercariae of trematodes of the Diplostomum genus. They were found in fish in all water reservoirs examined. Their host spectrum was also the widest. Examination of the three-spine stickleback showed a severe damage by plerocercoids Ligula intestinalis (prevalence 92% to 98.4%, infection intensity 1–4 pairs per fish). In addition, proboscis worms Acanthocephalus lucii were found in the intestines of the three-spine stickleback. The trematode fauna of fish muscles from the Naroch lake group is rather poor and represented by three types of helminths: Rhipidocotyle illense, Paracoenogonimus ovatus and Apophallus muelingi.

One of the predators of the ichthyofauna of the Lower Tobol is Esox lucius (Linnaeus, 1758) (Esociformes, Esocidae). The purpose of this work is to study the current state of the E. lucius parasite fauna in the lower reaches of the Tobol River. In the present study 47 individuals of the northern pike of different sex aged from 2+ to 8+ years were examined by the method of complete parasitological dissection. As a result of the research, 23 types of parasites were found in the pike. The largest number of species of parasitic organisms – 20 – were found in May, 12 were found in December and 11 in September. Of these, 10 species are specific to northern pike: Haemogregarina esoci (Nawrotzky, 1914), Chloromyxum esocinum (Dogiel, 1934), Myxidium lieberkuhni (Biitschli, 1882), Myxosoma anurum (Cohn, 1895), Henneguya psorospermica (Thelohan, 1995), Tetraonchus monenteron (Wagener, 1857), Gyrodactylus lucii (Kulakowskaja, 1951), Triaenophorus nodulosus (Pallas, 1781), Azygia lucii (Miiller, 1776), Raphidascaris acus (Bloch, 1779). For the first time an intraerythrocyte parasite – H. esoci – was found in pike in the Lower Tobol, the extensiveness of invasion was 18.7% in December, and 6.2% in May. Epistylis sp. and Trichodinella epizzotica parasitized on the surface of the body of fish only in May, whereas members of the genus Trichodina were found in winter and spring. In all seasons, parasitization by M. anurum and H. psorospermica was established on the gills. The greatest occurrence of spores of M. lieberkuhni and C. esocinum was observed in the spring. Myxosporidia parasitized in the kidneys and T. monenteron parasitized on the gills during all periods of the study (the latter with an extensivity of invasion of 100.0%). All examined fish are infected with T. nodulosus 100.0% of cases. In May, other types of cestodes were found: P. esocis and Dibothriocephalus latus. Three pike were infected with proteocephalis. The larval stage of diphyllobothriid was found in one fish in the liver and gonads in an amount of 139 individuals. In the pikes’ stomach, during all periods of the study, A. lucii was found in all the fish examined. In the autumn period of the study immature R. campanula were found in in the intestine of 4 fish specimens. The nematode R. acus was found in pike only in spring. This nematode was found in fish aged 4+–8+. In May, glochidia with a high intensity of invasion were found on fins, gill covers and gills of fish. E. sieboldi copepods were found on the gills; in May, one specimen was found in one pike and in September in 6 with AI of 0.7. Tetraonchus monenteron was a dominant species, in May its degree of dominance decreased with the greatest uniformity of species in this study period. Having considered the age dynamics of pike infection by various types of parasites, it was found that in the age group 4+–5+ the number of species of parasites was greatest (20), while in groups 2+–3+ and 6+–8+ it was 14. In the pike, the core parasitic fauna were M. anurum, H. psorospermica, T. monenteron, T. nodulosus, A. lucii. Seasonality has virtually no effect on the degree of infection with specific parasites. The age of fish largely determines the qualitative and quantitative composition of the parasite fauna.

Frutos e sementes (diásporos) possuem adaptações às diversas formas de dispersão e a grande variedade nessas estruturas torna complexa sua classificação morfológica e identificação do material botânico quando coletado em fruto. O uso das chaves convencionais muitas vezes trava o processo devido à terminologia pouco usual, e a aplicação de chaves interativas pode ser uma alternativa. Pesquisas no Cerrado sobre dispersão mostraram que as espécies zoocóricas são maioria, principalmente em fitofisionomias florestais. Devido à diversidade morfológica, caracteres estruturais dos diásporos podem ser comparados para identificação das plantas, principalmente quando associados a um banco de imagens com exemplos ilustrados que torne o processo acessível. O objetivo desse trabalho foi a construção de uma chave interativa ilustrada para identificação de espécies do Cerrado do Jardim Botânico de Brasília que são dispersas pela fauna. Foram obtidas 157 espécies zoocóricas com frutos frescos e maduros, distribuídas em 61 famílias e 111 gêneros. A chave eletrônica foi confeccionada no “Lucid”, programa de chaves interativas de múltipla entrada que possibilita uso de imagens. A chave foi testada com alunos de graduação da Universidade de Brasília e tem se mostrado uma ferramenta prática na identificação das espécies, já estando disponível gratuitamente no site www.frutosatrativosdocerrado.bio.br.

The present study presents the results from examinations of bleak’s endohelminth species and structure of helminth communities from the Bulgarian part of the Lower Danube River. In 2015 and 2016, on a seasonal manner, 91 specimens of Alburnus alburnus (Linnaeus, 1758) (bleak) were examined with standard techniques for parasites. Five species of parasites: Nicolla skrjabini (Ivanitzky, 1928), Ligula intestinalis (Linnaeus, 1758), Acanthocephalus lucii (Müller, 1776), Pomphorhynchus laevis (Müller, 1776) and Contracoecum microcephalum (Stossich, 1890), larvae were identified. The analysis of the dominant structure of the found parasite species is presented to the component and infracommunities levels. All parasite species were accidental for the parasitic communities of examined fish with the exception of P. laevis and N. skrjabini. P. laevis was a core parasite species and N. skrjabini was a component parasite species for the helminth communities of bleak. The parasite communities of A. alburnus were discussed and compared with previous research data on parasite communities of bleak from River Danube in Bulgaria. New data for helminths and helminth communities of A. alburnus from Danube River (biotope Vetren) and their seasonal occurrence are presented.

En Nicaragua los estudios de la Malacofauna del Occidente son relativamente pocos, principalmente para la clase Gasterópoda, teniendo como únicas referencias dentro del país estudios realizados por MARENA, COMAP, USAID y FUNCOD en el 2002, en el cual identificaron cerca de 106 especies entre flora y fauna , en el cual se mencionan algunos bivalvos, por otro lado Santana Aguilar en el 2006, identifico 70 especies de bivalvos y 92 gasterópodos en la Reserva Natural Cosigüina, por ultimo pero no menos importante los libros recopilados por López y Urcuyo en el 2008, quienes realizan un registro de las principales características de ambas clases, dividiendo la información en dos tomos, uno para cada uno, dando un registro fotográfico al final de cada toma de las especies de bivalvos y gasterópodos más comunes en el Pacifico. Sin embargo, estos estudios no toman un registro concreto de la parte costera de León, el cual presenta una diversidad de especies de ambas clases y que son de gran interés comercial para los comunitarios, puesto que es su fuente de ingresos económicos, por ello, surge la iniciativa de realizar este estudio en la Isla Santa Lucia, la cual es considerada una zona de amortiguamiento de la Reserva Natural Juan Venado, compartiendo especies tanto de flora y fauna. El estudio se realizó en los meses de septiembre a noviembre, luego de finalizar el período de veda de la clase Bivalvia, teniendo muestreos cada 20 días, tomando como referencia la línea costera noroeste de la Isla Santa Lucia, las caletas de “El Rosario” y “El Gancho” (las cuales se caracterizan por presentar la mayor estación de bivalvos y algunos gasterópodos, según indicaban lugareños), se capturaban un total de 360 especímenes, de los cuales se identificaron la presencia de 19 especies en tallas de 1 centímetro a 22.9 centímetros, predominando en el caso de los bivalvos el género Anadara sp., de la clase de los gasterópodos las especies de Rhinocoryne homboltdti, seguido de Cerithidae sp., e Ilichione subrugosa, presentando la zona costera mayor diversidad de especies de la clase gasterópoda en comparación a las caletas, no obstante las caletas presentaron mayor dominancia de especies de la clase Bivalvia.

The Afrotropical banchine fauna comprises 12 genera: Apophua Morley, Atropha Kriechbaumer, Cryptopimpla Taschenberg, Exetastes Gravenhorst, Glyptopimpla Morley, Himertosoma Schmiedeknecht, Lissonota Gravenhorst, Sjostedtiella Szépligeti, Spilopimpla Cameron, Syzeuctus Förster, Tetractenion Seyrig, and Tossinola Viktorov. A well-illustrated revised key to the genera using high definition images is provided, and the endemic Afrotropical genus Tetractenion is revised, previously represented by two described species. Four new species are described: T. ibayaensissp. nov., T. pascalisp. nov., T. pseudoluteasp. nov., and T. roseisp. nov. The first species-level identification key is provided for this rare genus. Based on morphological attributes the hypothesis is presented that the species in this genus are probably nocturnal. All images and online interactive Lucid keys are available at: www.waspweb.org and the associated underlying data is made available as Suppl. materials 1, 2 LIF3 files to this paper for inter-exchange with other key production software.

Community composition of the infaunal bivalve fauna of the St. Lucie Estuary and southern Indian River Lagoon, eastern Florida was sampled quarterly for 10 years as part of a long-term benthic monitoring program. A total of 38,514 bivalves of 137 taxa were collected and identified. We utilized this data, along with sediment samples and environmental measurements gathered concurrently, to assess the community composition, distribution, and ecological drivers of the infaunal bivalves of this estuary system. Salinity had the strongest influence on bivalve assemblage across the 15 sites, superseding the influences of sediment type, water turbidity, temperature and other environmental parameters. The greatest diversity was found in higher salinity euhaline sites, while the greatest abundance of individual bivalves was found in medium salinity mixohaline sites, the lowest diversity and abundances were found in the low salinity oligohaline sites, demonstrating a strong positive association between salinity and diversity/abundance. Water management decisions for the estuary should incorporate understanding of the role of salinity on bivalve diversity, abundance, and ecosystem function.

En las zonas rurales es importante considerar el paisaje como una herramienta para la planificación del desarrollo turístico. En esta investigación se valora el paisaje rural de la comunidad de Santa Rosa, Dr. Miguel Moran Lucio, Jipijapa, Manabí, con opciones de conservación, mediante el creciente atractivo del turismo rural. Se realizó un recorrido que permitió caracterizar el componente biofísico y arquitectónico del paisaje. Se analizó la calidad visual intrínseca, a partir de los atributos visuales destacados y considerados relevantes en las fotografías que se tomaron en el área. Se obtuvo la caracterización de los componentes del paisaje incluyendo la forma del terreno, suelo, roca, fauna, flora, clima, agua y actividad antrópica. La mayor parte del área está definida por un índice de valor medio, ya que son áreas con calidad media, por ausencia de cuerpo de agua permanente, cuyos rasgos poseen variedad en la forma, color y línea, que resultan comunes en la región estudiada y no son excepcionales. La vegetación del lugar cuenta con especies nativas y se encuentra intervenida por actividades antrópicas, tales como la agricultura. Se proponen actividades de caminata por la montaña, avistamiento de especies nativas, observación paisajística y ferias gastronómicas. Los resultados permiten realizar un aporte en el desarrollo del estudio del paisaje rural como un recurso turístico para mejorar la calidad de vida de sus habitantes, en sitios de especial atención de acuerdo a sus aspectos naturales y culturales, que en ciertos casos pueden convertirse en sitios turísticos.

AbstractTwo invasive fish species, the round goby Apollonia melanostoma syn. Neogobius melanostomus (Pallas 1814) and the bighead goby Neogobius kessleri (Günther, 1861), have established a firm population in Austrian waters during the past 15 years. As there have been no records of the parasite fauna from these populations, a total of 79 specimens of A. melanostoma and 12 specimens of N. kessleri were examined for parasites between May and October 2007 from three different sampling sites from the Danube River in Austria. In total 12 parasite taxa were recovered. The protozoans Trichodina sp. and Ichthyophthirius multifiliis from the gills and skin; two crustacean species, Paraergasilus brevidigitus and Ergasilus sieboldi, from the gills; and the two monogeneans Gyrodactylus sp. and Dactylogyrus sp., from the skin and gills respectively, all occurred at low prevalence and intensities. Furthermore, cystacanths of the acanthocephalan Acanthocephalus lucii were found in the body cavity. Metacercariae of the digeneans Diplostomum sp. and Tylodelphys clavata were found in the lens of the eye and the vitreous humour, respectively. Adults of two digeneans, Nicolla skrjabini and Bunodera nodulosa, were found in the intestine. In addition, during this survey metacercariae of the Holarctic digenean Bucephalus polymorphus, encysted in the skin and fins, with prevalence up to 78%, were recorded for the first time in Austria.

El desarrollo de campañas de voluntariado por parte de asociaciones sin ánimo de lucro ha supuesto un incremento en la popularidad de la lucha contra especies exóticas invasoras en las islas Canarias (España). El presente artículo tiene como objetivo evaluar la capacidad educativa de estas campañas en el voluntariado participante. Para ello se empleó una metodología basada en la realización de encuestas al mismo; trabajo de campo en el que se acompañó al voluntariado durante las jornadas de trabajo y, finalmente, entrevistas abiertas a los miembros de las asociaciones encargados del proyecto de erradicación. Los principales resultados muestran que los encuestados realizaron una valoración positiva del aprendizaje en las campañas de voluntariado. La mayoría de ellos confirmó haber adquirido conocimientos sobre flora exótica invasora, flora nativa, fauna, geología, entre otros, siendo de interés en el aprendizaje sobre los elementos y procesos que forman parte del territorio, así como sobre herramientas para su adecuada gestión. Así mismo, desarrollaron inquietud por temas relacionados, habiendo realizado búsquedas de información posteriores a las campañas. Por tanto, el presente trabajo permite concluir que las campañas de voluntariado son una herramienta didáctica geográfica para diferentes grupos de edad e independientemente de su formación o experiencia previa.

The results of the study of the helminth fauna of 8 species fish of the lower reaches reservoirs of the Zarafshan River are presented - carp (Cyprinus carpio), crucian carp (Carassius auratus gibelio), roach (Rutilus rutilus), oriental bream (Abramis brama), pike perch (Stizostedion lucioperca), silver carp (Hypophthalmichthys molitrix), pike (Esox lucius), Turkestan barbel (Barbus capito conocephalus). 27 species of helminths were identified, including 12 species of cestodes (Caryophyllaeus laticeps Pallas, 1781; Caryophyllaeus fimbriceps Annenkova - Chlopina, 1919; Biacetabulum appendiculatum Szidat, 1937; Khawia sinensis Hsu, 1935; Bathybothrium rectangulum Bloch, 1782; Bothriocephalus opsariichthydis Yamaguti, 1934; Ligula intestinalis Linnaeus, 1758 larvae; Digramma interupta Rudolphi, 1810 larvae; Proteocephalus torulosus Batsch, 1786; Neogryporhynchus cheilanoristrotus Wedl, 1855 larvae; Gryporhynchus pusillus von Nordman, 1832 larvae; Valipora campylancristrota Rudolphi, 1819 larvae), 5 species of trematodes (Sanguinicola inermis Plehn, 1905; Orientocreadium siluri Bychowsky et Dubinina, 1954; Allocreadium isoporum Looss, 1894; Diplostomum spathaceum Rudolvae, 1832 lare; (Dioctophyme renale Goeze, 1782 larvae; Rhabdochona denudata Dujardin, 1845; Desmidocercella numidica Seurat, 1920 larvae; Camallanus truncatus Rudolphi, 1814; Camallanus lacustris Zoega, 1776; Philometra ovatachenko Zeder, 1803; 1779 larvae) and 2 species of acanthocephalus (Pomphorhynchus laevis Muller, 1776; Acantocephalus lucii Muller, 1776). This work includes the results of the research of the helminthes of the fish of waterbodies in the lowers of the Zarafshan River. As a result, the infection of fish with 27 species of helminthes, belonging to cestodes (12), trematodes (5), nematodes (8), and acanthocephalans (2) was established.

resumo Estamos entrando em uma era em que nosso planeta e nossa sociedade estão enfrentando crises importantes. Convivemos simultaneamente com três emergências importantes: 1) a crise na saúde, intensificada com a pandemia da Covid-19; 2) a crise de perda de biodiversidade; e 3) a emergência climática. Salienta-se que essas crises têm ligações profundas entre si, e diferenças também importantes, mas todas provocam impactos sociais e econômicos fortes e afetam o planeta globalmente. Elas são resultado de um modelo econômico que privilegia o desenvolvimento a qualquer custo, o lucro muito rápido, mesmo à custa da sustentabilidade. A crise da Covid-19 colocou questões importantes do ponto de vista de falta de governança global. Por sua vez, a crise climática tem potencial para danos socioeconômicos muito fortes, e seus efeitos já são facilmente visíveis. A perda de biodiversidade coloca em risco nossa segurança alimentar, bem como o equilíbrio do sistema terrestre. A Amazônia, por exemplo, contém milhares de vírus em sua fauna e flora, e a continuar o processo desenfreado de sua ocupação, novos vírus similares ao Sars-CoV-2 possivelmente entrarão em contato com nossa sociedade. Sair dessas três crises requer mudanças drásticas em nosso sistema econômico, insustentável em seu formato atual. Crescimento econômico contínuo em um planeta com recursos naturais finitos não é possível. A desigualdade em países em desenvolvimento e mesmo estre nações é explosiva e injusta. Precisaremos de um novo sistema de governança global que seja capaz de harmonizar medidas dos diferentes países, estados e municípios. A sustentabilidade em nosso planeta é possível e necessária. Teremos muito trabalho em construí-la nos próximos anos, comunidade científica, sociedade, governos e outros agentes. Não temos alternativas senão construir uma nova sociedade, mais justa e sustentável.

The platygastrid subfamily Sceliotrachelinae, while represented globally by numerous biologically important taxa, is generally poorly known for the Afrotropical region. It contains a number of species of economic significance, including some that attack hemipteran pests of citrus. Here we review the taxonomy of the subfamily for the region. We revise two enigmatic, endemic South African genera, Afrisolia Masner and Huggert and Sceliotrachelus Brues, providing illustrated identification keys to the species. Afrisolia anyskop van Noort & Lahey, sp. nov., Afrisolia quagga van Noort & Lahey, sp. nov. and Afrisolia robertsoni van Noort & Lahey, sp. nov. are described for this previously monotypic genus. Sceliotrachelus was previously known only from the two male type specimens of Sceliotrachelus braunsi Brues. Two new species, Sceliotrachelus midgleyi van Noort, sp. nov. and Sceliotrachelus karooensis van Noort, sp. nov., are described from the Eastern and Western Cape, respectively. The female of S. braunsi is described for the first time and additional distribution records for the species are documented. The putatively basal species, S. karooensis, exhibits less derived morphology than the highly apomorphic S. braunsi, necessitating reassessment of the limits of the genus. The exceptional morphology exhibited by species of Sceliotrachelus is hypothesized to be an adaptation to living in leaf-litter. We also revise the Old World species of Parabaeus Kieffer, describing a remarkable new species, Parabaeus nasutus van Noort, sp. nov., and provide an illustrated and updated key to the species. Fidiobia Ashmead is currently represented in Africa by seven described species to which we add Fidiobia celeritas van Noort & Lahey, sp. nov., a charismatic new species from South Africa. The distribution of the genus Isolia is expanded to include new country records for I. hispanica Buhl (Kenya) and an undescribed species from Madagascar. To facilitate the ongoing exploration and documentation of the African platygastrid fauna, an identification key to Afrotropical sceliotracheline genera and high resolution images of exemplar species for the remaining genera are provided. An overview of known species richness and biology is also included. All images presented here as well as additional images and interactive online Lucid identification keys are available on WaspWeb at http://www.waspweb.org.

The features of the nematode and acanthocephalus fauna of Cypriniformes and Siluriformes fish, their distribution in the water bodies of the Syrdarya River midstream were studied. In total, 18 helminth species belonging to the classes Nematoda – (14 species) and Acantocephala – (4) are registered in the region. 7 species we marked for the first time for the region of under consideration.Studies were conducted of different types of water bodies of the Syrdarya river in 2016–2019 years. The collection and study of helminths of fish were carried out by known methods in helminthology and ichthyoparasitology. 1239 copies of Cypriniformes fish belonging to 15 species (Cyprinidae – 12 species, Cobitidae – 3) and 12 specimens of Siluriformes fishes from the families (Siluridae and Clariidae) were researched.According to preliminary data, 18 species of helminths belonging to the class Nematoda (14 species) and to the class Acantocephala (4 species) were found in the studied fish orders in the reservoirs of the region. Significant species diversity is characterized by the class Nematoda. We have registered 14 species belonging to 4 orders. The detachment Trichocephalida Skrjabin et Schulz, 1928 is represented by one species – Capillaria tomentosa Dujardin, 1843, which is noted in most Cypriniformes in the natural and artificial reservoirs of the northeast of Uzbekistan. The greatest species diversity is distinguished by the detachment Spirurida Chitwood, 1933. We noted 8 species. The remaining units are represented by 1–2 species – banal fish parasites. The findings of Dioctophyme renale Goeze, 1782 (larvae) in Cypriniformes in the studied region should be noted.The Acanthocephala class is represented by 4 species: Neoechinorhynchus rutileMüller, 1780, Pomphorhynchus laevis Müller, 1776, Acanthocephalus lucii Müller, 1776 and A. anguillae Müller, 1780. Nematodes are dominant. The results suggest that the most optimal conditions for the functioning of the corresponding helminth communities probably exist in the water bodies of the Syrdarya’s midstream. The abundance of a number of invertebrate groups, the inhabitants of aquatic ecosystems, which are intermediate hosts of parasites, the accumulation of waterbirds and mammals contribute to the irreversible circulation of helminths in aquatic cenoses of the study area. All this requires systematic monitoring of fish helminthiasis in order to develop preventive measures.

A survey of the mite fauna on citrus was conducted in 542 dooryard trees in the following counties: Dade (24), Broward (127), Palm Beach (68), Martin (35), St. Lucie (20), Indian River (11), Collier (23), Lee (37), Charlotte (20), Sarasota (67), Manatee (18), Pinellas (59), Polk (32), and Highlands (1) to update our knowledge of the mite complex on Florida citrus. We also sampled 25 varietal citrus trees at two research centers in Polk and Dade Counties. A third block of 'Tahiti' lime trees was sampled at the Tropical Research & Education Center in Dade County. At least 787 commercial citrus trees were also sampled in Florida between 2009 and 2014. Here we report the frequency and occurrence of the Tetranychoidea, Tarsonemidae and Tydeoidea on those trees. Previous field studies of the Tarsonemidae and Tydeoidea on citrus in Florida between 1993-2003, a horticultural mineral oil (HMO) field study during 1994-1996 and M. H. Muma from 1961-1975 are included for comparison. Eutetranychus species near orientalis was collected from a lemon tree in Broward County. This is a new record of this species on Florida citrus. Additional new records of mites on Florida citrus include Tarsonemidae: Fungitarsonemus setillus Sousa et al, Tarsonemus confusus Ewing, and Tarsonemus waitei Banks; Tydeoidea: (Iolinidae)- Parapronematus n sp, Neopronematus n sp; (Triophtydeidae): Triophtydeus immanis Kuznetzov, T. n sp; (Tydeidae): Afrotydeus n sp, Brachytydeus sp near australiensis, B. n sp, Pretydeus sp near reticulatus, and Tydeus sp near munsteri. Seven species of tarsonemids were collected from dooryard and varietal block citrus during the 2009-2014 survey compared with one species from commercial citrus trees. A total of 27 species of Tarsonemidae were collected from citrus in Florida between 1954 and 2014. Thirteen species of Tydeoidea were collected from dooryard and varietal block citrus trees during the 2009-2014 survey compared with 4 species from commercial citrus trees. A total of 31 species of Tydeoidea were collected from citrus in Florida between 1961-2014. The roles that different species of tarsonemid and tydeoid mites have as plant feeders, fungivores, mycophages, or predators of one or more phytophagous mites are discussed.

In the present study, an evaluation was made of the dependence between infections by various types of parasites and the sex and age of the host. The parasitic community of Abramis brama includes 24 species of parasites. We assessed the degree of infestation by parasites in groups of male, female and juvenile specimens. It was established that only male bream were infested with Zschokkella nova (Klokacewa, 1914), Hysteromorpha triloba (Rudolphi, 1819), Allocreadium isoporum (Looss, 1894), Ichthyocotylurus platycephalus (Сrерlin, 1852). The ciliates of Trichodina nigra (Lom, 1960) were noted on the gills and fins of all the examined fish, the extensiveness of infection in the group of juveniles exceeded that of the groups of females and males. Specimens of Myxobolus rotundus (Nemeczek, 1911) were found on the gills and in the kidneys, and M. parviformis only on the gills of the fish. The level of infection in males was three times the EI in females and juvenile fish. The infestation on the fins by the metacercaria of Rhipidocotyle campanula (Dujardin, 1845) in male bream was more than 6 times higher than infection in females and juveniles. An increase in the extensiveness of infection in males by the nematode Philometra ovata (Zeder, 1803) was also noted in comparison with groups of females and juvenile fish. Species-specific monogeneans: Dactylogyrus falcatus (Wedl, 1857), D. wunderi (Bychowsky, 1931), D. zandti (Bychowsky, 1933), Gyrodactylus elegans (Nordmann, 1832); the trematodes Sphaerostomа bramae (Müller, 1776) and Diplostomum chromatophorum (Brown, 1931) infested all individuals of bream in approximately the same proportion, whereas an increase in the EI of the Caryophyllaeus laticeps (Pallas, 1781) cestode in males was observed. Infection with metacercariae Metorchis sp. in males exceeded that in females and juvenile fish. At the same time, only females and juvenile bream were infected by Chilodonella sp., metacercariae Opisthorchis felineus (Rivolta, 1884) and glochidia Unionidae gen. sp. During the studies in females, the following species of parasite were observed singly : Proteocephalus sp., Azygia lucii (Miiller, 1776), Ergasilus sieboldi (Nordmann, 1832). Parasitization by Raphidascaris acus (Bloch, 1779) was recorded only in males and juveniles, whereas in females this parasite was not observed. The dominant parasite in males was G. elegans, in females – the representatives of the genus Dactylogyrus, in the juvenile individuals the trematode S. bramae dominated. Analysis of the parasite fauna in various age groups allowed us to establish that at the age of 5+–6+ bream were infected by 20 species of parasites, in age group 3+–4+ there were 15 species, at the age of 7+–8+ the fish were infected only with 11 parasitic species. The fish in all three groups were infected by T. nigra, Dactylogyrus spp., G. elegans, D. chromatophorum, S. bramae, R. acus almost at the same level and had no sharp differences in extensiveness and abundance of infection. Unionidae gen. sp. were observed only in group 3+–4+. Parasitization by Proteocephalus sp., metacercariae H. triloba and I. platycephalus, A. isoporum, and A. lucii was found in bream of age group 5+–6+, the species did not occur in bream at other ages. Nematode P. ovata and crustacean E. sieboldi infested the fish in age groups 3+–4+ and 5+–6+ with a slight increase in the extensiveness of infection at low abundance rates. The same age groups were observed to have decrease in the extensiveness of infection with Chilodonella sp. and metacercariae O. felineus. Myxozoan Z. nova parasitized in age group 5+–6+ and had an increase in extensiveness in age group 7+–8+. In all groups, infection was noted by representatives of the genus Myxobolus, R. campanula and Metorchis sp. with EI increasing with age. The obligate parasite of bream – C. laticeps infested fish the most in age group 3+–4+ in comparison with age groups 5+–6+ and 7+–8+. In the younger age group, the dactylogyruses were dominant parasites, in the age group 5+–6+ Gyrodactylus dominated, in the older age group – Metorchis sp.

The taxonomy and natural history of the ant genus Crematogaster are reviewed for the Costa Rican fauna. Thirtyone species are known, and a key is provided for these and two additional species from adjacent regions of Panama. Species boundaries are evaluated over their entire range when possible. The taxonomic history of the genus is one of unbridled naming of new species and subspecies, with no synthetic works or keys. Major taxonomic changes are proposed, with the recognition of several polytypic species with very broad ranges and the synonymization of the many names associated with them. Crematogaster pygmaea Forel 1904, suturalis Forel 1912, ornatipilis Wheeler 1918, erici Santschi 1929, and chacoana Santschi 1933 are synonymized under abstinens Forel 1899; centralis Santschi 1932 under acuta (Fabricius 1804); aruga Forel 1913 under arcuata Forel 1899; ludio Forel 1912, armandi Forel 1921, inca Wheeler 1925, and cocciphila Borgmeier 1934 under brasiliensis Mayr 1878; parabiotica Forel 1904 under carinata Mayr 1862; brevispinosa Mayr 1870, minutior Forel 1893, schuppi Forel 1901, recurvispina Forel 1912, sampaioi Forel 1912, striatinota Forel 1912, townsendi Wheeler 1925, and chathamensis Wheeler 1933 under crinosa Mayr 1862; barbouri Weber 1934 under cubaensis Mann 1920; antillana Forel 1893, sculpturata Pergande 1896, kemali Santschi 1923, accola Wheeler 1934, phytoeca Wheeler 1934, panamana Wheeler 1942, and obscura Santschi 1929 under curvispinosa Mayr 1870; descolei Kusnezov 1949 under distans Mayr 1870; projecta Santschi 1925 under erecta Mayr 1866; carbonescens Forel 1913 under evallans Forel 1907; palans Forel 1912, ascendens Wheeler 1925, and dextella Santschi 1929 under limata F. Smith 1858; agnita Wheeler 1934 under obscurata Emery 1895; amazonensis Forel 1905, autruni Mann 1916, and guianensis Crawley 1916 under stollii Forel 1885; surdior Forel 1885, atitlanica Wheeler 1936, and maya Wheeler 1936 under sumichrasti Mayr 1870; tumulifera Forel 1899 and arizonensis Wheeler 1908 under torosa Mayr 1870. The following taxa are raised to species: ampla Forel 1912, brevidentata Forel 1912, chodati Forel 1921, crucis Forel 1912, cubaensis Mann 1920, goeldii Forel 1903, malevolens Santschi 1919, mancocapaci Santschi 1911, moelleri Forel 1912, montana Borgmeier 1939, obscurata Emery 1895, rochai Forel 1903, russata Wheeler 1925, sericea Forel 1912, stigmatica Forel 1911, sub-tonsa Santschi 1925, tenuicula Forel 1904, thalia Forel 1911, uruguayensis Santschi 1912, and vicina Andre 1893. The following new species are described: bryophilia, flavomicrops, flavosensitiva, foliocrypta, jardinero, levior, monteverdensis, raptor, snellingi, sotobosque, and wardi.

L’introduzione della fattispecie del contratto di rete nell’ordinamento giuridico italiano si deve al d.l. 10.2.2009, n. 5; nel giro di pochi anni la normativa ha subito diversi aggiustamenti e modifiche (d.l. 31.5.2010, n. 78, convertito nella l. 30.7.2010, n. 122; d.l. 21.6.2012, n. 83, convertito nella l. 7.8.2012, n. 134) assestandosi infine nel testo oggi vigente.Il contratto di rete ha come scopo generale quello di favorire la crescita, individuale e collettiva, della capacità innovativa e della competitività sul mercato delle imprese che ne fanno parte. A tal fine le imprese si obbligano, sulla base di un programma comune di rete: a collaborare in forme e in ambiti predeterminati attinenti all’esercizio delle proprie imprese; a scambiarsi informazioni o prestazioni di natura industriale, commerciale, tecnica o tecnologica; ad esercitare in comune una o più attività rientranti nell’oggetto della propria impresa. Benché introdotto per far fronte ad un momento storico in cui l’economia globale si trovava in una situazione alquanto particolare (e sul punto non può essere sottaciuta l’assist delle agevolazioni fiscali fornito dal legislatore nei primi anni di vigenza) l’istituto, al di là delle contingenze del momento, ha registrato un notevole sviluppo e successo nella prassi.

Las prácticas de defensa y protección de ecosistemas ejercidas por la sociedad civil organizada, representan una valiosa aportación a la comunidad, especialmente si éstas son reconocidas, legitimadas y apoyadas por el Estado. Dichas prácticas constituyen además un semillero para la educación ambiental no formal, promotora de participación social y de ejercicio de ciudadanía en un proceso holístico y retroactivo de enseñanza-aprendizaje, de aprehensión de cambios de conciencia, valores, actitudes, comportamientos, hábitos, conductas, consumos ambientalmente responsables.La educación ambiental no formal puede realizarse desde fuera, a través de un interventor social o un equipo de interventores que llegan a una comunidad, realizan un diagnóstico, definen, aplican y evalúan un programa apropiado para dicha comunidad, buscando siempre que la población se involucre en cada etapa del programa para que se lo apropie y se sienta comprometida con el mismo. Sin embargo, existe mayor riqueza cuando grupos comunitarios y organismos de base, comprometidos y orientados hacia la defensa y protección de ecosistemas terrestres y marinos, son reconocidos y legitimados por el Estado; sus prácticas entonces pueden contribuir a la co-construcción y a la coproducción de políticas públicas ambientales. Es decir, la propia comunidad ejerce ciudadanía y participa con la administración pública en la co-construcción de educación ambiental, de desarrollo local sustentable, de ordenamiento territorial, de definición e implementación de políticas públicas para, posteriormente, poner en práctica lo que se ha construido y llegar así a la co-producción. El siguiente ejemplo puede ilustrar mejor lo anterior……Es el año 1973, la escena se desarrolla en una región rica en recursos naturales, grandes espacios de bosques regados por abundantes manantiales, arroyos, lagos, ríos que cubren el territorio; riqueza y diversidad de flora y fauna están presentes, pero también egoístas ambiciones centradas en el propio beneficio y en el lucro económico. Es evidente que semejante escenario es un atractivo inevitable para industriales y desarrolladores económicos que autoregulan sus actividades justificando la creación de empleos a precio de deforestación y contaminación de suelos, aguas y atmósfera. Hasta aquí, este mismo escenario puede encontrarse actualmente en muy diversas regiones del mundo; este ejemplo hace referencia específicamente a la provincia de Quebec, en Canadá. En este contexto norteamericano, grupos de vecinos se organizaron en esa época para defender su territorio, crearon una red para fortalecerse al agrupar a otros organismos comunitarios. La fuerza de una red era necesaria y continúa siéndolo dado que los intereses del sector privado son frecuentemente apoyados y promovidos por el sector público, quien a su vez tiene también sus propios intereses, no siempre favorables para la población y el medio ambiente. Es así como el ejercicio de la ciudadanía cobró fuerza y grupos similares de la sociedad civil comenzaron a multiplicarse en este territorio, extendiéndose así esta red ambientalista en casi todas las regiones en las que está dividida la provincia de Quebec (en dieciséis de las diecisiete que hay en total).Dicha red es ahora el Consejo Regional del Medio Ambiente (CRE por sus siglas en francés: Conseil regional de l’environnement), organismo sin fines de lucro que en 1995 fue reconocido, legitimado y apoyado por el gobierno de Quebec con una subvención anual; es decir, esta legitimación llegó más de veinte años después de que se creó el primero de estos organismos en la región de Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean.Los CRE nacieron del deseo de grupos ambientalistas por crear un organismo regional de concertación en medio ambiente. Se trata de una plataforma que reúne ahora a representantes de otros organismos ambientalistas y sociales de cada región, así como también del sector público, privado, sindicatos, universidades y miembros individuales. Todos ellos voluntariamente se adhieren a esta red de la sociedad civil, con el fin de promover desde la base un desarrollo local sustentable en cada región, incluyendo en esto la difusión de la educación ambiental con programas a escolares, a jóvenes y a adultos, a ribereños para el cuidado y protección de sus lagos, a agricultores y ganaderos para el ejercicio sustentable de sus prácticas, etc.Los CRE son organismos de base autónomos; sin embargo, son reconocidos como interlocutores privilegiados del gobierno de Quebec en cuestiones ambientales. Los CRE agrupan a miembros diversos que persiguen objetivos comunes en un ejemplo de gobernanza cívica ambiental. Se trata de una red que representa un actor influyente en el dominio del medio ambiente en Quebec. Considerando las realidades locales y regionales, los CRE privilegian la acción, la concertación, la educación, la información, la sensibilización y el cuidado del medio ambiente para alcanzar sus objetivos. Se suscriben a valores fundamentales como la solidaridad, la equidad, la integridad, el respeto y la democracia (http://rncreq.org/cre.php)Para congregar a los dieciséis CRE, existe el RNCREQ (Regroupement national des conseils régionaux de l’environnement du Québec, http://rncreq.org/), organismo sin fines de lucro que además busca defender el derecho de los ciudadanos a participar en debates públicos, principalmente los organizados por el BAPE (Bureau d’audiences publiques sur l’environnement), instancia pública del gobierno provincial. El BAPE da a conocer en audiencias públicas los proyectos de desarrollo local o que competen al medio ambiente, esto con el fin de que la sociedad civil y los diversos actores sociales manifiesten su aceptación o rechazo del proyecto propuesto generalmente por los sectores público y privado (http://www.bape.gouv.qc.ca/).El RNCREQ, a través de los 16 CRE que se encuentran en la provincia de Quebec, agrupa actualmente a 1,850 miembros, divididos de la siguiente forma: 351 pertenecientes a organismos ambientalistas; 363 a gobiernos locales; 274 a organismos públicos; 149 a corporaciones privadas; 543 son miembros individuales y 170 tienen otras adscripciones.Este ejemplo permite apreciar la fuerza adquirida por la sociedad civil organizada cuando es ella misma quien se apropia de su territorio, defiende y protege sus ecosistemas mediante prácticas legitimadas y apoyadas por un Estado democrático, creador de espacios para promoción y desarrollo de ejercicio de ciudadanía.Por otro lado, el estado de Veracruz, en México, rico en recursos naturales, está dividido en diez regiones dentro de las cuales hay diversos grupos comunitarios y ONG comprometidos con la defensa y protección del medio ambiente; la población que participa en este tipo de organismos ya cuenta con un cierto nivel de educación ambiental y practica el ejercicio de su ciudadanía, además son ellos quienes mejor conocen su entorno. Sin embargo, entre otras cosas, falta aún la fuerza que puede proporcionar un organismo red, legitimado y autónomo, como plataforma para congregar a representantes de otros organismos comunitarios, grupos de vecinos, individuos y miembros del sector público y privado interesados en participar en la defensa y protección de los ecosistemas de cada región.Recientemente, la Comisión de Medio Ambiente, Recursos Naturales y Aguas del Congreso de Veracruz, presentó una iniciativa de reforma al artículo 186 de la Ley Estatal de Protección Ambiental; dicha reforma ya fue aprobada y tiene la finalidad de crear en cada Ayuntamiento del estado de Veracruz el Consejo Municipal de Medio Ambiente y Desarrollo Sustentable. Se busca que dicho Consejo permita la participación de ciudadanos, académicos, empresarios y funcionarios municipales en la proposición de estrategias, acciones, políticas públicas, toma de decisiones en temas ambientales y vigilancia del manejo del presupuesto destinado a la protección del medio ambiente, gozando además de autonomía aunque se trate de organismos públicos. Habrá entonces 212 Consejos de este tipo en todo el estado, uno en cada municipio, en los próximos tres meses, plazo que se fijó para su instalación.[1] Quizá sería entonces conveniente que en cada una de las diez regiones del territorio veracruzano se instalara también un Consejo Regional responsable de dar seguimiento a las actividades, programas y propuestas realizadas por cada uno de los Consejos Municipales de su territorio; esto, porque supervisar a 212 Consejos parece más complejo. Además, la cercanía entre los municipios hace que algunos de los problemas que afectan al medio ambiente y a la población sean comunes entre ellos; se pueden permitir entonces alianzas intermunicipales, trabajo en proyectos conjuntos, optimización de recursos y fuerza con la participación de más actores sociales.A diferencia del ejemplo de los CRE en la provincia de Quebec, los Consejos Municipales de Medio Ambiente y Desarrollo Sustentable que se instalarán en el estado de Veracruz no son precisamente una iniciativa de la sociedad civil. Se trata sin embargo de una buena iniciativa del Estado; sólo se espera que realmente se escuchen y se favorezcan los intereses de la población y que la orientación sea hacia un verdadero desarrollo local sustentable, en un contexto de equidad, de democracia, de autonomía, de justicia social y ambiental. [1]http://hoyveracruz.com.mx/notas/14719/Corre-plazo-para-crear-consejos-municipales-de-medio-Ambiente.html. http://www.veracruzanos.info/2011/05/presenta-ainara-rementeria-iniciativa-de-reforma-a-ley-estatal-de-proteccion-ambiental/

Special Care NoticeThis article discusses trauma and violence inflicted upon the Indigenous peoples of Tasmania through the processes of colonisation. Content within this article may be distressing to some readers. IntroductionThis article looks briefly at the collection, consultation, and digital sharing of stories essential to the histories of the First Nations peoples of Australia. Focusing on materials held in Sydney, New South Wales two case studies—the object known as the Proclamation Board and the George Augustus Robinson Papers—explore how materials can be shared with Aboriginal peoples of the region now known as Tasmania. Specifically, the authors of this article (a Palawa man and an Australian woman of European descent) ask how can the idea of the privileging of Indigenous voices, within Eurocentric cultural collections, be transformed from rhetoric to reality? Moreover, how can we navigate this complex work, that is made even more problematic by distance, through the utilisation of knowledge networks which are geographically isolated from the collections holding stories crucial to Indigenous communities? In seeking to answer these important questions, this article looks at how cultural, emotional, and intellectual ownership can be divested from the physical ownership of a collection in a way that repatriates—appropriately and sensitively—stories of Aboriginal Australia and of colonisation. Holding Stories, Not Always Our OwnCultural institutions, including libraries, have, in recent years, been drawn into discussions centred on the notion of digital disruption and “that transformative shift which has seen the ongoing realignment of business resources, relationships, knowledge, and value both facilitating the entry of previously impossible ideas and accelerating the competitive impact of those same impossible ideas” (Franks and Ensor n.p.). As Molly Brown has noted, librarians “are faced, on a daily basis, with rapidly changing technology and the ways in which our patrons access and use information. Thus, we need to look at disruptive technologies as opportunities” (n.p.). Some innovations, including the transition from card catalogues to online catalogues and the provision of a wide range of electronic resources, are now considered to be business as usual for most institutions. So, too, the digitisation of great swathes of materials to facilitate access to collections onsite and online, with digitising primary sources seen as an intermediary between the pillars of preserving these materials and facilitating access for those who cannot, for a variety of logistical and personal reasons, travel to a particular repository where a collection is held.The result has been the development of hybrid collections: that is, collections that can be accessed in both physical and digital formats. Yet, the digitisation processes conducted by memory institutions is often selective. Limited resources, even for large-scale digitisation projects usually only realise outcomes that focus on making visually rich, key, or canonical documents, or those documents that are considered high use and at risk, available online. Such materials are extracted from the larger full body of records while other lesser-known components are often omitted. Digitisation projects therefore tend to be devised for a broader audience where contextual questions are less central to the methodology in favour of presenting notable or famous documents online only. Documents can be profiled as an exhibition separate from their complete collection and, critically, their wider context. Libraries of course are not neutral spaces and this practice of (re)enforcing the canon through digitisation is a challenge that cultural institutions, in partnerships, need to address (Franks and Ensor n.p.). Indeed, our digital collections are as affected by power relationships and the ongoing impacts of colonisation as our physical collections. These power relationships can be seen through an organisation’s “processes that support acquisitions, as purchases and as the acceptance of artefacts offered as donations. Throughout such processes decisions are continually made (consciously and unconsciously) that affect what is presented and actively promoted as the official history” (Thorpe et al. 8). While it is important to acknowledge what we do collect, it is equally important to look, too, at what we do not collect and to consider how we continually privilege and exclude stories. Especially when these stories are not always our own, but are held, often as accidents of collecting. For example, an item comes in as part of a larger suite of materials while older, city-based institutions often pre-date regional repositories. An essential point here is that cultural institutions can often become comfortable in what they collect, building on existing holdings. This, in turn, can lead to comfortable digitisation. If we are to be truly disruptive, we need to embrace feeling uncomfortable in what we do, and we need to view digitisation as an intervention opportunity; a chance to challenge what we ‘know’ about our collections. This is especially relevant in any attempts to decolonise collections.Case Study One: The Proclamation BoardThe first case study looks at an example of re-digitisation. One of the seven Proclamation Boards known to survive in a public collection is held by the Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales, having been purchased from Tasmanian collector and photographer John Watt Beattie (1859–1930) in May 1919 for £30 (Morris 86). Why, with so much material to digitise—working in a program of limited funds and time—would the Library return to an object that has already been privileged? Unanswered questions and advances in digitisation technologies, created a unique opportunity. For the First Peoples of Van Diemen’s Land (now known as Tasmania), colonisation by the British in 1803 was “an emotionally, intellectually, physically, and spiritually confronting series of encounters” (Franks n.p.). Violent incidents became routine and were followed by a full-scale conflict, often referred to as the Black War (Clements 1), or more recently as the Tasmanian War, fought from the 1820s until 1832. Image 1: Governor Arthur’s Proclamation to the Aborigines, ca. 1828–1830. Image Credit: Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales, Call No.: SAFE / R 247.Behind the British combatants were various support staff, including administrators and propagandists. One of the efforts by the belligerents, behind the front line, to win the war and bring about peace was the production of approximately 100 Proclamation Boards. These four-strip pictograms were the result of a scheme introduced by Lieutenant Governor George Arthur (1784–1854), on the advice of Surveyor General George Frankland (1800–38), to communicate that all are equal under the rule of law (Arthur 1). Frankland wrote to Arthur in early 1829 to suggest these Proclamation Boards could be produced and nailed to trees (Morris 84), as a Eurocentric adaptation of a traditional method of communication used by Indigenous peoples who left images on the trunks of trees. The overtly stated purpose of the Boards was, like the printed proclamations exhorting peace, to assert, all people—black and white—were equal. That “British Justice would protect” everyone (Morris 84). The first strip on each of these pictogram Boards presents Indigenous peoples and colonists living peacefully together. The second strip shows “a conciliatory handshake between the British governor and an Aboriginal ‘chief’, highly reminiscent of images found in North America on treaty medals and anti-slavery tokens” (Darian-Smith and Edmonds 4). The third and fourth strips depict the repercussions for committing murder (or, indeed, any significant crime), with an Indigenous man hanged for spearing a colonist and a European man hanged for shooting an Aboriginal man. Both men executed in the presence of the Lieutenant Governor. The Boards, oil on Huon pine, were painted by “convict artists incarcerated in the island penal colony” (Carroll 73).The Board at the State Library of New South Wales was digitised quite early on in the Library’s digitisation program, it has been routinely exhibited (including for the Library’s centenary in 2010) and is written about regularly. Yet, many questions about this small piece of timber remain unanswered. For example, some Boards were outlined with sketches and some were outlined with pouncing, “a technique [of the Italian Renaissance] of pricking the contours of a drawing with a pin. Charcoal was then dusted on to the drawing” (Carroll 75–76). Could such a sketch or example of pouncing be seen beneath the surface layers of paint on this particular Board? What might be revealed by examining the Board more closely and looking at this object in different ways?An important, but unexpected, discovery was that while most of the pigments in the painting correlate with those commonly available to artists in the early nineteenth century there is one outstanding anomaly. X-ray analysis revealed cadmium yellow present in several places across the painting, including the dresses of the little girls in strip one, uniform details in strip two, and the trousers worn by the settler men in strips three and four (Kahabka 2). This is an extraordinary discovery, as cadmium yellows were available “commercially as an artist pigment in England by 1846” and were shown by “Winsor & Newton at the 1851 Exhibition held at the Crystal Palace, London” (Fiedler and Bayard 68). The availability of this particular type of yellow in the early 1850s could set a new marker for the earliest possible date for the manufacture of this Board, long-assumed to be 1828–30. Further, the early manufacture of cadmium yellow saw the pigment in short supply and a very expensive option when compared with other pigments such as chrome yellow (the darker yellow, seen in the grid lines that separate the scenes in the painting). This presents a clearly uncomfortable truth in relation to an object so heavily researched and so significant to a well-regarded collection that aims to document much of Australia’s colonial history. Is it possible, for example, the Board has been subjected to overpainting at a later date? Or, was this premium paint used to produce a display Board that was sent, by the Tasmanian Government, to the 1866 Intercolonial Exhibition in Melbourne? In seeking to see the finer details of the painting through re-digitisation, the results were much richer than anticipated. The sketch outlines are clearly visible in the new high-resolution files. There are, too, details unable to be seen clearly with the naked eye, including this warrior’s headdress and ceremonial scarring on his stomach, scars that tell stories “of pain, endurance, identity, status, beauty, courage, sorrow or grief” (Australian Museum n.p.). The image of this man has been duplicated and distributed since the 1830s, an anonymous figure deployed to tell a settler-centric story of the Black, or Tasmanian, War. This man can now be seen, for the first time nine decades later, to wear his own story. We do not know his name, but he is no longer completely anonymous. This image is now, in some ways, a portrait. The State Library of New South Wales acknowledges this object is part of an important chapter in the Tasmanian story and, though two Boards are in collections in Tasmania (the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, Hobart and the Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery, Launceston), each Board is different. The Library holds an important piece of a large and complex puzzle and has a moral obligation to make this information available beyond its metropolitan location. Digitisation, in this case re-digitisation, is allowing for the disruption of this story in sparking new questions around provenance and for the relocating of a Palawa warrior to a more prominent, perhaps even equal role, within a colonial narrative. Image 2: Detail, Governor Arthur’s Proclamation to the Aborigines, ca. 1828–1830. Image Credit: Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales, Call No.: SAFE / R 247.Case Study Two: The George Augustus Robinson PapersThe second case study focuses on the work being led by the Indigenous Engagement Branch at the State Library of New South Wales on the George Augustus Robinson (1791–1866) Papers. In 1829, Robinson was granted a government post in Van Diemen’s Land to ‘conciliate’ with the Palawa peoples. More accurately, Robinson’s core task was dispossession and the systematic disconnection of the Palawa peoples from their Country, community, and culture. Robinson was a habitual diarist and notetaker documenting much of his own life as well as the lives of those around him, including First Nations peoples. His extensive suite of papers represents a familiar and peculiar kind of discomfort for Aboriginal Australians, one in which they are forced to learn about themselves through the eyes and words of their oppressors. For many First Nations peoples of Tasmania, Robinson remains a violent and terrible figure, but his observations of Palawa culture and language are as vital as they are problematic. Importantly, his papers include vibrant and utterly unique descriptions of people, place, flora and fauna, and language, as well as illustrations revealing insights into the routines of daily life (even as those routines were being systematically dismantled by colonial authorities). “Robinson’s records have informed much of the revitalisation of Tasmanian Aboriginal culture in the twentieth century and continue to provide the basis for investigations of identity and deep relationships to land by Aboriginal scholars” (Lehman n.p.). These observations and snippets of lived culture are of immense value to Palawa peoples today but the act of reading between Robinson’s assumptions and beyond his entrenched colonial views is difficult work.Image 3: George Augustus Robinson Papers, 1829–34. Image Credit: Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales, A 7023–A 7031.The canonical reference for Robinson’s archive is Friendly Mission: The Tasmanian Journals and Papers of George Augustus Robinson, 1829–1834, edited by N.J.B. Plomley. The volume of over 1,000 pages was first published in 1966. This large-scale project is recognised “as a monumental work of Tasmanian history” (Crane ix). Yet, this standard text (relied upon by Indigenous and non-Indigenous researchers) has clearly not reproduced a significant percentage of Robinson’s Tasmanian manuscripts. Through his presumptuous truncations Plomley has not simply edited Robinson’s work but has, quite literally, written many Palawa stories out of this colonial narrative. It is this lack of agency in determining what should be left out that is most troubling, and reflects an all-too-familiar approach which libraries, including the State Library of New South Wales, are now urgently trying to rectify. Plomley’s preface and introduction does not indicate large tranches of information are missing. Indeed, Plomley specifies “that in extenso [in full] reproduction was necessary” (4) and omissions “have been kept to a minimum” (8). A 32-page supplement was published in 1971. A new edition, including the supplement, some corrections made by Plomley, and some extra material was released in 2008. But much continues to be unknown outside of academic circles, and far too few Palawa Elders and language revival workers have had access to Robinson’s original unfiltered observations. Indeed, Plomley’s text is linear and neat when compared to the often-chaotic writings of Robinson. Digitisation cannot address matters of the materiality of the archive, but such projects do offer opportunities for access to information in its original form, unedited, and unmediated.Extensive consultation with communities in Tasmania is underpinning the digitisation and re-description of a collection which has long been assumed—through partial digitisation, microfilming, and Plomley’s text—to be readily available and wholly understood. Central to this project is not just challenging the canonical status of Plomley’s work but directly challenging the idea non-Aboriginal experts can truly understand the cultural or linguistic context of the information recorded in Robinson’s journals. One of the more exciting outcomes, so far, has been working with Palawa peoples to explore the possibility of Palawa-led transcriptions and translation, and not breaking up the tasks of this work and distributing them to consultants or to non-Indigenous student groups. In this way, people are being meaningfully reunited with their own histories and, crucially, given first right to contextualise and understand these histories. Again, digitisation and disruption can be seen here as allies with the facilitation of accessibility to an archive in ways that re-distribute the traditional power relations around interpreting and telling stories held within colonial-rich collections.Image 4: Detail, George Augustus Robinson Papers, 1829–34. Image Credit: Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales, A 7023–A 7031.As has been so brilliantly illustrated by Bruce Pascoe’s recent work Dark Emu (2014), when Aboriginal peoples are given the opportunity to interpret their own culture from the colonial records without interference, they are able to see strength and sophistication rather than victimhood. For, to “understand how the Europeans’ assumptions selectively filtered the information brought to them by the early explorers is to see how we came to have the history of the country we accept today” (4). Far from decrying these early colonial records Aboriginal peoples understand their vital importance in connecting to a culture which was dismantled and destroyed, but importantly it is known that far too much is lost in translation when Aboriginal Australians are not the ones undertaking the translating. ConclusionFor Aboriginal Australians, culture and knowledge is no longer always anchored to Country. These histories, once so firmly connected to communities through their ancestral lands and languages, have been dispersed across the continent and around the world. Many important stories—of family history, language, and ways of life—are held in cultural institutions and understanding the role of responsibly disseminating these collections through digitisation is paramount. In transitioning from physical collections to hybrid collections of the physical and digital, the digitisation processes conducted by memory institutions can be—and due to the size of some collections is inevitably—selective. Limited resources, even for large-scale and well-resourced digitisation projects usually realise outcomes that focus on making visually rich, key, or canonical documents, or those documents considered high use or at risk, available online. Such materials are extracted from a full body of records. Digitisation projects, as noted, tend to be devised for a broader audience where contextual questions are less central to the methodology in favour of presenting notable documents online, separate from their complete collection and, critically, their context. Our institutions carry the weight of past collecting strategies and, today, the pressure of digitisation strategies as well. Contemporary librarians should not be gatekeepers, but rather key holders. In collaborating across sectors and with communities we open doors for education, research, and the repatriation of culture and knowledge. We must, always, remember to open these doors wide: the call of Aboriginal Australians of ‘nothing about us without us’ is not an invitation to collaboration but an imperative. Libraries—as well as galleries, archives, and museums—cannot tell these stories alone. Also, these two case studies highlight what we believe to be one of the biggest mistakes that not just libraries but all cultural institutions are vulnerable to making, the assumption that just because a collection is open access it is also accessible. Digitisation projects are more valuable when communicated, contextualised and—essentially—the result of community consultation. Such work can, for some, be uncomfortable while for others it offers opportunities to embrace disruption and, by extension, opportunities to decolonise collections. For First Nations peoples this work can be more powerful than any simple measurement tool can record. Through examining our past collecting, deliberate efforts to consult, and through digital sharing projects across metropolitan and regional Australia, we can make meaningful differences to the ways in which Aboriginal Australians can, again, own their histories.Acknowledgements The authors acknowledge the Palawa peoples: the traditional custodians of the lands known today as Tasmania. The authors acknowledge, too, the Gadigal people upon whose lands this article was researched and written. We are indebted to Dana Kahabka (Conservator), Joy Lai (Imaging Specialist), Richard Neville (Mitchell Librarian), and Marika Duczynski (Project Officer) at the State Library of New South Wales. Sincere thanks are also given to Jason Ensor of Western Sydney University.ReferencesArthur, George. “Proclamation.” The Hobart Town Courier 19 Apr. 1828: 1.———. Proclamation to the Aborigines. Graphic Materials. Sydney: Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales, SAFE R / 247, ca. 1828–1830.Australian Museum. “Aboriginal Scarification.” 2018. 11 Jan. 2019 <https://australianmuseum.net.au/about/history/exhibitions/body-art/aboriginal-scarification/>.Brown, Molly. “Disruptive Technology: A Good Thing for Our Libraries?” International Librarians Network (2016). 26 Aug. 2018 <https://interlibnet.org/2016/11/25/disruptive-technology-a-good-thing-for-our-libraries/>.Carroll, Khadija von Zinnenburg. Art in the Time of Colony: Empires and the Making of the Modern World, 1650–2000. Farnham, UK: Ashgate Publishing, 2014.Clements, Nicholas. The Black War: Fear, Sex and Resistance in Tasmania. St Lucia, U of Queensland P, 2014.Crane, Ralph. “Introduction.” Friendly Mission: The Tasmanian Journals and Papers of George Augustus Robinson, 1829-1834. 2nd ed. Launceston and Hobart: Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery, and Quintus Publishing, 2008. ix.Darian-Smith, Kate, and Penelope Edmonds. “Conciliation on Colonial Frontiers.” Conciliation on Colonial Frontiers: Conflict, Performance and Commemoration in Australia and the Pacific Rim. Eds. Kate Darian-Smith and Penelope Edmonds. New York: Routledge, 2015. 1–14.Edmonds, Penelope. “‘Failing in Every Endeavour to Conciliate’: Governor Arthur’s Proclamation Boards to the Aborigines, Australian Conciliation Narratives and Their Transnational Connections.” Journal of Australian Studies 35.2 (2011): 201–18.Fiedler, Inge, and Michael A. Bayard. Artist Pigments, a Handbook of Their History and Characteristics. Ed. Robert L. Feller. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1986. 65–108. Franks, Rachel. “A True Crime Tale: Re-Imagining Governor Arthur’s Proclamation Board for the Tasmanian Aborigines.” M/C Journal 18.6 (2015). 1 Feb. 2019 <http://journal.media-culture.org.au/index.php/mcjournal/article/view/1036>.Franks, Rachel, and Jason Ensor. “Challenging the Canon: Collaboration, Digitisation and Education.” ALIA Online: A Conference of the Australian Library and Information Association, 11–15 Feb. 2019, Sydney.Kahabka, Dana. Condition Assessment [Governor Arthur’s Proclamation to the Aborigines, ca. 1828–1830, SAFE / R247]. Sydney: State Library of New South Wales, 2017.Lehman, Greg. “Pleading Robinson: Reviews of Friendly Mission: The Tasmanian Journals and Papers of George Augustus Robinson (2008) and Reading Robinson: Companion Essays to Friendly Mission (2008).” Australian Humanities Review 49 (2010). 1 May 2019 <http://press-files.anu.edu.au/downloads/press/p41961/html/review-12.xhtml?referer=1294&page=15>. Morris, John. “Notes on A Message to the Tasmanian Aborigines in 1829, popularly called ‘Governor Davey’s Proclamation to the Aborigines, 1816’.” Australiana 10.3 (1988): 84–7.Pascoe, Bruce. Dark Emu. Broome: Magabala Books, 2014/2018.Plomley, N.J.B. Friendly Mission: The Tasmanian Journals and Papers of George Augustus Robinson, 1829–1834. Hobart: Tasmanian Historical Research Association, 1966.Robinson, George Augustus. Papers. Textual Records. Sydney: Mitchell Library, State Library of NSW, A 7023–A 7031, 1829–34. Thorpe, Kirsten, Monica Galassi, and Rachel Franks. “Discovering Indigenous Australian Culture: Building Trusted Engagement in Online Environments.” Journal of Web Librarianship 10.4 (2016): 343–63.

IntroductionRegional identity is a constant construction, in which landscape, human activity and cultural imaginary build a narrative of place. For the Tasmanian Midlands, the interactions between history, ecology and agriculture both define place and present problems in how to recognise, communicate and balance these interactions. In this sense, regionality is defined not so much as a relation of margin to centre, but as a specific accretion of environmental and cultural histories. According weight to more-than-human perspectives, a region can be seen as a constellation of plant, animal and human interactions and demands, where creative art and design can make space and give voice to the dynamics of exchange between the landscape and its inhabitants. Consideration of three recent art and design projects based in the Midlands reveal the potential for cross-disciplinary research, embedded in both environment and community, to create distinctive and specific forms of connectivity that articulate a regional identify.The Tasmanian Midlands have been identified as a biodiversity hotspot (Australian Government), with a long history of Aboriginal cultural management disrupted by colonial invasion. Recent archaeological work in the Midlands, including the Kerry Lodge Archaeology and Art Project, has focused on the use of convict labour during the nineteenth century in opening up the Midlands for settler agriculture and transport. Now, the Midlands are placed under increasing pressure by changing agricultural practices such as large-scale irrigation. At the same time as this intensification of agricultural activity, significant progress has been made in protecting, preserving and restoring endemic ecologies. This progress has come through non-government conservation organisations, especially Greening Australia and their program Tasmanian Island Ark, and private landowners placing land under conservation covenants. These pressures and conservation activities give rise to research opportunities in the biological sciences, but also pose challenges in communicating the value of conservation and research outcomes to a wider public. The Species Hotel project, beginning in 2016, engaged with the aims of restoration ecology through speculative design while The Marathon Project, a multi-year curatorial art project based on a single property that contains both conservation and commercially farmed zones.This article questions the role of regionality in these three interconnected projects—Kerry Lodge, Species Hotel, and Marathon—sited in the Tasmanian Midlands: the three projects share a concern with the specificities of the region through engagement with specifics sites and their histories and ecologies, while also acknowledging the forces that shape these sites as far more mobile and global in scope. It also considers the interdisciplinary nature of these projects, in the crossover of art and design with ecological, archaeological and agricultural practices of measuring and intervening in the land, where communication and interpretation may be in tension with functionality. These projects suggest ways of working that connect the ecological and the cultural spheres; importantly, they see rural locations as sites of knowledge production; they test the value of small-scale and ephemeral interventions to explore the place of art and design as intervention within colonised landscape.Regions are also defined by overlapping circles of control, interest, and authority. We test the claim that these projects, which operate through cross-disciplinary collaboration and network with a range of stakeholders and community groups, successfully benefit the region in which they are placed. We are particularly interested in the challenges of working across institutions which both claim and enact connections to the region without being centred there. These projects are initiatives resulting from, or in collaboration with, University of Tasmania, an institution that has taken a recent turn towards explicitly identifying as place-based yet the placement of the Midlands as the gap between campuses risks attenuating the institution’s claim to be of this place. Paul Carter, in his discussion of a regional, site-specific collaboration in Alice Springs, flags how processes of creative place-making—operating through mythopoetic and story-based strategies—requires a concrete rather than imagined community that actively engages a plurality of voices on the ground. We identify similar concerns in these art and design projects and argue that iterative and long-term creative projects enable a deeper grappling with the complexities of shared regional place-making. The Midlands is aptly named: as a region, it is defined by its geographical constraints and relationships to urban centres. Heading south from the northern city of Launceston, travellers on the Midland Highway see scores of farming properties networking continuously for around 175 kilometres south to the outskirts of Brighton, the last major township before the Tasmanian capital city of Hobart. The town of Ross straddles latitude 42 degrees south—a line that has historically divided Tasmania into the divisions of North and South. The region is characterised by extensive agricultural usage and small remnant patches of relatively open dry sclerophyll forest and lowland grassland enabled by its lower attitude and relatively flatter terrain. The Midlands sit between the mountainous central highlands of the Great Western Tiers and the Eastern Tiers, a continuous range of dolerite hills lying south of Ben Lomond that slope coastward to the Tasman Sea. This area stretches far beyond the view of the main highway, reaching east in the Deddington and Fingal valleys. Campbell Town is the primary stopping point for travellers, superseding the bypassed towns, which have faced problems with lowering population and resulting loss of facilities.Image 1: Southern Midland Landscape, Ross, Tasmania, 2018. Image Credit: Patrick Sutczak.Predominantly under private ownership, the Tasmanian Midlands are a contested and fractured landscape existing in a state of ecological tension that has occurred with the dominance of western agriculture. For over 200 years, farmers have continually shaped the land and carved it up into small fragments for different agricultural agendas, and this has resulted in significant endemic species decline (Mitchell et al.). The open vegetation was the product of cultural management of land by Tasmanian Aboriginal communities (Gammage), attractive to settlers during their distribution of land grants prior to the 1830s and a focus for settler violence. As documented cartographically in the Centre for 21st Century Humanities’ Colonial Frontier Massacres in Central and Eastern Australia 1788–1930, the period 1820–1835, and particularly during the Black War, saw the Midlands as central to the violent dispossession of Aboriginal landowners. Clements argues that the culture of violence during this period also reflected the brutalisation that the penal system imposed upon its subjects. The cultivation of agricultural land throughout the Midlands was enabled by the provision of unfree convict labour (Dillon). Many of the properties granted and established during the colonial period have been held in multi-generational family ownership through to the present.Within this patchwork of private ownership, the tension between visibility and privacy of the Midlands pastures and farmlands challenges the capacity for people to understand what role the Midlands plays in the greater Tasmanian ecology. Although half of Tasmania’s land areas are protected as national parks and reserves, the Midlands remains largely unprotected due to private ownership. When measured against Tasmania’s wilderness values and reputation, the dry pasturelands of the Midland region fail to capture an equivalent level of visual and experiential imagination. Jamie Kirkpatrick describes misconceptions of the Midlands when he writes of “[f]latness, dead and dying eucalypts, gorse, brown pastures, salt—environmental devastation […]—these are the common impression of those who first travel between Spring Hill and Launceston on the Midland Highway” (45). However, Kirkpatrick also emphasises the unique intimate and intricate qualities of this landscape, and its underlying resilience. In the face of the loss of paddock trees and remnants to irrigation, change in species due to pasture enrichment and introduction of new plant species, conservation initiatives that not only protect but also restore habitat are vital. The Tasmanian Midlands, then, are pastoral landscapes whose seeming monotonous continuity glosses over the radical changes experienced in the processes of colonisation and intensification of agriculture.Underlying the Present: Archaeology and Landscape in the Kerry Lodge ProjectThe major marker of the Midlands is the highway that bisects it. Running from Hobart to Launceston, the construction of a “great macadamised highway” (Department of Main Roads 10) between 1820–1850, and its ongoing maintenance, was a significant colonial project. The macadam technique, a nineteenth century innovation in road building which involved the laying of small pieces of stone to create a surface that was relatively water and frost resistant, required considerable but unskilled labour. The construction of the bridge at Kerry Lodge, in 1834–35, was simultaneous with significant bridge buildings at other major water crossings on the highway, (Department of Main Roads 16) and, as the first water crossing south of Launceston, was a pinch-point through which travel of prisoners could be monitored and controlled. Following the completion of the bridge, the site was used to house up to 60 male convicts in a road gang undergoing secondary punishment (1835–44) and then in a labour camp and hiring depot until 1847. At the time of the La Trobe report (1847), the buildings were noted as being in bad condition (Brand 142–43). After the station was disbanded, the use of the buildings reverted to the landowners for use in accommodation and agricultural storage.Archaeological research at Kerry Lodge, directed by Eleanor Casella, investigated the spatial and disciplinary structures of smaller probation and hiring depots and the living and working conditions of supervisory staff. Across three seasons (2015, 2016, 2018), the emerging themes of discipline and control and as well as labour were borne out by excavations across the site, focusing on remnants of buildings close to the bridge. This first season also piloted the co-presence of a curatorial art project, which grew across the season to include eleven practitioners in visual art, theatre and poetry, and three exhibition outcomes. As a crucial process for the curatorial art project, creative practitioners spent time on site as participants and observers, which enabled the development of responses that interrogated the research processes of archaeological fieldwork as well as making connections to the wider historical and cultural context of the site. Immersed in the mundane tasks of archaeological fieldwork, the practitioners involved became simultaneously focused on repetitive actions while contemplating the deep time contained within earth. This experience then informed the development of creative works interrogating embodied processes as a language of site.The outcome from the first fieldwork season was earthspoke, an exhibition shown at Sawtooth, an artist-run initiative in Launceston in 2015, and later re-installed in Franklin House, a National Trust property in the southern suburbs of Launceston.Images 2 and 3: earthspoke, 2015, Installation View at Sawtooth ARI (top) and Franklin House (bottom). Image Credits: Melanie de Ruyter.This recontextualisation of the work, from contemporary ARI (artist run initiative) gallery to National Trust property enabled the project to reach different audiences but also raised questions about the emphases that these exhibition contexts placed on the work. Within the white cube space of the contemporary gallery, connections to site became more abstracted while the educational and heritage functions of the National Trust property added further context and unintended connotations to the art works.Image 4: Strata, 2017, Installation View. Image Credit: Karen Hall.The two subsequent exhibitions, Lines of Site (2016) and Strata (2017), continued to test the relationship between site and gallery, through works that rematerialised the absences on site and connected embodied experiences of convict and archaeological labour. The most recent iteration of the project, Strata, part of the Ten Days on the Island art festival in 2017, involved installing works at the site, marking with their presence the traces, fragments and voids that had been reburied when the landscape returned to agricultural use following the excavations. Here, the interpretive function of the works directly addressed the layered histories of the landscape and underscored the scope of the human interventions and changes over time within the pastoral landscape. The interpretative role of the artworks formed part of a wider, multidisciplinary approach to research and communication within the project. University of Manchester archaeology staff and postgraduate students directed the excavations, using volunteers from the Launceston Historical Society. Staff from Launceston’s Queen Victorian Museum and Art Gallery brought their archival and collection-based expertise to the site rather than simply receiving stored finds as a repository, supporting immediate interpretation and contextualisation of objects. In 2018, participation from the University of Tasmania School of Education enabled a larger number of on-site educational activities than afforded by previous open days. These multi-disciplinary and multi-organisational networks, drawn together provisionally in a shared time and place, provided rich opportunities for dialogue. However, the challenges of sustaining these exchanges have meant ongoing collaborations have become more sporadic, reflecting different institutional priorities and competing demands on participants. Even within long-term projects, continued engagement with stakeholders can be a challenge: while enabling an emerging and concrete sense of community, the time span gives greater vulnerability to external pressures. Making Home: Ecological Restoration and Community Engagement in the Species Hotel ProjectImages 5 and 6: Selected Species Hotels, Ross, Tasmania, 2018. Image Credits: Patrick Sutczak. The Species Hotels stand sentinel over a river of saplings, providing shelter for animal communities within close range of a small town. At the township of Ross in the Southern Midlands, work was initiated by restoration ecologists to address the lack of substantial animal shelter belts on a number of major properties in the area. The Tasmania Island Ark is a major Greening Australia restoration ecology initiative, connecting 6000 hectares of habitat across the Midlands. Linking larger forest areas in the Eastern Tiers and Central Highlands as well as isolated patches of remnant native vegetation, the Ark project is vital to the ongoing survival of local plant and animal species under pressure from human interventions and climate change. With fragmentation of bush and native grasslands in the Midland landscape resulting in vast open plains, the ability for animals to adapt to pasturelands without shelter has resulted in significant decline as animals such as the critically endangered Eastern Barred Bandicoot struggle to feed, move, and avoid predators (Cranney). In 2014 mass plantings of native vegetation were undertaken along 16km of the serpentine Macquarie River as part of two habitat corridors designed to bring connectivity back to the region. While the plantings were being established a public art project was conceived that would merge design with practical application to assist animals in the area, and draw community and public attention to the work that was being done in re-establishing native forests. The Species Hotel project, which began in 2016, emerged from a collaboration between Greening Australia and the University of Tasmania’s School of Architecture and Design, the School of Land and Food, the Tasmanian College of the Arts and the ARC Centre for Forest Value, with funding from the Ian Potter Foundation. The initial focus of the project was the development of interventions in the landscape that could address the specific habitat needs of the insect, small mammal, and bird species that are under threat. First-year Architecture students were invited to design a series of structures with the brief that they would act as ‘Species Hotels’, and once created would be installed among the plantings as structures that could be inhabited or act as protection. After installation, the privately-owned land would be reconfigured so to allow public access and observation of the hotels, by residents and visitors alike. Early in the project’s development, a concern was raised during a Ross community communication and consultation event that the surrounding landscape and its vistas would be dramatically altered with the re-introduced forest. While momentary and resolved, a subtle yet obvious tension surfaced that questioned the re-writing of an established community’s visual landscape literacy by non-residents. Compact and picturesque, the architectural, historical and cultural qualities of Ross and its location were not only admired by residents, but established a regional identity. During the six-week intensive project, the community reach was expanded beyond the institution and involved over 100 people including landowners, artists, scientists and school children from the region (Wright), attempting to address and channel the concerns of residents about the changing landscape. The multiple timescales of this iterative project—from intensive moments of collaboration between stakeholders to the more-than-human time of tree growth—open spaces for regional identity to shift as both as place and community. Part of the design brief was the use of fully biodegradable materials: the Species Hotels are not expected to last forever. The actual installation of the Species Hotelson site took longer than planned due to weather conditions, but once on site they were weathering in, showing signs of insect and bird habitation. This animal activity created an opportunity for ongoing engagement. Further activities generated from the initial iteration of Species Hotel were the Species Hotel Day in 2017, held at the Ross Community Hall where presentations by scientists and designers provided feedback to the local community and presented opportunities for further design engagement in the production of ephemeral ‘species seed pies’ placed out in and around Ross. Architecture and Design students have gone on to develop more examples of ‘ecological furniture’ with a current focus on insect housing as well as extrapolating from the installation of the Species Hotels to generate a VR visualisation of the surrounding landscape, game design and participatory movement work that was presented as part of the Junction Arts Festival program in Launceston, 2017. The intersections of technologies and activities amplified the lived in and living qualities of the Species Hotels, not only adding to the connectivity of social and environmental actions on site and beyond, but also making a statement about the shared ownership this project enabled.Working Property: Collaboration and Dialogues in The Marathon Project The potential of iterative projects that engage with environmental concerns amid questions of access, stewardship and dialogue is also demonstrated in The Marathon Project, a collaborative art project that took place between 2015 and 2017. Situated in the Northern Midland region of Deddington alongside the banks of the Nile River the property of Marathon became the focal point for a small group of artists, ecologists and theorists to converge and engage with a pastoral landscape over time that was unfamiliar to many of them. Through a series of weekend camps and day trips, the participants were able to explore and follow their own creative and investigative agendas. The project was conceived by the landowners who share a passion for the history of the area, their land, and ideas of custodianship and ecological responsibility. The intentions of the project initially were to inspire creative work alongside access, engagement and dialogue about land, agriculture and Deddington itself. As a very small town on the Northern Midland fringe, Deddington is located toward the Eastern Tiers at the foothills of the Ben Lomond mountain ranges. Historically, Deddington is best known as the location of renowned 19th century landscape painter John Glover’s residence, Patterdale. After Glover’s death in 1849, the property steadily fell into disrepair and a recent private restoration effort of the home, studio and grounds has seen renewed interest in the cultural significance of the region. With that in mind, and with Marathon a neighbouring property, participants in the project were able to experience the area and research its past and present as a part of a network of working properties, but also encouraging conversation around the region as a contested and documented place of settlement and subsequent violence toward the Aboriginal people. Marathon is a working property, yet also a vital and fragile ecosystem. Marathon consists of 1430 hectares, of which around 300 lowland hectares are currently used for sheep grazing. The paddocks retain their productivity, function and potential to return to native grassland, while thickets of gorse are plentiful, an example of an invasive species difficult to control. The rest of the property comprises eucalypt woodlands and native grasslands that have been protected under a conservation covenant by the landowners since 2003. The Marathon creek and the Nile River mark the boundary between the functional paddocks and the uncultivated hills and are actively managed in the interface between native and introduced species of flora and fauna. This covenant aimed to preserve these landscapes, linking in with a wider pattern of organisations and landowners attempting to address significant ecological degradation and isolation of remnant bushland patches through restoration ecology. Measured against the visibility of Tasmania’s wilderness identity on the national and global stage, many of the ecological concerns affecting the Midlands go largely unnoticed. The Marathon Project was as much a project about visibility and communication as it was about art and landscape. Over the three years and with its 17 participants, The Marathon Project yielded three major exhibitions along with numerous public presentations and research outputs. The length of the project and the autonomy and perspectives of its participants allowed for connections to be formed, conversations initiated, and greater exposure to the productivity and sustainability complexities playing out on rural Midland properties. Like Kerry Lodge, the 2015 first year exhibition took place at Sawtooth ARI. The exhibition was a testing ground for artists, and a platform for audiences, to witness the cross-disciplinary outputs of work inspired by a single sheep grazing farm. The interest generated led to the rethinking of the 2016 exhibition and the need to broaden the scope of what the landowners and participants were trying to achieve. Image 7: Panel Discussion at Open Weekend, 2016. Image Credit: Ron Malor.In November 2016, The Marathon Project hosted an Open Weekend on the property encouraging audiences to visit, meet the artists, the landowners, and other invited guests from a number of restoration, conservation, and rehabilitation organisations. Titled Encounter, the event and accompanying exhibition displayed in the shearing shed, provided an opportunity for a rhizomatic effect with the public which was designed to inform and disseminate historical and contemporary perspectives of land and agriculture, access, ownership, visitation and interpretation. Concluding with a final exhibition in 2017 at the University of Tasmania’s Academy Gallery, The Marathon Project had built enough momentum to shape and inform the practice of its participants, the knowledge and imagination of the public who engaged with it, and make visible the precarity of the cultural and rural Midland identity.Image 8. Installation View of The Marathon Project Exhibition, 2017. Image Credit: Patrick Sutczak.ConclusionThe Marathon Project, Species Hotel and the Kerry Lodge Archaeology and Art Project all demonstrate the potential of site-based projects to articulate and address concerns that arise from the environmental and cultural conditions and histories of a region. Beyond the Midland fence line is a complex environment that needed to be experienced to be understood. Returning creative work to site, and opening up these intensified experiences of place to a public forms a key stage in all these projects. Beyond a commitment to site-specific practice and valuing the affective and didactic potential of on-site installation, these returns grapple with issues of access, visibility and absence that characterise the Midlands. Paul Carter describes his role in the convening of a “concretely self-realising creative community” in an initiative to construct a meeting-place in Alice Springs, a community defined and united in “its capacity to imagine change as a negotiation between past, present and future” (17). Within that regional context, storytelling, as an encounter between histories and cultures, became crucial in assembling a community that could in turn materialise story into place. In these Midlands projects, a looser assembly of participants with shared interests seek to engage with the intersections of plant, human and animal activities that constitute and negotiate the changing environment. The projects enabled moments of connection, of access, and of intervention: always informed by the complexities of belonging within regional locations.These projects also suggest the need to recognise the granularity of regionalism: the need to be attentive to the relations of site to bioregion, of private land to small town to regional centre. The numerous partnerships that allow such interconnect projects to flourish can be seen as a strength of regional areas, where proximity and scale can draw together sets of related institutions, organisations and individuals. However, the tensions and gaps within these projects reveal differing priorities, senses of ownership and even regional belonging. Questions of who will live with these project outcomes, who will access them, and on what terms, reveal inequalities of power. Negotiations of this uneven and uneasy terrain require a more nuanced account of projects that do not rely on the geographical labelling of regions to paper over the complexities and fractures within the social environment.These projects also share a commitment to the intersection of the social and natural environment. They recognise the inextricable entanglement of human and more than human agencies in shaping the landscape, and material consequences of colonialism and agricultural intensification. Through iteration and duration, the projects mobilise processes that are responsive and reflective while being anchored to the materiality of site. Warwick Mules suggests that “regions are a mixture of data and earth, historically made through the accumulation and condensation of material and informational configurations”. Cross-disciplinary exchanges enable all three projects to actively participate in data production, not interpretation or illustration afterwards. Mules’ call for ‘accumulation’ and ‘configuration’ as productive regional modes speaks directly to the practice-led methodologies employed by these projects. The Kerry Lodge and Marathon projects collect, arrange and transform material taken from each site to provisionally construct a regional material language, extended further in the dual presentation of the projects as off-site exhibitions and as interventions returning to site. The Species Hotel project shares that dual identity, where materials are chosen for their ability over time, habitation and decay to become incorporated into the site yet, through other iterations of the project, become digital presences that nonetheless invite an embodied engagement.These projects centre the Midlands as fertile ground for the production of knowledge and experiences that are distinctive and place-based, arising from the unique qualities of this place, its history and its ongoing challenges. Art and design practice enables connectivity to plant, animal and human communities, utilising cross-disciplinary collaborations to bring together further accumulations of the region’s intertwined cultural and ecological landscape.ReferencesAustralian Government Department of the Environment and Energy. Biodiversity Conservation. Canberra: Commonwealth of Australia, 2018. 1 Apr. 2019 <http://www.environment.gov.au/biodiversity/conservation>.Brand, Ian. The Convict Probation System: Van Diemen’s Land 1839–1854. Sandy Bay: Blubber Head Press, 1990.Carter, Paul. “Common Patterns: Narratives of ‘Mere Coincidence’ and the Production of Regions.” Creative Communities: Regional Inclusion & the Arts. Eds. Janet McDonald and Robert Mason. Bristol: Intellect, 2015. 13–30.Centre for 21st Century Humanities. Colonial Frontier Massacres in Central and Eastern Australia 1788–1930. 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