Academic literature on the topic 'Variegated landscape'

Cleyera (Ternstroemia gymnanthera), spreading lilyturf (Liriope spicata), Southern magnolia (Magnolia grandiflora), heavenly bamboo (Nandina domestica), mondo grass (Ophiopogon japonicus), climbing fig (Ficus pumila), and variegated waxleaf privet (Ligustrum japonicum ‘Variegatum ’) grown under 3 production light levels and shade-grown golden Japanese euonymus (Euonymus japonica ‘Aureomarginata’), plantain lily (Hosta ventricosa), King's Ransom Oregon grapeholly (Mahonia aquifolium ‘King' Ransom’), dwarf gold-dust plant (Aucuba japonica ‘Variegata Nana’), Wood's Dwarf heavenly bamboo (Nandina domestica ‘Wood's Dwarf’), Japanese anise-tree (Illicium parviflorum), and Pink Lady Indian hawthorn (Raphiolepis indica ‘Pink Lady’) adapted well to interior conditions following productlon. Bugleweed (Ajuga reptans) and variegated wintercreeper euonymus (Euonymus fortunei ‘Varietgata’) grown under 64% light exclusion were of acceptable quality while plants grown in full sun and under 47% light exclusion were of poor quality. Quality of Wintergreen Korean boxwood (Buxus microphylla koreana ‘Wintergreen’) grown under all production light levels was unacceptable after 15 weeks in the interior environment.

Background Anthropized landscapes play a crucial role in biodiversity conservation, as they encompass about 90% of the remaining tropical forest. Effective conservation strategies require a deep understanding of how anthropic disturbances determine diversity patterns across these landscapes. Here, we evaluated how attributes and assembly mechanisms of dung beetle communities vary across the Selva El Ocote Biosphere Reserve (REBISO) landscape. Methods Community attributes (species diversity, abundance, and biomass) were assessed at the landscape scale, using spatial windows and vegetation classes. Windows were categorized as intact, variegated, or fragmented based on their percent cover of tropical forest. The vegetation classes analyzed were tropical forest, second-growth forest, and pastures. Results We collected 15,457 individuals and 55 species. Variegated windows, tropical forests, and second-growth forests showed the highest diversity values, while the lowest values were found in intact windows and pastures. Landscape fragmentation was positively and strongly related to dung beetle diversity and negatively related to their abundance; biomass was positively associated with forest cover. Beta diversity was the primary driver of the high dung beetle diversity in the landscape analyzed. Discussion The landscape heterogeneity and its biodiversity-friendly matrix facilitate the complementarity of dung beetle assemblages in the Selva El Ocote Biosphere Reserve. Random processes govern beta diversity patterns in intact and variegated windows. Therefore, vegetation cover in the region is sufficient to maintain a continuous flow of dung beetles between forested landscape segments. However, intense anthropic disturbances acted as deterministic environmental filters in fragmented windows and pastures sites, leading to biotic homogenization processes. Our results suggest that increasing habitat variegation in highly fragmented sites is an effective strategy to prevent or buffer homogenization processes in the REBISO landscape.

BackgroundConserving biodiversity in tropical landscapes is a major challenge to scientists and conservationists. Current rates of deforestation, fragmentation, and land use intensification are producing variegated landscapes with undetermined values for the conservation of biological communities and ecosystem functioning. Here, we investigate the importance of tropical variegated landscapes to biodiversity conservation, using dung beetle as focal taxa.MethodsThe study was carried out in 12 variegated landscapes where dung beetles were sampled using six pitfall traps, 30 m apart from each other, along a transect in each studied landscape use and cover classes—LUCC (forest fragment and corridor, coffee plantation, and pasture). We baited each pitfall trap with 30 g of human feces and left open for a 48 h period. We also measured three environmental variables reflecting structural differences among the studied classes: canopy cover, local vegetation heterogeneity and soil sand content.ResultsWe collected 52 species and 2,695 individuals of dung beetles. We observed significant differences in the mean species richness, abundance and biomass among classes, with forest fragments presenting the highest values, forest corridors and coffee plantations presenting intermediate values, and pastures the lowest values. Regarding community structure, we also found significant differences among classes. Canopy cover was the only variable explaining variation in dung beetle species richness, abundance, biomass, and community structure. The relative importance of spatial turnover was greater than nestedness-resultant component in all studied landscapes.DiscussionThis study evaluated the ecological patterns of dung beetle communities in variegated tropical landscapes highlighting the importance of these landscapes for conservation of tropical biodiversity. However, we encourage variegation for the management of landscapes that have already been fragmented or as a complementary initiative of current conservation practices (e.g., protection of natural habitats and establishment of reserves).

Birds have different responses to landscape modification, depends on its adaptation to the environment. The purposes of this study were to identify bird communities in several landscape types and to analyze the landscape structures that affect bird communities. The study was conducted from April to August 2016 at 29 landscapes in the city of Bogor. The landscapes were categorized into four types based on their fragmentation stages: intact, variegated, fragmented, and relict. Birds were surveyed using point count. Bird diversity was calculated using Shanon-Wienner Index, followed by Kruskal-Wallis statistical analysis, the similarity of communities was tested using Bray-Curtis. The landscape structures were quantified using 7 variables and measured using ArcGis patch analyst. Total 8,967 individuals from 75 species and 36 families were recorded. Similarity analysis of the bird community suggested that intact landscapes were clustered separately, while other three types were clustered together. The results showed that the abundance and species richness were higher in intact landscape. Bird diversity in Bogor becomes higher when the total edge, the mean shape index, and the shannon evenness index become smaller.

Latin America's political landscape, highly complex and variegated, defies easy categorization and raises fundamental questions—including whether it might be better to jettison the term ‘left’ altogether.

Observing the use of landscape as a category of reception, whether in nineteenth-century debates about artistic realism or Soviet-era criticism, this article examines the uses of landscape in several songs by Rimsky-Korsakov and replaces a persistent emphasis in criticism on questions of representation with a focus on how music generates a sense of subjectivity. Three approaches facilitate a more subtle and variegated understanding of Rimsky-Korsakov's “soundscapes” than has been proposed so far. First, landscape is interpreted as a facet of Russian national identity in the second half of the nineteenth century. Second, the evocation of the sounds of the natural world is seen as a metapoetic commentary on the creative act, providing an “internal” commentary on landscape to match the “external” one of the nation. Intertwined with these two themes is a series of parallels between music, literature, and the visual arts, which together show that Rimsky-Korsakov's songs are indicative of a tension between dynamism and stasis that is characteristic of musical representation of landscapes, and that has often been seen as characteristic of Russian music more generally.

Fauna conservation outside protected areas can make an important complementary contribution to conservation within reserves. This thesis aimed to contribute new information and analytical frameworks to the science of fauna conservation in human-modified landscapes. Two approaches were used: (1) empirical data collection and analysis, and (2) the discussion and development of conceptual landscape models. ¶ Empirical work focused on lizard distribution patterns in two production landscapes in southeastern Australia. Lizards were targeted because ectotherms are frequently neglected by conservation biologists. The “Nanangroe grazing landscape” was used for sheep and cattle grazing. In this landscape, approximately 85% of pre-European woodland cover had been cleared, and understorey vegetation was sparse. Lizards were surveyed at 16 landscape units, which were stratified by aspect, topographic position and amount of tree cover. Each landscape unit contained three sites, and each site contained three plots. Regression modelling showed that different species responded differently to their environment. For example, the four-fingered skink (Carlia tetradactyla) and Boulenger’s skink (Morethia boulengeri) were more likely to occur at woodland sites with northerly aspects, whereas the striped skink (Ctenotus robustus) and olive legless lizard (Delma inornata) were more likely to inhabit sites with a simple microhabitat structure. Statistical analysis further showed that the habitat attributes that lizards were related to varied continuously through space, and over different spatial scales. For example, invertebrate abundance (a proxy for food availability) varied most strongly over tens of metres, whereas the amount of grass cover varied most strongly over hundreds to thousands of metres. Thus, work at Nanangroe revealed spatially complex patterns of lizard occurrence and habitat variables. ¶ The “Tumut plantation landscape” was a spatial mosaic of native eucalypt (Eucalyptus) forest patches embedded within a plantation of the introduced radiata pine (Pinus radiata). In this landscape, thirty sites were surveyed for lizards. Sites were stratified by forest type and patch size, and included eucalypt patches, pine sites, and extensive areas of eucalypt forest adjacent to the plantation. Regression modelling showed that lizard species responded to various habitat attributes, including elevation, the amount of eucalypt forest within 1 km of a site, invertebrate abundance and ground cover. Variables related to habitat fragmentation often were significant predictors of lizard occurrence. However, work at Tumut suggested that important additional insights into lizard distribution patterns could be obtained by considering variables related to food and shelter resources, and climatic conditions. ¶ The Nanangroe and Tumut landscapes were in close proximity, but together spanned an altitudinal gradient of 900 m. An investigation of changes in lizard community composition with altitude showed that (1) only one species was common to Nanangroe and Tumut, (2) different species had different altitudinal preferences, and (3) ecologically similar species replaced one another with increasing altitude. These results highlighted that even in highly modified landscapes, natural gradients (such as climate) can play an important role in shaping animal assemblage composition and species distribution patterns. ¶ Empirical work suggested that, in some landscapes, the frequently used “fragmentation model” is a relatively weak conceptual basis for the study of animal distribution patterns. The fragmentation model implicitly assumes that “habitat patches” can be defined unequivocally across many species, and that patches are located within a relatively inhospitable matrix. Where these assumptions are breached, conservation guidelines arising from the fragmentation model may be too simplified. In spatially complex production landscapes, it may be more appropriate to maintain habitat heterogeneity at multiple spatial scales than to focus solely on the management of large, pre-defined patches. ¶ Given the potential limitations of the fragmentation model, a new, more holistic landscape model was developed. The “continuum model” was derived from continuum theory as developed for plant ecology. The continuum model recognises (1) spatial continua of environmental variables, and (2) species’ individualistic responses to these variables. For animals, key environmental variables may be related to the availability of food, shelter, sufficient space, and suitable climatic conditions. Unlike the fragmentation model, the continuum model is inherently process-based and thus may help to link the perceived gap between patterns and processes in landscape ecology. ¶ Three general conclusions arise from this thesis: 1. Some heterogeneous production landscapes support many native species, and therefore represent important conservation opportunities. 2. In some modified landscapes, the fragmentation model does not capture the complexity of animal distribution patterns. In those landscapes, conservation recommendations derived from the fragmentation model may be overly simplistic. 3. The continuum model may be a useful extension of the fragmentation model. It provides a process-based conceptual basis for empirical work on animal distribution patterns.

This thesis aimed to contribute new information and analytical frameworks to the science of fauna conservation in human-modified landscapes. Two approaches were used: (1) empirical data collection and analysis, and (2) the discussion and development of conceptual landscape models. ¶ Empirical work focused on lizard distribution patterns in two production landscapes in southeastern Australia. Lizards were targeted because ectotherms are frequently neglected by conservation biologists. The “Nanangroe grazing landscape” was used for sheep and cattle grazing. Lizards were surveyed at 16 landscape units, which were stratified by aspect, topographic position and amount of tree cover. ... ¶ The “Tumut plantation landscape” was a spatial mosaic of native eucalypt (Eucalyptus) forest patches embedded within a plantation of the introduced radiata pine (Pinus radiata). In this landscape, thirty sites were surveyed for lizards. ...

This chapter emphasizes how the fashioning of the international economy in modern times has itself entailed experimentation with distinctly new economic geographical formations—arenas—for the regulation of many aspects of business. These arenas exist as important new places of sorts in the international economy and coexist with networks of intermediaries, enclaves, and agglomerations as part of the variegated landscape of global capitalism. The chapter thus considers the emergence and significance of a non-territorial realm of the international economy. It outlines the sharing of authority in a multipolar international political economy. It considers the networks of various legal and investment promotion professionals who have promoted this particular economy in between nations. It also considers the logic and significance of the new arenas in the form of temporary clusters such as trade fairs in which much economic activity takes place.

Abstract Qualitative interviewing has today become one of the most common research methods across the human and social sciences, if not the most prevalent approach, but it is an approach that comes in a huge amount of different guises. Qualitative Interviewing will help its readers conduct, write, represent, understand, and critique qualitative interview research in its many forms as currently practiced. This book does not simply tell its reader how to employ a method, but educates by showing and discussing excellent exemplars of qualitative interview research. The book begins with a theoretically informed introduction to qualitative interviewing by presenting a variegated landscape of how conversations have been used for knowledge producing purposes. Particular attention is given to the complementary positions of experience focused interviewing (phenomenological positions) and language-focused interviewing (discourse-oriented positions), which focus on interview talk as reports (of the experiences of interviewees) and accounts (occasioned by the situation of interviewing), respectively. The following chapters address different ways of designing and conducting qualitative interview studies and how to write up the methodological procedures of an interview study and also the research findings. The book finally discusses a number of the most common errors in interview reports and offers a range of solutions and also strategies for evaluating research findings based on qualitative interviews.

John Edwards of Cambridge (1637–1716) has typically been portrayed as a marginalized ‘Calvinist’ in an overwhelmingly ‘Arminian’ later Stuart Church of England. In Retaining the Old Episcopal Divinity, the author challenges this depiction of Edwards and the theological climate of his contemporary Church. The author demonstrates that Edwards was recognized in his own day and the immediately following generations as one of the pre-eminent conforming divines of the period, who featured prominently in notable theological controversies concerning contemporaries such as John Locke, Gilbert Burnet, Daniel Whitby, William Whiston, and Samuel Clarke. Despite some Arminian opposition, Edwards’ theological works are shown to have enjoyed a warm reception among sizeable segments of the established Church’s clergy, many of whom shared his Reformed convictions. Instead of a theological misfit, this study contends that the anti-Arminian Edwards was a decidedly mainstream churchman. The author’s reassessment has ramifications far beyond the figure of Edwards, however, and ultimately serves as a prism through which to visualize with much greater clarity the broader theological landscape of the later Stuart Church of England, and particularly the place of Reformed orthodoxy within it. It substantially develops recent research on the persisting vitality of Reformed theology within the post-Restoration Church by demonstrating to an unprecedented extent the sheer strength and numbers of Reformed conforming divines between the Restoration and the evangelical revivals. Finally, the author problematizes the idea that the post-Restoration Church developed a fairly homogeneous ‘Anglican’ identity, and argues instead that the Church in this period was theologically and ecclesio-politically variegated.

AbstractThe Climate-fit.City service (https://www.climate-fit.city) provides the best available scientific urban climate data and information for public and private end users operating in cities. Within the Climate-fit.City H2020 project, the benefits of urban climate information for end user communities was demonstrated, considering services in diverse domains (Climate and Health, Building Energy, Emergency Planning, Urban Planning, Active Mobility, Tourism and Cultural Heritage) to improve decision-making and to help end users to better address the consequences of climate change at the local scale. The socio-economic impact assessment performed in the Climate-fit.City project has demonstrated that, in all the cases, there are actual and potential added values in terms of public service effectiveness, economic impacts, policy innovation and social impacts. Further impact was also revealed in terms of raising awareness by end users, policymakers and the general public about climate change. These diversified impacts offer a variegated landscape of sub-areas and stakeholders that are touched upon by each climate service.

Abstract Chapter 1 gives an overview of the variegated landscape of qualitative interviewing. Qualitative interviewing has today become a key method in the human and social sciences and many other corners of the scientific landscape, such as education and the health sciences. After recounting the history of interviewing in the human and social sciences, the chapter summarizes the central epistemological and theoretical positions on interviewing. Particular attention is given to the complementary positions of experience-focused interviewing (phenomenological positions) and language-focused interviewing (discourse-oriented positions), which focus respectively on interview talk as reports (of the experiences of interviewees) and accounts (occasioned by the situation of interviewing).

This chapter details the contemporary assault on Stoic moral psychology from the pens of the French Augustinians. The influence of the Stoic revival of the sixteenth century continued to be felt in a variety of spheres in seventeenth-century France, and gave rise to a variegated landscape which brought about several orientations toward the Stoics. The chapter considers one such orientation in particular — the nascent anti-Stoicism of the 1640s. This took on its distinctive form in the pages of Corneille Jansen's Augustinus (1640), but, as the chapter demonstrates, such an orientation was not by any means confined to narrow Jansenist circles.

This chapter introduces the puzzle of expanding national development banking in times of market-liberal EU integration. It presents the variegated landscape of national development banks in European Member States and their linkages to supranational institutions and programmes and builds a theoretical framework around field theory and historical-institutionalist European political economy to capture the evolution of development banking in the EU. The chapter argues that the current appearance of development banking in the EU is conditioned by constraints and guidance stemming from the integration process and the specific insertion of Member States in the European political economy. Importantly, it rests on a market-supporting, “promotional” understanding of development banks’ tasks that has consequences for contemporary debates over industrial policy and public investment in the European Union

This introduction outlines the secondary cities concept and research direction of the book. It situates the concept in the urban development literature and connects with emerging efforts to understand and improve conditions in ‘overlooked’ cities. In contrast to the decades of urban crisis, when most cities of the global north shared similar concerns of decline and abandonment, the current post-crisis urban experience is more variegated. This landscape of uneven development has inspired scholars to bring new attention to previously overlooked cities and urban spaces beyond the global winners. After outlining these efforts, the chapter emphasizes the importance of approaching such cities relationally and of calling into question the standard terms of success as often framed in urban development research and practice. The chapter concludes with a discussion of the organization of the book and the central themes developed through the chapters.

Driven by new hope, those born-again Protestants who expect to contribute to the long-term reconstruction of the United States of America agree that this renewal will have significant implications for government. This chapter will survey a variety of evangelical responses to recent trends in American government. It will argue that the large pan-denominational and politically pragmatic religious coalitions that dominated an earlier phase of evangelical political engagement have fractured, and have given way to a much more vigorous, variegated, and entrepreneurial evangelical political landscape. These believers are not sure how best to respond to their sense of marginalization, but many among their number are returning to and developing the arguments of earlier Reconstructionists. This chapter will explore the complexity of political thinking among those born-again Protestants who embrace their marginal status in order to propose strategies of survival, resistance, and reconstruction in evangelical America.

As urbanization spreads across territories, interdependencies between the cities composing a city-region fuel a process of functional and spatial integration labelled as metropolisation. This chapter discusses metropolisation to determine whether secondary cities can benefit from that process. Focusing on the case of England, the study assesses 64 secondary cities in eight city-regions on their potential to engage with metropolisation, situating them in four quadrants of a functions-demography matrix. Results point to a variegated landscape of secondary cities with contrasting features regarding (1) the structure and size of the city-region; (2) local spatial-environmental factors; (3) demographic profile; (4) functional performance; (5) population growth; and (6) transport connectivity. The chapter concludes with a discussion of incentives and deterrents to metropolisation typical of each quadrant to show the need for governance and planning to adopt a model of metropolitan development that stimulates integration in ways that serve the interests of secondary cities.

This chapter provides a more nuanced depiction of vulnerability in the Tunnel Fire area. The Oakland Hills like many suburban and fire-prone areas of the West comprises residents that may not appear at first glance to be very vulnerable. The oftentimes affluent nature of these communities raises questions about what it actually means to be vulnerable given the presence of vulnerability-offsetting resources (such as insurance); the fact that risks are assumed by homeowners when buying their homes; and the possibility for homeowners to see significant property value increases over time. In light of these circumstances it is not surprising that some hold a less than sympathetic view toward residents in fire-susceptible areas. The chapter argues for the presence of variegated vulnerabilities comprised in a landscape of residents, each with unique sensitivities, resources, finances, psychologies, and family histories. Interviews with residents and fire survivors shed light on diverse expressions of risk and loss that vary from one individual and household to the next. Efforts to trivialize or ignore these risks amount to bad political ecological analysis. The chapter also highlights precise ways affluent communities collectively leverage their financial privileges to minimize or even offset certain risks.