Suchergebnisse

Intro -- Biogeography -- Contents -- Preface -- Acknowledgements -- 1 The History of Biogeography -- Lessons from the Past -- Ecological versus Historical Biogeography, and Plants versus Animals -- Biogeography and Creation -- The Distribution of Life Today -- Evolution - a Flawed and Dangerous Idea! -- Enter Darwin - and Wallace -- World Maps: Biogeographical Regions of Plants and Animals -- Getting around the World -- The Origins of Modern Historical Biogeography -- The Development of Ecological Biogeography -- Living Together -- Marine Biogeography -- Island Biogeography -- Biogeography Today -- Further Reading -- References -- SECTION I: The Challenge of Existing -- 2 Patterns of Distribution: Finding a Home -- Limits of Distribution -- The Niche -- Overcoming the Barriers -- Climatic Limits: The Palms -- A Successful Family: The Daisies (Asteraceae) -- Patterns among Plovers -- Magnolias: Evolutionary Relicts -- The Strange Case of the Testate Amoeba -- Climatic Relicts -- Topographical Limits and Endemism -- Physical Limits -- Species Interaction: A Case of the Blues -- Competition -- Reducing Competition -- Predators and Prey, Parasites and Hosts -- Migration -- Invasion -- Further Reading -- References -- 3 Communities and Ecosystems: Living Together -- The Community -- The Ecosystem -- Ecosystems and Species Diversity -- Biotic Assemblages on a Global Scale -- Mountain Biomes -- Global Patterns of Climate -- Climate Diagrams -- Modelling Biomes and Climate -- Further Reading -- References -- 4 Patterns of Biodiversity -- How Many Species are There? -- Latitudinal Gradients of Diversity -- Is Evolution Faster in the Tropics? -- The Legacy of Glaciation -- Latitude and Species Ranges -- Diversity and Altitude -- Biodiversity Hotspots -- Diversity in Space and Time -- Intermediate Disturbance Hypothesis.

This unique and comprehensive treatment of physiological and floristic aspects of plant ecology in the Basin and Range Province of Western North America will appeal to those interested in the region itself, as well as those searching for examples of novel approaches and general principles in this field. Experts working in this fascinating region of a high-elevation cool desert also known as the Great Basin review most aspects of plant life as influenced by atmospheric, soil, water, temperature, biotic and historical factors. The environmental gradients and the vegetation types of the Great Basin with its variety of forests and shrublands permit evaluation of many of the underlying physiological principles of plant ecology

This dissertation considers how refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPs) are conceived in international relations, and how they are understood in relation to the global refugee regime complex. This research explores how cognitive frames are impeding fair/democratic governance of IDPs/refugees and employs two case studies to investigate how the practice of critical reflexivity can lead to the creation of democratic spaces for refugees/IDPs to enact protection preferences. The first case analysis argues that Sarvodaya Shramadana's Deshodaya initiative in Sri Lanka has enabled IDPs in that nation to embrace critical reflexivity to re-constitute/reimagine themselves as governing agents who can redefine state and international organization-based definitions of their protection. The second case examines asylum adjudications at the Department of Homeland Security and is an exploration of how that agency's responsible officials can employ critical reflexivity to recognize seemingly hidden governance structures that condition their decision-making and limit refugee choices. Finally, this inquiry offers a new, organic model for conceptualizing both refugee/IDP governance and strategies for democratization of refugee/IDP governance institutions and systems. ; Ph. D.

Context Reliable information about the occurrence and distribution of threatened forest-dwelling mammals is critical for developing effective conservation plans. To optimise limited resources, advances need to be made to the toolkit available for detecting rare and cryptic fauna. Aims We trialled three bait attractants (peanut butter with oats, live mealworms and black truffle oil) in combination with infrared digital cameras to determine whether detection rates of forest-dwelling native mammals in south-eastern Australia were influenced by: (1) bait type; (2) previous visits by conspecifics; (3) previous visits by Rattus; and (4) duration of bait deployment. Methods Bait attractants were set at 40 camera stations in combination with odourless controls. Over two fortnight-long deployments, 1327 images were captured of 22 mammal and bird species. From these data, detailed statistical analyses were conducted of six mammal genera. Key results Peanut butter with oats was found to be a significantly better attractant than empty bait holders for Antechinus, Isoodon, Perameles and Rattus, but not for Potorous or Pseudocheirus. Truffle oil and mealworms were also significantly better attractants than the control for Rattus but not the other five genera. When Antechinus, Isoodon, Potorous or Rattus were detected at a bait station there was a significant likelihood they had been detected there during the previous 24 h. This was not the case for Perameles or Pseudocheirus. A prior visit by Rattus to a station had no significant influence on the detection probabilities of Antechinus, Isoodon, Perameles, Potorous and Pseudocheirus during the subsequent 24 h. Detection probabilities for Isoodon and Rattus declined significantly during the fortnight-long deployments but trends for the other genera were not significant. Conclusions Peanut butter with oats is an excellent general purpose bait for detecting small to medium-sized mammals. However, scope exists for using other baits to target species. For example, truffle oil baits may reduce by-catch of non-target Rattus in labour intensive cage trapping of bandicoots. Regardless of bait type, longer deployments are necessary to detect Perameles, Potorous or Pseudocheirus than Antechinus, Isoodon or Rattus. Implications Targeted detection of predominantly ground-dwelling mammals may be improved by better understanding the attraction of species to baits and required bait deployment times.

Stochastic scenario trees are a new and popular method by which surveillance systems can be analyzed to demonstrate freedom from pests and disease. For multiple component systems—such as a combination of a serological survey and systematically collected observations—it can be difficult to represent the complete system in a tree because many branches are required to represent complex conditional relationships. Here we show that many of the branches of some scenario trees have identical outcomes and are therefore redundant. We demonstrate how to prune branches and derive compact representations of scenario trees using matrix algebra and Bayesian belief networks. The Bayesian network representation is particularly useful for calculation and exposition. It therefore provides a firm basis for arguing disease freedom in international forums.