Ants in Labyrinths: Lessons for Critical Landscapes

Percolation theory provides a starting point for models for the movement of organisms in fragmented landscapes. We simulated six general rules for movement on three general landscape patterns with different degrees of habitat fragmentation. Fragmentation pattern affects migration success. Organisms moving within habitat patches are restricted by fragmentation, but the response is less abrupt as one moves from random to hierarchical to fractal landscapes, respectively. Success for organisms moving along edges is more strongly differentiated by landscape pattern. Success and speed are usually directly related, but indirect relations may indicate rare but efficient pathways or cul-de-sacs. We propose that general rules can be applied to the identification of landscapes near critical levels of fragmentation that will respond sensitively to increases in fragmentation or efforts at restoration.     

Indigenous Land Management in Peri-Urban Landscapes: An Australian Example

This article examines roles, opportunities, and challenges for Indigenous land management in rapidly developing landscapes through a case study of Bunya Bunya Country Aboriginal Corporation, a not-for-profit organization on the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, Australia. An analysis of data collected through semistructured interviews, participant observation, and analysis of secondary sources reveals that Aboriginal land managers work in a variety of roles to manage issues affecting the local environment and cultural heritage sites. These efforts are challenged by the absence of Native Title and colonial land management policies, which restrict Aboriginal involvement in land management. We conclude that there is a need for alternative pathways to engage with Aboriginal land managers who cannot, or choose not to, proceed with Native Title. Decolonized decision-making tools and sustainable enterprises are viable opportunities that partially address these challenges and could deliver tangible socio-economic and cultural benefits to local Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people.     

Trouble with Sense of Place in Working Landscapes

The sense of place (SOP) conceptual framework offers theoretical and empirical evidence that links peoples’ multifaceted connections to place(s) to their engagement in pro-environmental and conservation behaviors. The bulk of this research has focused on peoples’ connection to high-amenity places and landscapes. Recent research applies SOP in working landscapes—however, these studies encounter “troubles” that include measurement challenges and mixed results in predicting statistical relationships with conservation outcome variables. As authors of some of these studies, we propose three opportunities and corresponding survey items for developing meaningful SOP measures in future working landscapes research: (1) modify existing SOP dimensions and items to better capture the working landscape dynamics; (2) address how scale may affect behavior and SOP dimensions; and (3) incorporate a conservation ethic dimension into the SOP framework in working lands.     

A Comparison of Public Lands and Farmlands for Grassland Bird Conservation

Midwestern states have invested extensively in grasslands for wildlife conservation, yet these public lands make up a minority of grassland habitat. How effective are public grasslands, relative to private lands, for conserving native songbird populations? I compare private and public lands in southern Minnesota using bird survey data from Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) fields and public lands and assessing fragmentation in a GIS. Bird abundance and diversity were greater on CRP lands. Vegetation composition, field isolation, and field size appear to explain differences in bird counts. Land cover data show that grassland habitat on public lands is scarce and widely scattered. The CRP provides more, and here better, habitat for grassland birds. Funding partly explains this disparity. Trends in farm set‐aside program rules and distribution, which can be vary greatly over time, will strongly influence the success or failure of biodiversity conservation in this region.     

Factors Influencing Species Composition in Canopy Gaps: The Importance of Edge Proximity in Hueston Woods,Ohio

In this research, we attempt to quantify the factors structuring woody species composition within forest gaps in the interior of Hueston Woods Nature Preserve, Ohio. Our results indicate that composition is related not only to factors commonly cited in other studies, including disturbance history, topographic position, and environmental factors (e.g., gap age, soil pH, slope, and aspect), but also to the proximity of forest edge communities. Partitioning of species variation to environmental factors, spatial factors, and spatially structured environmental factors reinforces the importance of both environment and edge proximity in explaining gap composition. These findings underscore the need for a more complete understanding of the potential impacts of edge effects in fragmented landscapes.     

Factors Influencing Species Composition in Canopy Gaps: The Importance of Edge Proximity in Hueston Woods,Ohio

In this research, we attempt to quantify the factors structuring woody species composition within forest gaps in the interior of Hueston Woods Nature Preserve, Ohio. Our results indicate that composition is related not only to factors commonly cited in other studies, including disturbance history, topographic position, and environmental factors (e.g., gap age, soil pH, slope, and aspect), but also to the proximity of forest edge communities. Partitioning of species variation to environmental factors, spatial factors, and spatially structured environmental factors reinforces the importance of both environment and edge proximity in explaining gap composition. These findings underscore the need for a more complete understanding of the potential impacts of edge effects in fragmented landscapes.     

Wind Power in View: Energy Landscapes in a Crowded World

Books reviewed:

Rayner, John N. Dynamic Climatology: Basis in Mathematics and Physics

Blair, Alasdair and Hitchcock, David. Environment and Business

Black, Brian. Petrolia: The Landscape of America's First Oil Boom

Sharma, Martha B. and Elbow, Gary S. Using Internet Primary Sources to Teach Critical Thinking Skills in Geography

Klemen?i?, Mladen (ed.) Atlas Europe

Kliot, Nurit and Newman, David Geopolitics at the End of the Twentieth Century: The Changing World Political Map

O’Sullivan, Patrick M. The Geography of War in the Post – Cold War World

Duany, Andres, Plater-Zyberk, Elizabeth, and Speck, Jeff. Suburban Nation: The Rise of Sprawl and the Decline of the American Dream

Kayden, Jerold S. Privately Owned Public Space: The New York City Experience

Borjas, George J. Heaven's Door: Immigration Policy and the American Economy

Andreas, Peter. Border Games: Policing the U.S.-Mexico Divide

England, John. Retail Impact Assessment: A Guide to Best Practice

Outtes, Joel. O Recife: Gënese do Urbanismo, 1927 – 1943 (Recife: The Birth of Urbanism, 1927 –1943)

Njoh, Ambe J. Urban Planning, Housing, and Spatial Structures in Sub-Saharan Africa: Nature, Impact, and Development Implications of Exogenous Forces

Hanson, Philip and Bradshaw, Michael (eds.) Regional Economic Change in Russia

Pyne, Stephen J. Book Review Commentary: A response to Terence Young's review of Stephen J. Pyne's How the Canyon Became Grand     

Italian Renaissance and Japanese Zen Gardens: An Approach for Introducing Cultural Landscapes

Abstract

This paper outlines a method for teaching about cultural landscapes in introductory geography classes by contrasting the Renaissance gardens of Italy with the Zen gardens of Japan. The ordered, symmetrical, formal arrangement of the Renaissance gardens are compared to the Zen gardens where landscape features appear to be completely natural. By contrasting these two garden traditions—their physical characteristics, their paths of diffusion, and the world views they express—it is possible to illustrate how cultural landscapes develop and persist in areas as a result of differing combinations of physical, social, and cultural circumstances.     

Hacked Landscapes: Tensions,Borders, and Positionality in Spatial Literacy

By focusing on critical geographies, landscape, and spatial literacy, this article evaluates a semester-long spatial justice project conducted in a preservice teacher education program. The analysis recognizes the limitations of reading the products literally as a means of comprehending spatial representation. It expands the analysis by hacking the products and producing new landscapes to read against or up against the products as sociospatial texts. It considers the deployment of landscape concepts—borders, the representation of tension, and the gaze and subjectivity of the reader-authors—as central elements of spatial literacy that is of consequence.     

The California Electric Power Crisis: Lessons for Other States

Distinguishing forested wetland from dry forest using aerial photographs is handicapped because photographs often do not reveal the presence of water below tree canopies. Radar images obtained by the Seasat satellite reveal forested wetland as highly reflective patterns on the coastal plain between Maryland and Florida. Seasat radar images may complement aerial photographs for compiling maps of wetland. A test with experienced photointerpreters revealed that interpretation accuracy was significantly higher when using Seasat radar images than when using only conventional sources.     

Landscapes in Music: Space,Place and Time in the World's Greatest Music

The purpose of this article is twofold. The first is to suggest that techniques for mapping public disagreements over claims to knowledge, or controversies, can act as assistive devices for researchers in geography to move from research topics to research questions. A second purpose is to offer a recipe or “how-to” guide of specific approaches and free scholarly software that researchers without specialized coding skills can use to achieve their own controversy mapping goals. We use a case of creating a controversy map covering the issue of transboundary movements of electronic waste (e-waste) to illustrate how these approaches and software can be associated together so that other researchers may put them to use for their own controversy mapping purposes.     

Teaching Experiential Learning in Geography: Lessons from Planning

Abstract

Geography increasingly relies on training of professionals who can apply geographic concepts to solve real-world problems. The planning profession for years has been training professionals to work in the area of community planning. Planning programs typically include experiential learning modules throughout the curriculum. This article looks at how community planning approaches can be incorporated into geography programs in lower level courses to: (1) provide exposure to practical applications of geographic concepts; (2) give students experience with team dynamics; and (3) provide students with experience in real-world client relations. Advantages and challenges of experiential learning are identified and discussed. An example of an experiential learning exercise adapted from a planning application is presented. The exercise was developed to enhance learning in a geography curriculum.     

Integrated Approaches,Multiple Scales: Snag Dynamics in Burned Versus Unburned Landscapes*

By studying landscape form and patterns, we can study processes at multiple scales and determine how collectively those processes inform us about function(s). Integrating landscape ecology from a biogeographical perspective with geographic information science (GIScience) practices offers new ways to study how landscapes change over time and space, including how they can be measured, analyzed, and modeled for management needs. This article presents methodologies and selected results of analyzing spatial patterns from field data across multiple scales by examining standing dead tree (snag) processes across wildfire‐disturbed landscapes in Arizona. Our primary motivation was to illustrate a particular type of work benefiting from the coalescing of landscape ecology and GIScience, functioning at the methodological and practical overlap of these two contributing fields. Our management goals were to (1) describe spatial patterns and characteristics of snags in pairs of burned and unburned ponderosa pine forests of Arizona in four recent (within the past ten years) wildfires, (2) document bird response to wildfires by combining landscape ecology and GIScience methods, and (3) link these patterns to snag monitoring plots and cavity‐nesting bird use to predict the probability of snag use by birds and cavity nesters based on snag characteristics (snag use model). The methods and results demonstrate how integration of landscape ecology with both GIS and GIScience improves the ways to study landscapes and land management issues, in this case offering guidelines for retention of snags that provide habitat for wildlife.     

美国旧金山湾滨海湿地保护与管理的经验及启示

随着我国经济的高速发展,中国沿海地区开发力度不断加大,使得我国滨海湿地面积急速减少。近30年来,美国政府引进市场机制、加大政府监管力度、注重公众参与、采取湿地补偿政策,使美国湿地基本达到"无净损失"目标。美国湿地保护与恢复的立法过程及政策,值得我国决策者学习,也为我国滨海湿地保护提供了可借鉴的经验和模式。赴美考察团通过考察与学习美国滨海湿地保护与管理、迁徙水鸟保护与管理、滨海湿地恢复与入侵物种治理等方面的经验,为我国滨海湿地的保护与管理提供参考。     

Explosive volcanic eruptions - VI. Ejecta dispersal in plinian eruptions: the control of eruption conditions and atmospheric properties

Summary. A simple model is developed to relate the maximum down-wind and cross-wind ranges of pyroclasts forming a plinian airfall deposit to the dynamic processes in the eruption cloud from which they fall and the atmospheric wind conditions in the area. The eruption cloud dynamics are in turn related to the eruptive conditions in the vent (vent radius, exsolved magmatic volatile weight fraction, velocity with which material passes through the vent, and mass eruption rate), some or all of which can be deduced if the appropriate field measurements can be made. Some aspects of the stability of convecting volcanic eruption clouds are investigated, and the effects on eruption cloud height of the local atmospheric temperature profile and the value adopted for the entrainment constant (which relates the horizontal flow speed of atmospheric air entering the column to the vertical rise speed of the column material) are explored. It is confirmed that eruption-cloud rise height and pyroclast dispersal are mainly controlled by the mass eruption rate (per unit length of active fissure in the case of linear vents) and, hence, the heat input rate to the cloud; but a significant subsidiary dependence on the amount of exsolved magma volatiles is also found. The eruption cloud model is validated by application to observed historic eruptions, and its use in the analysis of palaeo-eruptions is discussed.     

民族植物学与新疆的经济发展和生态保护

1982年裴盛基教授首次将民族植物学的概念介绍给中国读者,建立了中国第一个专业研究机构,并率先在我国民族构成最多的云南省开展研究工作。过去20年间取得了惊人的发展和丰硕的成果。同时丰富和发展了民族植物学的概念。新疆作为中国最大的少数民族聚居区。具有独特的生态环境。同时民族文化又呈现特殊性和多样性;各少数民族在长期的生活、生产实践中在植物资源利用方面积累了丰富的经验和知识,如民族医药、引种栽培、园艺、畜牧、饲用等方面。因此,民族植物学研究在新疆这样一个少数民族地区具有重要的实践意义。将在新疆的经济发展和生态保护中发挥重要的作用。     

An island in transition: governing conservation and development in Seram,Indonesia

Seram is Indonesia's 8th largest island. It is central to the historic spice islands, once a hotbed for international trade of profitable tree-products, primarily clove and nutmeg. Recent increased rates of social and ecological change, including costly conflicts, present Seram with new challenges and opportunities for conservation and development. Using place-based transdisciplinary research methods, we diagnose the problems emerging in Seram. Engaging with actors across multiple scales and sectors, we explore drivers of change, social-ecological impacts, and institutional arrangements that might achieve improved inclusive and sustainable development outcomes. Traditional and formal governance arrangements require harmonizing to optimize the benefits and costs from large-scale investments arriving in Seram. Organizations wishing to achieve positive impact can more strategically engage with the broad range of actors to harmonize divergent visions for the future and confront the reality of incoming investments and infrastructure.     

Using housing estates as conservation tools: A case study in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa

Increasing transformation and fragmentation of rural landscapes for economic reasons is causing concern to conservationists worldwide. With this trend likely to continue, perhaps conservation agencies and development corporations need to co-operate and plan housing developments that are environmentally and ecologically sustainable and can serve as refuges for endangered species. In KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, grasslands are particularly threatened by land transformation for housing developments. A case study is presented of a housing development, Wedgewood Estate in KwaZulu-Natal that has been developed and managed for conserving grassland habitat and associated species, particularly the endangered oribi (Ourebia ourebi). Feedback from the Estate's managers about the development and ecological impact were obtained. Wedgewood is an example of the viability of housing estates as refuges for endangered species and shows that the density and placement of housing and management of the natural habitat are important. It emphasizes the need for reviewing the types and amount of housing development, management of natural habitat, and the rules and regulations they put in place to assure the integrity of the conservancy is preserved. This case study also shows the potential of such ecologically sensitive housing developments as sources of surplus game for translocation, especially in the case of endangered species such as oribi.