EXPLORING THE ROLE OF GROUNDWATER STORAGE IN WATERSHED VARIABILITY ACROSS SPATIAL SCALES

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laura Condon ◽  
GEOgraphia ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 19 (41) ◽  
pp. 39
Author(s):  
Agripino Souza Coelho Neto

Resumo: O presente texto pretende analisar o papel das ações coletivas (associações, cooperativas e sindicatos de agricultores) no acionamento e na ativação das escalas geográficas para o desenvolvimento de suas atividades. O estudo foi realizado no Espaço Sisaleiro da Bahia (Brasil), onde um conjunto significativo de associações e cooperativas de agricultores e sindicatos de trabalhadores rurais tem se organizado em torno das escalas espaciais para viabilizar sua ação político-institucional e econômico-produtiva. A ação desses coletivos organizados em rede tem permitido a conformação e o fortalecimento de novas escalas de ação política, como no caso da criação do conselho territorial para viabilização da implantação de políticas de governo. Cooperativas, associações e sindicatos se apoiam nas escalas para compor organizações em diferentes níveis escalares (escala local, escala regional, escala do estado federado e escala nacional), buscando fortalecer seus propósitos e ampliar seu poder de barganha e influência. Analisando o comportamento espacial dessas variadas modalidades de ações coletivas, é possível considerar que elas desenvolvem políticas de escala, ou seja, a escala passa a significar muito mais que uma categoria de análise, mas se torna uma categoria da prática social e política. Nesse sentido, parte-se do pressuposto de que os grupos humanos produzem e tornam efetivas suas próprias escalas visando a alcançar suas metas e organizar seus comportamentos coletivos. Palavras-chave: Escala. Rede. Cooperativismo. Associativismo. Sindicalismo. Espaço Sisaleiro da Bahia. SCALE POLICIES AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF NETWORK STRATEGIES OF COLLECTIVE ACTIONS IN THE SISAL REGION OF BAHIA (BRAZIL)Abstract: This paper aims to analyze the role of collective initiatives of associations, cooperatives and farmers’ unions in the mobilization and activation of geographical scales for the development of their activities. The study was conducted in the Sisal Region of Bahia (Brazil), where a significant number of farmers associations and cooperatives and rural workers’ unions have been organizing their actions around spatial scales to enable their political-institutional and economic-productive influence. The gathering and action of these organized groups in a network have allowed the establishment and strengthening of new scales of political action, as seem in the case of the creation of a territorial council to facilitate the implementation of government policies. Cooperatives, associations, and unions rely on scales to form organizations at different scale levels (local, regional, federal and national scales), seeking to strengthen their performance and increase their bargaining power and influence. After analyzing the spatial behavior of these various forms of collective actions, it’s reasonable to say that they develop scale policies, which means the scale becomes more than a category of analysis, but also a category of social and political practice. In this sense, it’s assumed that human groups produce and utilize the scales in order to reach their goals and organize their own collective behaviors. Keywords: Scale. Network. Cooperativism. Associativism. Syndicalism. Sisal Region of Bahia. POLITIQUES D’ÉCHELLE ET FORMATION DES STRATÉGIES-RÉSEAU DES ACTIONS COLLECTIVES DANS LA RÉGION DU SISAL DE L’ÉTAT DE BAHIA Resumé: Cet article analyse le rôle des actions collectives (associations, coopératives et syndicats d’agriculteurs) dans la prise en compte et l’utilisation des échelles géographiques pour le développement de leurs activités. L’étude a été menée dans la région du sisal à Bahia (Brésil), où un ensemble important d’associations et de coopératives d’agriculteurs et de syndicats de travailleurs ruraux se sont organisés autour d’échelles spatiales pour que puisse être mise en place leur action politique et institutionnelle, économique et productive. L’action de ces groupements organisés en réseaux a permis la conformation et le renforcement de nouvelles échelles d’action politique, comme lors de la création du conseil territorial, pour permettre la mise en œuvre des politiques gouvernementales. Les coopératives, les associations et les syndicats prennent les échelles comme point de départ pour former des organisations à différents niveaux scalaires (échelle locale, échelle régionale, échelle fédérée et échelle nationale), dans le but de renforcer leurs objectifs et d’accroître leur pouvoir de négociation et d’influence. Si nous analysons le comportement spatial de ces diverses formes d’action collective il est possible de considérer qu’ils développent des politiques d’échelle, à savoir l’échelle vient signifier bien plus qu’une catégorie d’analyse, puisqu’elle devient une catégorie de la pratique sociale et politique. En ce sens, on suppose que les groupes humains produisent et rendent efficaces leurs propres échelles pour atteindre leurs objectifs et organiser leurs comportements collectifs. Mots-clés: Échelle. Réseau. Coopérativisme. Associations. Syndicalisme. Région du sisal de l’État de Bahia.


2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Oscar V. Bautista-Cespedes ◽  
Louise Willemen ◽  
Augusto Castro-Nunez ◽  
Thomas A. Groen

AbstractThe Amazon rainforest covers roughly 40% of Colombia’s territory and has important global ecological functions. For more than 50 years, an internal war in the country has shaped this region. Peace negotiations between the government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) initiated in 2012 resulted in a progressive de-escalation of violence and a complete ceasefire in 2016. This study explores the role of different deforestation drivers including armed conflict variables, in explaining deforestation for three periods between 2001 and 2015. Iterative regression analyses were carried out for two spatial extents: the entire Colombian Amazon and a subset area which was most affected by deforestation. The results show that conflict variables have positive relationships with deforestation; yet, they are not among the main variables explaining deforestation. Accessibility and biophysical variables explain more variation. Nevertheless, conflict variables show divergent influence on deforestation depending on the period and scale of analysis. Based on these results, we develop deforestation risk maps to inform the design of forest conservation efforts in the post-conflict period.


2001 ◽  
Vol 58 (1) ◽  
pp. 86-98 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna Metaxas

For marine benthic invertebrates with meroplanktonic larvae, the relative importance of hydrodynamics and swimming behaviour in determining larval dispersal in the water column, particularly at small spatial scales, has not been determined. In the field, larval aggregations recorded at physical and biological discontinuities in the water column were attributed to hydrodynamics. Similar aggregations obtained in the absence of flow in the laboratory indicate a potentially significant role of behaviour. At large spatial scales, larval distribution in the plankton is mainly regulated by horizontal advection. However, the ability of larvae to behaviourally regulate their position at scales of micrometres to metres when exposed to turbulent fluid motion in the water column, as evidenced in the benthic boundary layer, is unknown. Evaluation of swimming in turbulent flows in the water column is an intriguing area of research, which involves several constraints. In the field, quantification of behaviour is limited by low success in tracking larvae and lack of appropriate observational tools. In the laboratory, the generation and quantification of flow regimes that are representative of those in the field remains a challenge. An approach that integrates biological and physical measurements within realistic ranges is necessary to advance our understanding of larval dispersal.


PLoS ONE ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. e0212011 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jessica F. Wilhelm ◽  
Daniel J. Bain ◽  
Mark B. Green ◽  
Kathleen F. Bush ◽  
William H. McDowell

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kyle D. Kittelberger ◽  
Solomon V. Hendrix ◽  
Çağan Hakkı Şekercioğlu

Due to the increasing popularity of websites specializing in nature documentation, there has been a surge in the number of people enthusiastic about observing and documenting nature over the past 2 decades. These citizen scientists are recording biodiversity on unprecedented temporal and spatial scales, rendering data of tremendous value to the scientific community. In this study, we investigate the role of citizen science in increasing knowledge of global biodiversity through the examination of notable contributions to the understanding of the insect suborder Auchenorrhyncha, also known as true hoppers, in North America. We have compiled a comprehensive summary of citizen science contributions—published and unpublished—to the understanding of hopper diversity, finding over fifty previously unpublished country and state records as well as dozens of undescribed and potentially undescribed species. We compare citizen science contributions to those published in the literature as well as specimen records in collections in the United States and Canada, illuminating the fact that the copious data afforded by citizen science contributions are underutilized. We also introduce the website Hoppers of North Carolina, a revolutionary new benchmark for tracking hopper diversity, disseminating knowledge from the literature, and incorporating citizen science. Finally, we provide a series of recommendations for both the entomological community and citizen science platforms on how best to approach, utilize, and increase the quality of sightings from the general public.


2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sergio M. Vicente-Serrano ◽  
Raquel Nieto ◽  
Luis Gimeno ◽  
Cesar Azorin-Molina ◽  
Anita Drumond ◽  
...  

Abstract. We analyzed changes in surface relative humidity (RH) at the global scale from 1979 to 2014 using both observations and ERA-Interim dataset. We compared the variability and trends of RH with those of land evapotranspiration and ocean evaporation in moisture source areas across a range of selected regions worldwide. The sources of moisture for each particular region were identified by integrating different observational data and model outputs into a lagrangian approach. The aim was to account for the possible role of changes in air temperature over land, in comparison to sea surface temperature (SST), on RH variability. Results demonstrate a strong agreement between the interannual variability of RH and the interannual variability of precipitation and land evapotranspiration in regions with continentally-originated humidity. In contrast, albeit with the dominant positive trend of air temperature/SST ratio in the majority of the analyzed regions, the interannual variability of RH in the target regions did not show any significant correlation with this ratio over the source regions. Also, we did not find any significant association between the interannual variability of oceanic evaporation in the oceanic humidity source regions and RH in the target regions. Our findings stress the need for further investigation of the role of both dynamic and radiative factors in the evolution of RH over continental regions at different spatial scales.


2021 ◽  
pp. 1-18
Author(s):  
Jacob A. Miller ◽  
Mark D'Esposito ◽  
Kevin S. Weiner

Stuss considered the human prefrontal cortex (pFC) as a “cognitive globe” [Stuss, D. T., & Benson, D. F. Neuropsychological studies of the frontal lobes. Psychological Bulletin, 95, 3–28, 1984] on which functions of the frontal lobe could be mapped. Here, we discuss classic and recent findings regarding the evolution, development, function, and cognitive role of shallow indentations or tertiary sulci in pFC, with the goal of using tertiary sulci to map the “cognitive globe” of pFC. First, we discuss lateral pFC (LPFC) tertiary sulci in classical anatomy and modern neuroimaging, as well as their development, with a focus on those within the middle frontal gyrus. Second, we discuss tertiary sulci in comparative neuroanatomy, focusing on primates. Third, we summarize recent findings showing the utility of tertiary sulci for understanding structural–functional relationships with functional network insights in ventromedial pFC and LPFC. Fourth, we revisit and update unresolved theoretical perspectives considered by C. Vogt and O. Vogt (Allgemeinere ergebnisse unserer hirnforschung. Journal für Psychologie und Neurologie, 25, 279–462, 1919) and F. Sanides (Structure and function of the human frontal lobe. Neuropsychologia, 2, 209–219, 1964) that tertiary sulci serve as landmarks for cortical gradients. Together, the consideration of these classic and recent findings indicate that tertiary sulci are situated in a unique position within the complexity of the “cognitive globe” of pFC: They are the smallest and shallowest of sulci in pFC, yet can offer insights that bridge spatial scales (microns to networks), modalities (functional connectivity to behavior), and species. As such, the map of tertiary sulci within each individual participant serves as a coordinate system specific to that individual on which functions may be further mapped. We conclude with new theoretical and methodological questions that, if answered in future research, will likely lead to mechanistic insight regarding the structure and function of human LPFC.


The Holocene ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 28 (9) ◽  
pp. 1523-1534 ◽  
Author(s):  
Althea L Davies ◽  
Richard Streeter ◽  
Ian T Lawson ◽  
Katherine H Roucoux ◽  
William Hiles

The concept of resilience has become increasingly important in ecological and socio-ecological literature. With its focus on the temporal behaviour of ecosystems, palaeoecology has an important role to play in developing a scientific understanding of ecological resilience. We provide a critical review of the ways in which resilience is being addressed by palaeoecologists. We review ~180 papers, identifying the definitions or conceptualisations of ‘resilience’ that they use, and analysing the ways in which palaeoecology is contributing to our understanding of ecological resilience. We identify three key areas for further development. First, the term ‘resilience’ is frequently defined too broadly to be meaningful without further qualification. In particular, palaeoecologists need to distinguish between ‘press’ vs ‘pulse’ disturbances, and ‘ecological’ vs ‘engineering’ resilience. Palaeoecologists are well placed to critically assess the extent to which these dichotomies apply in real (rather than theoretical) ecosystems, where climate and other environmental parameters are constantly changing. Second, defining a formal ‘response model’ – a statement of the anticipated relationships between proxies, disturbances and resilience properties – can help to clarify arguments, especially inferred causal links, since the difficulty of proving causation is a fundamental limitation of palaeoecology for understanding ecosystem drivers and responses. Third, there is a need for critical analysis of the role of scale in ecosystem resilience. Different palaeoenvironmental proxies are differently able to address the various temporal and spatial scales of ecological change, and these limitations, as well as methodological constraints on inherently noisy proxy data, need to be explored and addressed.


2014 ◽  
Vol 169 ◽  
pp. 285-295 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ryan D. Phillips ◽  
Rod Peakall ◽  
Michael F. Hutchinson ◽  
Celeste C. Linde ◽  
Tingbao Xu ◽  
...  

Animals ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (10) ◽  
pp. 759 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hof ◽  
Allen ◽  
Bright

Biodiversity is declining globally, which calls for effective conservation measures. It is, therefore, important to investigate the drivers behind species presence at large spatial scales. The Western European hedgehog (Erinaceus europaeus) is one of the species facing declines in parts of its range. Yet, drivers of Western European hedgehog distribution at large spatial scales remain largely unknown. At local scales, the Eurasian badger (Meles meles), an intraguild predator of the Western European hedgehog, can affect both the abundance and the distribution of the latter. However, the Western European hedgehog and the Eurasian badger have shown to be able to co-exist at a landscape scale. We investigated whether the Eurasian badger may play a role in the likelihood of the presence of the Western European hedgehog throughout England by using two nationwide citizen science surveys. Although habitat-related factors explained more variation in the likelihood of Western European hedgehog presence, our results suggest that Eurasian badger presence negatively impacts the likelihood of Western European hedgehog presence. Intraguild predation may, therefore, be influencing the nationwide distribution of hedgehogs in England, and further research is needed about how changes in badger densities and intensifying agricultural practices that remove shelters like hedgerows may influence hedgehog presence.


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