scholarly journals SUSTAINING LIFE WITH TREES: ECOCRITICISM PERSPECTIVE IN SELECTED PICTURE BOOKS

Lire Journal ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 233-253
Author(s):  
Christy Tisnawijaya ◽  
Geni Kurniati
Keyword(s):  
Picture Books ◽  
Environmental Problem ◽  
Vital Role ◽  
Social Benefits ◽  
Environmental Concerns ◽  
Children's Picture Books ◽  
Per Se ◽  
Mother Earth ◽  
Taking Care

The issue of the environmental problem has been prevalent especially in the contemporary era. The fact that Mother Earth is currently facing a lot of environmental concerns is the central discussion of the selected children’s picture books. Hence, this study aims to analyze how the picture books successfully capture the idea that trees are the symbol of Mother Earth per se. The selected picture books to be discussed are: A Tree is Nice by Janice May Udry (1984), The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein (1992), Red Knit Cap Girl and The Reading Tree by Naoko Stoop (2014), Tree by Britta Teckentrup (2015) and The Tree by Neil Layton (2016). By scrutinizing the narrative and illustrative elements of the picture books, this study sheds light on how the ecosystems are held together by trees. The trees play a vital role in balancing and maintaining the world’s ecosystems. Moreover, the trees are valuable for providing environmental and social benefits. Hence, taking care of the trees can be perceived as maintaining a sustainable life for both the living and nonliving things. The underlying theories to support the discussion are those of ecocriticism, narrative and illustrative elements, and the trees as metaphor of the Mother Earth, all of which are interconnected in children’s picture books.

scholarly journals Human encroachment into wildlife gut microbiomes

2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Gloria Fackelmann ◽  
Mark A. F. Gillingham ◽  
Julian Schmid ◽  
Alexander Christoph Heni ◽  
Kerstin Wilhelm ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Habitat Fragmentation ◽  
Alpha Diversity ◽  
Anthropogenic Disturbances ◽  
Vital Role ◽  
Domesticated Animals ◽  
Generalist Species ◽  
Fragmented Forest ◽  
Catch Up ◽  
Per Se ◽  
The One

AbstractIn the Anthropocene, humans, domesticated animals, wildlife, and their environments are interconnected, especially as humans advance further into wildlife habitats. Wildlife gut microbiomes play a vital role in host health. Changes to wildlife gut microbiomes due to anthropogenic disturbances, such as habitat fragmentation, can disrupt natural gut microbiota homeostasis and make animals vulnerable to infections that may become zoonotic. However, it remains unclear whether the disruption to wildlife gut microbiomes is caused by habitat fragmentation per se or the combination of habitat fragmentation with additional anthropogenic disturbances, such as contact with humans, domesticated animals, invasive species, and their pathogens. Here, we show that habitat fragmentation per se does not impact the gut microbiome of a generalist rodent species native to Central America, Tome’s spiny rat Proechimys semispinosus, but additional anthropogenic disturbances do. Indeed, compared to protected continuous and fragmented forest landscapes that are largely untouched by other human activities, the gut microbiomes of spiny rats inhabiting human-disturbed fragmented landscapes revealed a reduced alpha diversity and a shifted and more dispersed beta diversity. Their microbiomes contained more taxa associated with domesticated animals and their potential pathogens, suggesting a shift in potential metagenome functions. On the one hand, the compositional shift could indicate a degree of gut microbial adaption known as metagenomic plasticity. On the other hand, the greater variation in community structure and reduced alpha diversity may signal a decline in beneficial microbial functions and illustrate that gut adaption may not catch up with anthropogenic disturbances, even in a generalist species with large phenotypic plasticity, with potentially harmful consequences to both wildlife and human health.

scholarly journals Moving Forward: The Inclusion of Characters with Down Syndrome in Children’s Picture Books

1944 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Tracey Kalke-Klita
Keyword(s):  
Down Syndrome ◽  
Picture Books ◽  
Annotated Bibliography ◽  
Educational Setting ◽  
The Past ◽  
Children's Picture Books ◽  
The Common ◽  
Over Time

This article analyzes fifteen children’s picture books published over the past twenty-five years that include a character with Down syndrome (DS). From the perspective of both an educator and a parent of a child with DS, this article focuses on the changes in these picture books over time, the common threads connecting these books, an evaluation of these titles, and suggestions for use in the educational setting. In addition, an annotated bibliography is provided.

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