Faculty Opinions recommendation of The spatial scale mismatch between ecological processes and agricultural management: Do difficulties come from underlying theoretical frameworks?

2011 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jens Dauber
Keyword(s):  
Spatial Scale ◽  
Agricultural Management ◽  
Theoretical Frameworks ◽  
Ecological Processes ◽  
Scale Mismatch

scholarly journals The proportion of core species in a community varies with spatial scale and environmental heterogeneity

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Molly F Jenkins ◽  
Ethan P White ◽  
Allen H Hurlbert
Keyword(s):  
Spatial Scale ◽  
Environmental Heterogeneity ◽  
Biotic Interactions ◽  
Bird Community ◽  
Species Variation ◽  
Ecological Communities ◽  
Transient Species ◽  
Ecological Processes ◽  
Core Species ◽  
Wide Range

Ecological communities are composed of a combination of core species that maintain local viable populations and transient species that occur infrequently due to dispersal from surrounding regions. Preliminary work indicates that while core and transient species are both commonly observed in community surveys of a wide range of taxonomic groups, their relative prevalence varies substantially from one community to another depending upon the spatial scale at which the community was characterized and its environmental context. We used a geographically extensive dataset of 968 bird community time series to quantitatively describe how the proportion of core species in a community varies with spatial scale and environmental heterogeneity. We found that the proportion of core species in an assemblage increased with spatial scale in a positive decelerating fashion with a concomitant decrease in the proportion of transient species. Variation in the shape of this scaling relationship between sites was related to regional environmental heterogeneity, with lower proportions of core species at a given scale associated with high environmental heterogeneity. This influence of scale and environmental heterogeneity on the proportion of core species may help resolve discrepancies between studies of biotic interactions, resource availability, and mass effects conducted at different scales, because the importance of these and other ecological processes are expected to differ substantially between core and transient species.

scholarly journals Vulnerability assessments, identity and spatial scale challenges in disaster-risk reduction

2015 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Edward R. Carr ◽  
Daniel Abrahams ◽  
Arielle T. De la Poterie ◽  
Pablo Suarez ◽  
Bettina Koelle
Keyword(s):  
Spatial Scale ◽  
Risk Reduction ◽  
Disaster Risk Reduction ◽  
A Priori ◽  
Disaster Risk ◽  
Vulnerability Assessments ◽  
Scale Mismatch ◽  
Hazard Vulnerability ◽  
Scale Challenges ◽  
Level Of Analysis

Current approaches to vulnerability assessment for disaster-risk reduction (DRR) commonly apply generalised, a priori determinants of vulnerability to particular hazards in particular places. Although they may allow for policy-level legibility at high levels of spatial scale, these approaches suffer from attribution problems that become more acute as the level of analysis is localised and the population under investigation experiences greater vulnerability. In this article, we locate the source of this problem in a spatial scale mismatch between the essentialist framings of identity behind these generalised determinants of vulnerability and the intersectional, situational character of identity in the places where DRR interventions are designed and implemented. Using the Livelihoods as Intimate Government (LIG) approach to identify and understand different vulnerabilities to flooding in a community in southern Zambia, we empirically demonstrate how essentialist framings of identity produce this mismatch. Further, we illustrate a means of operationalising intersectional, situational framings of identity to achieve greater and more productive understandings of hazard vulnerability than available through the application of general determinants of vulnerability to specific places and cases.

scholarly journals Multiscale patterns of isolation by ecology and fine-scale population structure in Texas bobcats

PeerJ ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
pp. e11498
Author(s):  
Imogene A. Cancellare ◽  
Elizabeth M. Kierepka ◽  
Jan Janecka ◽  
Byron Weckworth ◽  
Richard T. Kazmaier ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Population Structure ◽  
Genetic Variation ◽  
Gene Flow ◽  
Spatial Scale ◽  
Behavioral Plasticity ◽  
Spatial Genetic Structure ◽  
Spatial Scales ◽  
Lynx Rufus ◽  
Multiscale Approach ◽  
Ecological Processes

Patterns of spatial genetic variation can be generated by a variety of ecological processes, including individual preferences based on habitat. These ecological processes act at multiple spatial and temporal scales, generating scale-dependent effects on gene flow. In this study, we focused on bobcats (Lynx rufus), a highly mobile, generalist felid that exhibits ecological and behavioral plasticity, high abundance, and broad connectivity across much of their range. However, bobcats also show genetic differentiation along habitat breaks, a pattern typically observed in cases of isolation-by-ecology (IBE). The IBE observed in bobcats is hypothesized to occur due to habitat-biased dispersal, but it is unknown if this occurs at other habitat breaks across their range or at what spatial scale IBE becomes most apparent. Thus, we used a multiscale approach to examine isolation by ecology (IBE) patterns in bobcats (Lynx rufus) at both fine and broad spatial scales in western Texas. We genotyped 102 individuals at nine microsatellite loci and used partial redundancy analysis (pRDA) to test if a suite of landscape variables influenced genetic variation in bobcats. Bobcats exhibited a latitudinal cline in population structure with a spatial signature of male-biased dispersal, and no clear barriers to gene flow. Our pRDA tests revealed high genetic similarity in similar habitats, and results differed by spatial scale. At the fine spatial scale, herbaceous rangeland was an important influence on gene flow whereas mixed rangeland and agriculture were significant at the broad spatial scale. Taken together, our results suggests that complex interactions between spatial-use behavior and landscape heterogeneity can create non-random gene flow in highly mobile species like bobcats. Furthermore, our results add to the growing body of data highlighting the importance of multiscale study designs when assessing spatial genetic structure.

scholarly journals The proportion of core species in a community varies with spatial scale and environmental heterogeneity

PeerJ ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
pp. e6019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Molly F. Jenkins ◽  
Ethan P. White ◽  
Allen H. Hurlbert
Keyword(s):  
Spatial Scale ◽  
Environmental Heterogeneity ◽  
Biotic Interactions ◽  
Bird Community ◽  
Species Variation ◽  
Ecological Communities ◽  
Transient Species ◽  
Ecological Processes ◽  
Core Species ◽  
Wide Range

Ecological communities are composed of a combination of core species that maintain local viable populations and transient species that occur infrequently due to dispersal from surrounding regions. Preliminary work indicates that while core and transient species are both commonly observed in community surveys of a wide range of taxonomic groups, their relative prevalence varies substantially from one community to another depending upon the spatial scale at which the community was characterized and its environmental context. We used a geographically extensive dataset of 968 bird community time series to quantitatively describe how the proportion of core species in a community varies with spatial scale and environmental heterogeneity. We found that the proportion of core species in an assemblage increased with spatial scale in a positive decelerating fashion with a concomitant decrease in the proportion of transient species. Variation in the shape of this scaling relationship between sites was related to regional environmental heterogeneity, with lower proportions of core species at a given scale associated with high environmental heterogeneity. Understanding this influence of scale and environmental heterogeneity on the proportion of core species may help resolve discrepancies between studies of biotic interactions, resource availability, and mass effects conducted at different scales, because the importance of these and other ecological processes are expected to differ substantially between core and transient species.

scholarly journals The proportion of core species in a community varies with spatial scale and environmental heterogeneity

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Molly F Jenkins ◽  
Ethan P White ◽  
Allen H Hurlbert
Keyword(s):  
Spatial Scale ◽  
Environmental Heterogeneity ◽  
Biotic Interactions ◽  
Bird Community ◽  
Species Variation ◽  
Ecological Communities ◽  
Transient Species ◽  
Ecological Processes ◽  
Core Species ◽  
Wide Range

Ecological communities are composed of a combination of core species that maintain local viable populations and transient species that occur infrequently due to dispersal from surrounding regions. Preliminary work indicates that while core and transient species are both commonly observed in community surveys of a wide range of taxonomic groups, their relative prevalence varies substantially from one community to another depending upon the spatial scale at which the community was characterized and its environmental context. We used a geographically extensive dataset of 968 bird community time series to quantitatively describe how the proportion of core species in a community varies with spatial scale and environmental heterogeneity. We found that the proportion of core species in an assemblage increased with spatial scale in a positive decelerating fashion with a concomitant decrease in the proportion of transient species. Variation in the shape of this scaling relationship between sites was related to regional environmental heterogeneity, with lower proportions of core species at a given scale associated with high environmental heterogeneity. This influence of scale and environmental heterogeneity on the proportion of core species may help resolve discrepancies between studies of biotic interactions, resource availability, and mass effects conducted at different scales, because the importance of these and other ecological processes are expected to differ substantially between core and transient species.

scholarly journals Critical Realist Philosophy and the Possibility of an Eco-decolonial Museology

2021 ◽  
pp. 48-70
Author(s):  
Thomas Carnegie Jeffery
Keyword(s):  
South African ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
Theoretical Frameworks ◽  
Ecological Processes ◽  
Colonial Era ◽  
Critical Realist ◽  
International Theory ◽  
Neoliberal Ideology ◽  
Emancipatory Practice ◽  
Museum Practice

New forms of museum practice that explore the dynamics of social and ecological processes as interlinked systems are increasingly urgent. Critical realist philosophy is used to consider the emergence of tensions between museological processes of decolonization and ecologization, and potentials for their resolution into a new form of practice, which is conceptualized as eco-decolonial. The analysis is focused on South African museums, but is contextualized within international theory and practice. An exploration of the ontology of museum work surfaces a core tension in that trends towards a relational and emancipatory practice are paradoxically embedded within neoliberal ideology. Neoliberalism depends on and perpetuates the problematic human-nature dualism of the colonial era, and constrains the development of progressive social-ecological forms of museum practice. The analysis explores potentials for the resolution of this tension, in a contribution towards the transformation of the philosophical and theoretical frameworks of museum practice.

scholarly journals Spatial Scale Mismatches in the EU Agri-Biodiversity Conservation Policy. The Case for a Shift to Landscape-Scale Design

Land ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (8) ◽  
pp. 846
Author(s):  
Francesca L. Falco ◽  
Eran Feitelson ◽  
Tamar Dayan
Keyword(s):  
Policy Implementation ◽  
Spatial Scale ◽  
Agricultural Policy ◽  
Conservation Policy ◽  
Landscape Scale ◽  
Policy Studies ◽  
Ecological Processes ◽  
Scale Design ◽  
Biodiversity Decline ◽  
The Eu

Agriculture is a major driver of the ongoing biodiversity decline, demanding an urgent transition towards a system that reconciles productivity and profitability with nature conservation; however, where public policies promote such transitions are in place, their design often poorly fits the relevant biogeophysical systems, decreasing the policies’ expected effectiveness. Spatial scale mismatches are a primary example in this regard. The literature reviewed in this paper, drawing from both ecology and policy studies, suggests to foster policy implementation at the landscape scale, where most functional ecological processes—and the delivery of related ecosystem services—occur on farmland. Two strategies are identified for coordinating policy implementation at the landscape scale: the promotion of farmers’ collective action and the partition of space on an ecologically sound basis through spatial planning. As the new European Union Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) post-2023 is currently being defined, we assess if and how the draft agri-biodiversity legislation includes any of the strategies above. We find no comprehensive uptake of the landscape-scale perspective at the EU level, thereby suggesting that a powerful tool to overcome the CAP underperformance on biodiversity is being overlooked.

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