scholarly journals A Conceptual and Analytical Framework for Estimation the Ecological Integrity of Landscape Scale

Arbor ◽  
2008 ◽  
Vol CLXXXIV (729) ◽  
Author(s):  
L. A. Vélez Restrepo ◽  
A. Gómez Sal
2018 ◽  
Vol 42 (4) ◽  
pp. 513-529 ◽  
Author(s):  
Liliana Katinas ◽  
Jorge V Crisci

The challenge of increasing food production to keep pace with demand, while retaining the essential ecological integrity of production systems, requires coordinated action among science disciplines. Thus, 21st-century Agriculture should incorporate disciplines related to natural resources, environmental science, and life sciences. Biogeography, as one of those disciplines, provides a unique contribution because it can generate research ideas and methods that can be used to ameliorate this challenge, with the concept of relative space providing the conceptual and analytical framework within which data can be integrated, related, and structured into a whole. A new branch of Biogeography, Agriculture Biogeography, is proposed here and defined as the application of the principles, theories, and analyses of Biogeography to agricultural systems, including all human activities related to breeding or cultivation, mostly to provide goods and services. It not only encompasses the problem that land use seems scarcely to be compatible with biodiversity conservation, but also a substantial body of theory and analysis involving subjects not strictly related to conservation. Our aim is to define the field and scope of Agriculture Biogeography, set the foundations of a conceptual framework of the discipline, and present some subjects related to Agriculture Biogeography. We present, in summary form, a concept map which summarizes the relationship between agriculture systems and Biogeography, and delineates the current engagement between Agriculture and Biogeography through the discussion of some perspectives from Biogeography and from the agriculture research.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Selma B. Pena ◽  
Maria Luísa Franco ◽  
Manuela R. Magalhães

The ecological-based methodologies are determinant to develop complete strategies in restoring the ecosystems at a landscape scale. Those methodologies start with comprehending ecological processes by mapping fundamental structures of the territory (water, soil, biodiversity), also called green infrastructures. The adequate land use planning and its forthcoming implementation will guarantee a multifunctional landscape, better ecosystem services provision, and a possibility of developing new economies. The intervention of Landscape Architecture at the landscape scale will also provide information about the place and the type of restoration actions to be implemented. The Centre Region was the most affected by rural fires from 2017, representing 15% of the total region area (416 thousand hectares). These events reflect the high importance of rethinking the territory with more suitable land uses, considering the concepts of sustainability, resilience, and ecological integrity. This work proposes a Landscape Transformation Plan for the Centre Region of Portugal, applying the FIRELAN model. The results show that about 35% of the Centre Region should have restoration action towards a more sustainable landscape.


2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 437-461 ◽  
Author(s):  
Antonio Cardesa-Salzmann ◽  
Endrius Cocciolo

AbstractThis article begins by questioning the capacity of the concept of sustainable development to stabilize social reproduction and foster global justice. Based on interdisciplinary perspectives on global governance, it discusses the way in which global law fails to cope with the resonance of advanced capitalism in the world society and ecological systems. Our analysis focuses on the regulatory and institutional features of three interwoven functional regulatory regimes (global finance, energy, and environmental protection), which demonstrate structural governance dysfunction at the expense of ecological integrity and justice in the global realm. The article further examines the capacity of global law to foster a ‘compositive’ and ‘compensatory’ contribution to global justice and the stability of the Earth system through global constitutionalism. In this context, it concludes that Neil Walker's global law approach provides a fertile analytical framework for describing the patterns of interaction between different species of global law but proves to be particularly ‘slippery’ in its normative propositions regarding the gap between global law and justice. Drawing from the Earth system approach, we argue in favour of a global material constitutionalism, recognizant of ecosystemic boundaries and socio-environmental impacts of the global socio-economic metabolism. We consider that the gap between global law and global justice is best addressed by devising more deliberative patterns of transnational governance, as well as ecosystem and human rights approaches, in order to accommodate the fair and equitable internalization of material limits across global regulatory regimes that act as functionally differentiated economic constitutions of advanced capitalism.


2022 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas Luypaert ◽  
Anderson S. Bueno ◽  
Gabriel S. Masseli ◽  
Igor L. Kaefer ◽  
Marconi Campos-Cerqueira ◽  
...  

1. Soundscape studies are increasingly common to capture landscape-scale ecological patterns. Yet, several aspects of soundscape diversity quantification remain unexplored. Although some processes influencing acoustic niche usage may operate in the 24h domain, most acoustic indices only capture the diversity of sounds co-occurring in sound files at a specific time of day. Moreover, many indices do not consider the relationship between the spectral and temporal traits of sounds simultaneously. To provide novel insights into landscape-scale patterns of acoustic niche usage at broader temporal scales, we present a workflow to quantify soundscape diversity through the lens of functional ecology. 2. Our workflow quantifies the functional diversity of sound in the 24-hour acoustic trait space. We put forward an entity, the Operational Sound Unit (OSU), which groups sounds by their shared functional properties. Using OSUs as our unit of diversity measurement, and building on the framework of Hill numbers, we propose three metrics that capture different aspects of acoustic trait space usage: (i) soundscape richness; (ii) soundscape diversity; (iii) soundscape evenness. We demonstrate the use of these metrics by (a) simulating soundscapes to assess if the indices possess a set of desirable behaviours; and (b) quantifying the soundscape richness and evenness along a gradient in species richness to illustrate how these metrics can be used to shed unique insights into patterns of acoustic niche usage. 3. We demonstrate that: (a) the indices outlined herein have desirable behaviours; and (b) the soundscape richness and evenness are positively correlated with the richness of soniferous species. This suggests that the acoustic niche space is more filled where taxonomic richness is higher. Moreover, species-poor acoustic communities have a higher proportion of rare sounds and use the acoustic space less effectively. As the correlation between the soundscape and taxonomic richness is strong (>0.8) and holds at low sampling intensities, soundscape richness could serve as a proxy for taxonomic richness. 4. Quantifying the soundscape diversity through the lens of functional ecology using the analytical framework of Hill numbers generates novel insights into acoustic niche usage at a landscape scale and provides a useful proxy for taxonomic richness measurement.


2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (3) ◽  
pp. 433-444
Author(s):  
Amanuel Isak Tewolde

Many scholars and South African politicians characterize the widespread anti-foreigner sentiment and violence in South Africa as dislike against migrants and refugees of African origin which they named ‘Afro-phobia’. Drawing on online newspaper reports and academic sources, this paper rejects the Afro-phobia thesis and argues that other non-African migrants such as Asians (Pakistanis, Indians, Bangladeshis and Chinese) are also on the receiving end of xenophobia in post-apartheid South Africa. I contend that any ‘outsider’ (White, Asian or Black African) who lives and trades in South African townships and informal settlements is scapegoated and attacked. I term this phenomenon ‘colour-blind xenophobia’. By proposing this analytical framework and integrating two theoretical perspectives — proximity-based ‘Realistic Conflict Theory (RCT)’ and Neocosmos’ exclusivist citizenship model — I contend that xenophobia in South Africa targets those who are in close proximity to disadvantaged Black South Africans and who are deemed outsiders (e.g., Asian, African even White residents and traders) and reject arguments that describe xenophobia in South Africa as targeting Black African refugees and migrants.


1998 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 41-45
Author(s):  
Rhett Johnson ◽  
Dean Gjerstad

2020 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 150-164
Author(s):  
Claudio Baraldi ◽  
Laura Gavioli

This paper analyses healthcare interactions involving doctors, migrant patients and ‘intercultural mediators’ who provide interpreting services. Our study is based on a collection of 300 interactions involving two language pairs, Arabic–Italian and English–Italian. The analytical framework includes conversation analysis combined with insights from social systems theory. We look at question-answer sequences, where (1) the doctors ask questions about patients’ problems or history, (2) the doctors’ questions are responded to and (3) the doctor closes the sequence, moving on to another question. We analyse the ways in which mediators help doctors design questions for patients and patients understand and eventually respond to the doctors’ design. While the doctor’s question design aims at obtaining details which are relevant for the patients’ care, it is argued that collecting such details involves complex interactional work. In particular, doctors need help in displaying their attention to their patients’ problems and in guiding patients’ responses into medically relevant directions. Likewise, patients need help in reacting appropriately. Mediators help manage communicative uncertainty both by showing the doctor’s interest in what the patient says, and by exploring and rendering the patient’s incomplete, extended and ambiguous answers to the doctor’s questions.


Author(s):  
Margaret Jane Radin

Boilerplate—the fine-print terms and conditions that we become subject to when we click “I agree” online, rent an apartment, or enter an employment contract, for example—pervades all aspects of our modern lives. On a daily basis, most of us accept boilerplate provisions without realizing that should a dispute arise about a purchased good or service, the nonnegotiable boilerplate terms can deprive us of our right to jury trial and relieve providers of responsibility for harm. Boilerplate is the first comprehensive treatment of the problems posed by the increasing use of these terms, demonstrating how their use has degraded traditional notions of consent, agreement, and contract, and sacrificed core rights whose loss threatens the democratic order. This book examines attempts to justify the use of boilerplate provisions by claiming either that recipients freely consent to them or that economic efficiency demands them, and it finds these justifications wanting. It argues that our courts, legislatures, and regulatory agencies have fallen short in their evaluation and oversight of the use of boilerplate clauses. To improve legal evaluation of boilerplate, the book offers a new analytical framework, one that takes into account the nature of the rights affected, the quality of the recipient's consent, and the extent of the use of these terms. It goes on to offer possibilities for new methods of boilerplate evaluation and control, and concludes by discussing positive steps that NGOs, legislators, regulators, courts, and scholars could take to bring about better practices.


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