AQUATIC LOCOMOTION IN BIRDS – BIOMECHANICS, MORPHOMETRICS, AND EVOLUTION

The entire diversity of life on earth exists in air or water. Whether an organism lives in air or water provides the most fundamental description of its physical world and establishes an organism’s ecological niche on the most essential level. Because these two fluids are vastly different from one another, they also dictate, via the process of natural selection, the morphology and physiology of the organisms which call them home. By studying how organisms interact with these fluids – to locomote or obtain food, for example – we have the ability to not only link organism form and function, but also to study the process of evolution itself. These two goals have been the focus of my dissertation, using diving birds as a model system. Of the 40 extant orders of birds, 16 orders contain aquatic or semi-aquatic members – species which regularly locomote on or in water as part of their life-history. Birds constitute just over 30% of all terrestrial vertebrates; thus, the bird species which move in water are both substantial and diverse. Only 1 of 16 orders have lost the ability to fly. Species in the remaining 15 orders face simultaneous selection for effective and efficient locomotion in both air and water, despite the vast differences between these two fluids. In Chapter 1 of this dissertation, I review the biomechanics of aquatic locomotion in birds and test existing hypotheses surrounding their morphologies. In Chapter 2, I use geometric morphometrics to determine how the multifunctionality of semi-aquatic birds – specifically, the wings of wing-propelled diving birds – has constrained or facilitated their morphological diversity. In Chapters 3 and 4, I use kinematic analysis to test whether the pressures of retaining aerial flight mean that species which use their wings for locomotion in both air and water are less effective and less efficient in water than lineages which have lost aerial flight. Finally, in Chapter 5, I document submerged aquatic locomotion in non-aquatic birds, despite a lack of selection or experience for this behavior, altering current understanding of the evolution of aquatic lifestyles in vertebrates

Wild entanglements: exploring the visions and dilemmas of ‘renaturing’ urban Britain

In a rapidly urbanising world, where lands are increasingly repurposed for human endeavours, where seas and rivers carry the weight of mounting plastic, where species extinction is a common theme and where the effects of global climate change are a daily reality, there has never been a more pressing need to rethink nature-society relations and environmental ethics. This thesis draws insights from two cases of urban renaturing in Britain (London and Plymouth) to explore critical issues in contemporary environmental practice, including what matters for humans and nonhumans in such endeavours. Renaturing is here understood as an intentional, reflective attempt to restore human/nonhuman relations, as well as the biophysical health of ecosystems. The twofold nature of this endeavour makes it a productive point of investigation, offering a means to uniquely contribute to academic discussions on nature-society relations and the future purpose of nature conservation in the UK. It argues that within urban environments, renaturing is best understood as a lively and creative endeavour, yet one full of contestation, characterised by issues of power, ownership and participation. For this reason, the thesis explores renaturing from human and more-than-human perspectives, to draw out multiple voices and thereby enrich understandings of what it means to intervene in nature, especially in dynamic, multispecies cities. The two case studies offer different angles on urban renaturing. Firstly, the study reveals that contemporary ambitions for ‘wilder cities’ do not exist in a vacuum: ‘nature’ is silently structured and ordered according to urban planning agendas, as well as vivid (re)imaginations of the environmental past. Secondly, it reveals that wild spaces can become highly defended places in cities. While this is partly due to do with the perceived issue of urban encroachment (higher densities of people), it is also to do with the way nature is imagined (as vulnerable and exclusive). Thirdly, it reveals that renaturing has material consequences for all those creatures who do not ‘count’ as nature. Taking a more-than-human approach, it argues that spatial categories (native/invasive, wild/domestic) do little to meet contemporary challenges in more ethical and meaningful ways. Finally, it reveals that in post-normal and post-natural times, there are significant limitations in the way(s) that humans govern the nonhuman world, including the decision-making capabilities of such actors. It therefore argues that there is a need to rethink the ways in which nature knowledge is produced, with closer attention to place, and what place reveals about the inextricable entanglements of people, plants and the many creatures and critters that exist in UK cities

Ecological Imperialism: A Holistic Analysis of the Guano Trade in Nineteenth-Century Peru

Theoretical studies of imperialism, dependency, unequal exchange, and world-systems have commonly overlooked the ecological foundation of cross-national trade and relations. More generally, in the social sciences the influence –or even the very existence– of external nature upon or beyond society has often been neglected, despite constituting the basis of economic flows. In addition, despite their valuable contributions, environmental sociology notions such as unequal ecological exchange remain undertheorized. Seeking to address these issues and drawing on data from archives in Peru, Great Britain, and France, as well as on primary sources available online and on an exhaustive analysis of secondary sources, this work provides a historical, sociological, and theoretical account of ecological imperialism (understood as the expropriation of the ecological wealth of one country by another) by means of examining a case study of the 19th-century guano (bird dung) trade between Peru and Britain. The lens in this study is derived from ecology in the natural sciences and historical materialism in the social sciences, drawing for their interface on Karl Marx’s concept of the metabolic rift, i.e. the loss of soil nutrients that are drained into cities where they are discarded as waste. This work gives a holistic understanding of the siphoning of Peru’s nutrients into Europe and the United States, provides firsthand archival evidence about the atrocious living conditions of the guano diggers in Peru (chiefly Chinese bonded laborers), and emphasizes environmental conditions as much as social relations vis-à-vis center-periphery dynamics. This way, this study shows how the guano trade can enhance our understanding of the ecological, social, and unequal development effects of imperialism, both historically and today; how further analyses of socioecological phenomena can be carried out; and the importance of history for comprehending current socioecological inequalities within and across nations

Projected effects of increased diversion of Lake Michigan water on the environment of the Illinois River Valley

U.S. Army Corps of Engineersunpublishednot peer reviewedOpe

Toxicological profile for aldrin and dieldrin

VERSION HISTORYDate DescriptionJune 2022 Final toxicological profile releasedJuly 2021 Draft for public comment toxicological profile releasedSeptember 2002 Final toxicological profile releasedApril 1993 Final toxicological profile releasedDecember 1989 Final toxicological profile releasedtp1.pd

The Adirondack Chronology

The Adirondack Chronology is intended to be a useful resource for researchers and others interested in the Adirondacks and Adirondack history.https://digitalworks.union.edu/arlpublications/1000/thumbnail.jp

Twenty-seventh Illinois Custom Spray Operators' Training School: summaries of presentations

Summaries of presentations from the Spray Operators' Training School annual conference, January 8th and 9th, 1975. Also includes the Agricultural Pesticide Dealers' and Applicators' Handbook. In cooperation with Illinois Natural History Survey