Habitat structure: a fundamental concept and framework for urban soil ecology

Habitat structure is defined as the composition and arrangement of physical matter at a location. Although habitat structure is the physical template underlying ecological patterns and processes, the concept is relatively unappreciated and underdeveloped in ecology. However, it provides a fundamental concept for urban ecology because human activities in urban ecosystems are often targeted toward management of habitat structure. In addition, the concept emphasizes the fine-scale, on-the-ground perspective needed in the study of urban soil ecology. To illustrate this, urban soil ecology research is summarized from the perspective of habitat structure effects. Among the key conclusions emerging from the literature review are: (1) habitat structure provides a unifying theme for multivariate research about urban soil ecology; (2) heterogeneous urban habitat structures influence soil ecological variables in different ways; (3) more research is needed to understand relationships among sociological variables, habitat structure patterns and urban soil ecology. To stimulate urban soil ecology research, a conceptual framework is presented to show the direct and indirect relationships among habitat structure and ecological variables. Because habitat structure serves as a physical link between sociocultural and ecological systems, it can be used as a focus for interdisciplinary and applied research (e.g., pest management) about the multiple, interactive effects of urbanization on the ecology of soils

Dynamical Processes in Globular Clusters

Globular clusters are among the most congested stellar systems in the Universe. Internal dynamical evolution drives them toward states of high central density, while simultaneously concentrating the most massive stars and binary systems in their cores. As a result, these clusters are expected to be sites of frequent close encounters and physical collisions between stars and binaries, making them efficient factories for the production of interesting and observable astrophysical exotica. I describe some elements of the competition among stellar dynamics, stellar evolution, and other processes that control globular cluster dynamics, with particular emphasis on pathways that may lead to the formation of blue stragglers.Comment: Chapter 10, in Ecology of Blue Straggler Stars, H.M.J. Boffin, G. Carraro & G. Beccari (Eds), Astrophysics and Space Science Library, Springe

Multiple Roles for Landscape Ecology in Future Farming Systems

This book is a printed edition of the Special Issue “Multiple Roles for Landscape Ecology in Future Farming Systems” that was published in Land. This book aims to inspire landscape ecologists to explore theories and practical tools that can assist in the planning, design, modification, and development of new farming landscapes with the best environmental, economic, and social outcomes in mind. It is also hoped that it will contribute toward developing land systems and land management practices for specific landscapes that meet the goals of increased nutritious food production in the face of market and climatic variability whilst reducing environmental impacts and enhancing natural capital and assisting to drive and support the transformative changes in the socioeconomic and environmental systems of rural areas required for future food production

Evolving collective behavior in an artificial ecology

Collective behavior refers to coordinated group motion, common to many animals. The dynamics of a group can be seen as a distributed model, each “animal” applying the same rule set. This study investigates the use of evolved sensory controllers to produce schooling behavior. A set of artificial creatures “live” in an artificial world with hazards and food. Each creature has a simple artificial neural network brain that controls movement in different situations. A chromosome encodes the network structure and weights, which may be combined using artificial evolution with another chromosome, if a creature should choose to mate. Prey and predators coevolve without an explicit fitness function for schooling to produce sophisticated, nondeterministic, behavior. The work highlights the role of species’ physiology in understanding behavior and the role of the environment in encouraging the development of sensory systems

Extinction rates of established spatial populations

This paper deals with extinction of an isolated population caused by intrinsic noise. We model the population dynamics in a "refuge" as a Markov process which involves births and deaths on discrete lattice sites and random migrations between neighboring sites. In extinction scenario I the zero population size is a repelling fixed point of the on-site deterministic dynamics. In extinction scenario II the zero population size is an attracting fixed point, corresponding to what is known in ecology as Allee effect. Assuming a large population size, we develop WKB (Wentzel-Kramers-Brillouin) approximation to the master equation. The resulting Hamilton's equations encode the most probable path of the population toward extinction and the mean time to extinction. In the fast-migration limit these equations coincide, up to a canonical transformation, with those obtained, in a different way, by Elgart and Kamenev (2004). We classify possible regimes of population extinction with and without an Allee effect and for different types of refuge and solve several examples analytically and numerically. For a very strong Allee effect the extinction problem can be mapped into the over-damped limit of theory of homogeneous nucleation due to Langer (1969). In this regime, and for very long systems, we predict an optimal refuge size that maximizes the mean time to extinction.Comment: 26 pages including 3 appendices, 16 figure

Toward a relational concept of uncertainty: about knowing too little, knowing too differently, and accepting not to know

Uncertainty of late has become an increasingly important and controversial topic in water resource management, and natural resources management in general. Diverse managing goals, changing environmental conditions, conflicting interests, and lack of predictability are some of the characteristics that decision makers have to face. This has resulted in the application and development of strategies such as adaptive management, which proposes flexibility and capability to adapt to unknown conditions as a way of dealing with uncertainties. However, this shift in ideas about managing has not always been accompanied by a general shift in the way uncertainties are understood and handled. To improve this situation, we believe it is necessary to recontextualize uncertainty in a broader way¿relative to its role, meaning, and relationship with participants in decision making¿because it is from this understanding that problems and solutions emerge. Under this view, solutions do not exclusively consist of eliminating or reducing uncertainty, but of reframing the problems as such so that they convey a different meaning. To this end, we propose a relational approach to uncertainty analysis. Here, we elaborate on this new conceptualization of uncertainty, and indicate some implications of this view for strategies for dealing with uncertainty in water management. We present an example as an illustration of these concepts. Key words: adaptive management; ambiguity; frames; framing; knowledge relationship; multiple knowledge frames; natural resource management; negotiation; participation; social learning; uncertainty; water managemen