Changes in the geographical distribution of plant species and climatic variables on the West Cornwall peninsula (South West UK)

Recent climate change has had a major impact on biodiversity and has altered the geographical distribution of vascular plant species. This trend is visible globally; however, more local and regional scale research is needed to improve understanding of the patterns of change and to develop appropriate conservation strategies that can minimise cultural, health, and economic losses at finer scales. Here we describe a method to manually geo-reference botanical records from a historical herbarium to track changes in the geographical distributions of plant species in West Cornwall (South West England) using both historical (pre-1900) and contemporary (post-1900) distribution records. We also assess the use of Ellenberg and climate indicator values as markers of responses to climate and environmental change. Using these techniques we detect a loss in 19 plant species, with 6 species losing more than 50% of their previous range. Statistical analysis showed that Ellenberg (light, moisture, nitrogen) and climate indicator values (mean January temperature, mean July temperature and mean precipitation) could be used as environmental change indicators. Significantly higher percentages of area lost were detected in species with lower January temperatures, July temperatures, light, and nitrogen values, as well as higher annual precipitation and moisture values. This study highlights the importance of historical records in examining the changes in plant species’ geographical distributions. We present a method for manual geo-referencing of such records, and demonstrate how using Ellenberg and climate indicator values as environmental and climate change indicators can contribute towards directing appropriate conservation strategies

Coherence in Real- and Apparent-Time: A sociolinguistic variationist investigation of language change in Swabia.

PhD ThesesThis research investigates linguistic variation and change in three understudied areas of the dialect-standard language continuum: the changing use of Swabian, an Alemannic dialect spoken in southwestern Germany; the compatibility between findings from a combined real-time panel and trend study; and, the role of sociolectal coherence in explaining how systematic and predictable linguistic patterns can shape variation and foster or constrain language change. This study investigates two communities, the large urban metropolis of Stuttgart and the mid-sized, semi-rural town of Schwäbisch Gmünd, at two points in time: 20 participants, initially interviewed in 1982 and then re-interviewed between 2017-2018, form the panel component, and 40 participants, “social twins” matched with the panel participants for community, age, sex, and education, constitute the trend component. Twenty linguistic variables, 10 phonological and 10 morphosyntactic, are investigated via a token-based Dialect Density Measure (DDM), and two exemplary variables are analysed in-depth: the social meaning of the merger of two variants of the Swabian (ai) diphthong and the use of wo ‘where’ as a relative clause marker versus the standard German relativisers der, die, das, etc. The results show, not surprisingly, that dialect density has declined considerably over the 35-year time period. However, speakers with higher Swabian orientation and with a greater tendency to accommodate to their interlocutors retain more dialect variants, effects that eclipse all other factors (e.g., age, sex, education, mobility). This research builds on concepts from implicational scaling and the lattice theory of mathematics to investigate the hypothesis that more coherent lects are less vulnerable to change and convergence to the standard language while less coherent lects are more susceptible. The findings offer new theoretical insights into the concept of sociolectal coherence and the roles of dialect identity and linguistic accommodation, suggesting some new directions for the study of real- and apparent-time change. Keywords: sociolinguistics, linguistic variation and change, sociolectal coherence, standard language convergence, dialect levelling, supralocalisation, identity, accommodation, mobility, panel studies, trend studies, apparent-time, real-time, dialects, German, Swabian

Karen V. Beaman's Quick Files

The Quick Files feature was discontinued and it’s files were migrated into this Project on March 11, 2022. The file URL’s will still resolve properly, and the Quick Files logs are available in the Project’s Recent Activity

Connect the Dots: Trauma-Informed Practices and You

Educators are overwhelmed with the effects of post-pandemic stress and trauma. What we need to understand is that WE are part of this equation. Trauma doesn\u27t just happen To someone, it\u27s much deeper than that. We need to learn how to regulate ourselves so that we are able to help others. Learn practical tools to empower the success of your classroom and relationships with your students and peers. This is an actively engaging presentation that will have you moving and practicing ways to help keep your nervous system regulated. Understanding our own roles in the environment will produce safer spaces in our society. As Stephen Porges states, If you want to improve the world, start by making people feel safer

Understanding Trauma to Start Connecting the Dots

Explore types of trauma, ACES and recognize the impact of trauma in our students, peers and ourselves which is pivotal for the work we do. Through this session, we will explore how our trauma responses show up in individuals and how to navigate personal and professional systems. Understand how our stress responses are adaptive by nature, but become maladaptive when we lose the ability to cope. Reflect on our circle of control and begin to look at the neuroscience that impacts our ability to engage in healthy ways

Loss of Historical Phonetic Contrast Across the Lifespan: Articulatory, Lexical, and Social Effects on Sound Change in Swabian

This chapter explores the extent to which phonetic environment, lexical frequency, and social factors interact and incite or impede sound change over the lifespan of the individual. The corpus consists of sociolinguistic interviews with 20 panel speakers of Swabian, an Alemannic dialect spoken in southwestern Germany, from two different communities, Stuttgart and Schwäbisch Gmünd, first recorded in 1982 and again in 2017. We investigate the modern standard German diphthong [ai] which evolved from two different Middle High German (MHG) phonemes, /i:/ and /ei/. We use generalised additive mixed-effect models to investigate to what extent F1/F2 trajectories in the vowel space differ in lemmata originating from the two MHG phonemes based on the Total Euclidean Distance Squared (TEDS). In addition to voicing effects, we find that an interaction between community, lexical frequency, and indexicalities of Swabian identity affects the degree to which the two diphthongs are merging, or at least becoming more similar to one another, within the lifespan of one generation. By analysing intra-speaker trajectories, we show how sound change is governed by the intricate interplay between structural factors and individual speaker notions of language ideology, social meaning, and dialect identity