The strong and the weak: evaluation in modal desideratives

See PDF

Evaluation and consumption

Singular indefinite objects of evaluative predicates (e.g. like) are interpreted specifically (1). But several constructions do not yield specific readings, (2). (1) # John likes a cookie. (specific reading/#kind reading) (2) a. John likes a cookie after dinner. b. John likes having a cookie. c. John likes a good cookie. d. John likes a cookie as much as the next guy. We propose that constructions with a minimal consumption-situation reading license a contextual operator which binds the object, giving it a non-specific reading

Simulating rewetting events in intermittent rivers and ephemeral streams: a global analysis of leached nutrients and organic matter

Climate change and human pressures are changing the global distribution and extent of intermittent rivers and ephemeral streams (IRES), which comprise half of the global river network area. IRES are characterized by periods of flow cessation, during which channel substrates accumulate and undergo physico‐chemical changes (preconditioning), and periods of flow resumption, when these substrates are rewetted and release pulses of dissolved nutrients and organic matter (OM). However, there are no estimates of the amounts and quality of leached substances, nor is there information on the underlying environmental constraints operating at the global scale. We experimentally simulated, under standard laboratory conditions, rewetting of leaves, riverbed sediments, and epilithic biofilms collected during the dry phase across 205 IRES from five major climate zones. We determined the amounts and qualitative characteristics of the leached nutrients and OM, and estimated their areal fluxes from riverbeds. In addition, we evaluated the variance in leachate characteristics in relation to selected environmental variables and substrate characteristics. We found that sediments, due to their large quantities within riverbeds, contribute most to the overall flux of dissolved substances during rewetting events (56‐98%), and that flux rates distinctly differ among climate zones. Dissolved organic carbon, phenolics, and nitrate contributed most to the areal fluxes. The largest amounts of leached substances were found in the continental climate zone, coinciding with the lowest potential bioavailability of the leached organic matter. The opposite pattern was found in the arid zone. Environmental variables expected to be modified under climate change (i.e. potential evapotranspiration, aridity, dry period duration, land use) were correlated with the amount of leached substances, with the strongest relationship found for sediments. These results show that the role of IRES should be accounted for in global biogeochemical cycles, especially because prevalence of IRES will increase due to increasing severity of drying events

Priorities for synthesis research in ecology and environmental science

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS We thank the National Science Foundation grant #1940692 for financial support for this workshop, and the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis (NCEAS) and its staff for logistical support.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Priorities for synthesis research in ecology and environmental science

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS We thank the National Science Foundation grant #1940692 for financial support for this workshop, and the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis (NCEAS) and its staff for logistical support.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Simulating rewetting events in intermittent rivers and ephemeral streams: A global analysis of leached nutrients and organic matter

Climate change and human pressures are changing the global distribution and the ex‐ tent of intermittent rivers and ephemeral streams (IRES), which comprise half of the global river network area. IRES are characterized by periods of flow cessation, during which channel substrates accumulate and undergo physico‐chemical changes (precon‐ ditioning), and periods of flow resumption, when these substrates are rewetted and release pulses of dissolved nutrients and organic matter (OM). However, there are no estimates of the amounts and quality of leached substances, nor is there information on the underlying environmental constraints operating at the global scale. We experi‐ mentally simulated, under standard laboratory conditions, rewetting of leaves, river‐ bed sediments, and epilithic biofilms collected during the dry phase across 205 IRES from five major climate zones. We determined the amounts and qualitative character‐ istics of the leached nutrients and OM, and estimated their areal fluxes from riverbeds. In addition, we evaluated the variance in leachate characteristics in relation to selected environmental variables and substrate characteristics. We found that sediments, due to their large quantities within riverbeds, contribute most to the overall flux of dis‐ solved substances during rewetting events (56%–98%), and that flux rates distinctly differ among climate zones. Dissolved organic carbon, phenolics, and nitrate contrib‐ uted most to the areal fluxes. The largest amounts of leached substances were found in the continental climate zone, coinciding with the lowest potential bioavailability of the leached OM. The opposite pattern was found in the arid zone. Environmental vari‐ ables expected to be modified under climate change (i.e. potential evapotranspiration, aridity, dry period duration, land use) were correlated with the amount of leached sub‐ stances, with the strongest relationship found for sediments. These results show that the role of IRES should be accounted for in global biogeochemical cycles, especially because prevalence of IRES will increase due to increasing severity of drying event

Past Forward: Using History to Inform Multi-Benefit Ecosystem Management in Human-Dominated Landscapes

Human-dominated ecosystems are increasingly recognized as a crucial component of biodiversity conservation and ecosystem management, with the potential to support biodiversity, deliver ecosystem services, connect people with nature, and contribute to regional connectivity and management goals. However, understanding what ecosystem conservation, restoration, and management goals and targets are appropriate in such landscapes remains a challenge. We often have an extremely limited understanding of the character and consequences of ecosystem change in human-dominated landscapes as a result of the rapid and extensive transformations of the past centuries, a blind spot that can hamper our ability to manage these landscapes in a way that is place-based, pragmatic, and grounded in local landscape potential. This dissertation aims to advance the practice of ecosystem management in human-dominated landscapes by exploring how historical ecology, which provides a long-term historical perspective on system patterns, dynamics, and trajectories, can inform a variety of management goals in human-dominated landscapes. I explore three dimensions of the applicability of a historical perspective to multi-benefit landscape management: ecosystem conservation and restoration, managing for ecosystem services such as carbon storage, and managing for ecological resilience.In Chapter 2, I present the first quantitative and systematic review of the global historical ecology literature across ecosystems and identify the specific recommendations for ecosystem management that have emerged from the global body of historical ecology research over the past two decades. I found clear patterns in the types of recommendations generated by the historical ecology literature, including an emphasis on the role of both habitat remnants and human-dominated landscapes in management, the role of people in landscape stewardship, and the value of a landscape-scale perspective. About one-quarter of studies contained at least one surprising recommendation that revised or challenged status quo management for the study system or site in question, affirming the ability of historical ecology to provide new insights that can adjust how we manage species and ecosystems. I found that fewer than 12% of papers contained recommendations that explicitly addressed ongoing or projected climate change, suggesting opportunities to integrate findings from historical ecology with other perspectives to create forward-looking management strategies.In Chapter 3, I use historical datasets to reconstruct landscape-scale changes in an ecosystem service, carbon storage, in Santa Clara Valley over the past ca. 200 years from pre-settlement conditions through urban development. This is the first such examination of temporal changes in carbon storage in an urban area extending before 1900. I found that total tree carbon storage in the study area was ~784,000 to 2.2 million Mg ca. 1800, compared to ~895,000 Mg C today, suggestive of considerable losses of up to 60% of former carbon storage. My results suggest that in Mediterranean-climate ecosystems with heterogeneous tree cover, gains in aboveground carbon storage in formerly treeless areas can be offset by losses in high-biomass former woodland areas, challenging the hypothesis that aboveground carbon storage is likely to increase with urbanization in arid and semiarid environments due to irrigation and tree planting.Finally, in Chapter 4 I explore the role of history in informing resilience-based ecosystem management in highly modified landscapes. I synthesize and simplify the published literature on mechanisms of ecological resilience into seven dimensions of landscape-scale ecological resilience, along with a set of key considerations for evaluating the current state of a landscape and identifying potential management strategies that could contribute to resilience. I then demonstrate application of the approach through case studies in the agricultural Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta and urban Santa Clara Valley, each of which drew on detailed regional-scale assessments of ecological history and change as a first step to analyze landscape context. This work advances the practice of resilience-based management by providing a structured approach and shared vocabulary for identifying potential opportunities and actions likely to increase landscape resilience in highly modified systems, and ultimately better equip landscapes to sustain biodiversity and function into the future. Taken as a whole, this research underscores the continued value of history as a cornerstone of multi-benefit ecosystem management, even in human-dominated landscapes and in the context of transformations in land use and climate

Not all null have-clauses are alike

Abstract. This paper provides a semantics for overt and phonologically-null have predicates. We present a typology that distinguishes null haves on two dimensions: prepositional/verbal status and stative/telic status. We argue that evaluative verbs such as like can select null have-clauses of the telic verbal class. We further argue that have semantically requires a relation that is supplied by the object nominal in a Pustejovskian framework

Biophilia beyond the Building: Applying the Tools of Urban Biodiversity Planning to Create Biophilic Cities

In response to the widely recognized negative impacts of urbanization on biodiversity, many cities are reimagining urban design to provide better biodiversity support. Some cities have developed urban biodiversity plans, primarily focused on improving biodiversity support and ecosystem function within the built environment through habitat restoration and other types of urban greening projects. The biophilic cities movement seeks to reframe nature as essential infrastructure for cities, seamlessly integrating city and nature to provide abundant, accessible nature for all residents and corresponding health and well-being outcomes. Urban biodiversity planning and biophilic cities have significant synergies in their goals and the means necessary to achieve them. In this paper, we identify three key ways by which the urban biodiversity planning process can support biophilic cities objectives: engaging the local community; identifying science-based, quantitative goals; and setting priorities for action. Urban biodiversity planning provides evidence-based guidance, tools, and techniques needed to design locally appropriate, pragmatic habitat enhancements that support biodiversity, ecological health, and human health and well-being. Developing these multi-functional, multi-benefit strategies that increase the abundance of biodiverse nature in cities has the potential at the same time to deepen and enrich our biophilic experience in daily life

From savanna to suburb: Effects of 160 years of landscape change on carbon storage in Silicon Valley, California

Landscape changes such as urbanization can dramatically affect the provision of ecosystem services such as carbon storage. However, while cities have been shown to store substantial amounts of carbon in soils and vegetation, we have little information from long-term studies about how contemporary carbon storage in urban areas compares to carbon storage in the natural ecosystems that characterized these landscapes prior to urbanization. We used historical archival sources and land-cover data to quantify and map historical tree carbon storage in the now-urban Santa Clara Valley, California, USA prior to substantial Euro-American modification (ca. 1850) and to analyze change in the amount and distribution of carbon storage over the past ca. 160 years. We estimate that total tree carbon storage in the study area was ~784,000 to 2.2 million Mg (13.6–38.1 Mg C/ha) when the region was characterized by oak savanna and woodland habitats, compared to ~895,000 Mg C (15.5 Mg C/ha) today. This represents a non-significant gain of 14% to a significant loss of 60% depending on scenario. We also demonstrate changes in the spatial distribution of carbon on the landscape, as losses in carbon storage in areas of former oak woodland were partially offset by gains in carbon storage in historical habitat types that historically had few or no trees. This challenges the hypothesis that aboveground carbon storage increases with urbanization in Mediterranean-climate ecosystems due to irrigation and tree planting. Our study demonstrates the utility of using pre-1900s historical sources to reconstruct changes in ecosystem services such as carbon storage over century time scales