Foreword

While several studies have explored how short-term ecological responses to disturbance vary among ecosystems, experimental studies of how contrasting ecosystems recover from disturbance in the longer term are few. We performed a simple long-term experiment on each of 30 contrasting forested islands in northern Sweden that vary in size; as size decreases, time since fire increases, soil fertility and ecosystem productivity declines, and plant species diversity increases. We predicted that resilience of understory plant community properties would be greatest on the larger, more productive islands, and that this would be paralleled by greater resilience of soil biotic and abiotic properties. For each island, we applied three disturbance treatments of increasing intensity to the forest understory once in 1998, i.e., light trimming, heavy trimming, and burning; a fourth treatment was an undisturbed control. We measured recovery of the understory vascular plant community annually over the following 14 years, and at that time also assessed recovery of mosses and several belowground variables. Consistent with our predictions, vascular plant whole-community variables (total cover, species richness, diversity [Shannon's HI, and community composition) recovered significantly more slowly on the smaller (least fertile) than the larger islands, but this difference was not substantial, and only noticeable in the most severely disturbed treatment. When an index of resilience was used, we were unable to detect effects of island size on the recovery of any property. We found that mosses and one shrub species (Empetrum hermaphroditum) recovered particularly slowly, and the higher abundance of this shrub on small islands was sufficient to explain any slower recovery of whole-ecosystem variables on those islands. Further, several belowground variables had not fully recovered from the most intense disturbance after 14 yr, and counter to our predictions, the degree of their recovery was never influenced by island size. While several studies have shown large variation among plant communities in their short-term response (notably resistance) to environmental perturbations, our results reveal that when perturbations are applied equally to highly contrasting ecosystems, differences in resilience among them in the longer term can be relatively minor, regardless of the severity of disturbance

Lichen specific thallus mass and secondary compounds change across a retrogressive fire-driven chronosequence

In the long-term absence of major disturbances ecosystems enter a state of retrogression, which involves declining soil fertility and consequently a reduction in decomposition rates. Recent studies have looked at how plant traits such as specific leaf mass and amounts of secondary compounds respond to declining soil fertility during retrogression, but there are no comparable studies for lichen traits despite increasing recognition of the role that lichens can play in ecosystem processes. We studied a group of 30 forested islands in northern Sweden differing greatly in fire history, and collectively representing a retrogressive chronosequence, spanning 5000 years. We used this system to explore how specific thallus mass (STM) and carbon based secondary compounds (CBSCs) change in three common epiphytic lichen species (Hypogymnia phsyodes, Melanohalea olivacea and Parmelia sulcata) as soil fertility declines during this retrogression. We found that STMs of lichens increased sharply during retrogression, and for all species soil N to P ratio (which increased during retrogression) was a strong predictor of STM. When expressed per unit area, medullary CBSCs in all species and cortical CBSCs in P. sulcata increased during retrogression. Meanwhile, when expressed per unit mass, only cortical CBSCs in H. physodes responded to retrogression, and in the opposite direction. Given that lichen functional traits are likely to be important in driving ecological processes that drive nutrient and carbon cycling in the way that plant functional traits are, the changes that they undergo during retrogression could potentially be significant for the functioning of the ecosystem

Prosocial and antisocial children's perceptions of peers' motives for prosocial behaviours

This study investigated whether peer-nominated prosocial and antisocial children have different perceptions of the motives underlying peers' prosocial actions. Eighty-seven children, aged 10-12 years old, completed peer-nomination measures of social behaviour. On the basis of numbers of social nominations received, a subsample of 51 children (32 who were peer-nominated as 'prosocial', and 18 who were peer-nominated as 'antisocial') then recorded their perceptions of peers' motives for prosocial behaviours. Expressed motives were categorized predominantly into three categories, coinciding with Turiel's (1978) 'moral', 'conventional', and 'personal domains'. Results indicate that children's social reputation is associated with the extent to which they perceive peers' prosocial motives as 'personal' or 'moral', with more prosocial children attributing moral motives, and more antisocial children attributing personal motives. Although traditionally Turiel's domain theory has been used to understand 'antisocial' children's behaviour, the current findings suggest that 'prosocial' children's behaviour may also be related to domains of judgment

The ecosystem and evolutionary contexts of allelopathy

Plants can release chemicals into the environment that suppress the growth and establishment of other plants in their vicinity, a process known as ‘allelopathy’. However, chemicals with allelopathic functions have other ecological roles, such as plant defense, nutrient chelation, and regulation of soil biota in ways that affect decomposition and soil fertility. These ecosystem-scale roles of allelopathic chemicals can augment, attenuate or modify their community-scale functions. In this review we explore allelopathy in the context of ecosystem properties, and through its role in exotic invasions consider how evolution might affect the intensity and importance of allelopathic interactions

Reason to Ratify: The Influence of John Locke\u27s Religious Beliefs on the Creation and Adoption of the United States Constitution

The pervasive influence of Lockean religious convictions motivated the framers of the Constitution to establish a new form of government, provided the theoretical basis for the document itself, and inspired its popular ratification. Part II will lay the groundwork for this thesis by outlining Locke\u27s life and sources of his religious beliefs. Part III will undertake a more substantive examination of Locke\u27s opinions and the writings that memorialized them. Establishing how Lockean ideas of natural law, social contract, and reason are related to the inspiration, drafting, and acceptance of the Constitution takes place in Part IV, before the article\u27s conclusion in Part V

Reason to Ratify: The Influence of John Locke\u27s Religious Beliefs on the Creation and Adoption of the United States Constitution

The pervasive influence of Lockean religious convictions motivated the framers of the Constitution to establish a new form of government, provided the theoretical basis for the document itself, and inspired its popular ratification. Part II will lay the groundwork for this thesis by outlining Locke\u27s life and sources of his religious beliefs. Part III will undertake a more substantive examination of Locke\u27s opinions and the writings that memorialized them. Establishing how Lockean ideas of natural law, social contract, and reason are related to the inspiration, drafting, and acceptance of the Constitution takes place in Part IV, before the article\u27s conclusion in Part V

School related law : do principals know what they need to know? : a report presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Educational Administration at Massey University

It is argued that the importance of the law in education has developed to the point where legal literacy for school principals is a core professional requirement. Although work to establish the level of legal literacy among principals has not been done in New Zealand, some commentators contend that a great number of school managers are still unaware of their legal obligations and duties. The assumption is made that the situation in this country is similar to that overseas as described in research carried out by a number of researchers in Australia and the United States. This study sought to determine if there are grounds to conclude that the overseas experience with regard to legal literacy is indeed mirrored here. To achieve this a small-scale exploratory research project involving six primary school principals was carried out to determine what knowledge and understandings, views and perceptions they had of school related law, and, in particular, to answer the following questions: 1. What levels of legal literacy are evident amongst a cross section of New Zealand principals? 2. Where do these principals gain their knowledge of school-related law from? 3. What legal risk management policies and practices have these principals implemented and to what extent have they been able to determine or test their effectiveness in meeting the school's legal obligations and in providing protection from litigation? 4. How far are these principals able to determine when issues they are dealing with need professional legal advice? 5. What suggestions did the principals have for improving the current situation? The findings of the study suggest that most have a limited knowledge of school­ related law and a poor understanding of the Principles of Natural Justice. If legal literacy means that they had sufficient knowledge to recognise a legal problem and to recognise the occasions for seeking professional advice then for many it would seem that they do not know what they need to know