Human impacts on the functioning of African savannas

Human impacts increasingly threaten savanna ecosystems on the African continent. Because of strong population growth in sub-Saharan Africa, even large, protected areas, such as the Serengeti-Mara Ecosystem in East Africa, are now under great pressure due to increased migration towards the borders of these areas (so-called ‘edge areas’). This development leads to a new set of ecological challenges, which includes a better understanding of the impact of human activities in and around protected areas on the functioning of savanna ecosystems. The shift in the form and the intensity of herbivory is one of the major human-induced changes in savannas. In this thesis I investigate the consequences of this shift for 1) the resilience of the landscape to drought, 2) vegetation structure, and 3) the attractiveness of edge areas for native herbivores. I also explore the usability of camera traps in the estimation of aboveground productivity, a key ecosystem function in savannas. The results show that human impacts on savannas are predictable based on abiotic environmental variables. The recent and alarming increase in woody plants in areas grazed by livestock is, for example, progressing faster in areas with lower soil fertility and finer soil texture. A second result is that edge areas still provide habitat for native animals. This is mainly so at night and predominantly to smaller species, which can be linked to a form of safety from predators in human-modified landscapes. The insights of this thesis can contribute to new strategies for the coexistence of man and nature in savannas

Travel style on Pinterest: Celebrity bodies as sites of labour and inspiration

This study contributes to the body of work on media tourism by shifting attention from destinations to how we get there. In doing so, I am responding to Pritchard and Morgan’s (2005: 299) call for “explorations of the intimate relationships between travel, fashion, dress, the body and sociocultural constructions of place”. Specifically, I am interested in examining transmedia celebrity discourse as a cultural resource for the imagining and planning of tourism. Focusing on Pinterest images of celebrities in airports, I analyse how the labour of travelling is concealed through images of celebrity bodies that are beautiful, glamorous, wealthy, calm and comfortable, rather than sweaty, tired, rushed or bored. My discussion draws on Wilson and Yochim (2015) to reflect on how the pinned images offer a “promise of happiness” (Ahmed 2010) within a feminised digital space that addresses users as creative consumer-researchers who search for and catalogue inspiration. Here, happiness is not just promised by the tourist destination, but by the possibility of making the journey itself pleasurable. The photographed celebrity bodies become sites of identification and inspiration, demonstrating that this goal can be achieved through careful planning, consumption and self-discipline. I approach the analysis of this networked practice by drawing together literature from a diverse range of fields, including the study of tourism, transport, consumption, celebrities, digital cultures and affect theory

Prairie Mixture Establishment

I n the fall of 2004, two diverse species prairie mixtures, composed of 9-prairie species and 20-species, were broadcast on a recently harvested soybean field. The soil was mostly bare, with minimal crop residue or weeds. The site was mowed several times during the summer of 2005 for weed management. There was some broadleaf and grass weed competition during the 2005 growing season, but some prairie grass and legume seedlings were seen. No systematic stand evaluations were conducted in 2005. In mid-May of 2006 there was such a uniform and significant growth of the native grasses Canada and Virginia wildrye, that the co-PIs decided to revise the management plans for the Lewis site. The overall intent was to establish a coolseason/warm-season dual forage system, using alfalfa and red clover as the ‘cool-season’ component. With the presence of the native, cool-season wildrye component, it was decided to use an all ‘native species’ system at the Armstrong Farm, to contrast with the alfalfa/warm-season prairie mixtures study being managed at a site near Ames, IA

Amulets as Infrastructure

This article explores the use of amulets on children’s bodies, drawing on empirical examples from Mugum in western Nepal and theoretical insights from anthropology of personhood, kinship and infrastructure. Taking four-year old Tashi and his family in Mugum as a starting point, we show how the status of toddlers and small children is “extraordinary”; they are physically fragile, emotionally uncontrolled, and weakly connected, and in need of special protection. In the complex transition to ordinary personhood, amulets serve as one of many “technologies of protection” for children (Garrett 2013, 189). We suggest that amulets act as a stable infrastructure that enables a hope for children to live ordinary lives, and argue that the significance of these means of protection intersects closely with notions of marginality. Note: To have Tibetan script correctly displayed, please download the PDF file and open it in a desktop application.&nbsp

Monkeypox Virus Infections in Small Animal Models for Evaluation of Anti-Poxvirus Agents

An ideal animal model for the study of a human disease is one which utilizes a route of infection that mimics the natural transmission of the pathogen; the ability to obtain disease with an infectious dose equivalent to that causing disease in humans; as well having a disease course, morbidity and mortality similar to that seen with human disease. Additionally, the animal model should have a mode(s) of transmission that mimics human cases. The development of small animal models for the study of monkeypox virus (MPXV) has been quite extensive for the relatively short period of time this pathogen has been known, although only a few of these models have been used to study anti-poxvirus agents. We will review those MPXV small animal models that have been developed thus far for the study of therapeutic agents

Movement of feeder-using songbirds: the influence of urban features

Private gardens provide vital opportunities for people to interact with nature. The most popular form of interaction is through garden bird feeding. Understanding how landscape features and seasons determine patterns of movement of feeder-using songbirds is key to maximising the well-being benefits they provide. To determine these patterns we established three networks of automated data loggers along a gradient of greenspace fragmentation. Over a 12-month period we tracked 452 tagged blue tits Cyantistes caeruleus and great tits Parus major moving between feeder pairs 9,848 times, to address two questions: (i) Do urban features within different forms, and season, influence structural (presence-absence of connections between feeders by birds) and functional (frequency of these connections) connectivity? (ii) Are there general patterns of structural and functional connectivity across forms? Vegetation cover increased connectivity in all three networks, whereas the presence of road gaps negatively affected functional but not structural connectivity. Across networks structural connectivity was lowest in the summer when birds maintain breeding territories, however patterns of functional connectivity appeared to vary with habitat fragmentation. Using empirical data this study shows how key urban features and season influence movement of feeder-using songbirds, and we provide evidence that this is related to greenspace fragmentation.This work was funded under the NERC Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services Sustainability (BESS) thematic programme for the “Fragments Functions and Flows in Urban Ecosystems” project (Reference: NE/J015237/1; http://bess-urban.group.shef.ac.u

Sweet flowers are slow and weeds make haste: anthropogenic dispersal of plants via garden and construction soil

This is the final version of the article. Available from Oxford University Press via the DOI in this record.Anthropogenic activities are increasingly responsible for the dispersal of plants. Of particular concern is anthropogenic dispersal of problematic invasive non-native plants. A common dispersal vector is the movement of soil containing seeds or rhizomes. Housing development and domestic gardening activities cause large quantities of soil to be moved, and understanding the role of these activities is critical for informing policy and management to reduce the spread of problematic plants. Here, by collecting soil samples being moved for housing development and domestic gardening, and observing the species that germinated from these samples, we determined the quantities and invasive status of plants moved. From our samples nearly 2000 individuals representing 90 species germinated. Our results suggest that given the quantity of topsoil needed to cover an average-sized UK garden (190 m2 ), there could be 2.2 million and c.2 million viable seeds in soil sourced from housing developments and gardens, respectively. In both housing development and garden samples, native species were more abundant and species-rich than non-native naturalised and invasive species. Buddleia (an invasive) was the most common species overall and in garden samples; this is likely due to multiple traits that adapt it to dispersal, such as prolific seed production. The abundance of invasive and naturalised species was significantly higher in garden than in housing development samples, suggesting that informal movement of soil between gardens poses a greater risk of spreading invasive plants than commercial sources. Consequences for models predicting future distributions of plants, and strategies to mitigate anthropogenic dispersal of problematic plants are considered.This project was funded by the University of Exeter and the Animal and Plant Health Agency. We are grateful to all who gave samples for this study