Ecological Impacts of Anthropogenic Fire in Southwestern Ohio, USA, Documented from Public Land Survey Records from 1802 and 1803

Public Land Survey System (PLSS) data collected in 1802 and 1803 were analyzed to evaluate the impacts of anthropogenic fire on pre-Euro-American settlement plant communities within a 50,193 ha (194-square-mile) study area east of what is now Dayton, Ohio. Surveyor data were converted to digital point, line, and polygon files using ArcMap software and mapped with some interpolation based on contemporary GIS data layers including topography, soil moisture, soil type, and Quaternary geology. Sixty-one percent of the study area was covered with woody and non-woody plant communities that are known to be shaped and/or maintained by long-term exposure to surface fires of varying intensities and frequencies: oak-hickory forest, oak woodland, oak savanna, oak barrens, and mesic prairie. Prairies and barrens were concentrated adjacent to the corridors of the Mad River and the Little Miami River and their major tributaries, while oak woodlands were concentrated in adjacent uplands. Oak-sugar maple forest covered an additional 29% of the study area, a community that was interpreted to be pyrophilic oak forest transitioning to mesophytic/ pyrophobic forest in the long-term absence of fire

Prairies and Fens of Bath Township, Greene County, Ohio: 1802 and 1984

Author Institution: Department of Biological Sciences, Wright State UniversitySurveyor's records were used to determine the boundaries of prairies and fens that occurred in Bath Township, Greene Co., Ohio, in 1802. All of the old prairie sites were explored on foot in September and October 1984, to locate existing remnants. Four fen, four prairie, and four marsh remnants were located and the dominant prairie and fen species recorded. The fraction of total land area in these vegetation types went from 17% in 1802 to about 0.7% in 1984. This study illustrates the potential of using the original surveyors' records to locate existing remnants of these vegetation types

The Effects of Wealth on Male Reproduction Among Monogamous Hunter-Fisher-Trappers in Northern Siberia

Variability in men’s reproductive success (RS) is partly attributable to the ability of successful men to influence resource flows relevant to the mate choice and reproduction of women. This study explores the effects of variability in resource flows on men’s RS in an indigenous foraging/mixed-economy community in northern Siberia where monogamous marriage norms predominate. A series of material, embodied, and relational wealth indicators are tested as predictors of men’s age-adjusted RS and age at first birth. Material wealth related to hunting, embodied wealth as represented by hunting skill, and relational wealth as represented by numbers of kin are the most consistent predictors of men’s RS. In this monogamous population, the wives of men with more hunting capital and of men rated as better hunters have shorter interbirth intervals, and hunters show strong producer priority. These findings and ethnographic observations appear more consistent with a provisioning model than with a signaling-for-mates model

Food-Sharing Networks in Lamalera, Indonesia: Reciprocity, Kinship, and Distance

Exponential random graph modeling (ERGM) is used here to test hypotheses derived from human behavioral ecology about the adaptive nature of human food sharing. Respondents in all (n=317) households in the fishing and sea-hunting village of Lamalera, Indonesia were asked to name those households to whom they had more frequently given (and from whom they had more frequently received) food during the preceding sea-hunting season. The responses were used to construct a social network of between-household food-sharing relationships in the village. The results show that kinship, proximity, and reciprocal sharing all strongly increase the probability of giving food to a household. The effects of kinship and distance are relatively independent of each other, while reciprocity is more common among residentially and genealogically close households. The results show support for reciprocal altruism as a motivation for food sharing while kinship and distance appear to be important partner-choice criteria

Time Distribution of Faculty Workload at Boise State University

This project’s first phase was to get a general idea of what the average work day looks like for a Boise State University faculty member; from this stage we developed activity definitions to use for the next phase. Thirty faculty members were interviewed by fourteen trained undergraduate research assistants over the course of two weeks on alternating days, April 9-21, 2013. These thirty faculty members represented all colleges of the Boise State University campus, including the Library, providing a total of 166 faculty days’ worth of data. The positions held by each participant ranged between an Assistant Professor and a Department Chair. The time diary method enabled students to document the type and duration of activities, functions, locations, and presence or absence of other types of individuals. Data on general work patterns and activities of BSU faculty are presented and broken out by day of week, type of activity, function, and location. These findings indicate that faculty work more than expected and in a wide range of activities and they work alone much of the time

Finding Water Scarcity Amid Abundance Using Human–Natural System Models

Water scarcity afflicts societies worldwide. Anticipating water shortages is vital because of water’s indispensable role in social-ecological systems. But the challenge is daunting due to heterogeneity, feedbacks, and water’s spatial-temporal sequencing throughout such systems. Regional system models with sufficient detail can help address this challenge. In our study, a detailed coupled human–natural system model of one such region identifies how climate change and socioeconomic growth will alter the availability and use of water in coming decades. Results demonstrate how water scarcity varies greatly across small distances and brief time periods, even in basins where water may be relatively abundant overall. Some of these results were unexpected and may appear counterintuitive to some observers. Key determinants of water scarcity are found to be the cost of transporting and storing water, society’s institutions that circumscribe human choices, and the opportunity cost of water when alternative uses compete