Rural Livelihoods and Agroforestry Practices in the Missouri Flood Plains

This paper was presented at the International Farming Systems Association - Small Farms in an Ever Changing World: Meeting the challenges of sustainable livelihoods and food security in diverse rural communities on Nov 17-20, 2002, in Lake Buena Vista, Florida.Agroforestry practices, new to many small farms in the United States, may offer many economic and environmental benefits. Small farmers in Northeast and Southeast Missouri were interviewed to understand the relationship between their knowledge and interest in agroforestry practices and their livelihood strategies. Different income diversification strategies were found. The Southeast, with richer cropland, has a more diversified crop portfolio. In the Northeast, crop livestock production systems and part-time farming prevail, reflecting a rural lifestyle option where some household members engage in off-farm activities. Given differences in production systems and income from agriculture, the study finds that those interviewed have some knowledge and interest in agroforestry practices. Windbreaks and riparian buffers ranked highest in knowledge and interest in the Southeast, where household strategies focus on commercial crops and there is concern for the environment. Windbreaks and forest farming were first in the Northeast, where farm households are concerned about the environment, future generations, and new economic opportunities. This finding coincides with perceptions of the importance of trees to the environment, future generations, and economic benefits.This work was funded under cooperative agreement CR 826704-01-0 with the US EPA. The results are the sole responsibility of the investigators at the University of Missouri Columbia, and may not represent the policies or positions of the Environmental Protection Agency

Land Owner Characteristics and Perceptions in Northeast and Southeast Missouri: The Economic and Social Value of Flood Plain Agroforestry to Rural Development Projects

Agroforestry is a familiar land-use strategy in many areas of the tropics, where intensive management systems integrate trees, crops and livestock to maximize production on minimal acreage, mitigating the impacts of slash and burn agriculture. Agroforestry as a practice is slowly gaining recognition in the United States, where it is defined as “intensive land management that optimizes the benefits (physical, biological, economic and social) from biophysical interactions created when trees and/or shrubs are deliberately combined with crops and/or livestock” (Gold et al., 2000).The research project on social and economic benefits of agroforestry practices aims to identify how and when these practices can become an activity of the portfolio of choices that individuals and their families in rural areas pursue in their livelihood strategies. This study aims at understanding the characteristics of land owners that are not engaged in farming, and who may be interested in agroforestry practices.This work was funded through the University of Missouri Center for Agroforestry under cooperative agreements 58-6227-1-004 with the ARS and C R 826704-01-2 with the US EPA. The results presented are the sole responsibility of the P.I. and/or MU and may not represent the policies or positions of the ARS or EPA

A review of Bayesian belief network models as decision-support tools for wetland conservation : are water birds potential umbrella taxa?

10 pagesCreative approaches to identifying umbrella species hold promise for devising effective surrogates of ecological communities or ecosystems. However, mechanistic niche models that predict range or habitat overlap among species may yet lack development. We reviewed literature on taxon-centered Bayesian belief network (BBN) models to explore a novel approach to identify umbrella taxa identifying taxonomic groups that share the largest proportion of habitat requirements (i.e., states of important habitat variables) with other wetland-dependent taxa. We reviewed and compiled published literature to provide a comprehensive and reproducible account of the current understanding of habitat requirements for freshwater, wetland-dependent taxa using BBNs. We found that wetland birds had the highest degree of shared habitat requirements with other taxa, and consequently may be suitable umbrella taxa in freshwater wetlands. Comparing habitat requirements using a BBN approach to build species distribution models, this review also identified taxa that may not benefit from conservation actions targeted at umbrella taxa by identifying taxa with unique habitat requirements not shared with umbrellas. Using a standard node set that accurately and comprehensively represents the ecosystem in question, BBNs could be designed to improve identification of umbrella taxa. In wetlands, expert knowledge about hydrology, geomorphology and soils could add important information regarding physical landscape characteristics relevant to species. Thus, a systems-oriented framework may improve overarching inferences from BBNs and subsequent utility to conservation planning and management.Postprin

Perspectives on the future of burnout in sport

The present editorial provides a series of perspectives on the future of burnout in sport. Specifically, for the first time, seven burnout researchers offer their opinions and suggestions for how, as a field, we can progress our understanding of this important topic. A broad range of ideas are discussed including the relevance of the social context, the value of theory and collaboration, and the use of public health frameworks in future work. It is hoped that these perspectives will help stimulate debate, reinforce and renew priorities, and guide research in this area over the coming years

Perfectionism, burnout and engagement in youth sport: The mediating role of basic psychological needs

© 2016 Elsevier Ltd. Recent research indicates perfectionistic concerns and perfectionistic strivings share divergent associations with athlete burnout and athlete engagement. Guided by self-determination theory, the present study examined whether these associations were explained by basic psychological needs. Youth athletes (n = 222, M age = 16.01, SD = 2.68) completed measures of multidimensional perfectionism, athlete burnout, athlete engagement, basic psychological need satisfaction and thwarting. Structural equation modelling revealed that basic psychological need satisfaction and thwarting mediated the perfectionism-engagement and perfectionism-burnout relationships. Perfectionistic concerns shared a negative relationship (via need satisfaction) with athlete engagement and a positive relationship (via need satisfaction and thwarting) with athlete burnout. In contrast, perfectionistic strivings shared a positive relationship (via need satisfaction) with athlete engagement and a negative relationship (via need satisfaction and thwarting) with athlete burnout. The findings highlight the role of basic psychological needs in explaining the differential associations that perfectionistic concerns and strivings share with athlete burnout and engagement

The psychology of passion: A meta-analytical review of a decade of research on intrapersonal outcomes

It is just over a decade since Vallerand et al. (J Personal Soc Psychol 85:756–767, 2003) introduced the dualistic model of passion. In this study, we conduct a meta-analytical review of relationships between Vallerand et al’s two passions (viz. harmonious and obsessive), and intrapersonal outcomes, and test the moderating role of age, gender, domain, and culture. A systematic literature search yielded 94 studies, within which 27 criterion variables were reported. These criterion variables derived from four research areas within the intrapersonal sphere: (a) well-/ill-being, (b) motivation factors, (c) cognitive outcomes and, (d) behaviour and performance. From these areas we retrieved 1308 independent effect sizes and analysed them using random-effects models. Results showed harmonious passion positively corresponded with positive intrapersonal outcomes (e.g., positive affect, flow, performance). Obsessive passion, conversely, showed positive associations with positive and negative