The contribution of insects to global forest deadwood decomposition

The amount of carbon stored in deadwood is equivalent to about 8 per cent of the global forest carbon stocks. The decomposition of deadwood is largely governed by climate with decomposer groups—such as microorganisms and insects—contributing to variations in the decomposition rates. At the global scale, the contribution of insects to the decomposition of deadwood and carbon release remains poorly understood. Here we present a field experiment of wood decomposition across 55 forest sites and 6 continents. We find that the deadwood decomposition rates increase with temperature, and the strongest temperature effect is found at high precipitation levels. Precipitation affects the decomposition rates negatively at low temperatures and positively at high temperatures. As a net effect—including the direct consumption by insects and indirect effects through interactions with microorganisms—insects accelerate the decomposition in tropical forests (3.9% median mass loss per year). In temperate and boreal forests, we find weak positive and negative effects with a median mass loss of 0.9 per cent and −0.1 per cent per year, respectively. Furthermore, we apply the experimentally derived decomposition function to a global map of deadwood carbon synthesized from empirical and remote-sensing data, obtaining an estimate of 10.9 ± 3.2 petagram of carbon per year released from deadwood globally, with 93 per cent originating from tropical forests. Globally, the net effect of insects may account for 29 per cent of the carbon flux from deadwood, which suggests a functional importance of insects in the decomposition of deadwood and the carbon cycle

Collectivized Identity among Shi’a Imami Isma’ili Muslims of Calgary:Implications for Pluralism and Policy

Installés au Canada depuis une trentaine d’années, les musulmans ismaéliens de secte Shi’a Imami à Calgary sont caractérisés par une grande diversité. Le critère déterminant de l’identité collective dans une société démocratique libérale plurielle est une question essentielle. À partir d’une étude sur les contextes identitaires des jeunes immigrés, des interviews avec parents et chefs communautaires indiquent que la religion est un élément-clé de définition. Plusieurs stratégies collectives servent à la construction d’un nouvel ordre social dans un nouveau contexte et le maintien de sa cohésion sociale. La citoyenneté est considérée par les participants comme un processus complexe qui garantit le respect des droits de la personne et permet aussi une appartenance collective tandis que l’intégration exige une recherche de l’ouverture face à la discrimination et les préjugés. Dans le cadre de la politique canadienne de multiculturalisme, la création des identités hybridisées exprime la double dimension de la brutalité linguistique de l’installation en terre nouvelle et d’un espoir idéalisé dans ce nouveau contexte de vie.In Canada for almost thirty years, the Shi’a Imami Isma’ili Muslims of Calgary are remarkably diverse. At issue is the basis of collective identity in a plural liberal democratic society. Set within a study of the contexts of identity formation of immigration youth, interviews with parents and community leaders indicate that it is religion that holds central defining value. Furthermore, several collective strategies contribute to the construction of a new social order in a new context and the maintenance of its social cohesion. The participants view citizenship as a complex process which guarantees human rights, while allowing for group membership, whereas integration involves a search for openness in the face of prejudice and discrimination. In the context of a policy of multiculturalism, the creation of new hybridized identities represents both the linguistic violence of resettlement and of an idealized hope in new contexts

Collectivized Identity among Shi’a Imami Isma’ili Muslims of Calgary:Implications for Pluralism and Policy

In Canada for almost thirty years, the Shi’a Imami Isma’ili Muslims of Calgary are remarkably diverse. At issue is the basis of collective identity in a plural liberal democratic society. Set within a study of the contexts of identity formation of immigration youth, interviews with parents and community leaders indicate that it is religion that holds central defining value. Furthermore, several collective strategies contribute to the construction of a new social order in a new context and the maintenance of its social cohesion. The participants view citizenship as a complex process which guarantees human rights, while allowing for group membership, whereas integration involves a search for openness in the face of prejudice and discrimination. In the context of a policy of multiculturalism, the creation of new hybridized identities represents both the linguistic violence of resettlement and of an idealized hope in new contexts

'Normally I should belong to the others': Young people's gendered transcultural competences in creating belonging in Germany and Canada

Young people create differentiated models of belonging. Their strategies reflect contexualized competences - the capacity to understand and negotiate the influence of national frameworks in specific situations. Theories that understand belonging as processual and intersectional offer useful frameworks with which to analyse this. This article uses data from empirical research with young people in a German secondary school and a Canadian junior high school to highlight young people's situated competences and their critique of the respective frameworks of belonging