Cumulative effects modeling in the mountaintop removal mining region of the central Appalachians

Anthropogenic alteration of natural land cover is a global driver of aquatic resource impairment. It is increasingly recognized that aquatic systems are impacted by multiple land use activities that combine additively and interactively to result in unique patterns of degradation (i.e., cumulative effects). Moreover, stream networks are multi-scaled, hierarchically structured systems wherein localized impacts can have both local (e.g., stream segment) and regional (e.g., watershed) consequences. Thus, there has been a recent push to construct statistical models capable of predicting and forecasting aquatic conditions under current and future landuse scenarios (i.e., scenario analysis) and characterize local and regional processes dictating observed patterns of ecological degradation.;Nowhere is there a greater need for decisive and empirically-driven aquatic resource management than within the Mountaintop Removal-Valley Fill (MTR-VF) mining region of the central Appalachians, where dramatic changes in land cover associated with large scale surface mining can produce strong measurable impacts to downstream ecosystems. However, several knowledge gaps currently limit aquatic resource management within this actively developing and socioeconomically important region. Notably, the extent to which surface mining-related stressors interact with those of other landuse activities is unclear.;In my first chapter, I tested for additive and interactive effects of dominant landuse activities (i.e., surface mining, deep mining, and residential development) on water quality (specific conductance and Se), habitat quality, and benthic macroinvertebrates via a uniquely designed watershed-scale assessment of the Coal River, West Virginia. I derived equations for predicting in-stream response to landscape changes and predicted the outcome of a realistic future scenario involving development of 15 permitted mines. I found that surface mining, underground mining, and residential development altered physical, chemical and biological condition through additive and complex interactive effects.;My second chapter focused on constructing landscape-based cumulative effects models capable of predicting in-stream response to future surface-mine development within the context of other landuse activities throughout the MTR-VF region. Predictive models provided precise estimates of specific conductance (model R2 ≤0.77 and cross-validated R2 ≤0.74), Se (0.74 and 0.70), and benthic macroinvertebrate community composition (0.72 and 0.65) and predicted high levels of chemical (33%) and biological (67%) impairment as a result of additive and interactive effects of surface mining, underground mining, and residential development. Of this total impairment, however, \u3c25% could be attributed to surface mining alone. Furthermore, the surface-mining level that results in exceedance of the 300 muS/cm conductivity benchmark increased from 4.4% in the presence of other stressors to 16.6% when only surface mining was present.;My third chapter focused on characterizing how multiple landuse activities control detailed patterns in local water chemistry. Principal component (PC) analysis identified 3 important dimensions of variation in water chemistry that were significantly correlated with contemporary surface mining (PC1, elevated dominant ions, sulfate, alkalinity, and selenium), coal geology and legacy mines (PC2, elevated trace metals), and residential development (PC3, elevated sodium and chloride). The combination of these 3 dominant sources of pollutants produced a complex stream-to-stream patchwork of contaminant mixtures. Seventy-five percent of headwater streams (catchments \u3c5km 2) had water chemistries that classified as either reference (49%), development only (18%) or mining only (8%). Only 21% of larger streams (catchments \u3e5km2) were classified as having reference chemistries, and chemistries indicative of combined mining and development contaminants accounted for 47% of larger streams (compared to 26% of headwater streams).;My fourth chapter was focused on quantifying the extent to which pervasive physicochemical degradation throughout the MTR-VF region influences regional metacommunity structure and processes. Notably, conservation of undisturbed headwater streams is a common management activity in disturbed watersheds because of their ability to preserve regional biodiversity. However, undisturbed headwater streams are often isolated within heavily degraded regions, leaving their communities at risk of losing sensitive, poor dispersing taxa (through decreased mass and rescue effects) and gaining tolerant, widely dispersing taxa (through increased dispersal and mass effects) from nearby degraded habitats. Results of this chapter suggest that both local (observed physicochemical conditions) and neighborhood (condition of streams within a 5km buffer) conditions explain significant variation in assemblage structure across all taxa. However, the strength of neighborhood effects varied as a function of taxon-specific tolerance and dispersal characteristics. Several taxa (Chironomidae, Hemerodromia, Chimarra) increased in occurrence and abundance with decreasing neighborhood conditions. Thus, invertebrate communities within even the most pristine streams are at risk when isolated within heavily impacted neighborhoods. Consequently, protection of regional species\u27 pools in heavily impacted regions will require more than simply conserving headwater catchments. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)

Mining and residential development interact to produce highly impaired stream conditions in an intensively mined Appalachian watershed

Large scale surface mining in southern West Virginia causes significant alteration of headwater stream networks. It is unclear, however, the extent to which mining interacts with other stressors to determine physical, chemical, and biological conditions in aquatic systems downstream. Through a watershed scale assessment of Pigeon Creek, the specific objectives of this study were to: (1) quantify the direct and interactive effects of mining and residential development on in-stream conditions; and (2) identify landscape thresholds above which biological impairment occurs. Our results indicate high levels of impairment to habitat, water quality, and benthic invertebrate communities within this watershed. Statistical analyses indicate that degraded conditions were linked to both mining and residential development; however, residential development appeared to exhibit a stronger individual effect. Both mining and residential development resulted in a significant decrease in sensitive taxa. The impacts associated with residential development, however, also resulted in the proliferation of tolerant taxa. Both mining and residential development resulted in significant alterations to water chemistry, primarily through increases in dissolved ion concentrations and specific conductance. Changes in water quality resulting from mining, however, were more acute. Conversely, residential development resulted in more acute alterations to physical habitat, primarily through decreases in habitat complexity. Our results further suggest that the individual impacts associated with mining and residential development are additive, leading to highly degraded conditions downstream. The combined effects of mining and residential development were almost always worse than the individual effects of mining, but never worse than the individual effects of residential development. Thus, residential development appears to be the limiting factor in determining ecosystem impairment. Lastly, several community metrics exhibited potential threshold responses to relatively low levels of both total mining (∼25%) and parcel density (∼14 parcels/km 2). These change points corresponded to conductivities of approximately 100 uS/cm and 60 uS/cm, respectively. This study shows that effectively managing impacts from new mine development and watershed restoration efforts must address the prevalence of non-mining related impacts throughout this watershed

Total Rhythm in Three Dimensions: Towards a Motional Theory of Melodic Dance Rhythm in Swedish Polska Music

In this article I present an ethnotheory of the music/dance relationship in Swedish polska, based on dance fieldwork and interviews I have conducted with polska dance musicians. I discuss three mechanisms that these musicians use to communicate movement patterns to dancers: iteration (entrainment via repetition), metaphor (timbral weight conveying motional weight), and sympathy (musicians’ movements mapping dance movements). I then discuss how musicians use these mechanisms to control four motional parameters: pulsation (rate and consistency of tempo), lean (degree and direction of tilt over the dance axis) viscosity (level of perceived air resistance), and libration (degree and timing of vertical motion). The work is intended in part as a case study of how theories of both music and dance can benefit from a focused analysis of the relationship between those two domains, as well as how studies of music/dance relations can benefit from the application of ethnographic research techniques

Overcoming acculturation: physical education recruits' experiences of an alternative pedagogical approach to games teaching

© 2015 Association for Physical Education Background: Physical education teacher education (PETE) programmes have been identified as a critical platform to encourage the exploration of alternative teaching approaches by pre-service teachers. However, the socio-cultural constraint of acculturation or past physical education and sporting experiences results in the maintenance of the status quo of a teacher-driven, reproductive paradigm. Previous studies have reported successfully overcoming the powerful influence of acculturation, resulting in a change in PETE students' custodial teaching beliefs and receptiveness to alternative teaching approaches. However, to date, limited information has been reported about how PETE students' acculturation shaped their receptiveness to an alternative teaching approach. This is particularly the case for PETE recruits identified in the literature as most resistant to change. Purpose: To explore the features and experiences of an alternative games teaching approach that appealed to PETE recruits identified as most resistant to change, requiring a specific sample of PETE recruits with strong, custodial, traditional physical education teaching beliefs, and whom are high-achieving sporting products of this traditional culture. The alternative teaching approach explored in this study is the constraints-led approach (CLA), which is similar operationally to Teaching Games for Understanding, but distinguished by a neurobiological theoretical framework (nonlinear pedagogy) that informs learning design. Participants and setting: A purposive sample of 10 Australian PETE students was recruited for the study. All participants initially had strong, custodial, traditional physical education teaching beliefs, and were successful sporting products of this teaching approach. After experiencing the CLA as learners during a games unit, participants demonstrated receptiveness to the alternative pedagogy. Data collection and analysis: Semi-structured interviews and written reflections were sources of data collection. Each participant was interviewed separately, once prior to participation in the games unit to explore their positive physical education experiences, and then again after participation to explore the specific games unit learning experiences that influenced their receptiveness to the alternative pedagogy. Participants completed written reflections about their personal experiences after selected practical sessions. Data were qualitatively analysed using grounded theory. Findings: Thorough examination of the data resulted in establishment of two prominent themes related to the appeal of the CLA for the participants: (i) psychomotor (effective in developing skill) and (ii) inclusivity (included students of varying skill level). The efficacy of the CLA in skill development was clearly an important mediator of receptiveness for highly successful products of a traditional culture. This significant finding could be explained by three key factors: the acculturation of the participants, the motor learning theory underpinning the alternative pedagogy and the unit learning design and delivery. The inclusive nature of the CLA provided a solution to the problem of exclusion, which also made the approach attractive to participants. Conclusions: PETE educators could consider these findings when introducing an alternative pedagogy aimed at challenging PETE recruits' custodial, traditional teaching beliefs. To mediate receptiveness, it is important that the learning theory underpinning the alternative approach is operationalised in a research-informed pedagogical learning design that facilitates students' perceptions of the effectiveness of the approach through experiencing and or observing it working

Preservice teachers implementing a nonlinear physical education pedagogy

Background In recent years, there has been considerable interest in the evolution of physical education teaching practice from a traditional teacher-centred approach to a student-centred approach. Consequently, research has focused on questions about the changing conceptions of the teaching and learning process, that is, from how ‘we’ teach to how ‘they’ learn. A contemporary theoretical model of the teaching and learning process could underpin learning design and delivery adopted in physical education. The constraints-led approach (CLA) is a viable alternative as its practice design and delivery is grounded in the contemporary motor learning theory of ecological dynamics within a nonlinear pedagogy framework. However, its implementation is thought to present unique challenges to physical education practitioners due to the dynamic individual learner-environment interactions from which learning occurs. For this reason, it has been suggested that researchers work symbiotically with practitioners to help facilitate the adoption of nonlinear pedagogies and provide valuable information regarding the application of theory into practice. Purpose This study sought to explore two PETE students’ experiences learning to implement a nonlinear informed pedagogical approach, specifically the CLA, with physical education students in a school practicum setting. The two PETE students were provided with support from the primary researcher during the experience. Participants and setting A purposive sample of two second-year PETE students from an Australian university were recruited for the study. Participant selection was based on meeting the pre-specified selection criteria of a demonstrated receptiveness to the CLA and a demonstrated confidence, ability and enthusiasm to implement the approach within a school setting. The two study participants were given the opportunity to implement the CLA within a supportive school culture while on their first physical education teaching practicum. Data collection and analysis The data collection methods utilised were documentary evidence, in the form of PETE students’ post lesson written reflections, primary researcher observations with written reflections and semi-structured student interviews undertaken within 1 week of the culmination of the practicum. These data sources were analysed collectively using thematic analysis to identify repeated patterns of meaning within the data. Findings As expected, implementing the CLA presented significant challenges to novice practitioners, due to the complex nature of student learning within a nonlinear informed approach. Specifically, the PETE students rarely detected any of the multiple pupil responses that ‘unexpectedly’ emerged from their modified learning environments. They also had difficulty manipulating the learning environment to facilitate the emergence of learners’ tactical problem-solving behaviour through the natural learning processes underpinning the CLA. Conclusion For an evolution of physical education teaching practice to progress, it is important that PETE educators work together with the physical education department of a local school to support PETE students to effectively implement nonlinear informed approaches in a school environment. Opportunities need to be provided to allow PETE students to progressively develop their experiential knowledge and conceptual understanding of the exploratory learning processes underpinning a nonlinear approach