Characteristics of resources and the provision of biodiversity and ecosystem services in Germany: the cases of fruit tree meadows and wolf protection

Work on common pool resources has paid scant attention to the role of properties of natural resources for the way their provision is governed. This paper scrutinizes determinants of institutions that regulate the provision of biodiversity and ecosystem services. Two cases of maintaining ecosystem services are compared (protection of wolves and management of scattered fruit tree meadows). Distinct characteristics of resources (mobility) and differences in the overarching European regulatory framework explain their different institutional embeddedness. Cost-effectiveness considerations seem to be paramount in the design of institutions. In the case of wolf protection, the state uses its power to modify property rights in order to increase acceptance of wolf management. This is essential for political reasons as well as to prevent EU sanctions. On the other hand, scattered fruit tree maintenance is subject to voluntary, long-term agreements, justified by medium-term irreversibility and asset specific investments.Institutions, Governance, Wolf Management, Scattered fruit trees, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

Institutions of sustainability and multifunctional landscapes: lessons from the case of the Algarve

"The paper uses function analysis to complement the analytical framework Institutions of Sustainability and to apply it for the analysis of the role of institutions for the multifunctionality of landscapes. This combination of conceptual tools is evaluated through their application to the case of landscape development in a sub-region of the Algarve, Portugal. In view of this case study it is suggested to complement the Institutions of Sustainability framework: case and transaction specific contextual factors should be included. The paper suggests to look at cross-jurisdictional agency features, cross-function, -transaction and -institutional commonalities, and interconnections as well as to include a dynamic dimension of institutional and physical time lags governing human-ecosystem relations." (author's abstract

Does Land-Use Policy Moderate Impacts of Climate Anomalies on LULC Change in Dry-Lands? An Empirical Enquiry into Drivers and Moderators of LULC Change in Southern Ethiopia

The study set out to understand drivers of Land-Use Land Cover (LULC) changes in dry-land areas and investigate factors helping mitigate the adverse impacts of climate anomalies on LULC changes. By employing a mixed-methods design, it combined LULC data with socioeconomic and climatic data, to analyze the pattern of LULC changes and its socioeconomic and climatic driving forces along with moderating factors. It was found that rangeland decreased by 764 km2 (13% of total area) between 1986 and 2015. The results from the Seemingly Unrelated time series regression models confirmed preliminary evidence that climate variability, as well as adaptive land-use policies lacking components of sustainability increase the likelihood of degradation and contraction of rangelands. We also found an indication from the qualitative data that a widening power gap between the customary and statutory governance system reinforces unsustainable land use by obscuring the values of the customary land governance system. However, those policies encompassing economic and natural resource development objectives abate adverse effects of climate variability on land degradation and shrinkage of rangelands. The results suggest that a land governance system with natural resource development objectives fitting to the local context could be an effective policy instrument to lessen the adverse effects of climate anomalies on LULC changes. Although this study focused on analyzing the LULC changes and its drivers in dry-land area, the findings may well have a bearing on the formulation and implementation of effective adaptation and sustainable land-use policies.Stiftung fiat panisPeer Reviewe

¿Empujando la evolución?

This Special Feature, “Nudging Evolution? Critical Exploration of the Potential and Limitations of the Concept of Institutional Fit for the Study and Adaptive Management of Social-Ecological Systems,” aims to contribute toward the development of social theory and social research methods for the study of social-ecological system dynamics. Our objective is to help strengthen the academic discourse concerning if, and if so, how, to what extent, and in what concrete ways the concept of institutional “fit” might play a role in helping to develop better understanding of the social components of interlinkages between the socioeconomic-cultural and ecological dynamics of social-ecological systems. Two clearly discernible patterns provide a map of this Special Feature: (1) One pattern is the authors’ positions regarding the place and role of normativity within their studies and assessment of institutional fit. Some place this at the center of their studies, exploring phenomena endogenous to the process of defining what constitutes institutional fit, whereas others take the formation of norms as a phenomenon exogenous to their study

Prediction-based Decentralized Routing Algorithm

We introduce a new efficient routing algorithm called Prediction-based Decentralized Routing algorithm (PDR), which is based on the Ant Colony Optimization (ACO) meta-heuristics. In our approach, an ant uses a combination of the link state information and the predicted link load instead of the ant's trip time to determine the amount of pheromone to deposit. A Feed Forward Neural Network (FFNN) is used to build adaptive traffic predictors which capture the actual traffic behaviour. We study two performance parameters: the rejection ratio and the percentage of accepted bandwidth under two different network load conditions. We show that our algorithm reduces the rejection ratio of requests and achieves a higher throughput when compared to Shortest Path First and Widest Shortest Path algorithms

Experiences from a Living Lab trialling a mobile participation platform

The project b-Part adresses the currently low level of participation by introducing and evaluating a novel participation prototype utilizing contemporary mobile technology. As pervasive participation methods eliminate spatial and temporal barriers, it is anticipated that people are more inclined to engage in decision-making processes than with traditional forms (e.g. townhall meetings). Based on these considerations we developed a mobile participation platform that was evaluated in a real-world scenario over the duration of five months. This paper describes our methodology focusing on the conducted Living Lab and reports on experiences made during the runtime of the project. We hereby distinguish between experiences made by citizens and the authorites’ view on the whole participatory process. Our findings show that there is a high acceptance of mobile participation methods among citizens and they want to have it developed even further. On the other hand, although city administration is often enthusiastic about novel participation formats, there are still challenges to meet regarding the definition of suitable topics for participation, a match between needs of citizens and city officials, the mapping of organisational responsibilities and long-term commitment to active participation

Dynamics of rural livelihoods and rainfall variability in Northern Ethiopian Highlands

[No abstract available

An ancient FMRFamide-related peptide-receptor pair induces defense behavior in a brachiopod larva

Animals show different behaviors that can consist of various spatially or temporally separated sub-reactions. Even less complex organisms, like ciliated larvae that display important behaviors (e.g. metamorphosis, defense, feeding), need to coordinate coherent sub-reactions with their simple nervous system. These behaviors can be triggered by neuropeptides, which are short signaling peptides. Despite the high diversity of neuropeptides in animals, and although their immunoreactivity is widely used in morphological studies of animal nervous systems (e.g. FMRFamide), their function and role in trochozoan larval behavior has so far only been tested in a few cases. When mechanically disturbed, the planktonic larvae of the brachiopod Terebratalia transversa protrude their stiff and pointy chaetae in a defensive manner and sink down slowly: a startle reaction that is known from different chaetous trochozoan larvae. We found that both of these reactions can be induced simultaneously by the FMRFamide-related neuropeptide FLRFamide. We deorphanized the Terebratalia FLRFamide receptor and found its expression spatially separated in the apical lobe at the prototroch of the larvae and in the trunk musculature, which correlates with the tissues that are responsible to perform the two sub-reactions. A behavioral assay showed a decreasing efficiency of modified peptides in triggering this behavior, which correlates with the decreasing efficiency of activating the FLRFamide receptor in transfected CHO-K1 cells. Immunohistochemistry and in situ hybridization show FLRFamidergic neurons in the apical lobe as well as next to the trunk musculature. Our results show that the single neuropeptide FLRFamide can specifically induce the two coherent sub-reactions of the T. transversa startle behavior.draf

A Novel Opportunistic Spectrum Sharing Scheme for Cognitive Ad Hoc Networks

Nowadays, wireless ad hoc networks are using a static spectrum allocation which leads to congestion in this spectrum parts as the number of devices increases. On the contrary, a significant portion of the spectrum in licensed band (e.g. TV band) is not utilized. Cognitive radio (CR) is a promising technology to solve the spectrum inefficiency problem in ad hoc networks. Based on CR, the unlicensed (secondary) users will utilize the unused spectrum of the licensed (primary) users in an opportunistic manner. As a result, the average spectrum usage will be increased. However, the sudden appearance of primary users will have a negative impact on the performance of secondary users, since secondary users must evacuate the occupied channel and handoff to another unutilized one. This process continues till an unlicensed user finishes his transmission. We will name this process consecutive spectrum handoff (CSH). In order to increase the performance of CR, the number of consecutive spectrum handoffs should be reduced. In this paper, a novel opportunistic spectrum sharing scheme under a heterogeneous spectrum environment of licensed and unlicensed bands is introduced. In this scheme, the licensed channels will be used as operating channels and the unlicensed channels will be used as backup channels when the primary user appears. Since the unlicensed channels are not interrupted by primary users, no more spectrum handoff is needed