Assessing reporting of narrative synthesis of quantitative data in public health systematic reviews

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A modelling approach to farm management and vegetation degradation in pre-modern Iceland

Grazing by domestic livestock is one of the primary ways by which humans have modified landscapes. At low stocking rates livestock grazing can modify vegetation community composition, but at high stocking rates grazing can also reduce vegetation productivity and initiate soil erosion, leading to land degradation. The country of Iceland has undergone severe land degradation over the past 1100 years, with over half of the former vegetation cover being lost, and the remainder having depleted productivity. This work focuses upon the role that grazing by domestic livestock played in this degradation, and how the interactions between farm management, vegetation cover and climate affected grazing patterns in space and time. The aims of the research were achieved by constructing an environmental simulation model, called Búmodel, which allowed a cross-disciplinary approach that integrated landscape ecology, environmental archaeology and historical analysis. Búmodel was loosely coupled with GIS so that spatially based model inputs and outputs could be displayed and analysed in map form. The purpose of Búmodel was to predict spatial and temporal patterns of vegetation biomass production and utilisation (through grazing and hay-making) with a view to commenting on vegetation degradation in the pre-modern period (pre-1900 AD). The model was parameterised using contemporary and historical Icelandic agricultural data. Model validation was undertaken using sensitivity tests and comparison with data from an independent grazing experiment in the north of Iceland. Búmodel was then applied to two contrasting study areas: Vestur- Eyjafjallahreppur, a farming community on the south coast of Iceland, and Hofstaðir, a farm estate in the north east of the country, situated inland by Lake Mývatn. These applications demonstrated the importance of farm management in avoiding land degradation and in ameliorating the impact of climate. They also established the usefulness of Búmodel as a tool for the investigation of human and environmental interactions in Iceland

Meeting the Needs of Pregnant and Parenting Adolescents through Home Visiting

Pregnant and parenting adolescents* face the dual challenge of raising a child while navigating their own path to adulthood. Many encounter barriers related to child care, housing, and health care that can limit their job and educational opportunities. Some experience judgment and bias at home and in the community. Despite these setbacks, some adolescents view parenthood as a positive life event that bolsters their sense of responsibility and stability.** Many home visiting models support first-time parents or parents with complex needs. The Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting Program identifies women under 21 as a priority service group. More can be done, however, to offer age-appropriate, engaging, and respectful home visiting services for adolescents.This Innovation Roundup Brief highlights home visiting models, affiliates, and initiatives serving young parents' needs:Teen Parent Connection: A Healthy Families America AffiliateFamily SpiritNurse-Family PartnershipShow Me Strong Families (SMSF): A Parents as Teachers InitiativeIt concludes with key service delivery features for consideration by other programs

Land in Landscapes circum Landnám: an Integrated Study of Settlements in Reykholtsdalur, Iceland

The initial settlement of Iceland in the ninth and tenth centuries AD was based on animal husbandry, with an emphasis on dairy cattle and sheep. For this activity, land resources that offered a range of grazing and fodder production opportunities were required to sustain farmsteads. In this paper the nature of land within the boundaries of settlements in an area of Western Iceland centred on Reykholt, which became the estate of the writer and chieftain Snorri Sturluson in the thirteenth century, is analysed with a Geographical Information Systems (GIS) approach. The results, combining historical, archaeological and environmental data with the GIS-based topographic analysis suggests that although inherent land qualities seem to have played a part in shaping the initial hierarchy of settlement in the area, it was the acquisition of additional property and of access to resources outside the valley that ultimately pushed Reykholt to the forefront in the hierarchal order

Sustainable rangeland grazing in Norse Faroe

The introduction of domestic livestock - particularly sheep - and rangeland grazing by Norse settlers to Faroe during the 9th century has generally been described as a major pressure on a sensitive landscape, leading to rapid and widespread vegetation change and contributing to land degradation. This view has, however, been developed without consideration of Norse grazing management practices which may have served to minimise grazing impacts on landscapes as well as sustaining and enhancing vegetation and livestock productivity. These alternative scenarios are considered using a historical grazing management simulation model with Faroese climate and vegetation inputs and given archaeological, historical and palaeo-environmental parameters. Three contrasting rangeland areas are investigated and, based on the maximum number of ewe / lamb pairs the rangeland could sustain, modeling suggests that utilisable biomass declined with the onset of grazing activity, but not to a level that would cause major changes in vegetation cover or contribute to soil erosion even under climatically determined poor growth conditions. When rangeland areas partitioned into what are termed hagi and partir are modeled, grazing levels are still within rangeland carrying capacities, but productivities are variable. Some rangeland areas increase biomass and livestock productivity's and biomass utilisation rates while other rangeland areas that were too finely partitioned were likely to suffer substantial decline in livestock productivities. Partitioning of rangeland is a likely contributor to long-term differentiation of landscapes and the relative success of settlements across Faroe beyond the Norse period

Placemaking and Landscape: Explorations & Articulations of Scottish Highland landscapes through artistic and poetic forms of practice, in and from the field​

This output comprises a body of artistic and poetic forms of practice (2014 – 2020), made in and from the field, located in the geographical context of the Scottish Highlands & Islands.  A Scots Dictionary of Nature (Saraband Press 2018, and 2019) acts as a fulcrum in positioning the artistic research, which demonstrates the possibilities of language as a nexus of relations, to understand landscape differently, providing an alternative ‘lens’ to view past-connections and multi-layered ways of being in and of the land.   Thomson’s research foregrounds questions of complex and interwoven narratives: through the slow ‘unfolding’ of observation, paying attention to multi-sensorial engagement(s) between creative arts practice and the nuances of a particular place e.g. the remnant pinewoods of Abernethy Forest in the Highlands of Scotland. The body of work investigates place-making and landscape and is presented in a variety of forms (book; journal article; book chapter; artefacts; video), which together articulate a deep sense of place. The research demonstrates the ways place changes over time, weaving together different registers of knowing - visually and textually - in relation to natural and social histories, which contribute to the multi-sensorial ‘fabric’ of place.  This body of work incorporates a range of methods including site-specific fieldwork and site-writing; photographic and video documentation where site-specific activity relates to time spent in the studio and writing desk thus negotiating the spatial and temporal context within and without the field. The research explores the interface between encounters in the field, knowledge and artistic forms. It proposes a transdisciplinary way of working that contributes to new ways of visualising, writing and contextualising the landscapes of Scotland to demonstrate its unique complexities and how new understandings can emerge through the slow creative methods of observing and recording landscapes revealing new relationships, ways of seeing and understanding place

A Scots Dictionary of Nature: Launch, Reading and Discussion

Forgotten words to describe the countryside have been included in a dictionary compiled in the Cairngorms. Splorroch is the sound of walking in wet mud and a huam the moan of an owl on a warm summer day. The language harks back not just to words which have been lost but a way of life. “These words reveal so much about our history, natural history and our changing ways of life. They are indicative of the depth, richness and variety of the Scots language and its unique relationship to nature and landscapes." The event at Grantown Museum is the Highland launch for the book

Lightly, Tendrils

These works formed part of a two person show at the CCA in Glasgow. Works include: CCA 2 - Imago/ Imagines, a three screen video piece, filmworks on four field monitors, a wall text piece and soundwork CCA 1 - 8 walkDrawing etchings - WalkDrawing (walk circles) (large format digital print) - a two screen video essay entitled and about the Twinflower. Some of these works developed from research relating to the Cairngorms Connect artist residency https://www.endangeredlandscapes.org/project/cairngorms-connect-2/ and links to my ongoing and long-term work in particular on the interconnected ecologies and histories contained within Abernethy Forest

Staying with trouble: Critical and Creative Approaches to Biodiversity and Climate Crises

This Landscape Research Group, Landscape Symposium 2019 will explore another of our Research Strategy themes, Critical and Creative Landscape Thinking. With a varied group of collaborators (see below), we will form a conversational space to apply this to the climate and biodiversity crises. The Symposium title is from Staying With the Trouble, Donna J. Haraway (c) 2016, Duke University Press – borrowed with very kind permission! Colloborators: Amanda Thomson, lecturer, artist, writer, Glasgow School of Art Andrew Patrizio holds the Chair of Scottish Visual Culture at Edinburgh College of Art. Anupama Ranawana is a theologian, writer and researcher currently a Visiting Researcher at Oxford Brookes University. George Revill is a musician and Senior Lecturer in Geography at the Open University. Lisa Garforth, Senior Lecturer in Sociology at Newcastle University Ruth Little will facilitate the symposium, and works as a theatre and dance dramaturg, a teacher and writer