Search results for "Nature"
showing 10 items of 1564 documents
The toughest animals of the Earth versus global warming: Effects of long-term experimental warming on tardigrade community structure of a temperate d…
2021
Abstract Understanding how different taxa respond to global warming is essential for predicting future changes and elaborating strategies to buffer them. Tardigrades are well known for their ability to survive environmental stressors, such as drying and freezing, by undergoing cryptobiosis and rapidly recovering their metabolic function after stressors cease. Determining the extent to which animals that undergo cryptobiosis are affected by environmental warming will help to understand the real magnitude climate change will have on these organisms. Here, we report on the responses of tardigrades within a five‐year‐long, field‐based artificial warming experiment, which consisted of 12 open‐to…
Extending the Limits of Nature. Political Animals, Artefacts, and Social Institutions
2020
This essay discusses how medieval authors from the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries dealt with a philosophical problem that social institutions pose for the Aristotelian dichotomy between natural and artificial entities. It is argued that marriage, political community, and language provided a particular challenge for the conception that things which are designed by human beings are artefacts. Medieval philosophers based their arguments for the naturalness of social institutions on the anthropological view that human beings are political animals by nature, but this strategy required rethinking the borderline between nature and art. The limits of nature were extended, as social institution…
Should dispersers be fast learners? Modeling the role of cognition in dispersal syndromes.
2021
Abstract Both cognitive abilities and dispersal tendencies can vary strongly between individuals. Since cognitive abilities may help dealing with unknown circumstances, it is conceivable that dispersers may rely more heavily on learning abilities than residents. However, cognitive abilities are costly and leaving a familiar place might result in losing the advantage of having learned to deal with local conditions. Thus, individuals which invested in learning to cope with local conditions may be better off staying at their natal place. In order to disentangle the complex relationship between dispersal and learning abilities, we implemented individual‐based simulations. By allowing for develo…
Functional structure of European forest beetle communities is enhanced by rare species
2022
Biodiverse communities have been shown to sustain high levels of multifunctionality and thus a loss of species likely negatively impacts ecosystem functions. For most taxa, however, roles of individual species are poorly known. Rare species, often most likely to go extinct, may have unique traits and functional roles. Alternatively, rare species may be functionally redundant, such that their loss would not disrupt ecosystem functions. We quantified the functional role of rare species by using captures of wood-living (saproxylic) beetle species, combined with recent databases of morphological and ecological traits, from three regions in central and northern Europe. Using a rarity index based…
Using the centre-periphery framework to explore human-carnivore relations
2023
Unidad de excelencia María de Maeztu CEX2019-000940-M Living alongside carnivores can incur both costs and benefits on people's lifeways. While positive outcomes of carnivore presence can foster coexistence, negative relations with carnivores can trigger carnivores' killing and undermine their conservation. In response to this, conservation efforts increasingly focus on promoting positive human-carnivore relations, most often through improvements in the flow of economic benefits from carnivores to local communities. However, there is a question mark over the effectiveness and potential consequences of market-based instruments for carnivore conservation. To understand the opportunities and p…
Biocultural conflicts: understanding complex interconnections between a traditional ceremony and threatened carnivores in north Kenya
2022
Abstract Biological and cultural diversity are inextricably linked and rapidly eroding worldwide. As a response, many conservation efforts foster synergies between cultural and biological diversity agendas through biocultural approaches. However, such approaches do not always address biocultural conflicts, where certain cultural practices can lead to biodiversity loss and, in turn, threaten the continuance of such practices. In this study, we examined a biocultural conflict in the Dimi ceremony, the most important rite of passage of the Daasanach agro-pastoralists of north Kenya, in which skins from threatened carnivore species are used extensively as traditional ornaments. We quantified th…
Assessing tolerance for wildlife: human-elephant conflict in Chimanimani, Mozambique
2020
Human–elephant conflict (HEC) is a common problem for rural populations in sub-Saharan Africa. Recent studies have shown that willingness to tolerate wildlife is largely a function of perceived risks and benefits, but most technical assessments are limited to the immediate cause of the conflict and neglect the broader socioeconomic and political contexts. Based on two sets of interviews, this article provides a socioeconomic analysis of HEC in the buffer zone of Chimanimani National Reserve in Mozambique. Although traditional methods to scare off elephants were found to have little effect, a beehive fence introduced in 2016 initially appeared to be successful. However, follow-up three years…
Assessing Climate Change Adaptation and Risk Management Programmes: Stakeholder Participation Process and Policy Implications for Transport, Energy a…
2022
Climate change is a critical sustainability challenge for islands and their main economic sectors. Rising sea levels, extreme temperatures, and drier conditions are the impacts with the most significant potential to amplify the economic damage on islands. However, their isolation and natural conditions bring about some leeway to respond to climate impacts on their terms. This paper aims to provide a local-level analysis and ranking of alternative adaptation pathways in an island context through the stakeholders’ lens. This study reviews the latest advancements in adaptation science and proposes a catalogue of adaptation and risk management options that feed a participatory assessment …
Anthropology of Conservation in Spain. Review and perspectives
2016
En este artículo presentamos un balance de la Antropología de la Conservación en el Estado español. Durante las últimas décadas, la protección de los espacios naturales ha aumentado de una manera exponencial en todo el mundo. A la vez que se extendía esta patrimonialización de la naturaleza, los trabajos etnográficos sobre las áreas protegidas han ido ganando terreno dentro de la disciplina y, en particular, en el campo de la Antropología Ambiental. La mencionada bibliografía ha puesto de relieve los múltiples aspectos derivados de las nuevas políticas territoriales de regulación, apropiación y mercantilización de la ‘naturaleza’. En este trabajo realizamos una revisión exhaustiva de la pro…
Utebarnehager – et sted for demokratisk praksis?
2013
The questions in the title is posed to discuss how an outdoor kindergarten space is contextualized and understood by those who are staying there. Nature is often seen as an especially open space, free from strong guidelines and structures. Being part of an educational practice gives the place new structures. The activities the children participate in and the employees expressed attitudes and practices are part of different discourses, which give certain limits or possibilities for what is going on at the Hut, and thus influence a democratic practice. Especially children’s play activities represent an opposition to the adult’s framing of the place. Democracy presupposes some frames, but if t…