Despite the agronomic benefits of exotic grass plantings for pasture and rangeland forage, exotic grass invasions are capable of having dramatic and widespread impacts on native communities and ecosystems. Exotic Old World bluestem grasses (OWBG; Bothriochloa and Dichanthium spp.) have become increasingly invasive throughout the central and southern U.S. Little is known regarding the impacts of OWBG invasion on native grassland and savannah ecology and how to successfully control OWBG invasions in natural areas. Accordingly, this dissertation research had several objectives: 1) Evaluate the efficacy of herbicide and/or disking to control OWBG; 2) Assess the relative competitive ability of the OWBG, Kleberg bluestem (Dichanthium annulatum); 3) Evaluate herbicide application and native grass seeding to rehabilitate an OWBG invaded coastal prairie; 4) Examine whether ecosystem function differs between areas dominated by OWBG vs. native coastal prairie; and 5) Characterize the germinable soil seed bank of an OWBG invaded coastal prairie. Herbicide treatments of imazapyr, glyphosate, and imazapyr + glyphosate were found to provide effective, albeit temporary, OWBG control (often less than six months). A combination regimen of disking followed by herbicide treatments, regardless of herbicide active ingredient or application rate, controlled OWBG more effectively than herbicide alone or herbicide followed by disking. Herbicide treatments followed by native grass seeding did not markedly rehabilitate coastal prairie invaded by OWBG. OWBG appeared to reinvade from the seed and/or bud bank suggesting the restoration of OWBG invaded grasslands will likely require aggressive and repetitive control methods to completely extirpate OWBG at a given site before native plantings occur. A seed bank survey revealed the density of OWBG germinable seeds increases dramatically with increasing OWBG invasion (i.e., canopy cover) while the native grass seed bank is generally depauperate even when levels of OWBG invasion were low. Dominance of OWBG appears to have altered native coastal prairie ecosystem function; yet the directionality and extent of OWBG effects were strongly soil texture dependent. Here, ecosystem function parameters between areas dominated by OWBG compared to native prairie differed most often on sandy loam vs. clay soil. Moreover, DeWit replacement series experiments revealed the relative competitive ability of Dichanthium annulatum was significantly greater than the native grass, little bluestem (Schizachyrium scoparium). OWBG will likely persist throughout the central and southern Great Plains, USA, for years to come and intensive management efforts will be necessary to keep OWBG invasions under control in natural areas of high conservation value.

This thesis analyses the Lord Edward’s lordship of the county of Chester between 1254 and 1272 and the impact it had on local inhabitants. The first chapter investigates the general administration of the county, including its financial structure, and the officials and men recruited by Edward to control his Cheshire estates. This chapter shows that Edward, in spite of his father’s influence, led an independent policy by relying primarily on the justiciar and on local tenants to govern the county. The second chapter tackles the organisation of justice and the law administered in Cheshire. It demonstrates that the judicial machinery in Cheshire was preserved during Edward’s lordship with its distinctive characteristics inherited from the earls of Chester, and that Edward was far more involved in the administration of justice in the county, and in the rest of his apanage, than previously envisaged. The third chapter considers the relationship Cheshire maintained with Wales in the thirteenth century, and more precisely, how Edward’s lordship of the county disrupted the stability that existed in the area. It shows that he was not directly responsible for the tensions that existed, but that his inability to address them eventually led to the outbreak of 1256. It also demonstrates that Edward failed to protect his estates despite multiple attempts, and how he progressively lost interest in his Welsh dominions. The fourth chapter discusses Edward’s relationship, and the difficulties he had, with his Cheshire tenants, especially during the baronial movement of reform and rebellion (1258-67). It analyses how problems in the county mirrored those elsewhere in the realm, because of the financial pressure and of the desire of local communities to have their laws and customs preserved, and how Edward’s considered approach and political discernment were eventually successful in restoring order in the county.

A marriage between the English Prince and the Spanish Infanta was deemed desirable following the signing of the Anglo-Spanish peace treaty in London in 1604. After several years of tortuous negotiations, the match failed in 1624 and England declared war on Spain the following year. This thesis addresses the end of the Anglo-Spanish Match negotiations in the period 1617-1624 by placing reasons for its failure in the global context of European diplomacy and dynastic politics in the early seventeenth century. Traditional historiography has considered the failure of the marriage diplomacy as the inevitable consequence of religious differences and cultural misunderstandings between England and Spain. Consequently, scholars have only looked within Europe when investigating the end of the union. My research, however, depicts a more composite picture not only by expanding the geographical boundaries of the investigation but also by demonstrating the extent to which new imperial rivalries played a much greater role in the marriage diplomacy than has previously been recognised. In the first chapter, I discuss the notion of reason of state in the relationship between England and Spain at the beginning of the seventeenth century and I investigate the way in which the choice politically and/or economically most favourable was often taken regardless of religious considerations and increasingly in response to extra-European concerns. The body of the thesis is then dedicated to a few episodes when the imperial rivalry between England and the Iberian Peninsula influenced the end of the negotiations. In the second chapter, I look at Walter Raleigh’s second expedition to Guyana and the actions of the Spanish ambassador in London, Count of Gondomar, who asked that Raleigh should receive an exemplary punishment in order to maintain the marriage agreement after the English explorer had attacked Spanish settlements. In the following chapter, I move towards the East and analyse the taking of the Portuguese port of Hormuz in the Persian Gulf by the English East India Company in 1622. In doing so, I outline the complex dynamics underlying the union of the Iberian crowns (1580-1640) as well as the specific repercussions of this episode on the Infanta’s dowry to be given by Spain to England. The fourth chapter introduces a further key player in both European diplomacy and the imperial rivalry between Spain and England, which is to say the Dutch. By looking at the ‘massacre’ at Amboyna in 1623, I prove that the rivalry with the Dutch in the Spice Islands, and especially the executions at Amboyna, initially pushed King James to pursue the marriage alliance with the Spanish Habsburgs with even greater commitment. In the last chapter, I look back at Europe to discuss how the two composite monarchies reacted to the arrival at their respective courts of the news of recent episodes of conflict in the West and East Indies. This concluding chapter argues that the awareness in Madrid and London of what had happened in the Indies put additional burdens onto the already deteriorating marriage negotiations and fundamentally contributed to their failure. Thus, the thesis sheds light on a well-known episode of Anglo-Spanish relations by observing it through a new lens. As a result, I improve our traditional understanding of the end of Anglo-Spanish Match as well as of global connectedness in the early seventeenth century.

The ways in which English men and women used numbers underwent a transformation during the last half of the sixteenth century and first half of the seventeenth century. This dissertation analyses the changes in how ordinary, non university-educated, people encountered, perceived and employed numbers in their lives. It argues that as a result of this greater engagement with the ‘new’ Hindu- Arabic number system there was an increased sense of number awareness within the population as a whole and in Kent in particular. At the beginning of the sixteenth century most English men and women expressed numerical concepts through a combination of performative and object-based systems, such as finger methods, tally sticks and counting tables. Those who used written systems relied primarily on number words and Roman numerals. From 1539 onwards with the publication of an ever-increasing number of vernacular arithmetic textbooks, together with rising literacy rates and increased educational opportunity, the number of people using Hindu-Arabic numerals increased. By the mid seventeenth century both Roman numerals and Hindu- Arabic were used interchangeably and by the late seventeenth century Hindu-Arabic numerals became dominant. During this same period people increasingly used numbers to interpret the world around them as trade, exploration and scientific advances required a more numerate population. Mathematical texts and teachers stressed the utility of numbers. Almanacs became ubiquitous and provide an insight into the rate at which the ‘new’ number system spread throughout society. By examining a diverse array of sources and placing a case study of Kent within the wider national framework, this dissertation considers the ways in which increased educational opportunities led to the development of numeracy within the populace. It asserts that literacy is the key driver for numeracy and hence educational opportunity is inextricably linked to the development of numeracy.

The aim of this thesis is to present a rounded picture of British efforts to obtain information on German science and technology, both military and civilian, after the Second World War. This endeavour was conducted for numerous reasons - to secure some form of reparations, to improve defence capabilities for any future conflict, and to ensure that Germany possessed no lasting scientific war potential - and in various ways - the examination of laboratories and factories, the confiscation of equipment and documents, and the interrogation of experts. In some cases, these same experts were detained, brought to Britain, and occasionally offered work at government research establishments or private companies, in order to exact long-term benefit for Britain from the occupation of Germany. Unsurprisingly, an endeavour of this nature encountered difficulty from multiple quarters, including public opposition in Britain, conflict with other initiatives, such as reconstruction, in Germany, and competition with foreign powers, most notably the Soviet Union. As a result, this thesis sits at the intersection between various fields of historical inquiry. It incorporates elements from the history of intelligence, such as the necessarily secretive nature of many of the exploitation operations and the involvement of high-level intelligence bodies in the direction of the programme; from diplomatic history, not least how exploitation was affected by the reconfiguration of Britain's status on the world stage as it was steadily eclipsed by the United States and the Soviet Union; from the history of science, as the programme encompassed some of the most significant technological developments of the period, including the atomic bomb, the jet engine and guided missiles; and from military history, both because the first units and individuals concerned with the initiative were military and because many of the most valuable spoils removed from Germany were of a warlike nature. Ultimately, though, the narrative presented in this thesis is primarily concerned with British policy - policy towards occupied Germany, science and technology, and the nascent Cold War - and how this evolved throughout, and was shaped by, the deeply transformative period surrounding the end of the Second World War. The story of the British exploitation of German science and technology is, therefore, a crucial, but thus far understudied, facet of Britain's adjustment to the new post-war era in 1945.

Die Evolution der heutigen globalen Diversität wurde in den letzten Millionen Jahren insbesondere durch klimatische Schwankungen und entsprechende Veränderungen biologischer Lebensräume beeinflusst. Besonders deutlich ist der Einfluss von Glazialen und Interglazialen auf die Evolution von Organismen der Nördlichen Hemisphäre. Weniger klar hingegen ist, inwiefern sich diese klimatischen Verhältnisse auf (sub-) tropische Regionen ausgewirkt haben, insbesondere auf das Afrikanische Savannen Biom. Unabhängig davon, haben Umweltveränderungen in tropischen und nicht-tropischen Gebieten zur Entstehung vieler der gegenwärtigen Hybridzonen geführt, in denen zuvor geographisch separierte Populationen in sekundären Kontakt gekommen sind. Obwohl Hybridisierung im Tierreich inzwischen nicht mehr als ein rares Phänomen betrachtet wird, ist das tatsächliche Ausmaß und die Bedeutung von Hybridisierung in der Evolution von Tieren noch lange nicht vollständig geklärt. Die Verbreitung Grüner Meerkatzen der Gattung Chlorocebus reflektiert nahezu die Ausdehnung Afrikanischer Savannengebiete und basierend auf Beobachtungen im Freiland sowie auf morphologischen Merkmalen von Museumsexemplaren, hybridisieren die meisten der sechs anerkannten parapatrischen Arten in ihren jeweiligen Kontaktzonen. Aufgrund dieser Eigenschaften habe ich in meiner Doktorarbeit Grüne Meerkatzen als Modellsystem genutzt, um zum einen die Bedeutung von Hybridisierung in der Evolution von Primaten und Tieren im Allgemeinen zu untersuchen, und zum anderen, um wesentliche Trends in der Evolution von Savannensäugetieren zu analysieren. Um in einem ersten Schritt grundlegende Informationen über die mitochondriale Diversität und Verbreitung der Grünen Meerkatzen zu erlangen, generierte ich vollständige Cytochrom b Sequenzen von Proben, die alle sechs Arten der Gattung und große Teile der gesamten Verbreitung Grüner Meerkatzen repräsentierten. Des Weiteren nutzte ich Sequenz-Informationen zweier Y-chromosomaler Loci, ein Fragment der sex determining region (SRY) und das letzte Intron des Zinc finger (ZFY), um eventuell zeitlich zurückliegende Hybridisierungsereignisse nachzuweisen. Um räumliche sowie zeitliche phylogeographische Muster zu rekonstruieren, habe ich basierend auf den bisher gewonnen Daten weitere mitochondriale Marker von selektiven Proben aller mitochondrialer Kladen sequenziert. Abschließend habe ich die Phylogeographie Grüner Meerkatzen mit den Phylogeographien dreier anderer weit verbreiteter Savannensäugetier-Gattungen verglichen, mit Pavianen (Papio), Warzenschweinen (Phacochoerus), und Kuhantilopen (Alcelaphus). Meine Analysen der mitochondrialen Daten lassen neun klar abgegrenzte Kladen erkennen, die keiner bisher vorgeschlagenen Taxonomie entsprechen. Zahlreiche para- und polyphyletische Beziehungen, verursacht durch nicht übereinstimmende Verbreitungsmuster mitochondrialer Kladen und morphologischer Merkmale, liefern Hinweise auf anhaltende introgressive Hybridisierung in den Kontaktzonen aller Arten, mit Ausnahme der beiden westafrikanischen Arten. Darüber hinaus weisen die Ergebnisse der mitochondrialen Analysen auf potentiell vergangene introgressive Hybridisierungsereignisse hin, die geographisch nicht in Gebiete gegenwärtiger Kontaktzonen fallen. Dies kann im Falle von C. pygerythrus in Ostafrika anhand der Y-chromosomalen Daten bestätigt werden. Männchen basierte Introgression und nuclear swamping haben hier offensichtlich zu dem zytonukleären Aussterben eines historischen Taxons geführt. Aber nicht alle diskordante Muster in der mitochondrialen Phylogenie sind Anzeichen für zurückliegende introgressive Hybridisierung. Innerhalb der Verbreitung von C. tantalus weisen sowohl mitochondriale als auch Y-chromsomale Daten auf zwei klar separierte und morphologisch kryptische Taxa hin (ein westliches und ein östliches Taxon), ein Befund der möglicherweise auf das Vorhandensein einer neuen Grünen Meerkatzenart hindeutet. In Übereinstimmung mit mitochondrialen Ergebnissen weisen Y-chromosomale Daten ebenfalls keine Anzeichen für Hybridisierung zwischen C. sabaeus und der westlichen C. tantalus-Form in Westafrika auf. Entgegen früherer Annahmen stellt der Volta Fluss und seine nördlicheren Zuflüsse offenbar auf gesamter Länge eine geographische Barriere dar und nicht wie vorher angenommen nur im südlicheren Teil des Flussverlaufs. Die Phylogeographie Grüner Meerkatzen weist somit auf eine komplexe evolutionäre Geschichte hin. Aufgrund der phylogenetischen Rekonstruktionen und Datierungen gehe ich von einem Westafrikanischen Ursprung der Gattung vor ca. 2,46 Millionen Jahren aus. Des Weiteren liefert die Phylogenie Hinweise auf eine erst später folgende Ausbreitung bis nach Südafrika und auf zwei zeitlich getrennte Besiedelungen nordöstlicher Regionen, eine vom Westen und eine von eher südlicheren Regionen aus. Im Vergleich zu den anderen Savannensäugetieren können keine zeitlichen Übereinstimmungen in Aufspaltungsmustern gefunden werden, weder im Vergleich zwischen den Primaten noch zwischen den Ungulaten. Zudem fallen Aufspaltungen innerhalb der Gattungen zeitlich sowohl mit kalt-ariden als auch mit warm-humiden Perioden zusammen. Veränderungen in Populationsgrößen innerhalb der letzten 500.000 Jahre zeigen unterschiedliche Muster zwischen Primaten und Ungulaten, die wahrscheinlich mit verschiedenen ökologischen Anpassungen und Habitat Präferenzen zu erklären sind. Da außerdem keine klaren Zusammenhänge zwischen dem zeitlichen Auftreten von Populationsschwankungen und dem letzten Interglazialem bzw. Glazialen Maximum gefunden werden können, scheint ein Einfluss von regional geprägtem Klima in Afrika wahrscheinlicher. Zusammengefasst hat die Evolution Grüner Meerkatzen im frühen Pleistozän begonnen und klimatische Schwankungen im Quartär haben vermutlich zu wiederkehrenden Veränderungen in der Ausbreitung geführt. Diese begünstigte die Entstehung von sekundären Kontaktzonen und führte zu weit verbreiteter introgressiver Hybridisierung innerhalb der Gattung. Das zytonukleäre Aussterben ehemaliger Taxa oder Populationen als Ergebnis lang anhaltender introgressiver Hybridisierung und darauffolgendem nuclear swamping machen zudem den potentiellen Einfluss von Hybridisierung in der Evolution von Primaten und Tieren im Allgemeinen deutlich. Die Phylogeographien der Savannensäugetiere zeigen, dass Aufspaltungen innerhalb der Gattungen sehr wahrscheinlich durch ausgeprägt humide wie auch aride Bedingungen begünstigt wurden, die eher durch regionale Klimatische Veränderungen in Afrika zu erklären sind als durch Glaziale Zyklen und Klimaschwankungen der Nördlichen Hemisphäre. Die Ergebnisse meiner Doktorarbeit betonen die Notwendigkeit der Analyse von sowohl mütterlich als auch väterlich vererbten Markern in phylogeographischen Studien, um ein möglichst vollständiges Bild von evolutionären Prozessen, Hybridisierung, sowie von genetischer und taxonomischer Vielfalt zu erlangen.

No description available.

The period of Ottoman rule, pejoratively termed the ‘Turkish yoke’, is often regarded in the Balkans – a region divided by quests for self-definition – as a period of darkness and suffering. Given the paucity of South Slavic historical records, scholars have sought to corroborate evidence of the ‘yoke’ in ‘historical paratexts’, fragmentary records of historical events to be found in the margins of Church Slavonic manuscripts and early printed books. With the Ottoman Empire on the verge of collapse in the first decades of the twentieth century, scholars and folklorists from the several splintered nations that form the Balkans became very interested in archiving and compiling these paratextual materials into published compendia, a trend which continues up to the present day. They believed that conserving these presumed eyewitness testimonials would preserve the core of the nation, an idea that has been transmitted largely unchallenged. These paratexts are seen as ‘writing from below’ which records facts about the suffering brought about by Ottoman rule. Present scholarship in the Balkans has interpreted ‘znatise’ (‘let it be known’), the formulaic expression that announces some of these annotations, as indicative of a self-conscious tendency to create historically truthful records of the South Slavs under Ottoman rule. However, one only needs to sift through these various records to be struck by the repetitions and the limited scope of the patterns that pervade a majority of these inscriptions as opposed to the range of observations that could be expected to result from an autobiographical impulse. This thesis accounts for these patterns and challenges the dominant interpretation of these paratexts by locating them within the larger writing traditions to which they belonged. By interrogating the relationship between paratextual writing and Church Slavonic historiography, this study provides an alternative framework which explains and brings together sources that have otherwise been left disparate and scattered. The formula ‘let it be known’ is to be understood not as testimony but rather as apocalyptic prophecy. The thesis demonstrates that historical paratexts mainly recorded those events -- such as natural disaster, famine, the outbreak of disease and celestial phenomena -- that were understood as portents and figured in apocalyptic literature. In this light, the clergy’s tone towards the military successes and the Ottoman reign is shown to be determined by an apocalyptic understanding of history. We also see how South Slavic attitudes towards the Ottomans were diverse with references to the Sultan ranging from ‘son of perdition’ (Antichrist) to ‘Tsar’ depending on the political relations between a diocese and the Ottoman administration. The thesis also provides new readings of three important paratextual accounts: (i) Monk Isaija’s colophon of 1371 (ii) Deacon Dimitar’s colophon of 1466 and (iii) the self-narratives of Mihail of Kratovo written between 1649 and 1660. The labels of ‘truthfulness’, ‘factuality’, and ‘sincerity’ that have been attributed to these first person accounts are questioned by demonstrating the socially strategic and ambiguous nature of these paratexts.

Not too much is known today about religion of ancient Mesoamerica, and it will only be through an intensive comparative study of the various deities as presented in the heiroglyphic manuscripts and native writings, and of the symbolic religious art in the architectural and sculptural remains, that greater knowledge of the subject will be gained. The "Tree of Life," one of the most striking religious symbols of the area, may be one key to such knowledge.

Invasion by non-native species has had significant ecological and economic impacts on a global scale. In the state of Florida, Old World climbing fern (Lygodium microphyllum) is an invasive plant listed by FLEPPC as a category one invader with significant ecological impacts that threaten native plant diversity. This species relies on existing vegetative structures for support to climb into the forest canopy and forms dense mats that cover tree crowns. This subsequently affects the resources available to other species present. Quantifying the structural changes due to the presence of this species has proved logistically difficult, especially on a large spatial scale. Airborne LiDAR (Light Detection And Ranging) technology is a form of remote sensing that measures the elevation of surfaces over a site. In this study I utilized LiDAR to calculate various forest structure metrics at Jonathan Dickinson State Park (JDSP) in Hobe Sound, Florida across various management frequencies and densities of Old World climbing fern. These data were used to quantify the degree to which this invasive species alters forest structure across these two gradients. I also recorded species composition in the field to relate how Old World climbing fern impacts native plant diversity. Structural measurements including average canopy height, height of median energy (HOME), rugosity, canopy openness, and vertical structural diversity (LHDI) were calculated for a total of three hundred 0.25ha sites stratified by invasion density and management frequency. Using a combination of univariate and multivariate statistical analyses I found that the presence of Old World Climbing fern altered the physical structure of the forest communities it invades. Higher percent cover of Old World climbing fern decreased structural diversity while increased management effort was found to mitigate those impacts. The management for Old World Climbing fern was also found to impact both species richness and diversity at JDSP. I also demonstrated that there were several species that were not found and others that were more common in the presence of Old World climbing fern and that there was a relationship between management and what species were present. The results show that both Old World climbing fern and the management practices used to control it have had significant ecological impacts on the natural communities in South Florida.