In this study, I modeled the suitability of habitat on the Mississippi Sandhill Crane National Wildlife Refuge for the federally endangered Mississippi Sandhill Crane (Grus Canadensis pulla). Habitat type and suitability changed over time due to seasonality of vegetation and succession in the absence of burning. Cranes used highly suitable habitat more in the non-growing than in the growing season, and may have been more constrained by resource availability during winter months. Cranes used some less-suitable areas including cypress drains, which provide roosting sites, and supplemental food plots. The mismatch between predicted quality and crane use suggests that no single habitat provides all resources required for the population to persist. Prescribed burning to maintain grassland habitat is essential for maintaining high quality habitat for cranes. The relative availability of food on supplemental food plots and grasslands, as well as the behavior of cranes toward roads, require additional investigation.

In present time, to be mobile, to be able to physically move from point A to point B is something taken for granted by a small minority of the world’s population, while the vast majority are caught within or between borders. How did we reach to this point? This study examines the lived experiences of (im)mobility in Jordan. It captures the experiences of Syrians who live in Jordan and who have been denied mobility because of their flight from their homeland. By means of an ethnographical approach this study challenges conventional conceptions of what it means to be displaced. Situating the understanding of displacement in relation to the modern nation state, territorial boundedness, national identity and geographical categorizations it ultimately lays the foundation for conceptualizing the relative human (im)mobility and its links to a historical past. Through travelling and living in Jordan periodically between 2017-2018, totalizing approximately 6 months, conducting semi-structured interviews and engaging in everyday social and contextual encounters, this study offers a more multifaceted understanding of what it means to be (im)mobile in present time, as additional to conventional scholarship. It ultimately demonstrates that displacement as we understand it today is inadequate and simplified, and as we reassess its components we are able to reconceptualize the understandings of relative human (im)mobility.

A flora of the 3800 ha Rocky Fork Tract in northeast Tennessee produced 749 species of which 19 were on the Tennessee Rare Plant List and 34 were on the Cherokee National Forest Species Viability List with 87 county records from Greene County and 217 from Unicoi County. Rare species were particularly numerous in the Cyperaceae and Orchidaceae. The tract serves as a refuge for several regionally uncommon species by supporting either large populations or metapopulations of these species. Exotic species comprised 15% of the flora and were most common in the Fabaceae and Poaceae. The most unique habitat was a heath bald dominated by Rhododendron catawbiense with abundant Xerophyllum asphodeloides in the herbaceous layer. While species richness was relatively high compared to regional sites of comparable area, diversity was limited by the absence of high elevation spruce-fir communities and the paucity of wetlands.

The purpose of this study was to answer the following question: What was the perceived value to planners of incorporating information from ecotourists about their perceived needs in the standard system presently being used to plan interpretation? The Ecotourist Needs Assessment (ETNA) process was proposed as an external needs assessment. To exemplify this process, an instrument called Ecotourist Needs Assessment Instrument (ETNAI) was developed to collect input from ecotourists who visited the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge. A case resulted from the process. The ETNAI case was used to obtain planners' opinions about whether ETNA had value in the context of data collection and inventory in interpretive planning. The ETNAI case included developing and validating the ETNAI and providing a procedure for implementing ETNAI. Upon completion of the ETNAI case, an interview guide was developed and administered to interpretive planners. Interpretive planners were asked how they currently plan interpretation and collect information to decide interpretive topics. Other questions dealt with their feelings regarding the usefulness of the ETNA and the data collected using the ETNA. The interpretive planners described the current system and provided information about the proposed system (ETNA). Currently, decisions involving interpretation are based on three factors: 1) money, 2) mandates/missions, and/or 3) management. The interpretive planner chose outside (external) groups except during a master planning process when the general public provided input. The outside groups included: professionals, the public, and recreation providers. The current methods used to collect information were informal or considered casual. When contrasted with the proposed method, the interpretive planners felt the ETNA had value. This was reflected in their suggestions for use: As an evaluation tool after an interpretive program is given to a specific audience. As a method to assess the interpretive needs of visitors and specific audiences for interpretation. As a technique to access visitors and the public, both general and specific. As a mechanism to collect data at public meetings. As a systematic routine to develop interpretation, to provide feedback for further development, and to evaluate interpretation embedded in the site system. As a method to effectively determine the distribution of funds. / Graduation date: 1993

Thesis (M.S.)--University of Tennessee, Knoxville, 2009. / Title from title page screen (viewed on Mar. 11, 2010). Thesis advisor: Sally P. Horn. Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

This thesis is an investigation of the Philanthropic Society (est. 1788) and Refuge for the Destitute (est. 1804), two subscription charities established to prevent crime and reform members of the “criminal underclass” in London, England. This thesis engages the perspectives of both benefactors and beneficiaries, arguing that beneficiaries (or “objects”) were not passive participants in the charitable exchange, but actively sought to manipulate the institutions’ systems to secure their own desires —desires which did not always align with those of their benefactors. The introductory chapter explores the social, economic, and political conditions which led benefactors to create the institutions and which informed their aims and methods. The first chapter examines the strategies used by objects to secure charitable aid on their own terms. The post-institutional conduct of beneficiaries is the focus of the final chapter. Despite the intensive reformatory regimen of the Philanthropic and Refuge, a significant proportion of beneficiaries —at least one third— refused to fulfill benefactors’ expectations that they become law-abiding, industrious, and pious citizens. From the day of their application to the institutions to long after their departure, objects’ actions were informed by their own expectations and desires. / Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC)

St. Vincent Island is one of the barrier islands in the Florida panhandle between Apalachicola Bay and the Gulf of Mexico. The St. Vincent National Wildlife Refuge encompasses all 5000 hectares of the island. Archaeological fieldwork in the summer of 2009 included a survey of the entire island and a test unit at one of the island's richest sites. In spring of 2010 a second test unit was excavated at another archaeologically rich site. A total of 16 known sites were investigated and two newly discovered sites recorded. This research combines all these data with information obtained from existing artifact collections and archives, as well as results of a widespread geological survey of the island, in order to characterize the prehistoric archaeological record on the island, which stretches back at least 4000 years or more, to the time of the island's first formation. Subsistence, settlement patterns, site use, and change through time in the human adaptation on St. Vincent are described in relation to the preexisting cultural chronology of the region, especially that of other barrier islands. Settlement from all time periods is concentrated on the north and east shorelines, with not much human use of the island interior until recent historic time. Geological indication of sea level fluctuations on the islands oldest shoreline section, on the northeast tip, is combined with archaeological evidence to suggest responses to rising sea levels.

Based on surface area, South Africa is currently ranked 8th in planting genetically modified (GM) crops in the world. The stem borer, Busseola fusca (Fuller) (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae) is of economic importance throughout sub–Saharan Africa. Bt maize (MON810) has been grown to control lepidopterous stem borers in South Africa since its first release in 1998. The first report of resistance to Bt maize was made in the Christiana area of South Africa in 2007. The objectives of this study were to evaluate the status of resistance of populations of B. fusca to Bt maize; to evaluate farmers' perceptions of the regulatory aspects guiding the planting of Bt maize and refugia and how the field situation developed between 1998 and 2010; to compare the fitness of the fertility, fecundity and longevity of Bt–resistant and susceptible B. fusca populations and to determine if there are fitness costs associated with resistance of B. fusca to Bt maize. Questionnaire surveys were conducted amongst 185 farmers in seven districts throughout the maize production region. The questionnaire addressed signing of contracts upon purchasing GM seed, refuge compliance, pest management practices, perceived benefits and risks relating to Bt maize. In order to study fitness and fitness costs that may be associated with resistance development, the life history parameters of known Bt–resistant and susceptible populations were compared in the laboratory using a diapauses–as well as second–generation populations collected in maize fields. The following parameters were compared between different stem borers populations and treatments: pupal mass, moth longevity, fecundity, fertility, larval mass and survival, and sex ratio. This study confirmed resistance of B. fusca to the Cry1Ab toxin (MON810) and that larvae collected from refugia at Vaalharts were resistant and survived on Bt maize. Compliance to refugia requirements was low especially during the initial 5 – 7 years after release. An alarmingly high number of farmers applied insecticides as preventative sprays on Bt maize and refugia. Except for moth longevity and LT50– values, no other fitness costs were observed to be associated with the resistance trait in the highly resistant B. fusca population used in this study. The LT50 may indicate some degree of fitness cost but does not translate into observable costs in terms of fecundity, larval mass and survival. The absence of fitness costs may promote the use of alternative Bt–resistance management strategies, such as the introduction of a multigene strategy. The introduction of a stacked event such as MON89034 which produces more than one protein with activity active against the resistant target pest, together with compliance to the refuge strategy, is most likely the only solution to managing Btresistant stem borer populations in South Africa. / Thesis (Ph.D. (Environmental Science))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2011.

Based on surface area, South Africa is currently ranked 8th in planting genetically modified (GM) crops in the world. The stem borer, Busseola fusca (Fuller) (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae) is of economic importance throughout sub–Saharan Africa. Bt maize (MON810) has been grown to control lepidopterous stem borers in South Africa since its first release in 1998. The first report of resistance to Bt maize was made in the Christiana area of South Africa in 2007. The objectives of this study were to evaluate the status of resistance of populations of B. fusca to Bt maize; to evaluate farmers' perceptions of the regulatory aspects guiding the planting of Bt maize and refugia and how the field situation developed between 1998 and 2010; to compare the fitness of the fertility, fecundity and longevity of Bt–resistant and susceptible B. fusca populations and to determine if there are fitness costs associated with resistance of B. fusca to Bt maize. Questionnaire surveys were conducted amongst 185 farmers in seven districts throughout the maize production region. The questionnaire addressed signing of contracts upon purchasing GM seed, refuge compliance, pest management practices, perceived benefits and risks relating to Bt maize. In order to study fitness and fitness costs that may be associated with resistance development, the life history parameters of known Bt–resistant and susceptible populations were compared in the laboratory using a diapauses–as well as second–generation populations collected in maize fields. The following parameters were compared between different stem borers populations and treatments: pupal mass, moth longevity, fecundity, fertility, larval mass and survival, and sex ratio. This study confirmed resistance of B. fusca to the Cry1Ab toxin (MON810) and that larvae collected from refugia at Vaalharts were resistant and survived on Bt maize. Compliance to refugia requirements was low especially during the initial 5 – 7 years after release. An alarmingly high number of farmers applied insecticides as preventative sprays on Bt maize and refugia. Except for moth longevity and LT50– values, no other fitness costs were observed to be associated with the resistance trait in the highly resistant B. fusca population used in this study. The LT50 may indicate some degree of fitness cost but does not translate into observable costs in terms of fecundity, larval mass and survival. The absence of fitness costs may promote the use of alternative Bt–resistance management strategies, such as the introduction of a multigene strategy. The introduction of a stacked event such as MON89034 which produces more than one protein with activity active against the resistant target pest, together with compliance to the refuge strategy, is most likely the only solution to managing Btresistant stem borer populations in South Africa. / Thesis (Ph.D. (Environmental Science))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2011.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Hawaii at Manoa, 2004. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 245-267). / vi, 267 leaves, bound 29 cm