Philosophiae Doctor - PhD / The Eastern Antarctic Dry Valley region is a polar desert, where conditions of extreme aridity, high temperature fluctuations and high irradiation levels make it one of the most extreme environments on earth. Despite the harsh environment, the soils in this region yield a wide range of bacterial and eukaryotic phylotypes in greater abundance than previously believed. In the Dry Valleys, highly localized niche communities colonise the underside of translucent quartz rocks and present macroscopic growth. / South Africa

The study develops two significant arguments in relation to Pakistan’s socio-legal situation and analysis. First, it outlines and discusses the various prominent facets of the country’s legal architecture to formulate and present, what the thesis terms as, Pakistan’s Socio-Legal Tapestry. It considers the historical and conceptual trajectories of some of the multiple legal and normative structures that prevail in the country, their interplay and encounters, as well as their limitations and problems. It puts this socio-legal architecture at the heart of the examination, and by making the different constituents of the legal terrain explicit – components that include common law, Islamic law, colonial law, traditional law, legal ‘exteriority’ of tribal regions, and issues of ‘lawlessness’ – it makes the case for a holistic understanding of law as the necessary prerequisite to understanding the difficulties that that the country’s law, state and the wider society are faced with. The second significant argument of the study emerges from this expansion of the subject matter of (socio)legal analysis. It is argued that a shift in the understanding of what constitutes law in the context of Pakistan logically leads towards a (re)consideration of the lenses and narratives generally employed to examine it. The identification, examination and problematisation of these narratives – which include the dominant state-oriented legal narrative and the legal positivistic approach, the Islamic law narrative, legal pluralistic approach and the ascendant discourse on human rights – formulate the second substantive part of the study. It is argued that these Narratives of law differ in terms of how they perceive the context, identify their priorities, frame the problems and then propose solutions for their rectification. However, caught in a struggle to maintain their definitional consistencies, these narratives are only able to adopt a partial view of the picture and, owing to that, they generate contradictions that ultimately weaken their approach and proposed solutions. The purpose behind these two arguments is both to make a case for new avenues of context-specific legal analysis, as well as to create possibilities for it in the case of Pakistan. The problems that the country faces and the suffering that its people experience create an urgent need to recognise the deficiencies, both in our conceptualisation of law in this particular context, as well as the narratives, perspectives, theories and ideologies that we employ to approach it. This necessitates the search for alternative narratives for comprehending Pakistan’s socio-legal situation, to offer more nuanced approaches that might enable us to frame issues differently. This, I argue, is the most pressing task for those engaged in the analyses of legal, social and political spheres of Pakistan, and the necessary first step if our goal is the (re)formation of the legal and normative orders to make them more accountable to the people. By adopting the framework of colonialism and Coloniality to offer a different lens to understand Pakistan’s socio-legal peculiarities, the study presents one such attempt in this vein, with the purpose of initiating discussion and inviting critique.

Through analysis based on an empirical study of the Chinese criminal process, this thesis examines the underlying reasons that lead to a striking feature of criminal trials in China---the absence of witnesses. The Chinese criminal justice system routinely relies on official written dossiers to determine the guilt or innocence of the accused. To investigate whether the constructed written evidence is truly reliable, participant observation and semi-structured interviews have been conducted to explore how these investigative dossiers are created, scrutinised and utilised at different stages of the criminal process. Themes that emerge in this study include the police's manipulation and fabrication of written statements, prosecutors' acceptance of, and even encouragement of, police malpractice in falsifying evidence, coerced prosecutorial interrogation in pursuit of a guilty plea, the pro forma trial process, predetermined judicial outcomes based on the official dossier produced and marginalised defence practice throughout the criminal process. Approaching the enquiry from an internal perspective of the legal institutions for the first time within empirical research, this study outlines the key issues with the Chinese criminal justice system through examination of the strategic inter-relationships between the key legal actors, the deep-seated legal culture embedded in legal actions and the structural injustices that follow. Positioning these findings within the Chinese socio-political context, this study reveals that the criminal justice system in China is not a precise truth-finding process, but serves as a State apparatus of social control. The criminal justice system has been structured through the Appraisal System, bureaucratic management, and the central value of collectivism in such a way as to maintain the stability of the authoritarian regime. None of China’s criminal justice institutions are capable of functioning independently to protect innocent individuals from being wrongly accused and convicted. Thus, wrongful convictions should not be seen as aberrational or exceptional, but as an inevitable outcome of established deficiencies.

This thesis examines the impact of structural reform strategies of International Financial Institutions (IFIs) on the rule of law, good governance and development in Pakistan. In doing so, it explores the extent to which the ethos and instruments of rule of law and good governance could be helpful in mitigating problems of social justice as experienced by Pakistan. One important outlet through which this is explored is the internal factors that have aggravated conditions of poverty and social injustice. The interface of these social variables is made possible by the scale of Pakistan’s social challenges which has culminated in the involvement of IFIs in the country’s internal struggles. But like other countries, the IFIs involvement in Pakistan’s domestic affairs has aggravated social injustice rather than alleviating it. The principal argument of this thesis is that absence of social justice in Pakistan could be attributed to the interaction between IFI policies, weak structures of governance and the rule of law. While IFIs policies have recently attempted to emphasise human rights, good governance and the rule of law, these have been ineffective partly because of IFI submissiveness to strategic interests of the United States and Western powers. The theoretical and analytic framework of the thesis is mediated through Amartya Sen’s capability approach. Capability means: What people can positively achieve is influenced by economic opportunities, political liberties, social powers, and the enabling conditions of good health, basic education, and the encouragement and cultivation of initiatives. The institutional arrangements for these opportunities are also influenced by the exercise of people’s freedoms, through the liberty to participate in social choice and in the making of public decisions that impel the progress of these opportunities (Sen, 1999:5). The theoretical framework is used as the frame upon which to engage the impact of Structural Reform Strategies of IFIs on the rule of law, good governance and development in Pakistan as the case study.

Memoria para optar al Título Profesional de Ingeniera Forestal / Nothofagus antarctica (ñirre) persiste principalmente por regeneración vegetativa, la que es influenciada por la ocurrencia de perturbaciones como fuego, pastoreo y cortas para extracción de leña. La capacidad de rebrote en algunas especies es influenciada por la época de corta, la edad del árbol y la altura de corte. Es por esta razón que se vuelve crucial comprender el mecanismo de propagación vegetativa de estos bosques. El objetivo de este trabajo es caracterizar y evaluar el rebrote de tocón de árboles de Nothofagus antarctica en bosques de la Patagonia chilena. Ambos bosques pertenecen a la región bioclimática Templado lluviosa. El primer lugar se ubica en Valle California (Región de Los Lagos), se caracteriza por presentar precipitaciones anuales superiores a 2.000 mm y temperatura del aire entre 0 y 17 °C. En cuanto al segundo bosque, se encuentra en Balmaceda (Región de Aysén) presenta hasta 1.000 mm de precipitaciones anuales y temperatura del aire entre 0 y 5 °C.

The West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS) is currently thinning and retreating because shifting oceanic currents are transporting warmer waters to the ice margin, which could lead to a collapse of the ice sheet and global sea level rise. International Ocean Discovery Program (IODP) Expedition 374 sailed to the Ross Sea in 2018 to study the history of the WAIS over the last 20 million years. Previous geologic drilling projects into Ross Sea sediments that record the history of the WAIS (DSDP Leg 28, RISP, MSSTS, Cape Roberts Drilling Project, ANDRILL), as well as modeling studies, show considerable variability of ice-sheet extent during the Neogene and Quaternary including ice sheet collapse during times of extreme warmth. The purpose of this study is to reconstruct paleoenvironments on the Ross Sea and confirm modeling studies that show warming waters in the Southern Ocean led to the loss of Antarctic ice in the past. Site U1523 is a key site as it is located close to the shelf break and therefore sensitive to warm water incursions from modified Circumpolar Deep Water (mCDW) onto the Ross Sea continental shelf as the Antarctic Slope Current weakens with a changing climate. Shelf sites U1522 and U1521 provide perspective for what was happening closer to the Ross Ice Shelf. Multiple incursions of subpolar or temperate planktic foraminifera taxa occurred during the latest Pliocene and early Pleistocene prior to ~1.8 Ma at Site U1523 indicating times of warmer than present conditions and less ice in the Ross Sea. Especially high abundances of foraminifera are recorded in the late Pleistocene associated with Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 31, MIS 11, and MIS 5e might also indicate reduced ice and relatively warmer conditions. The interval of abundant foraminifera around MIS 31 (MIS 37 to 21) suggests multiple warmer interglacials during the Mid-Pleistocene Transition (MPT). A change in benthic foraminiferal assemblages and a large increase in foraminiferal fragments after the MPT (~800 ka) indicate stronger currents at the seafloor and perhaps corrosive waters, suggesting a major change in water masses entering (mCDW) or exiting the Ross Sea (AABW) since the MPT.

Diatoms are single-celled photosynthetic eukaryotes that substantially contribute to global primary productivity. They are also among the most diverse groups of organisms in Antarctica. Biogeographically, Antarctica is divided into three distinct regions including the Sub-Antarctic, Maritime Antarctic, and Continental Antarctic. Recent taxonomic revisions of diatoms within the Sub-Antarctic and Maritime Antarctic Regions have uncovered a number of endemic taxa initially misidentified as cosmopolitan due to species "force-fitting". Within Continental Antarctica, this taxonomic uncertainty has led to confusion about the environmental drivers of limno-terrestrial diatom communities, although this knowledge is important given the use of diatoms as regional bioindicators for environmental change. The purpose of this dissertation is to reevaluate the diatom flora of Continental Antarctica and determine variables that structure their communities within two historically and biologically important localities within East Antarctica; the Vestfold Hills and Windmill Islands. The erection of the genus Sabbea was performed to accommodate a long-misidentified species, Sabbea adminensis, that occurs within the Vestfold Hills and McMurdo Sound Region where it had been the source of taxonomic confusion since the...

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The Ross Sea, the southernmost sea on Earth, presents several iconic features of polar seas: sites of deep water formation, high summer primary production, floating ice shelves, the annual cycle of advance and retreat of sea ice, polynyas and katabatic winds. Furthermore, sea ice in McMurdo sound (western Ross Sea) is one of the most productive marine environments. However, sea ice inorganic carbon dynamics and related air-ice CO2 fluxes have never been documented in the Ross Sea.Two surveys were carried out in the western Ross Sea to bridge over a critical gap in the current understanding of sea ice: autumn and winter processes. The land-based YROSIAE project was a temporal survey from late winter to summer within landfast sea ice. The ship-based PIPERS project was an unique opportunity to study the early stages of sea ice formation (in polynyas) and more common consolidated pack ice in autumn. Based on these two consistent surveys, this work aims to (i) examine the bulk ice pCO2 dynamics in landfast sea ice from late winter to summer (ii) investigate the seasonal pattern (net source vs net sink) and diurnal pattern of air-ice CO2 fluxes (iii) analyse the depth-dependent physical and biogeochemical processes involved in inorganic carbon dynamics (iv) assess the precipitation of calcium carbonate in autumn and during a full bloom season.CO2 fluxes were measured using the chamber technique in autumn, late winter and spring, over open surface water, frazil ice patch, grey unconsolidated ice and consolidated first-year ice. These new autumn and winter data provide a first step to set up the budget of air-ice CO2 fluxes over the year and evaluate the large-scale influence of these fluxes on the annual uptake of CO2 by ice-covered oceans. Our results confirm that sea ice acts as a CO2 source for the atmosphere during ice growth, with enhanced fluxes reported at the early stages of sea ice formation, and shifts to a sink in spring. In late spring, diel pattern superimposed upon this seasonal pattern and was potentially assigned to either ice skin freeze-thaw cycles or diel changes in net community production. The snowpack plays a complex role in CO2 exchanges and can no longer be considered as an inert reservoir lying at the sea ice surface.The main features of the normalized DIC distribution (DIC35) through the ice column were: (i) a marked depletion at the surface from autumn to spring induced by the CO2 releases to the atmosphere (ii) bubble-driven gas enrichment below or within impermeable layers and (iii) an initial DIC35 enrichment in the bottom layer disappearing in spring when the seasonal peak in biomass occurs. At the bottom of landfast ice, in spring, a particular assemblage of microorganisms, the biofilm, led to a massive biomass build-up counterintuitively associated with nutrients accumulation. This biofilm formation may also promote calcium carbonate precipitation. However, in young pack ice or in cold landfast ice in early spring, limited calcium carbonate precipitation was reported. This suggests that calcium carbonate precipitation is not an ubiquitous process, especially in winter and autumn Antarctic sea ice. Comparison of calcium carbonate precipitation and pCO2 measurements advocates that the calcium carbonate precipitation is rather controlled by pCO2 than temperature. / Doctorat en Sciences / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / Tills from major ice streams (Institute, Foundation, Academy, Recovery, and Slessor) of the Weddell Sea Embayment contain detrital zircons with distinct U-Pb age populations that can be used as a provenance tool to better understand ice stream dynamics. U-Pb ages of detrital zircons were measured in 21 samples of onshore till, erratics, and bedrock of potential source rocks, and 12 samples of offshore till. Grains were analyzed by LA-ICPMS at the University of Arizona (n=5447). Relative probability U-Pb age density plots of till in moraines along the Institute Ice Stream have dominant Grenville (1070 Ma) and secondary Ross/Pan-African peaks (560 Ma, 630 Ma). The Foundation and Academy show prominent Ross/Pan-African peaks (500-530 Ma and 615-650 Ma). The Recovery transports zircons with prominent 530 Ma and 635 Ma peaks along the southern margin, and 1610 and 1770 Ma along the northern margin. The Slessor carries zircons with prominent populations at 1710 Ma and secondary 2260-2420 Ma. U-Pb ages in zircons from offshore till samples show a general trend of fewer Mesozoic ages from west to east. The western most core, PS 1423, has dominant Jurassic populations while cores 1197 and 1278 have a high proportion of early Ross/Pan-African ages relative to Grenville ages. The similar zircon age distributions between PS 1278 and the Foundation Ice Stream tills suggest that the Foundation switched to an easterly flow path around Berkner Island (BI) at some point during the LGM. In the eastern Weddell Sea (PS 1400), there was a near absence of Proterozoic zircon age populations carried by the Slessor and northern side of the Recovery. Another unexpected find was a lack of Grenville ages in PS 1423 relative to the Institute tills. The U-Pb data in this study provides a basis for two possible LGM ice flow reconstructions. In the first, the Institute flowed west around the unnamed isolated bedrock highs, deposited tills between PS 1423 and PS 1197, providing a westerly flow path around BI for the Foundation. In the second, the Institute flows over the subglacial topography and deposited till closer to PS 1197, forcing the Foundation east around BI.