Huvudsyftet med avhandlingen är att förstå hur människor tänker om och hanterar kärlek, sexualitet och hälsa i sina vardagliga liv på landsbygden i nordöstra KwaZulu Natal i Sydafrika. Målet är att förstå vad kärlek innebär för dem, men också hur större samhälleliga processer påverkar erfarenheter av kärlek, hälsa och relationer. Studien baserar sig på sex månaders etnografiska fältstudier bland framförallt åtta familjer. Data samlades in genom deltagande observationer och öppna intervjuer. Vid sidan om familjerna intervjuades tio örtdoktorer. Materialet består av 60 bandade intervjuer och cirka 340 sidor fältanteckningar. Analysen visar att man talar mer om kärlek i termer av respektfulla handlingar och en social ordning än om kärlek som en känsla. Kärleken är visserligen känslofull, men talet om respektfulla handlingar som kännetecknet på kärlek visar att invånarna ser sig som djupt beroende av varandra. Individen definieras av en väv av relationer där även förfäderna, både levande och döda, ingår. Kärlek mellan två individer hänger därför intimt samman med släkten och relationer i närsamhället, vilket skapar tillhörighet men också utsatthet. Kärleksmediciner tillverkade av örter utgör en möjlig väg att stärka ett förhållande eller att vinna någons kärlek. Berättelser om kärleksmediciner visar emellertid vad människor drabbas av och vad som anses vara ett omoraliskt agerande, vilket ger förklaring och lindring i svåra situationer men också lyfter fram att strukturella omständigheter under vilka människor lever behöver förändras. Kolonisation, apartheid och under senare år demokratisering har inneburit radikala förändringar för kärleks- och familjerelationer. Män, och fler och fler kvinnor, försörjer sig som migrantarbetare, vilket har lett till en uppsplittring av familjen mellan stad och landsbygd och skapat nya slags försörjningsnätverk. Förändringarna har lett till svårigheter med att visa kärlek i handling och till efterfrågan på nya sorters handlingar som bevis på kärlek. Arbetslöshet och sjukdomar utgör dock det allvarligaste hotet mot kärleken. I brist på effektiva åtgärder mot aids åberopar människor en tydligare moralisk ordning och försöker finna alternativa vägar att skydda sig. För att lyfta fram både det individuella och det gemensamma ansvaret för sexuella relationer och för att stärka flickors position har invånarna skapat en ritual för att kontrollera flickors oskuld, som en preventiv snarare än en diagnostisk åtgärd. En välkänd historisk ritual som lyfter fram oskuldens och kollektivets betydelse används i en modern strategi för att försöka hejda spridningen av aids och göra kärleken möjlig. Studien lyfter fram hur både inomstatliga och västerländska projekt som syftar till att förbättra zulufolkets situation grundar sig i perspektiv och föreställningar som är främmande för dem, och ibland krockar med deras sätt att uppfatta kärlek, relationer och sexualitet. Invånarna ser ömsom nya möjligheter, ömsom försöker de bevara sin tidigare moraliska ordning, men framförallt transformerar de sin specifika förståelse av hur samlevnad fungerar till dagens behov och villkor. / The main purpose of this study is to investigate how people think about and manage love, sexuality and health in their daily lives in northeastern rural KwaZulu Natal. The goal is to understand what love means to them, as well as how bigger social processes influence experiences of love, health and relationships. The thesis is based on six months of ethnographic field studies concentrated around eight families. Data were gathered through participant observations and open-ended interviews. Ten traditional healers were also interviewed. Data comprises 60 tape-recorded interviews and about 340 pages of fieldnotes. The analysis shows that people speak about love in terms of respectful actions and a social order rather than in terms of love as an emotion. Certainly love is about feelings, but the view that respectful actions are the primary signs of love reflects the way in which people see themselves as deeply dependent on one another. The individual is woven into a web of relationships where even the ancestors are an integral part. Thus love between two individuals is intimately connected to the family and to wider social relations in a way that creates a sense of belonging but also vulnerability. Love medicines made from herbs offer one way to strengthen a relationship or win somebody’s love. However, stories about love medicines reveal what trials people face, what they see as amoral actions, and in addition provide explanations and comfort as well as point out that structural circumstances under which people live need to be changed. Colonisation, apartheid policies, and more recently democratization have all led to radical changes for love and family relations. Men and increasingly women have been drawn into migrant labor, dividing families between rural and urban areas and creating new types of support networks. These changes have obstructed individuals’ ability to show love through actions and also led to individuals expecting new types of actions as proof of love. The most serious threats to love, however, are unemployment and sickness. In the absence of effective measures against aids people refer to a more distinct moral order to find alternative ways to protect young people. To emphasize both the individual’s and the community’s responsibility for sexual relations, and to strengthen girls’ position, Zulu have created virginity testing as a preventive ritual more than a diagnostic measure. An old tradition that emphasizes the status of virgin girls and the significance of the collective is used in a modern strategy to try to combat the spread of aids and to make love possible. The study emphasizes how both South African and Western projects that aim to improve the situation for the Zulus are grounded in perspectives and ideas that are unfamiliar to them, and sometimes collide with how they perceive love, relationships and sexuality. The interviewees sometimes see new possibilities, sometimes try to preserve their old moral order, but most of all work to transform their specific understandings of love and life to meet today’s needs and conditions.

Colonization, which has resulted in the direct contact between the black man and the white man, leaves behind it an eternity of realities, of questioning and even an identity crisis. It was imposed on Africans by means of force, leaving no room for the concept of balance, equality or even of brotherhood. Instead you are faced with the concept of dominance between oppressors and oppressed. During colonization the white man had managed to impose its superiority to the black man by creating an absolute hierarchy: the white man is the all-powerful, the civilized, the absolute master of all, it is superior to all indigenous black; the black man, in the opposite, is found stripped of its roots, its customs, its history, in short it is found lower than the white man. In this work it was question to analyze the process of the demystification of the white man by the black man through Ferdinand Oyono’s Houseboy. We should then, through a study of this novel and other materials, show how this demystification is highlighted. By analyzing this novel and Toundi building his life the kingdom of the West, which will enable him to see more clearly in the behavior of its masters and demystify as well their universalist claims that their claims to the humanism ; we understand then the process and the circumstances which have enabled this demystification. The white man is debunked. Its superiority and its all-powerful are rendered to zero by the degradation of morals characterizing its way of life.

La fin du XVe siècle marque le début d’une nouvelle ère dans les Amériques. L’arrivée des explorateurs, des conquistadores et des colonisateurs espagnols au nouveau continent signe l’introduction des Amériques dans l’histoire. Dans les écrits rédigés durant les premières décennies de la colonisation, les Autochtones endossent majoritairement le rôle d’objet. À la suite de l’endoctrinement d’une partie de la population autochtone, ce rôle passif se transforme en rôle davantage actif alors que certains Autochtones décident de prendre la parole et la plume. Voilà ce que Felipe Guamán Poma de Ayala décide de faire par l’entremise de sa chronique Nueva coronica y buen gobierno, rédigé en 1615 et adressé au roi Philippe III d’Espagne. Ce mémoire étudie une sélection d’images de la chronique comme traductions culturelles intersémiotiques de la société coloniale dans la mesure où elles traduisent le vécu colonial, y compris les rapports de pouvoir ethniques au sein de la hiérarchie sociale, à l’aide d’unités sémiotiques provenant de divers codes culturels (espagnol, catholique et andin). L’objectif de ce projet de recherche consiste à démontrer la façon dont l’hybridité du système sémiotique du texte cible expose la nature aliénante de la traduction ainsi que la relation antagonique qu’elle entretient avec l’idéologie coloniale officielle. / The end of the 15th century introduces a new era in America. The arrival of Spanish explorers, conquistadors and colonists on the New Continent marks the beginning of American History. In works written during the first decades of colonization, most Natives merely take on the role of objects. Following the indoctrination of part of the Native population, this passive role becomes more active when some Natives decide to make their voices heard by the means of writing. This is exactly what Felipe Guamán Poma de Ayala decides to do in his 1615 Nueva coronica y buen gobierno, written to King Phillip III of Spain. This project studies a selection of pictures from the chronicle as intersemiotic cultural translations of colonial society that translate colonial events, including the ethnic power struggles within the social hierarchy, using semiotic units belonging to various culture codes (Spanish, Catholic, Andean). Our goal is to show that the hybridity that shapes the semiotic system used in the target text reveals the foreignizing nature of the translation, and in turn, the antagonistic relations with the official colonial ideology.

La situation économique, sociale et politique des nations autochtones au Canada et leur relation avec les nations non-autochtones présentent des similarités avec les anciennes colonies européennes. Peut-on qualifier cette relation de « coloniale » ? Cette interrogation est primordiale, vu les aspects immoraux et illégaux que prit la colonisation. Nous parcourrons la pensée d’auteurs reliés au libéralisme, au nationalisme autochtone et à l’interculturalisme et nous choisirons ce dernier comme angle d’approche. Nous élaborerons ensuite le concept de colonisation interne et nous le confronterons au cas des autochtones. Puis, nous présenterons les motivations à la décolonisation ainsi que la composition d’un hypothétique État postcolonial canadien et de nations et communautés autochtones décolonisées. Finalement, nous analyserons la démarche judiciaire, la négociation d’ententes d’autonomie gouvernementale, la mobilisation des masses et l’approche des word warriors, l’objectif étant d’évaluer jusqu’à quel point ces moyens s’inscrivent dans un éventuel processus de décolonisation des nations autochtones. / The social, political and economic situation of the aboriginal nations in Canada and their relations with non-aboriginal Canadians exhibits parallels with the European colonies of the past. Are there enough of these to identify the contemporary Canadian case as "colonial"? The question is a fundamental one, given the illegal, not to mention immoral, features of colonialism. In order to answer it, this memoire explores the writing of liberal, nationalist aboriginal, and "intercultural" thinkers, and concludes in favour of the latter. Then, using the intercultural approach, the concept of "internal colonialisation" is developed and applied to the case of Canadian aboriginals. This is followed by arguments in favour of their decolonialisation as well as a hypothetical account of a postcolonial Canada. Finally, a number of strategies for bringing the latter about are evaluated: the legal justice route; negotiation over governmental autonomy; mass mobilisation; and the "word warriors" approach.

Cette thèse propose une ethnographie des devenirs des fermiers blancs saisis sur le long terme de leur présence au Zimbabwe. L’analyse est centrée autour d’un moment de crise, les occupations de fermes en cours, qualifié dans ce travail d’éthique et de critique. Ces occupations s’attaquent symboliquement et réellement aux restes de la colonisation au Zimbabwe. Leur étude nous a conduits à nous interroger sur les manières suivant lesquelles la décolonisation est mise en oeuvre dans le Zimbabwe du Président Mugabe et sur les enjeux qui concernent la forme, notamment sur le plan légale, de la postcolonie. Ces occupations ont provoqué l’expulsion de plus de 90 % des fermiers blancs hors de leur lieu utopique, à savoir la ferme, et les ont poussés dans des espaces d’ambiguïté à l’intérieur desquels les occupants cherchent la confrontation. La question de la corruption (économique et morale) est au coeur de l’expérience des fermiers blancs qui ont été forcés de renoncer à leur intégrité. Certains d’entre eux ont tenté par divers moyens de la maintenir en se préservant de la corruption et en réclamant le respect de leurs « droits »; d’autres ont accepté de vivre dans la zone grise que constitue l’occupation de leur ferme. Cette thèse qui s’ancre dans l’anthropologie postcoloniale est organisée en trois parties. La question centrale de la première partie qui est d’orientation historique interroge la forme que les settlers ont donnée à ce pays et la manière mise de l’avant par les fermiers blancs pour faire de ces terres africaines « leur » lieu. Dans la deuxième partie, l’instauration après 2000 du Fast-track land reform programme et l'expérience quotidienne des occupations du point de vue des fermiers blancs sont analysées dans le détail. Dans la troisième partie, la vie des fermiers dépossédés de leur ferme est abordée à partir d’Harare, la capitale du Zimbabwe et de la Grande-Bretagne où ils ont trouvé refuge. Ceux qui vivent actuellement à Harare se sont réorganisés socialement et économiquement en redéfinissant les limites, notamment morales, de la communauté. Ceux qui, fuyant le Zimbabwe, sont « retournés » en Angleterre sont redevenus des Anglais. / This thesis presents an ethnography of the fate of white farmers caught up in the complexity of their long-term presence in Zimbabwe. The analysis is centered around a time of crisis, the current farm occupations, characterised in this work as ethical and critical moments. These occupations symbolically and effectively challenge the remains of colonialism in Zimbabwe. The study of these leads us to question the ways by which decolonization is implemented in the Zimbabwe of President Mugabe, and about issues concerning the form, in particular in legal terms, of the post-colony. These occupations have caused the expulsion of more than 90% of white farmers from their “utopian place”, namely the farm, and pushed them into spaces of ambiguity within which the farm occupiers are seeking confrontation. The issue of corruption (economic and moral) is central to the experience of white farmers who were forced to give up their integrity. Some of them have tried by various means to maintain their integrity by protecting themselves against corruption and by calling for the respect of their "rights"; others have agreed to live in the grey areas constituted by the occupation of their farms. This thesis, rooted in post-colonial anthropology, is organized into three parts. The central question of the first part, which is historically oriented, interrogates the form the settlers gave to this country and the manner by which white farmers made these lands of Africa "their" place. In the second part, the establishment of the post-2000 “fast-track land reform programme” and the daily experiences of the occupations from white farmers’ points of view are analyzed in detail. In the third part, the lives of farmers dispossessed of their farms is adressed from Harare, the capital of Zimbabwe, as well as from Britain, where many have found refuge. Those currently living in Harare have reorganized themselves socially and economically by redefining the limits, including moral ones, of the community. Meanwhile, those who fled Zimbabwe and "returned" to England have since became English again.

Comment le tourisme s’est-il développé dans un territoire en pleine expansion coloniale ? Comment tourisme et colonisation se sont-ils conjugués ? Quel lien peut-on établir entre ces deux dynamiques ? C’est ce à quoi cette thèse tente de répondre en démontrant l’instrumentalisation du tourisme par les politiques coloniales. Elle se divise en sept chapitres abordant successivement le transfert des pratiques touristiques de l’Europe à l’Indochine, leurs implantations, leurs intégrations aux politiques de mise en valeur des années 1920, les conséquences spatiales de leurs implantations (construction de voies de communication et d’hébergements hôteliers) et la communication instaurée par l’Etat pour promouvoir l’Indochine comme une destination touristique auprès des Indochinois comme des touristes étrangers. / How did tourism develop in a rapidly expanding colonial territory? How were tourism and colonization combined? What links were established between these two processes? These are the questions that this thesis addresses by demonstrating the exploitation of tourism by colonial policies. This thesis is divided into seven chapters dealing successively with the transfer of European tourism practices to Indochina, their location, their integration into the politics of territorial development in the 1920s, the spatial consequences of their implementation (construction of roads and hotel accommodation), and the attempts of the State to promote Indochina as a touristic destination for both Indochinese and foreign tourists alike.

Ce travail porte sur 1'histoire de la presse écrite en Guinée entre 1925 et 2010, i.e. entre l'apparition du premier périodique et la fin de la 2e République. À l'instar d'autres pays africains, les Guinéens sont entrés en contact avec les journaux durant la colonisation. La presse fut d'abord contrôlée par les autorités avant d'être appropriée par les élites politiques dans leur lutte anticoloniale. Si les missionnaires catholiques ont été les précurseurs (création de La Voix de Notre-Dame), c'est après 1945 qu'une presse plurielle et africaine émerge, avec des journaux variés (Coup de Bambou, Phare de Guinée, La Liberté...). Les leaders politiques et syndicaux utilisent la presse comme un instrument de contre-pouvoir et comme un puissant moyen de mobilisation populaire. Cette relative liberté prend fin eu 1958, à 1'indépendance. Le nouveau régime de parti unique met la main sur La Liberté, publication du PDG-RDA, qui, sous le nom d'Horoya, devient l'unique journal d'information autorisé. Ce monopole étatique entraîne une forte désaffection du lectorat. Après la prise du pouvoir par une junte en 1984, la mise en place du multipartisme contribue à l'instauration de la liberté de presse au début des années 1990. Considérée comme le " printemps de la presse ", la décennie voit éclore des centaines de titres éphémères, souvent hebdomadaires ou mensuels. Notre thèse analyse ce phénomène et propose deux études de cas, centrées sur des groupes de presse apparemment solides : Le Lynx-La Lance et L'Indépendant-Le Démocrate. Elle propose enfin un bilan de la situation de la presse guinéenne en 201O.

Campylobacter jejuni est l’agent causal de la campylobactériose, infection bactérienne importante en santé publique. Un des vecteurs de transmission de C. jejuni pour l’humain est le poulet via la chaîne alimentaire. Les mécanismes impliqués dans colonisation caecale commensale des oiseaux par C. jejuni sont toujours peu caractérisés, bien qu’une meilleure compréhension de ces mécanismes puisse apporter des solutions pour le contrôle du pathogène à la ferme. Cette étude avait pour buts de caractériser les propriétés phénotypiques et les facteurs génétiques impliqués dans la colonisation du poulet par C. jejuni et d’identifier de nouveaux mécanismes impliqués dans cette association. Des souches, issues d’élevages conventionnels échantillonnés en 2003 et en 2008 ainsi que d’élevages biologiques, ont été caractérisées afin d’obtenir leur profil de résistance aux antibiotiques, leur autoagglutination et leur chimiotactisme. Les souches des élevages conventionnels ont de plus été caractérisées pour leur capacité à adhérer et envahir une culture primaire de cellules caecales de poulet. Une puce à ADN a été développée pour détecter la présence de 254 gènes et variants associés à la colonisation des poulets ainsi qu’à la résistance aux antibiotiques chez les souches issues d’élevages conventionnels. Les propriétés phénotypiques et la présence de certains gènes chez les souches ont par la suite été comparées. Finalement, des souches ayant des caractéristiques différentes ont été utilisées dans un modèle de colonisation du poulet pour évaluer l’efficacité d’un nouvel additif alimentaire à base d’acides organiques et d’huiles essentielles sur le contrôle de C. jejuni. Les propriétés phénotypiques des souches étaient très variées et n’étaient pas corrélées entre elles, à l’exception de l’adhésion et de l’invasion. L’analyse génétique a révélé que le contenu en gènes des souches était variable, notamment au niveau des gènes de l’enveloppe bactérienne, au flagelle, aux récepteurs du chimiotactisme et à la résistance à l’arsenic. Les souches de 2003 et de 2008 étaient semblables lorsque leur contenu en gènes ainsi que leurs propriétés phénotypiques étaient comparés. Des gènes possiblement associés à un fort ou un faible potentiel de colonisation ont été identifiés. L’additif alimentaire a diminué la contamination des carcasses bien qu’une augmentation de la colonisation intestinale ait été observée pour certaines souches. La moitié des lots de poulets d’origine biologique étaient positifs pour C. jejuni. Les souches issues de ce type d’élevage étaient peu résistantes aux antibiotiques et possédaient des phénotypes variés. Cette étude a permis de mieux définir les caractéristiques importantes de C. jejuni qui sont associées à la colonisation intestinale du poulet. Elle a établi pour la première fois au Canada la présence du pathogène dans les élevages de poulets biologiques. Cette étude fait partie des quelques études qui décrivent la présence des gènes de colonisation et de résistance aux antibiotiques dans une collection de souches issues uniquement du poulet. Elle a également remis en doute l’importance de certains gènes dans la colonisation. La caractérisation exhaustive des souches a également permis d’identifier de nouveaux gènes possiblement associés à la colonisation de poulet par C. jejuni. Finalement, elle a indiqué que l’utilisation d’un mélange d’huiles essentielles et d’acide organique encapsulés pouvait être efficace pour réduire la contamination des carcasses de poulet par C. jejuni et que son effet était souche-dépendant. / Campylobacter jejuni is the bacterium responsible for campylobacteriosis. It is a human pathogen of concern for public health. One of the transmission routes of this bacteria to humans is by the food chain through poultry meat products. The mechanisms involved in the commensal caecum chicken colonization by C. jejuni are poorly characterized, despite that increasing the knowledge on these mechanisms would allow a better control of the pathogen at the farm. The objectives of this study were to characterize the phenotypic and genetic factors affecting chicken colonization by C. jejuni and to identify news mechanisms involved in this process. Isolates, recovered from chicken caecal content sampled from conventional farms in 2003 and in 2008 as well as originating from organic farms sampled in 2009, were used. All strains were characterized for their antibiotic resistance profiles (AMR), autoagglutination and chemotaxis properties. Strains originating from conventional farms were further characterized for adhesion/invasion of primary chicken caecal cells. A new microarray was created to detect the presence of 254 genes and variants, all associated with chicken colonization or AMR. An association was made between the strains phenotypic properties and their gene content. Finally, strains possessing different phenotypic and genetic properties were used in a chicken colonization model to assess the efficacy of a novel feed additive to control chicken colonization by C. jejuni. Strains had variable phenotypic properties and these properties were not correlated, with the exception of adhesion and invasion. The microarray analysis revealed that gene presence was highly variable among the strains, especially for genes involved in the bacterial envelope, the flagella, the chemotaxis receptors and arsenic resistance. The 2003 and 2008 strains had similar phenotypic and genetic properties. Some genes, present in strains possessing higher or lower chicken colonization potentials, were identified. The feed additive was successful in reducing chicken carcass contamination but it increased bacterial caecal counts for some strains. C. jejuni was isolated from half of the sampled organic farms and strains originating from this type of production had low AMR and variable phenotypic properties.

Black grouse (Tetrao tetrix) is a bird species with a lek mating system found in the Palearctic boreal taiga. It is assumed that it has a continuous distribution along Scandinavia and Siberia, whereas in Central Europe it has declined during the last decades. The primary objective of this thesis was to obtain a deeper understanding of the history, systematic classification and the genetic structure of black grouse on different geographical scales using microsatellites and control region mtDNA sequences (CR). I determined how much the mating system, habitat fragmentation and historical population processes have influenced the partitioning of genetic diversity in this species. Phylogeographical results are consistent with a demographic population expansion, and the patterns of postglacial dispersal suggest that a glacial refugium was located somewhere in central Asia, and from there black grouse spread out to Europe following the retreat of glacial ice sheets. I suggest that the two European black grouse subspecies, T. t. Tetrix and T. t. britannicus correspond to only one subspecies: T. t. tetrix, and that this lineage has diverged from T.t. viridanus, a subspecies found in Kazakhstan. The British population is significantly divergent from the remaining Eurasian samples for microsatellites but it is not for mtDNA. Therefore, they should regard as a separate Management Unit and not as a subspecies. Furthermore, British black grouse occur in three independent genetic units, corresponding to Wales, northern England/southern Scotland and northern Scotland. There was also genetic structure within Sweden. Habitat fragmentation is the main cause of population genetic structure in southern Swedish black grouse. In contrast, low levels of genetic differentiation and high connectivity were found in northern Sweden due to female-biased dispersal. On a finer geographical scale, I found genetic differences between leks due to a mixture of related and unrelated individuals within leks. However, mean relatedness values hardly differed from zero. Some leks were similar to one another and I interpret this as a result of variation in local reproductive success and philopatry. These factors would cause genetic structuring but this by itself would not reveal that kin selection is operating within black grouse leks.

Rain forest canopies are renowned for their very high biodiversity and the critical role they play in key ecological processes and their influence on global climate. Despite that New Zealand supports one of the most diverse and extensive epiphyte flora of any temperate forest system, few studies have investigated epiphyte communities and their invertebrate fauna along with factors that influence their distribution and composition. This thesis represents the first comprehensive study of entire epiphyte communities and their resident invertebrate fauna in the canopy of New Zealand’s indigenous forests. The aim of this study was to determine spatial patterns of epiphyte and invertebrate species richness, abundance and community composition in relation to abiotic variables, and in particular, the responses of these communities to elevated temperature and rainfall. This study was carried out in coastal lowland podocarp-broadleaved forests at two sites on the West Coast of the South Island of New Zealand. Samples from 120 mat-forming epiphyte assemblages located on inner canopy branches of 40 northern rata (Metrosideros robusta) trees were studied to characterise the component flora and fauna. Additionally, biomass, branch and tree characteristics and community responses to treatments designed to elevate temperature and rainfall to simulate predicted climate change were measured. This investigation revealed astonishing diversity and functional complexity of epiphyte and invertebrate life in this ecosystem. The 30.6 kg (dry weight) of epiphyte material collected contained a total of 567 species, 170 epiphyte and 397 invertebrate (excluding immature specimens and mites) species, including at least 10 species new to science and many undescribed species Epiphyte communities were found to be dominated by non-vascular plants (80 % of the total species richness), particularly liverworts and invertebrate communities were dominated with respect to abundance (~ 80 % of the total individuals) by Acari, Collembola and Hymenoptera (primarily ants) and functionally by scavengers and ants. Epiphyte and invertebrate communities were highly variable with respect to spatial patterning of species richness, abundance and composition across sites, among trees within sites and among branches within trees. Overall, a highly significant proportion, > 75 %, of the variance could be attributed to differences at the branch level, but these differences could not be explained by the environmental factors measured. There were no consistent relationships between the spatial pattern of epiphytes and invertebrates, or between vascular and non-vascular plants. However, there were significant positive correlations between epiphyte biomass and invertebrate species richness (r = 0.472; p < 0.0001) and abundance (r = -0.395; p < 0.0001), as well as non-living epiphyte biomass and scavenger species richness (r = 0.4; p < 0.0001). Microclimatic measurements taken on epiphyte mats were also highly variable with respect to temperature and relative humidity at similar physical locations within the same tree as well as across trees within sites. There was also considerable variation in the intensity and frequency of climatic extremes, although potentially harmful climatic conditions were experienced by all the epiphyte mats for which weather variables were measured. Negative correlations existed between both epiphyte and invertebrate community composition and increased temperatures expressed as cumulative degree days above 5˚C. However, variability was such that there was no direct evidence that increased temperature and rainfall treatments had an effect on invertebrate species richness, abundance or diversity. Northern rata host trees harbour an astonishingly diverse and complex canopy flora and fauna that is characterised by high spatial variability. Such variability highlights that to determine species distribution and community dynamics in canopy habitats in response to disturbance caused either by climate change or invasive species the structure of entire communities at different taxonomic and spatial scales, along with their responses to microclimatic factors, need to be studied. If such complexities are not taken into account, inappropriate interpretation may result in poor decisions concerning the conservation status, vulnerability and subsequent management of such unique ecosystems.