<p> Hamilton has been affected by waves of foreign immigrants moving into the city since the beginning of this century. The resulting admixture of ethnic groups has produced a varied spatial pattern which forms the focus of analysis in this paper. </p> <p> A review of the literature on various ethnic enclaves in different cities of the world serves to focus this ecological study of ethnic groups in Hamilton. </p> <p> The historical and cultural background of Hamilton and the distributional pattern of the major ethnic communities are described. The factors influencing the distribution of ethnic groups in the city are then examined by means of factor analysis and regression analysis of 1971 census data. </p> <p> The analysis shows well distributed homogenous ethnic enclaves varying in their spatial concentration. As a whole it may be described as a mosaic with a high concentration of ethnic groups in the northern part of the city, north~east and west end. </p> <p> The results confirm the importance of ethnic dimensions within the social and spatial structure of the city and the importance of socioeconomic status and housing characteristics in influencing the distribution of ethnic groups. </p> / Thesis / Master of Arts (MA)

<p dir="ltr">Physical traits and the hydrologic setting of lake and wetland environments strongly affect the biogeochemical signature of aquatic ecosystems and their structure and function in the landscape. Natural freshwater ecosystems have a high propensity for carbon capture and storage through aerobic production, sedimentation, and sequestration, yet differing physical characteristics including water depth, lake surface area, and watershed size likely influence the extent to which these processes occur. Anthropogenically modified ecosystems also demonstrate complex function regarding carbon cycles, where the influence of human disturbance heightens nutrients and carbon loads into aquatic systems and leads to unique biochemical regimes. Across Indiana, agricultural practices currently affect around 65 percent of the state’s landscape, while urban development and population growth are expected to expand throughout the state. This trend is modeled throughout the midwestern United States, where the impacts of urban development on aquatic environments is further heightened by expected changes in climate, as storm intensity strengthens, and rainfall increases during certain times of the year. While understudied, there is good reason to believe that Indiana’s lakes and wetlands have incredible variability in carbon processing and carbon quality within and between systems. This variation is influenced by the wide variety of drivers including hydrology, geomorphology, water chemistry, metabolic processes, and redox conditions. The interactive influence of each of these drivers, however, is poorly understood across wide scale gradients. Predicting ecosystem productivity and its relationship with carbon dynamics is therefore an important tool for understanding freshwater ecosystems’ contributions to global fluxes of carbon. The variability within and across midwestern ecosystems creates a challenging, yet critical paradigm to understand the complexities of carbon dynamics in aquatic ecosystems, emphasizing the importance for direct data collection across a stratified gradient of ecosystems. This research shows that 1) human-assigned classifications of system type, including lake, reservoir, and wetland, are useful tools in classifying the metabolic and nutrient regimes of lentic systems, and 2) morphological features including lake depth and watershed area influence the structure of carbon quality throughout the water column. Findings provide valuable information to watershed and lake managers on the importance of different physical drivers in determining water quality across a range of lentic systems.</p>

Since 1982, the state of Illinois has afforested over 100,000 acres of abandoned or marginal cropland. Afforestation, the planting of trees on land not in forest cover, is a sustainable forest management practice that has been shown to store carbon, increase plant diversity, improve soil and water quality, and assist in flood abatement. Our research seeks to develop practical soil and vegetative indicators that can be used by researchers and land managers alike to accurately assess changes to ecosystem function following land use shifts. To assess forest restoration success in terms of ecological function, seven ecological indicators were measured across a chronosequence of 50 afforested sites and 20 mature forested sites. Soil indicators: bulk density, aggregate stability, total nitrogen, total carbon, and labile carbon, and vegetation indicators: forest productivity and stocking density were assessed for each site. Additional sampling was completed on 25 nearby agriculture fields for each of the five soil indicators. Our data were analyzed using an analysis of variance test with multiple comparisons to examine differences among indicator values by land use category. Overall, soil indicator bulk density significantly decreased across afforested sites with stand age, whereas indicators aggregate stability, labile carbon, and total carbon significantly increased across afforested sites with stand age. Linear regression analyses were used to assess the change in indicator values with stand age. Additional linear regression analyses were used to assess the change in indicator values with site index, and significant results were recorded for 3 out of the 5 soil indicators. Indicator bulk density displayed a significant negative relationship with site index, and indicators aggregate stability and total carbon displayed a significant positive relationship with site index. Overall, our results indicated that four out of the five soil parameters measured were successful indicators of restored ecological function in afforested sites. Furthermore, we believe that the inclusion of vegetation indices forest productivity and stocking density provides vital information into forest succession and a better understanding of how productive sites benefit soil quality.

The spotted bird grasshopper, Schistocerca lineata Scudder (Orthoptera: Acrididae), is a widely distributed species found throughout most of the continental United States and southern Canada. This species is known to be highly variable in morphology, with many distinct ecotypes across its native range. These ecotypes display high levels of association with type-specific host plants. Understanding the evolutionary relationships among different ecotypes is crucial groundwork for studying the process of ecological differentiation. I examine four ecotypes from morphological and phylogeographic perspectives, and look for evidence of distinct evolutionary lineages within the species. I also begin to explore the potential role of the microbial community of these grasshoppers in ecological divergence by using 454 pyrosequencing to see if the microbial community structure reflects the ecology of the grasshoppers. I find support for a distinct aposematic lineage when approaching the data from a phylogeographic perspective and also find that this ecotype tends to harbor a unique bacterial community, different from that of a single other ecotype.

This dissertation is comprised of two studies, which taken together aim to enhance healthy lifestyle habits of young children. In the first study, early childhood professionals (N = 39) identified their beliefs and values regarding the role of physical activity and sleep in child development, and their role in assisting children with establishing healthy behaviors. Correlational analyses were conducted to examine if early childhood professionals’ beliefs and values were associated with an array of demographic characteristics (e.g., age, gender, and ethnicity) and/or the early care professional’s perceived personal health and body mass index. Descriptive analyses revealed that early care professionals believe physical activity and sleep are important contributors to the healthy development of young children, yet place less value on their role in assisting children with establishing healthy habits. Demographic and health variables of the early childhood professional were not associated with their beliefs and values. Using the results from Study 1 to address gaps in professional development on healthy habits in early childhood, Study 2 involved the development, implementation, and evaluation of two, 3-hour professional development trainings each focused on a contributor to the obesity epidemic (i.e., physical activity and sleep). Both trainings included an overview of the state of the science on the topic as it relates to early childhood and the area, recommendations for obesity prevention in the classroom, specific, hands-on examples of the early care professionals’ role (i.e., behavioral and environmental) in establishing healthy habits. Pre- and post-surveys were used to assess the effectiveness of the training on knowledge of physical activity and/or sleep as it relates to early childhood. Additionally, two researchers conducted classroom observations prior to and following (M = 4.5 weeks) the training to assess potential behavior change within the classroom. Paired-samples t tests indicated that early care professionals improved their general knowledge of physical activity and sleep in child development. Results indicated minimal behavioral and environmental changes in the classroom following the professional development.

This thesis explores variation of ecological design preference due to the population demographics: urban, city, small town and rural areas in public gardens under four major paradigms of landscape preference: mystery, legibility, complexity and coherence. The findings of this study reveals that high ecological design preference has a significant relationship with mystery category. Ecological design preference in complexity and mystery has a statistically important relationship with rural areas and cities respectively. The outcome of this study shows that the preference of ecological design has considerable possibility to differ according to the paradigms of visual landscape preference and respondents’ population demographics.

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