Plant macrofossil analyses of 5 peat cores obtained from undisturbed (i.e. not cut for peat) flood-plain mires situated in the Ant Valley in the Norfolk Broads have indicated the successional development of the vegetation over approximately the last 2000 years. These have been supplemented by analysis of diatom and foraminiferal content of some of the deposits together with the application of radiocarbon dating to give an approximate chronological framework within which to place macrofossil zones. Macrofossil assemblages have been grouped into 5 major zones. These are interpreted as representing: A: Carr woodland communities (pre-Roman) B: Salt marsh communities formed during a marine transgressive phase (Romano-British). C: Fen tussock/carr communities indicative of drier conditions (Early Medieval). D: Aquatic communities indicative of wetter conditions (late/post Medieval). E: Communities suggestive of present day vegetation influenced by human management (post Medieval-present day). The zones have been interpreted largely in terms of the response of the vegetation to changes in sea-level, climate and management over the last two millenia. Macrofossil analyses were also carried out on samples collected from a variety of former peat cuttings in the Catfield and Irstead Fens. Successional changes were deduced and compared with previous investigations. Historical studies of archival documentary material has suggested that the post-Medieval use of peat as a fuel in Norfolk was largely a feature of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries and that it was a commodity of major importance amongst the poor during this time. Study of archive material specifically relevant to the Catfield and Irstead Fens has suggested that at least some of the former turf cuttings may have been dug in the first half of the nineteenth century but many may also date from the second half.

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This dissertation considers the exchanges between national parks along the North American borderlands that defined the contours of development and wilderness and created a brand new category of protected space -- the transboundary park. The National Park Systems of Canada, Mexico, and the United States did not develop and grow in isolation. "Bordering North America" examines four different parks in two regions: Waterton Lakes and Glacier in the northern Rocky Mountains of Alberta and Montana and Big Bend and the Maderas del Carmen in the Chihuahuan Desert of Texas and Coahuila. In 1932, Glacier and Waterton Lakes were combined to form the first transboundary park. In the 1930s and 1940s, using the Waterton-Glacier model as precedent, the U.S. and Mexican governments undertook a major effort, ultimately unsuccessful, to designate a sister park in Mexico and combine the two areas into another international space. Finally, in 1994, Mexico established two protected areas, including the Maderas del Carmen, adjacent to the Big Bend. Ideas about parks and wilderness migrated across borders just as freely as the flora and fauna these spaces sought to protect. Moreover, a multiplicity of views and forces, from three different Park Services, the visiting public, private enterprise, local landholders, competing government agencies and international NGOs, and even the elements of nature itself, all combined to shape the trajectory of park development. / text

Includes bibliography. / This dissertation has two components, one History and one Education, and the central unifying theme is Environmental History. The History component examines the historiography of this sub-discipline, and then applies an environmental analysis as an example of its use in historical research. The second component explores the use of Environmental History in the teaching of school history, and presents a curriculum model which uses this approach. Both components use the Liesbeek River valley in the Cape Peninsula as a case-study.

Whales are an enigma. It is difficult to pin them down because they straddle categories. Whales were difficult not just because of their extraordinary size, but rather because they were peculiar sorts of fish, with meat more like wild boar than tuna. In the same way that they existed at the intersection of classifications, with features of land and sea creatures, whales also were a nexus in a web of linkages between the ocean and the shore. By focusing on whales and the boundaries they straddle, this dissertation highlights the often surprising interconnections between coastal activities and inland life in early modern Japan (1600-1900). / East Asian Languages and Civilizations

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Humans form lasting and unique relationships with the natural world and, by extension, the organisms and animals who have for millennia carved out niche environments. Scholars and general observers agree—at least in principle—that human beings have actively shaped (for better and for worse) the habitats, behaviors, and population of the Earth’s creatures. In turn, those spaces and animals have influenced not only how humans think of the natural world, but also of humanity itself. Animals, in other words, help humans understand themselves.1 This dissertation is a history of the American Alligator. A study of human interactions with alligators can reveal not only how humans viewed the animal, but also how they created, recreated, and utilized those representations to meet their own ends. Much of what humans attached to alligators—either positive, negative, or oscillating between—were the results of an internal process of dialogue, culture, and human psychology. In simpler terms, this research investigates how human beings understand themselves and how a particular species fits within human understandings of the “natural” world.

From the 1840s to 1950s, interpretations of nature played a central role in the defining and enculturating the Sonoran Desert into the American nation. Written works and physical nature like plants became an archive for cultural interpretations of the region. Scientific descriptions of nature became stories of place as they were consumed. Proxy landscapes like national monuments became the spaces for demonstrating these stories. Throughout the period of this study, a constant give and take between regional nature and global arid lands shaped the national interpretations used to describe regional nature within the American nation-state. This work follows the production and consumption of meaning and the definition of a desert region.

Environmental historians usually discuss American colonists as if they were all the same. Thus, the Puritan communities that grew rapidly after John Winthrop's arrival in 1630 often overshadow the earlier Separatist colony at Plymouth, which leads to the assumption that all settlers acted in similar ways with regard to land use and the environment. By analyzing Bradford and Winthrop, it becomes possible to see a different picture of colonization in New England. It becomes evident that deforestation happened over time, and in spite of early resistance. It is also clear that colonial settlers viewed resources in different ways. The authorities strictly regulated land use and ownership, but there were fewer restrictions on exportable resources like fur and later timber. Population change and the growth of a proto-capitalist market in the post-1630 Puritan communities as well as a gradual shift from communalism to individualism led to deforestation in New England.