Saproxylic species living in old hollow trees have low dispersal rate. Many of the species are threatened since their micro habitats are rare. To prevent some of these species from going extinct their habitats have to have the right management. In some areas artificial environment could be a solution. The aim of this study was to investigate if the insects that are dependent on tree cavities with wood mould would colonize an artificially created habitat: large wooden boxes filled with artificial wood mould placed on tree trunks. The boxes were filled with substrates like oak saw dust, oak leaves, dead hens, hen excrements, medicago (Medicago falcata flour) or potatoes. Over three years, 136 species and 10 380 specimens were caught in 47 boxes. The groups classified as specialists were in general statistically significant more often than groups classified as generalists. Dead hen was the substrate with the highest number of species, although differences were small. In conclusion, a large number of species, including red listed ones and saproxylic specialists used the boxes. A dead hen in the box gave some extra species and 1800 meters was too long for some of the species to disperse. Hence, the prospects for using artificial environments are good especially to reduce habitat availability gaps in time and space.

Early land survey records can be used to reconstruct the historical distribution and abundance of tree species prior to the large-scale impact of industrialized societies. Comparing these records to current vegetation patterns enables an examination of the shifts that have occurred in plant communities since the arrival of European settlers in North America. I used presettlement (1859-1874) land survey records from southeastern Vancouver Island and Saltspring Island, British Columbia, Canada to reconstruct the relative abundance and density of tree species in these areas. I then collected equivalent vegetation data from the same points in the modern landscape, which enabled me to compare the two points in time and identify the changes in large-scale vegetation patterns that have occurred since European settlement. My results show a significant increase in the relative abundance of maple (Acer macrophyllum) and cedar (Thuja plicata), and a corresponding decrease in Douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga menzeisii). Furthermore, there has been a considerable increase in tree density in undeveloped areas. The 1859 records indicate that at least one third of the land surveyed was made up of prairies or open “plains,” while a combination of open woods and forests made up the remaining two thirds. Based on comparable density measures from 2007, prairies and plains now represent less than 5% of the undeveloped landscape, while forests comprise nearly 90%. These changes are likely due to a combination of factors that have been influenced by European settlement, most notably logging and fire suppression. The suppression of fire has led to an infilling of trees into previously open areas and has led to the rapid decline of the open prairie and savanna habitat types once common in this area. The results of this study can inform conservation efforts throughout the study area, particularly those involving the restoration of prairie or savanna habitats.

The goal of this thesis was to test the applicability of biomarker analyses to better understand the glacial stratigraphic record of the Hudson Bay Lowlands and Oak Ridges Moraine. A biomarker analysis conducted on three geologic deposits from the Hudson Bay Lowlands showed that they can be differentiated based on organic matter (OM) inputs and stage of diagenesis, relating to paleoclimate and depositional environments. In the second study, a biomarker analysis was applied to samples from ten deposits in the Oak Ridges Moraine. These deposits were differentiated based on OM inputs relating to paleovegetation. Additionally, reincorporation and post-deposition alteration led to sample heterogeneity confirming the current understanding of glacial depositional processes and environments. This thesis shows that biomarker analyses can effectively differentiate and contextualize geologic deposits based on OM inputs and stage of diagenesis. This in turn will provide a more robust understanding of the stratigraphic record.

The goal of this thesis was to test the applicability of biomarker analyses to better understand the glacial stratigraphic record of the Hudson Bay Lowlands and Oak Ridges Moraine. A biomarker analysis conducted on three geologic deposits from the Hudson Bay Lowlands showed that they can be differentiated based on organic matter (OM) inputs and stage of diagenesis, relating to paleoclimate and depositional environments. In the second study, a biomarker analysis was applied to samples from ten deposits in the Oak Ridges Moraine. These deposits were differentiated based on OM inputs relating to paleovegetation. Additionally, reincorporation and post-deposition alteration led to sample heterogeneity confirming the current understanding of glacial depositional processes and environments. This thesis shows that biomarker analyses can effectively differentiate and contextualize geologic deposits based on OM inputs and stage of diagenesis. This in turn will provide a more robust understanding of the stratigraphic record.

The thesis looks at developing a new model for a mental health support program which is integrated into a natural recreational environment. Its starting point is Beginning Again, a registered charity in Richmond Hill, Ontario, Canada, which provides a supportive workplace, called Treasures, to engage psychiatric patients in meaningful and productive work. The intent of the thesis is to develop an architecture that reflects the mission and objectives of the program in order to increase the opportunity for recovery and interaction with the local community. This is done by creating a more general prototype or “parent seed” which can be applicable to many locations and then testing the model by planting it in the Oak Ridges Corridor Park, located in the suburban community of Oak Ridges, Ontario. This thesis builds upon the long history of rehabilitative environments to create a community model of care that regards work as primarily a social and cultural activity.

This study is an effort to provide new information on the effects of isolated tree canopies on understory vegetation composition and soil characteristics of northern Indiana black oak savannas. Temperate savannas in the United States have been greatly altered by human activities. Management of these areas is an important consideration for Midwest natural resource agencies. It is hypothesized that isolated trees within a savanna may alter the soil and plants around them, much in the same way that gaps in a forest canopy alter the plant composition and soil characteristics on the forest floor. In this study, isolated trees were selected in three northern Indiana black oak (Quercus velutina) savannas. Plots were located under the tree canopies and in adjacent open areas, in four directions from the tree stem. Populations of herbaceous plants were inventoried and the soil characteristics analyzed for both inside-canopy and outside-canopy plots. The environmental variables measured accounted for only about 20 percent of the variation in plant community between plots according to a Canonical Correspondence Analysis. Most of the variation in plant composition between plots was explained by pH, the amount of rain throughfall, and the thickness of the A horizon. It is clear that these black oak trees do alter the soil and plant composition around them. This information has implications for the long-term management of northern Indiana savannas. / Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Management

This research examined the potential for protected areas with camas (including tall camas, Camassia leichtlinii (Baker) Wats., and common camas, C. quamash (Pursh) Greene; Liliaceae (Agavaceae)) habitat to support the renewal of Central Coast Salish camas traditions while at the same time maintaining and even expanding their ecological restoration and conservation goals. For many generations Central Coast Salish Peoples of northwestern North America have cultivated camas plants and harvested, processed, and consumed their edible bulbs in large quantities. Today, after camas use has almost completely disappeared from their lives, some Indigenous peoples are working to restore camas habitats and cultivation practices on southern Vancouver Island and neighbouring areas. Tall camas and common camas can still be found growing in many Garry oak ecosystems, which, due to the decreased range and the large proportion of rare species found within them, are frequently the focus of ecological restoration and conservation efforts. I interviewed people from the resource management and First Nations communities to gain an understanding of the current interests, opportunities, challenges, and potential approaches for incorporating traditionally based camas harvesting and management into protected areas today. Protected areas were identified as important areas for teaching traditional plant cultivation techniques to younger generations, and as bulb and seed banks for ethnoecological restoration projects. Overall, managers of protected areas and First Nations participants were receptive to collaborating on management of camas populations. Anticipated or existing challenges or concerns included ecological uncertainties of harvesting disturbance, ensuring safety, finding funding, and gaining trust. I conducted one season of experimental camas harvesting in a Garry oak savannah near Duncan, BC within an ecological preserve and monitored the effects of this harvesting on the extant camas populations, on surrounding plant communities, and on soil porosity. Harvesting of, primarily tall, camas bulbs, at both low and medium intensity, did not affect the weight or abundance of camas bulbs or the quantity, stem height or flowering/fruiting potential of the camas populations in the following year. Harvesting significantly reduced the abundance of Kentucky bluegrass (Poa pratensis) and common snowberry (Symphoricarpos albus, but significantly increased the abundance of Scotch broom (Cytisus scoparius) common cleavers (Galium aparine), hairy cat’s ear (Hypochaeris radicata), and nipplewort (Lapsana communis). Harvesting significantly reduced the level of soil compaction. Using the insights gained from the interviews and experimental harvesting I have proposed an “Ethnoecological Restoration Support Model”. This model explains how protected areas can support cultural restoration both within and outside of protected areas while maintaining and even expanding upon current conservation and restoration goals. / Graduate / 0329 / 0740 / 0471 / kproctor@uvic.ca

Conservation in Canada is increasingly driven by land use planning processes. Approaches to governing nature conservation have shifted dramatically from protecting isolated pristine areas to greater attention to the remaining fragments of greenspace in urban, semi-urban and rural areas. The ways that societies govern and use nature are always changing, and these physical management actions are connected to deeply rooted cultural norms and values about the ideal relationship between humans and nature. In the land use planning approach to conservation, citizens and governments find value and construct meaning for remaining nature rather than beginning with normative considerations of what is most worthy of protection. At the root of this conservation planning trend is a growing appreciation for hybrid nature that is valued as natural in spite of the past or present influences upon it. This represents a dramatic shift from the traditional values involved in North American nature conservation, where nature was most valued for its perceived separation from human influence and protected to maintain its untouched qualities. In light of these ideological shifts in the ways that Canadians value and in turn manage nature, is there a corresponding change in the ways that conservation activists perceive environmental value and evaluate naturalness? An increasing number of studies demonstrate that public valuation of nature is not limited to pristine environments: even highly disturbed environments can be valued as natural and are not perceived as a form of lesser nature. Conceptions of what is natural and what is not are highly subjective and variable; in particular, the body of work on the social dimensions of both invasive species and ecological restoration demonstrates the ways in which people construct naturalness in accord with their values and cultural context. By exploring the extent to which people perceive invasive species as reducing naturalness and how ecological restoration is perceived to restore it, these subjects serve as excellent conceptual lenses for exploring constructions of nature. This study explores the subtle variations in environmental values and perception of naturalness among a study population who self-identify as pursuing the same goal: ensuring the continued protection of the Oak Ridges Moraine. The Moraine is a partly urbanized landform in southern Ontario that is situated within a complex hybrid socio-ecological landscape. It is also the subject of an active and high profile conservation movement that has spanned over 40 years. Using a combination of interviews and Q Method, this study explored how citizens engaged in Oak Ridges Moraine conservation perceive both the current and ideal state of naturalness on the Moraine, with specific emphasis on how the discourses these citizens use to frame the Moraine invoke the concept of naturalness Findings from this study reveal that Moraine activists represent a conservation paradox: they value the natural, non-human qualities of the landform, yet at the same time identify the Moraine as a hybrid landscape with both social and ecological qualities. In particular, respondents indicated a strong interest in naturalness in the context of invasive species and ecological restoration, yet at the same time identified the naturalness of the Moraine to be a lesser priority in the face of urban development pressures. In this way, citizens engaged in Moraine conservation respond to the hybrid quality of the Moraine landscape by moving beyond the binary distinction between nature and society, situating themselves as both apart from and a part of the landscape at the same time. This finding demonstrates how values for conserving nature are affected by hybridity between social and ecological systems, and suggests how embracing the paradox of hybrid nature can contribute to understanding and managing complex socio-ecological systems.

The implementation of UNESCO Biosphere Reserves (BR) in Canada is strongly dependent on grassroots community-based support and understanding. The recent calls for the Oak Ridges Moraine and adjacent Greenbelt lands (ORMGB) to be designated a BR require that a communications strategy be created to garner local support. Taking into consideration complex systems theory, this study looked to build a communications framework that combined higher-scale social organizing literature like social movement and environmental campaigns more detail-focused group dynamics and strategic communications research. Applying this framework to the ORMBG landscape revealed key target audience groups and messaging for the BR communications strategy.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--York University, 2005. Graduate Programme in Environmental Studies. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 242-265). Also available on the Internet. MODE OF ACCESS via web browser by entering the following URL: http://gateway.proquest.com/openurl?url_ver=Z39.88-2004&res_dat=xri:pqdiss&rft_val_fmt=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:dissertation&rft_dat=xri:pqdiss:NR19834