The development of a functional vascular system is impinged upon the restructuring of a primitive vasculature into a more complex and mature vessel network via a process known as angiogenesis. Of particular importance to this vascular remodeling process is the function of the Tek/Tie-2 receptor tyrosine kinase. Mouse gene-targeting studies have shown that Tie-2 deficient embryos succumb to embryonic death at embryonic day 9.5 due to insufficient sprouting and remodeling of the primary capillary plexus. Over the years, the functions and the signaling pathways downstream of Tie-2 receptor have been elucidated; however, the repertoire of genes controlled by Tie-2 signaling leading to angiogenesis had not been studied. To identify the underlying genetic mechanisms, transcriptomes from Tie-2 wild-type (WT) and knockout (KO) embryonic day 8.5 yolk sac tissues were quantitatively analyzed using a gene expression profiling technique called Serial Analysis of Gene Expression (SAGE). Tie-2 WT and KO SAGE libraries were constructed, sequenced and compared to identify genes that were differentially expressed. A list of candidate genes was selected for further validation using semi-quantitative PCR that included 4933402E13Rik, a novel transcript encoding a protein product containing the melanoma-associated antigen (MAGE) domain. Initial characterization of 4933402E13Rik suggested a murine-specific expression profile restricted to the yolk sac, embryo, placenta, testis, endothelial and embryonic stem cells. The expression of 4933402E13Rik in mouse endothelial cells was found to be regulated by Tie-2 signaling since down-regulation of Tie-2 level via siRNA knockdown resulted in decreased 4933402E13Rik mRNA expression. In contrast, stimulation of Tie-2 in mouse endothelial cells using its ligand, Angiopoietin-1, increased 4933402E13Rik mRNA levels. Additionally, 4933402E13Rik expression was found to be modulated through epigenetics especially by histone deacetylation. Mouse endothelial cells treated with Trichostatin A, a potent inhibitor of histone deacetylase, led to an increase in the expression of 4933402E13Rik. Taken together, the results of this study shed new insight on the repertoire of genes implicated in Tie-2 signaling. The identification of 4933402E13Rik as a novel gene modulated by Tie-2 provides a new avenue of research on Tie-2 signaling that may contribute further to our understanding of vascular development.

The development of a functional vascular system is impinged upon the restructuring of a primitive vasculature into a more complex and mature vessel network via a process known as angiogenesis. Of particular importance to this vascular remodeling process is the function of the Tek/Tie-2 receptor tyrosine kinase. Mouse gene-targeting studies have shown that Tie-2 deficient embryos succumb to embryonic death at embryonic day 9.5 due to insufficient sprouting and remodeling of the primary capillary plexus. Over the years, the functions and the signaling pathways downstream of Tie-2 receptor have been elucidated; however, the repertoire of genes controlled by Tie-2 signaling leading to angiogenesis had not been studied. To identify the underlying genetic mechanisms, transcriptomes from Tie-2 wild-type (WT) and knockout (KO) embryonic day 8.5 yolk sac tissues were quantitatively analyzed using a gene expression profiling technique called Serial Analysis of Gene Expression (SAGE). Tie-2 WT and KO SAGE libraries were constructed, sequenced and compared to identify genes that were differentially expressed. A list of candidate genes was selected for further validation using semi-quantitative PCR that included 4933402E13Rik, a novel transcript encoding a protein product containing the melanoma-associated antigen (MAGE) domain. Initial characterization of 4933402E13Rik suggested a murine-specific expression profile restricted to the yolk sac, embryo, placenta, testis, endothelial and embryonic stem cells. The expression of 4933402E13Rik in mouse endothelial cells was found to be regulated by Tie-2 signaling since down-regulation of Tie-2 level via siRNA knockdown resulted in decreased 4933402E13Rik mRNA expression. In contrast, stimulation of Tie-2 in mouse endothelial cells using its ligand, Angiopoietin-1, increased 4933402E13Rik mRNA levels. Additionally, 4933402E13Rik expression was found to be modulated through epigenetics especially by histone deacetylation. Mouse endothelial cells treated with Trichostatin A, a potent inhibitor of histone deacetylase, led to an increase in the expression of 4933402E13Rik. Taken together, the results of this study shed new insight on the repertoire of genes implicated in Tie-2 signaling. The identification of 4933402E13Rik as a novel gene modulated by Tie-2 provides a new avenue of research on Tie-2 signaling that may contribute further to our understanding of vascular development.

Environmental education in the U.S. has been slow to incorporate Indigenous knowledges, with most pre-university curriculum centering around Western science. I believe incorporating Indigenous knowledges into environmental education can promote reciprocal, critical, and active human-nature relationships. While Indigenous knowledges should infiltrate all levels of environmental education, I argue that alternative forms of education which operate outside the formal school system might present the fewest immediate obstacles.

Cette recherche a pour but de se questionner sur l'impact de la diminution du caribou sur les savoirs écologiques traditionnels chez les communautés innues de la péninsule Québec-Labrador. Il est à noter que, depuis des milliers d'années, la chasse au caribou structure la réalité de ce peuple de chasseurs et façonne leur conception du monde et les savoirs qui en découlent. L'hypothèse soutenue est que la destruction de l'habitat du caribou est une forme de colonisation épistémique. Suivant la théorie de l'accumulation primitive, j'expose les outils juridiques qui ont permis aux États et aux capitalistes de s'approprier légalement les terres innues pour y exploiter les ressources. L'intention ici est de soulever la fonction duale dont est investie la terre, soit, d'un côté, comprise comme assise de la domination coloniale, donc vitale à la formation de l'État canadien et au développement colonial-capitaliste, et, d'un autre côté, permettant la subsistance matérielle et spirituelle des sociétés innues, tel qu'au moyen de la chasse au caribou. Le territoire en tant que médium des savoirs sera alors remplacé par une nouvelle conception du territoire synonyme d'accumulation de capital et d'exploitation des écosystèmes. On comprendra alors que la conquête coloniale passe d'abord et continue de se nourrir par un assujettissement ontologique et que l'imposition de cette réalité ontologique empêche les savoirs écologiques traditionnels de subsister dans un contexte qui nourrit leur existence et leur réalité.

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

A Story of placement looks at displacement in Colombia during three different time periods: 529 years ago during colonization, today, and a speculative scenario in 10 years.  The project springs from traditional ecological knowledge developed by indigenous Colombian communities, and applies it to create a habitat proposal for a displaced community in Medellin.   How can we generate stories of placement in the near future?  The Kogi, Arhuaco, Kankuamo, and Wiwa descendants from the Taironas, have been living in the mountains of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta after being displaced from the lowlands during the colonization. They have remained isolated from the western cultures preserving their knowing and being and living harmoniously with their territory. Colombia has today around 5.6 million people in a situation of displacement because of the armed conflict, natural disasters, or big land acquisitions by corporations. The project develops a progressive, sustainable, portable, and productive housing solution for communities in  a situation of displacement, inspired by indigenous communities from the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta in the North of Colombia.

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This thesis seeks to highlight the importance of a geographic and culturally specific knowledge base to guide natural resource management and governance policy, particularly within the West African context. In order to demonstrate the level of complexity that may exist within this realm, the Kedougou region of Senegal is used as a case study. Traditional Method of Subsistence (TMoS), Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK), and ethnic diversity are considered in order to validate the need to go beyond a superficial involvement of community within models such as Community-based Natural Resource Management (CBNRM). Focus groups were conducted for this case study in order to identify areas of similarity and difference that exist along ethnic lines. Two areas of concern that all ethnic groups agreed upon was a depletion of water resources and a diminished growing season that leads to an annual food shortage in the region. Three primary areas of difference were found to coincide with traditional ethnic boundaries in the region: traditional religious belief, wealth accumulation and social hierarchy. The findings of this research demonstrate that while areas of cohesive community concern may serve as a focal point for CBNRM programs, it is also important to consider areas of ethnic difference which hold the potential to significantly influence sustainable and equitable resource management. For example, while traction methods for intensified agriculture are identified as important by all ethnic groups represented in this thesis: (A) traditional agricultural ethnic groups already have experience with these methods, and may only need access to assistance such as micro-credit opportunities, (B) the pastoral ethnic groups already have an abundance of traction animals, and so equipment may be what is primarily needed, while (C) the horticultural group may not have access to the land necessary for optimal traction agriculture. It is therefore suggested that CBNRM programs must be structured around community variables found along cultural lines in order to be of value to government and non-government conservation programs and policy formation in the region.

Title from first page of PDF document. Includes bibliographical references (p. 86-90-Xx).

In landscape ecology, it is widely acknowledged that landscape is as much a social and cultural entity as it is biophysical, and that people and place must be jointly considered to fully understand the evolution of spatial pattern. This thesis explores the overlapping biophysical and human dimensions of landscape in the context of an (i) ecological and (ii) ethnoecological classification on the local landscape of the Tayal Mrqwang indigenous people in north central Taiwan. The goal of the ecological classification was to identify ecosystem types for a ~3000 acre landscape by relating vegetation patterns to gradients of physiography, soil, humidity, light, pixel brightness, and human modification across 76 transect sample plots. Using multivariate analyses, seven ecosystem types were identified, ranging from xeric through submesic pine, bamboo, alder, and laurel forests to mesic evergreen broadleaved and mixed coniferous forests. At the broad scale, ecosystems were distributed along gradients of elevation, soil, humidity and human modification, while factors related to local variability in physiography and soil development were more important at the fine scale (i.e., within elevational ecoregions). Within lower elevation sites in particular, patterns of forest variation and soil development were resonant of ancestral practices, including shifting cultivation, terrace farming, arboriculture, and selective extraction. The objective of the ethnoecological classification was to explore whether the Mrqwang people categorize landscape variation according to systematic or multidimensional knowledge structures. Results of interviews and free-listing exercises revealed an unsystematized classification that recognizes a continuum of forest variation through the intersection of three overlapping categories: history of disturbance, topography and substrate, vegetation. These categories are modified through land tenure and toponyms. The classification appears accommodating of personal experience, and it is theorized that this flexibility results in dynamic knowledge that evolves with time, generating variable characterizations of forest variation rather than formalized categories. The thesis concludes that despite the lack of formalization, the Tayal are nonetheless highly cognizant of how current forest variation coincides with the environment and the activities of their ancestors. This knowledge represents immense local expertise and must not be excluded from conservation and co-management projects in the local area. / NSERC CGS-D