Psychological safety is a key factor for successful teamwork. Psychological safety signifies that individuals who work together share the belief that their team is safe for interpersonal risk taking. Since the 1970s, researchers have emphasized the importance of psychological safety for work teams in order to deal with changes and related feelings of uncertainty due to a competition-oriented and fast-paced labor market. Numerous studies demonstrated the relevance of psychological safety for learning from failures and for the improvement of performance levels in all kinds of work contexts. Most notably, psychological safety was found to be related to patient safety in clinical contexts. Thus, psychological safety is particularly relevant in team settings where customers or patients depend on the team’s performance, as is the case in hospital teams, care teams, flight crews, and other interdisciplinary team settings. Changes are inherent in the nature of psychological safety. Yet, researchers have just begun to investigate how psychological safety forms and develops over time. First findings on the development are inconsistent and previous research lacks an overall theoretical framework on the effects of time and other group-bounded factors that affect the development of psychological safety. This dissertation contributs to previous research by focusing on dynamics of psychological safety and embedding the hypotheses into a more holistic theoretical framework on team development over time. More precisely, this work builds on the model of group faultlines that considers group diversity, and more specifically subgroup emergence, as one important origin of psychological safety dynamic across teams. Accordingly, team faultlines, defined as hypothetical lines that split a team into subgroups based on multiple attributes, have a negative impact on the formation of psychological safety. Furthermore, this work refers to a theoretical approach, which emphasizes the inclusion of time in team research thereby encouraging researchers to take a more dynamic perspective on team processes by studying the changes and subsequent effects on team outcomes. As teams are sensitive to signals of psychological safety from the very beginning of teamwork, this work focused on the relation between trajectories of team psychological safety change and team performance. In Study 1, I referred to the Leader-Member-Exchange theory and examined differences in team members’ perceptions caused by subgroup dynamics. Accordingly, members who belong to the in-group of the leader benefit from more exchange of resources compared to members of an out-group. I tested the relation of subgroup belonging and psychological safety in the presence of high or low task conflict, as conflicts are critical events that impact psychological safety. I found that team members who were close to the leader in terms of demographic similarity were less affected by high task conflict compared to members who were demographically different from the leader. This study thus identified a boundary condition of psychological safety, namely subgroup belonging, as being similar to the leader buffered the negative effects of task conflict on perceptions of interpersonal risk-taking. Regarding the development of team perceptions of psychological safety, first studies indicated that psychological safety either remains relatively stable, or slightly decreases over time. In Study 2, I therefore focused on the development of psychological safety and antecedents of both the formation and changes over time. I tested for the effects of three well-studied deep level diversity attributes, namely values, team ability, and team personality, and for effects of group faultlines on psychological safety. The results showed that psychological safety decreased over time. Furthermore, teams who had a strong attitude toward teamwork and were characterized by a weak faultline started into the project with high initial levels of psychological safety (as compared to teams with low attitude toward teamwork and strong faultlines). Yet, in teams with high task-specific skills, psychological safety decreased (as compared to teams with low skills), whereas in teams with high team conscientiousness, psychological safety increased over time (as compared to teams with low team conscientiousness). This study demonstrated the relevance of considering temporal dynamics of psychological safety in team research. Further studies should investigate which factors, other than time, predict the negative development. Does it reflect a natural phenomenon in teams, or are there other mechanisms that explain this finding more accurately such as cross-subgroup communication? Furthermore, important conditions for the formation and development of psychological safety were identified that could provide starting points for the design of interventions regarding how and when the development of psychological safety should be supported from leaders or team coaches. As a consequence of the previous results, the focus of the third study was put on team trajectories of psychological safety, more precisely, whether changes of psychological safety affected team variables such as team performance. According to team development theories, the first half of a project is decisive as team members lay the foundation for important changes around midpoint. A constructive discussion and evaluation at midpoint again separated high- from low-performing teams. Thus, besides absolute levels, relative changes should affect team performance. The results support this proposition as changes of psychological safety predicted team effectiveness above and beyond absolute levels. Taken together, this work highlights the effects of subgroup dynamics and time for research on psychological safety. This dissertation is a pioneer work as all three studies provide crucial insights on dynamics of psychological safety opening up implications for practitioners and new avenues for future research.:Acknowledgements 1 Summary (English) 2 Summary (German) 4 List of Contents 7 List of Figures 10 List of Tables 11 1 Psychological Safety in Teams and Organizations 12 1.1 Relevance of the Topic 12 1.2 Research Objectives 13 1.3 Structure of the Dissertation 15 2 Conceptual Clarifications 16 2.1 Psychological Safety in Teams 16 2.2 Definition of Work Teams 17 2.3 Differences Between Psychological Safety and Trust 18 2.4 Measuring Psychological Safety in Teams 19 3 Antecedents, Outcomes, and Boundary Conditions of Team Psychological Safety 24 3.1 Outcomes of Psychological Safety 25 3.2 Antecedents of Psychological Safety 25 3.2.1 Leadership Behavior 26 3.2.2 Relationship Networks 27 3.2.3 Team Characteristics 27 3.2.4 Individual Differences and Perceptions of Organizational Practices 28 3.3 Psychological Safety as Boundary Condition 28 3.4 Evaluation of the Previous Research, Future Directions, and Contributions 29 4 The Current Research 30 4.1 Contributions 30 4.2 Theoretical Framework of the Dissertation 31 4.3 Overview of the Research Program 35 5 Study 1 – About the Buffering Effect of Subgroup Belonging on the Relation Between Task Conflict and Psychological Safety 39 5.1 Introduction 40 5.1.1 Psychological Safety 41 5.1.2 Relationship and Task Conflict in Teams 42 5.1.3 Empirical Findings on Conflict and Psychological Safety 43 5.1.4 Group Faultlines Impact Team Processes 43 5.1.5 Emergence of Subgroups: Leader In-Group and Out-Groups 44 5.1.6 Goals of the Study and Hypotheses 46 5.2 Method 47 5.2.1 Participants 47 5.2.2 Procedure 47 5.2.3 Assessment and Operationalization of the Variables 48 5.3 Results 50 5.3.1 Agreement Between Staff Members 50 5.3.2 Multilevel Model Analyses Predicting Psychological Safety 52 5.3.3 Conflict and Demographic Faultline Strength Predict Psychological Safety 54 5.3.4 Testing for a Cross-Level Interaction: Belonging to the Principal In-Group or Out-Group as Moderator 54 5.4 Discussion 55 5.4.1 Practical Implications 58 5.4.2 Conclusions 58 6 Study 2 – About the Effects of Time, Demographic Faultline Strength, and Deep–Level Group Diversity on the Development of Psychological Safety 59 6.1 Introduction 60 6.1.1 Psychological Safety in Groups – Definition, Important Outcomes, and Antecedents 62 6.1.2 Hypotheses Development – Theoretical Considerations and Empirical Findings 62 6.1.2.1 The Effect of Time on Group Psychological Safety. 63 6.1.2.2 Demographic Faultline Strength Predicts Initial Levels of Group Psychological Safety. 64 6.1.2.3 Deep Level Group Diversity Predict Initial Levels and Changes of Group Psychological Safety. 66 6.1.2.4 Psychological Safety is Related to Group Performance. 69 6.2 Method 70 6.2.1 Participants 70 6.2.2 Team Task and Recruitment of Participants 71 6.2.3 Design and Procedure 71 6.2.4 Measures 72 6.3 Results 74 6.3.1 Data Preparation, Agreement Between Group Members and Data Aggregation 75 6.3.2 Correlations Between Demographic Faultline Strength, Group Diversity Variables, Psychological Safety, and Group Performance 77 6.3.3 Reasoning of Control Variables for the Linear Growth Curve Model 79 6.3.4 Modelling the Effects of Time and Group Diversity on Group Psychological Safety 80 6.3.4 Fitting the Model’s Structure 80 6.3.5 Effects of Time, Demographic Faultline Strength, and Deep Level Group Diversity on Initial Levels and Changes of Group Psychological Safety 82 6.3.6 Replication of the Positive Relation Between Psychological Safety and Group Performance 83 6.3 Discussion 83 6.4.1 Limitations and Future Research 87 6.4.2 Implications 88 6.4.3 Conclusion 89 7 Study 3 – About the Effects of Relative Changes of Psychological Safety over Time on Team Performance 90 7.1 Introduction 91 7.1.1 Psychological Safety in Teams 92 7.1.2 Initial Levels and Changes of Team Psychological Safety Predict Team Performance 93 7.2 Method 97 7.2.1 Participants 97 7.2.2 Team Task and Recruitment of Participants 98 7.2.3 Design and Procedure 98 7.2.4 Measures 100 7.3 Results 101 7.3.1 Agreement Between Team Members and Data Aggregation 101 7.3.2 Clustering Changes of Psychological Safety Within Teams 101 7.3.3 Correlations Between Psychological Safety Trajectory Clusters and Team Performance 102 7.3.4 Initial Levels and Changes of Psychological Safety Predict Team Performance 105 7.4 Discussion 105 7.4.1 Limitations and Future Research 108 7.4.2 Practical Implications 109 7.4.3 Conclusion 110 8 General Discussion 111 8.1 Summary and Integration of Findings 111 8.2 Theoretical Implications 115 8.3 Strength and Limitations 117 8.4 Future Directions 120 8.5 Practical Implications 123 8.6 Conclusion 126 9 Appendix – R-Script for Cluster-Calculation 128 10 Reference List 130 11 Curriculum Vitae 143 12 Scientific Career 146 13 Eidesstattliche Erklärung 149 / Psychologische Sicherheit ist ein Schlüsselfaktor für erfolgreiche Teamarbeit. Psychologische Sicherheit bedeutet, dass Personen, die zusammenarbeiten, den Glauben teilen, dass das Team sicher ist, um interpersonelle Risiken einzugehen. Seit Mitte der 70er Jahre betonen Forscher die Bedeutung von psychologischer Sicherheit für Arbeitsteams und deren Umgang mit den Veränderungen und der damit verbundenen Unsicherheit verursacht durch einen wettbewerbsorientierten und schnelllebigen Arbeitsmarkt. Zahlreiche Studien zeigen die Relevanz von psychologischer Sicherheit für das Lernen aus Misserfolgen und die Verbesserung der Teamleistung in verschiedenen Arbeitskontexten auf. Ein Befund zeigt, dass psychologische Sicherheit mit der physiologischen Sicherheit von Patienten assoziiert ist. Folglich ist psychologische Sicherheit insbesondere dann von Bedeutung, wenn Patienten oder Klienten von der Leistung eines Teams abhängig sind, wie das bspw. in OP-Teams, Pflegeteams, Flugbesatzung, oder anderen interdisziplinären Settings der Fall ist. Obgleich psychologische Sicherheit auf Gruppenebene konzeptualisiert ist und Veränderungen in der Natur dieses Konstruktes liegen, haben Forscher erst vor Kurzem begonnen zu untersuchen, wie psychologische Sicherheit entsteht und sich im Verlauf der Zusammenarbeit verändert. Jedoch sind die Befunde inkonsistent und der Forschung fehlt ein konzeptuelles Rahmenmodell darüber, wie die Zeit und andere durch die Gruppe bedingte Faktoren die Entwicklung von psychologischer Sicherheit beeinflussen. Diese Dissertation trägt zur vorherigen Forschung bei, indem sie den Fokus auf die Dynamiken psychologischer Sicherheit legt und die Forschungsthesen in ein ganzheitliches theoretisches Rahmenmodell zur Entwicklung von Teams einbettet. Im Einzelnen stützt sich die Arbeit auf das Modell der Gruppenbruchlinien, das Gruppendiversität als eine wichtige Ursache für dynamische Prozesse in Teams aufgrund von Subgruppenbildung ansieht. Demnach haben Gruppenbruchlinien (Faultlines), sogenannte hypothetische Linien, die Teams in homogene Subgruppen anhand multipler Attribute teilen, negative Folgen auf die Entstehung von psychologischer Sicherheit. Weiterhin bezieht sich die Arbeit auf einen theoretischen Ansatz, der den Einbezug der Zeit in den Vordergrund rückt und Forscher ermutigen soll eine dynamischere Perspektive auf Teamprozesse einzunehmen und Veränderungen sowie deren Folgen für Teamarbeit zu studieren. Da Teams von Beginn an und in den frühen Phasen der Zusammenarbeit für Signale psychologischer Sicherheit empfänglich sind, lag der Fokus auf Veränderungen in der psychologischen Sicherheit und dem Zusammenhang zwischen Veränderungen und Teamleistung. In Studie 1 bezog ich mich auf die Leader-Member-Exchange Theorie und untersuchte Unterschiede in der Wahrnehmung von psychologischer Sicherheit von Teammitgliedern aufgrund von Subgruppendynamik. Demnach profitieren In-Group Mitglieder der Führungskraft von einem höheren Austausch von Ressourcen im Vergleich zu Mitgliedern der Out-Group. Ich testete die Beziehung von Subgruppenzugehörigkeit und psychologischer Sicherheit in der Präsenz von hohem vs. niedrigem Aufgabenkonflikt, da Konflikte kritische Ereignisse sind, die sich negativ auf die psychologische Sicherheit auswirken können. Ich fand heraus, dass Teammitglieder, die mit ihrer Führungskraft demographisch ähnlich waren, von den negativen Auswirkungen von Aufgabenkonflikt weniger betroffen waren als Teammitglieder, die sich von der Führungskraft diesbezüglich unterschieden. Diese Studie identifiziert eine Grenzbedingung für psychologische Sicherheit, nämlich die Subgruppenzugehörigkeit, da die demographische Nähe zur Führungskraft den negativen Effekt von Aufgabenkonflikt für die Wahrnehmung von psychologischer Sicherheit pufferte. Hinsichtlich der Entwicklung von psychologischer Sicherheit, legen erste Studien nahe, dass sie sich nicht verändert, bzw. Über die Zeit leicht abnimmt. In Studie 2 untersuchte ich daher die Entwicklung von psychologischer Sicherheit und Antezedenzien für die Entstehung und Veränderungen im Verlauf der Zeit. Ich testete für Effekte von drei gut erforschten tieferliegenden Diversitätsattributen, nämlich Werte, Teamfähigkeit und Teampersönlichkeit. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass psychologischer Sicherheit über die Zeit abnahm. Darüber hinaus starteten Teams, die eine positive Einstellung zu Teamarbeit hatten und deren Gruppe von schwachen Faultlines gekennzeichnet war, mit einem hohen Anfangsniveau an psychologischer Sicherheit in die Projektarbeit (im Vergleich zu Teams mit negativer Einstellung zur Teamarbeit und starker Faultline). Allerdings nahm die psychologische Sicherheit in Teams mit hohen aufgabenspezifischen Fähigkeiten (im Vergleich zu niedrigen aufgabenspezifischen Fähigkeiten) über die Zeit ab, wohingegen sie in Gruppen mit hoher Gewissenhaftigkeit (im Vergleich zu niedriger Gewissenhaftigkeit) zunahm. Die Studie zeigt die Relevanz der Berücksichtigung von zeitlichen Dynamiken der psychologischen Sicherheit in der Team Forschung. So kann weiterführend dazu geforscht werden, welche anderen Faktoren als Zeit die negative Entwicklung vorhersagen. Handelt es sich hierbei um eine natürliche Entwicklung in Teams, oder erklären andere Mechanismen wie bspw. Kommunikation über Subgruppen hinweg diesen Befund? Darüber hinaus wurden wichtige Konditionen für die Entstehung und Entwicklung von psychologischer Sicherheit identifiziert, die zur Planung von Inhalten und dem Timing von Teaminterventionen zur Förderung der psychologischen Sicherheit durch Führungskräfte oder Team Coaches genutzt werden können. Als Konsequenz der vorherigen Ergebnisse, lag der Fokus der dritten Studie auf den Teamverläufen von psychologischer Sicherheit, präziser noch, auf den Effekten von Veränderungen psychologischer Sicherheit und deren Auswirkungen auf andere Teamvariablen wie bspw. Teamleistung. Laut Team Entwicklungstheorien ist die erste Hälfte der Projektarbeit entscheidend da Teammitglieder die Fundamente für bedeutende Veränderungen zur Mitte legen. Eine konstruktive Diskussion und Bewertung zur Mitte des Projektes wiederum trennt Hochleistungsteams von Teams mit schwacher Leistung. Daher sollte neben der absoluten Einschätzung von psychologischer Sicherheit auch die relative Veränderung Auswirkungen auf die Teamleistung haben. Die Ergebnisse unterstützen diese Annahme. Wir fanden dass Veränderungen in der psychologischen Sicherheit die Teameffektivität über die Baseline hinaus vorhersagten. Insgesamt hebt diese Arbeit die Effekte von Subgruppendynamiken und Zeit für die Forschung von psychologischer Sicherheit hervor. Diese Dissertation leistete Pionierarbeit indem alle drei Studien entscheidende Einsichten in die Dynamiken von psychologischer Sicherheit bieten und Implikationen für Praktiker beinhalten sowie neue Bereiche für zukünftige Forschung eröffnen.:Acknowledgements 1 Summary (English) 2 Summary (German) 4 List of Contents 7 List of Figures 10 List of Tables 11 1 Psychological Safety in Teams and Organizations 12 1.1 Relevance of the Topic 12 1.2 Research Objectives 13 1.3 Structure of the Dissertation 15 2 Conceptual Clarifications 16 2.1 Psychological Safety in Teams 16 2.2 Definition of Work Teams 17 2.3 Differences Between Psychological Safety and Trust 18 2.4 Measuring Psychological Safety in Teams 19 3 Antecedents, Outcomes, and Boundary Conditions of Team Psychological Safety 24 3.1 Outcomes of Psychological Safety 25 3.2 Antecedents of Psychological Safety 25 3.2.1 Leadership Behavior 26 3.2.2 Relationship Networks 27 3.2.3 Team Characteristics 27 3.2.4 Individual Differences and Perceptions of Organizational Practices 28 3.3 Psychological Safety as Boundary Condition 28 3.4 Evaluation of the Previous Research, Future Directions, and Contributions 29 4 The Current Research 30 4.1 Contributions 30 4.2 Theoretical Framework of the Dissertation 31 4.3 Overview of the Research Program 35 5 Study 1 – About the Buffering Effect of Subgroup Belonging on the Relation Between Task Conflict and Psychological Safety 39 5.1 Introduction 40 5.1.1 Psychological Safety 41 5.1.2 Relationship and Task Conflict in Teams 42 5.1.3 Empirical Findings on Conflict and Psychological Safety 43 5.1.4 Group Faultlines Impact Team Processes 43 5.1.5 Emergence of Subgroups: Leader In-Group and Out-Groups 44 5.1.6 Goals of the Study and Hypotheses 46 5.2 Method 47 5.2.1 Participants 47 5.2.2 Procedure 47 5.2.3 Assessment and Operationalization of the Variables 48 5.3 Results 50 5.3.1 Agreement Between Staff Members 50 5.3.2 Multilevel Model Analyses Predicting Psychological Safety 52 5.3.3 Conflict and Demographic Faultline Strength Predict Psychological Safety 54 5.3.4 Testing for a Cross-Level Interaction: Belonging to the Principal In-Group or Out-Group as Moderator 54 5.4 Discussion 55 5.4.1 Practical Implications 58 5.4.2 Conclusions 58 6 Study 2 – About the Effects of Time, Demographic Faultline Strength, and Deep–Level Group Diversity on the Development of Psychological Safety 59 6.1 Introduction 60 6.1.1 Psychological Safety in Groups – Definition, Important Outcomes, and Antecedents 62 6.1.2 Hypotheses Development – Theoretical Considerations and Empirical Findings 62 6.1.2.1 The Effect of Time on Group Psychological Safety. 63 6.1.2.2 Demographic Faultline Strength Predicts Initial Levels of Group Psychological Safety. 64 6.1.2.3 Deep Level Group Diversity Predict Initial Levels and Changes of Group Psychological Safety. 66 6.1.2.4 Psychological Safety is Related to Group Performance. 69 6.2 Method 70 6.2.1 Participants 70 6.2.2 Team Task and Recruitment of Participants 71 6.2.3 Design and Procedure 71 6.2.4 Measures 72 6.3 Results 74 6.3.1 Data Preparation, Agreement Between Group Members and Data Aggregation 75 6.3.2 Correlations Between Demographic Faultline Strength, Group Diversity Variables, Psychological Safety, and Group Performance 77 6.3.3 Reasoning of Control Variables for the Linear Growth Curve Model 79 6.3.4 Modelling the Effects of Time and Group Diversity on Group Psychological Safety 80 6.3.4 Fitting the Model’s Structure 80 6.3.5 Effects of Time, Demographic Faultline Strength, and Deep Level Group Diversity on Initial Levels and Changes of Group Psychological Safety 82 6.3.6 Replication of the Positive Relation Between Psychological Safety and Group Performance 83 6.3 Discussion 83 6.4.1 Limitations and Future Research 87 6.4.2 Implications 88 6.4.3 Conclusion 89 7 Study 3 – About the Effects of Relative Changes of Psychological Safety over Time on Team Performance 90 7.1 Introduction 91 7.1.1 Psychological Safety in Teams 92 7.1.2 Initial Levels and Changes of Team Psychological Safety Predict Team Performance 93 7.2 Method 97 7.2.1 Participants 97 7.2.2 Team Task and Recruitment of Participants 98 7.2.3 Design and Procedure 98 7.2.4 Measures 100 7.3 Results 101 7.3.1 Agreement Between Team Members and Data Aggregation 101 7.3.2 Clustering Changes of Psychological Safety Within Teams 101 7.3.3 Correlations Between Psychological Safety Trajectory Clusters and Team Performance 102 7.3.4 Initial Levels and Changes of Psychological Safety Predict Team Performance 105 7.4 Discussion 105 7.4.1 Limitations and Future Research 108 7.4.2 Practical Implications 109 7.4.3 Conclusion 110 8 General Discussion 111 8.1 Summary and Integration of Findings 111 8.2 Theoretical Implications 115 8.3 Strength and Limitations 117 8.4 Future Directions 120 8.5 Practical Implications 123 8.6 Conclusion 126 9 Appendix – R-Script for Cluster-Calculation 128 10 Reference List 130 11 Curriculum Vitae 143 12 Scientific Career 146 13 Eidesstattliche Erklärung 149

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Functions and services provided by soils play an important role for numerous sustainable development goals involving mainly food supply and environmental health. In many regions of the Earth, water erosion is a major threat to soil functions and is mostly related to land-use change or poor agricultural management. Selecting proper soil management practices requires site-specific indicators such as water erosion, which follow a spatio-temporal variation. The aim of this study was to develop monthly soil erosion risk maps for the data-scarce catchment of Ruiru drinking water reservoir located in Kenya. Therefore, the Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation complemented with the cubist–kriging interpolation method was applied. The erodibility map created with digital soil mapping methods (R2 = 0.63) revealed that 46% of the soils in the catchment have medium to high erodibility. The monthly erosion rates showed two distinct potential peaks of soil loss over the course of the year, which are consistent with the bimodal rainy season experienced in central Kenya. A higher soil loss of 2.24 t/ha was estimated for long rains (March–May) as compared to 1.68 t/ha for short rains (October–December). Bare land and cropland are the major contributors to soil loss. Furthermore, spatial maps reveal that areas around the indigenous forest on the western and southern parts of the catchment have the highest erosion risk. These detected erosion risks give the potential to develop efficient and timely soil management strategies, thus allowing continued multi-functional use of land within the soil–food–water nexus.

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A l’image du bassin du Congo, la République Démocratique du Congo (République Démocratique du Congo) fait face à une réduction de la qualité et de la superficie de son couvert forestier. La présente étude avait pour objectif d’étudier l’effet de l’anthropisation, à travers la présence et les activités humaines sur la dynamique des paysages forestiers en République Démocratique du Congo. L’écologie du paysage, en tant que science pluridisciplinaire offre une très bonne approche à travers les indices et une méthodologie alliant la structure et la composition du paysage pour mettre en évidence les causes et les conséquences des processus écologiques. Ces approches sont basées sur le fait que en analysant la structure du paysage, des déductions utiles au sujet des processus écologiques fondamentaux peuvent être faites et vice versa. Les résultats ont montré, en quantifiant la dynamique spatio-temporelle de l’occupation du sol et par l’analyse et la caractérisation de la structure spatiale, que l’anthropisation est le moteur de la dynamique dans ces milieux forestiers. L’impact humain se traduit par une déstabilisation ou un dysfonctionnement des écosystèmes forestiers entraînant la dégradation, la fragmentation et la déforestation. Ainsi il a été montré que la proximité des villes est fortement corrélée à la dégradation et la perte d’habitats forestiers. Cela est fonction de l’importance socio-économique de ces villes car plus la ville est importante, plus elle attire la population ;que la densité de la population influence la fragmentation et l’incursion dans la forêt se fait en suivant les pistes et les routes mises en place généralement par les sociétés d’exploitation forestière. Le tout amplifié par la situation socio-économique difficile des populations et le manque de politiques de gestion appropriées de la part des gestionnaires publiques. Cette dynamique régressive du paysage forestier en République Démocratique du Congo aura une incidence négative sur les cycles climatiques globaux vu que le bassin du Congo est le plus grand bloc forestier après le bloc de l’Amazonie. La présente étude est donc un argument supplémentaire qui milite en faveur de la nécessité de prendre en compte les caractéristiques des populations locales dans les programmes de gestion de la forêt du bassin du Congo pour un meilleur équilibre écologique de la planète. / Like Congo basin, Democratic Republic of Congo’s forest covers are facing their reduction in quality and size. This study aimed to investigate the effect of human impact on forest landscape dynamics in DR Congo, through the human presence and its activities. Landscape ecology as a multidisciplinary science offers a very good approach through the index and a methodology combining the structure and the composition of the landscape to highlight the causes and the consequences of ecological processes. These approaches are based on the fact that by analyzing the structure of landscape, useful deductions about the underlying ecological processes can be made and vice versa. By quantifying the spatio-temporal dynamics of land use and by analysis and characterization of spatial structure, our results showed that anthropization is the driver of the dynamics in these forest environments. Human impact results in a destabilization or a dysfunction of the forest ecosystems involving degradation, fragmentation and deforestation. Thus it was shown that proximity to cities is strongly correlated to the degradation and loss of forest habitats. This depends on the socioeconomic importance of these cities because more the city is important, more it attracts people. Population density influences the fragmentation and the incursion into the forest is done by following the tracks and roads generally implemented by the logging companies. All amplified by socio-economic problems of population and lack of appropriate management policies on the part of public managers.This regressive dynamic forest landscape in République Démocratique du Congo will have a negative impact on global climate cycles because the Congo Basin is the largest forest block after Amazonia block. This study is another argument which advocates the need to take into account the characteristics of local population in forest management programs in the Congo Basin for a better ecological balance of planet. / Doctorat en Sciences / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

Les végétaux, contrairement aux animaux, génèrent la plupart de leurs organes et tissus au cours de leur développement post-embryonnaire et ce, grâce à des tissus contenant de petits amas de cellules souches appelés méristèmes. Le méristème apical caulinaire (MAC), situé à l’extrémité de la tige, génère toute la partie aérienne de la plante. A sa périphérie, les organes latéraux (fleurs ou feuilles) sont générés selon un patron spatio-temporel précis appelé phyllotaxie. De nombreuses données accumulées ces 20 dernières années ont démontré qu’une hormone végétale, l’auxine, joue un rôle prépondérant dans le contrôle du devenir des cellules dans le MAC. Un ensemble de données expérimentales couplées à des modèles mathématiques suggère que l’auxine s’accumule successivement dans les sites d’organogenèse grâce à l’auto-organisation de ses transporteurs membranaires et instruit les cellules à se différencier en organes.Fautes d’outils appropriés, il était impossible jusqu’alors de visualiser l’auxine in vivo et d’étudier sa dynamique temporelle. Nous avons généré un nouveau senseur de la signalisation de l’auxine, appelé DII-Venus, qui permet de visualiser de manière indirecte mais spécifique les niveaux relatifs d’auxine in planta avec une excellente résolution spatio-temporelle. Cet outil a permis de mettre en évidence pour la première fois des oscillations circadiennes d’auxine au niveau du MAC. Une analyse complète de la structure de la voie de réponse transcriptionelle à l’auxine, couplée à des approches de modélisation, a permis de mettre en évidence des propriétés « tampon » de la voie transcriptionnelle qui la rendent relativement insensible aux fluctuations d’auxine, et contribuent à la robustesse du programme organogénétique. En revanche, la voie non-transriptionnelle de réponse à l’auxine, sensible à ces oscillations, génère des rythmicités de croissance au niveau du MAC qui contribuent à déterminer la temporalité de l’émergence de nouveaux organes. Ces résultats démontrent ainsi pour la première fois que la rythmicité de l’émergence de nouveaux organes au niveau du MAC n’est pas uniquement une conséquence des capacités d’auto-organisation du tissu mais est aussi contrôlée, au moins partiellement, par une horloge biologique. / Plants, contrarily to animals, are able to generate new organs and tissues throughout their lives thanks to the activity of specialized tissues containing stem cells called meristems. The shoot apical meristem (SAM), located at the shoot tip, generates all the aerial parts of the plant that arise after germination. At its periphery, organ production occurs following precise spatio-temporal patterns also known as phyllotaxis. During the past twenty years, the phytohormone auxin has been demonstrated to play a major role in this process. Indeed, both experimental and theoretical studies strongly suggest that auxin accumulates successively in sites of organogenesis thanks to its efflux carriers, and instructs cells to differentiate into organs.However, so far, very little is known about the actual temporal dynamics of auxin in tissues, because of the lack of appropriate tool to visualize auxin in vivo. We developed a new auxin signaling sensor, called DII-VENUS, that allows for monitoring auxin levels in planta with a good spatio-temporal resolution. Using this new tool, we were able to demonstrate that for the first time that the SAM is subjected to circadian oscillations of auxin levels. Our data suggest that these oscillations are not perceived by the auxin transcriptional pathway, which is predicted, according to our mathematical models, to exhibit buffering properties. However, they are perceived by the non-transcriptional putative receptor ABP1 and translated into rhythmic growth patterns at the SAM. These growth oscillations seem to regulate organ initiation in the meristem thus demonstrating for the first time the rhythmic emergence of organs at the SAM does not only result from the self-organizing properties of the tissue but is also controlled, at least partially, by a biological clock.

<p>Human society is presently beset by an array of anthropogenic social-ecological crises that threaten the sustainability of the social-ecological systems that sustain our livelihoods. While research alone will not rectify these issues, it can help to answer key questions that must be addressed to develop effective solutions. To address such questions in a cohesive, compelling manner, social-ecological research can be bounded, structured, and distilled through innumerable organizing principles or theoretical frameworks. For this dissertation, I focused on the geographic region of Tierra del Fuego and sought to draw from the array of disciplines and methods that use sound as a lens for biological, ecological, and/or social inquiry. I also endeavored to consider various temporal, spatial, and organizational scales while investigating a selection of topics with a) specific importance in the social-ecological systems of Tierra del Fuego and b) general relevance to global social-ecological challenges. Chapter 1 provides an introduction to the dissertation, and Chapter 6 serves as a conclusion.</p><p><br></p><p> </p><p>The objective of Chapter 2, “Biogeographical and analytical implications of temporal variability in geographically diverse soundscapes”, was to provide some guidance to passive acoustic monitoring (PAM) practitioners on how to design appropriate temporal sampling schemes based on the temporal variability of the sounds one wishes to measure and the power and storage limitations of acoustic recorders. We first quantified the temporal variability of several soundscape measurements and compared that variability across sites and times of day. We also simulated a wide range of temporal sampling schemes in order to model their representativeness relative to continuous sampling.</p><p><br></p><p> </p><p>For Chapter 3, “Sentinels for sentinels: passive acoustic and camera trap monitoring of sensitive penguin populations”, we tested the utility of PAM to monitor behavior and abundance of Magellanic (<i>Spheniscus magellanicus</i>) and southern rockhopper penguins (<i>Eudyptes chrysocome</i>) at different spatial and temporal scales. We conducted <i>in situ</i> observations of the acoustic behavior of each species, and we compared acoustic metrics with penguin counts from narrowly focused camera traps and larger-extent observations of colony density. </p><p><br></p><p> </p><p>Chapter 4, “Acoustic monitoring shows invasive beavers (<i>Castor canadensis</i>) increase avian diversity in Tierra del Fuego”, is focused on impacts of the invasive North American beaver (<i>Castor canadensis</i>) on Fuegian bird communities. We sought to determine how bird communities might differ between intact riparian forests, beaver ponds, and beaver meadows created by pond drainage. We conducted PAM and classic avian point counts under each of these conditions across seasons to test for differences between impact conditions and to compare the two methodologies.</p><p><br></p><p> </p>For Chapter 5, “Human-nature connection and soundscape perception: insights from Tierra del Fuego, Argentina”, we evaluated the relationship between soundscape perception and nature relatedness by conducting surveys and soliciting responses to soundscape audio prompts. We also examined the potential for any demographic influences on nature relatedness or soundscape perception in the context of local social tensions.