Patterns of community assembly among organisms are highly influenced by the ecological traits and strategies of the species that make up those communities. The conservation of ancestral traits can be important in determining how closely related species partition space and habitat on a local scale. Shared ecological traits and strategies of closely related species suggest that they should overlap in space and use similar habitats. However, ecological similarity may result in fitness costs when closely related species live together. Previous work on birds suggests that close relatives avoid each other by using different habitats. I used the radiation of Dendroica wood-warblers to test these two alternative hypotheses and determine how closely related species partition space and habitat, and how patterns of spatial overlap and habitat use change over evolutionary timescales. I measured territory and habitat overlap among nine sympatric species of Dendroica, Setophaga and Mniotila to determine how time since common ancestry is related to patterns of spatial overlap and habitat use at the Queen's University Biological Station in eastern Ontario. I predicted that closely related species would separate by habitat and not overlap their territories. However, I found that the two most recently diverged species pairs overlap their territories and habitats significantly more than do pairs of more distantly divergent species. This pattern contrasts with previous studies on wood-warblers and the ecologically similar Phylloscopus leaf-warblers. These results suggest that during allopatric speciation Dendroica species do not differentiate in habitat on a local scale; rather, habitat differentiation occurs after closely related species have returned to sympatry. / Thesis (Master, Biology) -- Queen's University, 2012-01-09 11:32:42.032

Thesis (M Distance Ed) -- University of South Australia, 1995

This thesis draws on the documentary historical record to examine the interactions between the indigenous Larrakia people and the white settlers in the colonial township of Darwin between the years 1869 and 1911. The colonial recognition of the Larrakia as the traditional owners of lands in the Darwin region and the historical question of their land rights is discussed in some detail. Rather than seeing interactions between the Larrakia and the colonisers as polarised into either accommodation or resistance, this thesis looks at various interactions to highlight the complexities of the encounter. One of the more complex of their interactions was the negotiation of what is best described as an abstruse alliance which benefited both the Larrakia and the colonisers in various ways. The colonisation of the Darwin region had a considerable impact on the Larrakia people's ability to live on their country as they had done prior to the invasion. This thesis seeks to understand the negotiations, compromises and decisions the Larrakia made to survive in their changing landscape. Another complexity that is highlighted in this thesis is the tension within the white settler population about how to deal with what was presented as the 'Aboriginal problem'. This thesis shows that the ideology of compensating Aboriginal people for having invaded their land and undermining their means of subsistence was understood and condoned by the colonisers. The distribution of government rations, the allocation of reserves and the ongoing recognition of the Larrakia's right to be within the township were all ways that some colonisers attempted to compensate Aborigines for invading their land. This thesis shows that while the Larrakia people were recognised as the prior occupants of Darwin and, as such, accorded a distinct status within the township in the whole period under study, the colonisers ultimately failed to give tangible expression to the Larrakia's land rights.

Typescript / Maps in back pocket of v. 1 / Microfiches in back pocket of v. 2 / Microfiches contain petrographic descriptions, total rock XRF analyses and microprobe analyses / Bibliography: leaves 160-183 (v. 2) / 2 v. : ill. (some col.), maps (some folded) ; 30 cm. + 8 maps (col. ;71 x 77 cm. folded to 25 x 17 cm.) + 2 microfiches (423 fr. ; 10 x 15 cm) / Title page, contents and abstract only. The complete thesis in print form is available from the University Library. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Adelaide, Dept. of Geology and Geophysics, 1987

Appendix 4 and 5 in pocket on back cover. / Bibliography: p. 123-130. / xi, 154 p. : ill. (chiefly col.), maps (chiefly col.) ; 30 cm. / Title page, contents and abstract only. The complete thesis in print form is available from the University Library. / The isotopic data indicates the Harts Range Metamorphic Complex formed within a previously unrecognized intracratonic tectonic province in Central Australia / Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Adelaide, Dept. of Geology & Geophysics, 2000?

Until recently, place has been of little interest to health research. While fundamental to anthropological accounts, place has been largely relegated to the bounded and inert ground on which human agency is exercised. In this dissertation the relationship between people and the places in which they live is brought to the foreground. I am interested in bridging the gap between human agency and the social structures that underpin health by examining the subjective experiences and narrative accounts of individuals linked to the social organisation of places and their histories. The social theory of Pierre Bourdieu and his concepts of habitus, field and capital, brings analysis of these health encounters closer to the experience of everyday practice. The broader interest that runs in the background of the thesis is the interplay between the social determinants of health, the capacity to act and health inequality. Based in the Warlpiri settlement of Yuendumu in Central Australia, the ethnography critically examines the engagement between Indigenous understandings of health, well-being and being ill, and the dominant biomedical discourse that shapes disease prevention and health promotion interventions. Against a landscape of a rapidly changing Warlpiri social world, the search for Indigenous health extends beyond the biomedical life world and into the tensions of a wider social context. These sites of engagement are imagined as borderlands - emergent intra-cultural meeting places between yapa and kardiya.

During the recessional flow period of 2004, benthic diatoms were sampled from four catchments in the tropics of the Northern Territory of Australia. Each of the catchments showed evidence of acid mine drainage. Diatoms were used in conjunction with physical and chemical water parameters to provide a biomonitoring approach with the ultimate goal to assess the water quality of the mine impacted catchments. A total of 267 species of diatoms from 45 genera were recorded from 50 sites in the Northern Territory. One of the primary aims of this study was to assess diatom classification techniques, morphological and genetic, for the accurate identification of the morphologically variable taxon, Nitzschia palea. A second primary aim was to determine the degree to which diatom taxa and community structures can be effectively used as biological indicators and monitors of heavy metal pollution in tropical aquatic environments. To address the lack of diatom floristic studies from the Northern Territory, an iconograph of the most abundant taxa was created. Forty eight Nitzschia palea-like cells were cultured and then grouped by hierarchical cluster analysis (Ward’s method). The reliability of the groups was tested with discriminant analysis. The morphological groups were compared to the phylogenetic grouping of 20 of the cultures which were each genetically sequenced using the nuclear-encoded small subunit rDNA. For monitoring studies, multivariate statistical techniques were used to produce models to infer environmental variables from diatom distributions. The three datasets used varied in terms of the level of taxonomic identification and the inclusion of bioavailable or total metal concentrations. The program AquaRisk was employed to determine the bioavailable concentrations of the heavy metals. Each dataset was related to water quality parameters using canonical correspondence analysis. The Simpson’s index and the Shannon-Wiener diversity index were statistically related, together with species richness, to the variables pH and copper through bivariate regression analysis. To determine the usefulness of individual diatom taxa as indicators, species were selected based on their occurrence, weighted average optima and tolerance values, and species response curves. Additionally, teratogenic frustules were statistically correlated with environmental variables by bivariate and linear regression. Although the Nitzschia palea-like cultures displayed morphological variation, which could be used separate the cultures into five distinct groups, the cultures were not found to be genetically variable. However, one new species, Nitzschia sp. 39, was defined genetically and described morphologically. As with other analyses of mine impacts, canonical correspondence analysis identified pH and aluminium as the principal environmental factors structuring the diatom communities. The calibration set models generated to infer pH and heavy metals had high predicative capabilities. Overall, the species dataset, rather than the datasets utilising genus level identification or bioavailable metal fractions, provided the statistically strongest results. Monitoring using diversity indices was less successful for indicating pollution. Contrary to findings from other studies, species richness tended to be higher in polluted waters than control sites. Unlike other studies of acidic environments, the species Chamaepinnularia mediocris, Naviculadicta subtilissima, Nitzschia vasta and Pinnularia schoenfelderi were found to be the best indicators. Nitzschia vasta was the only teratogenic diatom within the dataset. However, as with other analyses, the relationship between teratogenic valves and mine impact was not significant. This study demonstrates the continued need for research in the tropics in order to better understand biological responses and enable study comparisons. Although at least one new xii species was identified, the genetic research indicated that taxonomic texts produced for northern hemisphere regions can be applied to tropical diatom taxa as long as the risk of taxonomic force fitting is avoided. Additionally, the benefit of diatoms as biological monitors varies depending on the method utilised. In these highly impacted systems, transfer functions produced the strongest results. In contrast, it is evident that the abundance and distribution of teratological forms of diatoms are poor indicators of impact. Further work culturing diatoms and combining this technique with ecotoxicological work will help verify autecologies of taxa and their responses to co-varying pollutants. This will strengthen use of diatom taxa as indicator species. Continued monitoring of these sites can add much to our ecological understanding of these highly impacted systems which, in turn, will lead to better management of the systems for both sustainable resource development and conservation. / Thesis (Ph.D.) -- University of Adelaide, School of Social Sciences, 2008

Thesis (M.A.) - Carleton University, 2007. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 204-215). Also available in electronic format on the Internet.

Thesis--Guayaquil.

Appendix 4 and 5 in pocket on back cover. Bibliography: p. 123-130. The isotopic data indicates the Harts Range Metamorphic Complex formed within a previously unrecognized intracratonic tectonic province in Central Australia