The aim of this thesis is to analyse offered meaning, that is, what and how subject content is communicated to the recipients. In this case the subject content is biological diversity and the communicative artefacts are biology books for the latter grades in the Swedish compulsory school. The four papers cover aspects of biodiversity in biology books (I), connections between biology books and the world outside school (II), the definition of the species concept and the use of the concept species in textbooks and in pupils' assertions (III), and finally how instances of modes are connected in a multimodal text and how the design of texts may affect the possibilities of meaning making (IV). The biology books used for data collection are multimodal texts with different types of written text and a rich amount of illustrations. The collected data was primarily used for content analysis but also to explore the design of the books. In paper III and IV data was also obtained by two questionnaires to students. Data is analysed and the results are discussed on the basis of a social semiotic theory of communication and meaning making. The books contain many facts about biological diversity, but the concept is not defined explicitly in several of them. In relation to human beings and human activities are beneficial aspects of biological diversity given precedence over ethical, aesthetic and economic aspects. The results also show that the books contain inaccuracies and questionable formulations regarding biodiversity, as well as simplifications and colloquial expressions rather than scientifically accurate terminology. Direct address, anthropomorphism, analogies and connections to life outside school are also found in the books. To recognize themselves in many of the connections to everyday life, pupils need to have visited many habitats in different seasons. The use of concepts is an area where there is a great potential for change. The species concept can be seen as an example of how a concept is introduced early and that understanding is taken for granted in the remaining text. Responses from the questionnaires suggest that more time needs to be given to basic biological concepts and that a big amount of instances of modes may impede meaning making. Textbooks are compromise products created to suit a diverse audience. There is a risk that the offered meaning of the books is not consistent with the perceived meaning of the students. The results of the thesis may contribute to reduce the gap between offered and perceived meaning. If awareness is raised about the problems pupils may face when using textbooks, the teachers' and the authors' ability to support meaning making may increase. / <p>Akademisk avhandling för filosofie doktorsexamen i Naturvetenskap, inriktning utbildningsvetenskap, som med tillstånd från Naturvetenskapliga fakulteten kommer att offentligt försvaras fredag den 7 november, 2014 kl. 10.00 i Föreläsningssalen, Institutionen för biologi och miljövetenskap, Medicinaregatan 18, Göteborg.</p><p>I. Ferlin, M. (2011). Biologisk mångfald i svenska läroböcker för skolår 6–9. NorDiNa, 7(1), 71–84</p><p>II. Ferlin, M. (2013). Vardagsanknytning i biologiböcker. Paideia 5, 52–61</p><p>III. Ferlin, M. &amp; Sundberg, P. (Accepterat manuskript). Grundskoleelevers uppfattningar om begreppet art relaterade till formuleringar i läroböcker i biologi. Publiceras i NorDiNa våren 2015.</p><p>IV. Ferlin, M. (Manuskript). Connections between instances of modes in multimodal texts.</p>

Diploma thesis deals with alien species, primarily invasive species. Only in Europe there are 10 822 alien species, of which 10-15% could have a negative economic or ecological impact. Thesis highlights the threat alien species pose to the original species, biodiversity and human health, and necessity of cooperation in resolving this issue. The author gives their characteristics and provides an overview of legislation in the field of international, European and Czech law.

Legal regulation of the protection of plants and animals The subject of this thesis by the title " Legal regulation of the protection of plants and animals" are selected, the most significant legal standards, laying out the problematic of fauna and flora protection and their analysis in order to create a comprehensive scope of fauna and flora legal regulation in situ both on international, European and domestic level of law. The thesis is divided into four parts. The first chapter introduces the structure and extensity of the fauna and flora protection problematic, whereas it contemplates over the term biological diversity. The next chapters successively describe the legal regulations of fauna and flora on the international, European and domestic level of law. The introduction is always there to mention historical development and related standards that have given the present legal regulation its form. It is followed by summary of the most significant standards of the legal regulation in effect. To conclude my thesis, I am summarizing and determining whether the system of legal standards in effect truly results in the objective of legal regulations of fauna and flora protection, primarily in stopping the decrease of biological diversity and its restoration in the future.

<p>Claims of injustice in global forest governance are prolific: assertions of colonization, marginalization and disenfranchisement of forest-dependent people, and privatization of common resources are some of the most severe allegations of injustice resulting from globally-driven forest conservation initiatives. At its core, the debate over the future of the world's forests is fraught with ethical concerns. Policy makers are not only deciding how forests should be governed, but also who will be winners, losers, and who should have a voice in the decision-making processes. For 30 years, policy makers have sought to redress the concerns of the world's 1.6 billion forest-dependent poor by introducing rights-based and participatory approaches to conservation. Despite these efforts, however, claims of injustice persist. This research examines possible explanations for continued claims of injustice by asking: What are the barriers to delivering justice to forest-dependent communities? Using data collected through surveys, interviews, and collaborative event ethnography in Laos and at the Tenth Conference of Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity, this dissertation examines the pursuit of justice in global forest governance across multiple scales of governance. The findings reveal that particular conceptualizations of justice have become a central part of the metanormative fabric of global environmental governance, inhibiting institutional evolution and therewith perpetuating the justice gap in global forest governance.</p> / Dissertation

Verificar o estado da biodiversidade e as intervenções que provocaram ou provocam a sua destruição ou a sua conservação implica problematizar aspectos fundamentais do fenômeno da vida, das relações entre saúde e ambiente. Na dinâmica ecológica, a freqüência de determinados seres vivos depende em grande medida da freqüência de outros seres vivos. Também na saúde, a história de cada doença é dependente da história de todas as doenças, da história natural e dos homens. A emergência e reemergência de doenças infecto-contagiosas põem em evidência a fragilidade do equilíbrio ambiental. Tais problemas colocam a necessidade de reposicionar o limiar crítico das relações do homem com a natureza, do biológico com o social. Articular a interface dessas categorias por meio da Epidemiologia, disciplina estrutural da Saúde Pública no Brasil, possibilita desvendar as implicações ecológicas desta prática social. / Verifying the biodiversity and the human interventions, which causes and determine their destruction or conservation implies considering the phenomenon of life, the relationship between environment and health. In ecological processes, the frequency of plants, animals and humans depends on the frequency of all alive entities. The same happens in health, where a history of one disease depends on the history of all diseases. It depends on the natural and on the human history. The emergence and re-emergence of infectious diseases demonstrates the environmental fragility balance. These problems replace the critical threshold between men and nature relationship, also between biological and social categories. Disclosing the connection between these categories through the Epidemiology, a structural discipline of Public Health in Brazil, allow to disclose the ecological consequences of this social practice.

The formal access of transnational actors (TNA) to international organizations (IO) has increased steadily over the past five decades, and a growing body of literature is at the moment concerned with the theoretical and normative implications of these developments. However, very little is known as of yet about who the TNAs in global governance are, where they come from, which issue areas they focus on, and when and where they choose to participate. Using analytical tools from interest group theory, in particular a subfield called population ecology, this study describes and explains the chronological development of two populations of TNAs in global governance, namely the observer communities of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity. TNAs’ financial resources and their geographical proximity to global governance venues emerge as important factors influencing their capacity to participate, causing these TNA populations to be stratified and volatile.

<p>This paper seeks to discern the political factors that determine the results of negotiations in international cooperation. On the one hand, it makes a contribution to the broader theoretical debate on international regimes by combining regime theory and theories on globalisation into an integrated framework for the analysis of international policy results, or in this case treaties (theoretical objective). More generally, globalisation theory will help us understand why it has become important to initiate international cooperation, and regime theory to elucidate how these international cooperations emerge. To many observers, it is the large transnational corporations of the rich North, which have done best out of free trade. Through the huge influence they wield over governments at the WTO (World Trade Organisation), these corporations have won the freedom to move around the globe without restriction, making use of cheap labour, and locating wherever they can best tap into the largest and most lucrative markets. Suprastate global governance, such as the WTO and its TRIPs (Trade Related Intellectual Property Rights) regime, is the response to deal with the reality in which we live - the globalised reality. But global governance comes to a price. States have lost their supreme sovereignty in the face of globalisation and the power of the globalised economy and transnational corporations. </p><p>This paper presents evidence that it does not seem likely that the parties to both the TRIPs Agreement and the Convention on Biological Diversity, in reality, can meet the obligations set out by these two agreements. Furthermore, this study points to those negative impacts the TRIPs Agreement poses to an enhancing of biological diversity and protection of indigenous knowledge.</p>

Magistro darbe vertinama medynų įvairovė biologinės įvairovės požiūriu ir nustatomos teritorijos palankiausios biologinei įvairovei ir jos apsaugai. Darbo objektas – VĮ Dubravos mokomosios eksperimentinės miškų urėdijos Vaišvydavos girininkijos teritorija. Darbo tikslas - įvertinti Vaišvydavos girininkijos medynus biologinės įvairovės požiūriu ir nustatyti palankiausios biologinei įvairovei ir jos apsaugai teritorijas. Darbo metodai – 1958 m., 1978 m., 1988 m. ir 2003 m. miškotvarkų duomenų analizavimas ir nustatytų medynų rūšinės įvairovės rodiklių vertinimas bei, remiantis girininkijoje esančiomis saugomomis teritorijomis, kertinėmis miško buveinėmis ir retomis rūšimis, charakterizuojama girininkijos biologinė įvairovė ir nustatomos jos koncentracijos vietos. Darbo rezultatai. Atlikus tyrimus nustatyta, kad Vaišvydavos girininkijai tenkančio Dubravos girios masyvo dalyje 1958 m. augo 10, 1978 m. – 12, o 1988 – 2003 m. 13 medžių rūšių. Tai lėmė liepos, tuopos, klevo ir pocūgės atsiradimas medynuose. Nuo 1958 m. iki 1988 m. spygliuočių kiekis medynų sudėtyje didėjo, o nuo 1988 m. užfiksuotas spygliuočių sumažėjimas – jų kiekis medynų sudėtyje sumažėjo 3,6 %. Nagrinėtų įvairovės, proporcingumo bei vyravimo rodiklių dinamika rodo medynų rūšinės įvairovės mažėjimą iki 1988 m. ir didėjimą po 1988 m. Nagrinėjant atskirų augaviečių medynų rūšinės įvairovės dinamiką 1958 – 2003 m., pastebėta, kad didžiausia rūšinė įvairovė buvo Nc, Lc, Ld ir Uc augavietėse. Sudarant palankių... [toliau žr. visą tekstą] / There were estimated stand biodiversity and made biodiversity hotspots network was main object of the master work. The object of the work – Vaišvbydava forest districkt in Dubrava experimental educational state forest enterprise. The aim of the study – to estimate forest stand by biological diversity indexes and to establish the best spots to maintainig the biodiversity in Vaišvydava forest district. Working methods - forest management and data analysis of the stand species diversity indices of 1958, 1978, 1988, and 2003 years, the analysis of preservation territories, key habitats and rare and endangered species, and made biodiversity hotspots network. Study results - Number of trees in the stand in 1958 was 10 and in 1978 years was 12, 1988 and 2003 – 13. This led to the origin of july, poplar, maple and Douglas-fir. Diversity and Proportionality indexes decreased in 1958 – 1988 years period and was increasing in period from 1988 to 2003 years. Dominance index increased in 1958 – 1988 years, because the dominance of the pine and spruce in the stand and was increasing. But the same index was decreased in 2003 years. That happened because the invasion of the Ips typographus to the stands of spruces, and may be influenced in now a day’s politics of silverculture in Lithuania. It means that diversity of stand species is increasing, though it was decreased from 1958 to 1988 years. There were found 12 species of Data Red Book of Lithuania in Vaisvydava forest district, 1... [to full text]

Very often the natural landscape is being ruined, changed, cultured or even a new cultured landscape is being created because of human activity. Therefore, less and less areas are left where natural processes take place. With such a situation, it is necessary to preserve areas rich in objects valuable for science and culture. Protected areas are areas where land and (or) water areas have defined clear boundaries and which have accepted scientific, ecological, cultural and other values and when special protection and use regime (order) is established by legal acts. One of the main tasks of the environment protection management is to strengthen the administrative abilities of the Ministry of Environment of the Republic of Lithuania, the State Service of Protected Areas and the Head Offices of Protected Areas to implement the nature protection policy and directions with reference to EU directions and international conventions. The object of the research. Protected areas within the Republic of Lithuania. The subject of the research. Management peculiarities, management system, positive and negative management characteristics, problems and the ways of their solution of the protected areas within the Republic of Lithuania. The hypothesis of the research. It is important to create such management system, which should preserve the territorial complexes and objects of nature and culture heritage, biological variety of the landscape. The balance of the landscape and the... [to full text]

Aquesta tesi doctoral va estudiar la diversitat (riquesa i abundància), la distribució i la dinàmica de les comunitats planctòniques d'Archaea presents a diferents llacs estratificats temperats d'aigua dolça per aportar evidencies sobre la seva distribució i la seva possible activitat en aquests ecosistemes en relació als cicles biogeoquímics presents en els mateixos. Es varen estudiar dos estanyols d'origen càrstic (l'Estanyol del Vilar durant cinc anys consecutius (2001-2005) i l'Estanyol de Can Coromina) i un llac d'origen volcànic (Llac Kivu) analitzant, per una banda, la seva comunitat planctònica d'Archaea mitjançant una aproximació molecular i, per una altra, la seva possible activitat en aquests ambients (p.e., la nitrificació i la fixació de carboni). Per contextualitzar els resultats, es va realitzar un anàlisi in silico dels patrons de distribució global dels Archaea mesòfils mitjançant un anàlisi a nivell de llinatge combinant seqüències del gen 16S rRNA amb diferents eines estadístiques i d'ecologia general. / The present PhD thesis analysed the diversity (richness and evenness), distribution and dynamics of planktonic Archaea in several temperate stratified freshwater lakes to shed some light on their distribution and potential activity in these ecosystems in relation to prevalent biogeochemical cycles. In this sense, two karstic lagoons (Lake Vilar during five consecutive years (2001-2005) and Coromina lagoon) and a volcanic lake (Lake Kivu) were studied analysing, in the one hand, their archaeal planktonic community throughout a molecular approach and, in the other hand, their potential acitivity in these environments (e.g., nitrification and carbon fixation). In order to contextualize the obtained results, an in silico phylogenetic lineage-based analysis on the global distribution of lacustrine Archaea was conducted using 16S rRNA gene sequences in combination with statistical and general ecology tools.