Thesis (Ph. D.), Oregon Graduate Institute of Science & Technology, 1994.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Rice University, 1998. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 416-433).

Thesis (M.S.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1982. / Typescript. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 221-224).

Thesis (doctoral)--University of Tartu, 2005. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Hawaii at Manoa, 2002. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 164-175). Also available on microfiche.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Rhode Island, 2006. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 269-279).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Idaho, November 2006. / Major professor: Penelope Morgan. Abstract. Includes bibliographical references. Also available online in PDF format.

A thesis submitted in fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy to the Faculty of Science, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, Johannesburg March 2018 / Poverty and environmental degradation are two serious challenges facing developing countries. The poor are often blamed for causing degradation, and degradation is assumed to worsen poverty. This relationship between the two has been referred to as the Poverty Environment Nexus (PEN). The PEN is known to be complex and multidimensional, and is surrounded by a number of theories and controversies. Although the co-occurrence of poverty and degradation has been well explored across the developing world, it has received modest attention in the literature especially on how wealth differentiation within these communities shapes the way in which local people conceptualise, experience, and cope with degradation. The intersection between the PEN and local environmental governance is also under-studied. This study addresses these knowledge gaps by investigating how household wealth status influences 1) local perceptions about woodland degradation, 2) household vulnerability to degradation, and 3) awareness and attitudes about local environmental governance, in three rural villages in Limpopo Province, South Africa. A mixed-methods approach was used, combining focus groups, a household survey (n=213), an individual survey (n=213) and key informant interviews. The influence of household wealth status score (derived from assets and income sources using Principal Component Analysis (PCA)) on individual perceptions, awareness, and attitudes, and household vulnerability to degradation, after controlling for confounding factors, was analysed statistically using multivariate logistic regression models. Focus groups and key informant interviews were useful for identifying themes and adding qualitative insights to the quantitative results. Perceptions: Woodland degradation was perceived both in terms of physical aspects, such as reduction in large trees, and experiential aspects, namely having to travel further to collect resources. The latter perception was influenced by wealth status. Perceived causes of degradation included environmental, socio-economic, and governance factors, and these perceptions were mostly associated with increasing wealth status. However, poorer respondents were more aware of their own household’s contribution to local degradation. For potential solutions, wealthier respondents focussed on using alternatives to harvested resources (such as other energy sources), while the poorer respondents focussed on reducing daily resource consumption. Vulnerability: Poorer households were more likely to use most of 13 woodland resources. Poorer households were thus more likely to report being impacted by degradation, especially by having to travel further to collect resources. Coping responses of the poor were typically inward-looking, focusing on modifying their natural resource use, such as by reducing quantities used or harvesting around other villages. By contrast, the wealthy were more outward-looking and focused on external coping mechanisms such as seeking employment and buying commercial alternatives from shops. The use of social capital to cope with degradation emerged as an important response strategy cross wealth status. Governance: Traditional authorities were widely recognised as important institutional structures for local woodland management. Awareness of relevant government agencies was relatively low. Poorer respondents were more aware of customary environmental laws and penalties, while wealthier respondents were more aware of those of government agencies. Wealth status also influenced attitudes about the benefits of the various institutions for managing local communal woodlands. It was widely agreed that local woodland governance could be improved by delegating more power to traditional authorities and communities, and improving monitoring by government agencies. These views were not influenced by wealth status Key insights from this study include: Even within poor communities, there is wealth differentiation in environmental perceptions that has consequences for addressing the poverty-environment nexus. The poor are hit by a “double whammy” when it comes to vulnerability to degradation – first, they are more at risk to impacts because they are more dependent on natural resources, and secondly, they are less able to adapt in ways which do not undermine human wellbeing or environmental sustainability. Despite their weaknesses, traditional governance structures and institutions have an important role to play in managing the poverty-environment nexus in common property systems, but they need support from government. / MT 2019

Soil organic matter (SOM) is important to the environment. Its carbon content is the largest reservoir in the global terrestrial ecosystem and decomposition of it emits greenhouse gases including CO2, CH4 and N2O. The current status of GB SOM is under debate because recent observation programmes suggested different findings. Independent and parallel computer simulations of SOM dynamics could provide useful information for the science debate and that is the objective of this thesis. A newly coupled land surface -- SOM dynamics model, JULES-ECOSSE, was applied for the computer simulations in this Ph.D study. The details of this coupled model are described in Chap. 2. Before the simulation studies in Chap. 6, three other studies were done to (1) derive a new algebraic method to spin up the content of SOM pools such that their equilibrium values can be found efficiently; (2) evaluate the model's capability in simulating various gas fluxes using the observed data from the NitroEurope project. This evaluation study provided important information about how well the model works in different aspects; (3) find better performing parameter sets for GB vegetation using a factorial experiment as sensitivity analysis followed by a multi-objective calibration scheme. After the aforementioned studies, the model was applied in Chap. 6 to answer three environmental questions. The simulations suggest that climate change over 1978-2007 had minor impacts on GB SOM, however the future impacts of climate change could potentially be big. The exact magnitudes vary between ecosystems and will also depend on the representative concentration pathway that the world will follow. Inclusion of other observed environmental changes (i.e. changing age structure and composition in woodlands, nitrogen eutrophication effect, changing soil pH and its impact on DOC mobility, soil erosion, non-equilibrium status of SOM) could better match observed changes with simulated changes. This suggests that they could be the candidates explaining the recent observed trends in GB SOM.

The thesis focusses on the English higher grade schools of the later nineteenth century. It originated in a concern about the relevance of educational institutions to Britain's unique decline from world dominance to acute economic difficulties. The Introduction identifies the turn of the century as a time of gathering tensions in English public education, when the development of a popular and self-contained network of institutions was mounting a real challenge to the established system. The first Chapter surveys the common verdicts about higher grade schools --- a focus of those tensions --- in existing work; Chapter 2 identifies the characteristics of a 'typical' higher grade school --- locally conceived, offering a broad curriculum, and accessible to all social classes. The next two Chapters are a case study, tracing the optimistic development of higher grade schools in Bristol in the 1890s and then their battle for survival after 1902. Chapter 5 demonstrates that Bristol's experiences were duplicated in other parts of the country, as a secondary school system of a very different nature --- centrally controlled, attached to literary studies, and selective on the basis of cost --- was formulated. Amongst a number of unexpected findings was clear evidence that the egalitarian experience of girls in higher grade schools fits none of the existing interpretations of the history of women's education, a discovery which is explored in Chapter 6. Chapter 7 examines the educational principles which guided the resolution of tensions outlined in the Introduction, and finally the perspective broadens to reassess the higher grade school movement in the wider social, economic and cultural context. The conclusion reached is that the emergence of the higher grade schools represented an important example of a recurring alternative educational and cultural tradition in England. Their suppression constituted a major victory for traditional values, and a wasted opportunity of great and lasting significance.