The European ground squirrel (Spermophilus citellus) (hereinafter EGS) is under the Law on Nature Protection and is included as a critically endangered into the Red List of Endangered Species. In the Czech Republic, which represents the northwestern border of the species range, EGS currently occurs on 34 localities, which are relatively small and isolated from each other. The spread of this species to central Europe was connected with neolithic deforestation. Disjunctive type of distribution of EGS was caused by strong decline of its abundance during the second half of the 20th century due to changes in field management, fragmentation of landscape and other factors. It can be expected that this process left traces on the genetic structure of EGS populations. The major objective of this study was a detailed analysis of genetic variability of EGS populations in the Czech Republic and searching for corelations with available data about its biology and demography. It was used 13 microsatellite loci and in total were processed 408 samples from 27 localities in CZ and 3 samples from one Hungarian locality as an outgroup. With aid of various methods, details of substructure and diferentiation of individual populations, genetic variability, degree of inbreeding and geographic distribution of genetic variability...

Die Klimaneutralität wird von einer zunehmenden Anzahl von Staaten der Welt auf die politische Agenda gesetzt, darunter Deutschland und Europa. Das Ziel, in Europa bis zum Jahr 2050 Treibhausgasneutralität zu erreichen, ist durch den europäischen Green New Deal politisch beschlossener Konsens. Doch wie soll eine ökologische, ökonomische und gesellschaftliche Transformation dieser Größenordnung finanziert werden? So vielfältig und plural die Auswirkungen des Klimawandels sind, so dezentral und fragmentiert sind die politischen und finanziellen Kooperationen zur Klimawandelminderung und -anpassung. Die Masterarbeit geht deshalb der Frage nach: Wovon hängt der Fragmentierungsgrad der globalen Klimafinanzierung ab und wie kann dieser empirisch erfasst werden? Ausgehend von einer theoretischen Perspektive der fragmentierten Klimafinanzierung werden deutsche, europäische und globale Akteure mithilfe einer visuellen Netzwerkanalyse ausgewertet und strukturelle Muster hinsichtlich eines Fragmentierungsgrades interpretiert. Postkoloniale Strukturen, Normenwandel und sektorale Verschiebungen lassen sich somit genauso herausarbeiten, wie Veränderungen der Akteurskonstellationen und deren Typen. Im Ergebnis lässt sich die deutsche Ebene als überwiegend synergetisch fragmentiert interpretieren. Die europäischer Ebene ist dagegen mehrheitlich kooperativ fragmentiert, während die globale Ebene als kooperativ bis konfliktiv fragmentiert angesehen wird. Der innovative Ansatz, die Kooperation in der Klimafinanzierung anhand von OECD-Daten netzwerkanalytisch auszuwerten, geht mit Chancen und Risiken einher. Neben den inhaltlichen Ergebnissen trägt die Methodenreflexion daher zu einem wissenschaftlichen Diskurs der Sinnhaftigkeit, Nutzbarkeit und Didaktik der Methode in den Internationalen Beziehungen bei. / Climate neutrality is being put on the political agenda of an increasing number of countries around the world, including Germany and Europe. The goal of achieving greenhouse gas neutrality in Europe by 2050 is a politically agreed consensus through the European Green New Deal. But how should an ecological, economic and social transformation of this magnitude be financed? As diverse and plural as the effects of climate change are, the political and financial cooperation for mitigating and adapting to climate change is decentralized and fragmented. The master's thesis therefore examines the question: What does the degree of fragmentation of global climate finance depend on and how can this be empirically recorded? Starting from a theoretical perspective of fragmented climate finance, German, European and global actors are evaluated with the help of a visual network analysis and structural patterns are interpreted with regard to the degree of fragmentation. Post-colonial structures, changes in norms and sectoral shifts can thus be worked out, as can changes in the constellations of actors and their types. As a result, the German level can be interpreted as largely synergetically fragmented. The European level, on the other hand, is mostly cooperatively fragmented, while the global level is viewed as cooperatively to conflictively fragmented. The innovative approach of evaluating cooperation in climate finance using OECD data in a network analysis is associated with both opportunities and risks. In addition to the content-related results, the method reflection therefore contributes to a scientific discourse on the meaningfulness, usability and didactics of the method in international relations.

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Magister en Ciencias Biológicas mención Ecología Facultad de Ciencias / Life-history attributes could be used to predict species responses to habitat fragmentation or sensitivity. We compared the incidence and sensitivity to fragmentation of four understory birds (Rhinocryptidae family). Rhinocryptids inhabit deciduous forests of Central Chile and our study was conduced in a landscape mosaic of pine (Pinus radiata) plantations and native forest fragments. Sensitivity was positively and strongly correlated with rhinocryptid incidence. Understory structure was the main factor that predicted rhinocryptid presence and abundance. The least sensitive species, Andean (Scytalopus magellanicus fuscus) and the Ochre-flanked Tapaculo (Eugralla paradoxa), were positively associated to dead pine branches and negatively to forest fragment size. Rhinocryptids reduced their abundance in mature forest, but they were willing to cross between different habitat types. However, one of the most sensitive species, Chestnut-throated Huet-Huet (Pteroptochos castaneus), did not move from forest fragments to pine with poor understory when we displayed playback trials. Overall, rhinocryptid species are affected by fragmentation depending of their life-history attributes. The less sensitive species profited from habitat and landscape transformations. We conclude that rhinocryptids could persist in this landscape, as changes in habitat conditions do not become deleterious, such as understory structure.

Trois hypothèses principales existent quant aux indices locaux du contour étant les plus informatifs pour le processus de structuration de la forme, et permettant l’identification visuelle des objets : les angles et les indices de tridimensionnalité (Biederman, 1987 ; Boucart et al, 1995), les éléments mi-segments (Kennedy & Domander, 1985, Singh & Fulvio, 2005), et l’interaction entre le type de fragmentation et le degré de spécificité de la forme globale (Panis & Wagemans, 2009). L’objectif de ce travail consiste donc à confronter ces trois hypothèses, en tentant de déterminer par ailleurs le niveau (conscient ou non conscient) auquel s’opèrent la détection et le traitement de ces indices. Les paradigmes d’amorçage supra et infraliminaire sont employés. Des dessins d’objets fragmentés selon deux modes (angles et indices de tridimensionnalité versus éléments mi-segments) sont insérés en tant qu’amorce, précédant une image cible du même objet, elle-même fragmentée et présentant des zones de contours strictement identiques ou complémentaires à l’amorce. Aucune des quatre expériences proposées ne met en évidence un effet « qualitatif » du type de fragmentation. En revanche, certaines conditions temporelles permettent un effet d’amorçage de type lié à la quantité de contour présenté. Nos résultats confirment l’ambiguïté émergeant de la littérature relative aux zones de contours les plus informatives, et semblent conforter la nécessité d’un haut degré d’automaticité des processus impliqués dans la perspective de mettre en évidence des effets d’amorçage perceptif / Three main hypotheses exist concerning the most informative local features of contour for binding processes, allowing visual object identification: vertices and 3D features (Biederman, 1987 ; Boucart et al, 1995), midsegments elements (Kennedy R& Domander, 1985, Singh & Fulvio, 2005), and the interaction betweenfragmentation type and complexity of the global form (Panis & Wagemans, 2009). The aim of this work is to confront these hypotheses, while trying to determine the level (conscious or unconscious) at which the detection and the processing of these features occur. Conscious and unconscious priming paradigms are employed. Drawings of fragmented objects contain either vertices and 3D features or midsegment elements. They are used as primes, preceding a fragmented target image of the same object containing identical or complementary contour features. None of these four experiments highlight a qualitative effect of fragmentation types. However, a quantitative priming effect can be observed under certain timing conditions. Our results confirm the ambiguity emerging from literature concerning the most informative contour features and the necessity of a high degree of automatism of the processes involved in order to highlight perceptual priming effects

Fecal samples were obtained from guenons in Gombe National Park utilizing noninvasive, opportunistic sampling techniques. Samples were then examined for the presence of gastrointestinal parasites using chlorazol black stain, Lugol’s iodine staining, as well as concentration via fecal flotation with Sheather’s sugar solution. Results were analyzed using SPSS (IBM corp), and compared to other forested regions in Africa to determine whether hybridization influences parasite prevalence of these guenons living in Gombe; and if these guenons differ from similar guenons in other regions of Africa. The null hypothesis was unable to be rejected in all cases; hybridization could not be stated as a contributing factor for differences found in parasitic prevalence rates. Furthermore, no statistical difference was found between Gombe’s guenons, and those living in other regions of Africa in most cases. The author suspects that the abundance of parasitic generalists discovered, small sample size, and opportunistic sampling protocol contribute to these finding. / Includes bibliography. / Thesis (M.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2017. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection

Mesmo com o crescimento da dependência da vida humana em relação aos serviços ecossistêmicos, a taxa de perda de diversidade genética no planeta tem alcançado níveis semelhantes à de grandes eventos de extinção, evidenciando a necessidade de ações para a conservação dos recursos naturais. Em adição aos tradicionais instrumentos de comando e controle para a conservação, os instrumentos econômicos têm tido crescente atenção no mundo nos últimos anos, com especial destaque para os Pagamentos por Serviços Ambientais (PSA). A abordagem de pagamentos de incentivos tem crescido na última década e, apesar das potencialidades que o PSA apresenta, muitos programas falham em incorporar o conhecimento científico em sua execução, sendo esse um dos aspectos que podem acarretar baixo desempenho ambiental e econômico. Neste contexto, o presente projeto buscou avaliar a custo-eficácia do PSA em paisagens fragmentadas. A área de estudo é o estado de São Paulo, cuja fragmentação historicamente ocorre pela expansão agropecuária e pelos diversos impactos decorrentes do grande crescimento populacional em seu território. Foram distribuídos questionários para a obtenção das preferências dos proprietários rurais paulistas em relação aos programas de PSA para restauração de vegetação nativa. Os dados coletados foram relacionados a características socioeconômicas e ambientais e um modelo beta inflacionado de zero misto dentro da classe GAMLSS foi utilizado. Em seguida, o modelo foi utilizado para predizer os resultados para os proprietários não entrevistados e a curva de investimento para diferentes retornos para conservação foi construída. Os resultados apontaram que o PSA é uma alternativa muito custosa frente aos orçamentos ambientais paulistas e que traz poucos benefícios para a restauração no estado de São Paulo. A pesquisa possui uma vertente teórica, pois contribui para a compreensão da adequabilidade do PSA em paisagens fragmentadas, e uma vertente prática, pois explicita a quantidade de recursos necessária para a execução dos programas analisados. / Although the dependence of human activities on ecosystem services has risen in the past decades, the current rate of genetic diversity loss has substantially declined and reached alarming levels. In addition to the traditional command and control approach for the promotion of conservation, growing attention has been given to economic instruments, especially to Payments for Environmental Services (PES). Despite all potentialities of the PES instrument, many programs fail to introduce scientic knowledge in the execution. Such a lack of foundation may result in low environmental and economic performance. The present research aims at evaluating the cost-effectiveness of PES in fragmented landscapes. The study area is the state of São Paulo, which has been fragmented by the agricultural and pasture expansion, and the impacts linked to the large population growth. A survey with dierent PES programs was sent to rural landowners and responses were analyzed and linked to socioeconomic and environmental characteristics through a zero-inflated beta mixed model, within the GAMLSS framework. The model was used to predict enrollment of non-respondents in different PES programs. Finally, the relationship between total area for restoration and the amount of resources needed for each program was compared to the environmental budget of the state of São Paulo. Results show that PES is a very costly alternative that can provide only few results for restoration. The present work has a theoretical orientation, as it contributes to the comprehension of the feasibility of PES programs in fragmented landscapes, and a practical orientation, as it quantifies the amount of resources required by the programs analyzed.