The subtropical thicket biome in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa has been heavily degraded and transformed due overutilization during the last century. The highly degraded and transformed areas exhibit a significant loss of above ground carbon stocks (AGC) and loss of SOC content. Information about land use /cover change and fragmentation dynamics is a prerequisite for measuring carbon stock changes. The main aim of this study is to assess the trends of land use/cover change, fragmentation dynamics, model the temporal changes of AGC stocks in the Great Fish River Nature Reserve and its environs from 1972 to 2010, quantify and map the spatial distribution of SOC concentrations in the partial subtropical thicket cover in the Great Fish River Nature Reserve and environs (communal rangelands). Multi-temporal analyses based on 1972 Landsat MSS, 1982 and 1992 Landsat TM, 2002 Landsat ETM and 2010 SPOT 5 High Resolution images were used for land use/cover change detection and fragmentation analysis. Object oriented post-classification comparison was applied for land use/cover change detection analysis. Fragmentation dynamics analysis was carried out by computing and analyzing landscape metrics in land use/cover classes. Landscape fragmentation analyses revealed that thicket vegetation has increasingly become fragmented, characterized by smaller less linked patches of intact thicket cover. Landscape metrics for intact thicket and degraded thicket classes reflected fragmentation, as illustrated by the increase in the Number of Patches (NP), Patch Density (PD), Landscape Shape Index (LSI), and a decrease in Mean Patch Size (MPS). The use of remote sensing techniques and landscape metrics was vital for the understanding of the dynamics of land use/cover change and fragmentation. Baseline land use/cover maps produced for 1972, 1982, 1992 2002 and 2010 and fragmentation analyses were then used for analyzing carbon stock changes in the study area. To model the temporal changes of AGC stocks in the Great Fish River Nature Reserve and its environs from 1972 to 2010, a method based on the integration of RS and GIS was employed for the estimation of AGC stocks in a time series. A non-linear regression model was developed using NDVI values generated from SPOT 5 HRG satellite imagery of 2010 as the independent variable and AGC stock estimates from field plots as the dependent variable. The regression model was used to estimate AGC stocks for the entire study area on the 2010 SPOT 5 HRG and also extrapolated to the 1972 Landsat MSS, 1982 and 1992 Landsat TM, and 2002 Landsat ETM. The AGC stocks for the period 1972 -1982, 1982-1992, 1992-200) and 2002-2010 were compared by means of change detection analysis. The comparison of AGC stocks was carried out at subtropical thicket class level. The results showed a decline of AGC stocks in all the classes from 1972 to 2010. Degraded and transformed thicket classes had the highest AGC stock losses. The decline of AGC stocks was attributed to thicket transformation and degradation which were caused by anthropogenic activities. To map and quantify SOC concentration in partial (fractional) thicket vegetation cover, the spectral reflectance of both thicket vegetation and bare-soils was measured in situ. Soil samples were collected from the sampling sites and transported to the laboratory for spectral reflectance and SOC measurements. Thicket vegetation and bare soil reflectance were measured using spectroscopy both in situ and under laboratory conditions. Their respective endmembers were extracted from ASTER imagery using the Pixel Purity Index (PPI). The endmembers were validated with in situ and laboratory thicket and bare-soil reflectance signatures. The spectral unmixing technique was applied to ASTER imagery to discriminate pure pixels of thicket vegetation and bare-soils; a residual spectral image was produced. The Residual Spectral Unmixing (RSU) procedure was applied to the residual spectral image to produce an RSU soil spectrum image. Partial Least Squares Regression (PSLR) model was developed using spectral signatures of a residual soil spectrum image as the independent variable and SOC concentration measured from soil samples as the dependent variable. The PSLR prediction model was used to predict SOC concentration on the RSU soil spectral image. The predicted SOC concentration was then validated with SOC concentration measured from the field plots. A Strong correlation (R2 = 0.82) was obtained between the predicted SOC concentration and the SOC concentration measured from field samples. The PSLR was then used to generate a map of SOC concentration for the Great Fish River Nature Reserve and its environs. Areas with very low SOC concentrations were found in the degraded communal villages, as opposed to the higher SOC values in the protected area. The results confirmed that RS techniques are key to estimating and mapping the spatial distribution of SOC concentration in partial subtropical thicket vegetation. Partial thicket vegetation has a huge influence on the soil spectra; it can influence the prediction of SOC concentration. The use of the RSU approach eliminates partial thicket vegetation cover from bare soil spectra. The residual soil spectrum image contains enough information for the mapping of SOC concentration. The technique has the potential to augment the applicability of airborne imaging spectroscopy for soil studies in the sub-tropical thicket biome and similar environments.

Humanity is facing challenges of sustainably producing enough food for a growing population without further eroding the world’s ecosystems. Transformation of natural habitats into agriculture has resulted in opportunities for civilization, but has also led to land degradation and loss of biodiversity, threatening the generation of ecosystem services. A better understanding of interlinkages and trade-offs among ecosystem services, and the spatial scales at which services are generated, used and interact, is needed in order to successfully inform land use policies. This includes the need to develop transdisciplinary tools that can disentangle the relationships between the supply of and demand for ecosystem services. This thesis investigates agricultural landscapes as complex social-ecological systems, and uses a multi-method approach to assess ecosystem service generation from different types of agricultural landscapes and to examine the social-ecological nature of these services. More specifically, the thesis discusses the importance of appropriate spatial scales, explores landscape change, integrates stakeholder knowledge and develops tools to investigate supply and demand of multiple ecosystem services.  Paper I reviews the literature on ecosystem service mapping, revealing that services were mostly mapped at intermediate spatial scales (municipality and province), and rarely at local scales (farm/village). Although most of the reviewed studies used a resolution of 1 hectare or less, more case-specific local scale mapping is required to unravel the fine-scale dynamics of ecosystem service generation that are needed to inform landscape planning. To explore future uncertainties and identify relevant ecosystem services in a study area, paper II builds alternative scenarios using participatory scenario planning in the Upper Thukela region, South Africa. The paper compares methods to select services for an ecosystem service assessment showing that scenario planning added limited value for identifying ecosystem services, although it improved knowledge of the study area and availed useful discussions with stakeholders. Papers III and IV combines social and biophysical data to study the supply and demand of ecosystem services at farm- and landscape level, through participatory mapping and expert assessments in the Upper Thukela region, South Africa (paper III), and through in-depth interviews and biophysical surveys in Uppsala County, Sweden (paper IV), including small-scale and large-scale farmers. Both papers find apparent differences between the farmer groups in terms of the supply and the demand of services, and also the capacity of the farmers to influence the generation of services (paper III). Paper IV further establishes the importance of using multiple indicators combining social and biophysical data to quantify and investigate the complex social-ecological nature of ecosystem services. A cross-case comparison of ecosystem service bundles, using data from papers III and IV, finds similarities in bundles generated in the large-scale systems, while the small-scale agriculture bundles varied. This thesis provides new insights into the social-ecological generation of ecosystem services at fine scales such as farm and landscape levels, and shows the importance of including the knowledge of various stakeholders, combining different methods and tools to increase the understanding of supply and demand of ecosystem services. / <p>At the time of the doctoral defense, the following paper was unpublished and had a status as follows: Paper 3: Manuscript.</p>

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.

Esta tese trata da pesquisa arqueológica realizada na Terra Indígena (T.I.) Koatinemo, junto ao povo Asurini do Xingu. A partir dessa experiência reflete-se sobre a temporalidade das paisagens e as histórias indígenas de longa duração da região do médio-baixo Xingu, combinando-se dois horizontes de reflexão: o primeiro, lida com paisagens persistentes entrelaçadas à experiência da vivência nos lugares, ao contato com as narrativas históricas e à tradição oral dos Asurini; e o segundo, interligado ao primeiro, lida com a paisagem artefatual, materialmente transformada ao longo do tempo, e constituída por marcas visíveis deixadas pelas diferentes atividades humanas do passado. Em termos metodológicos foram empregadas técnicas de survey arqueológico e análise de coleções cerâmicas provenientes dos lugares/sítios arqueológicos identificados na referida T.I. Ao final o texto apresenta uma contribuição para o conhecimento sobre a ancestralidade indígena da paisagem e o modo como esta se relaciona com a história dos Asurini e das populações de línguas Juruna e Karib no médio-baixo Xingu. / This thesis deals with the archaeological research carried out in the indigenous land Koatinemo, together with the Asurini do Xingu indigenous people. From this experience, a reflection on the temporality of the landscapes and on the long lasting indigenous stories of the mid-low Xingu region was performed. Two horizons of reflection were combined on the approach. The first one deals with persistent places interconnected with the experience of living in the places, the contact with the historical narratives and the Asurini\'s oral tradition. The second one concerns the artifactual landscape that has been materially transformed over the time and consists of visible marks left by different human activities throughout the time. In methodological terms, the study applies techniques of archaeological survey and analysis of ceramic collections from the identified archaeological sites in the referred indigenous land. At the end, the text presents a contribution on current knowledge about the indigenous ancestry of the landscape and the way it is related to the history of the Asurini and of the populations of Juruna and Karib languages from the mid-low Xingu.

Cette étude a pour ambition d'analyser les descriptions littéraires de La Havane dans la diachronie. Il s'agit d'appréhender la ville comme une entité narrative à part entière, dans les nouvelles et les romans cubains du XIXème siècle à nos jours. Occupant une place privilégiée dans la littérature nationale, la capitale cubaine s'est chargée de représentations et de fonctions multiples qui ont évolué au fil des décennies, variant selon les points de vue esthétiques ou les partis pris descriptifs. Notre projet consiste à mettre en évidence les différentes manières d'appréhender l'espace urbain dans notre corpus mais aussi d'établir des ponts entre les époques pour ainsi faire dialoguer les œuvres entre elles. En étudiant les caractéristiques de La Havane littérarisée, nous prétendons assembler les différentes pièces d'un puzzle encore en construction afin de dresser le portrait kaléidoscopique d'une ville devenue espace littéraire. Envisagée comme un cadre référentiel renvoyant à une réalité géographique et socio-historique précise, la cité mise en fiction est aussi un espace symbolique fortement connoté. En tant qu'objet d'écriture, elle est également un espace poétique qui, en se détachant complètement de son référent réel, fait naître de multiples imaginaires urbains. / The object of this study is to present a diachronic analysis of the descriptions of Havana in Cuban literature. We have defined the city's status as a narrative object among Cuban novels and short stories from the 19th century to the present day. Central to the national literature, the Cuban capital city had gradually been endowed with multiple functions and representations, which vary depending on the aesthetic viewpoints or descriptive stances adopted by different authors. Our project consists not only in analysing the ever-changing physiognomy of this particular urban landscape within the scope of our corpus, but also in drawing bridges between different eras in order to outline the dialectic dynamics which exist between these stories. By paying close attention to the characteristics of literary Havana, we have begun assembling the pieces of a puzzle that is still in the making, thus reflecting the kaleidoscopic image of a city which has become a literary landscape. Used as the frame of reference for a precise geographical and socio-historical reality, the Havana of Cuban fictions also bears a strong and complex symbolic quality. As the object of these writings, it is also a poetic space which, by detaching itself from its actual referent, creates a multiplicity of imaginary urban landscapes.

The human-environment relationship has often been characterized as one of human adaptation. This particular view has now come into questions as critiques have shown that the relationship is complex and dynamic. In archaeology, one way of examining this relationship is to study the settlement, subsistence, and land use of a given area. This thesis serves that purpose by providing a case study of a small island in the Samoan archipelago in the central Pacific. The survey of Olosega Island identified over 200 different features distributed across the interior. Although no test excavation was conducted, it is interpreted that these features relate to domestic, subsistence, ceremonial, and political activities that likely occurred in the later prehistoric period. The combination of these features, supplemented by environmental data from the interior and further archaeological work along the coast, indicates that the human population was a member of a complex and dynamic system with its environment. Through time, this system likely evolved in a number of ways, not just adaptive, that often caused changes requiring responses by both the human population and the environment of the area.

The central idea of this project named “My way home” (the project’s name was inspired by Karel Václav Rais’s poem of the same name) is the work with the memory of a landscape. The project concerns a 700-metre-long area which is part of what used to be a road near Stráž nad Nežárkou. First of all, I try to return the road its original purpose. Also, I try to find out its historic foundation. Finally, I try to return the road its integrity. The road used to go from the village of Dvorce to the now cancelled Gabler’s mill (house number 98) in Stráž nad Nežárkou. The Diploma also includes an observation of the changes of the landscape near the village. The Diploma itself consists of three phases: The road, apple trees, The object.

Avec la révolution moléculaire en biologie, une compréhension des mécanismes de la relation génotype-phénotype est devenue possible. Récemment, les progrès réalisés dans la synthèse et le séquençage de l’ADN ont permis le développement d’expériences de deep-mutational scanning capable de quantifier divers phénotypes pour un ensemble de génotypes sur toute la longueur d’un gène. Ces ensembles de données sont non seulement intéressants en eux-mêmes, mais permettent également de tester de manière rigoureuse des modèles phénotypiques quantitatifs. Nous avons utilisé cette technologie pour caractériser les cartes séquence-fitness de 3 systèmes bactériens modèles: un régulateur global, la CRP, une enzyme de résistance aux antibiotiques, la β-lactamase, et une petite voie métabolique constituée des enzymes AraA et AraB. Ces systèmes ont été choisis pour éclairer les rôles de différentes caractéristiques dans la formation de la relation génotype-fitness (réseaux de régulations, stabilité des protéines et flux métabolique). Nous constatons que la tendance globale des effets sur le fitness semble prévaloir sur les tendances spécifiques. Ceci nous conduit à penser qu’une grande partie de la relation entre le génotype et le fitness pourrait être expliquée à partir de la forme des fonctions de phénotype-fitness. Par ailleurs, nous voyons que la caractérisation de la relation génotype-fitness dans différents systèmes peut être un moyen puissant d’obtenir des informations sur les phénotypes pertinents. / With the molecular revolution in Biology, a mechanistic understanding of the genotype-phenotype relationship became possible. Recently, advances in DNA synthesis and sequencing have enabled the development of deep-mutational scanning experiments, capable of scoring comprehensive libraries of genotypes for a variety of phenotypes over the length of entire genes. Such datasets are not only interesting in themselves, but also allow rigorous testing of quantitative phenotypic models. We used this technology to characterise sequence-fitness maps for 3 model bacterial systems: a global regulator, CRP, an antibiotic-resistance enzyme, β-lactamase, and a small metabolic pathway, consisting of the enzymes AraA and AraB. These different systems were chosen to illuminate the roles of different mechanistic features in shaping the genotype-fitness relationship (regulatory wiring, protein stability and metabolic flux). We find that smooth patterns of fitness effects tend to prevail over idiosyncrasy, indicating that much of the genotype-fitness relationship could be understood from the global shape of smooth underlying phenotype-fitness functions. On the flip side, we see that characterising the genotype-fitness relationship in different systems can be a powerful way to glean phenotypic insights.

Mentoring, coaching, and teacher induction programs continue to gain traction in school jurisdictions across Canada and internationally in an effort to address teacher attrition, support professional growth, and improve teaching and learning. Conceptualized as a patchwork quilt, this thesis by article reports on a qualitative case study that examined the Teacher Induction Program (TIP) implemented in 2009 in the Western Québec School Board (WQSB). Each manuscript or fabric block highlights a different component of the TIP that when stitched together reveals an emerging pattern of how professional learning and development, mentoring and coaching, and teacher evaluation is understood in the school district. Anchored within a social learning theoretical framework, this study asked two guiding questions: 1) What is the influence of the mentor–coach role on experienced teachers’ professional learning, practice, and well-being? And 2) How do the WQSB stakeholders perceive the impact of the TIP? Using a single case study design, data were collected from a variety of sources and stakeholder perspectives, including documents, questionnaires, semi-structured interviews, and focus groups. Using the Framework Method, data were abductively analyzed with and against the study’s theoretical and conceptual frameworks. The study’s findings indicate that the mentor–coach role has powerful potential to not only support experienced teachers’ practice-based professional learning, but also to cultivate their sense of well-being and flourishing in schools. However, tensions emerged around how different stakeholders perceived the TIP’s impact in the school district. In particular, further attention is required to clarify the purpose and process of mentoring and coaching as well as the role of teacher evaluation within teacher induction. Ultimately, this study highlights the important role an effective mentoring and coaching fellowship can play in supporting veteran teacher professional learning, practice and well-being, which then has the potential to cultivate positive transformational change in a school district.

Die künstlerische Entwicklung des Dresdner Malers Oskar Zwintscher (1870–1916) ist eng mit seinem frei gewählten ,Exil‘ in Meißen verknüpft. Ausgebildet an der Dresdner Kunstakademie zog sich der junge Maler 1892 nach seinem Studium in die nahegelegene kleine Stadt zurück, wo er bis zu seiner Berufung an die Akademie im Jahr 1903 lebte. Trotz dieses Rückzugs hat Zwintscher aber, anders als in der älteren Literatur angenommen, nicht abgewandt von den Entwicklungen seiner Zeit gearbeitet, sondern sich mit modernen Fragestellungen und Maltechniken auseinandergesetzt. Seine Schaffensphase in Meißen war eine äußerst produktive Zeit. Neben Porträts und ersten vielfigurigen Kompositionen entstanden in den 1890er Jahren auch eine Reihe von Landschaften. Die charakteristische Architektur der Stadt taucht in verschiedenen seiner Gemälde auf, wie in den Werken Rote Dächer, Der alte Turm, Mondnacht, Familie und Selbstbildnis mit Tod.