O objetivo desta dissertação é entender as concepções de tempo e espaço presentes nos códices mexicas produzidos no período colonial inicial, entendendo-as como parte das concepções de história desse povo. Para alcançar esse objetivo foram analisadas centralmente as representações de calendário e lugares políticos e de paisagem em cinco narrativas históricas contidas nos códices mexicas produzidos durante os séculos XVI e início do XVII: Boturini, Mendoza, Aubin, Vaticano A e Manuscrito 40, manuscritos compostos por textos pictoglíficos e alfabéticos, produzidos pelas elites mexicas e seus descendentes, a partir de demandas nativas, castelhanas e missionárias. As representações temporais e espaciais levantadas nas narrativas foram cotejadas com exemplos de origem pré-hispânica, contidos nos códices mixtecos e nos monumentos e gravados em pedra mexicas, com a finalidade de inferir possíveis relações com permanências e transformações das concepções de tempo e espaço dos mexicas durante o período colonial inicial. O entendimento desse conjunto de concepções, centrados nas representações de calendário e de lugares políticos e de paisagem contidas nas narrativas históricas mexicas, pode contribuir para compreender como as elites mexicas e seus descendentes concebiam sua própria história após a conquista castelhana. / This Master thesis aims to comprehend the conceptions of time and space in the colonial Mexica or Aztec codices, assuming them as part of the Mexicas conceptions of history. To achieve this objective, the representations of calendar signs, political and landscape places were centrally analyzed in five historical narratives from Mexica codices produced during the 16th and early 17th centuries: Boturini, Mendoza, Aubin, Vaticano A and Manuscrito 40. These manuscripts produced by the Mexicas elites and their descendants, based on native, Castilian and missionary demands were composed by pictoglyphic and alphabetical texts. The time and space representations were analyzed and compared to pre-Hispanic samples at Mixtec codices and Mexicas stone monuments, for the purpose of infer the possible relations of persistence and transformation on the Mexicas conceptions of time and space during the early colonial period. The comprehension of this set of conceptions, centrally on the representations of calendar signs, political and landscape places, may contribute to understand how the Mexicas elites and their descendants conceived their own history after the Castilian conquest.

Bahia de la Ascension (BA) is a pristine, shallow, karst bay located in the Mexican Caribbean, a region experiencing rapid population growth stimulated by intense tourism development. The overall objective of this study was to address the natural hydrographic variability of this inherently vulnerable ecosystem and assess its influence on a key habitat, the seagrass. The chapters follow the three-branched nature of the study which tackled the connected ecosystem issues of coastal hydrology, physical dynamics of flow and circulation, and the ecological dynamics of the seagrass species Thalassia testudinum in BA. Freshwater input to BA is primarily by submerged groundwater discharges and surface runoff; both sources are derived from fissures in the aquifer but feature distinct water quality due to the interaction with adjacent wetlands. Hurricanes explain 36 percent of the interannual precipitation variability in the region. The water balance indicates a persistent net outflow from BA to the adjacent shelf, suggesting an intense exchange across inlets. Both diurnal and semidiurnal tidal frequencies are attenuated in the inner bay, where a meteorologically-induced subtidal water level increase may occur during four-day southeasterly winds. A clear SW-NE salinity gradient was established during dry and rainy seasons, with a strong tidally-driven marine influence throughout the central basin, and a perennial mesohaline ambient in the southwestern-most bay, where hydrodynamics are primarily controlled by wind stress. Thalassia testudinum is the dominant seagrass species in BA, occupying ~90 percent of the substrate, including the freshwater-influenced inner bay. High nutrient inputs, including phosphorus which might have limiting effects in karst environments, along with the wind-driven circulation controlling water residence times are associated with the successful development of T. testudinum (up to 1,461.23 g DW m-2) within the SW bay. Farthest into the central basin, Thalassia consistently exhibited an inverse correlation between abundance and density of shoots. This pattern was enhanced under exceptional precipitation and inputs of denuded organic matter resulting from hurricanes making landfall on this region. The relationship between nutrient distribution and the above/belowground ratio suggested that Thalassia growing in BA favors the development of the aerial component as nutrients availability increases. This study provides a basic understanding of the most important processes molding the patterns of variability exhibited by T. testudinum in Bahia de la Ascension. The salinity gradient and external nutrient supply, along with the hydrodynamic component, define the spatial scale at which the connectivity between the adjacent wetland, the bay, and the shelf may occur.

The following work presents a hypothesis which identifies the origins and meaning of an ancient Mesoamerican concept known as the three stones of creation. Previous interpretations have tended to apply astronomical, spatial, or geographical models, while many conclusions have been made on the basis of one Classic Maya monument, Stela C of Quirigua. This thesis builds an argument for the temporal nature of these “stones,” used to metaphorically represent a sequence of separate units of time, referred to as eras, ages, or creations. A primary goal is to demonstrate that Quirigua Stela C provides in brief, summary form a chronology which is better defined through inscriptions in the Cross Group at Palenque, and in a sequence of panels at Yaxchilan containing beliefs about the origins of the ballgame. In constructing an argument for the temporal nature of the three stones of creation, every available context from a set of hieroglyphs mentioned in the Quirigua Stela C “creation” text—including Na Ho Chan (“First 5-Sky”) and “6-Sky”—is discussed in Chapter 2. In Chapter 3, these glyphs are shown to aid in the organization of the deeper past within the Palenque and Yaxchilan mythologies. When compared chronologically and thematically, these sites seem to point to the 24th century B.C.E. as the important termination of a time period (i.e., the planting of a creation stone) related to a mythic complex involving the death and underworld journey of the Maize Lord, followed by his resurrection, emergence, and/or accession to power. Key questions addressed include the antiquity of these beliefs and where the metaphors used to arrange time observed among the Classic Maya originate. In Chapter 4, earlier expressions of this time ideology are interpreted through iconographic conventions, ritual deposits, and monumental architecture at the Olmec site of La Venta. Similarly, Chapter 5 proposes that the Humboldt Celt, the earliest known example of the three stones of creation, arranges units of time into a sequence. These and other interpretations suggest the existence of an ancestral, Mesoamerican era-based time model to which later Postclassic, colonial, and contemporary beliefs, such as those expressed in the K’iche’-Mayan Popol Vuh, are fundamentally related. / text

O objetivo desta dissertação é entender as concepções de tempo e espaço presentes nos códices mexicas produzidos no período colonial inicial, entendendo-as como parte das concepções de história desse povo. Para alcançar esse objetivo foram analisadas centralmente as representações de calendário e lugares políticos e de paisagem em cinco narrativas históricas contidas nos códices mexicas produzidos durante os séculos XVI e início do XVII: Boturini, Mendoza, Aubin, Vaticano A e Manuscrito 40, manuscritos compostos por textos pictoglíficos e alfabéticos, produzidos pelas elites mexicas e seus descendentes, a partir de demandas nativas, castelhanas e missionárias. As representações temporais e espaciais levantadas nas narrativas foram cotejadas com exemplos de origem pré-hispânica, contidos nos códices mixtecos e nos monumentos e gravados em pedra mexicas, com a finalidade de inferir possíveis relações com permanências e transformações das concepções de tempo e espaço dos mexicas durante o período colonial inicial. O entendimento desse conjunto de concepções, centrados nas representações de calendário e de lugares políticos e de paisagem contidas nas narrativas históricas mexicas, pode contribuir para compreender como as elites mexicas e seus descendentes concebiam sua própria história após a conquista castelhana. / This Master thesis aims to comprehend the conceptions of time and space in the colonial Mexica or Aztec codices, assuming them as part of the Mexicas conceptions of history. To achieve this objective, the representations of calendar signs, political and landscape places were centrally analyzed in five historical narratives from Mexica codices produced during the 16th and early 17th centuries: Boturini, Mendoza, Aubin, Vaticano A and Manuscrito 40. These manuscripts produced by the Mexicas elites and their descendants, based on native, Castilian and missionary demands were composed by pictoglyphic and alphabetical texts. The time and space representations were analyzed and compared to pre-Hispanic samples at Mixtec codices and Mexicas stone monuments, for the purpose of infer the possible relations of persistence and transformation on the Mexicas conceptions of time and space during the early colonial period. The comprehension of this set of conceptions, centrally on the representations of calendar signs, political and landscape places, may contribute to understand how the Mexicas elites and their descendants conceived their own history after the Castilian conquest.

The Oxford English Dictionary defines 'omnifarious' as 'comprising or relating to all sorts or varieties', which quite accurately captures the very nature of octocorals and this thesis. The research reported here, aims to describe undocumented communities of coral reef organisms - the octocorals - which are an emergent dominant component within their threatened ecosystem of the Caribbean. Within the last four decades, coral reefs worldwide have experienced a precipitous plunge in many ecosystem services they provide, and most notably in the Caribbean. The foundation to reef resilience is structured on the ecosystem's ability to repair and restructure itself in the face of environmental shifts. These intricately complex strategies of resilience depend on repair mechanisms provided by a source of biodiversity, much of which remains poorly understood. This work explores many facets of the functioning within this potential future coral reef ecosystem. These reports are one of the most significant contributions to documenting and describing octocoral biodiversity (e.g. species, genetic, and community diversity) of the wider ecoregion of the Mesoamerican Barrier Reef System within the last three decades.