Uppsatsens syfte är att undersöka hur relationen mellan människa och djur framställs i den samtida realistiska litteraturen för att diskutera motsägelsefulla etiska aspekter av djursynen i den industrialiserade delen av världen. Genom att i analysen av romanen Vi är alla helt utom oss av Karen Joy Fowler utgå från djurstudier är ambitionen att synliggöra och ifrågasätta rådande normer kring djursyn. Fowler illustrerar hur en nära relation till ett annat djur kan skapa medkänsla för andra levande varelser, påverka livsval och förändra sättet vi agerar på. Genom att minska distanseringen arterna emellan och leva med andra djur kan människan få en mer empatisk djursyn och förlegade idéer om att utnyttja djur kan ifrågasättas. Fowlers roman visar att olikheterna mellan arter snarare handlar om uppträdande än om beteckning, vilket öppnar för en diskussion kring multiarter. Det framgår också att språket saknar förmågan att spegla verklighetens rikedom och komplexitet när det rör sig om identitet. / The purpose of the thesis is to examine how the relation between human and animal is depicted in the contemporary realistic literature and to discuss contradictory ethical aspects of the Western view of animals. Using Animal Studies, the analysis of the novel We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves by Karen Joy Fowler questions the prevailing norms around the view of animals in our society. Fowler’s novel illustrates how a close relationship with another animal can create compassion for other living beings, influence the choices we make and may change the way we act. By reducing the distance between species, humans can develop a stronger understanding for animals and start to question norms and outdated ideas about exploiting animals. Fowler’s novel shows that the differences between species concerns behavior rather than designation, which opens up for a discussion about multi-species. It is clear that language lacks the ability to reflect the richness and complexity of reality when it comes to identity.

Based on ethnographic fieldwork conducted in Seoul from July 2012 until July 2013, this dissertation offers a novel perspective on human-animal interactions and public discourses regarding livestock versus pet moral boundaries in contemporary Korea. I aim to explore how Koreans struggle to make sense of the tension between the emergence of animal welfare and the perpetuation of traditional health behaviours that involve animal processing. The focus will be on why participants in my study, whether activists or not, defended both animal ethics and cat and dog meat consumption, while including Korean animals in fluid and instrumental conceptions of Koreanness. I have analysed a variety of discourses produced by both Korean and non-Korean, academic and non-academic stakeholders, in order to reveal the on-going tension between these powerful ubiquitous ideas and the lived experience of Koreans today. Moreover, I examine how the aesthetics of cruelty and empathy is employed in order to singularize livestock into companion animals thereby transgressing cultural taboos regarding Western ethics of species separation. I also demonstrate that converging and conflicting economic, political, social and cultural agendas are responsible for making Korea’s public discourses about animal welfare very unsettled. My research thus contributes to key anthropological debates about the cross-cultural circulation and cross-fertilisation of moral values that impact the ethics of post-industrial human-animal interactions; and about the influence of policy dialogue, at both national and international levels, on applied animal ethics, cultural stigmatization and the reinforcement of national sentiment.

In light of increasing harmful algal blooms and the need to protect human health and aquatic resources, proactive management approaches merit further study. For this purpose I conducted field samplings to characterize plankton community composition and laboratory experiments to test some approaches to new management schemes in the lower Rincon Delta. On site measurements and microscopic analysis showed that environmental parameters and plankton community composition varied considerably among sampling stations and sampling dates. A recent modeling study suggested that manipulation of freshwater inflow to estuaries might prevent phytoplankton blooms and enhance secondary productivity. To test this theory I conducted three semi-continuous design and flow-through incubation design experiments using natural plankton assemblages. I investigated the effect of two different pulsing regimes of inflow and nutrient loading on zooplankton densities, and phytoplankton biomass and diversity. Despite differences in zooplankton structure and phytoplankton community composition between the two experiment designs, the results confirmed that pulsed inflows might alter plankton dynamics. My findings showed that 3-day pulse treatments consistently supported greater zooplankton densities and higher phytoplankton species diversity when compared to 1-day pulse treatments. In addition, accumulation of phytoplankton biovolume remained low during 3-day pulse treatments. Differences in zooplankton performance between 3-day pulse and 1-day pulse inflow treatments were likely due to the ability of phytoplankton to uptake and store greater amounts of nutrients under conditions of 3-day pulse inflow. This resulted in food of higher quality for zooplankton, and might have supported greater zooplankton population growth rates. Additionally, in an attempt to understand the mechanisms leading to high biodiversity in aquatic ecosystems, I built a resource-storage model and studied the effects of resource-storage on competition of multiple phytoplankton species on multiple abiotic resources. I compared this model with a well-established multi-species competition model. My results showed that for certain species combinations a resource-storage-based model can generate dissimilar outcomes when compared to a model without resource-storage.

In light of increasing harmful algal blooms and the need to protect human health and aquatic resources, proactive management approaches merit further study. For this purpose I conducted field samplings to characterize plankton community composition and laboratory experiments to test some approaches to new management schemes in the lower Rincon Delta. On site measurements and microscopic analysis showed that environmental parameters and plankton community composition varied considerably among sampling stations and sampling dates. A recent modeling study suggested that manipulation of freshwater inflow to estuaries might prevent phytoplankton blooms and enhance secondary productivity. To test this theory I conducted three semi-continuous design and flow-through incubation design experiments using natural plankton assemblages. I investigated the effect of two different pulsing regimes of inflow and nutrient loading on zooplankton densities, and phytoplankton biomass and diversity. Despite differences in zooplankton structure and phytoplankton community composition between the two experiment designs, the results confirmed that pulsed inflows might alter plankton dynamics. My findings showed that 3-day pulse treatments consistently supported greater zooplankton densities and higher phytoplankton species diversity when compared to 1-day pulse treatments. In addition, accumulation of phytoplankton biovolume remained low during 3-day pulse treatments. Differences in zooplankton performance between 3-day pulse and 1-day pulse inflow treatments were likely due to the ability of phytoplankton to uptake and store greater amounts of nutrients under conditions of 3-day pulse inflow. This resulted in food of higher quality for zooplankton, and might have supported greater zooplankton population growth rates. Additionally, in an attempt to understand the mechanisms leading to high biodiversity in aquatic ecosystems, I built a resource-storage model and studied the effects of resource-storage on competition of multiple phytoplankton species on multiple abiotic resources. I compared this model with a well-established multi-species competition model. My results showed that for certain species combinations a resource-storage-based model can generate dissimilar outcomes when compared to a model without resource-storage.