abstract: Amsonia kearneyana is an endangered herbaceous plant endemic to a small area of the Baboquivari Mountains in southern Arizona. It exists in two distinct habitat types: 1) along the banks of a lower elevation ephemeral stream in a xeroriparian community, and 2) a higher elevation Madrean oak woodland on steep mountain slopes. Half of the largest known montane population (Upper Brown Canyon) was burned in a large fire in 2009 raising questions of the species capacity to recover after fire. This research sought to understand how the effects of fire will impact A. kearneyana's ability to recruit and survive in the burned versus unburned areas and in the montane versus xeroriparian habitat. I compared population size, abiotic habitat characteristics, leaf traits, plant size, and reproductive output for plants in each habitat area for three years. Plants in the more shaded unburned montane area, the most populated population, presented with the most clonal establishment but produced the least amount of seeds per plant. The unshaded burned area produced more seeds per plant than in the unburned area. Lower Brown Canyon, the xeroriparian area, had the fewest plants, but produced the most seeds per plant while experiencing higher soil temperature, soil moisture, photosynthetically active radiation, and canopy cover than the montane plants. This could indicate conditions in Lower Brown Canyon are more favorable for seed production. Despite ample seed production, recruitment is rare in wild plants. This study establishes germination requirements testing soil type, seed burial depth, temperature regimes, and shade treatments. Trials indicate that A. kearneyana can germinate and grow in varied light levels, and that soil type and seed burial depth are better predictors of growth than the degree of shade. Finally, this study examined the law, regulation, policy, and physiological risks and benefits of a new management strategy and suggests that "conservation by dissemination" is appropriate for A. kearneyana. Conservation by dissemination is the idea that a protected plant species can be conserved by allowing and promoting the propagation and sale of plants in the commercial market with contingent collection of data on the fate of the sold individuals. / Dissertation/Thesis / Masters Thesis Plant Biology 2015

abstract: Recent research within the field of natural resource management has been devoted to studying the cognitive structures, called mental models, that guide people’s thoughts, actions, and decision-making. Artificial lighting threatens the sustainability of pristine night skies around the world and is growing worldwide at an average rate of six-percent per year. Despite these trends, stakeholders’ mental models of night skies have been unexplored. This study will address this gap by eliciting stakeholders’ mental models of dark skies. Scenario planning has become a pervasive tool across diverse sectors to analyze complex systems for making decisions under uncertainty. The theory of scenario planning hypothesizes that scenario planning contributes to learning and improves upon participants’ mental models. However, there have been scant empirical studies attempting to investigate these two claims. Stakeholders’ mental models of dark skies were mapped while simultaneously testing the hypotheses that participation in scenario planning results in more complex mental models and alters environmental attitudes. Twenty-one Arizona stakeholders participated in one of two workshops during September 2016. Three identical surveys were given to measure knowledge, environmental attitudes and mental model change during the workshops. Knowledge gain peaked during the introductory lecture and continued to increase during the workshop. Scenario planning increased participants’ environmental attitudes from anthropocentric to nature-centered and was found to have a significant positive impact on dark sky advocates’ change in mental model complexity. The most prominent drivers affecting dark skies were identified using social network analysis of the pre and post mental models. The most prominent concepts were altered significantly from pre to post workshop suggesting that scenario planning may aid practitioners in understanding exogenous factors to their area of expertise. These findings have critical theoretical and managerial implications of mental model alteration, environmental attitudes, and the future of Arizona’s night skies. A revised theoretical framework is offered to include environmental attitudes into the theory of scenario planning and a conceptual framework was created to illustrate the most salient drivers affecting or being affected by dark skies. / Dissertation/Thesis / Masters Thesis Community Resources and Development 2016

abstract: Species conservation requires an understanding of the habitats on which that species depends as well as how it moves within and among those habitats. Knowledge of these spatial and temporal patterns is vital for effective management and research study design. Bubbling Ponds Hatchery in Cornville, Arizona, supports a robust population of the northern Mexican gartersnake (Thamnophis eques megalops), which was listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act in 2014. Natural resource managers are interested in understanding the ecology of gartersnakes at this site to guide hatchery operations and to serve as a model for habitat creation and restoration. My objectives were to identify habitat selection and activity patterns of northern Mexican gartersnakes at the hatchery and how frequency of monitoring affects study results. I deployed transmitters on 42 individual gartersnakes and documented macro- and microhabitat selection, daily and seasonal activity patterns, and movement distances. Habitat selection and movements were similar between males and females and varied seasonally. During the active season (March–October), snakes primarily selected wetland edge habitat with abundant cover and were more active and moved longer distances than during other parts of the year. Gestating females selected similar locations but with less dense cover. During the inactive season (November–February), snakes were less mobile and selected upland habitats, including rocky slopes with abundant vegetation. Snakes displayed diurnal patterns of activity. Estimates of daily distance traveled decreased with less-frequent monitoring; a sampling interval of once every 24 hours yielded only 53–62% of known daily distances moved during the active season. These results can help inform management activities and research design. Conservation of this species should incorporate a landscape-level approach that includes abundant wetland edge habitat with connected upland areas. Resource managers and researchers should carefully assess timing and frequency of activities in order to meet project objectives. / Dissertation/Thesis / Masters Thesis Applied Biological Sciences 2017

abstract: Biological soil crusts (biocrust) are photosynthetic communities of organisms forming in the top millimeters of unvegetated soil. Because soil crusts contribute several ecosystem services to the areas they inhabit, their loss under anthropogenic pressure has negative ecological consequences. There is a considerable interest in developing technologies for biocrust restoration such as biocrust nurseries to grow viable inoculum and the optimization of techniques for field deployment of this inoculum. For the latter, knowledge of the natural rates of biocrust dispersal is needed. Lateral dispersal can be based on self-propelled motility by component microbes, or on passive transport through propagule entrainment in runoff water or wind currents, all of which remain to be assessed. I focused my research on determining the capacity of biocrust for lateral self-propelled dispersal. Over the course of one year, I set up two greenhouse experiments where sterile soil substrates were inoculated with biocrusts and where the lateral advancement of biocrust and their cyanobacteria was monitored using time-course photography, discrete determination of soil chlorophyll a concentration, and microscopic observations. Appropriate uninoculated controls were also set up and monitored. These experiments confirm that cyanobacterial biological soil crusts are capable of laterally expanding when provided with presumably optimal watering regime similar to field conditions and moderate temperatures. The maximum temperatures of Sonoran Desert summer (up to 42 °C), exacerbated in the greenhouse setting (48 °C), caused a loss of biomass and the cessation of lateral dispersal, which resumed as temperature decreased. In 8 independent experiments, biocrust communities advanced laterally at an average rate of 2 cm per month, which is half the maximal rate possible based on the instantaneous speed of gliding motility of the cyanobacterium Microcoleus vaginatus. In a span of three months, populations of M. vaginatus, M. steenstrupii, and Scytonema spp. advanced 1 cm/month on average. The advancing crust front was found to be preferentially composed of hormogonia (differentiated, fast-gliding propagules of cyanobacteria). Having established the potential for laterally self-propelled community dispersal (without wind or runoff contributions) will help inform restoration efforts by proposing minimal inoculum size and optimal distance between inoculum patches. / Dissertation/Thesis / Masters Thesis Biology 2017

abstract: In the face of increasing anthropogenic threats to marine systems, marine reserves have become a popular tool to promote sustainable fisheries management and protect marine biodiversity. However, the governance structures that determine marine reserve success are not well understood. The response of resource users to reserve establishment, as well as the socioeconomic, institutional, and political contexts in which they occur, are rarely considered during reserve implementation. I use the Coupled Infrastructure Systems (CIS) framework to better understand the interdependencies between social, economic, natural, and institutional processes affecting reserve implementation and performance efficacy in the Gulf of California, Mexico. I used a combination of interviews, qualitative case study comparisons, and systematic conservation planning tools to evaluate the role of different infrastructures, institutions, and governance for marine reserve efficacy in the Gulf of California, Mexico. At a local scale, I assessed stakeholder perceptions, preferences, and knowledge on reserves in the Midriff Islands sub-region of the Gulf. My results show differences in fisher perceptions about the use of reserves for biodiversity conservation and fisheries management, misconceptions about their location, and non-compliance behavior problems. At the regional scale, I explored the trajectories of reserve implementation and performance. I show that capacity-building programs and effective collaboration between non-profit organizations, environmental, fisheries, and other government authorities are essential to coordinate efforts leading to the provisioning of infrastructure that enables effective marine reserves. Furthermore, these programs help facilitate the incorporation of fishers into diversified management and economic activities. Infrastructure provision tradeoffs should be carefully balanced for designing scientifically-sound reserves that can achieve fisheries recovery objectives and incorporating stakeholder engagement processes during the planning phase that allow fishers to include their preferences in a way that complements proposed reserve network solutions. Overall, my results highlight the importance of multiple infrastructures in understanding the dynamics of interacting action situations at various stages of marine reserve implementation and operation. I identify strengths and weaknesses within marine reserve systems that help understand what combinations of infrastructures can be influenced to increase marine reserve effectiveness and robustness to internal and external challenges, as well as delivering benefits for both nature and people. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Environmental and Resource Management 2017

abstract: Sustainability depends in part on our capacity to resolve dilemmas of the commons in Coupled Infrastructure Systems (CIS). Thus, we need to know more about how to incentivize individuals to take collective action to manage shared resources. Moreover, given that we will experience new and more extreme weather events due to climate change, we need to learn how to increase the robustness of CIS to those shocks. This dissertation studies irrigation systems to contribute to the development of an empirically based theory of commons governance for robust systems. I first studied the eight institutional design principles (DPs) for long enduring systems of shared resources that the Nobel Prize winner Elinor Ostrom proposed in 1990. I performed a critical literature review of 64 studies that looked at the institutional configuration of CIS, and based on my findings I propose some modifications of their definitions and application in research and policy making. I then studied how the revisited design principles, when analyzed conjointly with biophysical and ethnographic characteristics of CISs, perform to avoid over-appropriation, poverty and critical conflicts among users of an irrigation system. After carrying out a meta-analysis of 28 cases around the world, I found that particular combinations of those variables related to population size, countries corruption, the condition of water storage, monitoring of users behavior, and involving users in the decision making process for the commons governance, were sufficient to obtain the desired outcomes. The two last studies were based on the Peruvian Piura Basin, a CIS that has been exposed to environmental shocks for decades. I used secondary and primary data to carry out a longitudinal study using as guidance the robustness framework, and different hypothesis from prominent collapse theories to draw potential explanations. I then developed a dynamic model that shows how at the current situation it is more effective to invest in rules enforcement than in the improvement of the physical infrastructure (e.g. reservoir). Finally, I explored different strategies to increase the robustness of the system, through enabling collective action in the Basin. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Sustainability 2017

Submitted by Marilene Donadel (marilene.donadel@unioeste.br) on 2017-09-22T01:01:21Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Eloisa_A_Pereira_2016.pdf: 2839117 bytes, checksum: 1361115750d791c106671a486cf7dcab (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-09-22T01:01:21Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Eloisa_A_Pereira_2016.pdf: 2839117 bytes, checksum: 1361115750d791c106671a486cf7dcab (MD5) Previous issue date: 2016-12-08 / Water is essential for the survival of living beings and in recent decades the debate on its availability and quality for future generations has increased, because the data and information in the literature about it have shown worrying results from an environmental point of view. The aim of this paper is to present a historical overview of the water quality in Toledo river and water availability in the city of Toledo - Paraná. For this purpose, documentary analysis of Toledo river water analysis reports and information from official organs were realized, as well as a literature review of the main Brazilian legislation for environmental preservation. The study shows that the municipal demand for water use has increased considerably in recent decades, and that its main source has been suffering the effects of the occupation of their surroundings and the discharge of effluents. The index of water quality in Toledo river demonstrated values ranging for smaller and smaller indexes along its route, indicating degradation of their ecosystem. The guarantee of water resources for future use depends on more attention from the managers and the public in relation to its use. / A água é indispensável para a sobrevivência dos seres vivos e nas últimas décadas os debates sobre sua disponibilidade e qualidade para as futuras gerações tem se acirrado, pois os dados e informações na literatura sobre a mesma têm apresentado resultados preocupantes do ponto de vista ambiental. O objetivo desse trabalho é apresentar um panorama histórico sobre a Qualidade da Água do rio Toledo - Paraná e a disponibilidade hídrica no município de Toledo. Para isso foram realizadas análises documentais de relatórios de análises de águas do rio Toledo e informações de órgãos oficiais, bem com revisão bibliográfica das principais legislações brasileiras de preservação ambiental. O estudo demonstra que a demanda de utilização hídrica do município aumentou consideravelmente nas últimas décadas e que seu principal manancial vem sofrendo com os efeitos da ocupação de seu entorno e da descarga de efluentes. O Índice de Qualidade da água do rio Toledo apresentou valores que oscilam para índices cada vez menores ao longo de seu percurso, indicando degradação de seu ecossistema. A garantia dos recursos hídricos para utilizações futuras depende de maior atenção dos gestores e da população em relação a seu uso.

Philosophiae Doctor - PhD / By presenting case studies from the village of Mahenye in Zimbabwe and the five villages of the Okavango Community Trust in Botswana, the study looks beyond the objectives, discourse and contests of policy and undertakes an investigation of what actions rural people are undertaking inside the institutions established by policy makers, and of governance outcomes at the local level. These case studies reveal that unfettered devolution can lead to elite capture and the perpetuation of poverty; that rural communities themselves have agency and the ability to exercise it; and that there is limited and shrinking political space in both countries which is reducing opportunities for rural communities to engage with political processes. The Botswana case studies demonstrates that an imported and imposed devolutionary initiative which lacks links to higher levels of governance can reduce political space at local levels. The Zimbabwe case study demonstrates that political space may be more effectively created through decentralisation. The lesson drawn from these case studies is that institutional arrangements and roles should be determined by context specific issues and circumstances and move beyond the structural determinism that has characterized much of the CBNRM debate to date. The study concludes with policy recommendations. These include the need for recognition of the synergy between CBNRM and democratisation as mutually reinforcing processes and the need to be context-specific. / South Africa

Marine Areas for Responsible Artisanal Fishing (AMPR) have emerged as a new model for co-managing small-scale fisheries in Costa Rica, one that involves collaboration between fishers, government agencies and NGOs. This thesis aims to examine the context for collective action and co-management by small-scale fishers; evaluate the design, implementation, and enforcement of AMPRs; and conduct a linguistic analysis of fisheries legislation. The present work relies on the analysis of several types of qualitative data, including interviews with 23 key informants, rapid rural assessments, and legal documents. Findings demonstrate the strong influence of economic factors for sustaining collective action, as well as the importance of certain types of external organizations for community development and co-management. Additionally, significant enforcement gaps and institutional deficiencies were identified in the work of regulating agencies. Legal analysis suggests that mechanisms for government accountability are unavailable and that legal discourse reflects some of the most salient problems in management.

abstract: Invasive plants harm the ecological properties of natural systems, human health, and local economies. However, the negative impacts of invasive species are not always immediately visible and may be disregarded by local communities if social benefits of control efforts are not clear. In this dissertation, I use a mixed-methods approach to investigate the drivers of invasive plant distribution, potential financially feasible management techniques to control invasion, and community forest user perceptions of those techniques. In this work, I aim to incorporate the diverse perspectives of local people and increase the long-term success of invasive species control activities in socio economically vulnerable populations. Integrating a spatially and temporally diverse data set, I explore the social and ecological drivers of invasive plant abundance across 21 buffer zone community forests in the Western Chitwan Valley of Nepal. I evaluate to what extent forest user and collective manager activities, the legacies of historic activities, and ecological properties influence present-day invasive plant abundance. I built upon this study to identify areas with critically high levels of invasion then initiated a three-year, community-based management intervention to evaluate traditional and adaptive land management approaches to control invasive plants. I found that both approaches reduced invasive plant abundance relative to the surrounding, untreated forest. I then interviewed focus groups to investigate their perceived efficacy of the various treatment types and found that almost all forest users and managers preferred the adaptive approach over the traditional management approach. Notably, forest users cited the importance of the availability of forest resources and lack of harmful plants in the plots that had undergone this method. Understanding how forest users relate to and experience invasive plants has been relatively understudied but can influence forest user engagement in different management approaches. For this reason, I performed in-depth ethnoecological interviews to explore how forest users perceive, how they utilize, and to what extent they value invasive plants. This mixed-methods approach contributes to a more holistic understanding of the role that local people play in invasive plant management and restoration activities. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Environmental and Resource Management 2020