The aim of this study is to investigate how teachers use collaboration, didactics and geography to teach sustainable development to upper secondary pupils in Swedish schools. A qualitative and interview method was chosen in order to catch the strategies amongst teachers and their perceptions in these matters. Five in depth interviews were held with experienced teachers in four different schools. These interviews were selected by different strategies such as the Possibility Principle and the understanding of gatekeepers’ roles’. A narrative material was collected. Four theoretical areas were developed for analysing the retrieved material. A school with a clear sustainability profile has both resources and the developed didactical methods, to enhance the understanding of sustainable development. However, the investigated schools have their own varieties of tackling lacking time and resources which have developed competencies’ in different ways. These are complementary didactical methods in order to enhance sustainable development. For further research a historical perspective was suggested.

High plant species diversity depends on a landscape that provides enough habitual space, functional connectivity and heterogeneity. Habitat destruction and land use change is recognized as the biggest threat to biodiversity of today. The Swedish landscape has not only undergone dramatic changes in land-use the last 60 years, it also contains some of the last fragments in Europe of the highly valuable hay-meadows. Many of the Swedish hay-meadows are considered to hold high ecological values and are protected by Natura 2000 regulations. Yet there are no systematic conservation strategies for the hay-meadows and most of the work is done by volunteers. This study aims to further investigate how the surrounding landscape affects the total plant species richness on Swedish hay-meadows. A local scale GIS-analysis on landscapes surrounding 21 hay-meadows across two time steps was carried out. The historical land-use was compared with the present landscapes and with species data from the same areas. Results show that the forest cover has grown almost 12% in 60 years. There is a negative correlation between forest and the plant species richness of both time steps. The total area of arable fields has dropped 19%, although no statistical correlation with the plant species richness of either time step was found. The ex-arable fields of 1950 however, did show a negative impact, both alone and together with open pasture. Open pasture has decreased 17%, although no statistical correlation was found between this land-cover category and plant species richness. The overall results indicate that the historical land-use on the local scale is of greater importance on the current plant species richness than present land-use. This should be considered within landscape planning and when designing conservation strategies. / En hög plantdiversitet är beroende av ett landskap som erbjuder tillräckligt stora habitat, funktionell konnektivitet och heterogenitet. Habitatförlust och förändrad markanvändning utgör det största hotet mot biodiversitet idag. Det svenska landskapet har inte bara förändrats dramatiskt de senaste 60 åren, det innehåller också några av Europas sista fragment av de mycket värdefulla slåtterängarna. Många av de svenska slåtterängarna är upptagna i Natura 2000-områden. Trots detta finns inga systematiska bevarandestrategier för dessa slåtterängar och arbetet hänger mestadels på volontärer. Den här studien ämnar bidra till en ökad förståelse för hur omgivande landskap påverkar plantdiversiteten på svenska slåtterängar. GIS-analyser av lokala landskap som omger 21 svenska slåtterängar har utförts. Nedslag vid två tidpunkter har gjorts; år 1950 och 2015. Genom digitalisering av kartor från 1950-talet har arean av marktyper kunnat beräknas och sedan jämföras med dagens markanvändning och artdata i samma områden. Resultaten visar att den totala skogsarealen har ökat med 12% sedan 1950-talet och det finns negativa samband mellan både den historiska och den nutida skogsarealen och artrikedomen på ängarna. Arean av åkermark har minskat med 19% i de undersökta områdena, men inga samband med artrikedomen kunde finnas. Däremot visade det sig att den före detta åkermark som fanns på 1950-talet påverkar dagens artrikedomen negativ, både som ensam oberoende variabel och tillsammans med öppen mark. Öppen mark har minskat med mellan 17% och 24%, men inga samband mellan denna landskapskategori och plantdiversiteten fanns. De sammanställda resultaten indikerar att den historiska markanvändningen på lokal skala har större påverkan på dagens plantdiversitet än den nutida markanvändningen. Detta bör tas i beaktande vid utformande av bevarandestrategier och vid fysisk planering.

<p>Kongsfjordhallet is situated at 79° N on the North coast of Kongsfjorden, Spitsbergen.The landscape shows a large diversity of landforms and sediments and the aim of thisstudy has been to investigate the spatial distribution and temporal differences betweenthese landforms.The most prominent landform is interpreted as a lateral moraine dividing the area fromsoutheast to northwest. This is probably a sign of a standstill during the deglaciation ofan ice-sheet glacier tongue filling the fjord. The valley-glaciers at Kongsfjordhallet haveadvanced after this event and left end moraines on top of the lateral moraine. Largeamounts of meltwater have eroded parts of the Kongsfjordhallet, creating several fossilmeltwater channels that dissect the landscape. Erratic boulders of mainly gneiss type arescattered all over the landscape, as high up as 500 m a.s.l. In addition to the erraticboulders, a lot of allochthonous material is found incorporated in local material,especially as a diamict interpreted as till that covers large parts of Kongsfjordhallet.The till can likely be correlated to one of the diamict units in the cliff sections at theKongsfjordhallet coast. At present, two large ravines drain the area, moving water fromthe glaciers to the ocean and a beach is developing in the Southeast part of the area dueto ocean transgression. Landforms from two glacial events are found, one regional andone local. An episode of high sea-level as well as fluvial and mass-wasting activity afterthe deglaciation is also recorded. The formation of the landforms in the area is believedto be after the Last Glacial Maximum and into the Holocene, but no absolute dates areavailable.</p> / SciencePub

<p>The glacial history of the Tibetan Plateau has long been a contentious topic with widely different reconstructions. For Tanggula Shan, an extensive mountain range on the central Tibetan Plateau, multiple glacial reconstruc- tions and studies on the glacial chronology have been presented. However, the glacial geomorphological record has been sparse resulting in insufficient data to fully infer the area’s palaeoglaciology. Focussing on four landform categories, glacial valleys, marginal moraines, hummocky terrain, and glacial lineations; a glacial geomorphological map was produced, using Landsat 7 ETM+ satellite imagery, SRTM digital elevation model, and Google Earth. This map, together with GIS analyses and available cosmogenic exposure and electron spin reso- nance ages from the study area, was used to investigate the extent of former glaciations. Cosmogenic exposure and electron spin resonance ages range from 18.4 ± 1.6 to 203.4 ± 33.2 ka (recalculated using the CRONUS calculator). The extent of the glacial footprint is restricted to the high mountain areas, and is similar in extent to earlier glacial reconstructions. This glacial footprint can tentatively be explained by a monsoonal influence in the southeast, with the influence diminishing to the northwest. Alternatively, the precipitation gradient might have resulted in cold-based ice in the west and warm-based ice in the east. These variations in ice regime could have left fewer traces of glaciation in the west, than in the east. There is no evidence supporting an ice sheet covering the entire Tibetan Plateau. Rather, the available data support a smaller ice field in the high mountain areas, with a maximum extent well before the Last Glacial Maximum.</p>

<p>Lake sediments are frequently used as archives of climate and environmental change. Minerogenic sediment variability in alpine lakes is often used to reconstruct past glacier and slope process activity. Alpine lake sediments can however have many different origins, which may induce errors in paleoenvironmental reconstructions. The aim of this project was to enhance the understanding of minerogenic lake sedimentation in alpine lakes and improve their use as environmental archives.</p><p>Catchment geomorphology and Holocene sediment sequences were analysed for five alpine lakes. Several minerogenic sediment sources were detected in catchments and sediment sequences. Slope-, fluvial-, periglacial-, nival- and aeolian sediment transportation processes contribute to create complex lake sediment patterns. Large variations in sedimentation rates were discovered within and between lakes, which has implications for sampling strategies and age-model constructions. Similar fine-grained minerogenic laminations were found in four of the investigated lakes, despite large differences in setting. The demonstrated similarity between glacial and non-glacial lakes may complicate interpretations of glaciolacustrine sediment signals.</p><p>The main conclusion is that lake sedimentation in alpine environments is highly dependent on several geomorphological factors. All lakes should therefore be viewed as unique and the geomorphology should be thoroughly investigated before environmental reconstructions are based on lake sediment proxies. This study has confirmed the multi-source origin of alpine lake sediment, which also opens possibilities of more multi-faceted paleoenvironmental studies. Different process-proxies could potentially be used to separate different climate signals, e.g. precipitation, temperature and wind, in lake sediments. Analysis of grain-size distribution, detailed mineralogy and magnetic mineralogy in combination with X-ray radiography are suggested methods for such reconstructions.</p>

<p>This study deals with the influence of topography on glacial dynamics and the genesis of till in an area of moder-ate bedrock relief. An area 25 km west of Lycksele, northern Sweden, was investigated using geomorphological and sedimentological methods. The bedrock is dominated by coarse-grained granites and the topography, ranging in altitude between 310 and 490 m. a.s.l., is characterized by relatively wide, free-lying hills.</p><p>The erosional and depositional features provide evidence of several glacial events, with regional ice flows from approximately the same direction (NW-NNW). The gravel fraction of the till is dominated by material transported more than 10 km. However, the total glacial erosion has been modest, as indicated by the frequent occurrence of residual pre-glacial weathering features. There is no evidence of warm-based conditions during the period when the ice divide of the Late Weichselian ice sheet was situated E-SE of the study area. The major mor-phological impact is most likely by pre-Late Weichselian ice sheets.</p><p>The general stratigraphy at the valley floors is a complex sequence of heterogeneous till and beds of sorted sediments with some evidence of glacial deformation covered by an up to 2.5-m-thick, texturally homogeneous till layer with distinct fissility structure and clast fabric orientation. The lower unit is interpreted as pre-Late Weichselian marginal deposits, and the upper till as mainly formed during rigid-bed conditions, i.e. by lodgement, during the last deglaciation. The role of pervasive deformation and melt-out in the formation of the upper till are discussed. Inferred mainly from till fabrics it is evident that the ice flow was strongly topographically controlled within a relatively wide marginal zone of the retreating ice.</p><p>At the summits of the hills there are only signs of very weak glacial abrasive and depositional activity, sug-gesting frozen based conditions over the summits until a very late stage of the deglaciation. The very thin till at the summits, which also lay as a drape over the thick lee-side deposits, consists of a mixture of relatively fine-grained, distantly derived debris and of local bedrock fragments entrained during a very late phase of plucking.</p><p>On the stoss- and lateral slopes of the hills the till is thin and discontinuous. The irregular bedrock surface in these areas created a “mosaic” of small-scale subglacial depositional environments, which were superimposed on the changes in the conditions for deposition along the hillslope. This till is comparatively coarse-grained, which is interpreted as an effect of syn-depositional winnowing of fines, and locally also because of the incorporation of local bedrock material largely from pre-glacially weathered zones.</p><p>On the lee-sides of the hills the deposits are considerably thicker than on slopes facing other directions. They are characterized by highly variable texture and structure, suggesting a depositional environment characterized by large temporal and spatial variations in meltwater activity and stress/strain conditions. The lee-side tills are inter-preted as mainly pre-Late Weichselian in age.</p><p>The overall conclusion is that the local topography strongly controlled the basal ice flow and produced a com-plex pattern of thermal variations within a relatively wide marginal zone of the ice sheet during the last deglacia-tion. The study supports the view that there are complete transitions between the different genetical types of sub-glacial tills, although the role of deformation by pervasive shearing is uncertain in this type of coarse-grained till.</p>

<p>Kuriska näset är en krumudde som delas av Litauen och Ryssland, området är en nationalpark och sedan år 2000 upptaget på UNESCOs världsarvslista över skyddsvärda natur- och kulturområden.</p><p>Syftet med det här arbetet är att kartlägga potentiella hot mot Kuriska näsets fortsatta existens. Undersökningen har baserats på teorier utifrån ett hållbart perspektiv för ett bevarande för framtiden, det har också studerats huruvida dessa teorier eftersträvas i Litauen respektive Ryssland. Med hållbar utveckling eftersträvas att inte tära på naturens resurser utan att se till att de finns kvar för framtiden. För att kunna kartlägga hoten har en jämförelse mellan Kuriska näset och Gotska sandön genomförts.</p><p>Naturen på Kuriska näset är varierande, stora skogsområden, öppna vidsträckta sandområden, sanddyner med eller utan vegetation är de mest förekommande landskapstyperna. Här återfinns också några av Europas högsta sanddyner. Fram till för fyrahundra år sedan var näset jämförelsevis oexploaterat av människan, sedan dess har påverkan skett i olika stor utsträckning. Under början av 1900-talet var de negativa effekterna så tydliga och påverkan så betydande att åtgärder måste vidtas för att bevara näsets befintliga utseende. För att förhindra slitage, sandflykt och onödig nötning av naturen bedrivs bevarande åtgärder i olika modeller. Det har planterats sandbindande vegetation så som strandrör mm, spångar att gå på har lagts ut, det har byggts staket för att förhindra sandflykt och slitage, nätmönster och liknande för att förhindra sandflykt mm. På näset finns regleringar som förhindrar till viss del onödigt slitage av parken som i form av tältning eller andra aktiviteter och evenemang. Båtförbindelsen är en reglering som bidrar till att nationalparken kan begränsa antalet besökare, till vad de anser är rimligt.</p><p>Potentiella hot som föreligger Kuriska näset kan vara oljeutvinning i Östersjön, utsläpp av miljögifter, näringsämnen och liknande, bristande avfallshantering, kunskapsbrist eller bristande intresse, luftföroreningar, slitage från exploatering och en oreglerad turism samt regionens politiska och ekonomiska situation.</p><p>En parkadministration återfinns på båda sidor av näset, dessa har till uppgift att förvalta nationalparken. De arbetar bland annat med att bevara det kulturella och naturliga arvet av näset, kontrollera den ekonomiska och urbana utvecklingen, bedriva vetenskaplig forskning, arrangerar undervisning om hur man bäst bibehåller näset, utveckla hållbar rekreation mm. Den litauiska administrationen anser att det är viktigt att utveckla registrering av besöksantalet, för att vid behov kunna reglera antalet turister. De tycker också att det är av vikt att utveckla samarbetet med utbildningsinstitutioner för vidare utveckling av nationalparken. I dag finns det endast planer angående hur turismen ska utvecklas. Ryssland och Litauen stiftade under 2005 en överenskommelse gällande näsets skötsel för en hållbar utveckling. Förhoppningsvis är detta en början till ett långsiktigt samarbete mellan länderna, ett bra komplement till samverkan med bland annat Baltic 21 och HELCOM.</p>

Lake sediments are frequently used as archives of climate and environmental change. Minerogenic sediment variability in alpine lakes is often used to reconstruct past glacier and slope process activity. Alpine lake sediments can however have many different origins, which may induce errors in paleoenvironmental reconstructions. The aim of this project was to enhance the understanding of minerogenic lake sedimentation in alpine lakes and improve their use as environmental archives. Catchment geomorphology and Holocene sediment sequences were analysed for five alpine lakes. Several minerogenic sediment sources were detected in catchments and sediment sequences. Slope-, fluvial-, periglacial-, nival- and aeolian sediment transportation processes contribute to create complex lake sediment patterns. Large variations in sedimentation rates were discovered within and between lakes, which has implications for sampling strategies and age-model constructions. Similar fine-grained minerogenic laminations were found in four of the investigated lakes, despite large differences in setting. The demonstrated similarity between glacial and non-glacial lakes may complicate interpretations of glaciolacustrine sediment signals. The main conclusion is that lake sedimentation in alpine environments is highly dependent on several geomorphological factors. All lakes should therefore be viewed as unique and the geomorphology should be thoroughly investigated before environmental reconstructions are based on lake sediment proxies. This study has confirmed the multi-source origin of alpine lake sediment, which also opens possibilities of more multi-faceted paleoenvironmental studies. Different process-proxies could potentially be used to separate different climate signals, e.g. precipitation, temperature and wind, in lake sediments. Analysis of grain-size distribution, detailed mineralogy and magnetic mineralogy in combination with X-ray radiography are suggested methods for such reconstructions.

The main aim of this thesis was to contribute with detailed information of regional environmental change during the Holocene through studies of speleothems and their growth environments from two caves, Korallgrottan and Labyrintgrottan in northwestern Sweden, and a cellar vault in Uppsala. This was done through studies of stable isotopes and luminescence properties in the speleothems in combination with a detailed monitoring study in Korallgrottan. The monitoring study suggests that stalagmites fed by stalactites with slow and stable drip rates from deep inside the cave may be suitable as palaeoclimate archives. Similarities between oxygen isotope signals of contemporary samples from Labyrintgrottan and Korallgrottan emphasize the potential of speleothems from Labyrintgrottan to also provide high resolution regional palaeoclimate information. Except for a number of cold events stalagmite δ18O records from northern Scandinavia indicate that temperatures were warmer than today between 9500 and 6000 years ago. During this period the interval between 7800 and 6000 years ago seems to have been the warmest. The area above Labyrintgrottan was most likely covered by much denser vegetation than today at the time of stalagmite growth (9500-7500 years ago) and was, unlike today, probably situated below the local tree-limit between 9000 and 8000 years ago. The δ18O record of a stalagmite from Korallgrottan covering the last 4000 years agrees with the concept of a warmer period, the so called Medieval Warm Period, centred around AD1000 and a colder period, the so called Little Ice Age, somewhere between AD1000 and today. Studies of luminescence properties in fast growing speleothems from Uppsala indicate that the variations in luminescence intensity are annual and that the annual lamiae of the luminescent record represent a flush of organic material.

This study deals with the influence of topography on glacial dynamics and the genesis of till in an area of moder-ate bedrock relief. An area 25 km west of Lycksele, northern Sweden, was investigated using geomorphological and sedimentological methods. The bedrock is dominated by coarse-grained granites and the topography, ranging in altitude between 310 and 490 m. a.s.l., is characterized by relatively wide, free-lying hills. The erosional and depositional features provide evidence of several glacial events, with regional ice flows from approximately the same direction (NW-NNW). The gravel fraction of the till is dominated by material transported more than 10 km. However, the total glacial erosion has been modest, as indicated by the frequent occurrence of residual pre-glacial weathering features. There is no evidence of warm-based conditions during the period when the ice divide of the Late Weichselian ice sheet was situated E-SE of the study area. The major mor-phological impact is most likely by pre-Late Weichselian ice sheets. The general stratigraphy at the valley floors is a complex sequence of heterogeneous till and beds of sorted sediments with some evidence of glacial deformation covered by an up to 2.5-m-thick, texturally homogeneous till layer with distinct fissility structure and clast fabric orientation. The lower unit is interpreted as pre-Late Weichselian marginal deposits, and the upper till as mainly formed during rigid-bed conditions, i.e. by lodgement, during the last deglaciation. The role of pervasive deformation and melt-out in the formation of the upper till are discussed. Inferred mainly from till fabrics it is evident that the ice flow was strongly topographically controlled within a relatively wide marginal zone of the retreating ice. At the summits of the hills there are only signs of very weak glacial abrasive and depositional activity, sug-gesting frozen based conditions over the summits until a very late stage of the deglaciation. The very thin till at the summits, which also lay as a drape over the thick lee-side deposits, consists of a mixture of relatively fine-grained, distantly derived debris and of local bedrock fragments entrained during a very late phase of plucking. On the stoss- and lateral slopes of the hills the till is thin and discontinuous. The irregular bedrock surface in these areas created a “mosaic” of small-scale subglacial depositional environments, which were superimposed on the changes in the conditions for deposition along the hillslope. This till is comparatively coarse-grained, which is interpreted as an effect of syn-depositional winnowing of fines, and locally also because of the incorporation of local bedrock material largely from pre-glacially weathered zones. On the lee-sides of the hills the deposits are considerably thicker than on slopes facing other directions. They are characterized by highly variable texture and structure, suggesting a depositional environment characterized by large temporal and spatial variations in meltwater activity and stress/strain conditions. The lee-side tills are inter-preted as mainly pre-Late Weichselian in age. The overall conclusion is that the local topography strongly controlled the basal ice flow and produced a com-plex pattern of thermal variations within a relatively wide marginal zone of the ice sheet during the last deglacia-tion. The study supports the view that there are complete transitions between the different genetical types of sub-glacial tills, although the role of deformation by pervasive shearing is uncertain in this type of coarse-grained till.