1722 research outputs found
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Legacies of afforestation on prairie plant, seed bank, and nematode communities in a northern rough fescue prairie
Get PDFAfforestation resulting from fire suppression, modified grazing, plantation establishment and climate change poses a threat to northern prairie ecosystems. Trees alter the composition and function of plant and soil communities and can compromise the restoration of afforested prairies. To evaluate the hypothesis that legacies of afforestation persist in restored prairie communities above and belowground and decrease the potential for restoration, I examined the composition, structure, and diversity of plant, seed bank and soil nematode communities along a 20 year chronosequence of plantation tree removal in a former rough fescue prairie. Study sites were located within two historic white spruce (Picea glauca) plantations established between 1930 and 1940 on rough fescue prairies in Riding Mountain National Park, MB, Canada. Within each site, I compared plant, seed bank, and soil nematode communities between areas of native prairie, remaining plantation stands, and three tree removal treatments (2, 5, and 20 years old). Tree removal increased the abundance of weedy species in the plant and seed bank communities of restored prairies and overall diversity was lowest 20 years after tree removal, never reaching the levels of diversity observed in the native prairie. Shifts in plant community structure were accompanied by shifts in nematode feeding groups, with fungal and bacterial feeding nematodes highest in the plantation and recently restored treatments meanwhile plant parasitic nematodes dominated the oldest restored treatment and native prairie. However, unlike the native prairie, the overall diversity of the nematode community was lowest in the oldest restored treatment. Nematode community diversity and structure was strongly correlated with the composition of restored plant communities. I conclude that tree removal alone is insufficient for the restoration of northern fescue prairies and that, in the absence of active management, the assembly of low-diversity plant, seed bank, and nematode communities constitutes an important legacy of afforestation and an important barrier to future restoration.Parks Canada, Research Manitoba, Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, University of Winnipeg.Master of Science in Bioscience, Technology, and Public Polic
Automated Land Use and Land Cover Map Production: A Deep Learning Framework
Get PDFIn this thesis, we present an approach to automating the creation of land use and land cover (LULC) maps from satellite images using deep neural networks that were developed to perform semantic segmentation of natural images. This work is important since the production of accurate and timely LULC maps is becoming essential to government and private companies that rely on them for large-scale monitoring of land resource changes. In this work, deep neural networks are trained to classify each pixel of a satellite image into one of a number of LULC classes. The presented deep neural networks are all pre-trained using the ImageNet Large-Scale Visual Recognition Competition (ILSVRC) datasets and then fine-tuned using ~19,000 Landsat 5/7 satellite images of resolution 224 x 224 taken of the Province of Manitoba in Canada. The initial results achieved was 88% global accuracy. Furthermore, we consider the use of state-of-the-art generative adversarial architecture and context module to improve accuracy. The result is an automated deep learning framework that can produce LULC maps images significantly faster than current semi-automated methods. The contributions of this thesis are the observation that deep neural networks developed for semantic segmentation can be used to automate the task of producing LULC maps; extensive experimentation of different FCN architectures with extensions on a unique dataset; high classification accuracy of 90.46%; and a thorough analysis and accuracy assessment of our results.Master of Science in Applied Computer Scienc
"We are the land, and the land is us": Connecting Indigenous Perspectives on Climate Change in the Canadian Prairies.
Get PDFOwing to years of Indigenous lobbying, organizing, and scholarship, recent decades have
seen growing engagement with Indigenous peoples and their knowledges in environmental
management, policy-making, and research around climate change. In Canada, there has been
increasing partnerships between researchers and Indigenous communities to collaborate on
documenting impacts and responses to climate change and co-producing knowledge to inform
policy. While most of this work has been undertaken in the Arctic, there has been little research documenting Indigenous perspectives on climate change in the Canadian Prairies. This thesis aims to address this gap by documenting and communicating Indigenous understandings, experiences, and responses to climate change in seven communities across the Prairies. The research process was primarily guided by and evolved from the vision of the community of Turtle Lodge - an Indigenous education centre in Sagkeeng First Nation, Manitoba – to convene an Indigenous-led, cross-cultural dialogue on climate solutions. Through a process of Indigenous community-based research, the project employed interviews, talking circles, participant observation, and participatory video methods that were designed to support and honour the unique epistemological considerations required when documenting Indigenous knowledge and sharing across cultures. The results illustrate that while communities across the Prairies are being impacted by cumulative effects of climate change and other colonial stressors, many are bringing forward environmental solutions that further their social well-being and self-determination. Through diverse community-led actions – such as community-owned renewable energy projects, land-based education programs, cross-cultural conversations on climate, and ceremony – communities are reconnecting with their traditional knowledges, cultures, spiritualities, and lands, and leading solutions with broader benefits for the earth and humanity. Importantly, the results argue that Indigenous knowledge must be understood not only as a source of environmental observations, but of relational philosophies and values that can inspire the cultural shift necessary to address climate change. In an era of sustainability and reconciliation discourses in Canada, it is critically important to center Indigenous perspectives and leadership in addressing climate change, and this research offers important insight into novel methods of communicating these perspectives within and beyond the academy.Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC)Master of Arts in Indigenous Governanc
Probing the relationship between ecosystem perceptions and approaches to environmental governance: an exploratory content analysis of seven water dilemmas
Get PDFAddressing wicked ‘water dilemmas’ requires an understanding of the context within which they are embedded. This study explored perceptions of the ecosystem in terms of resilience and the governance approaches employed through a content analysis of documents from seven case studies across the globe. Analytical constructs developed for resilience and governance approaches guided the exploration. Multiple resilience types were present in documents for each case, but few patterns emerged across cases. Governance approaches were strongly focused on state approaches in most cases. A relationship between resilience type and governance approach was not clear; however, a pattern emerged between the presence of the social–ecological resilience type and non-state-centred governance forms. The type of author (government, non-government) or the type of document (research and advisory, descriptive) were not found to mediate the findings as resilience framings varied considerably and state governance approaches were emphasised throughout. As the findings stand in contrast to contemporary scholarship on understanding ecosystems and environmental governance they raise important issues to which individuals must be cognizant when accessing documents for guidance. They also open avenues for future investigation of water dilemmas at the nexus of theory, policy and practice."Funding for this work, as part of the CADWAGO project, was provided by Riksbankens Jubileumsfond, the Volkswagen Stiftung and Compagnia di San Paolo through the Europe and Global Challenges programme."https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/21693293.2016.120290
Anishinaabeg Kinship Diplomacy and Animal Nations: A Critical Review of Political Leadership
Get PDFIn this thesis I argue that engagement with animal nations to remake the world is an embedded practice of Anishinaabeg stories. From the perspective of my survey of the Anishinaabeg resurgence literature I conclude that these sources point towards Anishinaabeg leaders renewing their engagement with animal nations as a potential route for re-establishing an Anishinaabeg-led grounded normativity across Anishinaabewaki. Within this analysis I foreground the role of the council form as the venue for interspecies communication and collaboration in both Anishinaabeg stories and the historical record. I relate Anishinaabeg stories to Anishinaabeg scholar’s engagement with ethnohistorical literature on the clan system and the Midewiwin to situate the practice of council within the multipolar nature of the Anishinaabeg social formation. Lastly, I contextualize these practices within the embedded practices of a migratory kinship diplomacy.Master of Arts in Indigenous Governanc
My Shakespeare: The Authorship Controversy: Experts Examine the Arguments for Bacon, Neville, Oxford, Marlowe, Mary Sidney, Shakspere, and Shakespeare. Edited by William D. Leahy.
Get PDFA common objection levelled against authorship doubters is that the
number of candidates claimed for the authorship of the Shakespeare
canon makes it highly unlikely any of them could have been the true
author. In My Shakespeare readers are given the opportunity to decide the
matter for themselves by considering five alternative candidates, as well as
traditional and novel interpretations of William from Stratford.https://shakespeareoxfordfellowship.org/wp-content/uploads/TOX20_BR_Dudley_My-Shakespeare.pd
At Home in Winnipeg: Localizing Housing First as a Culturally Responsive Approach to Understanding and Addressing Urban Indigenous Homelessness
Get PDFThis research examines urban Aboriginal homelessness and its effect on the overall wellbeing and social cohesiveness of peoples living in Winnipeg. Using a community-centered approach, we seek to document and analyze how Winnipeg adapted the mainstream Housing First model to reflect the local Indigenous context
Influences of Pre-Christian Mythology and Christianity on Old Norse Poetry: A Narrative Study of Vafþrúðnismál
No full text"This book began as a doctoral thesis at the University of Iceland in the Faculty of Icelandic and Comparative Cultural Studies (Íslensku- og menningardeild)."Abstract: In this study, McGillivray explores the cultural environment in which the Eddic poem Vafþrúðnismál was composed and reexamines the relationship between form and content in the poem and the respective influences of pre-Christian beliefs and Christian religion on the text. The poem has a dual aspect, acting as a poetic framework and functioning as a sacred story. It serves both as a representation of early pagan beliefs or myths and also as a myth itself, relating the journey of the Norse god Óðinn to the hall of the ancient and wise giant Vafþrúðnir, where Óðinn craftily engages his adversary in a life-or-death contest in knowledge. The dialogue continues to captivate those enthusiastic about myth and history in the present, even as it did the medieval audiences who heard it."I am grateful for the funding which made this possible, provided by the Icelandic Centre for Research (Rannís) from their Icelandic Research fund."https://www.degruyter.com/viewbooktoc/product/511964Watermarked copy. The author's contract stipulates that "the ... watermarked copy of ... the PDF ... may be uploaded to an institutional repository.
Canada 150: Exhibiting National Memory at the Canadian Museum for Human Rights
Get PDFAccepted version of manuscriptThis paper features an analysis of the Canadian Museum for Human Rights (CMHR) and its showcase for ‘Canada 150’, the sesquicentennial anniversary of Canadian Confederation. Particular attention is paid to how the Museum frames national memory, and its responsiveness (or lack thereof) to critiques and re-framings of Canada 150 by Indigenous artists, activists, historians and community leaders. Since opening to the public in 2014, the CMHR has had a mixed reception, including criticism for inadequately addressing Canada’s colonial past and present, privileging narratives of state benevolence and downplaying ‘missteps’ when it comes to Canada’s own human rights and Indigenous rights record. Recognizing that national museums have long served the colonial project of state formation and official memory, this paper nonetheless tries to notice potential openings for decolonizing or unsettling Canada 150 at the CMHR. Shoal Lake 40 First Nation’s Museum of Canadian Human Rights Violations is taken up as a counter example
Diverse silver(I) coordination chemistry with cyclic selenourea ligands
Get PDFThe coordination chemistry of two selenourea ligands (SeIMes and SeIPr) towards silver(I) triflate and silver(I) nitrate was investigated. Two aggregation modes were observed in the solid state, strongly influenced by the size of the aromatic substituents on the ligand. With mesityl groups, selenium-bridged bimetallic motifs [AgX(SeIMes)]2 were obtained, while for the bulkier diisopropylphenyl groups ion-separated species of formulae [Ag(SeIPr)2]+[X]− were obtained. Recrystallization of [Ag(NO3)(SeIMes)]2 from hot methanol resulted in the formation of a unique coordination polymer featuring three silver environments. Characterization of the complexes by NMR spectroscopy and mass spectrometry suggested all complexes adopt the ionic aggregation mode in methanol solution.Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (Discovery Development Grant (DDG-2017-00041))https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlelanding/2018/DT/C7DT04243D#!divAbstrac