Introduction 1. Woman's Place in Man's Life Cycle 2. Images of Relationship 3. Concepts of Self and Morality 4. Crisis and Transition 5. Women's Rights and Women's Judgment 6. Visions of Maturity References Index of Study Participants General Index

In a Different Voice. Psychological Theory and Women’s Development. Cambridge, MA (Harvard University Press) 1982.

The planetary boundaries framework defines a safe operating space for humanity based on the intrinsic biophysical processes that regulate the stability of the Earth system. Here, we revise and update the planetary boundary framework, with a focus on the underpinning biophysical science, based on targeted input from expert research communities and on more general scientific advances over the past 5 years. Several of the boundaries now have a two-tier approach, reflecting the importance of cross-scale interactions and the regional-level heterogeneity of the processes that underpin the boundaries. Two core boundaries—climate change and biosphere integrity—have been identified, each of which has the potential on its own to drive the Earth system into a new state should they be substantially and persistently transgressed.

/pdf/planetary-boundaries-guiding-human-development-on-a-changing-5gmf909etg.pdf

Planetary boundaries: Guiding human development on a changing planet

The power of feedback.

▪ Abstract Local habitat and biological diversity of streams and rivers are strongly influenced by landform and land use within the surrounding valley at multiple scales. However, empirical associations between land use and stream response only varyingly succeed in implicating pathways of influence. This is the case for a number of reasons, including (a) covariation of anthropogenic and natural gradients in the landscape; (b) the existence of multiple, scale-dependent mechanisms; (c) nonlinear responses; and (d) the difficulties of separating present-day from historical influences. Further research is needed that examines responses to land use under different management strategies and that employs response variables that have greater diagnostic value than many of the aggregated measures in current use. In every respect, the valley rules the stream.      H.B.N. Hynes (1975)

http://deq.idaho.gov/media/525804-Landscapes_Riverscapes_Influence_landuse_stream_ecosystems_Allan_2004.pdf

Landscapes and Riverscapes: The Influence of Land Use on Stream Ecosystems

Biocomposites reinforced with natural fibers: 2000–2010

Impact of hydrolytic degradation on mechanical properties of PET - Towards an understanding of microplastics formation

The food web is one of the oldest and most central organising concepts in ecology and for decades, food chain length has been hypothesised to be controlled by productivity, disturbance, and/or ecosystem size; each of which may be mediated by the functional trophic role of the top predator. We characterised aquatic food webs using carbon and nitrogen stable isotopes from 66 river and floodplain sites across the wet-dry tropics of northern Australia to determine the relative importance of productivity (indicated by nutrient concentrations), disturbance (indicated by hydrological isolation) and ecosystem size, and how they may be affected by food web architecture. We show that variation in food chain length was unrelated to these classic environmental determinants, and unrelated to the trophic role of the top predator. This finding is a striking exception to the literature and is the first published example of food chain length being unaffected by any of these determinants. We suggest the distinctive seasonal hydrology of northern Australia allows the movement of fish predators, linking isolated food webs and potentially creating a regional food web that overrides local effects of productivity, disturbance and ecosystem size. This finding supports ecological theory suggesting that mobile consumers promote more stable food webs. It also illustrates how food webs, and energy transfer, may function in the absence of the human modifications to landscape hydrological connectivity that are ubiquitous in more populated regions.

/pdf/productivity-disturbance-and-ecosystem-size-have-no-kte6uxkp7m.pdf

Productivity, Disturbance and Ecosystem Size Have No Influence on Food Chain Length in Seasonally Connected Rivers

This paper draws on the notions of ‘hot’ and ‘cold’ knowledge in analysing the responses of students to the relevance of different information and sources of such information in university choice. Analysis of questionnaire and focus group data from prospective and first-year undergraduate students provides evidence that many students put most credence on ‘hot’ knowledge, from persons in their social grapevine. However, this is supplemented by ‘warm’ knowledge from fleeting acquaintances at university open days. University provided knowledge is often distrusted. We discuss the implications of this given the recent government emphasis in England on the role of information provision in helping students to make informed decisions, including the relevance to the ‘fair access’ agenda.

‘Hot’, ‘cold’ and ‘warm’ information and higher education decision-making

The southwestern corner of the Australian continent has been identified as a global “biodiversity hotspot”, defined as an area where “exceptional concentrations of endemic species are undergoing exceptional loss of habitat”. In this paper we reconsider the reasons for this conservation priority. We briefly review significant characteristics of the flora and fauna, and the way threatening processes are escalating ecosystem stress to these conservation values. Our specific aim is to examine the ecological consequences of hydrological change, including emergent issues such as climate change, and focus on the coastal plains in higher rainfall zones where the majority of the Western Australian population resides. Here we argue that human-driven and/or climaticallydriven hydrological change deserve greater attention, since they: i) directly escalate the risk of extinction for some components of the biota, or ii) are underlying and/or contributing factors in the manifestation of other threats to the biota, and may complicate or exacerbate some of those threats (such as fire, Phytophthora and the spread of weeds). This paper briefly outlines the challenges to the region’s biodiversity posed by hydrological change. We suggest a societal adoption of approaches based on water literacy will be necessary to avoid irreversible changes associated with a continued reliance on water resource developments and other energy/water intensive industrial activities.

Peter Davies

Papers

Impact of hydrolytic degradation on mechanical properties of PET - Towards an understanding of microplastics formation

Productivity, Disturbance and Ecosystem Size Have No Influence on Food Chain Length in Seasonally Connected Rivers

‘Hot’, ‘cold’ and ‘warm’ information and higher education decision-making

Hydrological change escalates risk of ecosystem stress in Australia's threatened biodiversity hotspot

Durability of Composites in a Marine Environment 2