Coventry University

About: Coventry University is a education organization based out in Coventry, United Kingdom. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Context (language use) & Population. The organization has 4964 authors who have published 12700 publications receiving 255898 citations. The organization is also known as: Lanchester Polytechnic & Coventry Polytechnic.

Functional diversity and community assembly of river invertebrates show globally consistent responses to decreasing glacier cover

Abstract: Global change threatens invertebrate biodiversity and its central role in numerous ecosystem functions and services. Functional trait analyses have been advocated to uncover global mechanisms behind biodiversity responses to environmental change, but the application of this approach for invertebrates is underdeveloped relative to other organism groups. From an evaluation of 363 records comprising >1.23 million invertebrates collected from rivers across nine biogeographic regions on three continents, consistent responses of community trait composition and diversity to replicated gradients of reduced glacier cover are demonstrated. After accounting for a systematic regional effect of latitude, the processes shaping river invertebrate functional diversity are globally consistent. Analyses nested within individual regions identified an increase in functional diversity as glacier cover decreases. Community assembly models demonstrated that dispersal limitation was the dominant process underlying these patterns, although environmental filtering was also evident in highly glacierized basins. These findings indicate that predictable mechanisms govern river invertebrate community responses to decreasing glacier cover globally.

Achieving reflexivity: moving researchers from analysis to interpretation in collaborative inquiry

Abstract: The idea of ‘teaching’ reflexivity might seem to some to be a nonsense but many students, both undergraduate and postgraduate, struggle with ‘it’ as a concept, a process and as a means of moving away from simplistic themed research categories towards in‐depth interpretation This paper will examine the nature of reflexivity from the perspective of a personal stance and suggest the use of particular strategies for interpreting data reflexively Such strategies include the use of biographical accounts and organising principles, the exploration of metaphor and metonymy and the utilisation of poetry as an interpretative device It will offer particular ways of undertaking reflexive interpretation that have been used successfully with many postgraduate students and researchers

The Reflection Game: Enacting the Penitent Self

Abstract: ‘Reality’ shows dominate our television screens. We see the personal ‘transformation’ of hapless novices into competent singers or dancers, rude and irritating ‘brats’ reinvented as loving teenager...