| 1. |
- Magnusson, Magnus, et al.
(författare)
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Predicting grey-sided vole occurrence in northern Sweden at multiple spatial scales
- 2013
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Ingår i: Ecology and Evolution. - Hoboken, USA : Wiley-Blackwell Publishing Inc.. - 2045-7758. ; 3:13, s. 4365-4376
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Forestry is continually changing the habitats for many forest-dwelling species around the world. The grey-sided vole (Myodes rufocanus) has declined since the 1970s in forests of northern Sweden. Previous studies suggested that this might partly be caused by reduced focal forest patch size due to clear-cutting. Proximity and access to old pine forest and that microhabitats often contains stones have also been suggested previously but never been evaluated at multiple spatial scales. In a field study in 2010–2011 in northern Sweden, we investigated whether occurrence of grey-sided voles would be higher in (1) large focal patches of >60 years old forest, (2) in patches with high connectivity to sur- rounding patches, and (3) in patches in proximity to stone fields. We trapped animals in forest patches in two study areas (V€asterbotten and Norrbotten). At each trap station, we surveyed structural microhabitat characteristics. Land- scape-scale features were investigated using satellite-based forest data combined with geological maps. Unexpectedly, the vole was almost completely absent in Norrbotten. The trap sites in Norrbotten had a considerably lower amount of stone holes compared with sites with voles in V€asterbotten. We suggest this might help to explain the absence in Norrbotten. In V€asterbotten, the distance from forest patches with voles to stone fields was significantly shorter than from patches without voles. In addition, connectivity to surrounding patches and size of the focal forest patches was indeed related to the occurrence of grey-sided voles, with connectivity being the overall best predictor. Our results support previous findings on the importance of large forest patches, but also highlight the importance of connectivity for occurrence of grey-sided voles. The results further suggest that proximity to stone fields increase habitat quality of the forests for the vole and that the presence of stone fields enhances the voles’ ability to move between nearby forest patches through the matrix
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| 2. |
- Abernethy, K. E., et al.
(författare)
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Two steps forward, two steps back : The role of innovation in transforming towards community-based marine resource management in Solomon Islands
- 2014
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Ingår i: Global Environmental Change. - : Elsevier BV. - 0959-3780 .- 1872-9495. ; 28, s. 309-321
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- In many coastal nations, community-based arrangements for marine resource management (CBRM) are promoted by government, advocated for by non-government actors, and are seen by both as one of the most promising options to achieve sustainable use and secure inshore fisheries and aquatic resources. Although there is an abundant literature on what makes CBRM effective, is it less clear how CBRM is introduced or develops as an idea in a community, and the process of how the idea leads to the adoption of a new resource management approach with supporting institutions. Here we aim to address this gap by applying an explicit process-based approach drawing on innovation history methodology by mapping and analysing the initiation and emergence of CBRM in five fishing-dependent communities in Solomon Islands. We use insights from the literatures on diffusion of innovation and transformability to define phases of the process and help guide the inductive analysis of qualitative data. We show the CBRM institutionalisation processes were non-linear, required specific strategies to move from one phase to the next, and key elements facilitated or hindered movement. Building active support for CBRM within communities depended on the types of events that happened at the beginning of the process and actions taken to sustain this. Matching CBRM to known resource management ideas or other social problems in the community, developing legitimate institutions and decision-making processes, strong continual interactions between key actors and the rest of the community (not necessarily NGO actors), and community members witnessing benefits of CBRM, all contributed to the emergence and diffusion of CBRM in the communities, and helped to overcome barriers to transformative change.
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| 3. |
- Adams, Vanessa M., et al.
(författare)
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Using Multiple Methods to Understand the Nature of Relationships in Social Networks
- 2018
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Ingår i: Society & Natural Resources. - : Informa UK Limited. - 0894-1920 .- 1521-0723. ; 31:7, s. 755-772
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Effective natural resource management (NRM) often depends on collaboration through formal and informal relationships. Social network analysis (SNA) provides a framework for studying social relationships; however, a deeper understanding of the nature of these relationships is often missing. By integrating multiple analytical methods (including SNA, evidence ratings, and perception matrices), we were able to investigate the nature of relationships in NRM social networks across five service types (e.g., technical advice, on-ground support) in our case study region, Daly catchment Australia. Only one service type was rated as highly associated with free choice in establishing relationships: technical advice/knowledge. Beneficial characteristics of NRM organizations, such as collaborative and transparent, were associated with the presence of freely chosen relationships between organizations. Our results suggest a need to improve our understanding of organizational roles and characteristics, in particular for use in applied NRM contexts, such as network weaving or disseminating information.
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| 4. |
- Alexander, Steven M., et al.
(författare)
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Examining horizontal and vertical social ties to achieve social-ecological fit in an emerging marine reserve network
- 2017
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Ingår i: Aquatic conservation. - : Wiley. - 1052-7613 .- 1099-0755. ; 27:6, s. 1209-1223
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Most MPA networks are designed only with ecological processes in mind to increase their conservation utility. However, since MPA networks often involve large geographic areas, they also affect and involve multiple actors, institutions, and policy sectors. A key challenge when establishing an effective MPA network is to align the social system' with the biophysical MPA network (the ecological system'). This challenge is often denoted as social-ecological fit'. Facilitating collaborative social interactions among various actors and stakeholders (social connectivity) is equally as important as accomplishing ecological connectivity. New analytical approaches are required to effectively examine this social' dimension of fit. An emerging marine reserve network in Jamaica and the recent invasion of Indo-Pacific lionfish are used as a case study to: (1) examine the extent to which horizontal and vertical social ties bring local and national actors together to collaborate, coordinate, and share knowledge; and (2) assess the extent to which different attributes and features of such multilevel social networks may enhance or inhibit particular aspects of social-ecological fit. Findings suggest that multilevel linkages have played the greatest role in relation to enhancing fit in the marine reserve network in the context of the recent lionfish invasion. However, the long-term propensity of the multi-actor and multilevel networks to enhance social-ecological fit is uncertain given the prevalence of weak social ties, lack of a culture of information sharing and collaboration, and limited financial resources.
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| 5. |
- Alexander, Steven M., et al.
(författare)
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Participation in planning and social networks increase social monitoring in community-based conservation
- 2018
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Ingår i: Conservation Letters. - : Wiley. - 1755-263X. ; 11:5
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Biodiversity conservation is often limited by inadequate investments in monitoring and enforcement. However, monitoring and enforcement problems may be overcome by encouraging resource users to develop, endorse, and subsequently enforce conservation regulations. In this article, we draw upon the literature on common-pool resources and social networks to assess the impacts of participation and network ties on the decisions of fishers to voluntarily report rule violations in two Jamaican marine reserves. Data was collected using questionnaires administered through personal interviews with fishers (n = 277). The results suggest that local fishers are more likely to report illegal fishing if they had participated in conservation planning and if they are directly linked to community-based wardens in information sharing networks. This research extends well-established findings regarding the role and impacts of participation on biodiversity conservation by highlighting the importance of synergies between participation and social networks for voluntary monitoring of conservation regulations.
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| 6. |
- Alexander, Steven M., et al.
(författare)
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Social ties explain catch portfolios of small-scale fishers in the Caribbean
- 2020
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Ingår i: Fish and Fisheries. - : Wiley. - 1467-2960 .- 1467-2979. ; 21:1, s. 120-131
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Small-scale fisheries often involve weak management regimes with limited top-down enforcement of rules and minimal support from legal institutions, making them useful model systems for investigating the role of social influence in determining economic and environmental outcomes. In such regimes, interpersonal relationships are expected to have a strong effect on a fisher's catch portfolio, the set of fish species targeted by an individual fisher. Here, we test three competing hypotheses about social influence using belief propagation network models and show that a peer-to-peer information-sharing social network is key to explaining catch portfolios at a small-scale fishery in Jamaica. We find that experience dictates the direction of influence among fishers in the social network, with older fishers and information brokers having distinct roles in shaping catch patterns for large- and small-sized fish species, respectively. These findings highlight concrete opportunities for harnessing social networks in natural resource management. Our new approach to modelling social influence is applicable to many social-ecological systems with minimal legal and institutional support or those that rely heavily on bottom-up participatory processes.
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| 7. |
- Alexander, Steven M., et al.
(författare)
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Untangling the drivers of community cohesion in small-scale fisheries
- 2018
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Ingår i: International Journal of the Commons. - : Ubiquity Press, Ltd.. - 1875-0281. ; 12:1, s. 519-547
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Sustainable fisheries require strong management and effective governance. However, small-scale fisheries (SSF) often lack formal institutions, leaving management in the hands of local users in the form of various governance approaches (e.g. local, traditional, or co-management). The effectiveness of these approaches inherently relies upon some level of cohesion among resource users to facilitate agreement on common policies and practices regarding common pool fishery resources. Understanding the factors driving the formation and maintenance of community cohesion in SSF is therefore critical if we are to devise more effective participatory governance approaches and encourage and empower decentralized, localized, and community-based resource management approaches. Here, we adopt a social relational network perspective to propose a suite of hypothesized drivers that lead to the establishment of social ties among fishers that build the foundation for community cohesion. We then draw on detailed data from Jamaica's small-scale fishery to empirically test these drivers by employing a set of nested exponential random graph models (ERGMs) based on specific structural building blocks (i.e. network configurations) theorized to influence the establishment of social ties. Our results demonstrate that multiple drivers are at play, but that collectively, gear-based homophily, geographic proximity, and leadership play particularly important roles. We discuss the extent to which these drivers help explain previous experiences, as well as their implications for future and sustained collective action in SSF in Jamaica and elsewhere.
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| 8. |
- Andersson, Erik, et al.
(författare)
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Practical tool for landscape planning? An empirical investigation of network based models of habitat fragmentation.
- 2009
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Ingår i: Ecography. - : Wiley. - 0906-7590 .- 1600-0587. ; 32:1, s. 123-132
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This study presents a graph-theoretical modelling approach using daily movements and habitat demands of different target bird species in an urban context to assess: 1) habitable land cover types, 2) threshold distances between patches of habitat, 3) the required minimum accessible habitat areas and 4) the effects of barriers and stepping stones. The modelling approach is tested using empirical data from field surveys in the urban area of Stockholm, Sweden. The results show that groups of small habitat patches can house the same species as larger contiguous patches as long as they are perceived as functionally connected by the inhabitant organisms. Furthermore, we found that binary habitat/non-habitat representations of the landscape could roughly explain the variation in species occurrence, as long as habitat was properly defined. However, the explanatory power of the landscape models increased when features of matrix heterogeneity such as stepping stones and barriers were accounted for. Synthesis and application: in a world where forest ecosystems are becoming increasingly fragmented there is an urgent need to find comprehensive and scientifically relevant methods for managing and planning ecosystems. This study shows that: 1) groups of well placed small habitat patches can, together, be sufficient to attract birds in intensively developed areas, 2) the presented modelling approach can help identify such groups of patches, 3) matrix heterogeneity should preferably be accounted for, and 4) proper assessments of habitable land cover types are important. Finally, we argue that the modelling approach applied here may substantially improve landscape management and planning at scales ranging from whole landscapes down to neighbourhoods.
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| 9. |
- Armitage, Derek, et al.
(författare)
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An Approach to Assess Learning Conditions, Effects and Outcomes in Environmental Governance
- 2018
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Ingår i: Environmental Policy and Governance. - : Wiley. - 1756-932X .- 1756-9338. ; 28:1, s. 3-14
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- We empirically examine relationships among the conditions that enable learning, learning effects and sustainability outcomes based on experiences in four biosphere reserves in Canada and Sweden. In doing so, we provide a novel approach to measure learning and address an important methodological and empirical challenge in assessments of learning processes in decision-making contexts. Findings from this study highlight the effectiveness of different measures of learning, and how to differentiate the factors that foster learning with the outcomes of learning. Our approach provides a useful reference point for future empirical studies of learning in different environment, resource and sustainability settings.
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| 10. |
- Baggio, J. A., et al.
(författare)
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Landscape connectivity and predator-prey population dynamics
- 2011
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Ingår i: Landscape Ecology. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 0921-2973 .- 1572-9761. ; 26:1, s. 33-45
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Landscapes are increasingly fragmented, and conservation programs have started to look at network approaches for maintaining populations at a larger scale. We present an agent-based model of predator–prey dynamics where the agents (i.e. the individuals of either the predator or prey population) are able to move between different patches in a landscaped network. We then analyze population level and coexistence probability given node-centrality measures that characterize specific patches. We show that both predator and prey species benefit from living in globally well-connected patches (i.e. with high closeness centrality). However, the maximum number of prey species is reached, on average, at lower closeness centrality levels than for predator species. Hence, prey species benefit from constraints imposed on species movement in fragmented landscapes since they can reproduce with a lesser risk of predation, and their need for using anti-predatory strategies decreases.
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