| 1. |
- Queiroz, Cibele, 1981-
(författare)
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Managing for biodiversity and ecosystem services in a context of farmland abandonment
- 2013
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- In agricultural landscapes around the world, intensification of production and land abandonment are the two main trends impacting biodiversity and ecosystem services. Intensified agriculture is mostly seen as negative for biodiversity but effects of abandonment are controversial among scientists and practitioners. While abandonment can be detrimental to biodiversity in non-intensive farming systems, it can also provide an opportunity for regeneration of natural habitats. This thesis examines effects of different management options on biodiversity along an abandonment gradient from farmland to forest. It combines insights from a local case study in NW Portugal with an inter-regional meta-analysis on the effects of land-use change on response diversity, and a global meta-analysis on how impacts of abandonment on biodiversity are reported in scientific studies. Effects of abandonment were assessed for species richness and functional diversity for multiple taxa, and for the provision of multiple ecosystem services.At the global scale, abandonment impacts on biodiversity were reported in contrasting ways across world regions, and this was influenced by conservation views focused on pre vs. post abandonment conditions. In the study area, intermediate farming intensity, compared to abandoned forest habitats, generated higher plant richness at small scales and when post-abandonment forest was highly fragmented. In contrast, at larger scales, both farmland and forest had high species and functional diversity of plants and birds, while moths were more diverse in forests. All land uses provided multiple ecosystem services, but while provisioning services were highest in farmland, forests benefited regulating services, a difference not reflected in species richness distribution. In contrast to current European policies, abandonment was not found to be disadvantageous to biodiversity, except for species richness at very small scales. Thus, both farming and post-abandonment succession can generate high value ecosystems. In order to sustainably manage abandoned lands, farmland abandonment needs to be analyzed in a broader perspective, combining different types of indicators, from species to ecosystem services, and avoiding pre-conceived ideas on conservation, not always beneficial to the sustainable management of these landscapes.
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| 2. |
- Lundberg, Jakob, 1967-
(författare)
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Rethinking Urban Nature : Maintaining Capacity for Ecosystem Service Generation in a Human Dominated World
- 2006
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Human action has transformed the major part of the Earth’s ecosystems. A growing human population puts further pressure on dynamic landscapes and resources. Crucially, for the first time in history, most people live in cities and environmental change has become truly global. Developed as part of the sub-global assessments of The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, this thesis examines anthropogenic effects on our life-support systems, and their altered capacity to generate goods and services of socio-economic value. It incorporates humans into the analysis of ecosystem dynamics and explores new ways to restore, create, and enhance ecosystem services in urban and other fragmented landscapes.The concept of mobile link organisms, i.e. key species that connect habitats and uphold their capacity to generate ecosystem services, is elaborated in relation to ecosystem dynamics and functioning. They are classified into resource, genetic and process linkers (Paper I). One such species, the Eurasian Jay (Garralus glandarius) and its role in oak tree regeneration across habitats, is empirically studied in a park of Stockholm (Paper II). The Jay is found to be pivotal in safeguarding the desired oak dominated landscape but its seed dispersal function requires active management, including of surrounding non-protected habitats. Potentially, a process oriented management approach could reduce costs and vulnerability to disturbances as well as preserve gene flow and diversity on a landscape level. Critical functions for ecosystem resilience performed by mobile links are likely to grow in importance as human impacts increase.The next focus is on ecosystems that are seldom considered in biological conservation and urban green space management. Ecosystem functions and services are identified in three types of culturally maintained land areas: golf courses, residential gardens, and allotments (Paper III). By GIS-assessment, it is established that they amount to 18% of the studied land area in metropolitan Stockholm, i.e. over twice the size of land set aside as protected areas. When these lands are taken into account, the cityscape appears to be greener than indicated by prevailing conservation maps. Focusing on the rapid expansion of golf courses in urban regions, the first major assessment of amphibian and macroinvertebrate fauna confined to golf courses is presented in Paper IV. Threatened species and those more sensitive to eutrophication, tended to be associated with golf ponds relative to ponds of other lands, including nature-protected areas. As to fauna, there was no significant difference between ponds of these different lands.Paper V further investigates culturally maintained areas such as sacred groves and military zones and considers them as under-explored assets for ecosystem and landscape management. They can perform essential complementary ecological functions and may even be instrumental in securing ecosystem services in fragmented landscapes. The social dimension of their sustenance is emphasized and it is argued that such lands and their steward groups should be explicitly incorporated into management through adaptive co-management schemes. Finally, the benefits of planting and managing an introduced alien cacti species (Opuntia spp.) in a highly fragmented landscape are examined by a case study from Madagascar (Paper VI). The cacti provide a range of ecosystem services vital to human subsistence in a location of scarce food and water supplies. Its extensive network of hedges reinforces landscape connectivity, e.g. exchanges between disconnected patches of sacred forest, rich in endemic plant species, and may support endemic wildlife. The thesis demonstrates the need for rethinking current conceptions in ecosystem management. Biotic linkages and the land uses researched may generate biodiversity benefits and ecosystem services rarely recognized in conservation, science or policy. The results imply that identifying and strengthening essential ecosystem processes could reduce the conflict between biodiversity conservation and societal development in urban and other human dominated landscapes. New avenues can be created that contribute to sustainable use of the human life-support systems.
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| 3. |
- Parenmark, Fredric, 1974-
(författare)
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Premature Discharge from Intensive Care with Special Reference to Night-Time Discharge and Capacity Transfers
- 2023
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Objectives Intensive care is an expensive and limited resource, and when a demand supply mismatch between available beds and influx of patients occurs, one temporary measure is to discharge a patient to make room for the new admission. Sometimes the patient is discharged sooner from its original ICU than ideal; i.e., a so-called ‘premature discharge’. This could be either to a different ward within the same hospital if the patient is deemed well enough to cope with a lower level of care, or to another intensive care unit if critical care is still to be provided. Data from the Swedish intensive care register (SIR) showed that there was a high incidence and increased mortality of patients discharged at night. There were also differences in mortalities between patients that were transferred from one ICU to another. I have analysed the mortality associated with different types of ICU-to-ICU transfers and control groups and examined a national quality improvement project regarding discharges at night to see if mortality, incidence, or discharge culture could change. Methods All three studies are conducted with data from the Swedish intensive care register and vital status was ascertained by linking SIR to the Swedish population register. Study I consisted of two parts: mortality, and incidence of night-time discharge. The quality improvement project in Study I was analysed in a before and after approach with local improvement projects at different ICUs. In Studies II and III, transfers were grouped by the attending intensivist according to SIR guidelines into one of three defined categories: capacity transfer, clinical transfer, or repatriation. The groups were compared to each other in Study II, and capacity transfers were matched to a control group that remained in the ICU in Study III. Multilevel logistic regression was used, and all studies contained some statistics using individual ICUs as a random factor. Life sustaining treatment limitations were included in Studies II and III. Results In Study I, there was a decrease in night-time discharges during the study period. The incidence fell from 7.0% in 2006 to 4.9% in 2015. Alongside this, the mortality associated with night-time discharge was reduced, the odds ratio fell from 1.20 to 1.06 with a loss of significance. All this coincided in time with the national improvement project. Study II showed that 14.8% of all discharges from a Swedish ICU ended with transfer to another ICU, and that an increased mortality rate was associated with ICU-to-ICU transfers during periods of demand–supply mismatch. Capacity transfers were 15.8% of all transfers accounting for roughly 2.0% of ICU survivors. One in four capacity transferred patient died within 30 days of discharge, compared to one in seven for transfers due to clinical reasons. The third study showed that capacity transfer was associated with an average risk increase in 30-day mortality of 4.7%, and a 180-day mortality of 4.9% compared to non-transferred patients when analysed using a potential outcomes framework. Conclusion The studies concludes that patients experiencing a capacity transfer are exposed to increased mortality risk, both when compared to other types of inter hospital ICU-to-ICU transfers as well as when compared to patients that were not transferred. The increased risk appeared to be unrelated to patient characteristics and illness severity as well as many additional factors measured in the referring ICU. The studies also suggest that a suboptimal outcome after premature discharge at night can be changed and that a national project to adjust outcome and incidence can be undertaken with positive results.
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| 4. |
- Schill, Caroline, 1984-
(författare)
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Human Behaviour in Social-Ecological Systems : Insights from economic experiments and agent-based modelling
- 2017
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Progress towards sustainability requires changes in our individual and collective behaviour. Yet, our fundamental understanding of behaviour in relation to environmental change remains severely limited. In particular, little attention has been given to how individual and collective behaviours respond to, and are shaped by, non-linear environmental change (such as ‘regime shifts’) and its inherent uncertainties. The thesis makes two main contributions to the literature: 1) it provides one of the first accounts of human behaviour and collective action in relation to ecological regime shifts and associated uncertainties; and 2) extends the incipient behavioural common-pool resource literature that acknowledges social-ecological dynamics and ecological complexity. The overarching aim of this thesis is to further advance an empirically grounded understanding of human behaviour in social-ecological systems. In particular, the thesis attempts to unravel critical social-ecological factors and mechanisms for the sustainability of common-pool resources. This is especially relevant for contexts in which livelihoods can be more directly threatened by regime shifts. The following methods are applied: behavioural economic experiments in the lab (with students; Papers I and II) and in the field (with small-scale fishers from four different communities in the Colombian Caribbean; Paper III), and agent-based modelling empirically informed by a subset of the lab experiments (Paper IV). Paper I tests the effect of an endogenously driven regime shift on the emergence of cooperation and sustainable resource use. Paper II tests the effect of different risk levels of such a regime shift. The regime shift in both papers has negative consequences for the productivity of the shared resource. Paper III assesses the effect of different degrees of uncertainty about a climate-induced threshold in stock dynamics on the exploitation patterns; as well as the role of social and ecological local context. Paper IV explores critical individual-level factors and processes affecting the simultaneous emergence of collective action and sustainable resource use. Results cumulatively suggest that existing scientific knowledge indicating the potential for ecological regime shifts should be communicated to affected local communities, including the remaining uncertainties, as this information can encourage collective action for sustainable resource use. Results also highlight the critical role of ecological knowledge, knowledge-sharing, perceived ecological uncertainties, and the role local contexts play for sustainable outcomes. This thesis enriches the literature on social-ecological systems by demonstrating how a behavioural experimental approach can contribute new insights relevant for sustainability. Overall, these insights indicate that, given the opportunity and the willingness of people to come together, share knowledge, exchange ideas, and build trust, potential ecological crises can encourage collective action, and uncertainties can be turned into opportunities for dealing with change in constructive ways. This provides a hopeful outlook in the face of escalating environmental change and inherent uncertainties.
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| 5. |
- von Heland, Jacob, 1980-
(författare)
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Rowing social-ecological systems: morals, culture and resilience
- 2011
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The shift from management and governance of ecosystems to relational complex adaptive social-ecological systems (SES) emphasizes a dynamic and integrated humans-in-nature perspective. Such a shift also needs to investigate how diversity and differences in cultures and morals relate to the existence of SES. The papers of this thesis relate these dimensions to SES resilience theory. Paper I analyzes cultural and landscape ecological aspects of trees and tree planting in Androy, Madagascar. Culturally, planting trees serves as a symbol of renewal, purification, agreement and boundary-making. Ecologically, planting trees contributes to the generation of ecosystem services in an otherwise fragmented landscape. Paper II tests the role of forest patches for generating pollination services to local beans that constitute an important protein staple in Androy. The results indicate a significant effect of insect pollination on bean yields and a strong spatial pattern of locating bean plots closer to forests than expected by chance, improving rural food security. Paper III addresses the adaptive capacity of the indigenous forest management in Androy with regard to religious and climatic drivers of change. Paper IV is concerned with cultural analysis of the robustness of provisioning ecosystem services in Androy and the interdependence of morality, cultural practices and generated ecosystem services. Paper V explores how social-ecological memory (SEM) can be seen both as a source of inertia and path dependence and a source of adaptive capacity for renewal and reorganization in the emerging theory about social-ecological systems. Paper VI analyses the film Avatar and discusses ethical–epistemic obligations of researchers as cross-scale knowledge brokers in emerging forms of global environmental politics. The thesis has interdependencies between the social and the ecological and shown that cultural and moral analyses bring important insights and challenges to resilience thinking.
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| 6. |
- Schultz, Lisen, 1976-
(författare)
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Nurturing resilience in social-ecological systems : Lessons learned from bridging organizations
- 2009
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- In an increasingly complex, rapidly changing world, the capacity to cope with, adapt to, and shape change is vital. This thesis investigates how natural resource management can be organized and practiced to nurture this capacity, referred to as resilience, in social-ecological systems. Based on case studies and large-N data sets from UNESCO Biosphere Reserves (BRs) and the UN Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MA), it analyzes actors and social processes involved in adaptive co-management on the ground. Papers I & II use Kristianstads Vattenrike BR to analyze the roles of local stewards and bridging organizations. Here, local stewards, e.g. farmers and bird watchers, provide on-site management, detailed, long-term monitoring, and local ecological knowledge, build public support for ecosystem management, and hold unique links to specialized networks. A bridging organization strengthens their initiatives. Building and drawing on multi-level networks, it gathers different types of ecological knowledge, builds moral, political, legal and financial support from institutions and organizations, and identifies windows of opportunity for projects. Paper III synthesizes the MA community-based assessments and points to the importance of bridging organizations, leadership and vision, knowledge networks, institutions nested across scales, enabling policies, and high motivation among actors for adaptive co-management. Paper IV explores learning processes catalyzed by bridging organizations in BRs. 79 of the 148 BRs analyzed bridge local and scientific knowledge in efforts to conserve biodiversity and foster sustainable development, provide learning platforms, support knowledge generation (research, monitoring and experimentation), and frame information and education to target groups. Paper V tests the effects of participation and adaptive co-management in BRs. Local participation is positively linked to local support, successful integration of conservation and development, and effectiveness in achieving developmental goals. Participation of scientists is linked to effectiveness in achieving ‘conventional’ conservation goals and policy-makers enhance the integration of conservation and development. Adaptive co-management, found in 46 BRs, is positively linked to self-evaluated effectiveness in achieving developmental goals, but not at the expense of conservation. The thesis concludes that adaptive collaboration and learning processes can nurture resilience in social-ecological systems. Such processes often need to be catalyzed, supported and protected to survive. Therefore, bridging organizations are crucial in adaptive co-management.
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| 7. |
- Widström, Torun
(författare)
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Enhanced Energy Efficiency and Preservation of Historic Buildings : Methods and Tools for Modeling
- 2012
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Licentiatavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- As the environmental impacts of the energy usage of the world today becomes more and more evident, enhancement of energy performance of the already existing building stock becomes more urgent. Buildings belonging to the cultural heritage are often the ones that are most difficult to deal with in this context.The subject of this thesis is the use of building simulation of historic buildings. The task here is to identify and when necessary develop simulation tools and methods that are suitable for planning of retrofitting strategies in historic buildings, and to identify and analyze what demands such tools and methods would have to fulfill, in what contexts different simulation strategies are suitable, how the demands on the tools might be met and what results and how the results would facilitate the decision making process in the most optimal way. A powerful means to acquire such analyses is the use of whole-building simulation. In the case of historical buildings there are several aspects to take into consideration, determining the choice of simulation tool and method.This thesis includesInvestigation of the variability of the demands on simulation tools and methods that the historic buildings pose, and its implication on complexity of the simulation process, and suggestion of a complexity index tool.Investigation of the whole-building simulation process and how it complies with the demands identified, and how the exergy concept can be used, exemplified by a case study.Identification of a need for a tool and method for a large amount of cases not easily covered by abundantly available tools and methodsSuggestion of a tool and method to address these cases, and presentation of a case study where the suggested tool and method have been applied, with good agreement between the simulated and measured values.One important feature of the suggested tool is the Very Small Wall-part Method, that includes the assessment of especially damage prone points into the whole-building simulation model, otherwise unable to accommodate these points. Another is the damage risk assessment feature where a mould risk prediction tool is presented.
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| 8. |
- Barthel, Stephan, 1968-
(författare)
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Recalling Urban Nature : Linking City People to Ecosystem Services
- 2008
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Societal development is dependent on the generation of ecosystem services (ES) to sustain it; however, many ES are degrading. This thesis investigates how social-ecological features behind practices of actor groups shape the generation of ES. The empirical basis is case studies in the urban landscape of Stockholm, Sweden, and the methodological approach is interdisciplinary. Paper I shows that the urban landscape owes it current flow of ES to co-evolutionary processes and that governance with the aim of sustaining ES must take into account historical property rights and the involvement of a diversity of actor groups, as well as ecological processes of the larger landscape. Paper II studies allotment gardens, cemeteries and city parks in relation to the generation of pollination, seed dispersal and pest regulation. Differences in social features behind practice are reflected primary as higher abundance of pollinators in the informally managed allotment gardens and as differences in the compositions of seed dispersers and insectivores’ birds. Thus, voluntary and often ignored actor groups, motivated by sense-of-place, support the generation of some ES here. Paper III shows how practice, linked to ES generation, is retained and stored among allotment gardeners, and modified and transmitted through time, by means of social-ecological memory (SE-memory). SE-memory is an emergent property of a dual process of participation and reification and it facilitates monitoring of local change and links practice, often in habits, to place specific processes that underlie provisioning ES. Paper IV explores how spatial scale mismatches between ecological process and processes of management can be bridged by a spatially explicit and flexible social network structure of governance. Urban ES are a product of human driven co-evolution, consequently sustaining ES in urban landscapes is not about conservation without people, but shaped by and dependent on management practice by people. Practice that links to generation of ES are facilitated by SE-memory of local actors that holds long term management rights. Consequently, local communities of ecosystem practice, which contribute to the production of ES should explicitly be taken into account in urban green governance.
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| 9. |
- Bäckman, Carl G
(författare)
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The photo-diary and follow-up appointment on the ICU: Giving back the time to patients and relatives. : A descriptive and interventional study
- 2011
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Background: Patients on the ICU often spend a great deal of their time either unconscious or heavily sedated. When they return from the zone between life and death they are often in a state of confusion where dreams and delusions are intertwined with reality and it is not always easy to distinguish them apart. These experiences could lead to psychological problems and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Recovery may be improved by filling in the significant memory gaps and explaining what really happened during the “chaotic” time on the ICU. The provision of a diary describing the patients’ stay in ICU on a day to day basis and a follow-up meeting (together named the ICU-diary concept), may help the whole family to understand.Aim: The principal aim of this thesis was to see if the ICU-diary concept was of help to patients and relatives in the recovery after critical illness. A further aim was to look for precipitants in the ICU of PTSD.Material and Methods: ICU patients in a handful of European countries and their relatives have been studied. The studies have been single and multi-centred and we have used descriptive observational, randomised controlled and cohort study designs, including matched case-control designs. Quantitative methods have been used with questionnaires and structured interviews using established instruments (i.e Post-traumatic stress syndrome screening-14, Post-traumatic diagnostic scale, ICU memory tool, Short Form-36, Pearlin-Schooler Mastery Scale, Hopelessness scale) as the principal means of data collection.Results: The ICU-diary concept was seen to be a positive and useful aid in helping patients and their relatives understand the events that took place during the time on the ICU. It also decreased the risk for PTSD among patients and relatives. Patients that were supported with the ICU-diary concept perceived a better health-related quality of life even 3 years after the ICU stay. We did not find any definite improvement by the ICU-diary concept in mastery and hope. Variations in how the patients were cared for in the ICU had a significant effect on the development of PTSD. The implementation of an ICU diary, for instance, was associated with a lower frequency of PTSD.Conclusions: The ICU-diary concept was found helpful by patients and their relatives. It was associated with a reduction in new onset PTSD and improved health-related quality of life. The results are encouraging and suggest that an ICU diary may represent an important first step to help patients and relatives come to terms with their experiences during critical illness.ISBN 978-
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| 10. |
- Deutsch, Lisa, 1965-
(författare)
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Global trade, food production and ecosystem support : Making the interactions visible
- 2004
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Modern food production is a complex, globalized system in which what we eat and how it is produced are increasingly disconnected. This thesis examines some of the ways in which global trade has changed the mix of inputs to food and feed, and how this affects food security and our perceptions of sustainability. One useful indicator of the ecological impact of trade in food and feed products is the Appropriated Ecosystem Areas (ArEAs), which estimates the terrestrial and aquatic areas needed to produce all the inputs to particular products.The method is introduced in Paper I and used to calculate and track changes in imported subsidies to Swedish agriculture over the period 1962-1994. In 1994, Swedish consumers needed agricultural areas outside their national borders to satisfy more than a third of their food consumption needs. The method is then applied to Swedish meat production in Paper II to show that the term “Made in Sweden” is often a misnomer. In 1999, almost 80% of manufactured feed for Swedish pigs, cattle and chickens was dependent on imported inputs, mainly from Europe, Southeast Asia and South America. Paper III examines ecosystem subsidies to intensive aquaculture in two nations: shrimp production in Thailand and salmon production in Norway. In both countries, aquaculture was shown to rely increasingly on imported subsidies. The rapid expansion of aquaculture turned these countries from fishmeal net exporters to fishmeal net importers, increasingly using inputs from the Southeastern Pacific Ocean.As the examined agricultural and aquacultural production systems became globalized, levels of dependence on other nations’ ecosystems, the number of external supply sources, and the distance to these sources steadily increased. Dependence on other nations is not problematic, as long as we are able to acknowledge these links and sustainably manage resources both at home and abroad. However, ecosystem subsidies are seldom recognized or made explicit in national policy or economic accounts. Economic systems are generally not designed to receive feedbacks when the status of remote ecosystems changes, much less to respond in an ecologically sensitive manner. Papers IV and V discuss the problem of “masking” of the true environmental costs of production for trade. One of our conclusions is that, while the ArEAs approach is a useful tool for illuminating environmentally-based subsidies in the policy arena, it does not reflect all of the costs. Current agricultural and aquacultural production methods have generated substantial increases in production levels, but if policy continues to support the focus on yield and production increases alone, taking the work of ecosystems for granted, vulnerability can result. Thus, a challenge is to develop a set of complementary tools that can be used in economic accounting at national and international scales that address ecosystem support and performance.We conclude that future resilience in food production systems will require more explicit links between consumers and the work of supporting ecosystems, locally and in other regions of the world, and that food security planning will require active management of the capacity of all involved ecosystems to sustain food production.
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