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result(s) for
"Birch, Jennifer"
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Cost-effectiveness of dryland forest restoration evaluated by spatial analysis of ecosystem services
by
Aquino, Claudia Alvarez
,
Echeverría, Cristian
,
Schiappacasse, Ignacio
in
Animals
,
Arid zones
,
Biodiversity conservation
2010
Although ecological restoration is widely used to combat environmental degradation, very few studies have evaluated the cost-effectiveness of this approach. We examine the potential impact of forest restoration on the value of multiple ecosystem services across four dryland areas in Latin America, by estimating the net value of ecosystem service benefits under different reforestation scenarios. The values of selected ecosystem services were mapped under each scenario, supported by the use of a spatially explicit model of forest dynamics. We explored the economic potential of a change in land use from livestock grazing to restored native forest using different discount rates and performed a cost—benefit analysis of three restoration scenarios. Results show that passive restoration is cost-effective for all study areas on the basis of the services analyzed, whereas the benefits from active restoration are generally outweighed by the relatively high costs involved. These findings were found to be relatively insensitive to discount rate but were sensitive to the market value of carbon. Substantial variation in values was recorded between study areas, demonstrating that ecosystem service values are strongly context specific. However, spatial analysis enabled localized areas of net benefits to be identified, indicating the value of this approach for identifying the relative costs and benefits of restoration interventions across a landscape.
Journal Article
The prevalence of common and stress-related mental health disorders in healthcare workers based in pandemic-affected hospitals: a rapid systematic review and meta-analysis
2020
Background: Healthcare workers (HCWs) are considered at elevated risk of experiencing mental health disorders in working with patients with COVID-19.
Objective: To estimate the prevalence of common mental health disorders in HCWs based in hospitals where pandemic-affected patients were treated.
Method: Databases were searched for studies published before 30 March 2020. Quantitative synthesis was used to obtain estimates of the prevalence of mental health disorders in four time windows, determined a priori (the acute phase, i.e. during and up to 1.5 months post-pandemic; 1.5-5.9 months; 6-11.9 months; 12 months and later).
Results: Nineteen studies met the review criteria. They predominantly addressed the acute phase of the SARS outbreak in Asia. The most studied outcomes were clinically significant post-traumatic stress symptoms (PTSS) and general psychiatric caseness. For clinically significant PTSS in the acute phase, the prevalence estimate was 23.4% (95% CI 16.3, 31.2; N = 4147; I
2
= 96.2%); in the 12 months plus window, the estimate was 11.9% (8.4, 15.8; N = 1136; I
2
= 74.3%). For general psychiatric caseness, prevalence estimates were acute phase, 34.1% (18.7, 51.4; N = 3971; I
2
= 99.1%); 6-12 months, 17.9% (13.1, 23.2; N = 223; I
2
= 0.0%); 12 months plus, 29.3% (6.0, 61.0; N = 710; I
2
= 97.8%). No differences between doctors and nurses with respective to PTSS and general psychiatric caseness were apparent in the acute phase.
Conclusions: Mental health disorders are particularly common in HCWs working with pandemic-afflicted patients immediately following a pandemic, but the course of disorders following this period is poorly understood. There was considerable heterogeneity between studies, likely linked to methodological differences. More extended follow up of HCWs is needed.
* Mental health difficulties, in particular post-traumatic stress, are common in healthcare workers working with patients infected during a pandemic. The long-term impact of working in such environments is poorly understood, however.
Journal Article
An analysis of network brokerage and geographic location in fifteenth-century AD Northern Iroquoia
by
Hart, John P.
,
Birch, Jennifer
,
Winchell-Sweeney, Susan
in
15th century
,
Analysis
,
Archaeology
2019
Iroquoian villagers living in present-day Jefferson County, New York, at the headwaters of the St. Lawrence River and the east shore of Lake Ontario, played important roles in regional interactions during the fifteenth century AD, as brokers linking populations on the north shore of Lake Ontario with populations in eastern New York. This study employs a social network analysis and least cost path analysis to assess the degree to which geographical location may have facilitated the brokerage positions of site clusters within pan-Iroquoian social networks. The results indicate that location was a significant factor in determining brokerage. In the sixteenth century AD, when Jefferson County was abandoned, measurable increases in social distance between other Iroquoian populations obtained. These results add to our understandings of the dynamic social landscape of fifteenth and sixteenth century AD northern Iroquoia, complementing recent analyses elsewhere of the roles played in regional interaction networks by populations located along geopolitical frontiers.
Journal Article
Cost—benefit analysis of ecological networks assessed through spatial analysis of ecosystem services
by
Robins, James
,
Moody, Christopher
,
Cordingley, Justine
in
Agricultural land
,
Animal, plant and microbial ecology
,
Applied ecology
2012
1. The development of ecological networks could enhance the ability of species to disperse across fragmented landscapes and could mitigate against the negative impacts of climate change. The development of such networks will require widespread ecological restoration at the landscape scale, which is likely to be costly. However, little information is available regarding the cost-effectiveness of restoration approaches. 2. We address this knowledge gap by examining the potential impact of landscape-scale habitat restoration on the value of multiple ecosystem services across the catchment of the River Frome in Dorset, England. This was achieved by mapping the market value of four ecosystem services (carbon storage, crops, livestock and timber) under three different restoration scenarios, estimating restoration costs, and calculating net benefits. 3. The non-market value of additional services (cultural, aesthetic and recreational value) was elicited from local stakeholders using an online survey tool. Flood risk was assessed using a scoring approach. Spatial Multi-Criteria Analysis (MCA) was conducted, incorporating both market and non-market values, to evaluate the relative benefits of restoration scenarios. These were compared with impacts of restoration on biodiversity value. 4. Multi-Criteria Analysis results consistently ranked restoration scenarios above a non-restoration comparator, reflecting the increased provision of multiple ecosystem services. Restoration scenarios also provided benefits to biodiversity, in terms of increased species richness and habitat connectivity. However, restoration costs consistently exceeded the market value of ecosystem services. 5. Synthesis and applications. Establishment of ecological networks through ecological restoration is unlikely to deliver net economic benefits in landscapes dominated by agricultural land use. This reflects the high costs of ecological restoration in such landscapes. The cost-effectiveness of ecological networks will depend on how the benefits provided to people are valued, and on how the value of non-market benefits are weighted against the costs of reduced agricultural and timber production. Future plans for ecological restoration should incorporate local stakeholder values, to ensure that benefits to people are maximised.
Journal Article
Nation Building and Social Signaling in Southern Ontario: A.D. 1350–1650
by
Hart, John P.
,
Shafie, Termeh
,
Birch, Jennifer
in
Archaeology
,
Archaeology - methods
,
Biology and Life Sciences
2016
Pottery is a mainstay of archaeological analysis worldwide. Often, high proportions of the pottery recovered from a given site are decorated in some manner. In northern Iroquoia, late pre-contact pottery and early contact decoration commonly occur on collars-thick bands of clay that encircle a pot and extend several centimeters down from the lip. These decorations constitute signals that conveyed information about a pot's user(s). In southern Ontario the period A.D. 1350 to 1650 witnessed substantial changes in socio-political and settlement systems that included population movement, coalescence of formerly separate communities into large villages and towns, waxing and waning of regional strife, the formation of nations, and finally the development of three confederacies that each occupied distinct, constricted areas. Social network analysis demonstrates that signaling practices changed to reflect these regional patterns. Networks become more consolidated through time ultimately resulting in a \"small world\" network with small degrees of separation between sites reflecting the integration of communities within and between the three confederacies.
Journal Article
Failure of concordance of the Farnsworth D15 test and the Nagel anomaloscope matching range in anomalous trichromatism
by
BIRCH, JENNIFER
in
Anomalous trichromats
,
Biological and medical sciences
,
Color Perception - physiology
2008
The Farnsworth D15 test (D15) was developed for use in occupational guidance. People with significant color deficiency, including all dichromats are expected to fail and people with slight color deficiency are expected to pass. Pass is a circular results diagram and fail an interlacing pattern with one or more red-green isochromatic errors (Farnsworth, 1947). The Nagel anomaloscope is a “gold standard” reference test for identifying and classifying red-green color deficiency. The matching range on the red/green mixture scale indicates the severity of the discrimination deficit. Pass/fail results for the D15 are presented for 107 protanomalous and 410 deuteranomalous trichromats and compared with the anomaloscope matching range. Thirty-six percent of the subjects examined failed the D15. Protanomalous trichromats are able to utilize perceived luminance contrast to obtain good results on the D15 but 42% of these subjects failed the D15 compared with 35% of deuteranomalous subjects. Failure of the D15 was clearly related to the Nagel matching range in deuteranomalous trichromatism but not in protanomalous trichromatism. For example, 84% of deuteranomalous subjects with matching ranges > 30 scale units failed the D15 but only 2% with matching ranges < 9 scale units were unsuccessful. In comparison, 53% of protanomalous subjects with matching ranges > 15 scale units and 33% of subjects with matching ranges < 5 scale units were unsuccessful. Protanomalous trichromats with apparently minimal color deficiency are therefore shown to have poor practical hue discrimination ability as measured with this test.
Journal Article
Current Research on the Historical Development of Northern Iroquoian Societies
The archaeological record of Northern Iroquoian peoples contributes to global questions about ethnogenesis, the emergence of settled village life, agricultural intensification, the development of complex organizational structures, and processes of cultural and colonial entanglement. In the last decade, the rapid accumulation of data and the application of contemporary theoretical perspectives have led to significant advances in Iroquoian archaeology, including new insights about how demographic, ecological, and cultural processes intersect at multiple temporal and spatial scales. Internal and external factors accelerated processes of cultural change, particularly during periods of conflict, coalescence, and encroachment. This review considers the historical development of Northern Iroquoian societies from the beginning of the Late Woodland through the colonial era. The dynamism of the settlement landscape is highlighted, together with the fluidity of sociopolitical identities.
Journal Article
Coalescent Communities: Settlement Aggregation and Social Integration in Iroquoian Ontario
2012
This paper explores processes of settlement aggregation among ancestral Huron-Wendat populations in south-central Ontario, Canada. During the fifteenth century A.D., numerous small communities came together, forming large, fortified village aggregates. In order to understand these processes a multiscalar analytical approach was combined with a conceptual framework emphasizing cross-cultural perspectives on coalescent societies, the archaeology of communities, and historical trajectories of societal change. Regional settlement data are presented to illustrate the movement and increasing size of settlements. In order to determine how individual coalescent communities were formed and maintained, a single village relocation sequence is examined in detail. This sequence illustrates how people constructed, inhabited, and negotiated domestic and public spaces in these new community aggregates. Detailed analyses of the occupational histories of these sites point to the creation of new community-based identities, corporate decision-making structures, and increasing social integration over time. The results of this study demonstrate that while settlement aggregation can be documented at the regional level, only detailed intrasite analyses can identify the small-scale changes in practice that reflect the lived experience of coalescence.
Journal Article
Benefits and costs of ecological restoration: Rapid assessment of changing ecosystem service values at a U.K. wetland
by
Stattersfield, Alison J.
,
Balmford, Andrew
,
Lester, Martin
in
Agricultural land
,
Agriculture
,
Aquatic habitats
2014
Restoration of degraded land is recognized by the international community as an important way of enhancing both biodiversity and ecosystem services, but more information is needed about its costs and benefits. In Cambridgeshire, U.K., a long‐term initiative to convert drained, intensively farmed arable land to a wetland habitat mosaic is driven by a desire both to prevent biodiversity loss from the nationally important Wicken Fen National Nature Reserve (Wicken Fen NNR) and to increase the provision of ecosystem services. We evaluated the changes in ecosystem service delivery resulting from this land conversion, using a new Toolkit for Ecosystem Service Site‐based Assessment (TESSA) to estimate biophysical and monetary values of ecosystem services provided by the restored wetland mosaic compared with the former arable land. Overall results suggest that restoration is associated with a net gain to society as a whole of$199 ha−1y−1, for a one‐off investment in restoration of $ 2320 ha−1. Restoration has led to an estimated loss of arable production of$2040 ha−1y−1, but estimated gains of $ 671 ha−1y−1 in nature‐based recreation,$120 ha−1y−1 from grazing, $ 48 ha−1y−1 from flood protection, and a reduction in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions worth an estimated$72 ha−1y−1. Management costs have also declined by an estimated $ 1325 ha−1y−1. Despite uncertainties associated with all measured values and the conservative assumptions used, we conclude that there was a substantial gain to society as a whole from this land‐use conversion. The beneficiaries also changed from local arable farmers under arable production to graziers, countryside users from towns and villages, and the global community, under restoration. We emphasize that the values reported here are not necessarily transferable to other sites. A detailed site‐scale assessment of benefits and costs of the conversion of arable land to wetland has been carried out in terms of ecosystem service values in the two states. It shows that restoration is associated with a net gain to society of $199 ha−1y−1 and that the balance of benficiaries shifts from the private to the public sector.
Journal Article
The role of radiocarbon dating in advancing Indigenous-led archaeological research agendas
by
Sioui, Linda A.
,
Birch, Jennifer
,
Richard, Jean-Francois
in
American Indians
,
Archaeological research
,
Archaeology
2022
Meaningful collaborations between archaeologists and descendant communities and nations is a necessary component of archaeological practice in the 2020s and beyond. While calls for decolonising the social sciences and humanities have become a common refrain, practical methodologies for supplanting settler-colonial research practice have been less apparent. We detail how the development of independent radiocarbon-based chronologies in archaeology is one such substantive path forward. As a joint group of Indigenous and Euro-American and Euro-Canadian researchers, we outline how collaborative research agendas that privilege the knowledge and interests of descendant communities and include independent chronology building can be developed and achieved, securing mutual benefit and distributing authority in the construction of archaeologically derived Indigenous histories.
Journal Article