Femoral secretions and copulatory plugs convey chemical information about male identity and dominance status in Iberian rock lizards (Lacerta monticola)

Socially dominant males often signal their status to rival males and/or females. We tested the hypotheses that Lacerta monticola femoral gland secretions and copulatory plugs convey chemical information about male identity and dominance status. We estimated male dominance status by staging male–male agonistic encounters in a neutral arena. We then conducted two experiments to compare male tongue-flick behavior toward chemical stimuli consisting of cotton swabs bearing (1) deionized water (control), the lizard’s own femoral secretions, and the femoral secretions of another male and (2) phosphate-buffered saline solution (control), the lizard’s own plug products, and the plug products of another male. Results indicate that males discriminated their own femoral secretions and plugs from those of other males. They also discriminated morphological attributes of other males that were associated with dominance status based on chemical cues arising from femoral secretions and discriminated the dominance status of other males based on chemical cues arising from the plugs. Femoral secretions that convey information about male identity and dominance status may be hypothesized to function in the establishment of L. monticola dominance hierarchies through scent-marking of territories. We suggest that copulatory plugs and femoral secretions may allow males to scent-mark the female body and postulate that this behavior may influence male and female reproductive decisions under selective pressures of sperm competition.     

SOCPROG programs: analysing animal social structures

SOCPROG is a set of programs which analyses data on animal associations. Data usually come from observations of the social behaviour of individually identifiable animals. Associations among animals, sampling periods, restrictions on the data and association indices can be defined very flexibly. SOCPROG can analyse data sets including 1,000 or more individuals. Association matrices are displayed using sociograms, principal coordinates analysis, multidimensional scaling and cluster analyses. Permutation tests, Mantel and related tests and matrix correlation methods examine hypotheses about preferred associations among individuals and classes of individual. Weighted network statistics are calculated and can be tested against null hypotheses. Temporal analyses include displays of lagged association rates (rates of reassociation following an association). Models can be fitted to lagged association rates. Multiple association measures, including measures produced by other programs such as genetic or range use data, may be analysed using Mantel tests and principal components analysis. SOCPROG also performs mark-recapture population analyses and movement analyses. SOCPROG is written in the programming language MATLAB and may be downloaded free from the World Wide Web.     

More than just linking the nodes: civil society actors as intermediaries in the design and implementation of payments for ecosystem services–the case of a blue carbon project in Costa Rica

While in many cases the benefits of ecosystem services (ES) can be enjoyed on different scales, the provision of ES requires engagement and commitment at the local scale. Therefore, the local level becomes important when thinking about compensation schemes or payments for ecosystem services (PES) as an approach to managing ES. The difficult task of bringing together different actors and institutions at different scales for specific conservation projects at the local level often remains in the hands of intermediaries. In this paper, we investigate the role of a civil society organisation (CSO) as an intermediary organisation in a PES scheme, the Community Blue Carbon Project (CBCP) in Costa Rica. To assess the role of intermediaries in a PES scheme, we rely on social network analysis and examine the position and role of the intermediary organisation. Based on Net-Map interviews, which is an interview-based mapping tool that helps people understand, visualise, discuss and improve situations in which many different actors influence outcomes, we find that the intermediary organisation in the CBCP is composed of several institutional and individual intermediaries who create both formal networks for connecting the international to the local level and informal networks for creating trusting relationships among the actors. Different spatial levels are reflected within the CSO’s organisational structure, and the CSO mitigates the distributional, procedural, recognition and contextual aspects of environmental justice.     

Facilitating (?) urban agriculture in Philadelphia: sustainability narratives in the inequitable city

In 2008, the city of Philadelphia made increasing healthy food access a priority for sustainable development. Recognising that almost 25% of the population are considered food insecure, government agencies, non-governmental organisations and community leaders sought to increase food access through increasing food production and access to land in the city. Urban agriculture has gradually been incorporated in sustainability narratives in the past decade, both providing a platform for advocates to inform on policymaking, and potentially stripping away the political and activist origins of gaining access to food, land and green spaces in the city. In this paper, we argue that the depoliticising of urban agriculture advocacy through its incorporation in sustainability planning may serve to increase existing inequities in the city. Focusing on the policy-making scale, we examine measures enacted under the Philadelphia Greenworks Sustainability Plan to facilitate urban agriculture in the city. Our preliminary findings suggest that the processes by which urban agriculture gains acceptance demonstrate a disconnect in urban agriculture advocacy and policymaking and further work is needed to understand the impacts of the formalising of urban agriculture in Philadelphia.     

Local energy generation projects: assessing equity and risks

Micro- and small-scale low-carbon energy generators embedded within villages, towns and cities can provide a valuable income stream for local communities among other potential benefits. There are a range of social, political, technical and environmental factors that may impact upon the success of a planned energy generation project; however, these factors are rarely considered in unison. The aim of this research is to investigate and understand the concerns relating to equity and distributional justice that impact upon local groups interested in developing energy projects and to determine whether a whole systems approach can be used to draw out perceived issues. This has been achieved by working with two small village groups to test a newly developed energy equity assessment tool. This paper reports research findings from two villages in the UK both planning energy projects that intended to benefit their respective villages and examines perceived issues relating to equity and distributional justice associated with the proposed schemes. The research highlights some challenges facing community groups when planning micro- and small-scale energy projects and demonstrates the commitment, tenacity and high levels of personal risk that these groups have to bear in order to bring their projects to fruition and comments as to the type of actions that may be required to more wholly consider equity issues while developing future energy policy.     

Forest clearing and sex ratio in forest-dwelling wood ant <Emphasis Type="Italic">Formica aquilonia</Emphasis>

Sex ratios of ants have been shown to vary with food resource levels in several studies, but it is not known whether forest clear-cutting has any effect on sex ratio of aphid-tending forest-dwelling ants. We investigated whether the offspring sex ratio of the forest dwelling ant Formica aquilonia varied as a response to clear-cutting. We found that the proportion of males was smaller in clear-cuts than in adjacent forests. Our results are among the first showing that anthropogenic changes in forest structures may have a potential to modify sex ratios of social insects and other forest-dwelling animals.     

International equity in climate change policy

Equity discussions in climate change policy focus on mitigation. Climate change impacts, adaptation and decision making are also important. General equity principles can be related to specific proposals for equitable sharing of mitigation but no objective preference for any principle exists. Most promising are mixed approaches, that combine various equity principles in a process oriented setting. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Does the presence of wind turbines have negative externalities for people in their surroundings? Evidence from well-being data

Throughout the world, governments foster the deployment of wind power to mitigate negative externalities of conventional electricity generation, notably CO₂ emissions. Wind turbines, however, are not free of externalities themselves, particularly interference with landscape aesthetics. We quantify these negative externalities using the life satisfaction approach. To this end, we combine household data from the German Socio-Economic Panel Study (SOEP) with a novel panel dataset on over 20,000 installations. Based on geographical coordinates and construction dates, we establish causality in a difference-in-differences design. Matching techniques drawing on exogenous weather data and geographical locations of residence ensure common trend behaviour. We show that the construction of wind turbines close to households exerts significant negative external effects on residential well-being, although they seem both spatially and temporally limited, being restricted to about 4000 m around households and decaying after five years at the latest. Robustness checks, including view shed analyses based on digital terrain models and placebo regressions, confirm our results.     

Social Network Analysis of Multi-level Linkages: A Swedish Case Study on Northern Forest-Based Sectors

Forest use in Northern Sweden is being influenced both by global trends and local situations. This results in interactions between numerous groups that may impact local forest governance. Social network analysis can here provide insight into the total pattern of positive, negative, and cross-level interactions within user group community structure (within and among groups). This study analyses interactions within selected renewable resource sectors in two northern Swedish municipalities, both with regard to whether they are positive, neutral, or negative, as well as with regard to how local actors relate to actors across levels, e.g., with regional, national, and international actors. The study illustrates that many interactions both within and outside a given sector are seen as neutral or positive, and that considerable interaction and impact are defined as national and in some cases even international. It also indicates that the impact of Sweden’s only existing Model Forest may to some extent constitute a bridge between different sectors and levels, in comparison with the interactions between sectors in a municipality where such a cooperation mechanism does not exist.     

Three Dimensions of Social Media Messaging Success by Environmental NGOs

Studies show that NGOs persist in using social media to impart unidirectional messages rather than taking advantage of the participatory nature of networked media. Fear of a loss of message control may be at the heart of NGOs’ desire to keep social media messages on track. The current study examines the success of an environmental NGO in keeping its social media messages under control using quantitative content analysis of an NGO-promoted hashtag, #climatemarch, during a United Nations conference on climate change in 2015. Three dimensions of social media message success – volume, topic/valence, and participants – are proposed.