Visions of Nature and Environmental Sustainability: Shellfish Harvesting in the Dutch Wadden Sea

The concept of sustainability has several, sometimes contrasting, meanings that may generate confusion, misunderstanding, and conflict concerning conservation and restoration practices. It is therefore desirable to clarify the concept of sustainability, thereby potentially contributing to mutual understanding, especially when social conflicts arise. This article discusses a recently published typology of three conceptions of sustainability that range from economic to ecocentric valuations of nature. We argue that the typology is incomplete because it does not include the arcadian approaches. For this reason, we introduce a “tripolar model” for conceptions of sustainability, applying it to the debate on shellfish harvesting in the Dutch Wadden Sea. We conclude that the particular visions or conceptions of sustainability held by relevant actors may have an impact on strategies for conservation.     

Representations of Nature on the Mongolian Steppe: An Investigation of Scientific Knowledge Construction

Extensive land degradation across the Mongolian steppe has prompted a variety of multinational and multidisciplinary research projects over recent years. The situation provides an important opportunity to investigate and illuminate some of the international, national, and local dimensions of scientific practice that critically condition the production of environmental knowledge. In this article I juxtapose the competing knowledge bases and assumptions of various relevant groups (including natural vs. social scientists, nationalist Chinese vs. ethnic Mongolians, and urban intellectuals vs. indigenous herders) to develop the argument that multiple ideological and institutional boundaries work together to circumscribe scientific inquiry and data collection. The situated construction of knowledge undermines prospects for improving incremental objectivity and impedes more comprehensive understanding of serious environmental problems. [Chinese grasslands, land degradation, indigenous knowledge, sociology of science, interdisciplinary research]     

Cook: The Extraordinary Voyages of Captain James Cook

Cook: The Extraordinary Voyages of Captain James Cook . Nicholas Thomas. New York: Walker and Co., 2003. 467 pp.     

Azolla: Botany,physiology, and use as a green manure

This is a comprehensive review of literature pertaining to the aquatic fern Azolla and its nitrogen-fixing algal symbiont, Anabaena azollae. The preceding decade has witnessed an explosive growth in research on Azolla, and hopefully this paper will facilitate those efforts. The paper is broken into three major categories: botany, physiology and biochemistry, and agriculture. The botany section includes a world distribution map and reference tables for the 6 Azolla species, and includes the first review of literature on Anabaena azollae. The physiology and biochemistry section covers the range of topics from environmental factors to life processes and nitrogen fixation. Tables on the effect of growth regulators and on the rate of nitrogen fixation measured by acetylene reduction are presented. The agriculture section draws extensively from literature published in the People’s Republic of China and in the Democratic Republic of Vietnam. The major focus of this section is on the history and management practices for Azolla cultivation as a green manure for rice. The effect of weed suppression, use as a fish food and animal fodder, and the insects and diseases of Azolla are also discussed.     

The Botany Array Resource: e-Northerns, Expression Angling, and promoter analyses

The Botany Array Resource provides the means for obtaining and archiving microarray data for Arabidopsis thaliana as well as biologist-friendly tools for viewing and mining both our own and other's data, for example, from the AtGenExpress Consortium. All the data produced are publicly available through the web interface of the database at http://bbc.botany.utoronto.ca. The database has been designed in accordance with the Minimum Information About a Microarray Experiment convention -- all expression data are associated with the corresponding experimental details. The database is searchable and it also provides a set of useful and easy-to-use web-based data-mining tools for researchers with sophisticated yet understandable output graphics. These include Expression Browser for performing 'electronic Northerns', Expression Angler for identifying genes that are co-regulated with a gene of interest, and Promomer for identifying potential cis-elements in the promoters of individual or co-regulated genes.