Texas Latino College Student Attitudes Toward Natural Resources and the Environment

Abstract: Latinos in the United States are an increasing segment of the population and are becoming important stakeholders in the management of natural resources. Although Latinos have been included in attitudinal research on environmental concerns, few studies have focused exclusively on Latino attitudes toward natural resources and the environment. We surveyed Texas college and university students of Mexican descent (n = 635) to determine their environmental concerns. Using the New Ecological Paradigm (NEP), we determined an environmental concern score for each respondent and compared this index to several demographic variables. We found that gender, a political candidate's environmental position, mother's education, combined parental income, and, to a lesser degree, the number of grandparents born in the United States and religiosity (church attendance), were important model variables. We hypothesized that acculturation would be an important factor in predicting NEP scores; however, acculturation level was not an important predictor in our study, which we attribute to both the nature of our sample (i.e., highly acculturated college students) and small sample sizes of less-acculturated college students. We recommend that future research consider determining the importance of acculturation in Latino attitudes toward natural resources and the environment.     

A review of habitat selection by the swamp rat,Rattus lutreolus (Rodentia: Muridae)

Abstract This review clarifies important points on habitat selection by the Swamp Rat Rattus lutreolus (Rodentia: Muridae), a species that has been the subject of much research in Australia and has provided a useful model for understanding ecological and biological processes. It also provides an opportunity to cite important earlier research, not readily available through electronic search engines, thus bringing it into current literature to avoid its disappearance into Internet obscurity. We comment on some papers in the literature to correct errors detected and to emphasize the importance of due care in all aspects of a research project, including its reporting. We show that both floristic and structural components have been reported as important to an understanding of habitat and microhabitat selection by R. lutreolus and conclude that it is vegetation density that is of paramount importance. Female R. lutreolus are clearly dominant in driving microhabitat selection, occupying the ‘best’ or densest habitats with male R. lutreolus occupying the next best and Pseudomys or other species, where present occupying the remainder. This demonstrates the important role that intraspecific and interspecific competition play in determining habitat selection. Direct predation and the perception of predation risk may also play a role in habitat selection, again perceived to be pushing individuals towards denser vegetation, representing ‘better cover’. Whether these effects operate as bottom‐up or top‐down needs careful consideration. Climatic variables, such as ENSO‐affecting productivity, and related variables such as temperature and humidity may also play important roles in habitat selection, as can disturbance effects such as wildfire. The relative importance of all of these potential determining factors may vary from place to place, particularly when climatic clines are involved.