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Concepts of Niches

A. Townsend Peterson, Jorge Soberón, Richard G. Pearson, Robert P. Anderson, Enrique Martínez-Meyer, Miguel Nakamura, and Miguel Bastos Araújo

in Ecological Niches and Geographic Distributions (MPB-49)

This chapter proposes a formal and operational definition of a particular niche concept, introduces approaches for characterizing and measuring it, and uses it as a conceptual and terminological ... More

This chapter proposes a formal and operational definition of a particular niche concept, introduces approaches for characterizing and measuring it, and uses it as a conceptual and terminological basis for describing and understanding much of the related practices of ecological niche modeling and species distribution modeling. It begins with a discussion of the themes that are most important in understanding niche concepts, focusing on three interrelated points: the meaning of “exist indefinitely”; what kinds of variables constitute the hypervolume; and the nature of feedback loops between a species and the variables composing the hypervolume. The chapter then considers the Grinnellian and Eltonian niches as well as the practicalities of estimating Grinnellian niches. It also considers two important interpretations of the niche concept, one of which is concerned with geographic and environmental spaces, and the other emphasizes the Eltonian niche.Less

Niches and Geographic Distributions

A. Townsend Peterson, Jorge Soberón, Richard G. Pearson, Robert P. Anderson, Enrique Martínez-Meyer, Miguel Nakamura, and Miguel Bastos Araújo

in Ecological Niches and Geographic Distributions (MPB-49)

This chapter considers a concept of niche that emphasizes multidimensional spaces of scenopoetic variables and provides a natural connection to the study of geographic distributions of species. It ... More

This chapter considers a concept of niche that emphasizes multidimensional spaces of scenopoetic variables and provides a natural connection to the study of geographic distributions of species. It first explains the relations between environmental and geographic spaces before discussing the use of equations to link spatially explicit population growth patterns to variation in the ecological characteristics of species. It then describes the BAM diagram, a Venn diagram that displays the joint fulfillment in geographic space of three sets of conditions that together determine species distribution: biotic conditions, abiotic conditions, and movement of the species. The chapter also explores the spatial resolution of scenopoetic variables, estimation of the fundamental and existing fundamental niches, the biotically reduced niche, and caveats about reducing Grinnellian niches and the Eltonian Noise Hypothesis. Finally, it shows how distributional areas and ecological niches can be estimated.Less

Species’ Occurrence Data

A. Townsend Peterson, Jorge Soberón, Richard G. Pearson, Robert P. Anderson, Enrique Martínez-Meyer, Miguel Nakamura, and Miguel Bastos Araújo

in Ecological Niches and Geographic Distributions (MPB-49)

This chapter discusses the process of transforming a species’ primary occurrence data into a synthetic understanding of the geographic and ecological conditions under which the species occurs. The ... More

This chapter discusses the process of transforming a species’ primary occurrence data into a synthetic understanding of the geographic and ecological conditions under which the species occurs. The focus is on correlative models based on occurrence data, since such models can have quite broad applicability. The chapter first considers different types of occurrence data as well as factors that connect the suitability of a site to the existence of a data record documenting the species’ presence or absence at that site. It then examines variations in the geographic and ecological characteristics of species distributions and occurrences, along with sampling bias in geographic and environmental spaces. It also describes the characteristics of absence data before concluding with an assessment of issues of content and availability that affect occurrence data.Less

Introduction

in The Geographic Imagination of Modernity: Geography, Literature, and Philosophy in German Romanticism

This chapter introduces the topics of the book, noting the rise of geography in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries as a conceptual matrix for understanding culture and society. The ... More

This chapter introduces the topics of the book, noting the rise of geography in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries as a conceptual matrix for understanding culture and society. The discussion claims that during this period, European society developed a pronounced historical consciousness. The historicization of human existence lies at the heart of modernity. The discussion argues that the moment European society came to deem historicity to be a fundamental mode of being in the world, it also realized that to be in the world necessarily meant to inhabit the earth and that geographic space is important for human existence.Less

Dwelling in Time: Figurations of Geohistory

in The Geographic Imagination of Modernity: Geography, Literature, and Philosophy in German Romanticism

This chapter charts the convergence of geography and history, an inextricable intertwinement of geographic space and historical time during the period that has usually been seen as characterized by ... More

This chapter charts the convergence of geography and history, an inextricable intertwinement of geographic space and historical time during the period that has usually been seen as characterized by the absolute dominance of the historical paradigm. It argues for the emergence of geohistory at around 1800. Taking into account the philosophy of history, geographic science, and poetry, this chapter holds that it was precisely the theoretical precursors of historism from Herder to Friedrich Schlegel and Wilhelm von Humboldt who laid the foundation of geohistorical thinking. It describes a radically new picture of modern historical thought, contending that historism and geohistorical thinking represented its two complementary strands.Less

Epilogue

in The Geographic Imagination of Modernity: Geography, Literature, and Philosophy in German Romanticism

This book has attempted to reconstruct the rise of a distinct geographic paradigm during the same period, offering an archaeology of geographic space and spatialization. While providing some final ... More

This book has attempted to reconstruct the rise of a distinct geographic paradigm during the same period, offering an archaeology of geographic space and spatialization. While providing some final caveats, this chapter explores the legacy of the geographic imagination by sketching out two aspects of its impact in the nineteenth century: on political thought and on cultural thought. It examines the nation-state and geopolitics, the world of ethnic cultures, and geographic modernity. It notes that the emergence of the modern geographic imagination coincided with the rise of a momentous idea in political thought, namely, the idea of nation, in the early nineteenth century. In the nineteenth century, geographic imagination was occupied with the development of European peoples toward nation-statehood.Less

Health, neighbourhoods and complexity

Tim Blackman

in Placing health: Neighbourhood renewal, health improvement and complexity

This chapter discusses the complexity theory in relation to the concept of neighbourhood. It outlines the key ideas of this theory and explains the analysis of neighbourhoods and their wider ... More

This chapter discusses the complexity theory in relation to the concept of neighbourhood. It outlines the key ideas of this theory and explains the analysis of neighbourhoods and their wider environments as open, dynamic, and adaptive systems. The chapter attempts to link the complexity theory with Charles Ragin's qualitative comparative analysis (QCA) method. It also discusses the interrelationships of social space and geographical space, and highlights the importance of understanding causal combinations as a basis for intervention.Less

Modernizing the north: women, internal colonization and indigenous peoples

John M. MacKenzie

in Female Imperialism and National Identity: Imperial Order Daughters of the Empire

The chapter highlights the influence of the USA and looks to the IODE's most recent projects in the Canadian north, covering the demise of the ‘racial hierarchy’ and the IODE's corresponding shift of ... More

The chapter highlights the influence of the USA and looks to the IODE's most recent projects in the Canadian north, covering the demise of the ‘racial hierarchy’ and the IODE's corresponding shift of focus away from immigrants to the canadianising of ‘new’ Canadians. It shows the IODE negotiating a position increasingly away from that of government, moving towards children and individuals as the focus of its ‘charity’. The IODE has shifted focus, a shift that began during the Cold War, to a group of citizens who, although living within Canadian territory, were previously considered ‘foreign’. This shift represented a change in Canada's identity from that of a dominion in the Empire, with an identity centered on Britain, to that of a nation situated in Canadian geographic space. The decreasing confidence in colonial attitudes was reflected in the drifting away of the IODE from involvement with the Canadian government towards the spaces of charity and home. This study draws out the irony manifest in the attempt to assimilate indigenous peoples into the national project, and make them the same as other Canadians, while clinging to the spatial and social difference of the north. As this chapter shows, through the IODE's work in the Canadian north, this colonisation took place within a national boundary.Less