Browsing by Subject "Life History"

Now showing 1 - 3 of 3
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    Embodying Empowerment: Gender, Schooling, Relationships and Life History in Tanzania
    (2016-05) Willemsen, Laura
    This dissertation explores the interplay of education and empowerment as it is lived by seven young Tanzanian women and developed at a unique all-girls’ secondary school in Tanzania. Drawing on interviews and participant observation from eight trips over four years, this study offers a longitudinal, ethnographic exploration of the school, Sasema Secondary School for Girls, to explore the rationale and production of curricula, pedagogies and practices that draw on global, national and local notions of empowerment and education. This study illuminates the tensions, vulnerabilities, feats and aspirations in young women’s lives through employing a life history approach focusing on three young women’s complete life histories. It examines the role that schooling has played, and has not played, in what these women describe as a contingent movement from vulnerability toward increasing security and well-being. This dissertation advances two main arguments: First, by exploring the practices and pedagogies at Sasema that young women have found to be valuable in their lives both at and beyond school, it demonstrates the significance of, and possibilities for, emotional and social learning through schooling while underscoring the importance of care in schools. As such, this research reinforces calls to conceptualize educational quality beyond the metrics of academic knowledge or vocational skills, traditionally thought of as schooling’s raison d’être, toward more holistic notions of education for the whole person. Second, this study complicates and adds nuance to accepted notions of empowerment through education by offering deeply contextualized portraits of young women’s lives as they understand them to be unfolding. Although empowerment is frequently analyzed in economic or political terms, this work reveals that, for these young women, empowerment is also profoundly psychosocial and even corporeal. Furthermore, additional forces, such as family, religion and community, are at play in their notions of processes that advance their well-being and the well-being of others. As such, this study reveals disjunctures between empowerment through education as it lived by young women in Tanzania and as discussed by scholars of international development, education and gender.
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    The life history of Anax junius (Drury) in Minnesota: Determining instars, growth development pathways, emergence phenology, and the effect of temperature on development (Odonata: Aeshnidae)
    (2019-12) Thompson, Ami
    This dissertation is a report based on careful observations of Anax junius, the common green darner dragonfly. Odonatology, the study of dragonflies and damselflies, is presently at a delightful stage of maturity. The basics of odonate life history are well understood but the details of how different species express variations in their development and reproduction, in response to different evolutionary drivers, is ripe for exploration. These variations can only be discovered through field observations executed with thoughtful experimental design and then the observational data collected must be interpreted with appropriate statistical and analytical tools. For a naturalist with a patient and inquisitive mind this kind of research is exceptionally rewarding. Chapters 1, 2, and 3 focus on these goals. Observational data on A. junius growth and emergence were collected over a period of two years at Crow-Hassan Park Reserve, near Minneapolis, Minnesota. Severe winter conditions are the largest constraint influencing dragonfly life histories in Minnesota. Odonata must both survive the winter, and time their emergence and reproduction so that they occur during the short growing season. This research was designed to explore how northern A. junius have adapted to survive winter. Chapter 1 demonstrates the application of a statistical tool that identifies the number of instars in a field-collected sample of nymphs: a need for interpreting observed growth and development data. This mixed distribution analysis has been used in other fields of entomology, but this is the first time (to the author’s knowledge) that it has been applied to dragonflies. Chapter 2 maps nymph growth over time and identifies different A. junius growth pathways that are associated with two different overwintering strategies. Chapter 3 summarizes observations of A. junius emergence phenology via exhaustive exuviae collection, and reveals that cold temperatures and stochastic events are the greatest constraints on emergence duration. Northern ectoderms, like dragonflies, with life histories that are constrained by severe winters are impacted by climate change. The implications of the changing climate on dragonfly natural history are of increasing conservation interest. Rare and threatened niche species of Odonata could be at risk of extinction if their habitat conditions are altered beyond to what they can adapt to. However, A. junius is a common and abundant dragonfly and is of conservation interest for different reasons. Extremely common species are the skeletons of ecosystems; they make up most of the biomass and provide structure and support for all the other components. A change in the geography or abundance of A. junius could have wide-ranging and cascading effects. Models based on known temperature thresholds are required to predict ectoderm response to the changing climate. Chapter 4 describes an experiment that defined these threshold temperatures for the northern winter growth pathway of A. junius. Development duration and rate were measured for nymphs reared in different temperature-controlled chambers, and the base and optimum growth temperatures were calculated for the last two nymph development stages. These values can now be used in models to predict the impact of climate change on the phenology of A. junius development and emergence. Note: Some materials and methods descriptions, figures, and tables are repeated in this dissertation because each chapter was written with the intent to be published individually.
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    Northern Hawk Owl (Surnia ulula caparoch) Movement and Habitat Use
    (2023-05) Toutonghi, Hannah
    Northern Hawk Owls (Surnia ulula caparoch, hereafter hawk owl) are one of the least studied birds in North America. Conservation of hawk owls requires the understanding of hawk owl habitat use and movements throughout the annual cycle, including activity in winter. To understand these important periods of the annual cycle, we implemented novel use of GPS/GSM transmitters to monitor the activity and movement of 11 hawk owls in northern Minnesota and southern Manitoba. The data from these individuals was used to determine if hawk owls had a winter home range and if they selected specific habitats within them. Secondly, eBird data was used to create a Species Distribution Model to categorize habitat suitability. Results showed that hawk owls do establish winter home ranges and home ranges were smaller than expected. Additionally, in winter, hawk owls selected for wetland habitat and were positively associated with edge characteristics in both analyzes.