Charlotte Hings

Beach grass (Ammophila breviligulata) is a key component in maintaining the stability of the prominent beach-dune ecosystems of the Lake Huron shoreline, with benefits to dependent species (e.g., piping plover) and those living along or visiting the shoreline (e.g., through the maintenance of public and private infrastructure for beach-front restaurants, cottages). The capacity of beach-dune ecosystems to respond favorably to climate change conditions also depend on the maintenance of intact… Show more

Beach grass (Ammophila breviligulata) is a key component in maintaining the stability of the prominent beach-dune ecosystems of the Lake Huron shoreline, with benefits to dependent species (e.g., piping plover) and those living along or visiting the shoreline (e.g., through the maintenance of public and private infrastructure for beach-front restaurants, cottages). The capacity of beach-dune ecosystems to respond favorably to climate change conditions also depend on the maintenance of intact beach grass populations. However, the human-environment interactions that determine how people perceive and respond to beach grass are poorly understood, despite the importance of beach grass to the southeastern shoreline of Lake Huron (and throughout the Great Lakes basin). Show less

The prospect of leveraging new technologies for community-based environmental monitoring has captured the imagination of many scientists, policy makers, and conservation professionals. This systematic review examines the state of knowledge and trends in the peer-reviewed literature related to the use of smartphone technologies for community and citizen science environmental monitoring. We organize our findings in relation to data collection and data handling, the process of developing… Show more

The prospect of leveraging new technologies for community-based environmental monitoring has captured the imagination of many scientists, policy makers, and conservation professionals. This systematic review examines the state of knowledge and trends in the peer-reviewed literature related to the use of smartphone technologies for community and citizen science environmental monitoring. We organize our findings in relation to data collection and data handling, the process of developing smartphone applications, and the ways that outcomes are reported. While the literature is nascent and technological advances are continually opening new opportunities, it is notable that there is limited scholarship that explicitly connects the monitoring function of smartphones to tangible conservation action (e.g., only 10 percent of the papers analysed data collected by smartphones, let alone making connections to required actions or policy). We discuss two central implications in terms of research-implementation spaces for environmental monitoring with smartphones: (1) what we identify as the cost paradox, the lack of recognition of actual costs of app development, monitoring, and implementation; and (2) the need to center the role of people and partnerships in order to ask more precise questions about outcomes for app users and conservation impacts from data collection. We conclude with a call for more research on costs and actual impacts, documentation of factors that lead to successes and failures, and how digital divides influence conservation outcomes. Our intent is not to call into question the potential impacts of smartphone technologies, but to encourage further understanding of how and when they can be most useful. Show less

Transdisciplinary sustainability training is a recognized need in many graduate programs. However, there is limited analysis of specific pedagogical tools to support this effort, particularly from the perspective of graduate students. Here, we reflect on the application of a “theory of change” process to support transdisciplinary thinking among early career researchers with diverse disciplinary backgrounds. For class participants, the theory of change process helped to clarify the diversity of… Show more

Transdisciplinary sustainability training is a recognized need in many graduate programs. However, there is limited analysis of specific pedagogical tools to support this effort, particularly from the perspective of graduate students. Here, we reflect on the application of a “theory of change” process to support transdisciplinary thinking among early career researchers with diverse disciplinary backgrounds. For class participants, the theory of change process helped to clarify the diversity of actors associated with their research, to unpack their assumptions about complex problems, to clarify important causal linkages, and to support the development of a systems perspective. Challenges in using the theory of change in the classroom context included the difficulty of putting boundaries around student projects, and the additional time requirements involved in completing a detailed theory of change. The process helped class participants situate their specific and more disciplinary research projects in a broader sustainability context. Show less

High frequency signs changed some due to differences in the environment. For example, Tatu signed CRACKER more often at CHCI where the chimpanzees ate monkey chow more often than at Fauna Foundation. After moving to Fauna, MILK became a high frequency sign because milk was served more often. Loulis used indexical signs, eg THAT, more frequently in 2014 when he was around more non-signers than all signers at CHCI.