title: Buried Alive or Washed Away The Challenging Life of Mangroves in the Mekong Delta

authors: Fagherazzi, Sergio

subjects: Science & Technology

abstract: Mangroves colonize tropical shorelines, protecting coastal communities and providing valuable ecosystem services. Mangroves associated with deltas cope with a very dynamic environment characterized by strong gradients in salinity, deposition triggered by sediment inputs, and erosion caused by waves and currents. Mangroves are adapted to this ever-changing landscape, with different species colonizing different elevations in response to inundation frequency. A series of feedbacks between hydrodynamics, sediment transport, and mangroves was observed in a fringe forest of the Mekong Delta, Vietnam. Sonneratia spp. rapidly encroach upon sandy areas because the stable substrate favors seedling establishment. In contrast, fewer seedlings are present in muddy locations where currents and waves frequently rework the bottom. Along muddy shorelines that are eroding, turbulence increases local scour near roots and trunks, undercutting the trees. Enhanced sediment accumulation due to delta progradation can smother the mangrove roots and lead to forest dieback. We find clear evidence that mangroves affect both hydrodynamics and sediment transport, thus engineering the landscape and enhancing sediment trapping and delta progradation. Sonneratia spp. are replaced by Aegiceras corniculatum, Avicennia marina, and Nypa fruticans when the seabed becomes high enough, indicating that ecological succession is present in a fast prograding deltaic environment. Thus, it is imperative to determine the small-scale feedbacks between mangroves, hydrodynamics, and sediment transport in order to build quantitative ecogeomorphic models of deltaic sedimentation that can be used to explain the distribution of mangrove species, the forest structure, and large-scale dynamics in a tropical deltaic setting.

text: Buried Alive or Washed Away The Challenging Life of Mangroves in the Mekong Delta Mangroves colonize tropical shorelines, protecting coastal communities and providing valuable ecosystem services. Mangroves associated with deltas cope with a very dynamic environment characterized by strong gradients in salinity, deposition triggered by sediment inputs, and erosion caused by waves and currents. Mangroves are adapted to this ever-changing landscape, with different species colonizing different elevations in response to inundation frequency. A series of feedbacks between hydrodynamics, sediment transport, and mangroves was observed in a fringe forest of the Mekong Delta, Vietnam. Sonneratia spp. rapidly encroach upon sandy areas because the stable substrate favors seedling establishment. In contrast, fewer seedlings are present in muddy locations where currents and waves frequently rework the bottom. Along muddy shorelines that are eroding, turbulence increases local scour near roots and trunks, undercutting the trees. Enhanced sediment accumulation due to delta progradation can smother the mangrove roots and lead to forest dieback. We find clear evidence that mangroves affect both hydrodynamics and sediment transport, thus engineering the landscape and enhancing sediment trapping and delta progradation. Sonneratia spp. are replaced by Aegiceras corniculatum, Avicennia marina, and Nypa fruticans when the seabed becomes high enough, indicating that ecological succession is present in a fast prograding deltaic environment. Thus, it is imperative to determine the small-scale feedbacks between mangroves, hydrodynamics, and sediment transport in order to build quantitative ecogeomorphic models of deltaic sedimentation that can be used to explain the distribution of mangrove species, the forest structure, and large-scale dynamics in a tropical deltaic setting.

year: 2017

title: Commentary on “An alternative to working on machine consciousness”, by Aaron Sloman

authors: Legg, Catherine

subjects: consciousness

abstract: A commentary on a current paper by Aaron Sloman where he argues that in order to make progress in AI, consciousness (and other such unclear concepts of common-sense regarding the mind), "should be replaced by more precise and varied architecture-based concepts better suited to specify what needs to be explained by scientific theories". This original vision of philosophical inquiry as the mapping out of 'design-spaces' for a contested concept seeks to achieve a holistic, synthetic understanding of what possibilities such spaces embody and how different parameters might structure them in nomic and highly inter-connected ways. It therefore does not reduce to either "relations of ideas" or "matters of fact" in Hume's famous dichotomy. It is also shown to be in interesting ways the exact opposite of the current vogue for 'experimental philosophy'.

text: Commentary on “An alternative to working on machine consciousness”, by Aaron Sloman A commentary on a current paper by Aaron Sloman where he argues that in order to make progress in AI, consciousness (and other such unclear concepts of common-sense regarding the mind), "should be replaced by more precise and varied architecture-based concepts better suited to specify what needs to be explained by scientific theories". This original vision of philosophical inquiry as the mapping out of 'design-spaces' for a contested concept seeks to achieve a holistic, synthetic understanding of what possibilities such spaces embody and how different parameters might structure them in nomic and highly inter-connected ways. It therefore does not reduce to either "relations of ideas" or "matters of fact" in Hume's famous dichotomy. It is also shown to be in interesting ways the exact opposite of the current vogue for 'experimental philosophy'.

year: 2009

title: Te Papa-o-Rotu Marae Management and Administration at the End of the Twentieth Century: Negotiating Bureaucratisation

authors: Collins, Adelaide

subjects: informal organising

abstract: Te Papa-o-Rotu Marae is a Māori community settlement located in the Waikato region of New Zealand. Its hapu (sub-tribe) community was one of 33 hapu that formed the Tainui confederation claiming compensation from the Crown for land confiscated in the nineteenth century.  The claim was settled in 1995 and it was within this context that research for this study was conducted at the marae from August 1997 to December 1999.  

This ethnographic study examines the way that the community at Te Papa-o-Rotu Marae managed its affairs through its two management bodies, the Marae Committee and the Trustees.  It is argued in this thesis that the marae's mode of management is in transition from an informal to formal mode, and from an inward to outward looking focus.  Bureaucratic administration, it is argued, has been the major catalyst for the transition and has been introduced into marae operations through an accumulation of state legislation affecting Māori land and communities. Furthermore, some aspects of bureaucratic administration have been legitimated and appropriated by the iwi authority, which has passed this on to the Marae Committee.  The community have been complicit in the adoption of bureaucratic administration by accommodating the requirements of both the state and the iwi authority.  However, a persistent question was whether the marae could maintain its own rangatiratanga (authority, self-determination, control) and separate identity in the face of increasing pressure to conform to a bureaucratic management style.

The community managed the marae communally by way of hui (gatherings) and meetings, which were observed using a combined methodological approach of Kaupapa Māori research and ethnography, as described in Chapter 2.  The philosophy of kotahitanga (solidarity) underpinned the social organisation of the Tainui tribal confederation, so understanding the place of the marae in its wider socio-political environment has helped in comprehending the nature of the pressure on the community to increase its scale of operations and is explained in Chapter 3. 

Chapter 4 introduces the accumulation of influences that have brought about a change of managerial style from informal to formal organising.  The practical effect of these influences are demonstrated in the management structure and administrative systems that the community used. These are described phenomenologically in Chapters 5 and 6 respectively.  The management plan, compiled since 1995, had a strong emphasis on management structural review and participation in tribal development initiatives and is discussed in Chapter 7. The implementation of a collaborative development project between the iwi authority and Marae Committee is described in Chapter 8.  The final chapter reflects on the impact of bureaucratic administration on marae management as well as the dynamism of the community and how the rangatiratanga of the marae has thus far been maintained.

text: Te Papa-o-Rotu Marae Management and Administration at the End of the Twentieth Century: Negotiating Bureaucratisation Te Papa-o-Rotu Marae is a Māori community settlement located in the Waikato region of New Zealand. Its hapu (sub-tribe) community was one of 33 hapu that formed the Tainui confederation claiming compensation from the Crown for land confiscated in the nineteenth century.  The claim was settled in 1995 and it was within this context that research for this study was conducted at the marae from August 1997 to December 1999.  

This ethnographic study examines the way that the community at Te Papa-o-Rotu Marae managed its affairs through its two management bodies, the Marae Committee and the Trustees.  It is argued in this thesis that the marae's mode of management is in transition from an informal to formal mode, and from an inward to outward looking focus.  Bureaucratic administration, it is argued, has been the major catalyst for the transition and has been introduced into marae operations through an accumulation of state legislation affecting Māori land and communities. Furthermore, some aspects of bureaucratic administration have been legitimated and appropriated by the iwi authority, which has passed this on to the Marae Committee.  The community have been complicit in the adoption of bureaucratic administration by accommodating the requirements of both the state and the iwi authority.  However, a persistent question was whether the marae could maintain its own rangatiratanga (authority, self-determination, control) and separate identity in the face of increasing pressure to conform to a bureaucratic management style.

The community managed the marae communally by way of hui (gatherings) and meetings, which were observed using a combined methodological approach of Kaupapa Māori research and ethnography, as described in Chapter 2.  The philosophy of kotahitanga (solidarity) underpinned the social organisation of the Tainui tribal confederation, so understanding the place of the marae in its wider socio-political environment has helped in comprehending the nature of the pressure on the community to increase its scale of operations and is explained in Chapter 3. 

Chapter 4 introduces the accumulation of influences that have brought about a change of managerial style from informal to formal organising.  The practical effect of these influences are demonstrated in the management structure and administrative systems that the community used. These are described phenomenologically in Chapters 5 and 6 respectively.  The management plan, compiled since 1995, had a strong emphasis on management structural review and participation in tribal development initiatives and is discussed in Chapter 7. The implementation of a collaborative development project between the iwi authority and Marae Committee is described in Chapter 8.  The final chapter reflects on the impact of bureaucratic administration on marae management as well as the dynamism of the community and how the rangatiratanga of the marae has thus far been maintained.

year: 2005