title: Effects of growth form and functional traits on response of woody plants to clearing and fragmentation of subtropical rainforest

authors: Kooyman, R. M.

subjects: dispersal and seed size

abstract: The conservation implications of large-scale rainforest clearing and fragmentation on the persistence of functional and taxonomic diversity remain poorly understood. If traits represent adaptive strategies of plant species to particular circumstances, the expectation is that the effect of forest clearing and fragmentation will be affected by species functional traits, particularly those related to dispersal. We used species occurrence data for woody plants in 46 rainforest patches across 75,000 ha largely cleared of forest by the early 1900s to determine the combined effects of area reduction, fragmentation, and patch size on the taxonomic structure and functional diversity of subtropical rainforest. We compiled species trait values for leaf area, seed dry mass, wood density, and maximum height and calculated species niche breadths. Taxonomic structure, trait values (means, ranges), and the functional diversity of assemblages of climbing and free-standing plants in remnant patches were quantified. Larger rainforest patches had higher species richness. Species in smaller patches were taxonomically less related than species in larger patches. Free-standing plants had a high percentage of frugivore dispersed seeds; climbers had a high proportion of small wind-dispersed seeds. Connections between the patchy spatial distribution of free-standing species, larger seed sizes, and dispersal syndrome were weak. Assemblages of free-standing plants in patches showed more taxonomic and spatial structuring than climbing plants. Smaller isolated patches retained relatively high functional diversity and similar taxonomic structure to larger tracts of forest despite lower species richness. The response of woody plants to clearing and fragmentation of subtropical rainforest differed between climbers and slow-growing mature-phase forest trees but not between climbers and pioneer trees. Quantifying taxonomic structure and functional diversity provides an improved basis for conservation planning and management by elucidating the effects of forest-area reduction and fragmentation.

text: Effects of growth form and functional traits on response of woody plants to clearing and fragmentation of subtropical rainforest The conservation implications of large-scale rainforest clearing and fragmentation on the persistence of functional and taxonomic diversity remain poorly understood. If traits represent adaptive strategies of plant species to particular circumstances, the expectation is that the effect of forest clearing and fragmentation will be affected by species functional traits, particularly those related to dispersal. We used species occurrence data for woody plants in 46 rainforest patches across 75,000 ha largely cleared of forest by the early 1900s to determine the combined effects of area reduction, fragmentation, and patch size on the taxonomic structure and functional diversity of subtropical rainforest. We compiled species trait values for leaf area, seed dry mass, wood density, and maximum height and calculated species niche breadths. Taxonomic structure, trait values (means, ranges), and the functional diversity of assemblages of climbing and free-standing plants in remnant patches were quantified. Larger rainforest patches had higher species richness. Species in smaller patches were taxonomically less related than species in larger patches. Free-standing plants had a high percentage of frugivore dispersed seeds; climbers had a high proportion of small wind-dispersed seeds. Connections between the patchy spatial distribution of free-standing species, larger seed sizes, and dispersal syndrome were weak. Assemblages of free-standing plants in patches showed more taxonomic and spatial structuring than climbing plants. Smaller isolated patches retained relatively high functional diversity and similar taxonomic structure to larger tracts of forest despite lower species richness. The response of woody plants to clearing and fragmentation of subtropical rainforest differed between climbers and slow-growing mature-phase forest trees but not between climbers and pioneer trees. Quantifying taxonomic structure and functional diversity provides an improved basis for conservation planning and management by elucidating the effects of forest-area reduction and fragmentation.

year: 2013

title: Two-state systems with non-Markovian thermal and squeezed quantum noise inputs

authors: Parkins, Andrew Scott

abstract: The effect of quantum noise on the two-state system is studied in the context of (i) coherent quantum tunnelling in a double-well system subject to low temperature quantum noise, and (ii) the two-level atom subject to finite bandwidth squeezed noise. Our approach to these problems is based on the adjoint equation, which describes the evolution of a quantum stochastic density operator. This equation is amenable to solution by ordinary stochastic methods, of which numerical simulation plays the most significant role in our calculations.
The dissipative double-well system is relevant to the search for macroscopic quantum coherence in superconducting quantum interference devices, and previous work, starting from a two-state model and using path integral methods, has established the so-called “noninteracting-blip approximation” as a central result. The adjoint equation, applied to this problem in the weak coupling limit, is shown to closely reproduce this result. The noninteracting-blip approximation entails a Markovian-type assumption about the noise, and, by means of stochastic simulation, we are able to check, and confirm, the validity of this assumption, even for the case of a zero-temperature bath.
Squeezed light, which has reduced quantum fluctuations in one quadrature phase, has been produced experimentally, and possible applications are under active consideration. Analyses of the effect of squeezed light on fundamental radiative processes in simple atoms have revealed interesting possibilities, most notably line-narrowing in the fluorescence spectrum. The original analyses in this field of research have been based on the assumption of broad bandwidth squeezing, and we review the primary results found in this limit. Also in this limit, we study in more detail the phenomenon of squeezed-light-induced photon echoes.
For broad bandwidth squeezing, line-narrowing in resonance fluorescence is restricted to the central fluorescence peak, while the Rabi sidebands exhibit broadening. We examine strongly driven resonance fluorescence for the case in which squeezing is confined to relatively small regions of frequency space about individual fluorescence peaks. It is shown that the noisy component associated with the unsqueezed quadrature phase can be effectively decoupled from the atomic dynamics, which allows narrowing to occur in all three peaks of the spectrum.
Finally, we address the practical problem of producing an effective coupling between an atom and a realistic three-dimensional squeezed field of modest angular spread. We show that this can be achieved, in principle, inside a microscopic plane mirror cavity, provided the injected squeezed field is suitably mode-matched to the cavity.

text: Two-state systems with non-Markovian thermal and squeezed quantum noise inputs The effect of quantum noise on the two-state system is studied in the context of (i) coherent quantum tunnelling in a double-well system subject to low temperature quantum noise, and (ii) the two-level atom subject to finite bandwidth squeezed noise. Our approach to these problems is based on the adjoint equation, which describes the evolution of a quantum stochastic density operator. This equation is amenable to solution by ordinary stochastic methods, of which numerical simulation plays the most significant role in our calculations.
The dissipative double-well system is relevant to the search for macroscopic quantum coherence in superconducting quantum interference devices, and previous work, starting from a two-state model and using path integral methods, has established the so-called “noninteracting-blip approximation” as a central result. The adjoint equation, applied to this problem in the weak coupling limit, is shown to closely reproduce this result. The noninteracting-blip approximation entails a Markovian-type assumption about the noise, and, by means of stochastic simulation, we are able to check, and confirm, the validity of this assumption, even for the case of a zero-temperature bath.
Squeezed light, which has reduced quantum fluctuations in one quadrature phase, has been produced experimentally, and possible applications are under active consideration. Analyses of the effect of squeezed light on fundamental radiative processes in simple atoms have revealed interesting possibilities, most notably line-narrowing in the fluorescence spectrum. The original analyses in this field of research have been based on the assumption of broad bandwidth squeezing, and we review the primary results found in this limit. Also in this limit, we study in more detail the phenomenon of squeezed-light-induced photon echoes.
For broad bandwidth squeezing, line-narrowing in resonance fluorescence is restricted to the central fluorescence peak, while the Rabi sidebands exhibit broadening. We examine strongly driven resonance fluorescence for the case in which squeezing is confined to relatively small regions of frequency space about individual fluorescence peaks. It is shown that the noisy component associated with the unsqueezed quadrature phase can be effectively decoupled from the atomic dynamics, which allows narrowing to occur in all three peaks of the spectrum.
Finally, we address the practical problem of producing an effective coupling between an atom and a realistic three-dimensional squeezed field of modest angular spread. We show that this can be achieved, in principle, inside a microscopic plane mirror cavity, provided the injected squeezed field is suitably mode-matched to the cavity.

year: 1990

title: Alternative anthropologies: Kete aronui from the Waikato

authors: McCormack, Fiona

abstract: As three anthropologists working at the University of Waikato in Hamilton, Aotearoa (New Zealand), we experience anthropology in our daily work in the context of our local histories, communities and politics. While many anthropologists are familiar with the critiques of anthropology that play out in the USA or Europe, the narratives and practices of anthropology from places such as New Zealand are less well known. We argue that these local, diverse experiences of anthropology can enlarge our international understandings and imaginations of what anthropology can be, as well as the challenges it may face.

Anthropologists working in New Zealand today face the same plethora of academic pressures as those found in their counterparts in North America, Britain and Europe; pressures instigated by decades of neoliberal reform, managerialism, and the impact of new entrepreneurial and corporate models of universities that shape everyday identities and social relationships (Shore 2010). Similarly, the critique of anthropology as a discipline rooted in colonial imperatives and practices, resounds in a society whose imperial history and settler colonial present continues to imprint on educational institutions, pedagogy and research. In New Zealand, no neat historical trajectory marks a path from extractive research, wherein Indigenous knowledge and ways of life are pottled for export to the empire’s core, to one based on mutuality, co-creation and the indigenisation of anthropological knowledge.

text: Alternative anthropologies: Kete aronui from the Waikato As three anthropologists working at the University of Waikato in Hamilton, Aotearoa (New Zealand), we experience anthropology in our daily work in the context of our local histories, communities and politics. While many anthropologists are familiar with the critiques of anthropology that play out in the USA or Europe, the narratives and practices of anthropology from places such as New Zealand are less well known. We argue that these local, diverse experiences of anthropology can enlarge our international understandings and imaginations of what anthropology can be, as well as the challenges it may face.

Anthropologists working in New Zealand today face the same plethora of academic pressures as those found in their counterparts in North America, Britain and Europe; pressures instigated by decades of neoliberal reform, managerialism, and the impact of new entrepreneurial and corporate models of universities that shape everyday identities and social relationships (Shore 2010). Similarly, the critique of anthropology as a discipline rooted in colonial imperatives and practices, resounds in a society whose imperial history and settler colonial present continues to imprint on educational institutions, pedagogy and research. In New Zealand, no neat historical trajectory marks a path from extractive research, wherein Indigenous knowledge and ways of life are pottled for export to the empire’s core, to one based on mutuality, co-creation and the indigenisation of anthropological knowledge.

year: 2025