Movement Ecology

The Earth Liberation Front is a radical environmental movement that developed from the ideological factionalization of the British Earth First! movement of the 1990s. Its ideological underpinnings are based in deep ecology, anti-authoritarian leftism highlighting its critique of capitalism, a commitment to non-violence, a collective defense of the Earth, and a warranted feeling of persecution by State forces. In its current form, the Earth Liberation Front is a transnational, decentralized network of clandestine, autonomous, cells that utilize illegal methods of protest by sabotaging and vandalizing property. The small unit cells are self-contained entities that can operate without the support of external entities such as financiers or weapons procurers. Tactical and operational knowledge is developed and shared through commercially available books written by the broader environmental movement throughout the last four decades, as well as inter-movement publications produced by the cells and distributed through numerous sympathetic websites. Membership in the Front can be understood as occurring on two levels, the covert cell level and the public support level, both of which operate in tandem to produce and publicize acts of property destruction. At the cell level, individuals conduct pre-operational reconnaissance and surveillance, develop and construct weapons systems, carry out orchestrated attacks, and announce their actions to support groups and media while maintaining internal security and anonymity. At the aboveground level, support entities help to publicize attacks carried out by cells, respond to media inquiries and other public engagements, identify and coordinate aid to imprisoned cell members, and develop and distribute sympathetic propaganda produced by, and in support of affiliated individuals. This case study uses the history of the Earth Liberation Front‟s United States attacks as its unit of analysis, and seeks to outline the ideology, structure, context and membership factors that constitute the movement.

""1. Because many large mammal species have wide geographic ranges, spatially distant populations may be confronted with different sets of limiting factors. Investigating how home range (HR) size varies across environmental gradients should yield a better understanding of the factors affecting large mammal ecology.

2. We evaluated how HR size of a large herbivore, the roe deer (Capreolus capreolus), varies in relation to seasonality, latitude (climate), weather, plant productivity and landscape features across its geographic range in Western Europe. As roe deer are income breeders, expected to adjust range size continuously to temporal variation in food resources and energetic requirements, our baseline prediction was for HR size to decrease with proxies of available energy.

3. We used GPS locations of roe deer collected from 7 study sites (EURODEER collaborative project) to estimate fixed kernel HR size at weekly and monthly temporal scales. We performed an unusually comprehensive analysis of variation in HR size among populations and among individuals across the geographic range of a single species using generalized additive mixed models and linear mixed models respectively.

4. Among populations, HR size decreased with increasing values for proxies of forage abundance, but increased with increases in seasonality, stochastic variation of temperature, latitude and snow cover. Within populations, roe deer HR size varied over time in relation to seasonality and proxies of forage abundance in a consistent way across the 7 populations. Thus, our findings were broadly consistent across the distributional range of this species, demonstrating a strong and ubiquitous link between the amplitude and timing of seasonality and HR size at the continental scale.

5. Overall, the variability in average HR size of roe deer across Europe reflects the interaction among local weather, climate and seasonality, providing valuable insight into the limiting factors affecting this large herbivore under contrasting conditions. The complexity of the relationships suggests that predicting ranging behaviour of large herbivores in relation to current and future climate change will require detailed knowledge not only about predicted increases in temperature, but also how this interacts with factors such as day length and climate predictability.""

"1. Understanding human resource extraction is crucial for conservation science, allowing accurate assessments of system sustainability and testing key assumptions about human resource users.

2. We apply ecological methods and principles to Global Positioning System (GPS) data on human movement to investigate the ecological and behavioural differences between human hunters and non-hunters, a method which can be reproduced with any species which routinely return to a central place. The integration of movement ecology and habitat selection can greatly augment the applicability and scope of both disciplines, and we explore the issues that arise from integration, because of the differing data types and methods used by each approach.

3. We propose an adaptable methodological framework which can be used to combine movement ecology and habitat selection when using data from GPS tracking devices, whether from human or animal foragers. The methodology is based on three steps and can be implemented in the free downloadable statistical program R, using the full code in the Data S1.

4. First, we show that net squared displacement, coupled with nonlinear mixed-effects models, is suitable for quantifying characteristics of small-scale movement, such as daily travel patterns, and extracting parts of these journeys for analysis.

5. Secondly, having extracted part of a journey, biased random bridges use the auto-correlated GIS tracking data to create a utilization distribution (UD) for each individual. This method includes movement between known locations to estimate use intensity in an area.

6. Finally, the UD can be analysed by a resource utilization function which relates the intensity of use to landscape features of an area to identify habitats selected by an individual. This can be used to predict use of the landscape at larger scales for both individuals and an entire population.

7. This methodological framework is a flexible method to accurately assess human and animal resource use and movement through the natural environment."

"CALL FOR BOOK CHAPTERS: "MAPPING THE ALTERNATIVE MEDIA IN TURKEY"

Editors: Barış Çoban & Bora Ataman

Extended Deadline for abstracts:
January 1st 2013

http://alternativemediamap.net/

We aim to map the alternative media in Turkey, which is varied in form, structure and working styles such as “cracks�, “rhizomes� and “fronts�. Similarly to what has occurred with the mainstream media, both large and small examples of the alternative media, alongside their widespread prevalence inside the country, have also already transcended the national borders. We argue that mapping the alternative media, embracing newspapers, radio and television channels, cinemas, blogs, forums and platforms, essentially the full range of conventional and new media organs and vehicles, is one of the most useful research approaches to comprehending the nature of alternative politics in Turkey.

The alternative media works as a source of memory and an archive helping to understand the historical and current structure of alternative politics in Turkey. IT also gives voice to alternative ideologies and politics and makes their political activities visible. In addition, the alternative media, which mainly represents the “otherised�, oppressed and marginalised groups, forms the vanguard of struggle against the hegemony and barbarism of the oppressive, globalized neo-liberal society.

Alternative media, as an umbrella term, applies to those media organs which are typically bottom up organisations. In principle, their organizational structures and decision making processes are democratic, participatory, polyphonic and dialogic. Their opposition to the mainstream media finds its roots, in its form and content, in social and political struggles and is based in radical ideologies such as anarchism, radical democracy and Marxism. The existence of alternative media indicates the struggle to construct a truly democratic and free sphere of communication from a number of broad perspectives, varying from the idea of simply being independent from either the state or capital, to being completely opposed to them. In this context, it is also possible to claim that every organ of the alternative media, as a centre of subaltern resistance, is part of a greater alternative communication network.

This so-called alternative network (or networks) is/are the voice of different political or social groups, communities, minorities or even individuals at the grassroots level. Thus, they open the way for these groups to actively participate in political and social life, as either real “agents� or as “spectacles� in the field of symbolic struggle. Therefore, individuals or groups can find opportunities to get involved in both real and symbolic struggles for hegemony, not only as consumers, but also as producers; as active agents.

Therefore, alternative media institutions either on the micro- or macro-scale cannot be considered as combatants solely at the informational level. In addition to their struggle to gather, record and spread news and ideas concerning local, national and transnational problems, they also provide a response to the establishment through real political actions. It is not unusual to see their active participation in protests, or even note that they hold the leadership positions in the organisation of some of these dissident political actions. Therefore, their active struggle with the hegemonic powers can also be considered as an effort to create alternative political forms. More commonly however, alternative media operate as the symbolic production centre of alternative politics and as an incubation ground for the intellectual and ideological constructs of social movements.

Alternative media, along with other dissident institutions, are seen as paving the way for a brighter and more just future by being the voice of the voiceless and contributing to the imagining of a different world. Threatening so-called representative democracy by supporting participatory social, cultural and political activities is also deemed useful to this end. By engaging in such activities, they may be able to cause the transformation of political culture in general. More importantly, however, the ways in which subordinate constituents of the society interpret politics and their own means of participation could change in a positive manner. Moreover, such efforts may also lead to the construction of efficient counter-public spheres alongside the more common examples of alternative spaces.
Diverse anti-systemic, reformist and revolutionary ideological orientations, varied political discourses and different modes of action constituting the alternative media landscape mostly open up an opportunity for the “oppressed� to actively participate in these alternative political spaces that are, to a certain extent, diverse, colourful, vivid and, most importantly, innately dialogic.
In this context, we argue that the “duty� of academia should be to understand these alternatives without stigmatizing them as the source of conflicts within the prevailing social system. After all, we as editors, would like to study these initiatives since the imagining of an alternative world may only be possible by embracing the oppressed and their voice, even though the world around us is not particularly welcoming.

Abstracts of papers are sought on topics such as:
• Radical- militant media (affiliated with revolutionary organizations)
• Radical media (Struggling within legal parameters to push the limits of the existing system
• Identity and rights-based media (Human rights, labour and trade-union rights, gender, environment, ethnicity, struggles based on faith or denomination
• Transnational and diaspora-based alternative media
• Independent, objective, opposition media
• Dissident voices, “cracks� in the mainstream media

However, it should be noted that the categories above do not refer to independent categories with clear differences. It is possible to say that; most examples of the alternative media operating in Turkey can be included under more than one of the rubrics mentioned above. Nevertheless, the alternative media organs in Turkey, despite a degree of permeability in the boundaries that separate them, may be seen as belonging more to one or another of the above-mentioned classifications, therefore, these categories will constitute the book’s chapters.

Furthermore, we are mainly interested in the case studies (comparative if possible) and empirical research possessing theoretical and methodological clarity, and focusing on at least one of three basic dimensions of media studies; such as “Production�, “Text�, or “Audience�, without missing the multi-layered and intertwined relationships between these dimensions.

Abstracts of a maximum of 250 words in Turkish and English outlining the topic, theoretical and methodological approach as well as the research question, should be submitted to either Barış Çoban (bcoban@dogus.edu.tr) or Bora Ataman (bataman@dogus.edu.tr) until January1st 2013.

Announcement of the abstracts selected will be made by February 1 2013.

The deadline for full paper submissions is August 1, 2013

The editors are planning to publish book in Turkish and English and have made an agreement with Yordam, to publish in January 2014.

After the evaluation of the abstracts, negotiations with foreign publishing houses will begin for the English version.
Barış Çoban & Bora Ataman (Eds.)
Extended Deadline for Research Proposals: January 1st, 2013"

"Extended Abstract presented in GISCience 2010

When analysing collective movement, one of the main research challenges is to detect movement patterns that are evidence of specific interactions between moving objects and their environment (Laube, 2009). We are particularly interested in the detection of patterns of movement suspension that take place when moving objects interact with any feature of the environment and as a result, they decrease their speed until a complete halt. Therefore, suspension patterns indicate the location of an element that represent either an attraction or an obstruction for the moving objects and can help us to improve our understanding of the movement behaviour of a set of moving objects.
In this paper, we propose an exploratory statistical approach to detect patterns of movement suspension without the necessity of spatial or temporal thresholds nor detailed information about the moving entities and their spatial context. We assume that spatial heterogeneity and spatial dependence are present in the speed values of moving objects. In other words, the speed of an object is spatially dependent on the speed of other objects in the neighbourhood, and this dependence will decrease with the distance between observations, indicating the presence of a spatial feature affecting the speed of moving objects. This spatial dependence is computed using the Local Index of Spatial Association (LISA) (Anselin, 1995). We have evaluated the proposed approach within three experiments in order to detect patterns of movement suspension of different moving objects (i.e. elephants, vehicles and pedestrians)."

"Background/Question/Methods
Animal dispersal is an important spatial process yet we lack a good mechanistic understanding and the ability to accurately quantify and predict dispersal patterns. We present a new approach to develop population redistribution kernels starting from individual movement data, test potential drivers of individual differences in dispersal and investigate long-term survival consequences. The approach is based on the use of a single time-dependent distance statistics, the net square displacement, which encapsulates key statistical properties of animal movements. Different movement behaviors lead to different displacement patterns and the functional forms can be predicted from theory. Using nonlinear mixed effects models the most adequate model can be identified within a model selection framework, population redistribution kernel as well as individual differences in dispersal can be quantified, and hypothesized drivers of the latter can be tested. We first tested the approach using simulated movement data, showing that population and individual movement parameters are correctly estimated. Second, we applied the approach on a dataset of 234 female elk radiotracked up to seven years after release in four contrasting areas in Ontario, Canada.

Results/Conclusions
A multiphasic dispersal model (pre-dispersal, transience, settlement – modeled using a sigmoid function) best captured observed displacement patterns and was able to predict with near certainty displacement patterns over time and space, including different individuals and data on other populations obtained from the literature. Individual differences and the presence of conspecifics mostly determined differences in dispersal, together with the effects of release conditions, whereas effects of habitat differences were negligible. Finally, using Cox proportional hazard models it was shown that both the timing and distance of dispersal affected mortality risk 2 ~ 7 years after release. The approach provides a quantitative, predictive framework for dispersal ecology and reintroduction biology.

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The method is published in full in Borger & Fryxell (2012 Oxford University Press, in press). An extension to model migration is presented in Borger et al. (2011 - Oxford University Press) and Bunnefeld & Borger et al. (2011 J. Anim. Ecol.)."

"The following article* explores the meaning of roads and the practices of movement for a small group of forest inhabitants in the Western Siberian lowlands on the middle Ob. The indigenous people known as the Khanty live as reindeer herders, fishermen
and hunters in the midst of oilfields in the Surgut Rayon. The article examines their emic point of view opposed to the evaluation of the state administration.
Anthropological research can access the mobility of people in two ways. At first researchers map movement in physical and metaphysical time and space, they observe and record the practice of movement. The second important source for anthropological insight is what people say about their practices of movement and how they evaluate them and the spaces in which they move. The following article tries to show that these perspectives remain incomplete without a synthesis of both. The first perspective allows only for a functionalist classification and the second allows the researcher to be taken in by the black and white pictures of moral evaluations that render the complexity of everyday life invisible. Only a synthesis of both, a careful interpretation of indigenous narratives before the background of
social and political circumstances let us understand the practices of movement we can observe in the everyday life of people.
Khanty reindeer herders try to build up a distance from the world of intruders and try to defend their autonomy in the forest. By accessing everyday practices and motivations instead of ready-made explanations it is revealed that the Khanty are
not doomed to adapt to new situations, but they try to negotiate and manipulate them in their favour. The article tries to prove that one has to skip the objectifying approach to a hermeneutic one to grasp their abilities to do so."