Office for Environmental Programs - Theses
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ItemArtificial light at night: the influence of spectra on invertebrate community composition and structure( 2015-11-02)Ecological light pollution is one of the most rapidly increasing forms of environmental pollution on the planet, and is also one of the most poorly understood. The use of artificial light at night (ALAN) is increasing exponentially, and studies have shown that varying intensities of light it can negatively impact health. However, there is a significant gap in our understanding of how invertebrates are affected by ecological light pollution, and very little research has examined the broader community level impacts. Further, the link between the spectral characteristics of artificial light and the ecological impacts of light pollution have been largely neglected. This study provides an insight into the community level impacts of light pollution. A field experiment was conducted to determine if the presence of artificial light at night would alter the local ground dwelling invertebrate community. Additionally, it was examined whether changes in spectra (white, blue, yellow and red) altered the abundances and types of orders (community composition) attracted to artificial light. Results of this study suggest that regardless of spectra, there is a strong relationship between the presence of artificial light and an increase in the activity of ground dwelling invertebrates, which were collected in significantly higher numbers near artificial light than they were in the dark. This study did not find a significant link between spectra and community composition, with white, blue, yellow and red lights all collecting comparable samples of ground dwelling invertebrates, with one exception. Beetles were significantly more abundant in red-lit traps than any other order. This suggests that red lights may attract a community with a higher proportion of beetles than other lights. Overall, this study supports the findings of previous research, suggesting that the use of artificial light increases the activity of invertebrates at night, which may flow on to substantially alter the community. These findings represent those of a pilot study conducted on a small spatial and temporal scale. The expanding use and variations in the types of ALAN could have a significant impact on existing natural environments, and could result in long term changes. Further research should aim to infer if there are long-term ecological level consequences of light pollution, and attempt to ascertain if the effect varies depending on the spectra of light used. A more thorough understanding of these factors could be used to inform street and building lighting choices to minimise the negative ecological consequences of using light at night in both rural and urban environments.
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ItemA symbiosis of pedagogies: building ecological ontologies( 2015)Zobi and the Zoox (ZZ) embodies a symbiosis of art and science, exploring notions of aistheta, what is available through sensory perception, and noema, that which is the object of our thoughts (Grierson 2015). In this paper I claim that there is a mutualistic, as well as interdisciplinary, relationship between art and science that has consequence for the ontological disposition of both creator and observer. I claim that both the process of creation and the outcome, instantiates a symbiotic experience that builds a productive tension between ontological ways of being and epistemological ways of knowing. I argue in this thesis that these tensions enable the dialectic important for the development of an ontological ecology. I take ontolgical ecology as concerning how one perceives one’s being in the environment and is consequently an important element in developing an ecopedagogy (Payne & Wattchow 2009). A symbiosis of art and science pedagogies has the potential not only to activate, but also to embellish one’s ecological imagination as an exploration of self as being (and not simply a being) in the environment. This process necessarily captures much of what counts as embodied learning (Wason- Ellam 2010). Since the body, according to Deleuze, is not simply the locus of sensory perception but also the capacity to affect and be affected, embodiment provokes a learner’s identification of the learner’s aesthetic and noemenal surroundings with an affective. An affective response to understanding one’s ecological being is risky. Emotions such as empathy, gratitude, wonder, enchantment, love and awe for the environment may be conducive to building an ethically responsive discourse in environmental thought. Alternatively, learning of the tragedy associated with environmental degradation and the remoteness of ‘self’ from ‘the source’ may produce a feeling of detachment and failure, and a distancing from our ontology associated with nature. Ecopedagogy serves our understanding and response to such risks. This thesis is an autoethnographical account and exploration of myself as a visual ecologist, and the processes that gave rise to the symbiosis between me and the entity, ZZ. My experience of becoming a visual ecologist is used as ‘data’, as a form of ontological perspective that has been informed by both science pedagogy and creative practice. I explore the development of my ecological ontology through an inquiry into the symbiosis of art-science epistemology. An analysis of ZZ, a work produced by myself and a interdisciplinary team of scientists, artists and educators will be the object/subject through which I come to understand combining art and science pedagogy within a proposed ecopedagogy. I take conceptual blending, a form ontological becoming, as possible mode for the symbiosis of pedagogies (Grierson 2015). I also offer a critique of the outcome of the symbiotic process by locating ZZ within the public realm; using testimonies and academic literature to explore the benefits and disadvantages of this entity within contemporary environmental thought and education. These testimonial insights will offer insight into the socio-psychological influence of the work and provide another perspective on understanding the art/science work as a ‘provocation’. The aim of my research is to explore ontological aspects of interdisciplinarity, particularly the effectiveness of conceptual blending for ecological/ontological becomings. My insights offered the possibility of extending conversations surrounding ecopedagogy to include what is ontologically significant about art-science symbiotic pedagogies.