text:
The maximal metabolic steady state represents the highest metabolic rate at which exercise can be maintained almost exclusively by oxidative metabolism. The oxygen uptake (V̇O2) associated with this critical intensity of exercise resides approximately halfway between the V̇O2 at which blood lactate concentration exceeds its resting value (i.e., lactate threshold [LT]) and the V̇O2max (1–3). Representing the upper limit of sustainable exercise, the maximal metabolic steady state is a key parameter for the evaluation of aerobic exercise intensity and a valuable component for personalized exercise prescription. However, the incidence with which it is used within the exercise and sport science community is relatively low due primarily to the cumbersome methods required for its detection and because, at present, it may not be identified from the ramp-incremental exercise protocols that commonly precede exercise interventions in both research and practical settings (1,4). For this reason, exercise prescription continues to be based on percentages of maximal values—a framework that assumes, incorrectly, that i) exercise at a given fraction of V̇O2max elicits universal metabolic stress characteristics and ii) the V̇O2 versus power output (PO) relationship from ramp exercise reflects that of constant-load exercise (1,2,5–7).
Metabolic demands exceeding the maximal metabolic steady state (i.e., within the severe-intensity domain) necessitate heightened rates of phosphorylation at the substrate level resulting in the depletion of stored energy and accumulation of fatigue-inducing metabolites intramuscularly (e.g., inorganic phosphate) and in plasma (e.g., lactate and hydrogen ions [H+]) (8,9). We have demonstrated that the V̇O2 at the respiratory compensation point (RCP) closely approximates the maximal metabolic steady state and the boundary between heavy and severe intensity domains (2,10–14). During incremental exercise, when V̇O2 surpasses a finite value around 75%–85% V̇O2max, ventilation increases disproportionately from the rate of carbon dioxide excretion (V̇CO2), causing arterial CO2 tension (PCO2) to fall. Driven by a sudden disruption in the balance between metabolically derived anion production and clearance from blood plasma (15–17), this rapid hyperventilatory response and associated hypocapnia constrains the rise in arterial [H+]. Within an individual, the V̇O2 at which this “respiratory compensation point” occurs is highly reproducible in test–retest designs using the same (11,18,19) and different incremental protocols (13,20,21), indicating an inextricable link between the hyperventilatory response and the metabolic rate at which it is initiated.
Although the V̇O2 at RCP from ramp-incremental exercise coincides with the metabolic rate associated with the maximal metabolic steady state (2,10–14), identifying the PO (or speed) at which this important boundary occurs is not presently possible. This is because the V̇O2 versus PO relationship from ramp exercise relates poorly to that of constant-load exercise (1,4,7). The misalignment of V̇O2 from PO occurs immediately at ramp onset: changes in muscle V̇O2 are detected at the mouth after a delay equivalent to muscle–lung circulatory time and the kinetics component of muscle V̇O2 (i.e., mean response time [MRT]) (22). The MRT, and thus the magnitude of the misalignment (equivalent to 10–15 W for an MRT of 20–30 s from a 30-W⋅min−1 ramp), remains fixed up to the LT because, below this intensity, V̇O2 kinetics and gain (∆V̇O2/∆PO) are constant (23–25). Above LT, V̇O2 kinetics slow and gain heightens progressively (6,25,26), causing V̇O2 to become exceedingly misaligned from ramp PO (1,13,27). Paradoxically, these V̇O2 response dynamics are masked during most ramp protocols (13) and manifest as a near linear V̇O2–PO relationship (26). As a corollary, incremental exercise overestimates the constant power required to elicit the V̇O2 at the RCP (1,4,13). This conundrum has prevented the appropriate use of the RCP concept in exercise prescription and has, as a consequence, generated skepticism for its suitability as a heavy- to severe-intensity domain surrogate (28).
To overcome some of these challenges, we previously developed a simple “step–ramp” protocol that accurately and reliably quantified the MRT, and thus the interval by which ramp V̇O2 data need to be “left shifted” in relation to PO (29). Despite its validity, this protocol is only effective at aligning V̇O2 versus PO relationships of ramp and constant exercise paradigms below the LT and within the moderate intensity domain where V̇O2 kinetics are invariant. With the objective of estimating also the PO associated to the maximal metabolic steady state in a single visit, we tested whether appending a heavy-intensity step transition to our “step–ramp” protocol (i.e., “step–ramp–step” [SRS]) could be used. With this approach, the V̇O2–PO values associated with LT and from the heavy step could be used to estimate, by linear regression, the PO at RCP. We hypothesized that exercise at the PO estimated from the SRS protocol would accurately elicit the V̇O2 at RCP. In addition, if the RCP is indeed synonymous with the maximal metabolic steady state, we hypothesized that prolonged exercise at this PO would exhibit performance and physiological response characteristics associated with the heavy-intensity domain whereas exercise above would not.
After providing written informed consent, 10 recreationally active individuals (5 men and 5 women; mean ± SD, age = 30 ± 7 yr, body mass = 67 ± 10 kg, height = 175 ± 8 cm) participated in this study, which was approved by the Conjoint Health Research Ethics Board of the University of Calgary and conformed to the standards established in the latest revision of the Declaration of Helsinki. All participants were lifelong nonsmokers and were free of any medical conditions and treatments that could interfere with metabolic and cardiorespiratory responses to exercise.
Methodological Approach to Determining the PO that Elicits the V̇O2 at RCP
The SRS protocol includes step transitions performed before and after ramp-incremental exercise to facilitate estimation of the PO that would elicit the V̇O2 at RCP and thus establish, in a single visit, the confines of the intensity domains. Specifically, the first step is performed within the moderate-intensity domain (100 W) and the second within the heavy-intensity domain (~50% POpeak). The ramp-incremental test provides the V̇O2 at the LT and RCP. The moderate step transition is used to align the V̇O2–PO relationship in the moderate domain and thus identify the PO at LT (29). Assuming V̇O2 gain increases linearly within the heavy-intensity domain (1), the PO (x), V̇O2 (y) coordinates of LT, and the heavy step transition establish the V̇O2–PO relationship in the heavy domain for constant-load exercise. Linear regression between these points gives, by extrapolation, an estimation of the PO that would be expected to elicit the V̇O2 at RCP (see Figs. 1 and 2).
Equipment and Measurements
During all exercise trials, gas exchange and ventilatory variables were measured breath by breath by metabolic cart (CPET; Cosmed, Rome, Italy). The system consisted of a facemask and low dead space turbine as well as O2 and carbon dioxide (CO2) gas analyzers; these were calibrated with a 3-L syringe and a gas mixture encompassing fractional gas concentrations of 16% O2, 5% CO2, and balance N2, respectively. At select intervals, capillary blood samples were drawn from a pinprick of the finger and immediately analyzed for blood lactate concentration ([La−]b) (Biosen C-Line; EKF Diagnostics, Barleben, Germany). All exercise was performed on an electromagnetic-braked cycle ergometer (Velotron; RacerMate, Seattle, WA).
Participants visited the laboratory on four to five occasions during which they performed: 1) an SRS protocol and 2) three to four constant-power trials. Each visit was scheduled at the same time of the day (±30 min) and at least 48 h but not more than 72 h from the previous visit. Participants self-selected their cadence (range, 75–95 rpm) and were instructed to maintain this cadence throughout the protocol and for all subsequent visits. Exercise intolerance was defined as the moment at which participants could not maintain their self-selected cadence for greater than 10 s despite strong verbal encouragement.
On the first day, participants performed the following in series: a moderate-intensity step transition, a ramp-incremental protocol, and, after a period of recovery, a heavy intensity step transition (see schematic in Fig. 1). The moderate step transition (MOD) consisted of cycling for 2 min at 20 W followed by 6 min at 100 W. The ramp-incremental protocol was initiated immediately after completion of MOD and included a 4-min baseline at 50 W and 30 W·min−1 ramp to volitional exhaustion. The heavy step transition (HVY) was performed 30 min after completion of the ramp and consisted of 12 min of cycling at 50%–65% of POpeak from the ramp. For each individual, the %POpeak was selected during the 30-min recovery period after examining the ramp data to ensure that the HVY PO would engender a V̇O2 in excess of the estimated LT.
All constant-power tests were preceded by 4 min of cycling at 50 W. On separate days, participants cycled for (i) 12 min at a PO equivalent to HVY from the SRS protocol, (ii) 30 min at the SRS-estimated RCP PO, (iii) 30 min at 5% above this PO, and in some cases (see below) (iv) 30 min at 10% above SRS-estimated RCP PO. During the 30-min trials, [La−]b was measured at 5-min intervals. In each participant, exercise responses were classified as “heavy-intensity” if participants were able to complete 30 min of exercise and there was no appreciable change between three successive time points (e.g., 20th, 25th, and 30th min) in both V̇O2 (≤120 mL·min−1 [30,31]) and [La−]b (>1 mM ), with this “steady state” being maintained until end exercise. “Severe-intensity” responses were classified as non–steady state in either V̇O2 or [La−]b (by criteria mentioned above) or an inability to complete 30 min. In cases where severe-intensity responses were not observed, an additional 30-min trial was performed at 10% above or below the SRS-predicted RCP.
Before analyses, all breath-by-breath gas exchange and ventilatory data were processed by removing aberrant breaths identified as those positioned more than 3 SD from the local mean. Thereafter, data were linearly interpolated on a second-by-second basis and bin averaged into 5-s bins (30,31).
To estimate the constant PO that elicits the V̇O2 at RCP, the following three-step approach, exemplified in Figure 2, was used:
- 1. Identification of the V̇O2 at LT and RCP. Ramp-incremental exercise provided identification in each participant of V̇O2max, LT, and RCP. The V̇O2max was considered as the highest value computed from a 20-s rolling aggregate. Interpretation of the profiles of ventilation (V̇E), gas exchange (V̇O2 and V̇CO2), respiratory exchange ratio, and end-tidal partial pressure of O2 and CO2) and their combination (V̇E/V̇CO2, V̇E/V̇O2) plotted against V̇O2 were judged independently by two investigators, after which estimates of LT and RCP were compared and a consensus reached. After ruling out potential confounding effects of CO2 storage on LT detection by confirming absence of an early change-point in RER versus V̇O2 relationship (33), the LT was determined as the V̇O2 at which V̇CO2 and V̇E began to increase disproportionately in relation to V̇O2, with a systematic rise in end-tidal PO2, whereas end-tidal PCO2 and V̇E/V̇CO2 were stable (3). RCP was determined as the V̇O2 at which end-tidal PCO2 began to fall after a period of isocapnia, corroborated by the second and first breakpoints in the V̇E- and V̇E/V̇CO2–V̇O2 relationships, respectively (17).
- 2. Determination of the MRT and PO at LT. A linear regression was used to fit the V̇O2 response (vs PO) from the onset of its systematic rise (visually determined) to the end of exercise (or onset of plateau if detected). The steady-state V̇O2 corresponding to MOD performed before the ramp was computed as the average of all breaths within the last 2 min. Thereafter, the ramp PO corresponding to the steady-state V̇O2 value from MOD was calculated using the linear V̇O2 versus PO relationship from ramp-incremental exercise. Finally, the difference in PO (W) between the ramp PO at the MOD V̇O2 and 100 W provided the “ramp-to-constant PO correction factor” (or MRT) and was calculated as follows:
where the intercept (mL·min−1) and the slope (mL·min−1· W−1) are obtained from the linear regression of the ramp V̇O2 response. This factor was subtracted from the ramp PO corresponding to LT to determine the constant PO that would elicit, in steady state, the V̇O2 at LT (29).
- 3. Estimation of the PO eliciting the V̇O2 at RCP. The steady-state V̇O2 corresponding to HVY was calculated as the average of all breaths within the last 2 min. Next, linear regression was applied to the PO, the V̇O2 (x, y) coordinates corresponding to the MRT-corrected LT, and the HVY to obtain the heavy domain slope (slopeHVY) and an intercept (interceptHVY). These parameters were then used to calculate the PO that would elicit, during constant-power exercise, the V̇O2 at RCP (i.e., SRS-predicted RCP) as follows:
A spreadsheet that demonstrates how the SRS-predicted RCP is calculated from all measured input variables is included as a supplement (see spreadsheet, Supplemental Digital Content 1, RCP power output calculation, https://links.lww.com/MSS/B957).
Data are presented as mean ± SD. A paired sample t-test was used to compare the steady-state V̇O2 between HVY trials performed within the SRS protocol and on a separate day. The V̇O2 values at RCP, the SRS-predicted RCP, and at 5% above SRS-predicted RCP were compared by repeated-measures ANOVA, and their agreement was assessed by Bland–Altman analyses (with 95% limits of agreement); these analyses were also used to compare the end-trial [La−]b during constant-power exercise at the SRS-predicted RCP and at 5% above SRS-predicted RCP. Coefficient of variation (CV) and Lin’s concordant coefficient (CCC) were used to evaluate the variance and the concordance, respectively, between the ramp-identified V̇O2 at RCP and the steady-state V̇O2 from constant-power exercise at the SRS-predicted RCP. The CCC was interpreted as follows: almost perfect agreement = CCC > 0.99, substantial agreement = 0.99 < CCC > 0.95, moderate agreement = 0.95 < CCC > 0.90, and poor agreement = CCC < 0.90 (34). A V̇O2 of ±120 mL·min−1 was considered as the minimally important difference for steady-state exercise (30)—i.e., a difference less than this value is within the range of measurement variability and, within an individual, is not considered significant. Statistical significance was set at an α level <0.05.
Table 1 displays the measured parameters and variables during the MOD, ramp, and HVY portions of the “SRS” protocol, and exemplar V̇O2 data from a representative participant are depicted in Figure 2. The mean V̇O2max was 3653 ± 643 mL·min−1; LT and RCP occurred at 64% ± 3% and 85% ± 3% of this value, respectively. [La−]b immediately after ramp exercise was 10.0 ± 3.0 mmol·L−1. On average, the MOD and HVY rides corresponded to 28% ± 6% and 52% ± 5% of POpeak, respectively, representing, in MOD, 64% ± 13% of the PO at LT and, in HVY, 84% ± 6% of the PO associated with the SRS-estimated RCP. These PO engendered steady-state V̇O2 approximating 47% ± 8% (MOD) and 73% ± 4% (HVY) of V̇O2max. During HVY, the V̇O2 at 12 min (2690 ± 510; range, 3410 to 1880 mL·min−1) was different (P = 0.048) from that at 6 min (2670 ± 520; delta range, 80 to −20 mL·min−1) but not at 8 min (2680 ± 510; range, 50 to −40 mL·min−1, P = 0.484). Compared with the HVY performed during the SRS protocol (i.e., 30 min after ramp exercise), the steady-state V̇O2 from the HVY completed on a separate day was not different (bias = −2 mL·min−1; LOA = −150–140 mL·min−1; CV = 1.4% ± 1.1%; P = 0.930; see also Table 1).
There was no difference (P = 0.129) and high intraparticipant agreement between the ramp-identified V̇O2 at RCP and the steady-state V̇O2 measured during constant-power exercise at the SRS-estimated RCP (bias = −26 mL·min−1, r = 0.99, CCC = 0.99 [0.95–1.00], CV = 1.5% ± 1.4%; see Table 1 and Fig. 3). In 8 of 10 participants, the difference between measured and SRS-predicted V̇O2 was less than 80 mL·min−1 and below the limits of detectable difference (i.e., ≤120 mL·min−1). All participants completed 30 min of constant-power exercise at the SRS-estimated RCP achieving stable metabolic responses with end-exercise V̇O2 corresponding to 86% ± 4% V̇O2max (see Table 1) and [La−]b reaching 5.4 ± 1.8 mmol·L−1. With exercise at 5% above this PO, 8 of 10 exhibited response profiles for V̇O2 and [La−]b that were indicative of severe-intensity exercise. Of these, three participants failed to complete 30 min with V̇O2 approximating V̇O2max at end exercise (range, 97%–99%V̇O2max) and both V̇O2 and [La−]b not attaining steady state, and five participants completed 30 min with [La−]b failing to attain a steady state and V̇O2 achieving steady state in some (n = 2) but not all; end-exercise V̇O2 ranged from 90% to 97% V̇O2max. A representation of the response pattern is displayed along with the group mean in Figure 4. Two participants completed 30 min of exercise at 5% above the SRS-predicted RCP achieving steady state in both V̇O2 and [La−]b. However, both individuals were unable to complete 30 min of exercise during an additional constant-power bout set a 10% above the SRS-predicted RCP. Group mean end-exercise V̇O2 and [La−]b achieved at 5% above the SRS-estimated RCP were 3462 ± 633 mL·min−1 (95% ± 3% of V̇O2max) and 8.5 ± 2.2 mmol·L−1, respectively. [La−]b values during this trial were, on average, not different from the peak [La−]b recorded at the end of the ramp exercise (P = 0.14).
A divergence exists in the V̇O2–PO relationships derived from ramp versus constant-power exercise paradigms. This disparity, which is exacerbated at higher %V̇O2max, has precluded the appropriate application of ramp-incremental protocols and the RCP concept for the determination of the constant-power associated with maximal metabolic steady state. To overcome this challenge, we designed and tested a simple SRS protocol that enables prediction of the PO required to recreate, during constant-power exercise, the metabolic rate (i.e., V̇O2) associated with the RCP. Novel findings in a group of healthy young individuals are that i) constant-power exercise at the SRS-predicted RCP elicits, with a high degree of intraindividual accuracy and in steady state, the ramp-identified V̇O2 at RCP; and ii) constant-power exercise at 5% above the SRS-predicted RCP elicits, in the majority of the participants, non–steady-state V̇O2 and [La−]b response profiles consistent with severe-intensity domain exercise. These findings support the validity of the SRS protocol for establishing, in a single visit, the maximal metabolic steady state and the suitability of the RCP as a surrogate demarcator of the heavy- to severe-intensity boundary.
The SRS protocol is designed specifically to estimate the constant-power required to elicit the V̇O2 associated with RCP and, in doing so, identify the maximal metabolic steady state. On average, constant-power exercise at the SRS-estimated RCP yielded a steady-state V̇O2 that was within 30 mL·min−1 of the ramp-identified V̇O2 target (see Fig. 3). In 8 of 10 participants, the difference between estimated and measured was less than 80 mL·min−1 and well below the limits of detectable difference (i.e., ±120 mL·min−1) for steady-state V̇O2. The high level of agreement between estimated and measured V̇O2 (bias = −26 mL·min−1, r = 0.99) also supports the assumption that the V̇O2 versus PO relationship within the heavy-intensity domain is linear (1) and, importantly, suggests that this test could be used to predict the constant power for any V̇O2 within the heavy-intensity domain. In two participants, the SRS-predicted RCP yielded V̇O2 values that were 120 and 240 mL·min−1 less than intended. Although further investigation of these individuals was not explored, we suspect that an overestimation of LT might explain the difference. Overestimations in LT will lead to underestimations of the SRS-predicted power for any target V̇O2; the converse is true for underestimations of LT. Importantly, these individuals do not undermine the validity of the approach but highlight the need for correctness in the estimation of LT to maintain its exactness.
The high accuracy of the SRS prediction model enabled us to test, for the first time, whether the V̇O2 at RCP identifies the maximal metabolic steady state, a contentious hypothesis debated in a recent Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise contrasting perspectives (4,28). Based on the consistent finding that the V̇O2 at RCP is remarkably constant within an individual (13,20,21), our hypothesis was that the RCP signifies a consistent physiological response initiated by a fixed metabolic rate (4), and thus, a discrete PO defining the RCP must exist within the constant-power paradigm. Consistent with this hypothesis, we observed that prolonged exercise at the SRS-derived PO associated with RCP exhibited performance and physiological response characteristics compatible with heavy-intensity domain, whereas exercise at 5% above this PO did not (see Fig. 4). Indeed, all participants were able to complete 30 min of exercise at their SRS-predicted RCP, with both V̇O2 and [La−]b achieving steady state. By contrast, with constant-power exercise at 5% above this intensity, 8 of 10 participants exhibited physiological response profiles indicative of severe-intensity domain exercise (8,35–37). Of the two participants able to attain a steady state above the SRS-predicted RCP, additional 30 min constant-power test set at 10% above the SRS-predicted RCP indicated that, for the first participant, the V̇O2 corresponding to RCP was correct but the V̇O2 at LT may have been slightly overestimated, whereas, in the second, the V̇O2 at RCP may have been slightly underestimated. Concurrently, it is also possible that the V̇O2 at the maximal metabolic steady state may itself vary on a day-to-day basis as suggested previously (38,39). Nevertheless, our findings support an equivalence between the maximal metabolic steady state and the RCP of ramp-incremental exercise for the majority of the participants. Even in the two cases where a disagreement existed, the difference was within 5% of the expected value, which is the typical error commonly accepted for other measures of critical intensities of exercise (39).
The strengths of the SRS protocol are that it is relatively simple to execute, its variables are easy to identify and measure, the estimation of RCP PO involves straightforward computations, it is not dependent on ramp slope, and, thus, it can be easily adopted by anyone who uses ramp-incremental exercise. Provided all identified (LT, RCP) and measured (MOD, HVY) variables are correct, the SRS-predicted RCP should estimate very closely the constant power that elicits the V̇O2 at RCP. That said, some sources of potential error that might affect the accuracy of SRS-predicted RCP should be considered. First, the MOD PO, decided a priori, must elicit a V̇O2 that is above the ramp-incremental baseline V̇O2 but below LT. In healthy young individuals, 100 W would, in most cases, satisfy these requirements but may not in those less conditioned. In such cases, lowering both the ramp baseline (e.g., to 20 W) and the MOD PO (e.g., to 55 W) may be advised. Second, the PO at HVY must elicit a V̇O2 that is between LT and RCP. In young healthy populations who performed 25–30 W·min−1 ramp-incremental protocols, such a V̇O2 can be obtained with >90% probability at 50% POpeak (2). Conversely, within a 30-min recovery period, a quick scan of the ramp data could facilitate a more personalized estimate (e.g., 30% of the difference between ramp power at LT and V̇O2max or 50% between ramp powers at LT and RCP). Furthermore, we show that the steady-state V̇O2 at this intensity is not affected when performed 30 min after ramp-incremental exercise. Third, as described above, LT and RCP must be identified correctly. Lastly, the length of the protocol may be perceived as an issue particularly in clinical scenarios where time and resources are constrained. That said, in its entirety, the SRS protocol did not in any participant exceed 75 min and involved 30–40 min of total exercise time or 22 additional min of exercise time compared with contemporary ramp-incremental protocols. Reductions in postramp recovery time (e.g., from 30 to 15 min) and in the HVY duration (requisite steady-state V̇O2 was attained by 6–8 min in most participants) are possible targets to reduce total protocol time (e.g., by 20 min).
Although largely unappreciated, the limitations of ramp-incremental exercise protocols for exercise prescription are well known (1,13,25,27,40). Yet they remain, as routine practice for laboratories worldwide, the standard for exercise intensity assignment in research and practical settings. Applying simple measurements and computations, the SRS protocol overcomes the exercise prescription limitations of traditional ramp protocols by facilitating precise determination of the PO associated with the LT and the maximal metabolic steady state. Thus, within a single visit, one can discern with accuracy the PO associated with the two thresholds that partition the three exercise intensity domains. Although further testing is required, these findings indicate that this method could correctly predict the PO for any V̇O2 within the moderate- and heavy-intensity domains and provide unprecedented accuracy for aerobic exercise prescription (see spreadsheet, Supplemental Digital Content 1, RCP power output calculation, for specific details and calculations, https://links.lww.com/MSS/B957). Unlike other similarly intended single visit protocols that incorporate maximal sprint bouts postramp exercise (41,42), the SRS requires only submaximal efforts before and after ramp exercise, making it potentially more suitable for a wide range of populations that are less capable of reproducing maximal efforts or in whom such efforts are contraindicated. Such a protocol could assist in circumstances where accuracy in the prescription of exercise intensity is required.
Here we demonstrate that by determining the constant-power equivalent of the RCP using the SRS protocol, one can identify with a reasonable degree of accuracy the PO associated with the maximal metabolic steady state. Although further testing of this concept is required, these findings suggest that this protocol could be applied to determine the constant PO required to elicit any steady-state V̇O2 within the moderate- and heavy-intensity domains.
This study was supported by grants given to Juan M. Murias by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (RGPIN-2016-03698) and the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada (1047725). Daniel A. Keir was supported by a postdoctoral fellowship from the Canadian Institute for Health Research (CIHR).
None conflicts of interest, financial or otherwise, are declared by the authors.
The results of the study are presented clearly, honestly, and without fabrication, falsification, or inappropriate data manipulation. The results of the present study do not constitute endorsement by the American College of Sports Medicine.
1. Keir DA, Paterson DH, Kowalchuk JM, Murias JM. Using ramp-incremental V̇O2
responses for constant-intensity exercise selection. Appl Physiol Nutr Metab
2. Iannetta D, Inglis EC, Mattu AT, et al. A critical evaluation of current methods for exercise prescription in women and men. Med Sci Sport Exerc
3. Beaver WL, Wasserman K, Whipp BJ. A new method for detecting anaerobic threshold by gas exchange. J Appl Physiol
4. Keir DA, Pogliaghi S, Murias JM. The respiratory compensation point and the deoxygenation break point are valid surrogates for critical power
and maximum lactate steady state. Med Sci Sport Exerc
5. Whipp BJ. Domains of aerobic function and their limiting parameters. In: Steinacker J, Ward S, editors. The Physiology and Pathophysiology of Exercise Tolerance
. New York: Plenum Press; 1996. pp. 83–9.
6. Whipp BJ, Mahler M. Dynamics of pulmonary gas exchange during exercise. In: West JB, editor. Pulmonary Gas Exchange, Vol II, Organism and Environment
. New York: Academic Press; 1980. pp. 33–96.
7. Davis JA, Whipp BJ, Lamarra N, Huntsman DJ, Frank MH, Wasserman K. Effect of ramp slope on determination of aerobic parameters from the ramp exercise test. Med Sci Sports Exerc
8. Poole DC, Ward SA, Gardner GW, Whipp BJ. Metabolic and respiratory profile of the upper limit for prolonged exercise in man. Ergonomics
9. Jones AM, Wilkerson DP, DiMenna F, Fulford J, Poole DC. Muscle metabolic responses to exercise above and below the “critical power
” assessed using 31P-MRS. Am J Physiol Regul Integr Comp Physiol
10. Keir DA, Fontana FY, Robertson TC, et al. Exercise intensity thresholds: identifying the boundaries of sustainable performance. Med Sci Sports Exerc
11. Mattioni Maturana F, Keir DA, Mclay KM, Murias JM. Can measures of critical power
precisely estimate the maximal metabolic steady state? Appl Physiol Nutr Metab
12. Iannetta D, Fontana FY, Maturana FM, et al. An equation to predict the maximal lactate steady state from ramp-incremental exercise test data in cycling. J Sci Med Sport
13. Iannetta D, de Almeida Azevedo R, Keir DA, Murias JM. Establishing the V̇O2
versus constant-work rate relationship from ramp-incremental exercise: simple strategies for an unsolved problem. J Appl Physiol
14. Inglis EC, Iannetta D, Keir DA, Murias JM. Training-induced changes in the respiratory compensation point, deoxyhemoglobin break point, and maximal lactate steady state: evidence of equivalence. Int J Sports Physiol Perform
15. Meyer T, Faude O, Scharhag J, Urhausen A, Kindermann W. Is lactic acidosis a cause of exercise induced hyperventilation at the respiratory compensation point? Br J Sports Med
16. Wasserman K, Beaver WL, Sun X-G, Stringer WW. Arterial H(+) regulation during exercise in humans. Respir Physiol Neurobiol
17. Whipp BJ, Davis JA, Wasserman K. Ventilatory control of the “isocapnic buffering” region in rapidly-incremental exercise. Respir Physiol
18. Iannetta D, Qahtani A, Mattioni Maturana F, Murias JM. The near-infrared spectroscopy-derived deoxygenated haemoglobin breaking-point is a repeatable measure that demarcates exercise intensity domains. J Sci Med Sport
19. Mattu AT, Iannetta D, MacInnis MJ, Doyle-Baker PK, Murias JM. Menstrual and oral contraceptive cycle phases do not affect submaximal and maximal exercise responses. Scand J Med Sci Sports
20. Leo JA, Sabapathy S, Simmonds MJ, Cross TJ. The respiratory compensation point is not a valid surrogate for critical power
. Med Sci Sport Exerc
21. Scheuermann BW, Kowalchuk JM. Attenuated respiratory compensation during rapidly incremented ramp exercise. Respir Physiol
22. Boone J, Bourgois J. The oxygen uptake response to incremental ramp exercise: methodogical and physiological issues. Sports Med
23. Spencer MD, Murias JM, Kowalchuk JM, Paterson DH. Effect of moderate-intensity work rate increment on phase II τVO2
, functional gain and Δ [HHb]. Eur J Appl Physiol
24. Keir DA, Robertson TC, Benson AP, Rossiter HB, Kowalchuk JM. The influence of metabolic and circulatory heterogeneity on the expression of pulmonary V̇O2
kinetics in humans. Exp Physiol
25. DiMenna FJ, Jones AM. “Linear” versus “nonlinear” V̇O2
responses to exercise: reshaping traditional beliefs. J Exerc Sci Fit
26. Keir DA, Benson AP, Love LK, Robertson TC, Rossiter HB, Kowalchuk JM. Influence of muscle metabolic heterogeneity in determining the V̇O2
p kinetic response to ramp-incremental exercise. J Appl Physiol
27. Rossiter HB. Exercise: kinetic consideration for gas exchange. Compr Physiol
28. Broxterman RM, Craig JC, Richardson RS. The respiratory compensation point and the deoxygenation break point are not valid surrogates for critical power
and maximum lactate steady state. Med Sci Sports Exerc
29. Iannetta D, Murias JM, Keir DA. A simple method to quantify the V˙O2
mean response time of ramp-incremental exercise. Med Sci Sport Exerc
30. Keir DA, Murias JM, Paterson DH, Kowalchuk JM. Breath-by-breath pulmonary O2
uptake kinetics: effect of data processing on confidence in estimating model parameters. Exp Physiol
31. Lamarra N, Whipp BJ, Ward SA, Wasserman K. Effect of interbreath fluctuations on characterizing exercise gas exchange kinetics. J Appl Physiol
32. Heck H, Mader A, Hess G, Mucke S, Muller R, Hollmann W. Justification of the 4-mmol/l lactate threshold. Int J Sports Med
33. Whipp BJ. Physiological mechanisms dissociating pulmonary CO2
exchange dynamics during exercise in humans. Exp Physiol
34. McBride G, Bland JM, Altman DG, Lin LI. A proposal for strength-of-agreement criteria for Lin’s concordance correlation coefficient. NIWA Client Rep
35. Murgatroyd SR, Ferguson C, Ward SA, Whipp BJ, Rossiter HB. Pulmonary O2
uptake kinetics as a determinant of high-intensity exercise tolerance in humans. J Appl Physiol
36. Keir DA, Copithorne DB, Hodgson MD, Pogliaghi S, Rice CL, Kowalchuk JM. The slow component of pulmonary O2 uptake accompanies peripheral muscle fatigue during high-intensity exercise. J Appl Physiol
37. Sawyer BJ, Morton RH, Womack CJ, Gaesser GA. V̇O2max
may not be reached during exercise to exhaustion above critical power
. Med Sci Sports Exerc
38. Jones AM, Burnley M, Black MI, Poole DC, Vanhatalo A. The maximal metabolic steady state: redefining the ‘gold standard.’ Physiol Rep
39. Poole DC, Burnley M, Vanhatalo A, Rossiter HB, Jones AM. Critical power
: an important fatigue threshold in exercise physiology. Med Sci Sport Exerc
40. Mezzani A, Hamm LF, Jones AM, et al. Aerobic exercise intensity assessment and prescription in cardiac rehabilitation. J Cardiopulm Rehabil Prev
41. Murgatroyd SR, Wylde LA, Cannon DT, Ward SA, Rossiter HB. A “ramp-sprint” protocol to characterise indices of aerobic function and exercise intensity domains in a single laboratory test. Eur J Appl Physiol
42. Constantini K, Sabapathy S, Cross TJ. A single-session testing protocol to determine critical power
and W. Eur J Appl Physiol

domain: biology


text:
The Kardashian fam finds out that Scott Disick is dating Sofia Richie on ‘KUWTK,’ and Kim is surprisingly supportive of their relationship!
Kylie Jenner and Khloe Kardashian’s pregnancy styles are #Goals! From skintight dresses showing off their bump to casual looks, who do you think has the best maternity style?
OMG! Rob Kardashian shared a pic of North West and Dream Kardashian that we’re certain will make you melt! Check it out!

domain: celebrity


text:
Copyright © 2012 by the author(s). Published here under license by The Resilience Alliance.
Go to the pdf
version of this article
The following is the established format for referencing this article:
Robinson, C. J., and T. J. Wallington. 2012. Boundary work: engaging knowledge systems in co-management of feral animals on Indigenous lands. Ecology and Society 17(2): 16.
, part of a special feature on Integrating Indigenous Ecological Knowledge and Science in Natural Resource Management: Perspectives from Australia
Boundary Work: Engaging Knowledge Systems in Co-management of Feral Animals on Indigenous Lands
1CSIRO Ecosystem Sciences
The integration and use of Indigenous knowledge to inform contemporary environmental policy decisions and management solutions is a growing global phenomenon. However, there is little critical inquiry about how the interactions between scientific and Indigenous knowledge (IK) systems can be effectively negotiated for the joint management of social-ecological systems. Such issues are urgent on Indigenous lands where co-management efforts respond to pressing conservation agendas and where the contribution of scientific knowledge and IK is required to better understand and manage complex social-ecological systems. We draw on the notion of boundary work to examine how interaction at the boundaries of scientific and IK systems can be managed effectively as a contribution to co-management. The case study of feral animal co-management in Australia’s Kakadu National Park illuminates the work required for local co-managers to bridge the divide between scientific and IK systems and to ensure the translation of knowledge for management decisions. Attributes of effective boundary work demonstrated in this case include: meaningful participation in agenda setting and joint knowledge production to enable co-managers to translate available knowledge into joint feral animal programs, Indigenous and non-Indigenous ranger efforts to broker interactions between knowledge systems that are supported by co-governance arrangements to ensure that boundary work remains accountable, and the production of collaboratively built boundary objects (e.g., feral animal impact assessment data) that helps to coordinate local action between co-managers. This case study illustrates the contribution of boundary work to local co-manager efforts to translate across knowledge systems and across the knowledge-action divide, even when consensus is difficult to achieve.
Key words: co-benefits, co-managed boundary work, collaboration, environmental governance, feral animal management, Indigenous knowledge, knowledge-action systems
In an era of rapid change, the complex character of social-ecological systems (SES) has meant that the management of these systems is seen as both a technical and a governance challenge (Berkes 2009). Resilience theory seeks to define a quality of SESs that simultaneously captures their endurance and their capacity to adapt to change (Walker et al. 2006). Resilience thinking has been applied in considering how the design of governance systems, defined as the structures and processes by which people share power and make decisions, can enhance system attributes for resilience in different planning contexts, for example, natural resource management, and for different planning purposes (e.g., Folke 2004, Olsson et al. 2004).
The sharing of power and responsibility between the government and local resource users is at the core of co-management, enabled through institutionalized arrangements for the active participation of resource users in making decisions (Berkes 2009). Co-management has emerged as a popular approach to environmental governance, particularly for enabling Indigenous communities to participate in environmental management decisions (Ross et al. 2009, Hill et al. 2012). Such participation can also involve different actors working together to make sense of knowledge from different sources or to generate new knowledge (Berkes 2009). These characteristics highlight that co-management is about managing relationships and handling different types of knowledge, as much as managing resources (Natcher et al. 2005).
Combining different kinds of knowledge such as science and local knowledge is recognized to be a difficult process (Goldstein 2010, Reid et al. in press
). Yet the management of knowledge across Indigenous, scientific, and management domains is rarely addressed explicitly in the literature on co-management (Berkes 2009), leaving open the question of how the integration of science and Indigenous knowledge is achieved through co-management in practice (Roux et al. 2006, Raymond et al. 2010). Research focused on the use of knowledge to support sustainable development has demonstrated that knowledge exchange across the boundaries of different domains of practice is not the apolitical, one-way transmission of knowledge as a product, implied by the linear notion of transfer (e.g., Jasanoff 1990). Jensen (2005) makes the point that only information can be shared, and that the acquisition of knowledge entails processes of learning, reframing, and understanding. In this process of negotiation, tensions arise at the interfaces between actors with different views of what constitutes reliable or useful knowledge; those tensions must be managed effectively if the potential benefits of knowledge are to be realized by society (Clark et al. 2010).
A growing body of research has emerged that analyzes boundaries and boundary work in knowledge-action systems (Gieryn 1983, Jasanoff 1990). Boundary work is defined as “those acts and structures that create, maintain, and break down boundaries” involving processes whereby legitimacy and cognitive authority are attached to knowledge (MacMynowski 2007:3). The concept of boundary work can assist in understanding and managing complex SESs, where the need to integrate different types of knowledge with differing logics and epistemologies is a significant challenge. The notion of boundary work provides a useful lens through which to investigate the relations between science and other forms of knowledge (Clark et al. 2010, Mollinga 2010), including Indigenous knowledge (IK; Reid et al. in press
Here, we examine how interactions at the boundaries of scientific and IK systems can be managed effectively as a contribution to co-management. Our analysis contributes to the literature on knowledge systems and the role of boundary issues by taking as its point of departure the need for work at the boundary to negotiate interactions between different knowledge systems while maintaining the integrity of each knowledge system. Before describing the research context and methods, we introduce boundary work as a framework for addressing the challenges related to efforts to integrate knowledge and translate available knowledge into management decisions. Three elements of effective boundary work serve as an analytical framework to structure the analysis of co-management activities conducted by Indigenous and non-Indigenous rangers and Jawoyn Elders as co-managers of Kakadu National Park (KNP) in Australia. We conclude by highlighting the attributes and mechanisms of boundary work identified by co-managers as important to translate diverse forms of knowledge and action for the sustainable management of Indigenous lands.
Integrating knowledge through boundary work
Understanding the connection between knowledge and practice has led to growing research interest in how institutional structures and processes influence the use of different forms of knowledge for environmental planning purposes (Cash et al. 2003, Jacobs et al. in press
). Scholars have recognized that while bridging Indigenous and science-based knowledge systems is both important and necessary, the difficulties involved should not be underestimated (Folke 2004, Berkes 2009). Case study evidence (Berkes et al. 2000, Kennett et al. 2004) points to a range of barriers to bridging different knowledge systems. Structural barriers include power differences (Brosius 2006), domination of decision making by governments (e.g., Davis 2006, Hill et al. 2012), as well as scientists’ lack of respect for IK (Agrawal 2002, Gratani et al. 2011). Cognitive barriers have also been identified and include the absence of a common means of validating knowledge claims (Natcher et al. 2005) and the absence of a common language and a shared worldview (Bowman and Robinson 2002).
The integration of different knowledge systems and cultural values creates an opportunity for collaboration, but also a challenge (Wohling 2009). Standards of objectivity and repeatability underpin scientific knowledge practice and credibility (Jasanoff 1990). IK represents an Indigenous group’s claim to authority over land and sea territory, which directs how and why knowledge is regarded, shared, and held (Folke 2004, Wohling 2009). The task of knowledge integration is therefore one of situated engagement, “a means of approaching interactions in which engagement between people has to occur in situated places ... and concepts and practices become reliant on situated circumstances for their relevance and meaning” (Howitt and Suchet-Pearson 2006:332).
Conceiving of knowledge as generated in social processes of interaction between different stakeholders represents a move away from a focus on knowledge types such as local and scientific knowledge (e.g., Gagnon and Berteaux 2009) toward an action-oriented view of knowledge centered on ways of knowing that are bound up in practices of resource management and use (Nygren 1999, Lejano and Ingram 2009). This active perspective on knowledge informs the growing literature on the co-production of knowledge, which understands knowledge as a process of relating that involves negotiation of meaning among partners (e.g., Bäckstrand 2003, Roux et al. 2006). While knowledge transfer models view knowledge as a product and focus on the efficiency or effectiveness of moving knowledge between one domain and another, the co-production perspective focuses on the quality of institutionalized social relationships (Wynne 2001). The arrangements that underpin the achievement of knowledge integration through co-production practices have been examined in theories of boundary work (Gieryn 1983).
Gieryn (1983) originally introduced the notion of boundary work to describe the way scientists demarcate science from other knowledge systems such as religion or politics to gain credibility, legitimacy, and epistemic authority for scientific knowledge and practice in the public sphere. Although Gieryn emphasizes that boundaries are created and managed to separate and exclude less favored science or non-science, it has also been noted that boundaries can serve as interfaces that facilitate knowledge exchange, bridging, inclusion, and co-production (Star 2010). As Halffman (2003) emphasizes, boundary work involves a process of “defining a practice in contrast with other practices, to protect it from unwanted participants and interference, while trying to ascribe proper ways of behavior for participants and non-participants (demarcation); simultaneously boundary-work defines proper ways for interaction between these practices and makes such an interaction possible and conceivable (co-ordination)” (Halffman 2003:27).
Based on Halffman’s (2003) account, co-ordination and co-operation can occur without the need to resolve culturally situated differences (Goldstein 2010) and without the need for prior consensus (Star and Griesemer 1989). The quality of institutionalized relationships is a key condition for the successful facilitation of knowledge engagement, mediation, and exchange. Studies have confirmed the importance of this condition, demonstrating that the most successful boundary work practices are collaborative and involve two-way communication between actors on both sides of the boundary (Lemos and Morehouse 2005). Communication relies on iterative and inclusive processes to enable other values to be involved in knowledge sharing and co-production. Translation is necessary because knowledge often has jargon or presumptions that are difficult to understand or may be contested. Mediation is critical to manage tradeoffs between salient, credible, or legitimate attributes of knowledge contributions (Lejano and Ingram 2009, Jacobs et al. in press
). An important role in this interaction is played by boundary agents, defined as people or organizations that act as intermediaries between organizations or sectors to identify information needs, problem definitions, and possible solutions by communicating and building relationships across the boundary between social worlds (Roux et al. 2006, Goldstein 2010). Boundary organizations, as originally described by Cash and Moser (2000) to facilitate two-way translation between the domains of science and policy, are similar to bridging organizations (Hahn et al. 2006). Bridging organizations are identified as critical to the efforts of combining complementary knowledge, skills, and capacities of different actors (Berkes 2009) and facilitating knowledge translation (Olsson et al. 2004).
The role of boundary-spanning individuals was identified as more important than that of boundary organizations in several cases (McNie et al. 2008, Reid et al. in press
). Facilitation of knowledge integration by boundary agents relies on an awareness of what is involved that can only be generated through participation in the process of knowledge production (Nowotny et al. 2001), highlighting the important role of researchers as facilitators of boundary work (Brosius 2006). Boundary work is also carried out through the co-production of boundary objects (Star and Griesemer 1989). Boundary objects are artifacts of boundary work, for example, classifications, maps, and standardized methods, which serve as translators and mediators between different social worlds while embodying the knowledge of the people who create them (e.g., Eden 2009, Goldman 2009). The co-production of boundary objects acts as a means of translation, maintaining enough features in common to provide a basis for coordinated action while also being subject to multiple interpretations (Star and Griesemer 1989, Star 2010). Importantly, the integrity of each knowledge system and the respective responsibilities of individuals are maintained in this process, contributing to the authority and utility of boundary objects for action by different groups (Star and Griesemer 1989).
Both boundary work theory and co-management research are based on the assumption that knowledge is generated in the particular context of application as a situated process of translation and co-production (Berkes 2009, Ross et al 2009). A situated perspective on knowledge also provides the focus for building SES resilience through an emphasis on social aspects of knowledge practices and the use of IK to interpret and respond to feedbacks from the environment (Berkes et al. 2000, 2003, Howitt and Suchet-Pearson 2006). This situated perspective on knowledge recognizes that knowledge integration is achieved through the engaged work of boundary agents and the co-production of boundary objects that maintain the integrity of different knowledge systems and accountabilities, are meaningful to stakeholders, and can establish a robust basis for joint management action.
While boundaries can serve useful functions, for example, to maintain the integrity of scientific knowledge, boundaries can also act as barriers to collaboration. As such, management of these boundaries is considered paramount to knowledge integration for management action (Jacobs et al. in press
). This is particularly important in cross-cultural settings where attention to the institutional conditions that enable different knowledge systems to be integrated and validated for effective environmental decision making is critical (Gratani et al. 2011).
From this body of research, three key attributes of effective boundary work have been identified: (1) meaningful participation in agenda setting and joint knowledge production by stakeholders on both sides of the boundary; (2) governance arrangements that ensure boundary work is accountable to stakeholders on both sides of the boundary; and (3) the co-production of boundary objects. We use these attributes as an analytical framework with which to examine the work required to bridge the divide between Indigenous and scientific knowledge systems for the co-management of feral animals in KNP.
KAKADU NATIONAL PARK
Co-management is now a common planning model for the management of protected areas across Australia (Ross et al. 2009). KNP is a World Heritage Area that was one of the first co-management arrangements negotiated in Australia when Indigenous Traditional Owners gained formal legal ownership of large areas under the Aboriginal Land Rights (Northern Territory) Act
of 1976. This land claim was achieved as part of a package designed to satisfy several interests in the region, including mining, tourism, and conservation. Indigenous land rights were granted on the condition that the area would be leased back to the Commonwealth Government for 99 yrs. Management of KNP is through a multi-tiered partnership between Indigenous landowners, the park director, and a board of management on which the former two are both represented (Lawrence 2000). Under this agreement, park managers have an obligation to promote “Aboriginal administration, management, and control of the Park,” as well as to use “traditional skills and knowledge to manage the Park,” and to encourage “Indigenous business and enterprise” (Australian Government 2007).
Feral animals such as horses (Equus caballus
), pigs (Sus scrofa
), and water buffalo (Bubalus bubalis
) have been present in the Kakadu region since their introduction into the Northern Territory by British colonizers in the mid-1800s (Robinson et al. 2005). Scientific research conducted into the effects of feral animal populations on the ecology of the Kakadu region has shown the damage that feral animals cause to the physical structure of soils and habitats and the ways in which feral animals compete and displace native species (Bayliss and Yeomans 1989, Robinson and Whitehead 2003, Woinarski et al. 2007). Local Indigenous people have seen and reacted to feral animals in different ways in response to their historical interactions with other animals, including those now deemed feral, people’s access to traditional territories, and the effects these animals have had on Indigenous peoples’ customary economic activities (Berkes et al. 2000). As a result, some feral animals are important food sources, others such as horses are loved as bush pets, and some feral animals such as pigs are considered a threat to Indigenous lands (Robinson et al. 2005).
The decision-making approach and techniques used to cull feral animal species in KNP have historically been a source of conflict between Indigenous elders, Indigenous KNP rangers, and non-Indigenous KNP rangers. Aerial shooting, which has been the method of choice for feral management in many parts of the park, is politically contentious (Robinson and Whitehead 2003). At the time of our research, the Indigenous elders we consulted were concerned about the wasteful nature of mass animal slaughter, its effects on Indigenous people’s ability to create revenue from the sale of meat products derived from the culls, and a preference from Indigenous elders to enable paying tourists to undertake safari hunting activities. The current Kadadu management plan emphasizes the park’s value as a living cultural landscape and commits co-managers to manage landscapes that have been influenced by Indigenous land management regimes for thousands of years. However, the extent to which park managers are obliged to maintain park values that reflect contemporary Indigenous interactions and adaptations to the presence of feral animals is not clear.
This research was conducted as part of a broader project commissioned by the Kakadu Board to investigate Indigenous ecological knowledge and aspirations relating to feral animal management in the region (Robinson et al. 2005). Project design and fieldwork involved interviews and workshops with Jawoyn and non-Indigenous rangers and senior Jawoyn Traditional Owners (or Jawoyn elders) in a two-stage process.
Linking knowledge about feral animal impacts to feral animal management action
The first phase of the feral impact assessment involved interviews with Elders and rangers to understand the IK base and value sets associated with different species in the park. Workshops at each of the park ranger stations then engaged Jawoyn rangers, non-Indigenous rangers, and elders in a process of mapping, explaining, and prioritizing (as low, medium, and high) the need for programs to manage the positive and negative effects of feral animals within different regions of the park. These perspectives were collated to create a park-scale map to identify where high levels of consensus existed (on areas of high priority in relation to negative feral animal impacts), and where high levels of disagreement remained about priorities and impacts and about the knowledge and action required to co-manage feral pigs, horses, and buffalo in KNP. These maps were checked and refined through discussions held at each ranger station, presented to senior park managers, and then submitted for agreement to the Kakadu board of management. This process led to Board approval of a pilot co-management project in low to medium conflict areas in the southern part of the park (Jawoyn Traditional Owner territories).
Developing boundary mechanisms to facilitate co-management of feral pigs in Jawoyn territories
Rangers working in the southern region of the park agreed to begin by addressing issues that had achieved the greatest consensus, in this case, perceptions regarding the negative impacts of pigs. Agreement between Jawoyn elders, Jawoyn rangers, and non-Indigenous rangers was reached on the design of the pilot project, and six Jawoyn elders were chosen by the local Jawoyn community to be involved in the feral control pilot project and to guide the co-management process.
A workshop was held that led to an agreement between Jawoyn elders and rangers on the location for the pilot project and the design of the proposed pig culling operation. The opportunities for Indigenous enterprise (e.g., to allow hunting safaris, sell horses, and sub-contract pet meat operations) were discussed. Consensus was finally achieved to conduct a ground-based shooting operation that would enable trained Jawoyn rangers to participate and report back and to provide meat to the Jawoyn community, followed by an aerial shoot to cull sufficient numbers. Three habitat types at two sites that required management attention were also negotiated. The habitat types were represented by: (1) two waterholes that were identified to be significant cultural and food harvesting sites for Jawoyn residents and that were being heavily used by resident feral animal populations, (2) savanna woodlands where large numbers of feral animals had been seen, and (3) Melaleuca
riparian swamps where feral animal tracts were causing significant gully erosion.
Two assessment methods were facilitated as part of research efforts to support the co-management project: transect mapping, and a walking narrative assessment to obtain the local, practical knowledge of Jawoyn rangers and elders. The first method drew on the approach used by Edwards et al. (2000) and involved mapping three transects in each habitat type and surveying four plots in each transect. Several variables were measured in each plot, including age of tracks, percent coverage, and rooting disturbance. The second, parallel method involved an on-ground monitoring exercise. A walking narrative approach was adopted that involved recording the observations and perspectives of Jawoyn rangers and elders at each of the sites before and after feral control operations. Recorded interviews were transcribed and coded into themes using Filemaker Pro qualitative data analysis software. Extracts from interviews are presented in italics to help contextualize them.
Data from the plot analyses and summaries of the walking narrative assessments were presented and discussed with rangers and Jawoyn elders in workshops held before and after the agreed feral animal control operation was completed. Workshop discussions focused on the effectiveness of assessment mechanisms developed through this research to inform and evaluate co-management decisions. Participants’ perspectives on the methods and techniques used to inform assessments of feral management in the pilot project are presented next.
RESULTS: MECHANISMS TO FACILITATE CO-MANAGED BOUNDARY WORK
Workshop discussions and on-ground walking narrative assessments revealed the multiple values and impacts Jawoyn people associated with pigs (Table 1). Jawoyn Elders and rangers involved in the assessments noted that pigs were valued as a source of food and income (i.e., through employment in pig control activities) and were enjoyed by some tourists, but did cause significant damage to specific species and places.
The density and age of pig tracks and evidence of pig rooting and wallows recorded to inform the scientific assessment of feral pig impacts highlighted the different scales and intensity of feral pig populations and impacts. Intense impacts (> 75% of survey plots covered in tracks, roots, and wallows) were recorded at waterholes, whereas smaller and dispersed populations and impacts were recorded at sites in the savanna woodland (< 25% of survey plots covered in tracks, roots, and wallows). The technical impact assessments also provided a refined analysis of pig damage by demonstrating that old tracks can linger for some time in the landscape, making it difficult to assess visually the efficacy of the control program through on-ground monitoring alone.
Both data sets generated from the assessment process were analyzed by rangers and Jawoyn elders and included the identification of a range of mechanisms that were useful to co-manage efforts to enable different knowledge contributions to interact and inform management decisions. These mechanisms included: (1) enabling Jawoyn and non-Indigenous rangers to broker knowledge/action links; (2) respect and use of tacit knowledge and interactional expertise, that is, expertise in mediating between the certified knowledge of science and the uncertified, experience-based knowledge and issue-meanings held by Indigenous people (after Wynne 2002), to develop purpose-built knowledge partnerships that could inform particular management activities; and (3) the use of collaborative boundary objects.
Brokering knowledge/action links
Rangers acted as boundary agents to broker knowledge/action links in this complex boundary work dynamic; all rangers identified this role as a challenge to manage effectively. One non-Indigenous ranger who had extensive experience working in KNP reflected on how this brokering role affected his willingness and ability to enable knowledge to be shared or received:
Joint management in Kakadu can be bloody frustrating to put into practice ... we have so many meetings that just don’t seem to lead to anywhere ... sometimes I get so frustrated I just go out and shoot a few pigs to feel like something is being done!
Maintaining the integrity of knowledge systems was also a critical and careful component of co-managed boundary work as Jawoyn rangers considered the contributions of senior Jawoyn elders. This involved respect for the authority of Jawoyn rules used to govern IK contributions and the judgment to combine this with scientific studies and their own knowledge and experience of feral animal impacts in the park. The practical knowledge offered by both Jawoyn and non-Indigenous rangers highlighted why on-ground shooting that employed Jawoyn rangers could provide multiple outcomes, including employment benefits for Indigenous communities. As one Jawoyn ranger put it, on-ground shoots also provided a chance to “work together to care for country
” to build relationships and new ways of knowing about this dynamic landscape. Scientific studies conducted on feral animal impacts and effective culling techniques in the Kakadu region were also shared and helped explain why on-ground shooting often focused on large animals that were easier to shoot, and that aerial culls were required to create significant reduction in pig populations (e.g., Bayliss and Yeomans 1989).
The interactional expertise of co-managers to support the ongoing co-operation of all stakeholders in the process was critical, as one Ranger aptly put it, “to work out how to work with each knowledge contribution.
” Key to this was the development of new knowledge:
It is critical that this assessment is linked to our work here [in the park]. ... to make an explicit link between our judgment about damage caused by pigs with management priorities and efforts. ... At the end of the day [co-management] is about working together ... this ain’t easy – there is a lot of conflict [about other management issues] that can cloud our efforts ... It really does require us all to build our capabilities to develop ... I guess you could call it purpose-built knowledge ... to guide our work.
On-ground monitoring and regular meetings between rangers and Elders provided a means for co-managers to handle different knowledge contributions about assessment and control methods. In this process, Jawoyn elders emphasized that what constitutes real change and improved management practice could not be based solely on environmental and economic criteria. As one Jawoyn elder noted, “a waterhole is not just a waterhole but a place in our country,
” highlighting the legitimacy of place-based assessments. From Jawoyn perspectives, the waterhole at one site was a significant place where pigs had caused regional-scale impacts because significant cultural and spiritual ties connected this waterhole to other sacred sites in the landscape. As one Jawoyn elder explained:
You know the concern [and resources and interest] in the park when an animal is endangered? Well the same attention needs to be paid to here ... if this place becomes too dirty we won’t come here to hunt, fish, bring family, share stories about this place – and if this happens for too long ... the place will die ... our country will die.
Collaborative boundary objects
In the co-management planning domain, joint site assessments, joint mapping, and workshops acted as boundary objects to facilitate the communication and translation of knowledge across Indigenous and non-IK systems. In the Jawoyn domain, repeated walks through country and the articulation of relationships between kin and country in this process were essential to enable the Jawoyn community to evaluate the quality of Jawoyn knowledge about feral animals and their effects.
Broad-scale maps indicating levels of agreement between different assessments of feral animal impacts helped to generate a consensus vision on impacts caused by a given species for a given site and type and intensity of feral management operations for particular areas and species. An example of a map generated for the co-management of pigs in the park at the time this research was conducted acted as a boundary object to refine the discussion about where and why there was divergence or consensus between assessments of feral animal impacts for some areas and species (Fig. 1). This process enabled available knowledge to be tested and validated and supports the findings of Gratani et al. (2011), who found that evaluation of IK involving Indigenous knowledge holders is important to reinforce Indigenous people’s confidence in their own knowledge via a negotiated process of its acceptance by other collaborators.
Repeated Indigenous visits to country offered through the walking narrative approach became another critical mechanism to enable additional IK contributions to be tested and refined. On one such visit, two senior Jawoyn elders asked to make a detour to a nearby historic buffalo site. The elders shared buffalo and horse histories and emphasized the value these species held for Jawoyn’s livelihoods. At the end of the day, one Jawoyn elder reflected on the multiple balancing efforts that had to be negotiated within and between knowledge contributions:
It’s important you know, sharing our stories about this land – buffalo, horse – they were here before them tourists arrived – before the park – they belong as well. ... I reckon that helicopter story told by [the Jawoyn ranger] is also important. ... I didn’t know that numbers were coming up and damaging stony country – we need to ensure [that other Jawoyn elders] hear that story as well. ... It’s important to support [the rangers] for what they are doing – it’s a hard job you know – balancing all the ideas all the time. ... We should do a small [on-ground feral control operation] shoot that employs us mob and also lets the park do their work to protect that important waterhole.
As this summary of the day’s discussion highlights, such visits to country offer a vital mechanism for boundary work in the Indigenous domain. The use of IK for decision making was done through a process of community decision making, based on the assumption that outcomes may require future review. Repeated visits to country combined with the key role of Indigenous rangers as brokers ensured that Jawoyn input and knowledge was appropriate for the feral animal management context, place, or purpose.
We examined the question of knowledge integration in the context of a joint assessment of feral animal impacts by Indigenous and non-Indigenous rangers and Jawoyn elders in KNP. The knowledge systems engaged in the habitat transect mapping resulted in a quantification of impacts to facilitate comparison across habitat types and over time. The qualitative expression of IK through stories and narratives resulted in the articulation of Indigenous standards and relationships associated with pigs and their management.
The attributes of co-managed boundary work highlighted here closely parallel the principles of successful boundary work derived from a comparative analysis of integrated natural resource management programs in the United States (Clark et al. 2010). Key attributes of effective boundary work outlined in the Introduction structure the Discussion:
- Meaningful participation in agenda setting and joint knowledge production by stakeholders from both sides of the boundary. Visits to country, on-ground monitoring, and workshops enabled the integration of a range of knowledge to inform management actions. A key issue here was to ensure that the agenda was not captured by either Indigenous values or scientific values, especially in the early stages of study design.
- Governance arrangements that ensure boundary work is accountable to stakeholders on both sides of the boundary. These goals were achieved and involved Indigenous and non-Indigenous rangers and Jawoyn elders in the on-ground monitoring exercise.
- The production of collaboratively built boundary objects. Maps and impact assessment data helped generate the commitment of Indigenous and non-Indigenous participants to management action oriented to feral animal impacts. The discussion and debate generated by these boundary objects assisted all parties to gain clarity about the nature of, and reasons for, different participants’ focus on particular impacts, places, and species.
Our research highlights that all three attributes of effective boundary work relied on the work of rangers as boundary agents to facilitate the process of co-producing knowledge for co-management action. At the same time, these boundary agents felt the tensions involved in working across the boundary of different knowledge domains. Frustration expressed by rangers highlights that communication is required to build boundary objects and that participation in agenda setting must be problem focused. This required co-managers to engage with the issue of what each knowledge contribution actually represents, as well as with the practicalities of incorporating a range of valid contributions into formal decision-making processes (Lejano and Ingram 2009).
Co-managers in KNP and other similar management environments must make decisions and take actions despite high levels of uncertainty associated with both the knowledge contributions and the efficacy of management responses (Izac and O’Brien 1991, Berkes 2009). Uncertainty often provides a key motivation for boundary work efforts, and critical boundary work efforts are required to handle the inherent biases and limitations in any knowledge or management contribution. This boundary work often involves complex processes of assessments regarding what constitutes credible knowledge, real change, and improved management practice. Such judgments cannot be based on criteria that collaborative partners have no opportunity to test. Rather, ongoing negotiation is required to select the knowledge used to judge the performance of collaboration, to judge the process used to undertake this assessment, and to determine what can be learned from past experience.
A key challenge to innovative brokering and consensus-building efforts in KNP has been an ongoing struggle to get the broader park planning and policy authorities to support local co-management activities and initiatives. Many Jawoyn interviewees expressed a concern, which they believed to be widespread, about the continuing challenges Indigenous people face in their efforts to enter into equitable co-management arrangements. In KNP, a response to this challenge could include ongoing support for knowledge partnerships that are not based on the assumption that IK is only relevant for “traditional” problems such as providing input into historical fire management practices (Wohling 2009). Instead, boundary work mechanisms need to be devised and resourced that enable holders of IK to use, test, and integrate their knowledge with other types of knowledge to address “non-traditional” issues such as the management of feral animal impacts on Indigenous lands.
The challenge of achieving equitable and enduring co-management also highlights the need for knowledge partnerships to be supported and aligned to decision-making units that operate at multiple scales (Olsson et al. 2004). Resource limitations meant that local mechanisms devised to produce and communicate fit-for-purpose knowledge relating to the management of feral animals impacts could no longer be funded after our research was completed. Subsequent changes to government agency staff in the park challenged on-ground efforts to build on what has been learned from past experience to guide subsequent culling operations. Indigenous elders in KNP still recall and worry about the serious social, cultural, and livelihood impacts of context-insensitive feral animal culling programs that have occurred in this region (Robinson and Whitehead 2003). The need for co-management approaches and relationships to overcome a history of conflict and build the resilience of this unique SES based on recognition of the rights of Indigenous land owners continues to be demonstrated forcibly.
Analysis of the ways in which knowledge was used and tested to guide feral animal control operations in KNP highlights the challenges faced by co-managers when handling different knowledge contributions, particularly when there is conflict. A key source of such conflict had been the process of translating knowledge across the boundary between Indigenous and non-IK systems. Our work makes it clear that to understand the integration of science and IK, attention must be paid to the role of rangers as boundary agents in considering and combining different representations of feral animals and their impacts to inform joint feral animal management decisions.
Our research supports other studies that show that the institutional landscape needs to be considered as carefully as the ecological system to identify the features that contribute to the resilience of the SES (Berkes et al. 2003, Plummer and Armitage 2007). This has prompted growing research interest in aspects of governance systems that are robust to change, including the creation of new knowledge systems. We argue that co-managed governance systems that involve Indigenous people require knowledge partnership and boundary work capabilities to enable different knowledge contributions and interactions to underpin co-management agreements and activities on Indigenous lands.
In the face of issues associated with feral animals on Indigenous land in a World Heritage Area, an innovative knowledge co-production system was created through a local and purpose-built knowledge partnership. The case of feral animal co-management in this northern Australian region illuminates the work required to bridge the divide between scientific and IK systems in co-management, including collaboration between domains to produce boundary objects that act to coordinate local action between domains when consensus is difficult to achieve. In KNP, as elsewhere, efforts to build effective and long-term knowledge partnerships to undertake such boundary work is an aspiration that is still being worked toward, rather than something that has already been achieved. Established policies and procedures limit the formal institutional capacity for innovation and for supporting co-management efforts (Olsson et al. 2004), and knowledge production occurs amid the history of prior agreements and the social and technical work these policies represent (Nadasdy 2003, Goldstein 2010). This historical legacy can act to constrain boundary work because new solutions displace the negotiated social arrangement as well as the technical work embodied in the on-stage, authoritative voice of these established institutions (Jasanoff 1990). In such situations, boundary agents can assist knowledge communities by working backstage to create new safe spaces where partners can come together to create joint outputs and reach agreement on new rules of engagement that are supportive of innovation and creativity (Goldstein 2010, Reid et al. in press
A key challenge to Indigenous co-management efforts is to ensure that Indigenous people and their unique knowledge contributions are integral to the ongoing negotiation of co-management agendas and arrangements. Such knowledge partnerships need to enable local people to use and refine their knowledge systems in ways that maintain the integrity of knowledge practices as well as provide conservation and Indigenous benefits. Integral to such knowledge partnerships is a requirement that collaborators engage in ongoing co-boundary work to build the trust and interactional expertise needed to test and co-produce knowledge that is meaningful, relevant, and robust enough to maintain co-operation for sustainable joint management action.
We thank the Indigenous Traditional Owners and Park Rangers of Kakadu National Park and acknowledge Mat and Alexander Gilfedder, who both assisted in the fieldwork. Thanks also to the contributions offered to the broader Kakadu project by Peter Whitehead, Dermot Smyth, and Brett Ottley. We also thank Ro Hill and the special editors whose comments vastly improved this paper.
Agrawal, A. 2002. Indigenous knowledge and the politics of classification. International Social Science Journal
Australian Government. 2007. Kakadu National Park Management Plan 2007–2014.
Australian Government Printing Service, Canberra, Australia. [online] URL: http://www.environment.gov.au/parks/publications/kakadu/pubs/management-plan.pdf
Bäckstrand, K. 2003. Civic science for sustainability: reframing the role of experts, policy-makers and citizens in environmental governance. Global Environmental Politics
Bayliss, P., and K. M. Yeomans. 1989. The distribution and abundance of feral livestock in the top end of the Northern Territory (1985–86), and their relation to population control. Australian Wildlife Research
Berkes, F. 2009. Evolution of co-management: role of knowledge generation, bridging organizations and social learning. Journal of Environmental Management
Berkes, F., J. Colding, and C. Folke. 2000. Rediscovery of traditional ecological knowledge as adaptive management. Ecological Applications
Berkes, F., J. Colding, and C. Folke, editors. 2003. Navigating social-ecological systems: building resilience for complexity and change.
Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK.
Bowman, D. M. J. S., and C. J. Robinson. 2002. The Getting of the Nganabbarru:
observations and reflections on Aboriginal buffalo hunting in northern Australia. Australian Geographer
Brosius, J. P. 2006. What counts as local knowledge in global environmental assessments and conventions? Pages 129-144 in
W. V. Reid, F. Berkes, T. J. Wilbanks, and D. Capistrano, editors. Bridging scales and knowledge systems: concepts and applications in ecosystem assessment.
Island Press, Washington, D.C., USA.
Cash, D. W., W. C. Clark, F. Alcock, N. M. Dickson, N. Eckley, D. H. Guston, J. Jager, and R. B. Mitchell. 2003. Knowledge systems for sustainable development. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Cash, D. W., and S. C. Moser. 2000. Linking global and local scales: designing dynamic assessment and management processes. Global Environmental Change
Clark, W. C., T. P. Tomich, M. van Noordwijk, N. M. Dickson, D. Catacutan, D. Guston, and E. McNie. 2010. Toward a general theory of boundary work: insights from the CGIAR’s natural resource management programs.
CID Working Paper 199. Centre for International Development, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. [online] URL: http://www.hks.harvard.edu/centers/cid/publications/faculty-working-papers/cid-working-paper-no.-199
Davis, M. 2006. Bridging the gap or crossing a bridge? Indigenous knowledge and the language of law and policy. Pages 145-164 in
W. V. Reid, F. Berkes, T. J. Wilbanks, and D. Capistrano, editors. Bridging scales and knowledge systems: concepts and applications in ecosystem assessment.
Island Press, Washington, D.C., USA.
Eden, S. 2009. The work of environmental governance networks: traceability, credibility and certification by the Forest Stewardship Council. Geoforum
Edwards, G. P., N. D. de Preu, B. J. Shakeshaft, and I. V. Crealy. 2000. An evaluation of two methods of assessing feral cat and dingo abundance in central Australia. Wildlife Research
Folke, C. 2004. Traditional knowledge in social-ecological systems. Ecology and Society
9(3): 7. [online] http://www.ecologyandsociety.org/vol9/iss3/art7/
Gagnon, C. A., and D. Berteaux. 2009. Integrating traditional ecological knowledge and ecological science: a question of scale. Ecology and Society
14(2): 19. [online] URL: http://www.ecologyandsociety.org/vol14/iss2/art19/
Gieryn, T. F. 1983. Boundary-work and the demarcation of science from non-science: strains and interests in professional ideologies of scientists. American Sociological Review
Goldman, M. 2009. Constructing connectivity: conservation corridors and conservation politics in East African rangelands. Annals of the Association of American Geographers
Goldstein, B. E. 2010. Epistemic mediation: aligning expertise across boundaries within an endangered species habitat conservation plan. Planning Theory and Practice
Gratani, M., J. R. A. Butler, F. Royee, P. Valentine, D. Burrows, W. I. Canendo, and A. S. Anderson. 2011. Is validation of indigenous ecological knowledge a disrespectful process? A case study of traditional fishing poisons and invasive fish management from the Wet Tropics, Australia. Ecology and Society
16(3): 25. http://dx.doi.org/10.5751/ES-04249-160325
Hahn, T., P. Olsson, C. Folke, and K. Johansson. 2006. Trust-building, knowledge generation and organizational innovations: the role of a bridging organization for adaptive comanagement of a wetland landscape around Kristianstad, Sweden. Human Ecology
Halffman, W. 2003. Boundaries of regulatory science: eco/toxicology and aquatic hazards of chemicals in the US, England, and the Netherlands, 1970–1995.
Dissertation. University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
Hill, R., C. Grant, M. George, C. J. Robinson, S. Jackson, and N. Abel. 2012. A typology of indigenous engagement in Australian environmental management: implications for knowledge integration and social-ecological system sustainability. Ecology and Society
17(1): 23. http://dx.doi.org/10.5751/ES-04587-170123
Howitt, R., and S. Suchet-Pearson. 2006. Rethinking the building blocks: ontological pluralism and the idea of ‘management.’ Geografiska Annaler Series B: Human Geography
Izac, A.-M. N., and P. O’Brien. 1991. Conflict, uncertainty and risk in feral pig management: the Australian approach. Journal of Environmental Management
Jacobs, K., L. Lebel, J. Buizer, L. Adams, P. Matson, E. McCullough, P. Garden, G. Saliba, and T. Finan. In press.
Linking knowledge with action in the pursuit of sustainable water-resources management. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, in press. http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0813125107
Jasanoff, S. 1990. The fifth branch: science advisers as policymakers.
Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA.
Jensen, P. E. 2005. A contextual theory of learning and the learning organization. Knowledge and Process Management
Kennett, R., C. J. Robinson, I. Kiessling, D. Yunupingu, Munungurritj, and D. Yunupingu. 2004. Indigenous initiatives for co-management of Miyapunu/sea turtle. Ecological Management and Restoration
Lawrence, D. 2000. Kakadu: the making of a national park.
Melbourne University Press, Melbourne, Australia.
Lejano, R. P., and H. Ingram. 2009. Collaborative networks and new ways of knowing. Environmental Science and Policy
Lemos, M. C., and B. J. Morehouse. 2005. The co-production of science and policy in integrated climate assessments. Global Environmental Change
MacMynowski, D. P. 2007. Pausing at the brink of interdisciplinarity: power and knowledge at the meeting of social and biophysical science. Ecology and Society
12(1): 20. [online] URL: http://www.ecologyandsociety.org/vol12/iss1/art20/
McNie, E. C., M. van Noordwijk, W. C. Clark, N. M. Dickson, N. Sakuntaladewi, Suyanto, L. Joshi, B. Leimona, K. Hairiah, and N. Khususiyah. 2008. Boundary organizations, objects and agents: linking knowledge with action in agroforestry watersheds.
Joint CID Graduate Student and Research Fellow Working Paper 34 and World Agroforestry Centre-ICRAF Working Paper 80. Centre for International Development at Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts and World Agroforestry Centre, Nairobi, Kenya. [online] URL: http://www.cid.harvard.edu/cidwp/grad/034.html
Mollinga, P. P. 2010. Boundary work and the complexity of natural resources management. Crop Science
Nadasdy, P. 2003. Hunters and bureaucrats: power, knowledge, and aboriginal-state relations in the southwest Yukon.
UBC Press, Vancouver, Canada.
Natcher, D. C., S. Davis, and C. G. Hickey. 2005. Co-management: managing relationships, not resources. Human Organization
Nowotny, H., P. Scott, and M. Gibbons. 2001. Re-thinking science: knowledge and the public in an age of uncertainty.
Polity Press, London, UK.
Nygren, A. 1999. Local knowledge in the environment-development discourse: from dichotomies to situated knowledges. Critique of Anthropology
Olsson, P., C. Folke, and F. Berkes. 2004. Adaptive comanagement for building resilience in social-ecological systems. Environmental Management
Plummer, R., and D. Armitage. 2007. A resilience-based framework for evaluating adaptive co-management: linking ecology, economics and society in a complex world. Ecological Economics
Raymond, C. M., I. Fazey, M. S. Reed, L. C. Stringer, G. M. Robinson, and A. C. Evely. 2010. Integrating local and scientific knowledge for environmental management. Journal of Environmental Management
Reid, R. S., D. Nkedianye, M. Y. Said, D. Kaelo, M. Neselle, O. Makui, L. Onetu, S. Kiruswa, N. Ole Kamuaro, P. Kristjanson, J. Ogutu, S. B. BurnSilver, M. J. Goldman, R. B. Boone, K. A. Galvin, N. M. Dickson, and W. C. Clark. In press.
Evolution of models to support community and policy action with science: balancing pastoral livelihoods and wildlife conservation in savannas of East Africa. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, in press. http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0900313106
Robinson, C. J., D. Smyth, and P. J. Whitehead. 2005. Bush tucker, bush pets, and bush threats: cooperative management of feral animals in Australia’s Kakadu National Park. Conservation Biology
Robinson, C. J., and P. Whitehead. 2003. Cross-cultural management of pest animal damage: a case study of feral buffalo control in Australia’s Kakadu National Park. Environmental Management
Ross, H., C. Grant, C. J. Robinson, A. Izurieta, D. Smyth, and P. Rist. 2009. Co-management and Indigenous protected areas in Australia: achievements and ways forward. Australasian Journal of Environmental Management
Roux, D. J., K. H. Rogers, H. C. Biggs, P. J. Ashton, and A. Sergeant. 2006. Bridging the science-management divide: moving from unidirectional knowledge transfer to knowledge interfacing and sharing. Ecology and Society
11(1): 4. [online] URL: http://www.ecologyandsociety.org/vol11/iss1/art4/
Star, S. L. 2010. This is not a boundary object: reflections on the origin of a concept. Science, Technology and Human Values
Star, S. L., and J. R. Griesemer. 1989. Institutional ecology,‘translations’ and boundary objects: amateurs and professionals in Berkeley’s Museum of Vertebrae Zoology, 1907–39. Social Studies of Science
Walker, B. H., L. H. Gunderson, A. P. Kinzig, C. Folke, S. R. Carpenter, and L. Schultz. 2006. A handful of heuristics and some propositions for understanding resilience in social-ecological systems. Ecology and Society
11(1): 13.[online] URL: http://www.ecologyandsociety.org/vol11/iss1/art13/
Wohling, M. 2009. The problem of scale in indigenous knowledge: a perspective from northern Australia. Ecology and Society
14(1): 1. [online] URL: http://www.ecologyandsociety.org/vol14/iss1/art1/
Woinarski, J., B. Mackey, H. Nix, and B. Trail. 2007. The nature of northern Australia: natural values, ecological processes and future prospects.
ANU E Press, Canberra, Australia.
Wynne, B. 2001. Creating public alienation: expert cultures of risk and ethics on GMOs. Science as Culture
Wynne, B. 2002. Seasick on the Third Wave? Subverting the hegemony of propositionalism: response to Collins & Evans (2002). Social Studies of Science

domain: geography


text:
Apr 4, 2022 Nature
Feb 4, 2022 J Cell Biol
Pluriptency exit is guided by the Peln1-mediated disruption of intrachromosomal architecture
Aug 1, 2021 Nat Immunol.
Intratumoral follicular regulatory T cells curtail anti-PD-1 treatment efficacy.
May 20, 2021 Bioinformatics.
ExTraMapper: Exon- and Transcript-level mappings for orthologous gene pairs.
Apr 1, 2021 Nat Immunol.


text:
This specific ISBN edition is currently not available.View all copies of this ISBN edition:
This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1899 Excerpt: ... Works, Theodore, Honolulu, H. I. Yates, Frederick, London, England. Zimdars. Gertrude, 231 Post Street. AN ILLVSTRATED AAGAZINE PVBUSHED BYTHE SANTRAN CISCO ART ASSOCIATION AT COLLECTORS OF ANTIQUES IMPORTERS OF RARE ORIENTAL RUGS 723 Sutter Street, San Francisco This photograph was taken in Smyrna, Turkey-in-Asia, and represents Mr. Benguiat, Sr., superintending tlie shipping of his recent purchases. Messrs. Benguiat and Son take pleasure in announcing that they are continually receiving the most 'BEAUTIFUL AND UNCOMMON Antique Rugs and other treasures, collected by Mr. Benguiat, Sr., during his recent journey in the Oriental countries. OF LONDON jjU ESTABLISHED 1782 Providence Washington Ins. Co. OF RHODE ISLAND INCORPORATED 1799 Pelican Assurance Co. Of New York Butler & Hewitt General Agents For Pacific Coast 411 California Street San Francisco r THE MARK HOPKINS INSTITUTE REVIEW OF ART An Illustrated Quarterly Magazine Edited By ROBERT HOWE FLETCHER Contents for June, 1902 Page House Decoration in San Francisco. (Second Paper)..7 Spring Exhibition of the San Francisco Art Association. 15 The Photographic Salon.......19 The Sketch Club Exhibition...... 20 Exhibition of the California Society of Artists....21 Studio Notes........ 24 Supplement--The School of Design.....-7 Directory of Artist Members.......35 All correspondence should be addressed to the Editor of the Mark Hopkins Institute Review of Art, Sun Francisco, California In dealing with any of our advertisers please mention the Review. In art circles recently quite a furor was created by the production of an Art Mosaic window, which, from an artistic standpoint, is far in advance of any in existence, excepting the creations of John Lafarge, and easily the superior of the best efforts of all...
"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.
(No Available Copies)
If you know the book but cannot find it on AbeBooks, we can automatically search for it on your behalf as new inventory is added. If it is added to AbeBooks by one of our member booksellers, we will notify you!Create a Want

domain: artistic


text:
Pine Siskins were reported yesterday from Union to Ocean to Cape May counties. Today they are in Morris and Somerset.
From Linda Matula:
This past week I’ve had a few purple finches at my feeders in Randolph. Today (Sunday) I have a PINE SISKIN.
And from John J. Collins:
3 Pine Siskins just showed up at my feeders here in Raritan Borough (5:05 PM Sunday, 9/30)


text:
Nigeria Has Home Grown Solution To Tomato Pest, Tuta Absoluta – Onu
Nigeria’s Ministry of Science and Technology has developed a pesticide agent that is very effective against the new tomato Pest- Tuta Absoluta – which has recently ravaged tomato farms in Nigeria, causing tomato scarcity.
The situation has been of great concern to the nation, as it faces its worst scarcity of the produce.
The Honourable Minister of Science and Technology, Dr. Ogbonnaya Onu, gave a hint about the breakthrough in Abuja on Friday in a meeting with a delegation from the KIDS-FEST who paid him a visit in his office.
Few days ago, the Minister had name Tuta Absoluta as the reason for the scarcity of tomato in Nigeria.
According to the Minister, an Agency under his Ministry- the National Institute for Chemical Technology, (NARICT) in Zaria developed the pesticide agent using natural resources available in Nigeria.
Dr. Onu further opined that the pesticide was a ready solution to the rampaging pest and that there was no reason whatsoever to “go outside the country to import a solution”.
“Nigeria, following the leadership provided by President Muhammadu Buhari will soon be in a position where other nations can copy from her rather than Nigeria copying at all times from other nations,” he stated.
It is the view of the Minister that the development of the pesticide agent and the expected mass production by industrialists and support from other sources will be a sure way for Nigeria to contribute to food security in Nigeria, Africa and the World at large.
The Ministry of Science and Technology, according to the Minister, is always ready to provide necessary support to all sectors of the economy in the sustained effort to promote national development.
Earlier, the National Project Coordinator of the Kids-Fest Nigeria, Prince Paul Ikonne, had informed the Minister that the KIDs-Fest Foundation was part of a global project which was founded by a German woman named Sussane Prahl in Sarajevo shortly after the ethnic crisis that rocked that part of the World over a decade ago.
It has since become a global brand that promotes social integration of children through various events designed for children to mingle, share useful ideas, learn new skills, exhibit their creative talents and generally entertain themselves and the society at large from their innocent and free spirited viewpoints.
The Nigeria edition is scheduled to hold in Abuja in August and the Minister assured the delegation of the support of the ministry in ensuring the realisation of the laudable objectives of Kids-Fest Nigeria.

domain: agronomy


text:
Full Productions, Developmental Readings & Staged Readings
Ray wants revenge from Elliott who won far too many baseball cards from him in yesterday’s shootout. Elliott wants to keep what he won. 2M
Will Dunne’s New Writers/New Works, Phoenix Theatre Annex, SF, CA. Developmental reading. (2010)
Because of You (2010)
What happens when a twist in a phrase leads to a dramatic misunderstanding in a relationship that seemed to be going along just fine. 1M, 1F
Will Dunne’s New Writers/New Works, 760 Mason St., SF. Staged reading. (2010)
Doggie Psychic (2010)
Adam and Geri are feeling the strain of financial worries. Adam suspects that Geri has begun to look elsewhere for comfort and has a meltdown while Geri is busy providing psychic services to Kate who has come to find her lost dog. 1M, 2F
Playwrights of Promise Showcase of New Works, Phoenix Theatre, SF. Staged reading. (2012)
Live Oak Theatre, Berkeley, CA. Staged reading. (2011)
Alterain Theatre, Oakland, CA. Staged reading. (2010)
The story of a relationship that is fading fast. 1M, 1F
Will Dunne’s New Writers/New Works, Phoenix Theatre, SF. Staged reading. (2011)
When Clifford’s mother dies the young man with Asperger’s goes online to find a special friend. He meets Albena, a Ukrainian illegal immigrant, who is running a one woman prostitution business out of her studio apt. in the Richmond district of San Francisco and also fleeing from her own problems. What gets aroused is much more than just the hormones as these two wildly different people stir up powerful emotions in each other. 1M, 1F
The RAW Festival of Plays, Ross Valley Players, Ross, CA. Full production. (2010)
SF Fringe Festival, SF, CA. Full production. (2010)
Virago Theatre Company, World Premier, Phoenix Theatre,SF,CA. Full production. (2013)
Virago Theatre Company, Theatre Asylum, Los Angeles, CA. Full production. (2014)
Virago Theatre Company, Flea Theatre, New York City, N.Y. Full production. (2014)
Currently a new full length version is being workshopped in NYC.
The father is dying. Danny, the youngest son, is in the hospice room with his Dad trying to convince him that his other two children will be along to see him soon. When the older brother, Michael, comes in he does not bring the soothing message that Danny had hoped he would. Danny tries to convince Michael to tell their father that he loves him. Donna, the middle child, arrives unexpectedly further fueling the conflict that is bubbling up and reveals a long held secret that upends everything. 3M, 1F
Full Length Plays Currently in Development or Recently Produced
The Brothers Khan, An American Story (2018)
Two brothers, Dzhabrail and Rustam, are Muslim immigrants to America. One embraces American values (D) and the other (R) is radicalized. Rustam comes to believe that in order to get to paradise he must find out if his brother has become a traitor to Islam and if so - he must kill him. A simple invitation to break the fast at Ramadan is the unaware setting. 2M, 2F
Playwrights of Promise Salon reading, SF, CA. Developmental reading. (2013)
Developmental reading, Blue Panther Productions. (2017)
Workshopped in NYC at the Dramatist Guild's Mary Roger's Theatre May 2018.
Production: The Broadway Bound Theatre Festival August 2018
The Allens (2019)
The Great Recession has hit the Allens particularly hard and Edgar has lost his job as an English professor and has been out of work for over two years. Margaret, his wife, is under-employed and the family is just getting by. Raven has fallen in love with someone whom he feels will never love him, and Annabelle is hoping her new blog will earn her some money thereby easing the pressure on the family. When Edgar, who is a devoted fan of Edgar Allen Poe, hears of an opportunity to play the great poet/writer in a one man show he pours himself into preparing for what he hopes will be the way to save his family and his dignity. 2M, 3F
Scene readings at the San Francisco Dramatists.
Workshop in NYC in 2019.

domain: literature