Electronic Thesis or Dissertation

It is through spending time outside that we develop the ecological literacy and caring attachments to the land that will lead to greater concern and responsibility for the more-than-human world. But intermediate students in the formal education system are taught almost exclusively indoors, especially in winter. If Canadian teachers remain mostly inside when it is cold, they forego many opportunities to connect their students with the land upon which they live and learn. The purpose of this research is to understand the ways intermediate teachers in the formal education system interact with the outdoors in winter during the school day, how they feel about these interactions, and what influences their decisions when it comes to outdoor learning in winter. Understanding the lived experiences of teachers is essential, as it is they who decide whether instruct indoors or out. In the hierarchical education system, teachers' voices are not always considered in policy making. Photovoice is an ideal methodology for this study because it brings the lived experiences of a group who do not have the authority to make policy changes, to those who do. This photovoice study gave eight intermediate teachers the opportunity to document experiences in their own lives, raise their own consciousness about outdoor learning, and to share their voices with policymakers through their photographic art. This study draws four main conclusions: a) teachers need to develop stronger personal relationships with the outdoors in winter; b) schools need to reconsider the traditional recess model as it is often a time of stress for teachers and students; c) the curriculum needs to expect outdoor learning in all seasons; and d) teachers' voices need to be heard in relation to outdoor learning initiatives in schools. The findings are significant because they can influence policymakers to improve outdoor learning in schools which, in turn, will help teachers and students develop more comfortable and caring relationships with the outdoors in winter.

Keywords: winter, outdoor education, environmental education, outdoor learning, photovoice, intermediate teachers, intermediate students, formal education system

Author Keywords: environmental education, formal education system, outdoor education, outdoor learning, winter

AbstractThe Rise of Property and the Death of the Moral Economy: Enclosure and Social Unrest in Late-Eighteenth Century England – Ewan Martel

Eighteenth-century Great Britain was a kingdom marked by the rise of a property-based and highly individualistic conception of social and economic structures came a doctrine of improvement based upon extracting the most value from a tract of land possible. Parliamentary enclosure was critical to this change, seeing lands converted from something of communal value to individual property. This work argues that the growth and implementation of parliamentary enclosure was a source of immense social unrest in late-eighteenth century Britain as the process and its supporting ideologies were inherently counter-intuitive to traditional systems of communal land ownership and subsistence. This paper utilizes primary sources from both landowners implementing enclosure and the responses of commoners and enclosure's opponents to better understand the agency of the peasantry in their fight against a damaging practice and how forms of unrest were multi-faceted and prevalent, despite the growing power of the land-owing gentry.

Author Keywords: Class, Common Lands, Eighteenth-Century, Enclosure, Great Britain, Social Unrest

Indigenous men are disproportionally incarcerated in the Canadian criminal justice system. A disproportionate number of Indigenous men who are incarcerated have also been through the foster care and adoption system. A good deal of them are disconnected from their cultures, traditions and communities. For many the prisons are the first times that they encounter Indigenous Knowledge (IK), Elders, and Knowledge Holders, and the introduction to IK can be a watershed moment for them. Reconnection is a critical first step in a healing journey that many Indigenous men begin in prisons. The healing journey is about healing from their history, traumas, and the actions that led them to prisons, but healing is also a process of healing towards a better life and better future. It does not stop once they are beyond the prison walls. This research project focuses on the Indigenous Healing Programs and Services that support the men that are on this healing journey. Using the Haudenosaunee framework of Kan'nikonhrí:io (the Good Mind) and Wake'nikonhrèn:ton (the Crooked Mind), this project endeavours to understand how these programs and services understand and support healing, how masculinity factors into the delivery of these programs.

Author Keywords: Community, Good Minds, Haudenosaunee, Healing, Social Programming, Social Work

Social scientists have debated whether religious involvement is associated with differences in deviant behaviours for over a century. Religious practices and beliefs are often associated with less deviant behaviours in young adults, such as less frequent drug use and law-breaking. Empirical results on these associations, though, have been mixed, possibly due to heterogenous measures. Recent literature has begun teasing apart religious practices (e.g., attending church) from spiritual beliefs (e.g., believing in higher powers) and exploring their unique associations with different outcomes. The present study tested the independent and interactive effects of religion and spirituality in predicting deviance. Religion was negatively associated with some types of deviance, the relationship remained significant even after controlling for covariates. Spirituality was not reliably associated with deviance. There was an interaction between religion and spirituality, where the combination of the two was associated with the lowest level of deviance. Further findings and implications are discussed.

Author Keywords: deviance, religion, spirituality, youth

Nurses have a vital role in counselling their patients towards healthier living. However, nurses tend to have poor metabolic health that may be influenced by lifestyle. Whether this begins during their nursing education is poorly understood. Undergraduate nursing (n=42) and biology (n=15) students had their metabolic health assessed through body measurements, fasting blood glucose and lipids. Lifestyle factors of physical activity, nutrition, stress, and sleep were assessed using questionnaires, accelerometry, diet logs, and heart rate variability. At an individual level, 31.0% of nursing students are at-risk of poor metabolic health. Results suggest that nursing students are sedentary, obtaining poor sleep quality, consuming elevated amounts of saturated fat, and perceiving themselves to be under mild stress. The implementation of lifestyle interventions should be considered for this cohort. However, few differences were found between nursing and biology groups, indicating that the results are potentially generalizable to a larger group of undergraduate students.

Author Keywords: metabolic health, nursing students, nutrition, physical activity, psychological stress, sleep quality

I investigated the climate vulnerability of a cold-water salmonid by observing the upper thermal tolerance of brook trout (Salvelinus fontinalis) across multiple life stages. Using hatchery- and wild-ancestry fish, I assessed variation in thermal tolerances and carryover effects within and among brook trout life stages and populations that were reared under varying winter thermal regimes as embryos. Embryonic, fry, and gravid adult upper thermal tolerance were tested via CTmax. Warm acclimation was associated with an increase in embryonic upper thermal tolerance. CTmax variability was markedly higher in embryos than juvenile or adult salmonids. Effects of thermal incubation treatments varied by life stage, with incubation temperature and life stage both influencing body size and thermal tolerance. Collectively, these results suggest that brook trout only exhibit short-term carryover effects from thermal stressors during embryo incubation, with no lasting effects on phenotype beyond the first few months (10 weeks) after hatch.

Author Keywords: acclimation response, climate change, ontogeny, salmonid, stress, thermal plasticity

Although stormwater management ponds (SWMPs) are frequently used to mitigate flooding in urban areas, we still do not fully understand how these systems impact water quality in a watershed. Currently, most research focuses on the effectiveness of SWMPs to retain nutrients during high flows, even though there is potential for internal nutrient releases to occur in these systems during low flows. To investigate if SWMPs act as nutrient sources or sinks during low flow conditions, we analyzed how sewershed characteristics, pond properties, and hydrological and limnological factors influenced nutrient dynamics and stoichiometry in 10 SWMPs. Our study ponds were located in Peterborough, Whitby, and Richmond Hill, which are urbanized municipalities in southern Ontario, Canada. During October 2010 to 2011, we took monthly measurements of various carbon (C), nitrogen (N), and phosphorus (P) forms. We collected samples in the inlets, permanent pools, and outlets to determine any changes in concentrations, loads, and stoichiometric ratios into and out of the ponds. At the time of sampling, we also measured a variety of hydrological and limnological parameters. Our findings indicate that more urbanized sewersheds with higher drainage densities tend to have higher inflowing particulate and dissolved nutrient loads. In addition, we found that pond properties such as depth, length-to-width ratio, volume, and age differentially influence the retention of particulate and dissolved C, N, and P forms. Influential hydrological and limnological factors were antecedent moisture conditions, season, and thermal stratification. We found higher particulate P concentrations near the sediments when the catchments were drier and the ponds were ice-free and stratified. As well, we found higher outflowing stoichiometric ratios for DOC:TDN and DOC:TDP. This indicates an enrichment of C compared to N and P and suggests biogeochemical processes may be occurring in SWMPs. Overall, our results demonstrate that SWMPs are complex aquatic systems, and we need to consider biogeochemical processes in our design and maintenance activities, so that the effectiveness of SWMPs is not compromised during low flow conditions as a result of internal nutrient releases.

Author Keywords: Carbon, Nitrogen, Phosphorus, Urban biogeochemical cycling, Urban stormwater pond

Glyphosate burndown and tillage, followed by the cultivation of cash crops, are frequently used techniques in LUC from perennial cropping systems (PS) to annual cropping systems (AS). Agricultural LUC can result in the loss of soil nitrogen (N) via emission of nitrous oxide (N2O), a potent greenhouse gas (GHG). The purpose of this thesis is to investigate the short-term impacts of agricultural LUC from PS to AS on soil health parameters and the nitrogen (N)-cycling bacterial communities responsible for nitrification and denitrification processes that result in the emission of N2O. The study field site was in Stone Mills, Ontario and comprised of four fields: two annual cropping systems were regularly cultivated for cash crops (AS), and two perennial cropping systems had not been cultivated for cash crops for over 50 years (PS). One PS was left intact while the other PS was subjected to LUC (converted system [CS]) from PS to AS within the study period. The results of this study indicate that PS promotes soil health, as illustrated through higher soil organic matter % (2.3 ± 0.2 %), beta-glucosidase activity (0.41 ± 0.04 mmol g-1 dry soil h-1), and N-acetylglucosaminidase activity (0.18 ± 0.03 mmol g-1 dry soil h-1). The PS soils exhibited higher nitrifier (6.0  0.3 log10 copies per g dry soil) and denitrifier (nirS, nirK and nosZI: 7.8  0.05, 8.1  0.1 and 5.0  0.1 log10 copies per g dry soil, respectively) gene abundances compared to AS (amoA, nirS, nirK and nosZI: 5.7  0.1, 7.7  0.04, 7.9  0.1 and 4.8  0.1 log10 copies per g dry soil, respectively). Moreover, LUC from PS to AS deteriorated soil health parameters and significantly decreased the nosZI/16S rRNA gene ratio, leading to potential N loss through N2O emissions. A laboratory incubation study revealed that the use of N-containing fertilizer in conjunction with easily metabolized C cumulatively resulted in 64.2% increase in N2O and 42.1% increase in CO2 fluxes in AS soils compared to PS soils. The AS soils also produced 69.8% more N2O and 13.4% more CO2 when compared to CS soils. The results suggest that the availability of C and N promote R-strategists, leading to increased production of CO2 and N2O. Additionally, results also suggest that LUC mediates fluxes depending on resource availability. The findings of this research demonstrate the significance of LUC in shaping N-cycling microbial communities and GHG emissions, emphasizing the importance of transitioning towards less intensive management practices to ensure the long-term sustainability of the agri-food system.

Author Keywords: annual, denitrification, greenhouse gas, laboratory incubation, nitrification, perennial

Advanced generation/backcrossed (non-F1) hybrids can be challenging to identify when their traits are similar to those of parental taxa, F1 hybrids, or both. This is particularly evident in the North American hybrid zone involving Typha latifolia, T. angustifolia, F1 T. × glauca and non-F1 hybrids. Cattails are challenging to differentiate based on gross morphological characteristics. Microscopic characteristics in female inflorescences have not been previously studied to differentiate parental taxa from non-F1 hybrids. To investigate whether researchers can use microscopic floret and bracteole characteristics for taxonomic identification, I compared pistillate flower length, bracteole length and width, and bracteole colour among taxa. I found that floret and bracteole characteristics can be useful for identifying T. latifolia but cannot accurately differentiate T. angustifolia and F1 T. × glauca from non-F1 hybrids. Further, a flowering bias can lead to the underestimation of the frequency of T. latifolia when using floral characters to examine the relative abundance of cattail taxa.

Author Keywords: advanced-generation hybrids, backcrossed hybrids, invasive species, morphology, species identification, Typha spp.

Low-density urbanism is ubiquitous in the industrialized world, with suburbs and sprawling urban zones like the American Northeastern Seaboard being classified as such. Due to outsized environmental impacts and perceived unsustainability, this settlement pattern is often maligned. As one of the few prominent examples of agrarian-based low-density urbanism, the ancient Maya can provide a much-needed case study on the sustainability of low-density urbanism. Therefore, a thorough assessment of the universality of low-density urbanism among the ancient Maya is warranted. Maps of 11 Maya sites were collected from published sources, digitized, and used to calculate household group densities. No significant difference was observed between Classic and Postclassic sites, but sites in the northern Lowlands were significantly denser than those in the southern Lowlands. Additionally, no significant inverse correlation was found between site density and area, which would be expected if low-density urbanism was universal among the ancient Maya.

Author Keywords: Household Archaeology, Low-Density Urbanism, Maya, Settlement Archaeology