The aims of this study were to explore individual and collective understandings of psychological well-being among young Somali (black African Muslim) asylumseeker or refugee women. Three groups and five individual semi-structured interviews were undertaken and themes were identified using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis. Themes included resilience and protection; identity and beliefs; and concealment, distancing and secrets; which reflected acculturation, Islamic and Somali cultures. Spirit possession was explored in relation to culture and religion, mental health, protection and treatment. The women 'get on', cope with life, and value support from family, services and religion. However, the pressures to navigate conflicting and changing cultural and religious positions, and to conceal distress, frustrate accessing support. The young Somali refugees' understandings of mental health and psychological well-being provide an insight for clinicians into the complexities of approaching services for help, and developing shared understandings transculturally. Clinically, the findings raise the paradox of how Somali women value support, yet also value concealment and fear disclosures. The variation and tensions reflected in the data from a small number of women highlight the importance of not stereotyping refugees, but exploring their individual beliefs and providing a range of service options.

No abstract

Thermal control of treeline position is mediated by local environmental and ecological factors, making trends in treeline migration difficult to extrapolate geographically. We investigated the ecological dynamics of conifer establishment at treeline in the Mealy Mountains (Labrador, Canada) and the potential for its expansion with climate warming. Available seedbed and tree seedling emergence in the treeline ecotone were monitored, and seeds and seedlings of Picea mariana were planted along an elevational gradient from open-canopy forest through tree islands to alpine tundra. Experimental treatments included passive warming of daytime air, ground disturbance, and vertebrate herbivore exclosures. Responses in seed germination and seedling growth, damage, and mortality were monitored over two growing seasons, and re-surveyed after 5 years. While no tree seedlings were observed growing naturally above the treeline, planted seeds were able to germinate, develop and overwinter, and persist for 4 years in all habitats examined. Disturbance of the seedbed was important for seedling emergence in the forest and tree islands.While temperature enhancement alone had little impact on emergence, even moderate temperature increases had significantly disproportionate effects on emergence of seedlings in the alpine habitat when combined with soil disturbance, indicating that future climate warming could lead to treeline advance if viable seed and suitable substrate for recruitment are available. The positive effect of excluding herbivores suggests that herbivory may be an important filter modifying future species distribution. While seedbed conditions and herbivory would control the rate of individual species advance, the results indicate potential upslope migration of the treeline in the Mealy Mountains, with consequent loss of alpine ecosystems.

No abstract

In ungulates, parturition is correlated with a reduction in movement rate. With advances in movement-based technologies comes an opportunity to develop new techniques to assess reproduction in wild ungulates that are less invasive and reduce biases. DeMars et al. (2013, Ecology and Evolution 3:4149–4160) proposed two promising new methods (individual- and population-based; the DeMars model) that use GPS inter-fix step length of adult female caribou (Rangifer tarandus caribou) to infer parturition and neonate survival. Our objective was to apply the DeMars model to caribou populations that may violate model assumptions for retrospective analysis of parturition and calf survival. We extended the use of the DeMars model after assigning parturition and calf mortality status by examining herd-wide distributions of parturition date, calf mortality date, and survival. We used the DeMars model to estimate parturition and calf mortality events and compared them with the known parturition and calf mortality events from collared adult females (n = 19). We also used the DeMars model to estimate parturition and calf mortality events for collared female caribou with unknown parturition and calf mortality events (n = 43) and instead derived herd-wide estimates of calf survival as well as distributions of parturition and calf mortality dates and compared them to herd-wide estimates generated from calves fitted with VHF collars (n = 134). For our data, the individual-based method was effective at predicting calf mortality, but was not effective at predicting parturition. The population-based method was more effective at predicting parturition but was not effective at predicting calf mortality. At the herd-level, the predicted distributions of parturition date from both methods differed from each other and from the distribution derived from the parturition dates of VHF-collared calves (log-ranked test: χ2 = 40.5, df = 2, p < 0.01). The predicted distributions of calf mortality dates from both methods were similar to the observed distribution derived from VHF-collared calves. Both methods underestimated herd-wide calf survival based on VHF-collared calves, however, a combination of the individual- and population-based methods produced herd-wide survival estimates similar to estimates generated from collared calves. The limitations we experienced when applying the DeMars model could result from the shortcomings in our data violating model assumptions. However despite the differences in our caribou systems, with proper validation techniques the framework in the DeMars model is sufficient to make inferences on parturition and calf mortality.