Digital Commons Network^™

Women, Environment And Development: Sub-Saharan Africa And Latin America, Evaline Tiondi

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Issues related to women, environment and development constitute a major global concern today. Women's roles as agents of change in the environment has increasingly become the focus of both research and policy concerns. Environmental resource management is directly linked to development, and this makes it crucial to examine the activities of women more closely. Women's role in the management of natural resources assumes a multidimensional nature. Unfortunately, the central and crucial role that women play is often both overlooked and unappreciated, rendering them invisible and greatly diminishing their contribution as both producers and active agents in sustainable development. One of …

We Are Not Victims: Oral Histories Of Four Mexican-American Women, Carmen Melendez Maayan

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This ethnographic inquiry focuses on the lives and work off our Mexican- American women who run a center in the Mexican migrant farmworker community in which they live. Through the center, they provide vital services to their community such medical care, immigration assistance, educational and community outreach programs. Via these women's oral histories, this ethnographic work seeks to broaden our understanding of women who are fully aware of their subordinated status in the dominant society yet are not passive victims. By listening to their own voices, we learn how they overcome personal adversity and challenge cultural ideologies. In the process, …

The Diet Of The Gopher Tortoise, Gopherus Polyphemus, In A Sandhill Habitat In Central Florida, Laurie Ann Macdonald

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Scat analysis and foraging observations were used to determine the diet of a gopher tortoise, Gopherus polyphemus, population in a sandhill community in west central Florida. Live vegetation was assessed to determine plant availability. The bulk of the gopher tortoise diet was composed of the dominant plant species in the habitat while the tortoises were selective with respect to most plant genera. Tortoises ingested many plant taxa with Poaceae, Asteraceae, Fabaceae, Pinaceae and Fagaceae being the most frequent components of the diet. Sixty-eight genera from 26 families were identified in the tortoise diet. In the scat the most common …

Behavior, Habitat Use, Food, And Foraging Efficiency Of Three Species Of Sympatric Merons (Egretta), Donald M. Kent

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The foraging ecology and behavior of Little Bule Herons (Egretta caerulea), Snowy Egrets (E. thula), and Tricolored Herons (E. tricolor) was studied from October 1981 to August 1982 in Old Tampa Bay and Safety Harbor, Hills borough and Pinellas Counties, Florida. Little Blue Herons foraged exclusively by walk-slow and employed head sways or tilted during 75% of the observations. Snowy Egrets used stand, walk-slow, disturb-and-chase, and foot-stirring. Tricolored Herons used stand, walk-slow, disturb-and-chase, ana stand-and-chase. Tricolored Herons using stand-and-chase stood near shore facing open water and when prey was spotted they ran or hopped in the direction of the prey …

Reproductive Variability In Lytechinus Variegatus (Echinodermata: Echinoidea) From Different Habitats In A Florida West Coast Estuary, Robert G. Ernest

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Lytechinus variegatus (Lamarck, 1916) is a sea urchin inhabiting shallow sub-littoral environments from Beaufort, North Carolina to southern Brazil. Although it has been collected extensively for embryological material in the southeastern United States (Harvey, 1956; Brookbank, 1968). there have been relatively few studies of its reproduction. Gonad indices were used to follow its annual reproductive cycle at Bermuda and Miami (Moore et al., 1963; Moore and Lopez, 1972), while elsewhere, only observations of spawn- ing have been reported (Boolootian, 1966).

In the Anclote estuary near Tarpon Springs, Florida, Lytechinus is the most conspicuous of the macroepibenthic invertebrates, and where requisite …