Disturbance has both direct and indirect ramifications that can influence species abundance, distribution, and ultimately the diversity found within a community. As a result, we might expect disturbance to play a particularly important role in the ability of non-native species to proliferate outside of their native range. In practice, disturbance...
A growing concern among the international community is that civil war has become the most common form of armed conflict worldwide. To prevent further bloodshed, more research is urgently needed to understand the causes of conflict and most successful strategies for peace. The bargaining theory of war proposes that former...
By conducting a comparative case study of Tunisia and Jordan this essay seeks to add to the Arab Spring literature addressing why outcomes varied so significantly among countries in the region, especially given seemingly comparable demographic, socio-economic and political environments in the region as a whole. However, in contrast to...
With many ecosystems now supporting multiple nonnative species from different trophic levels, it can be challenging to disentangle the net effects of invaders within a community context. Here, we combined wetland surveys with a mesocosm experiment to examine the individual and combined effects of nonnative fish predators and nonnative bullfrogs...
Far from the decimated state it was during the 1990s, Russia has risen to become a key player in many international events, often in opposition to the West. In particular, President Putin and his allies have invested heavily in increasing both Russia’s soft power, or its attractiveness to other countries,...
Seeding is a vital tool to facilitate recovery of degraded ecosystems, but low seedling recruitment rates limit the utility of this practice in a range of ecosystems across the globe. Plant functional traits impact individual fitness through effects on growth, reproduction and survival. Consequently, seed and seedling trait variation among...
Community structure and function in ecosystems are dependent on top‐down and bottom‐up factors, which vary across local, regional, and temporal scales. In estuaries of the U.S. Pacific Northwest coast, eelgrass (Zostera marina) ecosystems are exposed to latitudinally varying oceanographic inputs in the form of ocean upwelling. Previous research suggests that...
The phenomenon of phantom limb pain has been well documented for centuries, but little clinical work has been done to alleviate it. Physician and neuroscientist Vilayanur S. Ramachandran began researching this condition nearly two decades ago, and has discovered a promising alternative treatment: mirror-box therapy. This therapy is not yet...
The promotion of democracy abroad has become a critical national security objective for the United States. Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, newly independent states have received millions in aid to facilitate their transition to democracy. A significant portion of this funding has been administered by the United States...
Many economic development methods over the years have tried to solve the problem of poverty with varied success. Microenterprise development is a method that works with the poor to create small self-run businesses to increase their income, and therefore bring more freedom from disease illiteracy and discrimination. Within microenterprise development...