Seasonal weather sensitivity,temperature thresholds,and climate change impacts for park visitation

Historical park visitation and weather data, taken at the daily time scale from 2000 to 2009 for Pinery Provincial Park in southern Ontario (Canada), were analysed as an objective measure of the weather sensitivity, temperature thresholds, and potential impacts of projected climate change for park visitation. Three seasonal weather-visitation models were constructed using multivariable linear regression (peak, shoulder, off-season). To account for both natural and institutional seasonality, the weather-visitation models included both climatic (temperature, precipitation) and social (weekends, holidays) variables, which demonstrated equably comparable effects on visitation across the three models. Critical temperature thresholds were identified for each season using one-way analysis of variance to determine the range of temperatures within which the threshold was evident; the specific degree of temperature associated with the threshold was identified within the seasonal regression models. Temperatures over 33 °C during the peak season and over 29 °C during the shoulder season indicated critical thresholds at which point conditions that were ‘too hot’ for some caused a decline in visitation. Furthermore, temperatures below 11 °C indicated another critical threshold, where conditions were ‘too cold’ for most and therefore park visitation was less sensitive to temperature variability below this threshold. A partial sensitivity analysis for the impact of a warmer, wetter climate on park visitation was conducted, illustrating the effect of a 1 °C to 5 °C warming in maximum temperatures, coupled with a 5% to 15% increase in total precipitation. In response to projected climate change, the weather-visitation models suggested that for each additional degree of warming experienced, despite the negative effects of increasing precipitation and more frequent heat extremes, annual park visitation could increase by 3.1%, annually. The projected increase in park visitation as a result of rising temperatures was mainly associated with shoulder season visitation, with only minor increases in peak season visitation.     

Use of repeat house sales to measure changes since the early‐ or mid‐1980s in two inner‐city neighbourhoods in Windsor,Ontario

Changes in the prices of homes and the reasons for those changes may be more accurately predicted from repeat sales of the same homes after controlling for their changed attributes and differences in time between their sales and resales. This paper analyzes 346 of 583 sold houses in the Glengarry neighbourhood in Windsor, Ontario, that were sold more than once between 1981 and mid‐2017, and a corresponding 414 of 737 sold houses in the city's Wellington‐Crawford neighbourhood, sold more than once between 1986 and mid‐2017. After comparing types of resold homes with once‐sold ones, a repeat sales model predicts a first period of increasing annual percentage changes in resale prices compared to sale prices during the 1980s, followed by a second period of stagnation and possible decreases until 2011, and then increases during a third period after that. In addition, changes in resold homes’ attributes of the dwelling unit and neighbourhood are a second type of neighbourhood change in two inner‐city neighbourhoods during the past 30 or more years.     

Exposing students to repeat photography: increasing cultural understanding on a short-term study abroad

Traditionally, repeat photography has been used to analyze land cover change. This paper describes how repeat photography may be used as a tool to enhance the short-term study abroad experience by facilitating cultural interaction and understanding. We present evidence from two cases and suggest a five-step repeat photography method for educators to use to increase participation and cultural interaction of students involved in fieldwork, long-haul fieldwork, and study abroad programs. We suggest that through the five steps developed in this paper that students' potential to understand and interact within the host culture is increased.     

Measuring park visitation vulnerability to climate extremes in U.S. Rockies National Parks tourism

ABSTRACT

Changes in temperature and precipitation can affect tourist experiences. This study examines how summer park visitation has changed in response to temperature and precipitation extremes. The study goals were two-fold. The first is to introduce a framework and the second is to test it in a pilot region with four mountainous National Parks. The framework is designed to compare the vulnerability of seasonal park visitation to shifts in a combined indicator of temperature and precipitation. It uniquely considers needed measurements, and the data required to conduct an analysis. The second goal is to test it in four destinations in the U.S. Northern Rockies, including Glacier, Yellowstone, Grand Teton, and Rocky Mountain National Parks. The preliminary test reveals outlier cases of visitation under wet and dry extremes. The analysis connects time series climate and visitation data for the peak summer season from 1991–2012. Outlier analysis illustrates more change in extremely dry conditions, with four out of the six dry-year outliers resulting in a visitation decline. Whether this decline in park tourism is attributable to climate features, economic factors, or conscious management decisions, these drops have significant economic impacts: estimates of changes in visitor spending during dry years are between roughly 9 and 90 million USD. These differences may be connected to the popular activities in each park, and the extent they are dependent on weather conditions. This framework can be used to test the relationship between climate and tourism visitation in other regions, in various seasons and time frames. The work may inform the tourist sector in adjusting and planning for a range of conditions. We discuss opportunities and conclude with additional needs for understanding the mechanisms behind risk in mountain park tourism under climate extremes.     

Effects of place attachment on home return travel: a spatial perspective

Recent studies on place--mobility relationships suggest an increasing possibility that people can have multiple place attachments at varied spatial scales. Yet, our understanding of how place attachment in different spatial scales affects mobility remains limited. This study investigates home return visits by Chinese diaspora tourists from North America who have made multiple trips to China. A total of 27 in-depth interviews with repeat home return travellers were conducted. Four different types of return movements were identified: local; dispersed; local & dispersed; and second-migration locale focused. A relationship was found between the participants’ sense of place, place identity, and home return travel. The findings suggest that home return travel is more complex than previously thought. More focused sense of place and strong personal connection to ancestral homes may lead to more localized return, while a more generic sense of place (i.e. to ‘China’) and collective personal identity would result in a more dispersed travel pattern. Family migration history and strong attachment to family's first-migration destination also lead to focused return to the place. The study highlights the fact that place and place attachment are deeply personal and can evolve over time and space.     

上海城郊景区旅游者重游行为分析

随着城郊旅游地的急骤开发,城郊景区的客源竞争日趋激烈,因此提高游客的重游率对于稳定旅游景点客源、减少景区运作成本、延长旅游产品生命周期具有重大意义。本文通过对上海城郊景区的实证调查,分析了城郊旅游者重游行为的影响要素、决策模式,并对游客满意度和重游行为的相关关系进行了研究,在此基础上提出了提高上海城郊景区游客重游率的对策。     

Ancient olive DNA in pits: preservation,amplification and sequence analysis

The olive tree (Olea europaea) was domesticated by vegetative propagation of selected wild individuals with superior fruit. Later, new cultivars were established repeatedly from feral trees or from crosses between wild, feral, and domesticated trees. Thus the genetic background of many contemporary domesticated lines is a mixture of ancient cultivars and local wild trees. Ancient DNA may illuminate the complicated process of olive domestication because such DNA sequences provide data about ancient genomes that existed closer to the domestication events. Well preserved DNA must be available for such studies, even though in the Mediterranean region, where olive cultivation took place, the climatic conditions are not favorable for DNA preservation. To select for well preserved pits we measured their proportions of lignin by IR spectroscopy, and correlated this with parameters of DNA quality such as template length in an olive-specific repeat array, and template quantity as determined by real-time PCR amplification. Archaeological pits that passed these tests did contain high quality ancient DNA. We present the first ancient olive DNA sequences and compare them to modern wild, feral and domesticated lines.     

GREEN BOUGHS ON THE GRAVES: UNMOORING HERAT FROM IMPERIAL TIME

The aim of this article is to explore how popular historical knowledge disrupts the spacetimes produced by imperial power. To this end, I present my reading of a shrine guide that was composed by Asil al-Din Waʿiz in 1460 and that documents the city of Herat's blessed dead. This work, the Maqsad al-Iqbal, anchors Herat to space and time by both the graves of the city's myriad saints and the tales told about them locally. I investigate the ways in which the popular historical knowledge recorded in the Maqsad al-Iqbal offers a counterpoint to the ideas of Herat's past that have been generated by dynastic chronicles, luxurious visual arts, and the grandeur of royal construction projects. I am interested not only in alternative historical visions themselves but in how nonelite productions of history resist easy adaptation into a hegemonic scheme and how the dead themselves are constantly at work in our narratives, breaking down every attempt at a singular, coherent past.