The health of cultural values and mahinga kai in the Te Wairoa-Hōpūpū-Hōnengenenge-Mātangirau, Wairoa river catchment and the impacts of sediment

SUMMARY This paper develops a framework of spatial and temporal variability for a habitat typology of the Upper Rhône River (France) and its alluvial floodplain that is based on about 17 years of data collection and analysis. The aim was to provide a scale of spatial‐temporal variability for river habitat templet predictions on trends in species traits and species richness. In developing this framework, eight physical‐chemical variables were available and could be considered for twenty‐two habitat types: seventeen superficial (surface) and five interstitial (0.5 m below the substrate surface). These habitat types were selected in two areas (Jons and Brégnier‐Cordon) after geomorphological considerations and because of differences in their biological characteristics. The data sets used were processed by a ‘fuzzy coding’ method using, for each variable, the frequency distribution (by modalities = categories) of all measurements and monthly means over an annual scale. Two tables were produced; the first corresponded to an expression of the total variability, and the second represented an evaluation of the temporal variability. Each of these tables was analysed by correspondence analysis, which provided factorial scores that were used to calculate, by habitat type and by variable, a total variability and a temporal variability in terms of cumulated variability of factorial scores for the eight physical–chemical variables. The rationale in describing variability from these two tables is that total variability equals temporal variability plus spatial variability. The spatial variability was then determined by the difference between total and temporal variability. From this procedure, a positioning of the twenty‐two habitat types on the spatial and temporal variability axes was obtained. The estimate of spatial variability did not consider any error term that may have occurred in the above model; it was then tested by an independent assessment of the spatial variability using thirteen variables in nine major habitat types. A high correlation between the two ways of assessing spatial variability (r = 0.85, P < 0.004) underscored the reliability of the spatial variability that was calculated previously. The river habitat templet obtained for the Upper Rhône and its alluvial floodplain appears to be appropriate to test the predictions on patterns of species traits and species richness in the framework of spatial and temporal variability.

Precision Agriculture (PA) recognizes and manages intra-field spatial variability to increase profitability and reduced environmental impact. Site Specific Crop Management (SSCM), a form of PA, subdivides a cropping field into uniformly manageable zones, based on quantitative measurement of yield limiting factors. In Mediterranean environments, the spatial and temporal yield variability of rain-fed cropping system is strongly influenced by the spatial variability of Plant Available Water-holding Capacity (PAWC) and its strong interaction with temporally variable seasonal rainfall. The successful adoption of SSCM depends on the understanding of both spatial and temporal variabilities in cropping fields. Remote sensing phenological metrics provide information about the biophysical growth conditions of crops across fields. In this paper, we examine the potential of phenological metrics to assess the spatial and temporal crop yield variability across a wheat cropping field at Minnipa, South Australia. The Minnipa field was classified into three management zones using prolonged observations including soil assessment and multiple year yield data. The main analytical steps followed in this study were: calculation of the phenological metrics using time series NDVI data from Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroscope (MODIS) for 15 years (2001-2015); producing spatial trend and temporal variability maps of phenological metrics; and finally, assessment of association between the spatial patterns and temporal variability of the metrics with management zones of the cropping field. The spatial trend of the seasonal peak NDVI metric showed significant association with the management zone pattern. In terms of temporal variability, Time-integrated NDVI (TINDVI) showed higher variability in the “good” zone compared with the “poor” zone. This indicates that the magnitude of the seasonal peak is more sensitive to soil related factors across the field, whereas TINDVI is more sensitive to seasonal variability. The interpretation of the association between phenological metrics and the management zone site conditions was discussed in relation to soil-climate interaction. The results demonstrate the potential of the phenological metrics to assess the spatial and temporal variability across cropping fields and to understand the soil-climate interaction. The approach presented in this paper provides a pathway to utilize phenological metrics for precision agricultural management application.

Characterizing spatial and temporal variability is important in site‐specific or long‐term studies to evaluate the effects of different management systems on crop performance. Long‐term experiments offer unique possibilities to study the effects of management practices on crops and soils over time. The objective of this study was to characterize temporal grain yield variability of seven crop sequences using fractal analysis and to determine whether temporal or spatial variability dominated the grain yield variability. Three crops of corn (Zea mays L.), soybean [Glycine max (L.) Merr.], and sorghum [Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench] were studied from 1975 to 1995 in various sequences. Semivariograms were estimated for the standardized crop yield. The slopes of the regression lines of log semivariogram vs. log lag (year) were used to estimate and compare fractal dimensions, which are indications of variability patterns. The intercepts of the log‐log lines, which indicate extent of yield variability, were also compared between crop sequences. A small D‐value indicates dominance of long‐term variation, while a large D‐value (near 2) indicates dominance of short‐term (year‐to‐year) variation. Corn had significantly less temporal yield variability than soybean or sorghum. Continuous corn had less yield variability than corn following soybean. Soybean had the greatest yield variability, regardless of crop sequence. Temporal variability was much more dominant than spatial variability in this study. Temporal variability may greatly influence how spatial variability is expressed in a given field. Yield maps, which are used as an indication of past management in site‐specific cases, may not be useful in making future management decisions when temporal variability is great. In a less productive year, spatial variability of any nutrient may not make much difference in crop yield of a given field.

A new genus and species of penguin, Tereingaornis moisleyi, is described from the Waipipian (mid-Pliocene) beds near Te Reinga Falls, Wairoa River, Hawke's Bay, North Island, New Zealand.

Input of river-derived sediment to the New Zealand continental shelf: II mineralogy and composition

SUMMARY Based on information obtained from analysis of thirteen taxonomic groups of plants and animals occurring in the alluvial floodplain habitats of the Upper Rhône River, France, we synthesize results obtained on: (i) relationships among species traits; (ii) habitat utilization by species; (iii) the relationship between species traits and habitat utilization; (iv) trends in species traits in a framework of spatial and temporal variability; and (v) tests of trends predicted for species traits and species richness in the framework of spatial and temporal habitat variability in terms of the river habitat templet and patch dynamics concept. Species traits describing reproductive characteristics, food, and size had the closest relationships with each other in the various correspondence analyses performed. Faunal and floral separation by species traits produced groupings similar to those based on traditional taxonomy. Two major gradients appear in the utilization of the floodplain habitats: a vertical gradient from interstitial to superficial habitats; and a transverse gradient from the main channel to oxbow lakes, temporary waters, and terrestrialized habitats. For the majority of the groups examined, a statistically significant relationship was evident between the structure of the species trait and habitat utilization arrays. For these groups, the characteristics of the habitat act as a templet for species traits. Moreover, species trait modalities (i.e. categories defining traits) were significantly arranged along the axis of spatial and temporal variability for most groups, which indicates that such variability acts as a templet for species traits. Species traits did not conform to predictions of the river habitat templet because the observed modality sequences did not follow the trends predicted in a framework of spatial and temporal variability. Moreover, there was no clear pattern in the distribution of species traits along an axis of temporal variability for groups of organisms having different sizes, which is a correlate of longevity, nor did modalities of species traits that occur under conditions of low temporal variability also tend to occur under conditions of high spatial variability (or vice versa). Clearly, species traits occur as alternative suites of characteristics in various groups of organisms. The patch dynamics concept, which predicts that highest species richness occurs at intermediate levels of temporal variability and highest levels of spatial variability, was supported by observations in only two of the thirteen groups exaniined, and only partially (for spatial variability) when all 548 taxa were examined together. The predictions of the river habitat templet and patch dynamics concepts were not supported, perhaps because templet theories do not yet accommodate alternative suites of characteristics and trade‐offs between combinations of traits, or perhaps because the single scale of variability considered in the analyses, the inhomogeneity of the available biological information, and the aggregation of spedes traits that were used created methodological problems. Ecologically sound river management polides eventually may be based on two key points that emerged from this synthesis: that the habitat acts as a templet for spedes traits, and that composite taxonomic groupings represent relatively homogeneous assemblages of spedes trait modalities. The use of statistical approaches developed in this project to analyse other long‐term data sets may clarify questions about the applicability of habitat templet theories to river ecology, and hasten development of ecologically sound river management policies.

Carbon dynamics of high-latitude regions are an important and highly uncertain component of global carbon budgets, and efforts to constrain estimates of soil-atmosphere carbon exchange in these regions are contingent on accurate representations of spatial and temporal variability in carbon fluxes. This study explores spatial and temporal variability in soilatmosphere carbon dynamics at both fine and coarse spatial scales in a high-elevation, permafrost-dominated boreal black spruce forest. We evaluate the importance of landscape-level investigations of soil-atmosphere carbon dynamics by characterizing seasonal trends in soil-atmosphere carbon exchange, describing soil temperature-moisture-respiration relations, and quantifying temporal and spatial variability at two spatial scales: the plot scale (0–5 m) and the landscape scale (500–1000 m). Plot-scale spatial variability (average variation on a given measurement day) in soil CO2 efflux ranged from a coefficient of variation (CV) of 0.25 to 0.69, and plot-scale temporal variability (average variation of plots across measurement days) in efflux ranged from a CV of 0.19 to 0.36. Landscape-scale spatial and temporal variability in efflux was represented by a CV of 0.40 and 0.31, respectively, indicating that plot-scale spatial variability in soil respiration is as great as landscape-scale spatial variability at this site. While soil respiration was related to soil temperature at both the plot- and landscape scale, landscape-level descriptions of soil moisture were necessary to define soil respiration-moisture relations. Soil moisture variability was also integral to explaining temporal variability in soil respiration. Our results have important implications for research efforts in high-latitude regions where remote study sites make landscape-scale field campaigns challenging.

Climate is an important limiting factor of species’ niches and it is therefore regularly included in ecological applications such as species distribution models (SDMs). Climate predictors are often used in the form of long-term mean values, yet many species experience wide climatic variation over their lifespan and within their geographical range which is unlikely captured by long-term means. Further, depending on their physiology, distinct groups of species cope with climate variability differently. Ectothermic species, which are directly dependent on the thermal environment are expected to show a different response to temporal or spatial variability in temperature than endothermic groups that can decouple their internal temperature from that of their surroundings. Here, we explore the degree to which spatial variability and long-term temporal variability in temperature and precipitation change niche estimates for ectothermic (730 amphibian, 1276 reptile), and endothermic (1961 mammal) species globally. We use three different species distribution modelling (SDM) algorithms to quantify the effect of spatial and temporal climate variability, based on global range maps of all species and climate data from 1979 to 2013. All SDMs were cross-validated and accessed for their performance using the Area under the Curve (AUC) and the True Skill Statistic (TSS). The mean performance of SDMs using only climatic means as predictors was TSS = 0.71 and AUC = 0.90. The inclusion of spatial variability offers a significant gain in SDM performance (mean TSS = 0.74, mean AUC = 0.92), as does the inclusion of temporal variability (mean TSS = 0.80, mean AUC = 0.94). Including both spatial and temporal variability in SDMs shows the highest scores in AUC and TSS. Accounting for temporal rather than spatial variability in climate improved the SDM prediction especially in ectotherm groups such as amphibians and reptiles, while for endothermic mammals no such improvement was observed. These results indicate that including long term climate interannual climate variability into niche estimations matters most for ectothermic species that cannot decouple their physiology from the surrounding environment as endothermic species can.

Variability is a fundamental feature of human brain activity that is particularly pronounced during development. However, developmental neuroimaging research has only recently begun to move beyond characterizing brain function exclusively in terms of magnitude of neural activation to incorporate estimates of variability. No prior neuroimaging study has done so in the domain of emotion regulation. We investigated how age and affective experiences relate to spatial and temporal variability in neural activity during emotion regulation. In the current study, 70 typically developing youth aged 8 to 17 years completed a cognitive reappraisal task of emotion regulation while undergoing functional MRI. Estimates of spatial and temporal variability during regulation were calculated across a network of brain regions, defined a priori, and were then related to age and affective experiences. Results showed that increasing age was associated with reduced spatial and temporal variability in a set of frontoparietal regions (e.g., dorsomedial prefrontal cortex, superior parietal lobule) known to be involved in effortful emotion regulation. In addition, youth who reported less negative affect during regulation had less spatial variability in the ventrolateral prefrontal cortex, which has previously been linked to cognitive reappraisal. We interpret age-related reductions in spatial and temporal variability as implying neural specialization. These results suggest that the development of emotion regulation is undergirded by a process of neural specialization and open a host of possibilities for incorporating neural variability into the study of emotion regulation development. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

Precision agriculture requires an understanding of yield variability. The objectives of this study were to (i) document the temporal and spatial variability of corn (Zea mays L.) silage yields on dairy farms in New York, and (ii) derive farm‐based management zones that account for both types of variability. Silage yield data from 847 fields (9084 ha; six farms) were collected by yield monitoring systems between 2015 and 2017. Raw yield data were cleaned of errors via a standardized postharvest data cleaning protocol. The whole‐farm area‐weighted average yield across years and the temporal SD of yield across years for fields with 3 yr of data were used to divide each field into 10‐ by 10‐m grid‐cells. Each grid‐cell was assigned a quadrant (Q), with Q1 and Q4 having consistently higher and lower yield than the farm average yield, respectively; Q2 having variable but higher yield than the farm average; and Q3 having variable and lower yield than the farm average. The evaluation showed variability in average yield per farm, yield per field, and within‐field yield, in addition to variability across years. Spatial and temporal variability were uncorrelated, suggesting that management zones need to consider both spatial and temporal variability. The area per farm classified as variable (Q2 and Q3) ranged from 30 to 44%, illustrating the importance of implementing precision agriculture technologies and in‐season management adjustments. Research is needed to determine the optimum number of zones per farm and the number of crop years to include in developing yield stability zones.Core Ideas Corn silage yield monitors collect relevant yield data for dairy farmers. Management zones can be developed from yield stability maps. Both temporal and spatial variability are important factors to consider. A yield‐stability‐based approach can generate precision management zones.

Education in Oceania continues to reflect the embedded implicit and explicit colonial practices and processes from the past. This paper conceptualises a cultural approach to education and leadership appropriate and relevant to the Republic of the Marshall Islands. As elementary school leaders, we highlight Kanne Lobal, a traditional Marshallese navigation practice based on indigenous language, values and practices. We conceptualise and develop Kanne Lobal in this paper as a framework for understanding the usefulness of our indigenous knowledge in leadership and educational practices within formal education. Through bwebwenato, a method of talk story, our key learnings and reflexivities were captured. We argue that realising the value of Marshallese indigenous knowledge and practices for school leaders requires purposeful training of the ways in which our knowledge can be made useful in our professional educational responsibilities. Drawing from our Marshallese knowledge is an intentional effort to inspire, empower and express what education and leadership partnership means for Marshallese people, as articulated by Marshallese themselves. 
 
 
 
 Introduction
 As noted in the call for papers within the Waikato Journal of Education (WJE) for this special issue, bodies of knowledge and histories in Oceania have long sustained generations across geographic boundaries to ensure cultural survival. For Marshallese people, we cannot really know ourselves “until we know how we came to be where we are today” (Walsh, Heine, Bigler & Stege, 2012). Jitdam Kapeel is a popular Marshallese concept and ideal associated with inquiring into relationships within the family and community. In a similar way, the practice of relating is about connecting the present and future to the past. Education and leadership partnerships are linked and we look back to the past, our history, to make sense and feel inspired to transform practices that will benefit our people. In this paper and in light of our next generation, we reconnect with our navigation stories to inspire and empower education and leadership. Kanne lobal is part of our navigation stories, a conceptual framework centred on cultural practices, values, and concepts that embrace collective partnerships. Our link to this talanoa vā with others in the special issue is to attempt to make sense of connections given the global COVID-19 context by providing a Marshallese approach to address the physical and relational “distance” between education and leadership partnerships in Oceania. 
 
 Like the majority of developing small island nations in Oceania, the Republic of the Marshall Islands (RMI) has had its share of educational challenges through colonial legacies of the past which continues to drive education systems in the region (Heine, 2002). The historical administration and education in the RMI is one of colonisation. Successive administrations by the Spanish, German, Japanese, and now the US, has resulted in education and learning that privileges western knowledge and forms of learning. This paper foregrounds understandings of education and learning as told by the voices of elementary school leaders from the RMI. The move to re-think education and leadership from Marshallese perspectives is an act of shifting the focus of bwebwenato or conversations that centres on Marshallese language and worldviews. 
 
 The concept of jelalokjen was conceptualised as traditional education framed mainly within the community context. In the past, jelalokjen was practiced and transmitted to the younger generation for cultural continuity. During the arrival of colonial administrations into the RMI, jelalokjen was likened to the western notions of education and schooling (Kupferman, 2004). Today, the primary function of jelalokjen, as traditional and formal education, it is for “survival in a hostile [and challenging] environment” (Kupferman, 2004, p. 43).
 
 Because western approaches to learning in the RMI have not always resulted in positive outcomes for those engaged within the education system, as school leaders who value our cultural knowledge and practices, and aspire to maintain our language with the next generation, we turn to Kanne Lobal, a practice embedded in our navigation stories, collective aspirations, and leadership. The significance in the development of Kanne Lobal, as an appropriate framework for education and leadership, resulted in us coming together and working together. Not only were we able to share our leadership concerns, however, the engagement strengthened our connections with each other as school leaders, our communities, and the Public Schooling System (PSS). Prior to that, many of us were in competition for resources.
 
 Educational Leadership: IQBE and GCSL
 Leadership is a valued practice in the RMI. Before the IQBE programme started in 2018, the majority of the school leaders on the main island of Majuro had not engaged in collaborative partnerships with each other before. Our main educational purpose was to achieve accreditation from the Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC), an accreditation commission for schools in the United States. The WASC accreditation dictated our work and relationships and many school leaders on Majuro felt the pressure of competition against each other. We, the authors in this paper, share our collective bwebwenato, highlighting our school leadership experiences and how we gained strength from our own ancestral knowledge to empower “us”, to collaborate with each other, our teachers, communities, as well as with PSS; a collaborative partnership we had not realised in the past. The paucity of literature that captures Kajin Majol (Marshallese language) and education in general in the RMI is what we intend to fill by sharing our reflections and experiences. To move our educational practices forward we highlight Kanne Lobal, a cultural approach that focuses on our strengths, collective social responsibilities and wellbeing.
 
 For a long time, there was no formal training in place for elementary school leaders. School principals and vice principals were appointed primarily on their academic merit through having an undergraduate qualification. As part of the first cohort of fifteen school leaders, we engaged in the professional training programme, the Graduate Certificate in School Leadership (GCSL), refitted to our context after its initial development in the Solomon Islands. GCSL was coordinated by the Institute of Education (IOE) at the University of the South Pacific (USP). GCSL was seen as a relevant and appropriate training programme for school leaders in the RMI as part of an Asia Development Bank (ADB) funded programme which aimed at “Improving Quality Basic Education” (IQBE) in parts of the northern Pacific. GCSL was managed on Majuro, RMI’s main island, by the director at the time Dr Irene Taafaki, coordinator Yolanda McKay, and administrators at the University of the South Pacific’s (USP) RMI campus.
 
 Through the provision of GCSL, as school leaders we were encouraged to re-think and draw-from our own cultural repository and connect to our ancestral knowledge that have always provided strength for us. This kind of thinking and practice was encouraged by our educational leaders (Heine, 2002). We argue that a culturally-affirming and culturally-contextual framework that reflects the lived experiences of Marshallese people is much needed and enables the disruption of inherent colonial processes left behind by Western and Eastern administrations which have influenced our education system in the RMI (Heine, 2002). Kanne Lobal, an approach utilising a traditional navigation has warranted its need to provide solutions for today’s educational challenges for us in the RMI.
 Education in the Pacific
 Education in the Pacific cannot be understood without contextualising it in its history and culture. It is the same for us in the RMI (Heine, 2002; Walsh et al., 2012). The RMI is located in the Pacific Ocean and is part of Micronesia. It was named after a British captain, John Marshall in the 1700s. The atolls in the RMI were explored by the Spanish in the 16th century. Germany unsuccessfully attempted to colonize the islands in 1885. Japan took control in 1914, but after several battles during World War II, the US seized the RMI from them. In 1947, the United Nations made the island group, along with the Mariana and Caroline archipelagos, a U.S. trust territory (Walsh et al, 2012). Education in the RMI reflects the colonial administrations of Germany, Japan, and now the US. 
 
 Before the turn of the century, formal education in the Pacific reflected western values, practices, and standards. Prior to that, education was informal and not binded to formal learning institutions (Thaman, 1997) and oral traditions was used as the medium for transmitting learning about customs and practices living with parents, grandparents, great grandparents. As alluded to by Jiba B. Kabua (2004), any “discussion about education is necessarily a discussion of culture, and any policy on education is also a policy of culture” (p. 181). It is impossible to promote one without the other, and it is not logical to understand one without the other. Re-thinking how education should look like, the pedagogical strategies that are relevant in our classrooms, the ways to engage with our parents and communities - such re-thinking sits within our cultural approaches and frameworks. Our collective attempts to provide a cultural framework that is relevant and appropriate for education in our context, sits within the political endeavour to decolonize. This means that what we are providing will not only be useful, but it can be used as a tool to question and identify whether things in place restrict and prevent our culture or whether

Several studies have shown that Illumina MiSeq high-throughput sequencing can be used to measure the diversity of prokaryotes and fungal communities that provide ecosystem functions in agricultural soils. Pedoclimatic properties of soils, together with cropping systems and agricultural management practices, are major drivers of soil microbiome diversity. Their effects must be quantified and compared to technical variability to improve the relevance of observed effects and the indicators that may result from them. This study was conducted: 1) To assess the effects of three sources of technical variability on the soil prokaryotes and fungal diversity; 2) To identify a source of technical variability that can be used as a threshold to better assess crop management effects; 3) To evaluate the effects of spatial and temporal variability compare to a technical threshold in three crop management contexts, potato, corn/soybean and grassland. Technical variability was evaluated in a basis of sampling, soil DNA extraction and amplicon sequencing source of variability. Spatial variability was evaluated using composite bulk soil cores at four sampling points covering 2500 m² per field. Geolocated soils were also collected on three sampling dates during the growing season to evaluate temporal variability. A technical variability threshold was determined for the soil DNA extraction variability with a delta of Shannon index of 0.142 and 0.390 and a weighted UniFrac distance of 0.081 and 0.364 for prokaryotes and fungi, respectively. We observed that technical variability was consistently similar or lower than the spatial and temporal variabilities in each of the microbial communities. Observed variability was greater for the diversity of fungi and the crop system has a strong effect on temporal and spatial variability.

The implications of probabilistic secretion of quanta for the functioning of neural networks in the central nervous system have been explored. A model of stochastic secretion at synapses in simple networks, consisting of large numbers of granule cells and a relatively small number of inhibitory interneurons, has been analysed. Such networks occur in the input to the cerebellum Purkinje cells as well as to hippocampal CA3 pyramidal cells and to pyramidal cells in the visual cortex. In this model the input axons terminate on granule cells as well as on an inhibitory interneuron that projects to the granule cells. Stochastic secretion at these synapses involves both temporal variability in secretion at single synapses in the network as well as spatial variability in the secretion at different synapses. The role of this stochastic variability in controlling the size of the granule cell output to a level independent of the size of the input and in separating overlapping inputs has been determined analytically as well as by simulation. The regulation of granule-cell output activity to a reasonably constant value for different size inputs does not occur in the absence of an inhibitory interneuron when both spatial and temporal stochastic variability occurs at the remaining synapses; it is still very poor in the presence of such an interneuron but in the absence of stochastic variability. However, quite good regulation is achieved when the inhibitory interneuron is present with spatial and temporal stochastic variability of secretion at synapses in the network. Excellent regulation is achieved if, in addition, allowance is made for the nonlinear behaviour of the input-output characteristics of inhibitory interneurons. The capacity of granule-cell networks to separate overlapping patterns of activity on their inputs is adequate, with spatial variability in the secretion at synapses, but is improved if there is also temporal variability in the stochastic secretion at individual synapses, although this is at the expense of reliability in the network. Other factors which improve pattern separation are control of the output to very low activity levels, and a restriction on the cumulative size of the excitatory input terminals of each granule cell. Application of the theory to the input neural networks of the cerebellum and the hippocampus shows the role of stochastic variability in quantal transmission in determining the capacity of these networks for pattern separation and activity regulation.

Evaluating and monitoring the “health” of large-scale systems will require new and innovative approaches. One such approach is to look for ecological signals in the structure of ecological variability observed in space and time. Such variability is sometimes considered something to minimize by clever sampling design, but may in itself contain interesting ecological information (Kratz et al. 1991). In fact, much of ecology can be considered an attempt to understand the patterns of spatial and temporal variability that occur in nature and the processes that lead to these patterns. Despite widespread interest in patterns of variation there have been relatively few attempts to describe comprehensively the temporal and spatial variation exhibited by ecological parameters. As a result, we have no general laws that allow us to predict die relative magnitude of temporal and spatial variability of different types of parameters across the full diversity of ecological systems. Even within single ecosystems, understanding of the interplay between temporal and spatial variability is lacking. For example, Lewis (1978) noted that despite a large literature, the relation between temporal and spatial variability in plankton distribution within a lake is not well understood. Matthews (1990) makes a similar point regarding fish communities in streams.

This study examines the influence of Indigenous cultural and religious values on intimate partner violence (IPV) service provision in Timor-Leste, where such values are integral to national identity, and the Catholic Church holds significant power. While Timor-Leste has prioritised strengthening survivor-centred approaches, the complex role of cultural and religious values in service provision remains underexplored. This study adopts a decolonising methodological approach to examine the interplay between culture, particularly Catholic values, and Timor-Leste's colonial history. This approach enables critical reflection on the lead researcher's positionality as an Indigenous Timorese woman, providing an emic perspective on representations of culture. In-depth qualitative interviews were conducted with 18 service providers from the formal Gender-Based Violence (GBV) referral network in the Baucau and Dili municipalities. Thematic analysis of the way values were operationalised in provider narratives about their interaction with survivors of IPV reveals the intertwined influence of religion, culture, and human rights frameworks on everyday practice. The findings demonstrate how providers leveraged cultural and religious values for emotional support, advocacy, and connecting survivors with other services, including assistance with separation, while also demonstrating an understanding of survivors' wishes and adherence to formal justice processes. However, these values play complex and sometimes contradictory roles in service providers' response to IPV, revealing attitudes of victim blaming and minimising survivors' trauma. While these values have been identified as potential barriers to help-seeking behaviours among survivors and can contribute to the normalisation of abuse, they also serve as sources of emotional support and resilience for both survivors and providers. We advocate for a contextually sensitive approach to IPV interventions that move beyond reductive cultural narratives, recommending training programmes that adopt a decolonising lens, recognising generational trauma and the potential strengths of religious and culturally rooted values when integrated with trauma-informed care.