Tourism dependence and host community perceptions: notes on the social exchange theory

This article examines the opinions of the local population on the south coast of the Spanish province of Alicante regarding the development of tourism in recent years, analysing their perception of the benefits of tourism using the social exchange theory. This study is presented in two stages. The qualitative stage, which is based on in-depth interviews and focus groups, acts as a guide for the second stage, which consists of a survey conducted with the resident Spanish population. It was found that people linked to the tourist sector through their work view tourism as the driving force behind the economic and social development of their towns, although they are more critical than others of the model that has been established. They defend the development process that has taken place, but feel that overcrowding brings their towns to a standstill and needs to be resolved.

An evolutive approach for the delineation of local labour markets

This paper presents a new approach to the delineation of local labour markets based on evolutionary computation. The main objective is the regionalisation of a given territory into functional regions based on commuting flows. According to the relevant literature, such regions are defined so that (a) their boundaries are rarely crossed in daily journeys to work, and (b) a high degree of intra-area movement exists. This proposal merges municipalities into functional regions by maximizing a fitness function that measures aggregate intra-region interaction under constraints of inter-region separation and minimum size. Real results are presented based on the latest database from the Census of Population in the Region of Valencia. Comparison between the results obtained through the official method which currently is most widely used (that of British Travel-to-Work Areas) and those from our approach is also presented, showing important improvements in terms of both the number of different market areas identified that meet the statistical criteria and the degree of aggregate intra-market interaction.

The comparative effectiveness of rodents and dung beetles as local seed dispersers in Mediterranean oak forests

The process of seed dispersal of many animal-dispersed plants is frequently mediated by a small set of biotic agents. However, the contribution that each of these dispersers makes to the overall recruitment may differ largely, with important ecological and management implications for the population viability and dynamics of the species implied in these interactions. In this paper, we compared the relative contribution of two local guilds of scatter-hoarding animals with contrasting metabolic requirements and foraging behaviours (rodents and dung beetles) to the overall recruitment of two Quercus species co-occurring in the forests of southern Spain. For this purpose, we considered not only the quantity of dispersed seeds but also the quality of the seed dispersal process. The suitability for recruitment of the microhabitats where the seeds were deposited was evaluated in a multi-stage demographic approach. The highest rates of seed handling and predation occurred in those microhabitats located under shrubs, mostly due to the foraging activity of rodents. However, the probability of a seed being successfully cached was higher in microhabitats located beneath a tree canopy as a result of the feeding behaviour of beetles. Rodents and beetles showed remarkable differences in their effectiveness as local acorn dispersers. Quantitatively, rodents were much more important than beetles because they dispersed the vast majority of acorns. However, they were qualitatively less effective because they consumed a high proportion of them (over 95%), and seeds were mostly dispersed under shrubs, a less suitable microhabitat for short-term recruitment of the two oak species. Our findings demonstrate that certain species of dung beetles (such as Thorectes lusitanicus), despite being quantitatively less important than rodents, can act as effective local seed dispersers of Mediterranean oak species. Changes in the abundance of beetle populations could thus have profound implications for oak recruitment and community dynamics.

Self-rated health and mortality: a follow-up study of a Spanish population

Objectives: Self-rated health (SRH) is known to be a valid indicator for the prediction of health outcomes. The aims of this study were to describe and analyse the associations between SRH and health status, socio-economic and demographic characteristics; and between SRH and mortality in a Spanish population. Study design: Longitudinal study. Methods: A sample of 5275 adults (age ≥21 years) residing in the Valencian Community (Spanish Mediterranean region) was surveyed in 2005 and followed for four years. SRH was categorized into good and poor health. The response variable was mortality (dead/alive), obtained from the local mortality register. Logistic regression models were adjusted in order to analyse the associations between SRH and health status, socio-economic and demographic characteristics; odds ratios were calculated to measure the associations. Poisson regression models were adjusted in order to analyse the associations between mortality and explanatory variables; the relative risk of death was calculated to measure the associations. Results: Poor SRH was reported by 25.9% of respondents, and the mortality rate after four years of follow-up was 3.6%. An association was found between SRH and the presence of chronic disease and disability in men and women. A perception of poor health vs good health led to a mortality risk of 3.0 in men and 2.7 in women. SRH was predictive of mortality, even after adjusting for all other variables. In men and women, the presence of disability provided additional predictive ability. Conclusions: SRH was predictive of mortality in both men and women, and acted as a mediator between socio-economic, demographic and health conditions and mortality.