Ecological Resilience, Biodiversity, and Scale
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Monitoring Global Changes in Biodiversity and Climate Essential
Ecological Informatics 55 (2020) 101033 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Ecological Informatics journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/ecolinf Monitoring global changes in biodiversity and climate essential as ecological T crisis intensifies ⁎ Brian O'Connora, , Stephan Bojinskib,c, Claudia Rööslid, Michael E. Schaepmand a UN Environment Programme World Conservation Monitoring Centre (UNEP-WCMC), 219 Huntingdon Road, Cambridge CB3 0DL, UK b EUMETSAT (European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites), EUMETSAT-Allee 1, 64295 Darmstadt, Germany c World Meteorological Organization, 7 bis Avenue de la Paix, 1211 Geneva, Switzerland (until 2018) d Remote Sensing Laboratories, Dept. of Geography, University of Zurich, Winterthurerstrasse 190, CH – 8057 Zurich, Switzerland ARTICLE INFO ABSTRACT Keywords: The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Essential climate variables Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services have presented unequivocal evidence for human induced climate change Essential biodiversity variables and biodiversity decline. Transformative societal change is required in response. However, while the Global Observing systems Observing System for Climate has coordinated climate observations for these assessments, there has been no Nature's contributions to people equivalent actor for the biodiversity assessment. Here we argue that a central agency for coordinated biodi- versity observations can lead to an improved assessment process for biodiversity status and coupled climate - biodiversity observations in areas of mutual interest such as monitoring indicators of Nature's Contributions to People. A global biodiversity observation system has already begun to evolve through bottom up development of the Essential Biodiversity Variables. We propose recommendations on how to build on this progress through definition of user requirements, observation principles, creation of a community data basis and regional actions through existing networks. -
The End-Permian Crisis, Aftermath and Subsequent Recovery
Title The End-Permian Crisis, Aftermath and Subsequent Recovery Author(s) Wignall, Paul B. Edited by Hisatake Okada, Shunsuke F. Mawatari, Noriyuki Suzuki, Pitambar Gautam. ISBN: 978-4-9903990-0-9, 43- Citation 48 Issue Date 2008 Doc URL http://hdl.handle.net/2115/38434 Type proceedings Note International Symposium, "The Origin and Evolution of Natural Diversity". 1‒5 October 2007. Sapporo, Japan. File Information p43-48-origin08.pdf Instructions for use Hokkaido University Collection of Scholarly and Academic Papers : HUSCAP The End-Permian Crisis, Aftermath and Subsequent Recovery Paul B. Wignall* School of Earth and Environment, University of Leeds, Leeds LS2 9JT, UK ABSTRACT Improvements in biostratigraphic and radiometric dating, combined with palynological and palaeo- ecological studies of the same sections, have allowed the relative timing of ecosystem destruction during the end-Permian crisis to be determined in the past few years. The extinction is revealed to be neither synchronous nor instantaneous but instead reveals a protracted crisis. This is especially the case for terrestrial floral communities that show the onset of floral changes prior to the marine mass extinction, but a final extinction after the marine event making a total duration for the terres- trial extinctions of a few hundred thousand years. In the oceans the radiolarians provide the only detailed record of the fate of planktonic communities and these undergo a phase of stress and final extinction before the marine benthos. The initial phase of the aftermath is characterized by a glob- ally-distributed, low diversity biota and, in shallow, equatorial settings, by the precipitation of Pre- cambrian-like anachronistic carbonates. -
THE BIODIVERSITY LOSS CRISIS in SOUTHEAST ASIA a Literature Review on Current Research
Louise Nilsson Kultur och Samhälle Urbana Studier MV109C Miljövetenskap: Kandidatkurs VT 2019 Handledare: Jonas Lundgren & Johanna Nygren Spanne Picture 1: Cacao pods at plantation in Pulau Samosir, Sumatera Utara, Indonesia, Louise Nilsson, 2018. THE BIODIVERSITY LOSS CRISIS IN SOUTHEAST ASIA A literature review on current research Louise Nilsson Kultur och samhälle Urbana studier MV109C Miljövetenskap: Kandidatkurs VT 2019 Abstract This bachelor thesis focuses on the biodiversity loss problematics in Southeast Asia, since it is one of the most species rich places on Earth, coupled with the highest rate of loss of species. Four biodiversity hotspots encompasses Southeast Asia which implies areas of high endemism coupled with high rates habitat loss. This thesis aim to understand what current research in the field focuses on and what ways of protecting biodiversity in the area that exists. The main driver of biodiversity loss in Southeast Asia as well as in the rest of the world, are land-use alterations; forests and natural habitat being converted to monoculture plantations, as well as agricultural- and urban expansions. Through a systematic literature review of scientific material from 2010- 2019, the biodiversity research in Southeast Asia is reviewed. What the literature review concluded was that an array of environmental- as well as socioeconomic problems intensifies each other in the area, such as poverty and biodiversity loss. International cooperation to halt biodiversity loss and the global demand for products produced in the area which greatly damages ecosystems needs to be addressed urgently. Actions to halt the mass-extinction of species and their connected ecosystem services needs to be taken by providing means to organizations and to scientists that work in the area and could possibly be addressed by moving from anthropocentrism towards a biocentric nature view. -
Multiple Stable States and Regime Shifts - Environmental Science - Oxford Bibliographies 3/30/18, 10:15 AM
Multiple Stable States and Regime Shifts - Environmental Science - Oxford Bibliographies 3/30/18, 10:15 AM Multiple Stable States and Regime Shifts James Heffernan, Xiaoli Dong, Anna Braswell LAST MODIFIED: 28 MARCH 2018 DOI: 10.1093/OBO/9780199363445-0095 Introduction Why do ecological systems (populations, communities, and ecosystems) change suddenly in response to seemingly gradual environmental change, or fail to recover from large disturbances? Why do ecological systems in seemingly similar settings exhibit markedly different ecological structure and patterns of change over time? The theory of multiple stable states in ecological systems provides one potential explanation for such observations. In ecological systems with multiple stable states (or equilibria), two or more configurations of an ecosystem are self-maintaining under a given set of conditions because of feedbacks among biota or between biota and the physical and chemical environment. The resulting multiple different states may occur as different types or compositions of vegetation or animal communities; as different densities, biomass, and spatial arrangement; and as distinct abiotic environments created by the distinct ecological communities. Alternative states are maintained by the combined effects of positive (or amplifying) feedbacks and negative (or stabilizing feedbacks). While stabilizing feedbacks reinforce each state, positive feedbacks are what allow two or more states to be stable. Thresholds between states arise from the interaction of these positive and negative feedbacks, and define the basins of attraction of the alternative states. These feedbacks and thresholds may operate over whole ecosystems or give rise to self-organized spatial structure. The combined effect of these feedbacks is also what gives rise to ecological resilience, which is the capacity of ecological systems to absorb environmental perturbations while maintaining their basic structure and function. -
Unifying Research on Social–Ecological Resilience and Collapse Graeme S
TREE 2271 No. of Pages 19 Review Unifying Research on Social–Ecological Resilience and Collapse Graeme S. Cumming1,* and Garry D. Peterson2 Ecosystems influence human societies, leading people to manage ecosystems Trends for human benefit. Poor environmental management can lead to reduced As social–ecological systems enter a ecological resilience and social–ecological collapse. We review research on period of rapid global change, science resilience and collapse across different systems and propose a unifying social– must predict and explain ‘unthinkable’ – ecological framework based on (i) a clear definition of system identity; (ii) the social, ecological, and social ecologi- cal collapses. use of quantitative thresholds to define collapse; (iii) relating collapse pro- cesses to system structure; and (iv) explicit comparison of alternative hypoth- Existing theories of collapse are weakly fi integrated with resilience theory and eses and models of collapse. Analysis of 17 representative cases identi ed 14 ideas about vulnerability and mechanisms, in five classes, that explain social–ecological collapse. System sustainability. structure influences the kind of collapse a system may experience. Mechanistic Mechanisms of collapse are poorly theories of collapse that unite structure and process can make fundamental understood and often heavily con- contributions to solving global environmental problems. tested. Progress in understanding col- lapse requires greater clarity on system identity and alternative causes of Sustainability Science and Collapse collapse. Ecology and human use of ecosystems meet in sustainability science, which seeks to understand the structure and function of social–ecological systems and to build a sustainable Archaeological theories have focused and equitable future [1]. Sustainability science has been built on three main streams of on a limited range of reasons for sys- tem collapse. -
The Philosophical Roots of the Ecological Crisis
The Philosophical Roots of the Ecological Crisis The Philosophical Roots of the Ecological Crisis: Descartes and the Modern Worldview By Joshtrom Isaac Kureethadam The Philosophical Roots of the Ecological Crisis: Descartes and the Modern Worldview By Joshtrom Isaac Kureethadam This book first published 2017 Cambridge Scholars Publishing Lady Stephenson Library, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE6 2PA, UK British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Copyright © 2017 by Joshtrom Isaac Kureethadam All rights for this book reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright owner. ISBN (10): 1-5275-0343-7 ISBN (13): 978-1-5275-0343-4 The time is coming when the struggle for dominion over the earth will be carried on. It will be carried on in the name of fundamental philosophical doctrines. —Friedrich Nietzsche We cannot solve a problem with the same mind-set that created it in the first place. —Albert Einstein CONTENTS Preface ......................................................................................................... x Abbreviations ............................................................................................ xii Acknowledgements .................................................................................. xiii Introduction ................................................................................................ -
Technology Driven Inequality Leads to Poverty and Resource Depletion T ⁎ M
Ecological Economics 160 (2019) 215–226 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Ecological Economics journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/ecolecon Analysis Technology driven inequality leads to poverty and resource depletion T ⁎ M. Usman Mirzaa,b, , Andries Richterb, Egbert H. van Nesa, Marten Scheffera a Environmental Sciences, Wageningen University, Netherlands b Environmental Economics and Natural Resources Group, Sub-department of Economics, Wageningen University, Netherlands ARTICLE INFO ABSTRACT Keywords: The rapid rise in inequality is often seen to go in-hand with resource overuse. Examples include water extraction Inequality in Pakistan, land degradation in Bangladesh, forest harvesting in Sub-Saharan Africa and industrial fishing in Technology Lake Victoria. While access to ecosystem services provided by common pool resources mitigates poverty, ex- Social-ecological systems clusive access to technology by wealthy individuals may fuel excessive resource extraction and deplete the Poverty trap resource, thus widening the wealth gap. We use a stylised social-ecological model, to illustrate how a positive Dynamic systems feedback between wealth and technology may fuel local inequality. The resulting rise in local inequality can lead Critical transitions to resource degradation and critical transitions such as ecological resource collapse and unexpected increase in poverty. Further, we find that societies may evolve towards a stable state of few wealthy and manypoorin- dividuals, where the distribution of wealth depends on how access to technology is distributed. Overall, our results illustrate how access to technology may be a mechanism that fuels resource degradation and conse- quently pushes most vulnerable members of society into a poverty trap. 1. Introduction at first and then drops as gains are distributed more evenly in developing economies, giving rise to an inverted U shaped curve (Kuznet, 1955). -
Resilience to Climate Change in Coastal Marine Ecosystems
MA05CH16-Leslie ARI 9 November 2012 14:39 Resilience to Climate Change in Coastal Marine Ecosystems 1,3 1,2, Joanna R. Bernhardt and Heather M. Leslie ∗ 1Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and 2Center for Environmental Studies, Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island 02912; email: [email protected] 3Department of Zoology and Biodiversity Research Center, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia V6T 1Z4, Canada; email: [email protected] Annu. Rev. Mar. Sci. 2013. 5:371–92 Keywords First published online as a Review in Advance on recovery, resistance, diversity, interactions, adaptation July 30, 2012 by 70.167.19.146 on 01/03/13. For personal use only. The Annual Review of Marine Science is online at Abstract marine.annualreviews.org Ecological resilience to climate change is a combination of resistance to in- This article’s doi: creasingly frequent and severe disturbances, capacity for recovery and self- 10.1146/annurev-marine-121211-172411 organization, and ability to adapt to new conditions. Here, we focus on Annu. Rev. Marine. Sci. 2013.5:371-392. Downloaded from www.annualreviews.org Copyright c 2013 by Annual Reviews. ⃝ three broad categories of ecological properties that underlie resilience: di- All rights reserved versity, connectivity, and adaptive capacity. Diversity increases the variety ∗Corresponding author. of responses to disturbance and the likelihood that species can compensate for one another. Connectivity among species, populations, and ecosystems enhances capacity for recovery by providing sources of propagules, nutri- ents, and biological legacies. Adaptive capacity includes a combination of phenotypic plasticity, species range shifts, and microevolution. We discuss empirical evidence for how these ecological and evolutionary mechanisms contribute to the resilience of coastal marine ecosystems following climate change–related disturbances, and how resource managers can apply this in- formation to sustain these systems and the ecosystem services they provide. -
From Predator to Parasite: Private Property, Neoliberalism, and Ecological Disaster
From Predator to Parasite: Private Property, Neoliberalism, and Ecological Disaster Jenica M. Kramer John B. Hall ABSTRACT The institution of private property forms the basis for ecological disaster. The profit-seeking of the vested interests, in conjunction with their modes of valuing nature through the apparatuses of neoclassical economics and neoliberalism proceed to degrade and destroy life on Earth. We assert that the radical, or original institutional economics (OIE) of Thorstein Veblen, further advanced by William Dugger, have crucial insights to offer the interdisciplinary fields of political ecology and ecological economics which seek to address the underlying causes and emergent complications of the unfolding, interconnected, social, and ecological crises that define our age. This inquiry will attempt to address what, to us, appears to be either overlooked or underexplored in these research communities. Namely, that the usurpation of society’s surplus production, or, the accumulation of capital, is a parasite that sustains itself not only through the exploitation of human labor, but by exploiting society and nature more broadly, resulting in the deterioration of life itself. We attest that the transformation of the obvious predator that pursues power through pecuniary gain into a parasite, undetected by its host, is realized in its most rapacious form in the global hegemonic system of neoliberal capitalism. JEL CLASSIFICATION CODES B520, N500, O440, Q560 KEYWORDS Ecological Economics, Environmentalism, Neoliberalism, Original Institutional Economics, Political Ecology This inquiry seeks to establish that the institution of private property forms the basis for ecological disaster. The profit-seeking of the vested interests, in conjunction with their modes of valuing nature through the apparatuses of neoclassical economics and neoliberalism proceed to degrade and destroy life on Earth. -
What Role for Community Greening and Civic Ecology in Cities?
Chapter 7 From risk to resilience: what role for community greening and civic ecology in cities? Keith G. Tidball and Marianne E. Krasny Introduction One of the greatest risks following a natural disaster or conflict in cities is the ensuing social chaos or breakdown of order. Failed cities, such as parts of New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina and Baghdad following war in Iraq, can be viewed as socio-ecological systems that, as a result of disaster or conflict coupled with lack of resilience, have “collapsed into a qualitatively different state that is controlled by a different set of processes” (Resilience Alliance 2006). Communities lacking resilience are at high risk of shifting into a qualitatively different, often undesirable state when disaster strikes. Restoring a community to its previous state can be complex, expensive, and sometimes even impossible. Thus, developing tools, strategies, and policies to build resilience before disaster strikes is essential. The Resilience Alliance has led the way in developing a broadly interdisciplinary research agenda that integrates the ecological and social sciences , along with complex systems thinking to help understand the conditions that create resilience in socio-ecological systems. Through consideration of diverse forms of knowledge, participatory approaches, and adaptive management, in addition to systems thinking, the Resilience Alliance integrates multiple social learning ‘strands’ (Dyball et al. 2007). Although the resilience work has not focused on cities, its approach is consistent with a call by the Urban Security group at the U.S. Los Alamos National Laboratory for “an approach (to studying urban ecosystems) that integrates physical processes, economic and social factors, and nonlinear feedback across a broad range of scales and disparate process phenomena” (Urban Security 1999). -
The Inflated Significance of Neutral Genetic Diversity in Conservation Genetics PERSPECTIVE Jo~Ao C
PERSPECTIVE The inflated significance of neutral genetic diversity in conservation genetics PERSPECTIVE Jo~ao C. Teixeiraa,b,1 and Christian D. Hubera,1 Edited by Andrew G. Clark, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, and approved December 30, 2020 (received for review July 22, 2020) The current rate of species extinction is rapidly approaching unprecedented highs, and life on Earth presently faces a sixth mass extinction event driven by anthropogenic activity, climate change, and ecological collapse. The field of conservation genetics aims at preserving species by using their levels of genetic diversity, usually measured as neutral genome-wide diversity, as a barometer for evaluating pop- ulation health and extinction risk. A fundamental assumption is that higher levels of genetic diversity lead to an increase in fitness and long-term survival of a species. Here, we argue against the perceived impor- tance of neutral genetic diversity for the conservation of wild populations and species. We demonstrate that no simple general relationship exists between neutral genetic diversity and the risk of species extinc- tion. Instead, a better understanding of the properties of functional genetic diversity, demographic his- tory, and ecological relationships is necessary for developing and implementing effective conservation genetic strategies. conservation genetics | adaptive potential | inbreeding depression | genetic load | species extinction Are Species with Little Genetic Diversity Moreover, low genetic diversity is related to reduced Endangered? individual life span and health, along with a depleted Climate change caused by human activity is currently capacity for population growth (9). In contrast, high responsible for widespread ecological disruption and levels of genetic diversity are often seen as key to habitat destruction, with an ensuing unprecedented promoting population survival and guaranteeing the rate of species loss known as the Anthropocene Mass adaptive potential of natural populations in the face of Extinction (1–4). -
Combating Ecosystem Collapse from the Tropics to the Antarctic
Received: 13 October 2020 | Revised: 12 January 2021 | Accepted: 20 January 2021 DOI: 10.1111/gcb.15539 OPINION Combating ecosystem collapse from the tropics to the Antarctic Dana M. Bergstrom1,2 | Barbara C. Wienecke1 | John van den Hoff1 | Lesley Hughes3 | David B. Lindenmayer4 | Tracy D. Ainsworth5 | Christopher M. Baker6,7,8 | Lucie Bland9 | David M. J. S. Bowman10 | Shaun T. Brooks11 | Josep G. Canadell12 | Andrew J. Constable13 | Katherine A. Dafforn3 | Michael H. Depledge14 | Catherine R. Dickson15 | Norman C. Duke16 | Kate J. Helmstedt17 | Andrés Holz18 | Craig R. Johnson11 | Melodie A. McGeoch15 | Jessica Melbourne- Thomas13,19 | Rachel Morgain4 | Emily Nicholson20 | Suzanne M. Prober21 | Ben Raymond1,11 | Euan G. Ritchie20 | Sharon A. Robinson2,22 | Katinka X. Ruthrof23,24 | Samantha A. Setterfield25 | Carla M. Sgrò15 | Jonathan S. Stark1 | Toby Travers11 | Rowan Trebilco13,19 | Delphi F. L. Ward11 | Glenda M. Wardle26 | Kristen J. Williams27 | Phillip J. Zylstra22,28 | Justine D. Shaw29 1Australian Antarctic Division, Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment, Kingston, Tas., Australia 2Global Challenges Program, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, NSW, Australia 3Macquarie University, Sydney, NSW, Australia 4Fenner School of Environment and Society, Australian National University, Canberra, ACT, Australia 5School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences, The University of New South Wales, Randwick, NSW, Australia 6School of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, Vic., Australia