Hydrologic Resilience from Summertime Fog and Recharge: A Case Study for Coho Salmon Recovery Planning

Fog and low cloud cover (FLCC) and late summer recharge increase stream baseflow and decrease stream temperature during arid Mediterranean climate summers, which benefits salmon especially under climate warming conditions. The potential to discharge cool water to streams during the late summer (hydrologic capacity; HC) furnished by FLCC and recharge were mapped for the 299 subwatersheds ranked Core, Phase 1, or Phase 2 under the National Marine Fisheries Service Recovery Plan that prioritized restoration and threat abatement action for endangered Central California Coast Coho Salmon evolutionarily significant unit. Two spatially continuous gridded datasets were merged to compare HC: average hrs/day FLCC, a new dataset derived from a decade of hourly National Weather Satellite data, and annual average mm recharge from the USGS Basin Characterization Model. Two use‐case scenarios provide examples of incorporating FLCC‐driven HC indices into long‐term recovery planning. The first, a thermal analysis under future climate, projected 65% of the watershed area for 8–19 coho population units as thermally inhospitable under two global climate models and identified several units with high resilience (high HC under the range of projected warming conditions). The second use case investigated HC by subwatershed rank and coho population, and identified three population units with high HC in areas ranked Phase 1 and 2 and low HC in Core. Recovery planning for cold‐water fish species would benefit by including FLCC in vulnerability analyses.     

Community resilience and urban planning in tsunami-prone settlements in Chile

Urban planning can serve to minimise the effects of a tsunami and enhance community resilience. This study explores to what extent urban planning has addressed tsunami resilience in four villages on Chile's South Pacific coast, each of which was struck by tsunamis in 1960, 2010, and 2015. Through a detailed policy review and semi-structured interviews with residents, this paper analyses whether tsunami mitigation policies were incorporated into regional and local planning tools. It finds that although the government proposed relocation to tsunami-safe areas after the tsunami of 1960, urban development continued mainly in tsunami inundation zones—in the context of weak local planning frameworks and in the absence of community participation. In only one of the four case studies did participatory planning bring about the relocation of an entire village to a safe location. This paper concludes that incorporating participatory risk zone planning into urban planning enhances tsunami resilience.     

Quantifying current and potential contributions of Australian indigenous peoples to threatened species management

Formal engagement of indigenous peoples in conservation is increasing globally and leads to multiple benefits to communities while contributing to national and international biodiversity goals and obligations. This and ongoing declines in biodiversity have led to calls to increase opportunities for indigenous people to engage in managing their estates. However, there is no overarching understanding of indigenous peoples’ involvement in conservation, which limits the identification of new opportunities. We amalgamated information across governments and large nongovernmental organizations in the megadiverse country of Australia to quantify the involvement of indigenous people in management of threatened species. We identified 153 Australian‐based projects undertaken by different indigenous groups around the nation in 2015 and 2016 that included explicit funds for management of threatened species or threatened ecosystems. Most were in remote parts of western and northern Australia. Almost one‐quarter of all threatened animals and 2% of threatened plants were the subject of some formal conservation action by indigenous people. Occurrence records for 1574 threatened species showed that 823 (89.2%) of 923 species recorded on indigenous peoples’ lands were not listed in management projects. This gap may represent new opportunities for conservation initiatives. Because at least 59.5% of Australia's threatened species occur on indigenous peoples’ lands, efforts to build appropriate and effective indigenous conservation alliances are vital. However, it is also important to recognize that threatened species are part of complex social, ecological, economic and cultural systems, and to achieve successful outcomes requires consideration of indigenous peoples’ priorities, rights, and obligations and relationships with their traditionally owned land and sea.     

Using cumulative human-impact models to reveal global threat patterns for seahorses

Understanding threats acting on marine organisms and their conservation status is vital but challenging given a paucity of data. We studied the cumulative human impact (CHI) on and conservation status of seahorses (Hippocampus spp.)—a genus of rare and data-poor marine fishes. With expert knowledge and relevant spatial data sets, we built linear-additive models to assess and map the CHI of 12 anthropogenic stressors on 42 seahorse species. We examined the utility of indices of estimated impact (impact of each stressor and CHI) in predicting conservation status for species with random forest (RF) models. The CHI values for threatened species were significantly higher than those for nonthreatened species (category based on International Union for Conservation of Nature Red List). We derived high-accuracy RF models (87% and 96%) that predicted that 5 of the 17 data-deficient species were threatened. Demersal fishing practices with high bycatch and pollution were the best predictors of threat category. Major threat epicenters were in China, Southeast Asia, and Europe. Our results and maps of CHI may help guide global seahorse conservation and indicate that modeling and mapping human impacts can reveal threat patterns and conservation status for data-poor species. We found that for exploring threat patterns of focal species, species-level CHI models are better than existing ecosystem-level CHI models.     

舟山近岸海域贝类中有机氯农药残留水平及人体健康风险评估

于2012年的7月在舟山群岛新区的海域采集贝类样本,测定了其中的有机氯农药残留量,并进行了人体健康风险评估和安全食用量推算。结果表明,采集的5种贝类样本中,六六六(BHCs)的各组分均未被检出,而滴滴涕(DDTs)在各种样本中均有检出,其中僧帽牡蛎和部分縊蛏样本中DDTs总量超过《海洋生物质量标准》(GB 18421—2001)一类标准(10μg/kg);健康风险评估结果显示,贝类样本中α-BHC、β-BHC、γ-BHC、p,p’-滴滴伊(p,p’-DDE)、p,p’-滴滴滴(p,p’-DDD)、p,p’-DDT的总致癌风险指数均低于10-4,致癌风险均在可接受的安全范围,α-BHC、β-BHC、γ-BHC、p,p’-DDE的总接触风险指数均小于1,接触风险指数未超过危害剂量参考值,人体食用舟山近岸海域的贝类是安全的;按可接受的致癌风险指数进行评估,人体的贝类安全消费量为9.8~138.0g/(kg·d)(按体重计,下同),而按可接受的接触风险指数进行评估,人体的贝类安全消费量在24.6~235.0g/(kg·d)。     

Adapting to climate change in the coastal regions of Bangladesh: proposal for the formation of community-based adaptation committees

The paper outlines a concept and proposal for the formation of ‘community based adaptation committees’ (CBACs) at the micro-level, and it explains how such local committees would act with respect to the existing organisation of disaster management in Bangladesh. It examines how the CBACs would be sustained locally without colliding with the present system of government. The main objective of this is to identify how the CBACs could act independently as per local demands, without any conflict with the existing system, in order to ensure sustainable adaptation in future. To achieve these objectives the author conducted interviews with key informants at both local and national levels, and also conducted eight participatory rapid appraisal sessions at eight coastal communities. The author finds that severe corruption is impeding the existing system of relief and rehabilitation at community levels. The paper emphasises that the government of Bangladesh urgently needs to formulate a national adaptation policy, and that within that policy the concept of CBACs at community level should be prioritised. This would provide the government with guidelines for the use, at community level, of adaptation funds from developed countries in order to reduce future vulnerability in Bangladesh.     

Adaptation planning for sea level rise: a study of US coastal cities

Sea level rise (SLR) is expected, even without greenhouse gas emissions. As SLR is inevitable, adapting to its impacts has received increasing attention, and local governments are the key actors in this emerging agenda. This study indicates that adaptation planning for SLR should be integrated into two local major planning mechanisms in the United States: the local comprehensive plans and hazard mitigation plans. By evaluating 36 plans from 15 US coastal cities that are considered at high risk and vulnerable to rising sea levels, the results demonstrate that SLR is widely identified, but the overall quality of the plans to address it requires significant improvement. A detailed table of selected plans' characteristics is also provided as a lens on how localities tackle this challenging issue. The paper concludes with planning suggestions for coastal communities to better adapt to SLR.     

Effects of reduced water quality on coral reefs in and out of no‐take marine reserves

Near‐shore marine environments are increasingly subjected to reduced water quality, and their ability to withstand it is critical to their persistence. The potential role marine reserves may play in mitigating the effects of reduced water quality has received little attention. We investigated the spatial and temporal variability in live coral and macro‐algal cover and water quality during moderate and major flooding events of the Fitzroy River within the Keppel Bay region of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park from 2007 to 2013. We used 7 years of remote sensing data on water quality and data from long‐term monitoring of coral reefs to quantify exposure of coral reefs to flood plumes. We used a distance linear model to partition the contribution of abiotic and biotic factors, including zoning, as drivers of the observed changes in coral and macro‐algae cover. Moderate flood plumes from 2007 to 2009 did not affect coral cover on reefs in the Keppel Islands, suggesting the reef has intrinsic resistance against short‐term exposure to reduced water quality. However, from 2009 to 2013, live coral cover declined by ～50% following several weeks of exposure to turbid, low salinity water from major flood plume events in 2011 and subsequent moderate events in 2012 and 2013. Although the flooding events in 2012 and 2013 were smaller than the flooding events between 2007 to 2009, the ability of the reefs to withstand these moderate floods was lost, as evidenced by a ～20% decline in coral cover between 2011 to 2013. Although zoning (no‐take reserve or fished) was identified a significant driver of coral cover, we recorded consistently lower coral cover on reserve reefs than on fished reefs throughout the study period and significantly lower cover in 2011. Our findings suggest that even reefs with an inherent resistance to reduced water quality are not able to withstand repeated disturbance events. The limitations of reserves in mitigating the effects of reduced water quality on near‐shore coral reefs underscores the importance of integrated management approaches that combine effective land‐based management with networks of no‐take reserves.     

Re-thinking relationships between environmental attitudes and values for effective coastal natural resource management in Ghana

The coastal zone of Ghana is home to about a quarter of the total population of the country and its importance has been well emphasised in policy documents, such as the Ghana Shared Growth and Development Agenda, the National Climate Change Policy as well as the National Environmental Policy. However, environmental degradation remains a critical issue as dependence on coastal natural resources continues to increase, and its effect is being felt more strongly by certain groups than others. This paper identifies women as key stakeholders, and through an empirical assessment highlights the need to factor their environmental attitudes and values into efforts to manage the coast in an integrated manner. The results show that respondents generally had positive environmental attitudes, which did not translate to good environmental behaviour. Respondents placed the greatest importance on the coastal natural resources as sources of wealth creation and of food, values which are often described as being “anthropocentric”. Hence, initiatives that could win the support of the local people and also help manage coastal resources effectively are those that link the livelihoods and well-being to coastal natural resource management.     

基于景观格局的盐城海岸带土地利用时空变化分析

在GIS和RS技术支持下,以行政区划为评价单元,通过土地利用转移矩阵、景观格局指数对盐城海岸带土地利用变化的主要方式、景观格局特征及时空分异规律进行定量分析。结果表明:2000~2010年,盐城海岸带土地利用类型以耕地、建设用地和水域为主,其中耕地是盐城海岸带的优势类型,虽然近年来呈逐渐下降的趋势,但仍是区域景观基质类型,均占总面积的78%以上;海岸带景观水平趋于破碎化,区域景观格局更加复杂化、分散化和多样化;研究区北部景观水平特征指数较中部、南部为高。自然地理条件、经济发展水平及不同土地利用方式所带来的利益差异是导致盐城海岸带景观格局变化的关键驱动因素。