Local and Indigenous management of climate change risks to archaeological sites

Hundreds of thousands of significant archaeological and cultural heritage sites (cultural sites) along the coasts of every continent are threatened by sea level rise, and many will be destroyed. This wealth of artefacts and monuments testifies to human history, cosmology and identity. While cultural sites are especially important to local and Indigenous communities, a stall in coordinated global action means adaptation at a local scale is often unsupported. In response, this paper produces a practical climate change risk analysis methodology designed for independent, community-scale management of cultural sites. It builds on existing methods that prioritise sites most at risk from climate impacts, proposing a field survey that integrates an assessment of the relative cultural value of sites with assessment of exposure and sensitivity to climate impacts. The field survey also stands as a monitoring program and complements an assessment of organisational adaptive capacity. The preliminary field survey was tested by Indigenous land managers in remote northern Australia at midden and rock art sites threatened by sea level rise, extreme flood events and a range of non-climactic hazards. A participatory action research methodology—incorporating planning workshops, semi-structured interviews and participant observations—gave rise to significant modifications to the preliminary field survey as well as management prioritisation of 120 sites. The field survey is anticipated to have global application, particularly among marginalised and remote Indigenous communities. Well-planned and informed participation, with community control, monitoring and well-informed actions, will contribute significantly to coordinated global and regional adaptation strategies.     

The prognostic factors in the prenatal diagnosis of the echogenic fetal lung

The prenatal diagnosis of an echogenic fetal lung (EFL) is now often made in the early second trimester using high-resolution ultrasound. This ultrasound appearance is usually caused by a congenital cystic adenomatoid lung malformation (CCAM), an intrapulmonary lung sequestration or obstruction of a major airway. In order to provide prognostic guidelines to parents who may be considering termination of a fetus with these findings, we have analysed a series of 11 cases diagnosed in our centre over the past 2 years in conjunction with 60 cases from major published series. The data suggest that in the absence of non-immune hydrops fetalis (NIHF) or other anomalies, the outcome for the fetuses is excellent, with over 90 per cent survival. Neither early diagnosis (24 weeks) nor the presence of mediastinal shift is a poor prognostic indicator. In addition, it appears that if NIHF is absent at diagnosis, the chance that it will develop as the pregnancy continues is small (6 per cent). Furthermore, there is a significant (up to 30 per cent) chance that this ultrasound finding will resolve in utero. The development of in utero fetal surgical techniques may be the only hope for those hydropic fetuses who appear to have a dismal prognosis.     

The concept of the Portuguese National Ecological Reserve: constraints and impossibilities in the Azores Archipelago

The biophysical features of small islands (SI) distinguish them from other territories; isolation, small size and several anthropogenic pressures reduce the resilience of ecosystems and increase their vulnerability to global changes. Many SI have a shortage of infrastructures, institutions and technical/financial resources that hinder planning and require different integrated solutions. In Portugal, the National Ecological Reserve (NER) is legally binding for spatial planning instruments. It aims to defend natural values and areas of ecological value, or sensibility, or susceptible to natural hazards. However, the criteria for the design of NER are strictly set for mainland territory, not taking into account specific features of small islands. A case study of the Azores Archipelago is used to demonstrate that spatial planning instruments should be adapted to island contexts. Such adaptation will increase the effectiveness of their implementation in relation to the protection of natural resources, stability of biophysical structures and prevention of natural hazards. Observing the main differences between mainland and the Azores Archipelago it is possible to define a methodological transposition of the NER aims and goals into an island context. This approach is an answer to the constraints in effective adaptation of spatial planning instruments for islands.     

Compliance of Australian threatened species recovery plans with legislative requirements

Recovery plans are the main documents supporting management decision-making for threatened species. We evaluated Australian recovery plans to assess their appropriateness as conservation and management planning instruments. Six legislative requirements (species information and general requirements, species distribution and location, known and potential threats, objectives, performance criteria and actions, duration of the plan, and estimated costs of plan implementation) were used to assess the degree of compliance of recovery plans with the relevant legislation. We assessed all 236 official recovery plans which had been adopted as at January 2006. The results showed that plans were most compliant regarding the setting of objectives, performance criteria, recovery actions, and duration of plan. Most plans included a single performance criterion that was generally related to the population status of target species. Improvement is required in relation to identification of current threats and critical habitats, and the establishment of basic elements of monitoring and evaluation for measuring recovery progress. Gaps in ecological information are the main factors affecting adequate compliance with legislative requirements as opposed to managerial information (e.g. clarity in establishing the implementation schedule, costs and resource allocation). Planning deficiencies could be addressed by improving the recovery planning guidelines and more carefully reviewing the drafting and adoption of new plans.     

Comparison of fine-scale acoustic monitoring systems using home range size of a demersal fish

We compared the results from fixed acoustic transmitters and transmitters implanted in lingcod Ophiodon elongatus provided by two fine-scale passive acoustic monitoring systems: the older Vemco^? Radio Acoustic Positioning (VRAP) system and the newer VR2W Positioning System (VPS) with either three or four receivers. The four-receiver VPS method calculated five times more positions of lingcod than VRAP and more than twice as many as the three-receiver VPS. Calculated positions of fixed transmitters were less precise with VRAP than either VPS approach. Measurements of home range for lingcod were similar between the four-receiver VPS and VRAP, which were both greater than the three-receiver VPS. Comparisons varied when lingcod were in/near complex habitats. As new technology develops, it is important to understand how new methods compare to previous methods. This may be important when describing patterns of movement or habitat use in the context of changes in habitat or management efforts.     

The Adaptation for Conservation Targets (ACT) Framework: A Tool for Incorporating Climate Change into Natural Resource Management

As natural resource management agencies and conservation organizations seek guidance on responding to climate change, myriad potential actions and strategies have been proposed for increasing the long-term viability of some attributes of natural systems. Managers need practical tools for selecting among these actions and strategies to develop a tailored management approach for specific targets at a given location. We developed and present one such tool, the participatory Adaptation for Conservation Targets (ACT) framework, which considers the effects of climate change in the development of management actions for particular species, ecosystems and ecological functions. Our framework is based on the premise that effective adaptation of management to climate change can rely on local knowledge of an ecosystem and does not necessarily require detailed projections of climate change or its effects. We illustrate the ACT framework by applying it to an ecological function in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem (Montana, Wyoming, and Idaho, USA)-water flows in the upper Yellowstone River. We suggest that the ACT framework is a practical tool for initiating adaptation planning, and for generating and communicating specific management interventions given an increasingly altered, yet uncertain, climate.     

Glacier Variability (1967‐2006) in the Teton Range,Wyoming, United States1

Edmunds, Jake, Glenn Tootle, Greg Kerr, Ramesh Sivanpillai, and Larry Pochop, 2011. Glacier Variability (1967‐2006) in the Teton Range, Wyoming, United States. Journal of the American Water Resources Association (JAWRA) 48(1): 187‐196. DOI: 10.1111/j.1752‐1688.2011.00607.x Abstract: Glacier area and volume changes were quantified through the use of historical aerial photographs in Wyoming’s Teton Range. Glacier area changes in the Teton Range were estimated for three glaciers using unrectified aerial photography from 1967 to 2006. The total surface area of the three glaciers was 0.53 km² in 1967 and 0.40 km² in 2006, a decrease of 25% during the 39‐year period. The smallest glacier, Teepe, experienced the greatest area loss (60 ± 3%), whereas the largest glacier, Teton Glacier, lost 17 ± 3% of the 1967 area. For the current research, aerial photography from 1967 to 2002 was used to estimate glacier volume loss using stereoscopy techniques. The aerial photographs provide a finer resolution when compared with other datasets including satellite imagery (e.g., Landsat). Volume loss for the three glaciers was estimated to be 3.20 ± 0.46 million cubic meters over the period of 1967 to 2002. In assessing the primary climatic driver of the glacier ice loss, observed summer (June, July, and August) temperature data showed a statistically significant increase in temperatures when comparing the period of study (1968 to 2006) with historical temperatures from 1911 to 1967. When comparing spring (April 1st Snow Water Equivalent) snowpack for the period of study with historical records beginning in 1931, a significant difference in snowpack was not observed.     

Multi-decadal changes in tundra environments and ecosystems: synthesis of the International Polar Year-Back to the Future project (IPY-BTF)

Understanding the responses of tundra systems to global change has global implications. Most tundra regions lack sustained environmental monitoring and one of the only ways to document multi-decadal change is to resample historic research sites. The International Polar Year (IPY) provided a unique opportunity for such research through the Back to the Future (BTF) project (IPY project #512). This article synthesizes the results from 13 papers within this Ambio Special Issue. Abiotic changes include glacial recession in the Altai Mountains, Russia; increased snow depth and hardness, permafrost warming, and increased growing season length in sub-arctic Sweden; drying of ponds in Greenland; increased nutrient availability in Alaskan tundra ponds, and warming at most locations studied. Biotic changes ranged from relatively minor plant community change at two sites in Greenland to moderate change in the Yukon, and to dramatic increases in shrub and tree density on Herschel Island, and in subarctic Sweden. The population of geese tripled at one site in northeast Greenland where biomass in non-grazed plots doubled. A model parameterized using results from a BTF study forecasts substantial declines in all snowbeds and increases in shrub tundra on Niwot Ridge, Colorado over the next century. In general, results support and provide improved capacities for validating experimental manipulation, remote sensing, and modeling studies.