Indigenous guardians as an emerging approach to indigenous environmental governance

Over the past 3 decades, indigenous guardian programs (also known as indigenous rangers or watchmen) have emerged as an institution for indigenous governments to engage in collaborative environmental governance. Using a systematic review of peer-reviewed literature for research conducted in Australia, Canada, Aotearoa-New Zealand, and the United States, we sought to characterize the emergence of indigenous guardians in the literature and explore whether guardian approaches are representative of Indigenous approaches to environmental governance. Using a multistep relevance-screening method, we reviewed 83 articles published since 1995, that report on, critique, or comment on Indigenous guardians. Our findings indicated that most articles on the topic were published in the last decade (88%), focused on Australia (65%), and were in a social science discipline (53%). The lead author of the majority of articles was an academic, although only half of the articles included an indigenous scholar or member of an indigenous group or organization as a coauthor. Finally, 11 articles were on research of guardian programs that were locally led and only 5 exemplified indigenous governance, based on 2 well-known community-based monitoring typologies. Our findings indicate that more research is required to understand the implications of current guardian programs for indigenous self-determination, particularly when such programs are embedded in a broader western environmental governance structure.     

Efficient energy use and well being

This paper reviews the evolution of energy use in Sweden since the early 1970s to shed light on the future, with emphasis on the role of energy efficiency. Between 1973 and 1989 improvements in end-use energy efficiency saved 8% of Sweden's primary energy use and 24% of Sweden's delivered energy use. These savings were concentrated in the residential and manufacturing sectors, with important savings also occurring in air travel and the heating of commercial buildings. Despite these accomplishments, we found that Sweden was well behind Denmark, FRGermany, Japan and the USA in energy savings during this period. At the beginning of the 1990s Sweden exhibited one of the most energy intensive economic structures in the OECD. Sweden now faces many dilemmas that will influence future energy use: the role of nuclear power, pricing and taxation policies for fuels and electricity, the future of subsidies for housing and travel, the role of Sweden's energy intensive exports, and indeed the very lifestyle of the Swedes.     

Comparison of sinking velocity,swimming velocity,rotation and path characteristics among six marine dinoflagellate species

Six marine dinoflagellate species representing a range of equivalent spherical diameters between 12 and 36 m were examined for several characteristics that influence their translation velocity. Sinking velocities estimated by three independent techniques and applied to swimming and narcotized cells generally agreed, and followed the cell-size relationships previously reported for diatoms. Dinokont sinking and swimming velocities both decreased with increasing surface area: volume ratio, but a small desmokont deviated from the dinokont relationships. Sinking velocities influenced the relative ascent/descent capabilities of a species. The swim:sink ratio decreased as equivalent spherical diameter increased to 25 m and then remained constant at 7.6, despite further increases in cell size. This relationship suggests a minimum required swimming capability relative to cell size. The swim:sink ratio increased with increasing surface area:volume ratio for all the surveyed species. Out observations of decreasing cell rotation:translation ratio and increasing cell drag with increasing cell size supported the hypothesis that the dinoflagellate flagellar apparatus generates maximum swimming velocity at intermediate cell sizes. However, an alternate analysis supported the hypothesis that swimming velocity increases with cell size and that variations among genera are due to subtle differences in the basic dinoflagellate propulsion system. A three-dimensional helical path index provided a more realistic estimate of the actual translation velocity (along the helix axis) during diel vertical migration when applied as a correction factor to the more typically measured helix velocity (along the helix) of a given dinoflagellate.     

Questions and Answers. The right time for TQM?

In this quarterly column, I will be inviting you—the TQEM reader—to ask our distinguished board of advisors and contributors questions of current interest pertaining to TQM and environmental management. As editor, I will then share the questions with the board at large and compile the answers here. For this issue, the editorial staff has chosen three basic questions (and even helped out with an answer or two). Please take a moment to write down what you think will be an interesting question, or set of questions, and address it to me: TQEM Questions & Answers Editor, 22 West 21st Street, New York, NY 10010. I will credit you with the question and send out an extra copy of TQEM.     

A chemical view of the most ancient metazoa--biomarker chemotaxonomy of hexactinellid sponges

Hexactinellid sponges are often considered to be the most ancient metazoans. Lipid biomarkers from 23 species were studied for information on their phylogenetic properties, particularly their disputed relation to the two other sponge classes (Demospongiae, Calcarea). The most prominent lipid compounds in the Hexactinellida comprise C28 to C32 polyenoic fatty acids. Their structures parallel the unique patterns found in demosponge membrane fatty acids ('demospongic acids') and strongly support a close phylogenetic association of the Demospongiae and the Hexactinellida. Both taxa also show unusual mid-chain methylated fatty acids (C15-C25) and irregular C25- and C40-isoprenoid hydrocarbons, tracers for specific eubacteria and Archaea, respectively. These biomarkers indicate a similar, highly conservative symbiont community, although some shift in the abundance of the associated microbiota was observed. The lack of these features in calcareous sponges further contradicts the still common view that Calcarea and Demospongiae are more closely related to each other than either is to the Hexactinellida.     

Relatedness,recognition errors,and colony fusion in the termite <Emphasis Type="Italic">Nasutitermes corniger</Emphasis>

Loss of aggression between social groups can have far-reaching effects on the structure of societies and populations. We tested whether variation in the genetic structure of colonies of the termite Nasutitermes corniger affects the probability of aggression toward non-nestmates and the ability of unrelated colonies to fuse. We determined the genotypes of workers and soldiers from 120 colonies at seven polymorphic microsatellite loci. Twenty-seven colonies contained offspring of multiple founding queens or kings, yielding an average within-colony relatedness of 0.33. Genotypes in the remaining 93 colonies were consistent with reproduction by a single queen and king or their progeny, with an average within-colony relatedness of 0.51. In standardized assays, the probability of aggression between workers and soldiers from different colonies was an increasing function of within-colony relatedness. The probability of aggression was not affected significantly by the degree of relatedness between colonies, which was near zero in all cases, or by whether the colonies were neighbors. To test whether these assays of aggression predict the potential for colony fusion in the field, we transplanted selected nests to new locations. Workers and soldiers from colonies that were mutually tolerant in laboratory assays joined their nests without fighting, but workers and soldiers that were mutually aggressive in the assays initiated massive battles. These results suggest that the presence of multiple unrelated queens or kings promotes recognition errors, which can lead to the formation of more complex colony structures.