Analyzing complex water governance regimes: the Management and Transition Framework

This paper presents the Management and Transition Framework (MTF), an interdisciplinary conceptual and methodological framework supporting the analysis of water systems, management processes and multi-level governance regimes. It serves to improve the scientific understanding of system properties and to give practical guidance for the implementation of transition processes towards more adaptive systems. Doing so requires a systemic perspective to embrace complexity and the wealth of interactions characterizing resource governance regimes. The MTF supports and provides guidance for an interdisciplinary approach in the social sciences and across the social–natural science interface.The framework integrates a range of concepts to develop a more coherent understanding of the complexity of water management regimes. Specific emphasis is given to adaptive capacity and learning processes. However, the MTF is not linked to one specific theory but provides a language that can be tailored to specific research questions and different theoretical approaches. The structured yet flexible approach is a condition for developing shared databases that allow comparative analyses over a wider range of case studies. The MTF does not promote panaceas but a diagnostic approach supporting context sensitive analysis without being case specific and thus not directly transferable.     

Heterozygosity‐Fitness Correlations and Inbreeding Depression in Two Critically Endangered Mammals

The relation among inbreeding, heterozygosity, and fitness has been studied primarily among outbred populations, and little is known about these phenomena in endangered populations. Most researchers conclude that the relation between coefficient of inbreeding estimated from pedigrees and fitness traits (inbreeding‐fitness correlations) better reflects inbreeding depression than the relation between marker heterozygosity and fitness traits (heterozygosity‐fitness correlations). However, it has been suggested recently that heterozygosity‐fitness correlations should only be expected when inbreeding generates extensive identity disequilibrium (correlations in heterozygosity and homozygosity across loci throughout the genome). We tested this hypothesis in Mohor gazelle (Gazella dama mhorr) and Iberian lynx (Lynx pardinus). For Mohor gazelle, we calculated the inbreeding coefficient and measured heterozygosity at 17 microsatellite loci. For Iberian lynx, we measured heterozygosity at 36 microsatellite loci. In both species we estimated semen quality, a phenotypic trait directly related to fitness that is controlled by many loci and is affected by inbreeding depression. Both species showed evidence of extensive identity disequilibrium, and in both species heterozygosity was associated with semen quality. In the Iberian lynx the low proportion of normal sperm associated with low levels of heterozygosity was so extreme that it is likely to limit the fertility of males. In Mohor gazelle, although heterozygosity was associated with semen quality, inbreeding coefficient was not. This result suggests that when coefficient of inbreeding is calculated on the basis of a genealogy that begins after a long history of inbreeding, the coefficient of inbreeding fails to capture previous demographic information because it is a poor estimator of accumulated individual inbreeding. We conclude that among highly endangered species with extensive identity disequilibrium, examination of heterozygosity‐fitness correlations may be an effective way to detect inbreeding depression, whereas inbreeding‐fitness correlations may be poor indicators of inbreeding depression if the pedigree does not accurately reflect the history of inbreeding. Correlaciones Heterocigosidad‐ Adaptabilidad y Depresión Endogámica en Dos Especies de Mamíferos Críticamente en Peligro