Household susceptibility to hydrological change in the Lower Mekong Basin

The hydrological conditions of the Lower Mekong Basin support a multitude of ecosystem services. Processes that influence water flow in the Mekong River will thus have implications for the tens of millions of people whose livelihoods depend on these services. This study presents an assessment of livelihood susceptibility to hydrological change in the Lower Mekong Basin. Using an index‐based approach, susceptibility scores were calculated for 2,703 households. Using those scores, we compared average household susceptibility across the basin, among countries and among eco‐zones. Due to their greater livelihood dependency on water‐related activities, mean household susceptibility was higher in Vietnam than in Cambodia, Laos, or Thailand. Households in Northern Laos also had high susceptibility, which was attributed to their low adaptive capacity. The findings suggest that policies aimed at reducing vulnerability to hydrological change in the Lower Mekong Basin should account for geographic context. Further, they highlight how policies may be able to strategically target the most susceptible households, but that poorly designed policies have the potential to exacerbate vulnerability. In the face of high uncertainty surrounding hydrological change in the Lower Mekong Basin, our assessment of susceptibility should help inform precautionary water management policies and provide baseline information needed for more comprehensive vulnerability assessments.     

The miombo woodlands at the cross roads: Potential threats, sustainable livelihoods, policy gaps and challenges

The Miombo, the most extensive tropical woodland formation of Africa directly supports the livelihoods of over 100 million people through the provision of many tree products and ecosystem services essential to both the rural and urban communities. While the destruction of the Miombo has often been blamed on the rural communities dwelling near the forest resources, many urban dwellers depend heavily on the various products derived from the woodlands. This paper highlights the importance of the Miombo in the livelihoods of rural people, the potential threats to this ecosystem and opportunities for its sustainable management. About 70% of energy consumed in southern Africa is in the form of fuelwood or charcoal. The economic importance of the Miombo especially from non-timber forest products (NTFPs) is usually understated due to their perceived non-economic value yet they play an important role in sustaining livelihoods of forest dependent people in the miombo ecoregion. The Miombo also contributes to health services through the use of medicinal plant and products, in some cases, contributing up to 80% to rural health, including helping in coping with effects of HIV/AIDS, malaria and several diseases. The possibility of developing payment for environmental services schemes through public–private partnerships, and community-based sustainable management models are proposed. Through conservation and commercialization of some of the products and services, there is a potential to provide income and improve the livelihood of people involved in the trade along the value chain.     

Sustainable development—Food security—Agroecology

Basic scenarios of sustainable development for the world community and approaches to the problem of ensuring food security are discussed. The conservation of agricultural resources is the key element of food security. The structure and main objectives of agroecology are characterized in brief.     

Integrating blue: How do we make nationally determined contributions work for both blue carbon and local coastal communities?

Blue Carbon Ecosystems (BCEs) help mitigate and adapt to climate change but their integration into policy, such as Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), remains underdeveloped. Most BCE conservation requires community engagement, hence community-scale projects must be nested within the implementation of NDCs without compromising livelihoods or social justice. Thirty-three experts, drawn from academia, project development and policy, each developed ten key questions for consideration on how to achieve this. These questions were distilled into ten themes, ranked in order of importance, giving three broad categories of people, policy & finance, and science & technology. Critical considerations for success include the need for genuine participation by communities, inclusive project governance, integration of local work into national policies and practices, sustaining livelihoods and income (for example through the voluntary carbon market and/or national Payment for Ecosystem Services and other types of financial compensation schemes) and simplification of carbon accounting and verification methodologies to lower barriers to entry.Supplementary InformationThe online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s13280-022-01723-1.     

黄土高原两种针叶树种不同器官水碳氮磷分配格局及其生态化学计量特征

植物不同器官水、碳、氮、磷等元素含量及其生态化学计量特征能够反映植物的生态策略及其环境适应性。本研究以黄土高原两种乡土树种油松(Pinus tabulaeformis)和柴松(Pinus tabulaefirmis f.shekanensis)为研究对象,分析了研究区两种树种水、碳、氮和磷在不同器官的含量及其生态化学计量特征,探讨了两种树种基于水、碳、氮和磷分配格局的生态适应策略。结果表明:(1)油松和柴松对水分和碳素的分配格局总体表现为根和叶最大,其次为枝和干,树皮最小;对氮、磷的分配格局则表现为叶片显著高于其他器官。(2)油松将更多的水和氮分配给叶、根等生产性器官,而柴松将更多的水和碳分配给枝、干等防御性器官,反映了柴松较油松具有更加保守的生长策略,能够更好适应逆境条件。(3)植物器官不同元素间通过相互耦合后可以表现出较好的相关性,反映了植物元素之间具有高度复杂的协同关系,这种协同关系的体现形式可能与植物类型及其对外界环境变化的生长适应策略密切相关。     

赤潮藻类的适应与竞争策略

赤潮藻类的生活策略与赤潮发生的机理紧密相关。在漫长的自然进化过程中,赤潮藻类发展出一系列独特的生活策略以适应环境的变化。赤潮藻类可以在不良环境下形成孢囊以度过寒冷的冬季或者营养缺乏时期并在条件合适时萌发。甲藻可以通过主动迁移或者产生粘液的行为来适应水流和光照,甚至有时能够改变藻细胞周围的微环境。赤潮藻类采用多种营养方式如自养、异养或混养进行生长和繁殖,这对我们就赤潮与富营养化的关系的研究带来了全新的理解。赤潮藻类与其他生物存在复杂的相互关系,某些蓝绿藻可以与细菌或病毒共生,而有毒藻类也许可以通过抑制捕食或者植化相克为自身获利。最后,我们提出了赤潮藻类的形态结构上的不同也许可以解释某些生态策略的差异。     

社会—生态系统适应性治理视角下绿地空间恢复力的演化——广州旧城区更新案例

旧城区绿地作为关键的社会—生态系统载体,是城市高质量发展与转型治理亟需关注的问题。构建广州旧城区绿地服务基本单元,引入适应性循环理论的潜力—连通度—恢复力三维框架,构建表征生态、社会与经济服务的绿地景观指标体系,综合评估2000—2018年广州旧城区绿地的空间恢复力水平及适应性转化特征。研究结果显示：旧城区绿地的恢复力演化具有明显的核心区与外围区的时空分异,在拆除重建阶段呈现快速开发—快速释放—重组的转化,在微更新阶段主要呈现开发—保护的提升,并具有提升型、稳定型和更替型的社会—生态系统服务适应性。由此说明,城市更新具有调节社会—生态系统服务治理的效果。其中,绿地形状指数、5 min可达绿地率以及土地利用混合度对核心区绿地恢复力具有显著的促进作用,为外围区治理提供参考。同时,进一步探讨了更新政策与城市绿地空间恢复力演化的关系,为促进旧城区绿地空间更新治理提供社会—生态系统适应性的理论与实证案例研究。     

Towards socially just adaptive climate governance: the transformative potential of conflict

Conflict is an important factor in ongoing climate change debates and its role in management is under increasing scrutiny. In this paper, I present the results of an advanced discourse analysis that analyses trends in the relationship between conflict and climate change. I present two primary discourses dominate discussion: (i) climate as a security risk and (ii) climate as one of many factors affecting power relations that may lead to conflict. Both narratives implicitly or explicitly discuss climate conflict as a cause–outcome relationship, and further primarily construct conflict and climate change within normative frames. Yet, conflict has transformative potential and can be incorporated into management in ways that harness its capacity to drive innovation and lead to more robust and just adaptive governance. I argue for a shift in the discursive frame from a cause– outcome-oriented approach to a process-driven approach, one that treats conflict as an integral part of adaptive governance processes, thus being more just and equitable. Such a shift in focus can lead to positive on ground climate adaptation outcomes, in ways that respect rather than are counter-intuitive to dominant political and societal imbalances and institutional structures.     

Aligning science and policy to achieve evolutionarily enlightened conservation

There is increasing recognition among conservation scientists that long‐term conservation outcomes could be improved through better integration of evolutionary theory into management practices. Despite concerns that the importance of key concepts emerging from evolutionary theory (i.e., evolutionary principles and processes) are not being recognized by managers, there has been little effort to determine the level of integration of evolutionary theory into conservation policy and practice. We assessed conservation policy at 3 scales (international, national, and provincial) on 3 continents to quantify the degree to which key evolutionary concepts, such as genetic diversity and gene flow, are being incorporated into conservation practice. We also evaluated the availability of clear guidance within the applied evolutionary biology literature as to how managers can change their management practices to achieve better conservation outcomes. Despite widespread recognition of the importance of maintaining genetic diversity, conservation policies provide little guidance about how this can be achieved in practice and other relevant evolutionary concepts, such as inbreeding depression, are mentioned rarely. In some cases the poor integration of evolutionary concepts into management reflects a lack of decision‐support tools in the literature. Where these tools are available, such as risk‐assessment frameworks, they are not being adopted by conservation policy makers, suggesting that the availability of a strong evidence base is not the only barrier to evolutionarily enlightened management. We believe there is a clear need for more engagement by evolutionary biologists with policy makers to develop practical guidelines that will help managers make changes to conservation practice. There is also an urgent need for more research to better understand the barriers to and opportunities for incorporating evolutionary theory into conservation practice.