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Environmental change requires individuals and institutions to facilitate adaptive governance. However, facilitating adaptive governance may be difficult because resource users' perceptions of desirable ways of life vary. These perceptions influence preferences related to environmental governance and may stem from the ways individuals subjectively value their work and their connections to their environment. This paper uses a value-based approach to examine individual and institutional preferences for adaptive governance in Carelmapu, Chile. We show that two groups had different value frames rooted in divergent ontologies which influenced their actions related to adaptive governance, creating conflict. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this study is to address the problem of balance between water scarcity and sustainability, which are the key components of water security of cities located in arid lands, particularly those under constant expansion and population growth. In this paper, we have highlighted the problem of water security for the sustainability of the La Serena-Coquimbo conurbation (LSCC). The coastal LSCC is located at the outlet of the Elqui River basin, in the southern edge of the Chilean Atacama Desert. We have analyzed the available information including drinking water production and consumption data, groundwater levels, precipitation data and population data. Between the years 2009 and 2013 the total water consumption for the area has significantly increased. On the other hand, there has been a significant decrease trend in the precipitations and the groundwater levels show a decrease of about 30 m between the years 1995 and 2014. In a few years, this urban area could face a general water scarcity problem if the drought conditions remain unchanged and if the water demand trend for the agricultural, mining and drinking water continues its increasing. The cities located in the arid lands are particularly vulnerable to water scarcity because their populations are highly concentrated and requires reliable supplies of water to make possible human and economic activities. We discuss how adaptation of the arid land urban areas to water scarcity requires a range of solutions, including economic incentives, regulatory measures, and technology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Universitas Psychologica is the property of Pontificia Universidad Javeriana and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

With the aim of understanding the recent migration processes of young Spaniards settled in Chile, the present paper analyzes, on the one hand, how these young people experience their arrival and establishment in said Latin American country and, in the other hand, how the process of returning and readjusting to Spanish society takes place. For that, and following the procedures of the Grounded Theory, the discourses of 37 Spanish migrants obtained through in depth interviews were analyzed: 22 of them are living in Chile and the other 15 returned to Spain after spending a long period in Chilean society and have been living in Spain for at least one year since then. All of them have university degrees, are between 25 and 35 years old, and arrived in Chile between 2013 and 2018. This qualitative study shows the way in which these migrants experience their sociocultural integration in Chilean society, which could be typified as "nostalgic" since it is characterized by the idealization of and the longing for their society of origin. Another key characteristic is the eventual return to the country of origin, in which the desynchronization they experience is especially remarkable: after a long period abroad, they feel disconnected from the transformations that have taken place in their original environment, which leads them to experience a difficult process of readjustment to Spanish society that sometimes is even more complex than that experienced abroad. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change is expected to impact both the population structure and geographic distribution of plants. Species distribution models are widely used to assess range shifts and the vulnerability of plants to climate change. Despite the abundance of modeling studies, little is known about how existing populations respond to climate change. We investigated the demographic structure and vulnerability to climate change in Anemone moorei, a sub-shrub with a highly restricted distribution in a biodiversity hotspot. We improved the distribution knowledge through intensive field work. We conducted a census of stem length as a proxy for age for all known populations. We used ensemble forecasting to project distributions considering 10 future climate scenarios and developed a novel climate change vulnerability index for the species' distribution. We found that the mean stem length decreases and the proportion of young plants increases, while the size of fruiting plants decreases as A. moorei faces greater climate change vulnerability. We interpret these results as evidence for the onset of recent adaptation to climate change, consisting of reduced adult longevity and an earlier onset of reproduction. As a result of these changes, the proportion of juveniles in the population increases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The appropriate design of land-use and rural employment policies depends upon the anticipated performance of the farm sector in the context of expected climate changes, especially with respect to land allocations to potential activities. Concerns over the possible net benefits of land-use changes are particularly acute in lower- and middle-income countries, where agriculture tends to be important in employment, income generation and foreign-exchange earnings. This paper presents an analysis of the expected impacts on land use in Chile of projected climate-change scenarios in 2040 and 2070. We developed a farmland allocation model with associated labor employment at the municipal level driven by expected relative net incomes per hectare, constructed from local average per-hectare yields, regional average output prices and per-hectare production cost estimates. The sensitivities of cropland allocations to relative net-income changes were estimated using historical land allocations at the municipal level derived from the last two Chilean Agricultural Censuses. The results show that the impacts of climate changes will be mitigated by land-use adaptation, the main export-earning crops tending to move south; in aggregate, agricultural employment will decrease in all the climate-change scenarios; forestry and agriculture would likely suffer a loss in net-income generation under severe climate-change scenarios. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Agrichemical contamination can provoke evolutionary responses in freshwater populations. It is a particularly relevant issue in semi-arid regions due to the sensitivity of endemic species to pollutants and to interactions with temperature stress. This paper investigates the presence of pesticides in rivers within a semi-arid agricultural watershed of Chile, testing for their effects on population genetic characteristics of the endemic mayfly Andesiops torrens (Insecta, Ephemeroptera). Pesticides were detected in sediment samples in ten out of the 30 sites analyzed throughout the upper part of the Limarí watershed. To study the evolutionary impact of such contamination on A. torrens , we used a genome-wide approach and analyzed 2056 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) loci in 551 individuals from all sites. Genetic differentiation was weak between populations, suggesting high gene flow across the study area. While we did not find evidence of pesticide effects on genetic diversity nor on population differentiation, the allele frequency of three outlier SNP loci correlated significantly with pesticide occurrence. Interrogation of genomic resources indicates that two of these SNPs are located within functional genes that encode for the low-density lipoprotein receptor-related protein 2 and Dumpy, both potentially involved in insect cuticle resistance processes. Such genomic signatures of local adaptation are indicative of past adverse effects of pesticide exposure on the locally adapted populations. Our results reveal that A. torrens is sensitive to pesticide exposure, but that a high gene flow may confer resilience to contamination. This research supports the contention that A. torrens is an ideal model organism to study evolutionary responses induced by pesticides on non-target, endemic species. Image 1 • Pesticide contamination was detected in sediments from the Chilean Limarí watershed. • Andesiops torrens populations exposed to pesticides show genetic adaptive responses. • Pesticide exposure alters allele frequency of three single nucleotide polymorphism loci. • Potential candidate genes are involved in insect cuticle resistance. • Gene flow is high within the watershed and not altered by pesticide contamination. Pesticide contamination, revealed for the first time in the Limarí watershed, causes adaptive differentiation in an endemic mayfly species despite high gene flow. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The nexus between climate change, agriculture, and poverty has become a major topic of concern, especially for dry regions, which represent a large share of the world's population and ecosystems vulnerable to climate change. In spite of this, to date, few studies have examined the impacts of climate change on agriculture and the adaptation strategies of vulnerable farmers from emerging semi-arid regions with dualist agriculture, in which subsistence farms coexist with commercial farms. This study aims to assess the micro-level impact of climate change and the farm household adaptation strategies in a semi-arid region in Central Chile. To this end, we develop a modelling framework that allows for (1) the assessment of farm-household responses to both climate change effects and adaptation policy scenarios and (2) the identification of local capacities and adaptation strategies. Aggregated results indicate that climate change has a substantial economic impact on regional agricultural income, while the micro-level analysis shows that small-scale farm households are the most vulnerable group. We observe that household characteristics determine to a large extent the adaptation capacity, while an unexpected result indicates that off-farm labour emerges as a powerful option for adapting to climate change. As such, our approach is well suited for ex ante micro-level adaptation analysis and can thereby provide useful insights to guide smart climate policy-making. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Key message In Chile, breeding radiata pine for growth has led to drifts in the degree of drought tolerance of the seedlings. Interior provenances gained a larger tolerance to drought after three breeding generations as shown by larger survival and root/shoot ratio under water shortage, while coastal provenance displayed an opposite trend. • Context Given that rainfall is predicted to decrease and to affect establishment and early survival of radiata pine ( Pinus radiata D. Don) in Chile, there is a need to identify more drought tolerant genotypes at seedling stage. • Aims The aim of this study was to test whether provenances of P. radiata originating from interior or from coastal provenances, displayed different responses to short-term water shortage, and whether these responses differed from the first to the third breeding generation. • Methods Three generations of breeding families from two sites in Central Chile were compared. The seedlings were grown during 100 days and subjected to two watering regimes for 45 days. Survival, growth, and biomass allocation to roots and shoots were recorded. • Results The two provenances displayed different responses to drought. Biomass allocation to shoots and survival were significantly reduced by water shortage. The first generation seedlings from the coastal provenance displayed a larger survival rate when exposed to water shortage (i.e., 60 %); this rate decreased in the following breeding generations. On the contrary, the survival rate increased from the first to the third generation in the interior provenance. • Conclusions We observed an important local adaptation to water shortage in the interior provenance. This response may be due to the fact that parent tree populations of the interior provenance have successfully adapted to sites with periodic drought. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Psicoperspectivas is the property of Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Valparaiso, Escuela de Psicologia and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)