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Policy responses to the challenges associated with environmental change, including more frequent and severe climatic events, have interlinked environmental and social impacts. Less attention has been afforded to the latter, and specifically to the question of not just whether but how such responses create or entrench inequality. This paper examines policy responses to drought events in California, United States, and the Western Cape Province, South Africa, in terms of their effects on inequality, revealed in relationships to water access networks. We use concepts of water justice and hydraulic citizenship to evaluate how and why these policy responses reproduced water injustices in the two settings. We focus particularly on two mechanisms linking responses to widened inequalities: values‐reinforcement and strategic communication. Using interviews, policy documents, and media reports, we employ process tracing methods to illustrate these mechanisms through which drought policy impacts hydraulic citizenship experiences, manifesting water injustice. We contribute to emerging examinations of environmental policy responses and maladaptation by demonstrating how concepts of hydraulic citizenship and an emphasis on mechanisms can help us better understand and identify experiences of water injustice. We note policy implications and areas for future research, highlighting droughts as consequential policy sites for advancing social and environmental justice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2021/2022, galls formed by a nematode, Anguina woodi, were found on the stems, leaves and leaf sheaths of dune grass, Ehrharta villosa var. villosa on Milnerton Beach, Blouberg Beach and Langebaan, Western Cape Province, South Africa. These galls were spongy in texture, deep purple to blackish in colour and non-pedunculate. They were found in clusters, but also as single entities. Larger, harder galls varying from beige to dark brown in colour, apparently caused by insects, were also found on the stems of dune grass at Blouberg Beach and Langebaan Nature Reserve. Some nematode galls were found immediately next to or on top of the insect galls. Those found on top of insect galls seemed to be harder and drier than those found on stems not infected by insect galls. The co-infection of insects and anguinid nematodes has not been reported from the current study areas and was thus included in the present study. Both molecular and morphological studies were conducted on the nematodes and wasps leading to the identification of a host specific, gall-forming nematode from all three localities. The wasps were identified morphologically and molecularly to the family Eurytomidae (Hymenoptera). No insect galls were found on dune grass from Milnerton Beach. The paper includes speculations on a probable association between nematodes and insects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Phlyctinus callosus and P. xerophilus (Coleoptera: Curculionidae) are two cryptic species of native entimine weevils, previously grouped together under the P. callosus sensu lato concept, that are pests of economic importance to the deciduous fruit and vine industry in the Western Cape province of South Africa. Laboratory bioassays were conducted using entomopathogenic fungi (EPF) isolates of Beauveria and entomopathogenic nematodes (EPNs), Heterorhabditis indica and Steinernema yirgalemense, to determine differences in susceptibility of adult P. callosus and P. xerophilus to potential biological control agents. The test arena used was 24‐well bioassay plates with an inoculation rate of 200 infective juveniles (IJs)/insect for EPNs and 5 × 105 conidia/insect for EPF. Insects were inoculated using a 12.7 mm filter paper impregnated with 50 μL of entomopathogen suspension. Infection was determined after 96 h incubation for EPNs through dissection of cadavers. Insects inoculated with EPF were incubated in the wells for 18 days and mortality recorded daily. Cadavers were surface sterilized and observed for overt mycosis. Differential susceptibility between P. callosus and P. xerophilus was observed in EPF but not in EPN bioassays. Differential susceptibility to EPF could be due to methodology. Low adult weevil pathogenicity was found for all entomopathogens, with variable results obtained from different bioassay batches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the concept of social-ecological resilience gains increasing policy attention, there is growing demand for approaches that operationalise it. Amongst these demands is the need to empirically assess absorptive, adaptive and transformative capacities that underpin resilience to better understand the ways in which social-ecological systems can navigate change and uncertainty. We explore the application of a capitals approach for assessing resilience capacities, using an example of deciduous fruit farming operations in the Western Cape region of South Africa. Semi-structured interviews were conducted, thematically coded, and analysed using causal loop diagrams and co-occurrence analyses to identify changes experienced by farming operations, their responses to these changes, and the effects of both on capital resources. We then apply the criteria developed for the classification of resilience capacities. A variety of changes affect farming operations at multiple points across the value chain, and have effects across capital resources. Most significant to farmers are changes which impact the amount of water available and the cashflow they require to sustain their operations. The most common responses employed by farmers consisted of activities which either increase the availability of an affected resource, or decrease its demand in order to maintain the same functions (adaptive capacity). In fewer cases, farming operations were able to absorb the depletion of their capital resources due to pre-emptive management (absorptive capacity). In similarly few cases, the potential or realised resource deficiencies caused by changes were either corrected or decoupled from the farming operation through structural reorganisation towards a different or additional function and types of output being delivered (transformative capacity). Evidence of changes being anticipated prior to their onset were also identified, leading to responses which are used in conjunction with the preceding three capacities. Our findings suggest that the criteria we developed for classifying resilience capacities offer a useful means of operationalising resilience. In particular, the approach we pilot in this paper enables the application of a systems perspective to identify interactions between changes and responses, which broadens the options for identifying management strategies and interventions. The approach we propose can be used to identify key leverage points to strengthen the capacities of vulnerable farmers. Further work is required to integrate consideration of cross-scale effects of farm-scale resilience strategies on the broader social-ecological system. [Display omitted] • Empirical examples of studies which operationalise social-ecological resilience are in high demand. • We assess resilience identifying the capital effects of change and responses in farming operations. • The interaction between changes and responses are used to infer capacities of resilience. • Most response strategies reveal adaptive capacity, with other capacities utilised to a lesser extent. • The criteria employs a systemic outlook which broadens considerations for responses and management strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]