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This article examines the unfolding of integrated water resource management ( IWRM) reforms in southwest Burkina Faso, where water resources are subject to conflicting claims by a diversity of users. We first describe the establishment a local water user committee, showing how choices regarding composition and operations grant varying levels of recognition to different stakeholders. We then discuss the implications for key dimensions of decentralized governance, namely representation and accountability. In particular we focus on: (a) how the interplay of political agendas and policy disconnects shapes the committee's viability and credibility and (b) how tensions between techno-scientific and local knowledge affect participation and transparency. We argue that in contexts defined by contentious politics and neo-patrimonial practices, representativeness is better ensured by the direct inclusion of user groups rather than elected officials. Though limited discretionary power, information access, and technical capabilities of committee members inhibit accountability, rural producers uphold their claims through social mobilization and reliance on local knowledge. Recognizing the opportunities offered by the country's recent democratic turn, we formulate recommendations aimed at addressing structural drivers and enabling citizen agency in decentralized water governance. At the same time, further research is needed on local people's understandings of representation and accountability, to ensure that they are involved in institutional design and practices in ways that affirm what they value and what they know. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is an empirical case study of the institutional design process of the Green Climate Fund (GCF) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change from December 2011 to May 2014. Powerful countries, corporations and banks have favoured a deepening of neoliberal environmental governance, while civil society actors have argued over retaining movement concepts, won small representational victories, while participating in a process that has subjected them to a deepened practise of advanced liberal governance. The process has thus far produced 'non-outcomes' that fail to meet hopes that the GCF could provide a significant scaling up and paradigm shift in global climate finance. However, civil society engagement appears to be, somewhat inadvertently, exposing the 'overflows', limits and contradictions inherent in advanced liberal governance. The impasse created has prompted alternative governmentalities to emerge, not least of spectacle and (non-)performativity, which may be generating an anti-politics in environmental governance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bilateral governance of transboundary water resources between the United States and Mexico is in flux today. Historically, the International Boundary and Water Commission ( IBWC), the joint commission by which the two countries jointly manage shared rivers, has dominated decision making and policy in the border region by defining problems and framing knowledge. However, over the past two decades, a transnational network has been emerging to restore the Colorado River Delta. In this paper, we explore how a transnational network has been operating collaboratively to shift transboundary water governance in the Colorado River Delta region toward greater participatory, science-based governance. We explore the IBWC in this context of governance change to reveal the adoption of institutional and policy reforms, along with some resistance to this change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the past few years, adaptation to climate change has emerged as a dominant new theme in development politics, to an extent that it can almost be considered as a new development paradigm. Yet, this new paradigm and its effects are not unproblematic, as the empirical research in three East African countries presented in this article indicates. The article argues that the current transformation of environmental governance reflects not only climate change as such, but also - and perhaps even more so - the discourse of a changing climate and its effect on development politics. The empirical evidence shows that African farmers, politicians and government officials often respond to the new 'adaptation paradigm' more readily than to directly felt phenomena caused by a changing climate. We therefore argue that the ontology of the concept of adaptation to climate change needs to be readjusted. Epistemologically, our concern is to trace the discourse of adaptation to climate change across multiple sites, i.e. how it 'travels' between global epistemic communities and adaptation projects in developing countries. Drawing on actor-network theory and its concept of translation, we provide an alternative view of adaptation to climate change by highlighting the contested and multi-sited narratives and practices that bring adaptation into being. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The emergence of hydraulic fracturing techniques is generating a dramatic expansion of the development of domestic natural gas resources in the United States and abroad. Fracking also poses a series of environmental protection challenges that cut across traditional medium and program boundaries. Formal constraints on federal government engagement thus far devolve considerable latitude to individual states for policy development. This provides an important test of whether recent scholarly emphasis on highly innovative state environmental and energy policies can be extended to this burgeoning area. Pennsylvania has moved to the epicenter of the fracking revolution, reflecting its vast Marcellus Shale resource and far-reaching 2012 legislation. This article examines the Pennsylvania case and notes that the state's emerging policy appears designed to maximize resource extraction while downplaying environmental considerations. The case analysis generates questions as to whether this experience constitutes an influential state early mover that is likely to diffuse widely or is instead an aberration in a rapidly diversifying state policy development process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bioprospecting is the exploration of biodiversity for new resources of social and commercial value. It is carried out by a wide range of established industries such as pharmaceuticals, manufacturing and agriculture as well as a wide range of comparatively new ones such as aquaculture, bioremediation, biomining, biomimetic engineering and nanotechnology. The benefits of bioprospecting have emerged from such a wide range of organisms and environments worldwide that it is not possible to predict what species or habitats will be critical to society, or industry, in the future. The benefits include an unexpected variety of products that include chemicals, genes, metabolic pathways, structures, materials and behaviours. These may provide physical blueprints or inspiration for new designs. Criticism aimed at bioprospecting has been addressed, in part, by international treaties and legal agreements aimed at stopping biopiracy and many activities are now funded by agencies that require capacity-building and economic benefits in host countries. Thus, much contemporary bioprospecting has multiple goals, including the conservation of biodiversity, the sustainable management of natural resources and economic development. Ecologists are involved in three vital ways: first, applying ecological principles to the discovery of new resources. In this context, natural history becomes a vast economic database. Second, carrying out field studies, most of them demographic, to help regulate the harvest of wild species. Third, emphasizing the profound importance of millions of mostly microscopic species to the global economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Information on the workshop entitled "The Worlds of Ecology and Environmental Policy: Never the Two Shall Meet?" of the Ecological Society of Australia (ESA) in Canberra, Australian Capital Territory on December 4, 2009 is presented. It states that the workshop explores how the society, scientists, and policy-makers can fully incorporate science and policy. It says that the event attracted around 70 participants from government agencies, non-government societies, and academic institutions.

Housed worldwide, mostly in museums and herbaria, is a vast collection of biological specimens developed over centuries. These biological collections, and associated taxonomic and systematic research, have received considerable long-term public support. The work remaining in systematics has been expanding as the estimated total number of species of organisms on Earth has risen over recent decades, as have estimated numbers of undescribed species. Despite this increasing task, support for taxonomic and systematic research, and biological collections upon which such research is based, has declined over the last 30-40 years, while other areas of biological research have grown considerably, especially those that focus on environmental issues. Reflecting increases in research that deals with ecological questions (e.g. what determines species distribution and abundance) or environmental issues (e.g. toxic pollution), the level of research attempting to use biological collections in museums or herbaria in an ecological/environmental context has risen dramatically during about the last 20 years. The perceived relevance of biological collections, and hence the support they receive, should be enhanced if this trend continues and they are used prominently regarding such environmental issues as anthropogenic loss of biodiversity and associated ecosystem function, global climate change, and decay of the epidemiological environment. It is unclear, however, how best to use biological collections in the context of such ecological/environmental issues or how best to manage collections to facilitate such use. We demonstrate considerable and increasingly realized potential for research based on biological collections to contribute to ecological/environmental understanding. However, because biological collections were not originally intended for use regarding such issues and have inherent biases and limitations, they are proving more useful in some contexts than in others. Biological collections have, for example, been particularly useful as sources of information regarding variation in attributes of individuals (e.g. morphology, chemical composition) in relation to environmental variables, and provided important information in relation to species' distributions, but less useful in the contexts of habitat associations and population sizes. Changes to policies, strategies and procedures associated with biological collections could mitigate these biases and limitations, and hence make such collections more useful in the context of ecological/environmental issues. Haphazard and opportunistic collecting could be replaced with strategies for adding to existing collections that prioritize projects that use biological collections and include, besides taxonomy and systematics, a focus on significant environmental/ecological issues. Other potential changes include increased recording of the nature and extent of collecting effort and information associated with each specimen such as nearby habitat and other individuals observed but not collected. Such changes have begun to occur within some institutions. Institutions that house biological collections should, we think, pursue a mission of ‘understanding the life of the planet to inform its stewardship’ ( Krishtalka & Humphrey, 2000 ), as such a mission would facilitate increased use of biological collections in an ecological/environmental context and hence lead to increased appreciation, encouragement and support from the public for these collections, their associated research, and the institutions that house them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

1. In an effort to develop quantitative relationships between various kinds of flow alteration and ecological responses, we reviewed 165 papers published over the last four decades, with a focus on more recent papers. Our aim was to determine if general relationships could be drawn from disparate case studies in the literature that might inform environmental flows science and management. 2. For all 165 papers we characterised flow alteration in terms of magnitude, frequency, duration, timing and rate of change as reported by the individual studies. Ecological responses were characterised according to taxonomic identity (macroinvertebrates, fish, riparian vegetation) and type of response (abundance, diversity, demographic parameters). A ‘qualitative’ or narrative summary of the reported results strongly corroborated previous, less comprehensive, reviews by documenting strong and variable ecological responses to all types of flow alteration. Of the 165 papers, 152 (92%) reported decreased values for recorded ecological metrics in response to a variety of types of flow alteration, whereas 21 papers (13%) reported increased values. 3. Fifty-five papers had information suitable for quantitative analysis of ecological response to flow alteration. Seventy per cent of these papers reported on alteration in flow magnitude, yielding a total of 65 data points suitable for analysis. The quantitative analysis provided some insight into the relative sensitivities of different ecological groups to alteration in flow magnitudes, but robust statistical relationships were not supported. Macroinvertebrates showed mixed responses to changes in flow magnitude, with abundance and diversity both increasing and decreasing in response to elevated flows and to reduced flows. Fish abundance, diversity and demographic rates consistently declined in response to both elevated and reduced flow magnitude. Riparian vegetation metrics both increased and decreased in response to reduced peak flows, with increases reflecting mostly enhanced non-woody vegetative cover or encroachment into the stream channel. 4. Our analyses do not support the use of the existing global literature to develop general, transferable quantitative relationships between flow alteration and ecological response; however, they do support the inference that flow alteration is associated with ecological change and that the risk of ecological change increases with increasing magnitude of flow alteration. 5. New sampling programs and analyses that target sites across well-defined gradients of flow alteration are needed to quantify ecological response and develop robust and general flow alteration–ecological response relationships. Similarly, the collection of pre- and post-alteration data for new water development programs would significantly add to our basic understanding of ecological responses to flow alteration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Competitive exclusion – n species cannot coexist on fewer than n limiting resources in a constant and isolated environment – has been a central ecological principle for the past century. Since empirical studies cannot universally demonstrate exclusion, this principle has mainly relied on mathematical proofs. Here we investigate the predictions of a new approach to derive functional responses in consumer/resource systems. Models usually describe the temporal dynamics of consumer/resource systems at a macroscopic level – i.e. at the population level. Each model may be pictured as one time-dependent macroscopic trajectory. Each macroscopic trajectory is, however, the product of many individual fates and from combinatorial considerations can be realized in many different ways at the microscopic – or individual – level. Recently it has been shown that, in systems with large enough numbers of consumer individuals and resource items, one macroscopic trajectory can be realized in many more ways than any other at the individual – or microscopic – level. Therefore, if the temporal dynamics of an ecosystem are assumed to be the outcome of only statistical mechanics – that is, chance – a single trajectory is near-certain and can be described by deterministic equations. We argue that these equations can serve as a null to model consumer-resource dynamics, and show that any number of species can coexist on a single resource in a constant, isolated environment. Competition may result in relative rarity, which may entail exclusion in finite samples of discrete individuals, but exclusion is not systematic. Beyond the coexistence/exclusion outcome, our model also predicts that the relative abundance of any two species depends simply on the ratio of their competitive abilities as computed from – and only from – their intrinsic kinetic and stoichiometric parameters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Community ecotoxicology is defined as the study of the effects of contaminants on patterns of species abundance, diversity, community composition, and species interactions. Recent discoveries that species diversity is positively associated with ecosystem stability, recovery, and services have made a community-level perspective on ecotoxicology more important than ever. Community ecotoxicology must explicitly consider both present and impending global change and shift from a purely descriptive to a more predictive science. Greater consideration of the ecological factors and threshold responses that determine community resistance and resilience should improve our ability to predict how and when communities will respond to, and recover from, xenobiotics. A better understanding of pollution-induced community tolerance, and of the costs of this tolerance, should facilitate identifying contaminantimpacted communities, thus forecasting the ecological consequences of contaminant exposure and determining the restoration effectiveness. Given the vast complexity of community ecotoxicology, simplifying assumptions, such as the possibility that the approximately 100,000 registered chemicals could be reduced to a more manageable number of contaminant classes with similar modes of action, must be identified and validated. In addition to providing a framework for predicting contaminant fate and effects, food-web ecology can help to identify communities that are sensitive to contaminants, contaminants that are particularly insidious to communities, and species that are crucial for transmitting adverse effects across trophic levels. Integration of basic ecological principles into the design and implementation of ecotoxicological research is essential for predicting contaminant effects within the context of rapidly changing, global environmental conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective. This article serves as a pilot study of three central aspects of sociological research concerning the impact of local agriculture on local communities: food equity, social integration, and natural human capital. Methods. Four CSA farmers, four partners in a direct-market organic farm, and four community garden site coordinators working in the Intervale, a local agriculture project in Burlington, Vermont, were interviewed in person for this research. Additionally, the author collected observational data in the Intervale, at two local farmers' markets, and as a member of a local community garden. Result. Different modes of local agricultural production have distinctive effects on the local population with regard to equitable access to healthy food, social inclusion, and experiential knowledge of the natural world. Conclusions. Given class-based disparities in local agricultural participation, local food projects should consider promoting programs designed for broader social inclusion, including subsidized farmer-to-family coupons. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective. The controversial expansion of a hazardous waste facility in a poor, minority neighborhood in Phoenix illustrates the unanticipated consequences of siting hazardous facilities in vulnerable communities, and the need to recognize neighborhood health/safety issues such as drug-related crime as environmental justice struggles. Methods. Qualitative methods include participant observation, document analysis, Census data, GIS mapping, and interviews. Results. South Central Phoenix's history reveals a disproportionate share of poverty, pollution, and drug crimes. Most commercial hazardous waste facilities in Phoenix were sited in minority areas. Residents contended that the siting, permitting process, and expansion of the facility and the drug crimes that later occurred there were all due to environmental racism. Conclusions. The expansion of the facility exacerbated environmental injustice in Phoenix through distributional and participative injustice, and was criminogenic. The dual impact on the community of hazardous waste and drug crime argues for a more holistic understanding of environmental justice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Soils at hazardous waste sites contain complex mixtures of chemicals and often are difficult to characterize in terms of risk to human and ecological health. Over time, biogeochemical processes can decrease the apparent concentrations of pollutants but also can lead to accumulation of new products for which toxicity and behavior in the environment are largely unknown. A bioassay-directed fractionation technique was used to assess the contribution of redox-active bacterial metabolites to the toxicity of soil contaminated with polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). A reverse mutation assay with Escherichia coli WP2 uvrA/pKM101 (IC188) and E. coli WP2 uvrA oxyR/pKM101 (IC203) was used to screen fractions for genotoxicity. Strain IC203 carries the ΔoxyR30 mutation, which prevents the expression of antioxidant proteins in response to oxidative stress and increases its reversion by compounds that generate reactive oxygen species (ROS). Polar fractions of PAH-contaminated soil extracts were mutagenic to strain IC203 but not to strain IC188, suggesting the involvement of ROS in genotoxicity. Genotoxic potencies ranged from 300 to 1,700 revertants per milligram of fraction. Catalase was able to decrease IC203 reversion, implicating the involvement of hydrogen peroxide as a key ROS. Oxidized PAH compounds, including quinones, were identified in the mutagenic fractions but were not by themselves mutagenic. Deasphalted whole extracts and recombined fractions were not mutagenic, indicating that interactions between compounds in different fractions can mitigate genotoxicity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

1. Applied ecology aims to translate research into policy recommendations. However, conflicts frequently develop if these recommendations propose a contentious course of action. A first step towards addressing such conflicts is to attempt to understand the values underpinning stakeholder viewpoints. 2. We develop a computer-aided Content Analysis to analyse the language surrounding environmental conflicts for insights into stakeholder values. Using the conflict arising over proposals to cull hedgehogs Erinaceus europaeus on several Scottish islands, we show how different stakeholder groups frame the problem in different ways. 3. Stakeholder groups supporting different courses of action (culling vs. translocating hedgehogs) use different arguments, the former emphasizing conservation and biodiversity, the latter focusing on animal welfare. Our method results in a graphical representation of this failure to agree on a common way to frame the issue. 4. Including texts obtained from media sources illustrates how the media can exacerbate environmental conflicts through the issues they emphasize and the vocabulary they use. 5. Synthesis and applications. Our method provides a simple means to quantify levels of stakeholder disagreement concerning potentially contentious environmental issues. Our results provide a starting point for the development of a quantitative, graphical tool for managers, where repeated analysis will aid in monitoring and managing conflicts. In addition, we provide a clear example of the role of societal attitudes influencing the effective implementation of ecological advice, which should encourage ecologists to become more aware of the social environment into which policy recommendations are to be launched and to ensure that their advice does not ignore important stakeholder values. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents abstracts of industrial ecology research, including "Identifying and Predicting Biological Risks Associated with Manufactured Nanoparticles in Aquatic Ecosystems" and "Hazard Reduction in Nanotechnology."

1. Tropical rain forest tree species are commonly perceived to have more generalized habitat distributions than understorey species. However, the correspondence between floristic patterns in large trees and smaller understorey plants in relation to environmental differences has rarely been investigated. Comparative analyses are complicated by the fact that tree data are often much more noisy, with higher overall species richness and poorer spatial and temporal representation of species composition within sampling plots. 2. Using data on trees and pteridophytes collected in 1125 plots located within 6 km2 of lowland rain forest in Costa Rica, we asked: (i) Is there evidence that trees are more generalized in their edaphic and topographic distributions than pteridophytes, and (ii) How much might differences in sampling efficiency affect the results? 3. We ran community-level analyses using Mantel tests, and for the five most frequent tree and pteridophyte species we ran logistic regression analyses of species occurrence. To investigate the influence of differing sampling efficiency, the analyses were repeated with four rarefied pteridophyte data sets approximating key structural features of the tree data set. 4. Differences in community composition in trees and in all pteridophyte data sets were most strongly correlated with environmental differences in the same five soil variables. The most frequent species in both plant groups had non-random edaphic and topographic distributions. 5. Both Mantel correlations and the predictive performance of single species models (AUC values) were higher for the full pteridophyte data set than for trees, but these differences were much reduced after pteridophyte rarefaction. 6. The performance of the species occurrence models calibrated with rarefied pteridophyte data appeared poor when tested on rarefied data. However, their performance in predicting occurrences in the full data set was usually moderate (AUC > 0.70). This suggests that the tree species models may also predict species’ potential habitat distributions better than is apparent from their AUC values. 7. Synthesis. Our results indicate that rain forest trees and pteridophytes may respond to mesoscale environmental variation in qualitatively similar ways, but that trees will appear much more generalized in their response to the environment unless differences in sampling efficiency are taken into account. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

1. During recent decades, the ecological corridor has become a popular concept among ecologists, politicians and nature conservationists. However, it has been criticized from a scientific point of view. In this paper we question why this concept has been accepted so readily in policy and practice. 2. We present a conceptual framework to analyse the rise of the concept, especially in the Netherlands. We have studied the Dutch literature from the period 1980–2005, including the main ecological journal Landschap ( Landscape), policy documents and reports from the leading Dutch policy-orientated ecology research centre. 3. Many actors, including politicians, stakeholders and scientists, were involved in the development of the ecological corridor and the related National Ecological Network on the national and regional levels. The involvement of these actors changed the character of the concept into the multifunctional ‘robust corridor’. 4. The ecological corridor was probably so influential because its vague and flexible character facilitated the coming together of various stakeholders and scientists. It also functions as a metaphor, applicable to well-known entities such as construction and transport. Finally, scientists from the policy-orientated research centre were able to link the concept to fundamental science, policy and practice. In some stages of the policy-defining process, however, conflicts arose between the proponents of scientific soundness and those of social robustness that reduced the role of scientists. 5. Synthesis and applications. To make ecological concepts both scientifically sound and socially robust, several changes must take place in current interactions between ecology and society. First, during concept development it requires the existence of extensive, largely interactive peer groups with clearly defined relationships between scientists and non-scientists. Secondly, the concepts should be flexible and relatable to relevant knowledge, insights, values and practices. Thirdly, several feedback loops between science and non-science should be set up during the various stages of concept development and implementation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Migration is a widespread phenomenon in many ecosystems. Most often, studies on migration have focused on how migration strategies are dependent on ecological parameters, but little attention has been paid to the top-down effect of migration on ecosystem processes. Cyprinid fish in many European lakes undergo partial migration, where a part of the population leaves the lake and enters streams for the winter. In this study, we model the effect of partial migration by fish on lower trophic levels in a lake ecosystem. Our results suggest that spring phyto- and zooplankton dynamics, including occurrences of clear-water phases, can be related to the timing and magnitude of partial migration of planktivorous fish. From our results we conclude that partial migration can influence the dynamics of lower trophic levels in the ecosystem. Furthermore, we hypothesize that partial migration may affect the stability of alternative stable states and transitions between them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The species-area relationship, SAR, is the first approximation to describe the spatial structure at the community level. This relation, however, takes only species richness into account and ignores interspecific differences in spatial patterns, such as dominance or rarity. The description of such patterns may be achieved via multifractal analysis, allowing the transition from SAR to the diversity-area relation, DAR. This study analyzes the spatial structure of a dune slack plant community, which can be considered as a multifractal object, at a scale level between 25 cm and 2 m. We applied a complete multifractal analysis including both Rényi spectrum and multifractal spectrum, using confidence intervals. The results indicated that we succeeded for the first time deriving generalized Rényi dimensions’ spectrum without anomalies for diversity patterns in a plant community. We propose an interpretation of the multifractal spectrum in ecological terms as diversity patterns of subsets of species with a similar spatial distribution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective. The dimensionality of “environmental concern” remains ambiguous despite decades of research on environmental attitudes and beliefs. We attempt to provide insight into this issue by using the belief systems perspective and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) to test a comprehensive conceptualization of environmental concern. Methods. The study employs a comparative design by using national probability samples of citizens from Canada and the United States, and a comprehensive conceptualization model to maximize content validity. We utilize CFA and structural equation modeling techniques to avoid well-known measurement error problems in survey research. Results. Eight key facets of environmental concern have moderate to high factor loadings on one underlying construct, and all but perception of community problems and national problems have high loadings. Further analyses provide construct validation for our measurement model. Conclusion. Our results suggest that even among the general public, attitudes toward environmental issues are relatively well organized into a broad and coherent sense of “concern for the environment.” The similarity in the U.S. and Canadian results increases our faith in the validity of our comprehensive conceptualization of environmental concern, as well as the utility of the belief systems perspective and CFA modeling for future studies of environmental attitudes and beliefs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

1. ‘The British Ecological Society aims to promote the science of ecology through research and to use the findings of such research to educate the public and influence policy decisions which involve ecological matters.’ Yet, how successful have we been in influencing UK and EU environmental policy? 2. Many scientists hold to the ‘deficit model’ of turning science into policy, the view that if only politicians are told what the science reveals, ‘correct’ policies will automatically follow. Nothing could be further from the truth. Politicians have all kinds of reasons, some valid, some less valid, not to adopt what often seem to us to be common sense policies to protect the environment. 3. Here, I explore some of the successes and failures of ecologists to influence UK and European environmental policy, using acid deposition, the collapse of global marine fisheries, GM crops and climate change, carbon dioxide and ocean acidification as examples. I briefly review the extensive literature (largely ignored by natural scientists) on what social scientists have to say about evidence-based policy-making (or the lack of it) and why it often appears to be so difficult to persuade politicians to adopt sound environmental policies. 4. Synthesis and applications. Ecologists can, and do, influence government policy on the environment, but often via complex and iterative interactions that can be painfully slow, and may require fundamental changes in politicians’ belief systems, values and norms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Exhaustion of a natural resource stock may be a rational choice for an individual and/or a community, even if a sustainable use for the resource is feasible and the resource users are farsighted and well informed on the ecosystem. We identify conditions under which it is optimal not to sustain resource use. These conditions concern the discounting of future benefits, instability of a social system or ecosystem, nonconvexity of natural growth function, socio-psychological value of employment, and strategic interaction among resource users. The identification of these conditions can help design policies to prevent unsustainable patterns of resource use. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We combine ecological and economic dynamics to study the management of a natural resource that supports both ecosystem and human needs. Shrinking the resource base introduces a threat of occurrence of catastrophic ecological events, such as sudden ecosystem collapse. The occurrence conditions involve uncertainty of various types, and the distinction among these types is important for optimal resource management. When uncertainty is due to our ignorance of some aspects of the underlying ecology, the isolated equilibrium states characterizing optimal exploitation for many renewable resource problems become equilibrium intervals. Genuinely stochastic events shift the optimal equilibrium states, but maintain the structure of isolated equilibria. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article explores the debate over advocacy in ecology and conservation. The authors distinguish types of advocacy. Professional advocacy involves informing policy makers and the public about issues arising in the scientist's area of expertise. Advocacy for science involves being comfortable discussing science with people who are ignorant of science and its ways of knowing. Advocacy for Ecosystem Services entails being informed with information on natural ecosystems and their dependencies with economic, social, cultural, and political systems. Advocacy for the Natural World is increasingly important as urbanized people become cut-off from nature.

We argue that two problems weaken the claims of those who link corruption and the exploitation of natural resources. The first is conceptual and the second is methodological. Studies that use national-level indicators of corruption fail to note that corruption comes in many forms, at multiple levels, that may affect resource use quite differently: negatively, positively, or not at all. Without a clear causal model of the mechanism by which corruption affects resources, one should treat with caution any estimated relationship between corruption and the state of natural resources. Simple, atheoretical models linking corruption measures and natural resource use typically do not account for other important control variables pivotal to the relationship between humans and natural resources. By way of illustration of these two general concerns, we used statistical methods to demonstrate that the findings of a recent, well-known study that posits a link between corruption and decreases in forests and elephants are not robust to simple conceptual and methodological refinements. In particular, once we controlled for a few plausible anthropogenic and biophysical conditioning factors, estimated the effects in changes rather than levels so as not to confound cross-sectional and longitudinal variation, and incorporated additional observations from the same data sources, corruption levels no longer had any explanatory power. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Scenario planning is a promising tool for dealing with uncertainty, but it has been underutilized in ecology and conservation. The use of scenarios to explore ecological dynamics of alternative futures has been given a major boost by the recently completed Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, a 4-year initiative to investigate relationships between ecosystem services and human well-being at multiple scales. Scenarios, as descriptive narratives of pathways to the future, are a mechanism for improving the understanding and management of ecological and social processes by scientists and decision makers with greater flexibility than conventional techniques could afford. We used scenarios in one of the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment's subglobal components to explore four possible futures in a Southern African river basin. Because of its ability to capture spatial and temporal dynamics, the scenario exercise revealed key trade-offs in ecosystem services in space and time and the importance of a multiple-scale scenario design. At subglobal scales, scenarios are a powerful vehicle for communication and engagement of decision makers, especially when designed to identify responses to specific problems. Scenario planning has the potential to be a critical ingredient in conservation as calls are increasingly made for the field to help define and achieve sustainable visions for the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Systematic conservation assessment and conservation planning are two distinct fields of conservation science often confused as one and the same. Systematic conservation assessment is the technical, often computer-based, identification of priority areas for conservation. Conservation planning is composed of a systematic conservation assessment coupled with processes for development of an implementation strategy and stakeholder collaboration. The peer-reviewed conservation biology literature abounds with studies analyzing the performance of assessments (e.g., area-selection techniques). This information alone, however, can never deliver effective conservation action; it informs conservation planning. Examples of how to translate systematic assessment outputs into knowledge and then use them for “doing” conservation are rare. South Africa has received generous international and domestic funding for regional conservation planning since the mid-1990s. We reviewed eight South African conservation planning processes and identified key ingredients of best practice for undertaking systematic conservation assessments in a way that facilitates implementing conservation action. These key ingredients include the design of conservation planning processes, skills for conservation assessment teams, collaboration with stakeholders, and interpretation and mainstreaming of products (e.g., maps) for stakeholders. Social learning institutions are critical to the successful operationalization of assessments within broader conservation planning processes and should include not only conservation planners but also diverse interest groups, including rural landowners, politicians, and government employees. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The reasons ecosystems should be restored are numerous, disparate, generally understated, and commonly underappreciated. We offer a typology in which these reasons—or motivations—are ordered among five rationales: technocratic, biotic, heuristic, idealistic, and pragmatic. The technocratic rationale encompasses restoration that is conducted by government agencies or other large organizations to satisfy specific institutional missions and mandates. The biotic rationale for restoration is to recover lost aspects of local biodiversity. The heuristic rationale attempts to elicit or demonstrate ecological principles and biotic expressions. The idealistic rationale consists of personal and cultural expressions of concern or atonement for environmental degradation, reengagement with nature, and/or spiritual fulfillment. The pragmatic rationale seeks to recover or repair ecosystems for their capacity to provide a broad array of natural services and products upon which human economies depend and to counteract extremes in climate caused by ecosystem loss. We propose that technocratic restoration, as currently conceived and practiced, is too narrow in scope and should be broadened to include the pragmatic rationale whose overarching importance is just beginning to be recognized. We suggest that technocratic restoration is too authoritarian, that idealistic restoration is overly restricted by lack of administrative strengths, and that a melding of the two approaches would benefit both. Three recent examples are given of restoration that blends the technocratic, idealistic, and pragmatic rationales and demonstrates the potential for a more unified approach. The biotic and heuristic rationales can be satisfied within the contexts of the other rationales. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The focus of this contribution is the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) of China, and more particularly the processes of environmental reform in the region. The authors discuss developments in environmental policy over the past three decades and explore the utility of Ecological Modernization Theory as a basis for future environmental reform at the local level and as a mechanism for tackling broader regional environmental concerns. The contribution also explores linkages between technology policy and the environment in Hong Kong, arguing that while the SAR possesses certain competitive advantages, greater attention must be given to fostering and facilitating technological innovation in the environmental sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As industrial ecology (IE) solidifies conceptually and methodologically, and as it gains visibility and legitimacy in academia, industry, and government, it is important that the IE community periodically evaluate the status of its emerging institutional arrangements. At the same time, industrial ecologists should assess the political relations developing between the field and the larger world. We analyze four institutional criteria: professional legitimacy, viable clientele, entrepreneurial acumen, and occupational opportunities, as well as a more controversial fifth measure—political relevance. Drawing a comparison with the field of ecology, we argue that efforts to foster IE institutionally can, ironically, conflict with the objective of seeing IE become "the science and engineering of sustainability." The article concludes by reflecting on the importance of this kind of critical appraisal and on why many observers of the field remain hopeful. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article informs that since the 1960s, experimentation has progressed from a rarity to the inferential underpinning of most ecological studies. As experimental techniques proliferate it is critical to ask whether and how the decisions people make as experimenters affect outcomes. In the context of ecological experiments, "confounding" is the situation in which a clear conclusion regarding a study hypothesis is prevented by the existence of multiple plausible mechanisms. An experimental venue represents a suite of choices made by an experimenter. These decisions can simultaneously affect many aspects of the environment experienced by study subjects.

The article informs that while experiments are vital for understanding how ecological systems operate, different philosophies exist concerning how experiments should be conducted. The underlying conceptual framework for both mesocosms and enclosures is the same, experimental units represent independent entities to which specific treatments are applied. Independence is lost when processes occurring in one experimental unit affect others. Since independence is assumed in most statistical analyses, lack of independence can invalidate ecological experiments.

This article examines the use of metadiscourse in introductory sections of the new (emerging) genre of environmental reports. This is contrasted with the chairman's statement in the established genre of corporate annual reports. The texts in both corpora were issued by British companies. Four categories of metadiscourse are analysed, using terminology from Mauranen (1993). The study indicates that metadiscourse may play a significant role in new genres. The study concludes that writers of the emerging genre of corporate environmental reports use metadiscourse to guide the readers. It also shows that the use of metadiscourse may have distinctly different functions in emerging genres compared to established ones. The categoriesaction markersandpreviews(localandglobal) are particularly useful in the comparison of the textual practices of established and emerging genres. Whereas the use of previews in the new genre informs and directs the readers as to the aims and global functions of the documents, in established genres this category may mark a deviation from what the writer sees as the conventional rhetorical (Move–Step) pattern. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cyclically parthenogenetic organisms may have facultative asexual counterparts. Such organisms, including aphids, are therefore interesting models for the study of ecological and genetic interactions between lineages differing in reproductive mode. Earlier studies on aphids have revealed major differences in the genetic outcomes of populations that are possibly resulting mostly either from sexual or from asexual reproduction. Besides, notable gene flow between sexual and asexual derivatives has been suspected, which could lead to the emergence of new asexual lineages. The present study examines the interplay between these lineages and is based on analyses of population structure of individuals that may contribute to the pool of sexual reproductive forms in the host alternating aphidRhopalosiphum padi. Using a Bayesian assignment method, we first show that the sexual forms ofR. padion mating sites encompass two genetically distinct clusters of individuals in the western part of France. The first cluster included unique genotypes of sexual lineages, while the second cluster included facultatively asexual lineages in numerous copies, the reproductive mode of the two clusters being confirmed by reference clones. Sexual reproductive forms produced by sexual and facultatively asexual lineages are thus admixed at mating sites which gives a large opportunity for the two clusters to mate with each other. Nevertheless, this study also highlights, as previously demonstrated, that the two clusters retained high genetic differentiation. Possible explanations for the inferred limited genetic exchanges are advanced in the discussion, but further dedicated investigations are required to solve this paradox. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the role of targeting in the context of agri-environmental schemes involving monitoring and penalties. By separating participants into a target and a non- target group the aim of targeting is to reduce the moral hazard problem. The paper analyses three approaches to targeting which have different implications for the level of monitoring resources and the focus is on reducing the extent of cheating by participants in the non- target group. By complementing the adoption of targeting with appropriate adjustments to the monitoring/penalty parameters, it is shown how such an approach can exploit the risk aversion of participants to completely eliminate cheating by those participants in the non-target group. The implementation of such a system of targeting is discussed in the context of existing agri-environmental policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the past 50 years, biogeochemistry has emerged as the premier scientific discipline to examine human impacts on the global environment. Important advances have derived from the synthesis of biogeochemical cycles at the global level, from the recognition that biochemical stoichiometry constrains the composition of living tissue, and from large-scale experiments that address the response of whole ecosystems to human impact. Future work will further pursue these avenues, with frequent use of modern, molecular methods to ascertain the role of individual species and species diversity in ecosystem function. Biogeochemists will increasingly need to translate the important results of their work to help formulate effective environmental policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Discusses the role of international law in the protection of the natural environment during armed conflict. Damages incurred during the Gulf War II; Environmental treaties chosen to protect the ecosystem; Relevance of the humanitarian laws; Provisions of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea; Aim of the World Heritage Convention and Ramsar Convention on Wetlands.

The metacommunity concept is an important way to think about linkages between different spatial scales in ecology. Here we review current understanding about this concept. We first investigate issues related to its definition as a set of local communities that are linked by dispersal of multiple potentially interacting species. We then identify four paradigms for metacommunities: the patch-dynamic view, the species-sorting view, the mass effects view and the neutral view, that each emphasizes different processes of potential importance in metacommunities. These have somewhat distinct intellectual histories and we discuss elements related to their potential future synthesis. We then use this framework to discuss why the concept is useful in modifying existing ecological thinking and illustrate this with a number of both theoretical and empirical examples. As ecologists strive to understand increasingly complex mechanisms and strive to work across multiple scales of spatio-temporal organization, concepts like the metacommunity can provide important insights that frequently contrast with those that would be obtained with more conventional approaches based on local communities alone. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In traditional source-sink models, vital rates and movement probabilities are assumed to be temporally homogeneous. Numerous studies, however, have demonstrated that temporal heterogeneity is the rule rather than the exception in natural systems. A case of particular interest is an expanding and contracting population where determination of source and sink populations is dependent on the timing and duration at which population growth rates are measured. Thus, ecologists have been perplexed about what is the proper scale to test for source-sink dynamics. In this study, I present a temporally variable source- sink dynamic driven by flooding disturbance. I measured population growth rates of an herbivorous neotropical rolled-leaf beetle, Cephaloleia fenestrata (Chry somelidae), at different temporal scales in this expanding and contracting population. I demonstrate that flooding created a strong sink, but the system lacked source-sink dynamics during nonflood periods. The sink is caused by a flood-related sevenfold decrease in survival probability. There was no evidence for effects of flooding on recruitment. Migration was directional from the upland to the flood zone habitat, supporting the conclusion that the population in the flood zone is a sink. A Monte Carlo simulation demonstrated that whether the population in the flood zone is a sink, and the intensity of the sink, ultimately depend on the flooding frequency. Given an observed flood frequency of approximately once per year, the flood zone population was determined to be a long-term sink. This study provides evidence of high temporal variability resulting in fluctuations sin and out of a source-sink dynamic and implicates a causal factor (increased mortality due to flooding). These results illustrate the importance of considering temporal variability in source-sink dynamics, and in choosing the proper temporal scale at which to test for source-sink dynamics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recognition of the complex spatial and temporal variability of abundance and diversity found in many populations has led to a greater focus on the roles of heterogeneity, stochasticity, and disturbance in the structure and persistence of communities. This focus is directly relevant to coral reef communities that are characterized by very high species diversity in a spatially heterogeneous environment, display stochastic variability in community structure at small spatial and temporal scales, and are subject to major disturbances. We monitored coral and fish assemblages over 14 years on fixed sites spread over 80 km of the southern Great Barrier Reef (GBR), Australia, and found evidence of large-scale resilience and predictable recovery of these assemblages. Sometime between November 1987 and October 1989, live coral cover on the shallow northeast flanks of some reefs in the southern GBR decreased from >80% to <10%, probably as a result of storm damage. We compared the fish and benthic communities present in these areas prior to the disturbance (1983-1984) with those present in 1992 and the subsequent changes through to 1998. Hard coral cover increased slowly from 1992 to 1994, then accelerated to be indistinguishable from pre-impact levels by 1998. The response of the coral assemblages was largely due to the predominance of tabulate Acropora species and their characteristics of rapid growth and competitive dominance. Patterns of species richness of the fish families Acanthuridae, Chaetodontidae, Scaridae, and Pomacentridae mirrored that of hard coral, except the pomacentridae had not recovered to pre-impact levels by 1998. Of the 26 fish species analyzed for changes in abundance, 88% decreased after the disturbance, then subsequently increased, with all but two recovering to pre-impact levels by 1998. Although processes such as settlement and immigration are ultimately responsible for replenishment of local populations, our data suggested that habitat plays a strong role in modifying fish assemblages. Thus, both coral and fish assemblages demonstrated resilience to large-scale natural disturbance and predictability in the structure of the assemblages, with most taxa approaching the asymptote of abundance and species richness that existed prior to the disturbance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Environmental problems are closely related to society's processing of materials through the entire economy. Because neither traditional environmental nor economic analytical methods can provide sufficient insight into the physical dimension of economies, this article presents an integrated methodology, combining a substance flow analysis (SFA) approach and an ecological restructuring analysis. This approach is applied to phosphorus (P) in China, one of the most rapidly growing industrializing economies, in order to better understand of the economy's material use and its change over time. A static national SFA model is developed with statistical data from 1996. By tracking the national economy's P flows from origins to destinations, the critical P flows with respect to environmental impacts are identified. Based on the regime of national P flows, this article analyzes the degree of ecological restructuring by dynamically describing the structural changes of related critical P flows over the last two decades with a set of ecological restructuring indicators (ERIs). Finally, some potential and desired changes are discussed, with the goal of ecologizing the national P flow regime; that is, reducing the ecological impact of the national P flow regime. The methodology of this article illustrates its applicability and value for presenting an overall insight into the physical dimensions of national economies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article explores urban environmental issues. The urban population of the developing world will double to four billion, or increase by eighty million people per year. There is actually no reason to believe that cities themselves are making it easier for populations to grow even though most cities do contain a demographic bulge at the critical childbearing ages of fifteen to twenty-nine. For example, studies of the conservation gains made during the late 1970s and early 1980s in the U.S. show that more urbanized states tend to consume less energy per capita than less urbanized states. No matter what other problems they have, densely populated cities get around the lack of environmental leadership on energy conservation by creating and encouraging an infrastructure in which residents to not actively have to decide to change their lifestyles or priorities in order to live sustainably. If cities are assumed to be part of the larger environmental problem, rather than part of the solution, then the move toward environmental enlightenment may ironically follow the irrational move away from the inherent sustainability of others. The classical citizenship model of civic obligation may be uniquely suited to contextualizing urban environmental concerns because cities are places where humans must be confronted with the advantages and disadvantages of living together.

An empirically corroborated model of proenvironmental commitments is outlined. According to this model, willingness to contribute to the saving of global commons (atmosphere, oceans, etc.) is motivated by the awareness of global ecological risks, by perceived injustices of the distributions of benefits and costs resulting from exploiting and polluting activities, and by the conviction that many actors-ordinary citizens as well as powerful authorities in business and politics-have both effective means and responsibilities to contribute to the protection of the environment. Political implications are drawn from the typical attributional pattern of multi-responsibility for environmental protection and from the perception of distributive injustices of the current overuse and pollution of commons. Basic issues of ecological justice are discussed. Cet article presente un modele d'engagements envers l'environnement qui a ete corrobore par des donnees empiriques. Selon ce modele, la volonte de contribuer a sauver les ressources (atmosphere, oceans, etc.) est motivee par la conscience des risques ecologiques globaux, par l'injustice percue dans la distribution des couts et benefices lies a l'exploitation et a la pollution ainsique par la conviction que plusieurs intervenants-citoyens ordinaires aussi bien que les puissants de l'economie et de la politique-ont les moyens et les responsabilites pour contribuer a la protection de l'environnement. Le pattern typique d'attribution d'une responsabilite partagee pour la protection de l'environnement tout comme la perception des injustices dans la surexploitation et la pollution actuelle des ressources ont tout deux des implications politiques qui sont discutees dans ce texte. Des problemes fondamentaux de justice ecologique sont egalement abordes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

I chart ways in which ecology could improve its performance in assessing the humanity-nature relationship. This life of humans, similar to all biological organisms, depends on utilization of their environment which is changed as a result. To evaluate the consequences, a broad range of issues needs to be addressed ranging from the historical dynamics of cultural development to specific idiosynchratic features of particular environmental issues. One should avoid nature-culture dualism both in ecologically informed environmentalism is an assumption that productivity of socioeconomic systems vs. natural systems is a zero-sum game; this assumption is unfounded. Ecology should take the ecological conditions of human existence seriously and make judgements on the relationship of people with their natural environment in various historical situations in a contextually sensitive way. I end by listing several types of positive contribution that ecology could give to societal discussion on the human environmental predicament; the most important challenge is to point out new possibilities even in situations which seem hopeless. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents a case of ritual innovation and spirit possession in northern Madagascar which builds on Roy Rappaport's interests in the nature of human and environmental interactions. Relationship between the levels of political scale and resource management; Interaction of meaning and material relations; Proposal for negotiating control over the use and management of the environment.

Presents an argument about the progressive envelopment of environmental policies. Focus of attention on subaltern social movements as objects of ethnographic research; Concern on the subordination of the fundamental to the contingent and the instrumental; Deformation of the order of vibility characteristic of the encounter between ecological and economic domains.

Along with the renewed attention ecological issues have received in policymaking circles, the rapid growth of research on environmental politics and policy in recent years has compounded a longstanding problem in the field. This article reports on one effort, a panel held at the 1992 Western Political Science Association annual meeting that was devoted to four books on environmental politics. These books serve usefully to distinguish the potential of political science from that of, say, economics. They also remind one that the study of environmental politics and policy must be broader than what one typically finds in work dealing with policy analysis, policy-oriented environmental science and engineering, administrative planning and program implementation and evaluation.

The purpose of this article is to discuss the modeling capabilities that might be required to support the analysis to be undertaken in the Human Dimensions of Global Change (HDGC) Programme. The focus is general and conceptual. No attempt is made to discuss specific models that might serve particular purposes within the HDGC Programme. Rather what is proposed here is a conceptual framework in terms of which modeling priorities could be developed for the various substantive research foci of the HDGC Programme. The subject of the HDGC Programme is the human causes and consequences of those global environmental changes that are the subject of study in the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme (IGBP) on Global Change. This means that the HDGC Programme must explicitly address the linkage between those natural systems that are the subject of IGBP and the human systems that both help to create, and also will feel the effects of, global environmental change. However, it is important to recognize that typical approaches to studying natural systems and human systems are themselves rather different.

The article discusses the issue of environment in developing countries. The outlook for the environment is one of the key elements in the critique of economic theory. For those of us who are concerned with the problems of development as a matter of priority, it is essential that environmental problems should not be considered only in the light of consequences of development, which is misdirected or unduly indifferent to the environment. They must, on the contrary be central to a fresh consideration of the most strategic and fundamental issues of development in the Third World. Whenever an environmental problem arises, there is always a conflict of interest, between companies and individuals, between rich and poor or between different regions or countries, and this is an essential feature of the relationship between development and the environment. It is important to recognize the reality of the conflict surrounding the environment issue, since a way must be found for society to deal intelligently with the problem of reconciling the interests at stake.