scholarly journals Alternative futures for global biological invasions

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Núria Roura-Pascual ◽  
Brian Leung ◽  
Wolfgang Rabitsch ◽  
Lucas Rutting ◽  
Joost Vervoort ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Biological Invasions ◽  
Scenario Analysis ◽  
Alternative Futures ◽  
Climate Change Research ◽  
Human Land Use ◽  
Social Ecological ◽  
Global Environmental ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Uncertain Future ◽  
Global Futures

AbstractScenario analysis has emerged as a key tool to analyze complex and uncertain future socio-ecological developments. However, currently existing global scenarios (narratives of how the world may develop) have neglected biological invasions, a major threat to biodiversity and the economy. Here, we use a novel participatory process to develop a diverse set of global biological invasion scenarios spanning a wide range of plausible global futures through to 2050. We adapted the widely used “two axes” scenario analysis approach to develop four families of four scenarios each, resulting in 16 scenarios that were later clustered into four contrasting sets of futures. Our analysis highlights that socioeconomic developments and technological innovation have the potential to shape biological invasions, in addition to well-known drivers, such as climate and human land use change and global trade. Our scenarios partially align with the shared socioeconomic pathways created by the climate change research community. Several factors that drive differences in biological invasions were underrepresented in the shared socioeconomic pathways; in particular, the implementation of biosecurity policies. We argue that including factors related to public environmental awareness and technological and trade development in global scenarios and models is essential to adequately consider biological invasions in global environmental assessments and thereby obtain a more integrative picture of future social–ecological developments.

scholarly journals Alternative futures for global biological invasions

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Núria Roura-Pascual ◽  
Brian Leung ◽  
Wolfgang Rabitsch ◽  
Lucas Rutting ◽  
Joost Vervoort ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Biological Invasions ◽  
Scenario Analysis ◽  
Participatory Process ◽  
Alternative Futures ◽  
Major Threat ◽  
Human Land Use ◽  
Global Environmental ◽  
Uncertain Future ◽  
Global Futures ◽  
Economic Developments

AbstractScenario analysis has emerged as a key tool to analyze complex and uncertain future socio-ecological developments. However, current global scenarios (narratives of how the world may develop) have neglected biological invasions, a major threat to biodiversity and the economy. We used a novel participatory process to develop a diverse set of global biological invasion scenarios spanning a wide breadth of plausible global futures through 2050. We adapted the widely used “two axes” scenario analysis approach to develop four families of four scenarios each, resulting in 16 scenarios that were later clustered into four contrasting sets of futures. Our analysis highlighted that socio-economic developments and changes in sustainability policies and lifestyle have the potential to shape biological invasions, in addition to well-known ecological drivers, such as climate and human land use change. Our scenarios align fairly well with the recently developed shared socio-economic pathways, but the factors that drive differences in biological invasions are underrepresented there. Including these factors in global scenarios and models is essential to adequately consider biological invasions in global environmental assessments, and obtain a more integrative picture of future socio-ecological developments.

scholarly journals Exemplary Ethical Communities. A New Concept for a Livable Anthropocene

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (10) ◽  
pp. 5582
Author(s):  
Daniele Conversi
Keyword(s):  
Large Body ◽  
State System ◽  
Nation State ◽  
Sustainable Communities ◽  
Religious Groups ◽  
Social Ecological Systems ◽  
Track Record ◽  
Social Ecological ◽  
Nation States ◽  
Global Environmental

This article argues that we need to look at living examples provided by non-state communities in various regions of the world that are, perhaps unwittingly, contributing to the maintenance of the Earth’s optimal thermal balance. These fully sustainable communities have been living outside the mainstream for centuries, even millennia, providing examples in the global struggle against the degradation of social–ecological systems. They have all, to varying degrees, embraced simple forms of living that make them ‘exemplary ethical communities’ (EECs)—human communities with a track record of sustainability related to forms of traditional knowledge and the capacity to survive outside the capitalist market and nation-state system. The article proceeds in three steps: First, it condenses a large body of research on the limits of the existing nation-state system and its accompanying ideology, nationalism, identifying this institutional–ideological complex as the major obstacle to tackling climate change. Second, alternative social formations that could offer viable micro-level and micro-scale alternatives are suggested. These are unlikely to identify with existing nation-states as they often form distinct types of social communities. Taking examples from hunter-gatherer societies and simple-living religious groups, it is shown how the protection and maintenance of these EECs could become the keystone in the struggle for survival of humankind and other forms of life. Finally, further investigation is called for, into how researchers can come forward with more examples of actually existing communities that might provide pathways to sustainability and resistance to the looming global environmental catastrophe.

scholarly journals Capacity of countries to reduce biological invasions

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Guillaume Latombe ◽  
Hanno Seebens ◽  
Bernd Lenzner ◽  
Franck Courchamp ◽  
Stefan Dullinger ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Biological Invasions ◽  
Alien Species ◽  
Economic Space ◽  
Country Level ◽  
Management Measures ◽  
Ecological Predictors ◽  
Global Environmental ◽  
Education Innovation ◽  
Taxonomic Groups ◽  
High Level

AbstractThe extent and impacts of biological invasions on biodiversity are largely shaped by an array of socio-ecological predictors, which exhibit high variation among countries. Yet a global synthetic perspective of how these factors vary across countries is currently lacking. Here, we investigate how a set of five socio-ecological predictors (Governance, Trade, Environmental Performance, Lifestyle and Education, Innovation) explain i) country-level established alien species (EAS) richness of eight taxonomic groups, and ii) country capacity to prevent and manage biological invasions and their impacts. Trade and Governance together best predicted the average EAS richness, increasing variance explained by up to 54% compared to models based on climatic and spatial variables only. Country-level EAS richness increased strongly with Trade, whereas high level of Governance resulted in lower EAS richness. Historical (1996) levels of Governance and Trade better explained response variables than current (2015) levels. Thus, our results reveal a historical legacy of these two predictors with profound implications for the future of biological invasions. We therefore used Governance and Trade to define a two-dimensional socio-economic space in which the position of a country captures its capacity to address issues of biological invasions. Our results provide novel insights into the complex relationship between socio-ecological predictors and biological invasions. Further, we highlight the need for designing better policies and management measures for alien species, and for integrating biological invasions in global environmental scenarios.

scholarly journals The Iso2k Database: A global compilation of paleo-δ<sup>18</sup>O and δ<sup>2</sup>H records to aid understanding of Common Era climate

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bronwen L. Konecky ◽  
Nicholas P. McKay ◽  
Olga V. Churakova (Sidorova) ◽  
Laia Comas-Bru ◽  
Emilie P. Dassié ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Climate Model ◽  
Global Environmental Change ◽  
Global Scale ◽  
Proxy Records ◽  
Global Environmental ◽  
Past 2000 Years ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Terrestrial Sediments ◽  
Common Era

Abstract. Reconstructions of global hydroclimate during the Common Era (CE; the past ~ 2000 years) are important for providing context for current and future global environmental change. Stable isotope ratios in water are quantitative indicators of hydroclimate on regional to global scales, and these signals are encoded in a wide range of natural geologic archives. Here we present the Iso2k database, a global compilation of previously published datasets from a variety of natural archives that record the stable oxygen (δ18O) or hydrogen (δ2H) isotopic composition of environmental waters, which reflect hydroclimate changes over the CE. The Iso2k database contains 756 isotope records from the terrestrial and marine realms, including: glacier and ground ice (205); speleothems (68); corals, sclerosponges, and mollusks (145); wood (81); lake sediments and other terrestrial sediments (e.g., loess) (158); and marine sediments (99). Individual datasets have temporal resolutions ranging from sub-annual to centennial, and include chronological data where available. A fundamental feature of the database is its comprehensive metadata, which will assist both experts and non-experts in the interpretation of each record and in data synthesis. Key metadata fields have standardized vocabularies to facilitate comparisons across diverse archives and with climate model simulated fields. This is the first global-scale collection of water isotope proxy records from multiple types of geological and biological archives. It is suitable for evaluating hydroclimate processes through time and space using large-scale synthesis, model-data intercomparison and (paleo)data assimilation. The Iso2k database is available for download at: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.11553162 (McKay and Konecky, 2020).

Direct and Indirect Social Drivers and Impacts of Vector-Borne Diseases

2020 ◽  
pp. 247-266
Author(s):  
Sadie J. Ryan ◽  
Catherine A. Lippi ◽  
Kevin L. Bardosh ◽  
Erika F. Frydenlund ◽  
Holly D. Gaff ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Tropical Storms ◽  
Poverty Trap ◽  
Cultural Perceptions ◽  
Vector Borne Diseases ◽  
Social Ecological ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
The World ◽  
Vector Borne ◽  
The Caribbean ◽  
Developed Nations

Vector borne diseases (VBDs) are often seen by the highly developed nations of the world as an issue of poor tropical countries. While framing the problem this way—through the paradigm of a poverty-trap—may leverage aid and motivate political will toward disease control, it misses a wide range of socio-political contexts both driving, and driven by, vector borne diseases. In this chapter, we present a series of global vignettes, to illustrate different facets of the broad remit of social drivers and interactions with VBDs. We approach the urban social-ecological context in Latin America and the Caribbean, impacts and aftermath of natural disasters such as earthquakes and tropical storms, struggles with trust in intervention implementation in Haiti, and drivers and impacts of ruminant arbovirus emergence events in Europe. We conclude that incorporating an understanding of social context, including political history and cultural perceptions, is a key part of VBD research and intervention practice.

scholarly journals Our common future? Cross-scalar scenario analysis for social–ecological sustainability of the Guiana Shield, South America

2014 ◽  
Vol 44 ◽  
pp. 126-148 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jayalaxshmi Mistry ◽  
Céline Tschirhart ◽  
Caspar Verwer ◽  
Rob Glastra ◽  
Odacy Davis ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
South America ◽  
Scenario Analysis ◽  
Ecological Sustainability ◽  
Guiana Shield ◽  
Social Ecological ◽  
Common Future

scholarly journals A case study from the southern Cape linefishery 2: Considering one’s options when the fish leave

2017 ◽  
Vol 113 (5/6) ◽  
Author(s):  
Louise C. Gammage ◽  
Astrid Jarre ◽  
Charles Mather ◽  
◽  
◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Secondary Data ◽  
Structured Interview ◽  
Scenario Planning ◽  
Feedback Loops ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Social Ecological ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Local Feedback ◽  
Resilience Framework

Fishers in the small-scale, commercial linefishery in the southern Cape, South Africa, are exposed to variability and change in the marine social-ecological system of which they are a part. Faced with multi-scalar changes within this complex system, fishers employ a wide range of strategies in reaction to change. As part of a broader study of stressors that bring about change in these systems, this contribution examines the fishers’ responses to these changes and is based on a participant-led, semi-structured interview process of skippers/boat owners, crew, processors and spouses/partners, in six communities in the southern Cape region, and has been supplemented with appropriate secondary data. The results are discussed using a resilience framework. The data were initially considered thematically by stressor, but results identified that a place-based analysis was equally important. Three major groupings were identified: (1) fishers who adapt and show clear business-orientation, (2) fishers who cope, and (3) fishers who react and are thus caught in a poverty trap. In addition to place-specific history, local feedback loops and indirect effects need to be better accounted for to understand these responses to change at various scales. The results of this study are expected to contribute to the basis of scenario planning in the region.

Unpacking the Levels of Household and Individual Climate Change Adaptation: Empirical Evidence from Leeds, United Kingdom

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 501-513 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chukwuma Otum Ume ◽  
Ogochukwu Onah ◽  
Kehinde Paul Adeosun ◽  
Onyekwe Chris Nnamdi ◽  
Nice Nneoma Ihedioha ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
United Kingdom ◽  
Climate Change Adaptation ◽  
Public Awareness ◽  
Government Support ◽  
Quantitative Aspect ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Climate Change Research ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Wide Range

AbstractThis study set out to empirically determine the current state of individual and household adaptation to climate change in the United Kingdom and how policy makers can improve on it. The study utilized both qualitative and quantitative approaches (mixed method). For the quantitative aspect of the study, a quota-sampling technique was employed in the selection of 650 respondents for the study using a well-structured questionnaire. The quota representation was based on age and gender. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and binary logit regression. In addition, qualitative content/topic analysis of an in-depth interview of the respondents was employed in further analyzing why and how policy makers can improve climate change adaptation. Findings from the study indicate the dire need for continued government support in household and individual adaptation in Leeds, and this support should also be encouraged in other cities where government intervention is low. Interventions in the form of subsidies, direct regulations, and public awareness are needed. The implementation of these measures is expected to generate a wide range of additional benefits to most vulnerable groups who should be central to the rapidly expanding climate change research and policy agenda in the United Kingdom.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document