A Clear Past and a Murky Future: Life in the Anthropocene on the Pampana River, Sierra Leone

The impacts of human activities on ecosystems are significantly increasing the rate of environmental change in the earth system, reshaping the global landscape. The rapid rate of environmental change is disrupting the ability of millions of people around the globe to live their everyday lives and maintain their human niche. Evidence suggests that we have entered (or created) a new epoch, the Anthropocene, which is defined as the period in which humans and human activities are the primary drivers of planetary change. The Anthropocene denotes a global shift, but it is the collective of local processes. This is our frame for investigating local accounts of human-caused disruptive environmental change in the Pampana River in Tonkolili District, Northern Province, Sierra Leone. Since the end of the Sierra Leonean civil war in 2002, the country has experienced a rapid increase in extractive industries, namely mining. We explored the effects of this development by working with communities along the Pampana River in Tonkolili, with a specific focus given to engaging local fishermen through ethnographic interviews (N = 21 fishermen and 33 non-fishermen), focus group discussions (N = 21 fishermen), and participant observation. We deployed theoretical and methodological frameworks from human niche construction theory, complex adaptive systems, and ethnography to track disruptive environmental change in and on the Pampana from upstream activities and the concomitant shifts in the local human niche. We highlight the value of integrating ethnographic methods with human evolutionary theory, produce important insights about local human coping processes with disruptive environmental change, and help to further account for and understand the ongoing global process of human modification of the earth system in the Anthropocene.

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Reframing hydrology education to solve coupled human and environmental problems

Hydrology and Earth System Sciences Discussions ◽

10.5194/hessd-9-7739-2012 ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 9 (6) ◽

pp. 7739-7759 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

E. G. King ◽

F. C. O'Donnell ◽

K. K. Caylor

Keyword(s):

Complex Adaptive Systems ◽

Adaptive Systems ◽

Earth System ◽

Educational Approach ◽

Dynamic Interactions ◽

Undergraduate Level ◽

Complex Adaptive ◽

Sustainability Challenges ◽

Problem Solvers ◽

The Impact

Abstract. The impact of human activity on the biophysical world raises myriad challenges for sustaining earth system processes, ecosystem services, and human societies. To engage in meaningful problem-solving in the hydrosphere, this necessitates an approach that recognizes the coupled nature of human and biophysical systems. We argue that in order to produce the next generation of problem-solvers, hydrology education should ensure that students develop an appreciation and working familiarity in the context of coupled human-environmental systems. We illustrate how undergraduate-level hydrology assignments can extend beyond rote computations or basic throughput scenarios to include consideration of the dynamic interactions with social and other biophysical dimensions of complex adaptive systems. Such an educational approach not only builds appropriate breadth of dynamic understanding, but can also empower students toward assuming influential and effective roles in solving sustainability challenges.

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Reframing hydrology education to solve coupled human and environmental problems

Hydrology and Earth System Sciences ◽

10.5194/hess-16-4023-2012 ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 16 (11) ◽

pp. 4023-4031 ◽

Cited By ~ 6

Author(s):

E. G. King ◽

F. C. O'Donnell ◽

K. K. Caylor

Keyword(s):

Complex Adaptive Systems ◽

Adaptive Systems ◽

Earth System ◽

Educational Approach ◽

Dynamic Interactions ◽

Undergraduate Level ◽

Complex Adaptive ◽

Sustainability Challenges ◽

Problem Solvers ◽

The Impact

Abstract. The impact of human activity on the biophysical world raises myriad challenges for sustaining Earth system processes, ecosystem services, and human societies. To engage in meaningful problem-solving in the hydrosphere, this necessitates an approach that recognizes the coupled nature of human and biophysical systems. We argue that, in order to produce the next generation of problem-solvers, hydrology education should ensure that students develop an appreciation and working familiarity in the context of coupled human-environmental systems. We illustrate how undergraduate-level hydrology assignments can extend beyond rote computations or basic throughput scenarios to include consideration of the dynamic interactions with social and other biophysical dimensions of complex adaptive systems. Such an educational approach not only builds appropriate breadth of dynamic understanding, but can also empower students toward assuming influential and effective roles in solving sustainability challenges.

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“Niche Selection” and the Evolution of Complex Behavior in a Changing Environment—A Simulation

Artificial Life ◽

10.1162/106454699568782 ◽

1999 ◽

Vol 5 (3) ◽

pp. 271-289 ◽

Cited By ~ 5

Author(s):

Richard Walker

Keyword(s):

Environmental Change ◽

Complex Adaptive Systems ◽

Adaptive Systems ◽

Theoretical Biology ◽

Control Model ◽

Selection Model ◽

Evolution Of Complexity ◽

Complex Adaptive ◽

Simulation Parameters ◽

Biological Organisms

One of the key problems in theoretical biology is the identification of the mechanisms underlying the evolution of complexity. This paper suggests that some difficulties in current models could be avoided by taking account of “niche selection” as proposed by Waddington [21] and subsequent authors [2]. Computer simulations, in which an evolving population of artificial organisms “selects” the niche(s) that maximize their fitness, are compared with a Control Model in which “Niche Selection” is absent. In the simulations the Niche Selection Model consistently produced a greater number of “fit” organisms than the Control Model; although the Niche Selection Model tended, in general, to produce organisms occupying simple niches, it was nonetheless more effective than the Control Model in producing well-adapted organisms inhabiting complex niches. It is shown that the production of these organisms is critically dependent on the rate of environmental change: Slow change leads to fit but undifferentiated populations, dominated by organisms occupying simple niches; differentiated populations, including well-adapted organisms living in complex niches, require rates of environmental change lying just beyond a mathematically well-defined critical value. In simulation “Niche Selection,” unlike conventional “Natural Selection,” provides a permanent selective bias in favor of simplicity. This tendency is counterbalanced by statistical forces favoring shifts from rare “simple niches” to commoner niches of greater complexity. Fit organisms inhabiting complex niches only emerge in conditions where the rate of environmental change is high enough to avoid the concentration of the population in very simple niches, but slow enough to permit step-by-step adaptation to niches of gradually increasing complexity. This result appears to be robust to changes in simulation parameters and assumptions, and leads to interesting conjectures about the real world behavior of biological organisms (and other complex adaptive systems). It is suggested that some of these conjectures might be relatively easy to test.

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