The Conservation and Biogeography of Amphibians in the Caribbean

2022 ◽  
Author(s):  
Harold Heatwole

An expansive and detailed review of the biology of Caribbean amphibians, considering their threats, conservation and outlook in a changing world. Amphibians are the group of vertebrates undergoing the fastest rate of extinction; it is urgent that we understand the causes of this and find means of protecting them. This landmark illustrated volume brings together the leading experts in the field. As well as offering an overview of the region as a whole, individual chapters are devoted to each island or island-group and the measures used to protect their amphibians through legislation or nature reserves. The biological background of insular biogeography, including its methods, analysis and results, is reviewed and applied specifically to the problems of Caribbean amphibians – this includes a re-examination of patterns and general ideas about the status of amphibians in the Anthropocene. The Conservation and Biogeography of Amphibians in the Caribbean offers an important baseline against which future amphibian conservation can be measured in the face of climate change, rising sea level and a burgeoning human population.

2017 ◽  
pp. 302-313
Author(s):  
Saon Ray

This chapter discusses what constitutes adaptation responses by firms in the face of climate change. There are four integral components of adaptation activities undertaken by firms: assessment of risk, understanding of vulnerability, understanding the regulatory barriers to overcome the vulnerability, and, finally, adoption of policies to overcome the vulnerability. While it is easy to understand these components separately, their interdependencies make the overall picture more complicated. Also complicating the issue is the fact that most small and medium firms do not have the capacity and resources to predict the impact of such changes on their operations, and hence, to quickly make the adjustments necessary to overcome them. The response of firms also depends on the nature of the climate risk they face, whether it is sea-level rise, or temperature rise.


2017 ◽  

The effects of climate change have been observed on agricultural lands in the Caribbean. Climate change effects include shifts in temperature and precipitation, which can manifest as water scarcity or excess, above normal temperatures, sea level rise, as well as frequent tropical storms.


2013 ◽  
Vol 27 (1) ◽  
pp. 81
Author(s):  
Ifan Ridlo Suhelm

Tidal inundation, flood and land subsidence are the problems faced by Semarang city related to climate change. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) predicted the increase of sea level rise 18-59 cm during 1990-2100 while the temperature increase 0,6°C to 4°C during the same period. The Semarang coastal city was highly vulnerable to sea level rise and it increased with two factors, topography and land subsidence. The purpose of this study was to map the adaptive capacity of coastal areas in the face of the threat of disasters caused by climate change. The parameters used are Network Number, Employee based educational background, Source Main Livelihoods, Health Facilities, and Infrastructure Road. Adaptive capacity of regions classified into 3 (three) classes, namely low, medium and high. The results of the study showed that most of the coastal area of Semarang have adaptive capacities ranging from low to moderate, while the village with low capacity totaling 58 villages (58.62%) of the total coastal district in the city of Semarang.


Author(s):  
Gunjan Chawla Arora

The members of a community owe their identity to the State to which they belong which inculcates a sense of belongingness to their own community, people, and land. The loss of identity to a State due to disruptive climate change is a fear in this century. Excessive utilization and consumption of fossil fuels and non-renewable energy sources across the globe have caused unprecedented increase in global temperatures. Sudden incidents of unprecedented floods on Bhola Islands in Bangladesh, or the disappearance of the Kiribati and Lohachara Islands due to rising sea-level have forced communities to flee their own country. This has raised questions about the status of such climate migrants. Media reports have designated them as “climate refugees.” But are they really refugees? The research aims at understanding the nexus between climate change and mass displacement of communities, the status of such migrants and the International legal framework on the status of such migrants.


2022 ◽  
pp. 2039-2050
Author(s):  
Gunjan Chawla Arora

The members of a community owe their identity to the State to which they belong which inculcates a sense of belongingness to their own community, people, and land. The loss of identity to a State due to disruptive climate change is a fear in this century. Excessive utilization and consumption of fossil fuels and non-renewable energy sources across the globe have caused unprecedented increase in global temperatures. Sudden incidents of unprecedented floods on Bhola Islands in Bangladesh, or the disappearance of the Kiribati and Lohachara Islands due to rising sea-level have forced communities to flee their own country. This has raised questions about the status of such climate migrants. Media reports have designated them as “climate refugees.” But are they really refugees? The research aims at understanding the nexus between climate change and mass displacement of communities, the status of such migrants and the International legal framework on the status of such migrants.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Svetlana Jevrejeva ◽  
Judith Wolf ◽  
Andy Matthews ◽  
Joanne Williams ◽  
David Byrne ◽  
...  

<p>The Caribbean islands encompass some of the most vulnerable coastlines in terms of sea level rise, exposure to tropical cyclones, changes in waves and storm surges. Climate in the Caribbean is already changing and sea level rise impacts are already being felt. Considerable local and regional variations in the rate, magnitude, and direction of sea-level change can be expected as a result of thermal expansion, tectonic movements, and changes in ocean circulation. Governments in the Caribbean recognise that climate change and sea level rise are serious threats to the sustainable development and economic growth of the Caribbean islands and urgent actions are required to increase the resilience and make decisions about how to adapt to future climate change (Caribbean Marine Climate Change Report Card 2017; IPCC 2014).</p><p>As part of the UK Commonwealth Marine Economies (CME) Programme and through collaboration with local stakeholders in St Vincent, we have identified particular areas at risk from changing water level and wave conditions. The Caribbean Sea, particularly the Lesser Antilles, suffers from limited observational data due to a lack of coastal monitoring, making numerical models even more important to fill this gap. The current projects brings together improved access to tide gauge observations, as well as global, regional and local water level and wave modelling to provide useful tools for coastal planners.</p><p>We present our initial design of a coastal data hub with sea level information for stakeholder access in St. Vincent and Grenadines, Grenada and St Lucia, with potential development of the hub for the Caribbean region. The work presented here is a contribution to the wide range of ongoing activities under the Commonwealth Marine Economies (CME) Programme in the Caribbean, falling within the work package “Development of a coastal data hub for stakeholder access in the Caribbean region”, under the NOC led projects “Climate Change Impact Assessment: Ocean Modelling and Monitoring for the Caribbean CME states”.</p>


Author(s):  
Hill and

Whether the world is prepared for it or not, climate change will drive large-scale migration. The impacts of climate change—both slow-onset changes, such as sea-level rise and drought, and sudden-onset events, such as extreme storms and wildfires—push people from their homes. Managed well, migration can yield enormous benefits, offering greater opportunities for those who relocate and injecting new talent and energy into receiver communities. But climate change threatens to unleash “disruptive migration,” that is, sudden migration that could strain social, economic, and political stability. The task ahead in the face of climate change is to encourage managed, gradual migration that minimizes disruption, moves people out of harm’s way, and turns displacement into economic opportunity. This chapter outlines the strategies and tools that exist to make this possible.


1976 ◽  
Vol 31 ◽  
pp. 156-163 ◽  
Author(s):  
Albert A. Dekin

There can be little doubt that the majority of the area through which the Arctic Small Tool horizon spread was unoccupied by human populations. This is particularly true of the Eastern Arctic, with the exception of the southern fringes where they may have come into contact with Archaic peoples near the ecotone between the tundra and the taiga. In the Western Arctic, it is apparent that there had been earlier human populations in many areas, but these later migrants appear to have occupied a previously unoccupied ecological niche. Geographically, they spread along the Arctic coasts until they had reached the maximum extent of seasonally frozen coasts, usually with adjacent tundra. While it may be that the rising sea level had flooded earlier evidence of such a coastal occupation arid that this habitat had not been unoccupied as it now appears, the present data support the inference that Arctic Small Tool populations were the first to accomplish a successful adaptation to these particular conditions in the American Arctic. For the present, I wish to focus on this coastal aspect of Arctic Small Tool peoples, ignoring (or not modeling) the expanded distribution of sites in interior Alaska which also occurred at this time.


2012 ◽  
Vol 1 (33) ◽  
pp. 26
Author(s):  
James Houston

Design-flood elevations with associated exceedance probabilities are often determined for coastal projects. Rising sea level introduces another design consideration that needs to be combined with the design-flood level. However, most sea level projections do not have exceedance probabilities that can be used in conjunction with the design flood to obtain total flood elevations with exceedance probabilities. This paper shows how to combine design-flood elevations with sea level rise projections that have exceedance probabilities, such as those of the Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change (Bindoff et al 2007) or Houston (2012a), to obtain total elevations at desired exceedance probabilities over particular intervals.


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