Making a home during crisis: Post‐tsunami recovery in a context of war,Sri Lanka

This paper provides insights into the dynamic linkages between the ongoing construction of houses for people displaced by war and disaster, conceptions of homemaking and processes of recovery and reconstruction in the post‐tsunami context in Sri Lanka. In so doing, it also uncovers the dilemmas and ambiguities that are embedded in the recovery process. A case from Eastern Province, Sri Lanka illustrates how recovery works in local areas are driven by various stakeholders from outside, whose negotiations and power, voices and preferences, both independently and collectively, define the scope for homemaking processes. Our findings recommend that debates of ‘building back better’ following such disasters should embody an understanding of houses as political, cultural, social and economic constructs, and be cognizant of the wider processes of homemaking.     

The importance and limitations of social networks and social identities for labour market integration: The case of Ghanaian immigrants in Bergen,Norway

Whereas refugees and larger immigrant groups’ integration in the Norwegian labour market has received considerable research attention, less is known about the labour market integration of small, non-refugee immigrant groups from West African countries such as Ghana. The purpose of the article is to examine the role of social networks and social identities for the differentiated labour market integration outcomes among Ghanaian immigrants in the city of Bergen. Based on data produced through in-depth interviews, participant observation and informal conversations, the authors argue that Ghanaian immigrants’ ability to obtain jobs is determined by more than simply having the appropriate educational and language qualifications, and largely depends on having favourable social identities and being embedded in social networks beyond the Ghanaian immigrant community. They find that those who mainly relied on Ghanaian networks found it difficult to circumvent labour market hindrances and they predominantly obtained menial jobs. The authors conclude that Norwegian job-seekers networks played a crucial role in the immigrants’ opportunities and for potential Norwegian employers’ perception of their employability, especially in professional and semi-professional jobs.     

Contributions of individual countries?? emissions to climate change and their uncertainty

We have compiled historical greenhouse gas emissions and their uncertainties on country and sector level and assessed their contribution to cumulative emissions and to global average temperature increase in the past and for a the future emission scenario. We find that uncertainty in historical contribution estimates differs between countries due to different shares of greenhouse gases and time development of emissions. Although historical emissions in the distant past are very uncertain, their influence on countries?? or sectors?? contributions to temperature increase is relatively small in most cases, because these results are dominated by recent (high) emissions. For relative contributions to cumulative emissions and temperature rise, the uncertainty introduced by unknown historical emissions is larger than the uncertainty introduced by the use of different climate models. The choice of different parameters in the calculation of relative contributions is most relevant for countries that are different from the world average in greenhouse gas mix and timing of emissions. The choice of the indicator (cumulative GWP weighted emissions or temperature increase) is very important for a few countries (altering contributions up to a factor of 2) and could be considered small for most countries (in the order of 10%). The choice of the year, from which to start accounting for emissions (e.g. 1750 or 1990), is important for many countries, up to a factor of 2.2 and on average of around 1.3. Including or excluding land-use change and forestry or non-CO₂ gases changes relative contributions dramatically for a third of the countries (by a factor of 5 to a factor of 90). Industrialised countries started to increase CO₂ emissions from energy use much earlier. Developing countries?? emissions from land-use change and forestry as well as of CH₄ and N₂O were substantial before their emissions from energy use.     

Large-scale oil-in-ice experiment in the Barents Sea: monitoring of oil in water and MetOcean interactions

A large-scale field experiment took place in the marginal ice zone in the Barents Sea in May 2009. Fresh oil (7000 L) was released uncontained between the ice floes to study oil weathering and spreading in ice and surface water. A detailed monitoring of oil-in-water and ice interactions was performed throughout the six-day experiment. In addition, meteorological and oceanographic data were recorded for monitoring of the wind speed and direction, air temperature, currents and ice floe movements. The monitoring showed low concentrations of dissolved hydrocarbons and the predicted acute toxicity indicated that the acute toxicity was low. The ice field drifted nearly 80 km during the experimental period, and although the oil drifted with the ice, it remained contained between the ice floes.     

Mobile livelihoods among ethnic minorities in China: Insights from Yunnan

Ethnic minority populations in Yunnan have had diverse mobility patterns since the advent of globalized production and developmental programmes. The article presents insights into the various mobility patterns and their effects in Yunnan and contributes to an understanding of the present economic and social processes of mobilities and changes in China as a whole. The analysis is based on an empirical study conducted in the years 2010–2011 by the authors together with local researchers in Yunnan. The results revealed that the mobilities practised among members of the ethnic minority groups in Yunnan included not only outmigration but also cross-border cultivation of plantations, daily and circular mobility, inflows of labour and investors, and involuntary relocation. Although some mobilities may have been conducive to livelihoods and capabilities due to the income-earning and profit-making opportunities arising from the acquisition and appropriation of land and capital, they have also resulted in differentiation processes that confirm the counter-geographies of production, survival, and profit-making. The authors conclude that mobilities do not just concern physical location, but as a social process, mobilities have reconstituted relational references and networks in terms of ethnic and cultural identity, gender relations, labour division, and locality and community integration.     

Albeluvisol development with time in loamy marine sediments of southern Norway

This paper reports a study on soil development in loamy marine sediments on both sides of the Oslofjord (Vestfold, Østfold). This region has been subject to steady glacio-isostatic uplift during the whole Holocene. Hence, land surface age continuously increases from the coast inland. Several sea level curves, based on radiocarbon datings, enable estimation of land surface age for all locations. Clay illuviation starts in less than 1650 years. E horizons become lighter with age, but their lower boundary stays around 40 cm for more than 10 000 years. Albeluvic tongues develop between 4600 and 6200 years. Initially, they form along intersections of cracks. As preferential flow and leaching along the cracks continues, the tongues increase in length and width, progressively consuming the prisms between the cracks in the upper Bt horizon. The Fe_d/Fe_t ratios (weighted means of the upper meter) show a clear linear increase with soil age and may be used for “pedo-dating”, i.e. for estimating the ages of non-dated land surfaces covered with similar sediments. In contrast, the logarithmic decrease of base saturation and pH, with rapid changes in the first time but only very slight changes between 2000 and 10 000 years, makes these parameters unsuitable for “pedo-dating”.     

Nutrient dynamics in the Sylt-Rømø Bight ecosystem,German Wadden Sea: An ecological network analysis approach

Carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus flow networks, consisting of 59 compartments, were constructed for the Sylt-Rømø Bight, a large shallow sea in the German Wadden Sea. These networks were analysed using ecological network analysis. Each network depicts the standing stock of each component in the ecosystem, and the flows between them. The trophic efficiency by which material is utilised in the Bight increase from 3%, to 6% to 17% for C, N and P, respectively. The number of cycles though which these elements pass increase from 1 197 for carbon, to 414?744 and 538?800 for nitrogen and phosphorus, respectively. The Finn Cycling Index, reflecting the amount of material recycled as a fraction of the total system activity, TST, increases from 17% for carbon, to 43% for nitrogen, to 81% for phosphorus. Other system level attributes such as the Average Path Length, the Average Internal Mutual Information, Relative Ascendancy, Relative and Normalized Redundancy, show an increase from the carbon to the nitrogen to the phosphorus networks. Phosphorus is tightly cycled over longer pathways than the other two elements, and also has the longest residence time in the Bight. Postulated differences between the behaviour of energy (or carbon) and biogeochemical networks in coastal ecosystems are evident from the results obtained from ecological network analysis.     

Carbon,nitrogen and phosphorus dynamics in nine sub-systems of the Sylt-Rømø Bight ecosystem,German Wadden Sea

Flow networks of nine sub-systems consisting of 59 components each of the Sylt-Rømø Bight, German Wadden Sea, were constructed depicting the standing stocks and flows of material and energy within and between the sub-systems. Carbon, nitrogen and phosphorous were used as currencies for each sub-system, thus resulting in 27 network models, which were analyzed by ecological network analytical protocols. Results show substantial variability in the dynamics of these elements within and between the nine sub-systems, which differ in habitat structure, species diversity and in the standing stocks of their constituent living and non-living components. The relationship between the biodiversity and selected information indices and ratios, derived from ecological network analysis, of individual sub-systems is variable and differ substantially between them. Ecosystem properties such as the structure and magnitude of the recycling of these elements, number of cycles, and total sub-system activity were calculated and discussed, highlighting the differences between and complexity of the flow of C, N and P in a coastal marine ecosystem. The average number of cycles increase from 179 for C, to 16,923 and 20,580 for N and P respectively, while the average amount of recycled material, as measured by the Finn Cycling Index (FCI), increase from 17% for C, to 52% for P and to 61% for N. The number of cycles and the FCI vary considerably between the sub-systems for the different elements. The largest number of cycles of all three elements was observed in the muddy sand flat sub-system, but the highest FCIs were computed for both C (32%) and N (85%) in the Arenicola Flats, and in sparse Zostera noltii sea grass beds for P (67%). Indices reflecting on the growth, organization and resilience of the sub-systems also showed considerable variability between and within the inter-tidal ecosystems in the Bight. Indices such as, for example, the relative ascendency ratios increase on average from C to N to P, whereas others, such as the Average Mutual Information and Flow Diversity indices, were found to be higher in the N models than in the C or P ones.     

Mobility in marginalized spaces: Manoeuvring for survival among the Veddas in Sri Lanka

In Sri Lanka the indigenous population, the Veddas, are rapidly losing their traditional habitats due to cash cropping and infrastructure development, and they are being forced to find new means of living. The purpose of the article is to show how mobility is an inherent characteristic of the new economy in the country and that mobility is gendered. The author documents how one group of Veddas has become immobilized (Dambane study village, which has turned into a tourist site) while another group has been forced to be more mobile (Henanigale study village, where emigration is increasingly practised) due to the same development policies. The study reveals that the market-led economy has caused spatial fixations that limit people more than they liberate them. These fixations take place in the domestic sphere as well as in the villages and they change gender relations, showing that mobility is intertwined with social processes that change local structures and relationships. In the case of the Veddas, living in marginalized places conditions their motility. Mobility is therefore a selective process and as much about the fact of moving as it is entangled with meaning and the power to produce (im)mobility at different scales.     

Quality of geological CO2 storage to avoid jeopardizing climate targets

We explore allowable leakage for carbon capture and geological storage to be consistent with maximum global warming targets of 2.5 and 3 °C by 2100. Given plausible fossil fuel use and carbon capture and storage scenarios, and based on modeling of time-dependent leakage of CO₂, we employ a climate model to calculate the long-term temperature response of CO₂ emissions. We assume that half of the stored CO₂ is permanently trapped by fast mechanisms. If 40?% of global CO₂ emissions are stored in the second half of this century, the temperature effect of escaped CO₂ is too small to compromise a 2.5 °C target. If 80?% of CO₂ is captured, escaped CO₂ must peak 300?years or later for consistency with this climate target. Due to much more CO₂ stored for the 3 than the 2.5 °C target, quality of storage becomes more important. Thus for the 3 °C target escaped CO₂ must peak 400?years or later in the 40?% scenario, and 3000?years or later in the 80?% scenario. Consequently CO₂ escaped from geological storage can compromise the less stringent 3 °C target in the long-run if most of global CO₂ emissions have been stored. If less CO₂ is stored only a very high escape scenario can compromise the more stringent 2.5 °C target. For the two remaining combinations of storage scenarios and climate targets, leakage must be high to compromise these climate targets.