Rethinking economies/economic geographies

This paper provides a short introduction to the papers in this special issue on Rethinking economies/economic geographies. It focuses on the diversity within and between Economics and Economic Geography in their performative relationships with economies and economic geographies. Questions of power/knowledge and cross-disciplinarity are raised. Five hoped-for consequences of the debate are identified.     

Using carbon finance to support climate policy objectives in high mountain ecosystems

Carbon markets and climate finance payments are being used to incentivize the mitigation of CO₂ arising from anthropogenic land-use change in forests, marine ecosystems, and lowland grasslands. However, no such consideration has been given to how these ‘carbon finance incentives’ might be applied to mountain grasslands and shrublands, ecosystems that contain a substantial amount of carbon. These incentives amount to more than US$350 billion per annum and could potentially support underfunded natural resource management (NRM) activities, which are urgently needed to address numerous stressors impacting these important ecosystems. In the mountain context, NRM activities could include adaptive grazing management, sustainable cropping, ecosystem preservation, ecosystem restoration, and engineered soil conservation measures. This article investigates the stressors, challenges, and priorities related to the NRM of carbon stocks in mountain grasslands and shrublands; why carbon markets and climate finance have not yet been utilized in this context; and, what is required to position mountain-based NRM activities as eligible for carbon finance incentives. Using surveys and interviews triangulated with a systematic literature review, the study found that carbon finance incentives are not well understood, both amongst mountain-focused experts and in the literature. The study also found the required technical methodologies, policy frameworks, and data to be largely undeveloped. This article proposes a top-down conceptual policy framework that can be used to develop key ‘enabling factors’ with the view of extending the eligibility of carbon markets and climate finance to NRM activities undertaken in mountain grasslands and shrublands in the same way that has been afforded to other ecosystems.

Policy relevance

This is the first study to explicitly highlight the important role that the mountain grasslands and shrublands might play in international climate policy, and how carbon finance mechanisms might support better NRM in these areas. It is also the first to investigate why these incentives have not been adopted thus far. The article concludes by proposing a novel top-down ‘carbon incentive enabling’ framework that could be driven by governments and mountain development focused organizations so as to capture some of the opportunities offered by carbon-based incentives, and help meet international climate policy objectives.     

The skeleton of a straight-tusked elephant,Palaeoloxodon antiquus (Falconer and Cautley, 1847) from Selsey,England, and growth and variation in Palaeoloxodon of the European Pleistocene

A partial skeleton of straight-tusked elephant (Palaeoloxodon antiquus) excavated at Selsey beach (Sussex, UK) in 1961 is one of very few from Marine Isotope Stage 7 (MIS 7), ca. 240–200 ka, in Europe. Dental morphometrics, including X-ray micro-computed tomography, confirms the species identification. Age determination through dental wear and skeletal morphology, sex determination through pelvic anatomy, and body-size measurements, together identify the individual as a female of approximately 30 years old with a live shoulder height of ca. 3 m and a body mass of ca. 5 t. Dental mesowear indicates mixed feeding with a significant proportion of grass, indicating selective feeding in a predominately forested environment. Although taphonomic conclusions are limited by the nature of the excavation, identification of 107 recovered skeletal elements indicates predominant preservation of the right side of the animal, suggesting death or burial on the right side in a shallow, slow-moving freshwater environment, with possible removal of other elements by scavenging or decay. Combining the Selsey data with 29 comparative skeletons from across Europe, we demonstrate the validity of pelvic proportions for determining sex and provide a graphical representation of variation and growth rate in males and females of this species.     

The first record of Cuon alpinus (Pallas, 1811) from Poland and the possible impact of other large canids on the evolution of the species

The presence of Cuon alpinus in Poland is documented here for the first time. Between 650 and 450 ka, Lycaon lycaonoides dominated the open lands, while Cuon alpinus priscus tended to prefer forests, mountains and highlands. Canis mosbachensis coexisted in all these environments. Between 480 and 430 ka, there was a drastic reduction in the number and range of L. lycaonoides. The balance between canids was disturbed and a critical point in the lycaon–wolf relationship was passed. Probably between 450 and 400 ka, the lycaon was too rare to be a real competitor and a limiting factor for the wolf. It was also at this time that the lycaon disappeared completely. With disappearance of the lycaon from Eurasia, there was a slow increase in the body size of the wolf. Between 400 and 300 ka, the dhole and the wolf were still close in body size, but the wolf was slowly increasing in size. Between 300 and 250 ka, the wolf became the dominant dog species and took a niche occupied until then by the lycaon. Because of competition, C. alpinus decreased in body size and adapted to hunting and living in forest, mountain and highland environments.     

Insights into plant water uptake from xylem‐water isotope measurements in two tropical catchments with contrasting moisture conditions

Water transpired by trees has long been assumed to be sourced from the same subsurface water stocks that contribute to groundwater recharge and streamflow. However, recent investigations using dual water stable isotopes have shown an apparent ecohydrological separation between tree‐transpired water and stream water. Here we present evidence for such ecohydrological separation in two tropical environments in Puerto Rico where precipitation seasonality is relatively low and where precipitation is positively correlated with primary productivity. We determined the stable isotope signature of xylem water of 30 mahogany (Swietenia spp.) trees sampled during two periods with contrasting moisture status. Our results suggest that the separation between transpiration water and groundwater recharge/streamflow water might be related less to the temporal phasing of hydrologic inputs and primary productivity, and more to the fundamental processes that drive evaporative isotopic enrichment of residual soil water within the soil matrix. The lack of an evaporative signature of both groundwater and streams in the study area suggests that these water balance components have a water source that is transported quickly to deeper subsurface storage compared to waters that trees use. A Bayesian mixing model used to partition source water proportions of xylem water showed that groundwater contribution was greater for valley‐bottom, riparian trees than for ridge‐top trees. Groundwater contribution was also greater at the xeric site than at the mesic–hydric site. These model results (1) underline the utility of a simple linear mixing model, implemented in a Bayesian inference framework, in quantifying source water contributions at sites with contrasting physiographic characteristics, and (2) highlight the informed judgement that should be made in interpreting mixing model results, of import particularly in surveying groundwater use patterns by vegetation from regional to global scales. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Contrasting carbon export dynamics of human impacted and pristine tropical catchments in response to a short‐lived discharge event

Utilising newly available instrumentation, the carbon balance in two small tropical catchments was measured during two discharge events at high temporal resolution. Catchments share similar climatic conditions, but differ in land use with one draining a pristine rainforest catchment, the other a fully cleared and cultivated catchment. The necessity of high resolution sampling in small catchments was illustrated in each catchment, where significant chemical changes occurred in the space of a few hours or less. Dissolved and particulate carbon transport dominated carbon export from the rainforest catchment during high flow, but was surpassed by degassing of CO₂ less than 4 h after the discharge peak. In contrast, particulate organic carbon dominated export from the cleared catchment, in all flow conditions with CO₂ evasion accounting for 5–23% of total carbon flux. Stable isotopes of dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC) in the ephemeral rainforest catchment decreased quickly from ~1.5 ‰ to ~ ?16 ‰ in 5 h from the flood beginning. A two‐point mixing model revealed that in the initial pulse, over 90% of the DIC was of rainwater origin, decreasing to below 30% in low flow. In the cultivated catchment, δ¹³C_DIC values varied significantly less (?11.0 to ?12.2 ‰) but revealed a complex interaction between surface runoff and groundwater sources, with groundwater DIC becoming proportionally more important in high flow, due to activation of macropores downstream. This work adds to an increasing body of work that recognises the importance of rapid, short‐lived hydrological events in low‐order catchments to global carbon dynamics. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.