Survival under chronic stress from sediment load: spatial patterns of hard coral communities in the southern islands of Singapore

Six reef sites were chosen along the west coasts of Singapore's southern islands, to: (1) quantitatively assess and compare coral community composition and structure, and recruitment rates, (2) assess the relationship between the aforementioned patterns and the environmental conditions, and (3) provide insights on potential processes that incorporate history at these study sites. Chronic exposure to high sediment load was the most obvious form of anthropogenic stress. Recruitment rates on ceramic tiles were low (1.4+/-1.0-20+/-14.7 recruits m(-2)year(-1)) but decreased towards the main island of Singapore as did hard coral cover and coral density. Coral fauna consisted of genera generally found in deeper waters (e.g., fungiids, foliose Oxypora, Leptoseris, and Echinopora) or those well adapted to turbid waters (e.g., Porites, Pectinia, Leptastrea, Montipora). Light extinction coefficient (K) and % live coral cover (%LCC) showed a strong and inverse curvilinear relationship (%LCC=13.60 *K(-3.40)). Similarly, the rate of sediment deposition (DFSPM) (Recruitment rate, RR=1.51-0.17 *DFSPM) and water clarity (RR=3.56-2.92 *K) exhibited strong and inverse relationships with recruitment rates. Although measured levels of the down-ward flux of suspended particulate matter and suspended solids were well within "normal" levels recorded in the literature, it was the proportion of benthic space, generic coral composition, and site history that offered compelling evidence of chronic exposure to increased sediment load. Clearly a reduction in both water clarity and live-coral cover has taken place since monitoring efforts began in the early 1970s, in fact coral cover has more than halved at all sites examined since the 1980s and benthic space was predominantly occupied by dead corals covered with sediment and filamentous algae.     

George J. Miller award for Distinguished Service

Abstract

With this paper, I elaborate the use of the movies American History X and Mi Familia in classroom settings to highlight issues of ethnicity and the social construction of identity through families and communities. Taken together, these movies draw attention to racial geographies of Los Angeles but in very different ways. I contrast the ways they involve familial reactions to geographies of exclusion and betrayal, and how racial space is structured through larger community and institutional relations. I speak to how these issues are broached in a large introductory, interdisciplinary class.     

珠江三角洲地区城中村土地供求的动态均衡分析

土地问题是我国城中村研究的核心问题。在对珠江三角洲地区城中村进行实地调研的基础上,就城中村主体的行为特征、城中村土地供应和需求的基本特征进行了总结。以理论推导与现实印证相结合的方法,基于经济学中的供求理论,对城中村土地供求变化进行了动态均衡分析。从村庄"内部人"的视角,考察在各种内外部因素变动(征地与留用地,城中村改造,村民城市化转型)的情况下,城中村主体如何实现土地的供应和需求均衡。总体上,城中村土地变化表现为土地需求被动地追随(因征地而发生的)供应减少而下降,以实现供求均衡。具体而言,在城中村形成阶段,供求均衡借助乡村工业化,即农业用地转为工业用地而实现;在城中村存续阶段,存在土地供求的逐渐失衡;在城中村改造阶段,供求均衡最终必须通过城市化,即村民转为市民而实现。     

城中村流动人口日常活动时空间结构——基于北京若干典型城中村的调查

在对北京5个城中村进行24 h活动日志实证调查的基础上,发现城中村流动人口在工作日和休息日的时间利用分别可以划分为6类,每一类的时间利用特征都与社会环境及该类人群的属性特征密切相关,其中工作、娱乐、家务等活动起主导作用。就城中村流动人口而言,不同类别人群工作日和休息日活动的时空间结构与其时间利用特征紧密联系,同样也受到社会环境的制约。生活活动路径展示出居民的日常活动正越来越表现出个性化、多样化和差异性的特征,是多种因素共同作用的结果。宏观环境、生活空间以及自身特征3个层次的影响因素综合作用于居民的个体行为,导致城中村流动人口活动时空间结构展现出独特的特征。基于微观个体的日常活动研究可以为掌握城市人群生活空间结构、制定城市规划等提供重要参考。     

Floribec: The life and death of a tourism-based transnational community

The authors outline how a tourist destination can morph into a tourism-based transnational community. A three-phase model is designed to explore the touristification process of a transnational community. The phases are the adoption of a tourist destination, the transformation of the destination into a tourism-based transnational community, and decline under real estate and ageing population pressures.     

Competing rationalities in water conflict: Mining and the indigenous community in Chiu Chiu,El Loa Province,northern Chile

Conflict over water is a significant phenomenon in many parts of the world where globally linked neoliberal economic activities encroach on the lands of indigenous peoples. This case study from Chile examines how water scarcity affecting indigenous agricultural communities in the Chilean Altiplano has been exacerbated by legally sanctioned mining‐related practices. Notably, the legal framing of the 1981 Water Code promotes private ownership of water rights and enhanced mining activity usually at the expense of the ancestral territorial rights of indigenous communities. In the case of the Atacameño community of Chiu Chiu, a serious decrease in subsistence and agriculture production has been suffered as a consequence of reduced flow in the Loa River, resulting from the water intensive needs and extraction practices of the nearby Chuquicamata mine owned by Codelco, the National Copper Corporation of Chile. Via an analysis of the political ecology of competing rationalities this paper explores how an economic rationality based on utilitarian and reductionist thinking manifested by Codelco has taken precedence locally over a socionatural rationality grounded in holistic thinking and sustainability concerns as articulated by the Chiu Chiu community.     

Rural household demographics, livelihoods and the environment

This paper reviews and synthesizes findings from scholarly work on linkages among rural household demographics, livelihoods and the environment. Using the livelihood approach as an organizing framework, we examine evidence on the multiple pathways linking environmental variables and the following demographic variables: fertility, migration, morbidity and mortality, and lifecycles. Although the review draws on studies from the entire developing world, we find the majority of microlevel studies have been conducted in either marginal (mountainous or arid) or frontier environments, especially Amazonia. Though the linkages are mediated by many complex and often context-specific factors, there is strong evidence that dependence on natural resources intensifies when households lose human and social capital through adult morbidity and mortality, and qualified evidence for the influence of environmental factors on household decision-making regarding fertility and migration. Two decades of research on lifecycles and land cover change at the farm level have yielded a number of insights about how households make use of different land-use and natural resource management strategies at different stages. A thread running throughout the review is the importance of managing risk through livelihood diversification, ensuring future income security, and culture-specific norms regarding appropriate and desirable activities and demographic responses. Recommendations for future research are provided.     

南海北部台西南盆地973-4岩芯碳的地球化学特征

对南海北部台西南盆地天然气水合物潜在区(973-4岩芯)碳的形态、含量和稳定同位素组成进行了分析,并探讨了成岩环境因素和细菌种群与碳地球化学行为的关系。结果显示:(1)TOC含量为0.4%~1.3%,δ~(13)CTOC为–26.7‰~–23.9‰,说明973-4岩芯主要为陆源有机质,能够满足微生物产甲烷的需要;DIC和δ~(13)CIC的垂向变异及其显著负相关,指示:973-4岩芯560~890 cm深度段有SO42–驱动的AOM反应。(2)p H、Eh、沉积物粒径等成岩环境参数与TOC、IC、δ~(13)CTOC、δ~(13)CIC等碳地化参数显著相关。(3)细菌种群与DIC、δ~(13)CIC显著相关。结论认为:(1)973-4岩芯碳的地化行为与天然气水合物成藏存在明显响应关系。(2)成岩环境参数的垂向变异与碳的地球化学特征密切相关。(3)细菌种群对碳的地化参数变异有着显著影响。     

吉林省村域尺度下居民点空间分布特征及优化重组模式

乡村聚落的空间优化与重构是提高土地资源利用效率,改善农村生产生活条件,促进乡村可持续发展的重要手段。以吉林省为例,采用核密度估计方法和景观形状指数分析了农村居民点空间分布特征,基于农户调查数据估算了吉林省不同区域的农村宅基地闲置情况,将农村居民点长期存在的“破碎化”和日益突出的“空心化”相结合,提出了在行政村尺度下农村居民点优化重组的“整小填大”新模式。结果表明：① 吉林省农村居民点规模小且零散分布,尤其中部呈破碎化分布,形态不规则,具有较大的整治潜力;② 吉林省农村宅基地平均闲置率为18.32%,西部地区最高（24.48%）,分别高于东部和中部地区约6%和12%;③“整小填大”模式可使农村居民点数量减少44.6%,增加有效耕地面积1 046.66 km²。     

Downstream effects of dams on livelihoods of river-dependent communities: the case of Ghana’s Kpong Dam

Construction of dams affects the livelihoods of the population living along the dammed river. There is a need for more studies to guide dam development policies and management to safeguard the livelihoods of local river users. This paper examines the effects of dams on the socio-economic livelihoods of downstream communities by drawing on the Kpong Dam in Ghana constructed from 1979 to 1982 with the goal of supplying energy and for irrigation purposes. Primary data were collected in resettled and non-resettled downstream communities using a mixed-research approach. This case study highlights how the Kpong Dam has affected the downstream river-dependent population whose livelihoods, particularly farming and fishing revolved around the seasonal flow regimes of the Volta River. Our study challenges the general perception that dams increase agricultural production by illustrating that developing ancillary facilities such as irrigation schemes as part of dam projects can enhance all-year-round agricultural production to improve food and income security of downstream households only when constraints such as lack of farm inputs are addressed. To safeguard livelihoods and limit the social impacts of dams, compensation schemes and alternative livelihood activities should be designed to include resettled and non-resettled communities along the downstream areas affected by dam projects.