Political ecology and habitat conservation for endangered species planning in Southern California: Region, places, and ecological governance

The county of Riverside California has a long history of land conservation. In this comparative case study between Western Riverside County and the Coachella Valley area in the county we show how governance institutions that encompass regions that have very different ecologies, are governed by rules and regulations that are undifferentiated relative to those differences. The study argues, however, that what may differ are the workings of the local urban regimes and the metabolic appropriation of ecosystems for economic growth. In this close investigation of the sprawling county of Riverside we find very different approaches to habitat preservation and the enrollment of nature for wealth production by the local urban regimes.     

“I Still Have the Old Tradition”: The co-production of sweetgrass basketry and coastal development

Scholars working around the world have drawn attention to the physical and social changes associated with rural gentrification. Case studies from the United States have focused on how these patterns lead to the cultural displacement and replacement of land-based livelihoods, including non-timber forest product (NTFP) practices. Scholars have also documented the persistence of culturally and economically important NTFP practices in urban and suburban areas. We reconcile these disparate outcomes, displacement on the one hand and persistence on the other, by focusing on the social relationships that co-produce land use and livelihood change. Our case investigates how African American sweetgrass basketmakers in Mount Pleasant South Carolina negotiate the complex terrain of a rapidly urbanizing and gentrifying landscape.Analysis of interviews with basketmakers and participant observation at public meetings suggests that gathering materials and selling baskets occur across spaces not typically considered important for NTFP practices. Access to these sites depends upon continually reinforced and negotiated social relationships between a variety of actors. Findings illustrate that, by themselves, development and gentrification are insufficient for explaining livelihood and land use patterns that emerge in places experiencing intensive development. Using a co-production framework, we acknowledge the wide variety of complex trajectories and local power dynamics shaping land use and livelihoods. Findings also have implications for connecting global research on housing, employment, and demographic transitions associated with rural gentrification, to international NTFP research, which is increasingly turning to rural–urban interfaces for insights on how livelihoods are linked to land development and migration.     

浅议莽山国家森林公园生态旅游的可持续发展

莽山拥有着中国南部保存最完好、面积最大的原生型常绿阔叶林,以独特秀丽的风景和原始自然生态而扬名国内外。简述了莽山国家森林公园的主要旅游资源,并分析了其主要的生态旅游资源特色,就莽山如何进行生态旅游的可持续发展提出了几点建议。     

Studies on ecological characteristics variation and population dynamics of four lizardfishes in the southern Taiwan Straits

The ecological characteristics of four lizardfishes, Trachinocephalus myops, Saurida undosquamis, Saurida tumbil and Saurida elongata, were studied from specimens (910 T. myops, 454 S. un-dosquamis, 686 S. tumbil and 744 S. elongata) collected monthly in the southern Taiwan Straits from April 2005 to March 2006. The population dynamics of the four lizardfishes was also discussed by the comparison with the previous studies. All being composed of 7 a classes; the dominant group of T. myops and S. tumbil was 1-2 a, while S. undosquamis and S. elongate were 2-3 a. The total mortality coefficient Z and the fishing mortality F were at high as indicated by the exploitation ratio E(>0.5), and a large number of by-caught juvenile and young fishes showing that the stock of lizardfishes in this area was overexploited and the fishing gear was irrational. Compared with the previous studies, the maximum and mean fork length, body mass and age of the four lizard-fishes declined gradually, the lizardfishes populations were younger in age and smaller in size. The asymptotic fork length L_∞ decreased while increasing growth coefficient k, and age at the inflexion point of mass t_r was younger compared with the previous studies. The declining of older ones has moderated the feeding competition and the younger ones grew faster. The larger mortality param-eters Z,M and F have revealed higher fishing pressure. The smaller change of the first mature fork length of female T. myops and the change from K selection pattern to r selection pattern of S. tumbil have indicated a more vulnerable fishery ecosystem in this area. The changes of ecological characteristics and population dynamics may be caused by over-exploitation of demersal fishes such as the lizardfishes, especially a large number of juvenile and young fishes by-catch by the current fishing gears and methods. Therefore, in addition to the traditional fishery management approach such as the minimum length-limit, ecosystem approach to fisheries management (EAF) should be taken to improve the practical marine ecosystem management, including increased fishing intensity of the non-economic species especially the feeding competitors of the lizardfishes and the conser-vation of the pelagic fishery population in the fisheries ecosystem, in order to restore the fishery population and achieve the sustainable use of the fishery stocks.     

Historical ecology provides new insights for ecosystem management: eastern Baltic cod case study

A recent historical marine ecological case study (cod in the eastern Baltic Sea) is used to show how long-term data and knowledge of fluctuations can contribute to revisions of fishery management policy. The case study first developed new longer analytical time series of spawner biomass and recruitment back to the 1920s, which extended knowledge of population dynamics into a time period when ecosystem state was characterized by temporally varying combinations of exploitation, climate-hydrographic conditions, marine mammal predation and eutrophication. Recovery of spatially resolved historical catch data from the late 1500s to early 1600s also contributed new perspectives to cod population dynamics under alternative ecosystem forcings. These new perspectives have contributed, and will likely continue to contribute to new management policies (e.g., revision of fishery management reference points), which should lead to higher sustainability of the population and fishery yields, and improved overall ecosystem health. These perspectives will likely continue to provide baseline information as ICES and the EU develop new policies based on maximum sustainable yield concepts.     

The structure of benthic environments and the paleochemical record of foraminifera

Benthic foraminiferal shell geochemistry has been extensively used to develop paleoceanographic tracers. Many of these proxies are sensitive to the geochemical conditions of the microhabitats selected by particular foraminiferal species. Understanding these microhabitats, then, is essential for proper interpretation of the proxies. A simple, broadly accepted, view is that foraminiferal species’ habitats are vertically stratified in the sediments due to general pore-water chemical gradients, which develop in response to the seabed organic carbon flux. Species are categorized into epifaunal, shallow infaunal and deep infaunal habitats, and are supposed to acquire the geochemical characteristics of these. However, this view is at odds with species’ distributional data and foraminiferal geochemical properties. We present an alternate model in which foraminifera select for habitats within the bio-irrigation system of the sediments created by the activities of macro-/meio-fauna. Our distributional and geochemical data indicate that foraminiferal species seek particular biotic associations and geochemical conditions within the complex bio-architecture of the sediments and are not tied to particular sediment depths, or the general pore-water chemistry of their apparent habitation zone. Instead, foraminifera inhabit micro-environments with steep oxic to anoxic gradients. This might account for disparities among geochemical tracers.     

大黄鱼野生群体与养殖群体遗传多样性研究

利用线粒体COI 基因序列片段与ISSR 标记方法, 研究江苏海域大黄鱼（Pseudosciaena crocea）野生群体（JS）的遗传多样性水平, 并比较其与浙江（ZJ）、福建（FJ）养殖群体的遗传差异。结果表明： （1）扩增COI 基因序列片段625bp, 3 个群体65 个序列中有15 个单倍型, 群体间有3 ...     

广东碣石湾污损生物生态研究

2008年5月至2009年4月,对广东碣石湾海域进行周年污损生物挂板试验,本次调查共记录该海域污损生物86种,多属于亚热带沿岸的广布种,其中优势种为网纹纹藤壶(Amphibalanus reticulatus)、翡翠股贻贝(Perna viridis)、太平洋侧花海葵(Anthopleurapacifica)、水云(E...     

Resilience compromised: Producing vulnerability to climate and market among quinoa producers in Southwestern Bolivia

Climate change is already affecting rural communities along the high Andean plateau, but it is just one of many stresses that Andean people experience on a regular basis. This paper examines the experiences of quinoa farmers in Southwestern Bolivia as they faced the overlapping crises of protracted drought and market disruption in 2017. Drawing on political ecologies of resilience, this paper argues that the ability of rural people to cope with this double exposure was already compromised by ecological and social vulnerabilities produced through the development trajectories of the previous two decades. These development strategies generated three overlapping processes: 1) neoliberal entanglements involving specialization in quinoa production, marketization, and individualization of livelihoods in ways that undermined collective action; 2) new relationships of debt that tied households to monetized response paths and undermined flexibility; and 3) the degradation of soils through extensification, overproduction, and industrialization of quinoa production. This paper argues that while climate and market disruptions are not to be dismissed, we must historicize the double exposure to also ask how resilience and vulnerability to such challenges are generated in the first place.     

Reproducing injustice: Why recognition matters in conservation project evaluation

Following critiques of the global environmental justice paradigm, a ‘critical’ environmental justice scholarship is emerging. This article contributes to this important field of inquiry by interrogating project evaluation through a critical recognition justice lens that draws on political ecology. We use an embedded case study of the official donor evaluation of a REDD+ pilot project in Tanzania; comparing narrated accounts of the project recipients' experiences with the official evaluation documents and asking whose ways of knowing, values, and perspectives on governance and justice are recognized and whose are excluded. We find that the report represents a narrow framing of the project experience, based on standard evaluation criteria, the technical framing of the project, and the ways of knowing, values and perspectives of the (inter)national conservation community. The project framings of many local-level project recipients are not recognized in the official evaluation, despite attempts to include villager perspectives and some consideration of justice-related outcomes in the report. Project evaluation is therefore identified as a vehicle for recognition justices and injustices, discursively reproducing the ways of knowing, values and perspectives of certain actors while excluding others. The role of project evaluation in the proliferation of dominant conservation discourse is identified, and the ability for standardized evaluations to deliver meaningful learning is challenged. We therefore call for a reframing of project evaluation and highlight the potential of incorporating critical environmental justice scholarship and pluralistic methodologies.