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Navigating the New Arctic
Mar 20, 2018 |
Navigating the new Arctic is a series of NSF funded workshops led by Craig Allen, Hannah Birge and Martha Shulski. The first meeting was held March 13-15, 2018 in Fairbanks Alaska. |
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A number of RA members are participating in this series of workshops that is designed to explore the theme of convergence as it relates to what is being called The New Arctic, reflecting the complex dynamics and rapid changes underway in the Arctic. The first workshop brought together a diverse group of participants contributing their expertise in the areas of biogeochemistry, economics, traditional knowledge, complex adaptive systems, and resilience.
The workshop focused on six themes that span a variety of perspectives and disciplines including: Arctic resilience to global-scale drivers, Indigenous traditional knowedge, biogeochemical cycling, spatial regimes, agroecosystem mid-latitude linkages, and new tools for convergence.
The United States' National Science Foundation (NSF) funds work addressing grand challenges within science and engineering. Through its "Growing Convergent Research" portfolio , NSF highlights the value of Convergence, i.e., "the deep integration of multiple disciplines in order to ad- vance scientific discovery and innovation."
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Practicing Panarchy - Special Feature in Ecology & Society
Feb 14, 2018 |
Guest editors Chaffin, Gunderson, and Cosens introduce a new special feature that assesses legal and governance aspects of U.S. river systems experiencing climate change. |
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A new special feature in Ecology & Society focuses on the intersection of law, governance, and ecological resilience. Practicing Panarchy: Assessing Legal Flexibility, Ecological Resilience, and Adaptive Governance in U.S. Resilience Water Systems Experiencing Climate Change is edited by Brian Chaffin, Lance Gunderson, and Barbara Cosens.
The special feature articles focus on six watersheds in the United States (Anacostia River, Central Platte River, Klamath River, Columbia River, Middle Rio Grand River, and the Everglades wetlands) and assesses their capacity to adapt and respond to rapid environmental change. In all six cases the river systems involve complex governance systems and historical legacies that influence their capacity to cope with climate change and other stresses. By exploring these cases through a legal lens, the articles help advance our understanding of the role of law and governance in processes of adaptation and transformation. An introduction to the special feature sets the context and lays the foundation for a novel interdisciplinary approach to understanding complex, cross-scale interactions in large watershed systems.
Reference (Introduction to the Special Feature):
Cosens, B. A., L. Gunderson, and B. C. Chaffin. 2018. Introduction to the Special Feature Practicing Panarchy: Assessing legal flexibility, ecological resilience, and adaptive governance in regional water systems experiencing rapid environmental change. Ecology and Society 23(1):4.
https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-09524-230104
Link to the Special Feature table of contents:
https://www.ecologyandsociety.org/issues/view.php?sf=122
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E&S in the news
Dec 04, 2017 |
An article on the role of culture in conservation highlights E&S paper by Alaka Wali and colleagues "A new approach to conservation: using community empowerment for sustainable well-being". |
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Knowledge of natural resources and how to manage them sustainably already exists in many cultures around the world. A recently published study in Ecology and Society proposes a new approach to conservation that taps into ancient traditional knowledge.
The study by Wali et al. is highlighted in The Christian Science Monitor article "Is culture missing from conservation? Scientists take cues from indigenous peoples."
Reference:
Wali, A., D. Alvira, P. S. Tallman, A. Ravikumar, and M. O. Macedo. 2017. A new approach to conservation: using community empowerment for sustainable well-being. Ecology and Society 22(4):6.
https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-09598-220406
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Mindmade Politics
Oct 16, 2017 |
Manjana Milkoreit's book Mindmade Politics: The Cognitive Roots of International Climate Governance, brings together cognitive theories and international relations scholarship to yield new insights for global climate politics. |
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Published by MIT Press, Milkoreit's new book explores the role of cognition in global climate policy to help explain political behavior and decision making. Manjana bridges disciplines to make sense of climate change negotiations by examining the underlying thoughts, beliefs, and emotions of individuals and groups.
More info:
https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/mindmade-politics
Manjana Milkoreit is Assistant Professor of Public Policy in the Department of Political Science at Purdue University and a member of the Resilience Alliance.
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Combining the best of resilience assessment and transition movement approaches
May 02, 2017 |
In a novel study comparing two different approaches to applying resilience thinking, My Sellberg and her co-authors highlight areas for improving resilience assessment. |
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In their paper "Improving participatory resilience assessment by cross-fertilizing the Resilience Alliance (RA) and Transition Movement approaches, Sellberg and colleagues first point out some important differences between the two approaches before describing how they were combined in a series of participatory workshops. Where the RA's workbook falls short of guiding transformation processes, the Transition Movement offers practical tools, and while both share a complex adaptive systems perspective, resilience assessment advances understanding of system dynamics through key concepts such as alternate regimes, thresholds, the adaptive cycle and Panarchy. The paper outlines the benefits of cross-fertilization between the two approaches and also highlights some of the inherent challenges of applying resilience thinking.
Link: https://www.ecologyandsociety.org/vol22/iss1/art28/
Citation:
Sellberg, M. M., S. T. Borgström, A. V. Norström, and G. D. Peterson. 2017. Improving participatory resilience assessment by cross-fertilizing the Resilience Alliance and Transition Movement approaches. Ecology and Society 22(1):28.
https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-09051-220128
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E&S best paper of 2016
Apr 20, 2017 |
The paper "Ancient clam gardens, traditional management portfolios, and the resilience of coupled human-ocean systems" by Julia Jackley, Lindsay Gardner, Audrey Djunaedi and Anne Salomon has been awarded the Best Paper of 2016 in Ecology & Society. |
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In the paper the authors describe how indigenous communities along the central coast of British Columbia built rock walls to change the slope of beaches and expand the optimal habitat for clams, thus contributing to their food security. The management of the clam gardens is part of a suite of resource stewardship practices that are evidenced by structural and cultural legacies still visible on the coast today. In their study the authors compare clam diversity, density, recruitment and biomass between walled beaches and unmodified beaches. They found higher clam density, recruits, and biomass in modified beach terraces created by the ancient rock walls compared to the clam density in nearby unmodified non-walled beaches. The authors also discuss how traditional governance systems involving proprietorship over territory and systems of reciprocity further enhanced system resilience.
The best paper award recognizes novel research that integrates science and policy for sustainable social-ecological systems. The winning paper is voted on by the board of editors from a short list compiled from all peer-reviewed papers published during the year. A prize of 500 Euro from the Foundation of Scientific Symbiosis, scientific-symbiosis.org is awarded to the authors.
Link: https://www.ecologyandsociety.org/vol21/iss4/art20/
Citation:
Jackley, J., L. Gardner, A. F. Djunaedi, and A. K. Salomon. 2016. Ancient clam gardens, traditional management portfolios, and the resilience of coupled human-ocean systems. Ecology and Society 21(4):20.
https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-08747-210420
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Arctic Basecamp Davos 2017
Feb 07, 2017 |
A group of leading scientists set up an Arctic basecamp at this year's World Economic Forum to make sure the world's business leaders heard the message "What happens in the Arctic doesn't stay in the Arctic". |
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In addition to camping out at -24C, RA member Gail Whiteman co-organized the Arctic Basecamp Davos event on 18 January to bring attention to the dramatic changes occurring in the Arctic and how these changes also impact non-Arctic countries and create global economic risks. Gail and her co-organizers describe the motivation for the Arctic Basecamp in a World Economic Forum blog post (https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2017/01/we-set-up-an-arctic-basecamp-at-davos-2017-heres-why).
With keynote speeches from Christiana Figueres, former Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and Al Gore, former US Vice President and Chair of the Climate Reality Project, along with more than 80 VIPs in attendance, the event is helping to put Arctic change on the global agenda. The VIP Arctic science briefing covered key facts about Arctic change, business response to the science, global risks and global solutions.
Nearly 5,000 people watched the event via live streaming over the Arctic Davos facebook page and the event was also mentioned by BBC News who hosted a live Facebook interview with more than 170,000 views.
News clips:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-38659323
http://www.reuters.tv/v/4cD/2017/01/18/trump-heats-up-davos-arctic-basecamp
Keynote presentations:
Al Gore, Christiana Figueres, and Peter Bakker: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCGrWSRzkyW96dzIdZMBLSAA
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Detecting spatial regimes
Jan 09, 2017 |
New research published in Ecology Letters by Shana Sundstrom and colleagues uses data on terrestrial and aquatic animals to successfully detect spatial regimes and their transitions to alternate regimes. |
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As ecological boundaries shift in response to climate change and other anthropogenic forces, detecting regime shifts using spatial data on animal communities, in place of vegetation communities used to define ecoregions, may provide more accuracy.
Using Fisher information, an information theory approach suitable for capturing patterns in system dynamics from multi-variate data, Sundstrom and colleagues used data from avian and zooplankton communities to identify spatial regimes and compare how well they line up with existing ecological boundaries determined using classification methods. The boundaries detected using animal data were considered to reflect ecological reality more than boundaries defined by the classification systems, suggesting that the approach could help with tracking shifting boundaries over time.
The authors also found the Fisher information approach consistently identified spatial regime shifts. They suggest that further research could help managers to select subgroups of species to monitor ecological stability within a community. Craig Allen, one of the paper's co-authors states "we believe the idea of spatial regimes is much more useful, potentially, in identifying impacts and responses to climate change than individually modelling species' responses".
Link: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/ele.12709/full
Citation:
Sundstrom, S. M., Eason, T., Nelson, R. J., Angeler, D. G., Barichievy, C., Garmestani, A. S., Graham, N. A.J., Granholm, D., Gunderson, L., Knutson, M., Nash, K. L., Spanbauer, T., Stow, C. A. and Allen, C. R. (2017), Detecting spatial regimes in ecosystems. Ecol Lett, 20: 19-32. doi:10.1111/ele.12709
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Resilience
Dec 21, 2016 |
Carl Folke on the evolution of resilience research and thinking over 40 years, republished in Ecology & Society. |
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Just in time for holiday reading - here is your chance to get up to date on 40 years of resilience research. Carl Folke, Science Director of the Stockholm Resilience Centre, and a leading scholar of resilience and social-ecological systems, has written a comprehensive summary of resilience for the Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Environmental Science that has now been re-published in Ecology and Society.
The paper follows a natural arc beginning with the foundational work on ecological resilience from Buzz Holling, next making the connection to integrated social-ecological systems as complex adaptive systems, followed by the less chartered area of the Anthropocene, making a strong case for building resilience to the unknown and unexpected.
Folke concludes by emphasizing how resilience thinking is embedded in the capacity of the biosphere to sustain development and human well-being.
More information: http://www.stockholmresilience.org/research/research-news/2016-12-01-an-encyclopedia-of-resilience.html
Original article:
Folke, C. 2016. "Resilience" of the Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Environmental Science (http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780199389414.013.8)
Republished in Ecology & Society:
Folke, C. 2016. Resilience (Republished). Ecology and Society 21(4):44.
https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-09088-210444
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The Arctic is changing faster than ever - Arctic Resilience Report launched Nov. 25
Dec 01, 2016 |
The first comprehensive synthesis and assessment of resilience in the Arctic, written by a team of international researchers. |
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Change in the Arctic is rapid and accelerating. Understanding how to build resilience to help buffer, cope with and adapt to change has been boosted by the recently launched Arctic Resilience Report.
Written by an international team of researchers under the auspices of the Arctic Council, led by the Stockholm Environment Institute and the Stockholm Resilience Centre, the report's international team of authors identified 19 tipping points in Arctic marine, freshwater, and terrestrial ecosystems, including for example, the loss of Arctic sea ice, ocean hypoxia, collapse of fisheries, and transforming landscapes. Not surprisingly the biggest driver of change impacting Arctic communities and social-ecological systems is climate change.
Detailed case studies from across the circumpolar Arctic describe how 25 communities across the Arctic are responding to these unprecedented changes. The analysis reveals factors that help communities to be more resilient including: a capacity for self-organization, having a diversity of responses to change, learning and integrating different types of knowledge and being able to navigate and make decisions amidst uncertainty and surprise.
Achieving resilience in the Arctic will depend on individuals, communities, governments and institutions working across local to global scales to empower, support, and create integrated strategies.
Download the full report from the Arctic Council:
https://oaarchive.arctic-council.org/handle/11374/1838
Digital snapshot of the Arctic Resilience Report:
https://stockholmenvironmentinstitute.exposure.co/into-the-blue
In the media:
Arctic ice melt could trigger uncontrollable climate change at global level (The Guardian)
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/nov/25/arctic-ice-melt-trigger-uncontrollable-climate-change-global-level
Rapidly Changing Arctic Braces for Destabilization (Scientific American)
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/rapidly-changing-arctic-braces-for-destabilization/
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