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1. Assessing vulnerability of subsistence travel to effects of environmental change in Interior Alaska

   https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-11426-250120  

   Cold, H.S. (March 2020, Ecology and society)

   null (Ed.)

   Amplified climate warming at high northern latitudes is challenging societies that depend on local provisional and cultural ecosystem services, e.g., subsistence resources, for their livelihoods. Previous qualitative research suggests that climate-induced changes in environmental conditions are affecting rural residents’ ability to travel across the land and access local resources, but detailed information on the nature and effect of specific conditions is lacking. Our objectives were to identify climate-related environmental conditions affecting subsistence travel and access, and then estimate rural resident travel and access vulnerability to those environmental conditions. We collaborated with nine Interior Alaskan communities within the Yukon River basin and provided residents with camera equipped GPS units to document environmental conditions directly affecting subsistence access for 12 consecutive months. We also conducted comprehensive interviews with research participants to incorporate the effects of environmental conditions not documented with GPS units. Environmental conditions reported by rural residents were categorized into seven condition types. We assessed vulnerability to each condition by accounting for both likelihood (number of times a condition was documented) and sensitivity (magnitude of the effect from the condition) information derived from GPS observations and interviews. We also tested for differences in mean vulnerability values among environmental conditions and between community types (road-connected vs. remote) using a oneway analysis of variance. Rural community travel and access were most vulnerable to changes in ice conditions, erosion, vegetative community composition, and water levels. Environmental conditions that impeded natural travel corridors, e.g., waterways, more strongly influenced remote communities than those connected by roads. Increased vulnerability to environmental change puts remote communities at increased risk for food-security issues. Our study used a novel community-based approach to integrate local knowledge with scientific analysis to document and estimate the relative effects that specific environmental conditions are having on access to subsistence resources across Interior Alaska. 

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2. Using ecosystem services to identify inequitable outcomes in migratory species conservation

   https://doi.org/10.1111/conl.12920  

   Chester, Charles_C; Lien, Aaron_M; Sundberg, Juanita; Diffendorfer, Jay_E; Gonzalez‐Duarte, Columba; Mattsson, Brady_J; Medellín, Rodrigo_A; Semmens, Darius_J; Thogmartin, Wayne_E; Derbridge, Jonathan_J; et al (September 2022, Conservation Letters)

   Abstract Biodiversity conservation efforts have been criticized for generating inequitable socio‐economic outcomes. These equity challenges are largely analyzed as place‐based problems affecting local communities directly impacted by conservation programs. The conservation of migratory species extends this problem geographically since people in one place may benefit while those in another bear the costs of conservation. Thespatial subsidiesapproach offers an effective tool for analyzing such relationships between places connected by migratory species. Designed to quantify ecosystem services provided and received in specific locations across a migratory species’ range—and the disparities between them—the spatial subsidies approach highlights three axes of inequity: between indigenous and settler colonial societies, between urban and rural populations, and between the Global North and Global South. Recognizing these relationships is critical to achieving two mutually reinforcing policy goals: avoiding inequitable conservation outcomes in efforts to conserve migratory species, and ensuring effective long‐term conservation of migratory species. In demonstrating how the spatial subsidies approach enables the identification and quantification of inequities involving three migratory species (northern pintail ducks, monarch butterflies, and Mexican free‐tailed bats), we argue that a spatial subsidies approach could apply to migratory species conservation efforts worldwide under the context of “payments for ecosystem services.” 

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3. The importance of communal forests in carbon storage: Using and destabilizing carbon measurement in understanding Guatemala's payments for ecosystem services

   https://doi.org/10.1111/cag.12810  

   vonHedemann, Nicolena (October 2022, Canadian Geographies / Géographies canadiennes)

   Payments for ecosystem services (PES) are a conservation initiative that offer payments to people who own or manage lands that provide desired ecosystem services. Utilizing mixed methods, I examine how PES in the form of government‐issued forestry incentives interact with land tenure to affect carbon storage in Guatemala's Western Highlands. Land tenure is a larger determining factor for carbon storage than payments, as communal forests managed by Indigenous Maya K'iche' communities have significantly higher carbon stocks than private landholdings in these same communities. No statistically significant differences were found in carbon stocks between incentivized and non‐incentivized plots, and participants enrolled only a fraction of their land, likely prioritizing enrollment of degraded plots. These results indicate the importance of using both social and physical science methods to understand the physical outcomes and social context of forest management. I also reflect on why carbon storage is often prioritized, drawing on a critical physical geography framework to analyze carbon accounting methods. Measuring carbon storage gives us the tools to describe the success of communal forest management, yet I also caution relying on the quantification of ecosystem services as a method for landscape valuation and suggest avoiding prioritizing carbon storage and sequestration. 

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4. The application of metacommunity theory to the management of riverine ecosystems

   https://doi.org/10.1002/wat2.1557  

   Patrick, Christopher J.; Anderson, Kurt E.; Brown, Brown L.; Hawkins, Charles P.; Metcalfe, Anya; Saffarinia, Parsa; Siqueira, Tadeu; Swan, Christopher M.; Tonkin, Jonathan D.; Yuan, Lester L. (September 2021, WIREs Water)

   Abstract River managers strive to use the best available science to sustain biodiversity and ecosystem function. To achieve this goal requires consideration of processes at different scales. Metacommunity theory describes how multiple species from different communities potentially interact with local‐scale environmental drivers to influence population dynamics and community structure. However, this body of knowledge has only rarely been used to inform management practices for river ecosystems. In this article, we present a conceptual model outlining how the metacommunity processes of local niche sorting and dispersal can influence the outcomes of management interventions and provide a series of specific recommendations for applying these ideas as well as research needs. In all cases, we identify situations where traditional approaches to riverine management could be enhanced by incorporating an understanding of metacommunity dynamics. A common theme is developing guidelines for assessing the metacommunity context of a site or region, evaluating how that context may affect the desired outcome, and incorporating that understanding into the planning process and methods used. To maximize the effectiveness of management activities, scientists, and resource managers should update the toolbox of approaches to riverine management to reflect theoretical advances in metacommunity ecology. This article is categorized under:Water and Life > Nature of Freshwater EcosystemsWater and Life > Conservation, Management, and AwarenessWater and Life > Methods 

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5. Rural Smart Shrinkage and Perceptions of Quality of Life in the American Midwest

   https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-50540-0_20  

   Zarecor, K.; Peters, D.; Hamideh, S. (January 2021, International handbooks of qualityoflife)

   null; null; null (Ed.)

   Rural communities in the American Midwest have experienced upheaval since the 1980s with shrinking populations, an exodus of younger people, job losses, and aging infrastructure. Evidence shows that these trends are unlikely to be reversed in most places. Despite this, high-cost and unproven economic growth strategies are still promoted as the most appropriate responses. This chapter presents findings from an interdisciplinary research project about quality of life (QoL) in rural Iowa that proposes changing the analytical paradigm in this context from growth to one that sees adaptation to population loss as a form of resiliency. Using qualitative and quantitative data, the research considers how some shrinking rural communities in Iowa have been better able to adapt than others. The research shows that negative trends in QoL perceptions in these towns were best mitigated by investing in community services and social capital, rather than in economic development. This process is described as rural smart shrinkage, a term borrowed from research on shrinking cities and applied here to rural communities for the first time. The framework shifts away from associating population loss with community decline and instead emphasizes intentional and low-cost strategies that may sustain shrinking rural communities into the future. 

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