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Part III - Global Change and Indigenous Responses
Abstract
Confronted with the complex environmental crises of the Anthropocene, scientists have moved towards an interdisciplinary approach to address challenges that are both social and ecological. Several arenas are now calling for co-production of new transdisciplinary knowledge by combining Indigenous knowledge and science. This book revisits epistemological debates on the notion of co-production and assesses the relevant methods, principles and values that enable communities to co-produce. It explores the factors that determine how indigenous-scientific knowledge can be rooted in equity, mutual respect and shared benefits. Resilience through Knowledge Co-Production includes several collective papers co-authored by Indigenous experts and scientists, with case studies involving Indigenous communities from the Arctic, Pacific islands, the Amazon, the Sahel and high altitude areas. Offering guidance to indigenous peoples, scientists, decision-makers and NGOs, this book moves towards a decolonised co-production of knowledge that unites indigenous knowledge and science to address global environmental crises.
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This article illustrates how the Yamal‐Nenets, a group of reindeer pastoralists in West Siberia, perceive a series of recent natural disasters to be connected to one another through a conspiracy – i.e. caused by the agency of malevolent human forces which are beyond the pastoralists’ control. Recent fieldwork during the peak of the global Covid‐19 epidemic served as a trigger for this observation. Their self‐confidence in the robustness of their lifestyle and their embeddedness within their natural environment is so strong that Yamal‐Nenets nomads believe only evil forces – not nature – can stop them from being mobile. Alongside Covid‐19, they interpret the severe consequences of natural disasters, such as iced pastures, related reindeer starvation and the outbreak of anthrax as man‐made attempts to reduce the number of people and animals in the tundra. The blame they place on humans for these disasters takes place in the context of hitherto unseen gas industry developments in the area. Such interpretations may become a general pattern for changing perceptions of the world by remote indigenous populations when deprived of their once customary shamanic dialogue with the spirits.
Local communities’ dependence on the environment for their livelihood has guided the development of indicators of local weather and climate variability. These indicators are encoded in different forms of oral knowledge. We explore whether people recognize and perceive as accurate one type of such forms of oral knowledge, climate-related proverbs. We conducted research in the Alta Alpujarra Occidental, Sierra Nevada, Spain. We collected locally recognized proverbs and classified them according to whether they referred to the climatic, the physical, or the biological system. We then conducted questionnaires (n = 97) to assess informant’s ability to recognize a selection of 30 locally relevant proverbs and their perception of the accuracy of the proverb. Climate-related proverbs are abundant and relatively well recognized even though informants consider that many proverbs are not accurate nowadays. Although proverbs’ perceived accuracy varied across informant’s age, level of schooling, and area of residence, overall proverb’s lack of reported accuracy goes in line with climate change trends documented by scientists working in the area. While our findings are limited to a handful of proverbs, they suggest that the identification of mismatches and discrepancies between people’s reports of proverb (lack of) accuracy and scientific assessments could be used to guide future research on climate change impacts.
The Amazon basin is the largest watershed on Earth. The variability of its hydrological cycle has been increasing since the late 1990s, but the underlying causes have remained elusive. We use water levels in the Amazon river to quantify changes in extreme events and then analyze their cause. Despite repeated emphasis on droughts, the largest change over recent decades is a marked increase in very severe floods. Increased flooding is linked to a strengthening of the Walker circulation, resulting from strong tropical Atlantic warming and tropical Pacific cooling. Atlantic warming due to combined anthropogenic and natural factors has contributed to enhance the change in atmospheric circulation. Whether this anomalous increase in flooding will last depends on the evolution of the tropical inter-ocean temperature difference.
Taking Boaventura de Sousa Santos' argument that there is no global social justice without global cognitive justice as its starting point, this article suggests that there is no global climate justice without global cognitive justice (implying both ontological justice and epistemological justice). If we take "the ontological turn" in anthropology and other disciplines and its focus on indigenous ontologies seriously, however, we seem to end up in a situation that is difficult to maneuver in relation to conventional understandings of climate justice. When discussing climate change in relation to multiple ontologies, there are two risks: 1) reproducing what I call "the coloniality of reality", arguing that indigenous ontologies are actually nothing but a cultural (mis-) representation of the world; 2) reproducing a conservative relativism that leads to nothing but the maintenance of status quo and that bears a resemblance to climate change denial. A thorough ethnographic understanding of what I would call "the moral meteorology" of the Andes and a broadened understanding of climate change, however, make it possible to navigate between the Scylla of coloniality and the Charybdis of relativism and to articulate a radical critique of fossil-fueled capitalism from a relational ontology, demanding climate justice while denouncing coloniality, and discussing the political ontology of climate change without ignoring its political ecology - and vice versa. Key words: Coloniality; climate justice; cognitive justice; political ontology; political ecology; Aymara
This article discusses the epistemic racism/sexism that is foundational to the knowledge structures of the Westernized University. The article proposes that the epistemic priviledge of Western Man in Westenized Universities' structures of knowledge, is the result of four genocides/epistemicides in the long 16th century (against Jewish and Muslim origin population in the conquest of Al-Andalus, against indigenous people in the conquest of the Americas, against Africans kidnapped and enslaved in the Americas and against women burned alive accused of being witches in Europe). The article proposes that Dussel´s argument in the sense that the condition of possibility for the mid-17th century Cartesian "I think, therefore I am" (ego cogito) is the 150 years of "I conquer, therefor I am" (ego conquiro) is historically mediated by the genocide/epistemicide of the "I exterminate, therefore I am" (ego extermino). The "I exterminate" as the socio-historical structural mediation between the "I think" and the "I conquer".
Using participatory approaches, Tibetan calendars and land use maps were drawn by Tibetan villagers in the Khawa Karpo area of northwest Yunnan. Villagers were then asked to identify changes in both calendars and land use over the last 20-50 years, identify the effects of climate change, and describe in detail their adaptations to climate change. Global climate change per say is seldom recognized among Tibetans (there has been little or no explanation of these concepts in the popular media), but virtually all people recognize such effects as warming temperatures, melting glaciers, irregular rain patterns, advancing treeline, etc. Additionally, semi-structured/open ended interviews with local professionals (e.g., agronomists, foresters, meteorologists, NGOs, monks, Tibetan calendar makers, etc.) were held in Deqin, Shangri-la and Lhasa. Results indicate that perceived causes of and reactions to climate change are often spiritual as with many other indigenous peoples around the world. In addition, tourists, pollution (both physical and spiritual), cars and electricity are often blamed for changes in climate. Both traditional knowledge processes (e.g. experimentation and innovation) and outcomes (e.g., locally adapted varieties, soil amendments, and pest management) are evident. Reported effects, adaptations and innovations include widespread farmer experimentation with new crops; varieties; planting, harvesting, and herding dates; field locations; increased organic soil amendments; afforestation; changes in NTP populations, phenologies and distributions; previously unseen or increased crop and animal diseases, insect pests, and weeds; and negative effects on Tibetan health and culture. One of the most striking innovations/adaptations is the often dominant commercial production of grapes and wine, including specialty and award winning ice-wine. Grapes (Cabernet Sauvignon) were originally introduced by French missionaries a hundred years ago, grown then only in church yard cloisters, protected from cold and severe weather, but which can now be grown throughout the Mekong (Lancang) river valley. This local adaptation is most recently being dominated by government purchase of grapes and wine production, taking the added value from locals and increasing the market to the point where traditional Tibetan agriculture is completely displaced by commercial production in some villages. Indigenous peoples, including Tibetans, with their direct vulnerability and adaptations to and perceptions and mitigations of climate change deserve a place at the table where climate change policy is made.
Defaunation is one of the most critical challenges faced by contemporary hunter-gatherers worldwide. In the present chapter we explore how this global anthropogenic phenomenon is being explained by a hunter-gatherer society: the Tsimane’ of Bolivian Amazonia. First, we briefly review the historical context of contemporary Tsimane’, with a special focus on defaunation trends in their territory. We then draw on ethnographic accounts to understand how this society explains the drivers of defaunation and integrates them in their understanding of the world, and specifically in their mythology. The Tsimane’ perceive widespread defaunation in their territory, which they tend to largely interpret as a result of both natural and supernatural forces, with intertwined arguments. The Tsimane’ think that supernatural deities control animals and, consequently, they largely associate wildlife scarcity with punishments by the spirits in response to disrespectful conducts. As such, defaunation is interpreted as a consequence of (a) direct harm to wildlife populations by the inappropriate hunting and fishing behaviour; and (b) the discontentment of the animal deities for not respecting certain established cultural norms. In the Tsimane’ view, the latter is also aggravated by their recent relative inability to communicate with the spirits, due to the disappearance of shamans. Considering that the way people interpret environmental change can determine their behaviour towards proposed conservation actions, understanding the symbolic dimensions of defaunation is of direct relevance to any initiative aiming for sustainable wildlife management in areas inhabited by hunter-gatherers.
Sea ice loss is proposed as a primary reason for the
Arctic amplification, although the physical mechanism of the Arctic
amplification and its connection with sea ice melting is still in debate. In
the present study, monthly ERA-Interim reanalysis data are analyzed via
cyclostationary empirical orthogonal function analysis to understand the
seasonal mechanism of sea ice loss in the Arctic Ocean and the Arctic
amplification. While sea ice loss is widespread over much of the perimeter
of the Arctic Ocean in summer, sea ice remains thin in winter only in the
Barents–Kara seas. Excessive turbulent heat flux through the sea surface
exposed to air due to sea ice reduction warms the atmospheric column. Warmer
air increases the downward longwave radiation and subsequently surface air
temperature, which facilitates sea surface remains to be free of ice. This
positive feedback mechanism is not clearly observed in the Laptev, East
Siberian, Chukchi, and Beaufort seas, since sea ice refreezes in late fall
(November) before excessive turbulent heat flux is available for warming the
atmospheric column in winter. A detailed seasonal heat budget is presented
in order to understand specific differences between the Barents–Kara seas
and Laptev, East Siberian, Chukchi, and Beaufort seas.
Indigenous Arctic and Subarctic communities currently are facing a myriad of social and environmental changes. In response to these changes, studies concerning indigenous knowledge (IK) and climate change vulnerability, resiliency, and adaptation have increased dramatically in recent years. Risks to lives and livelihoods are often the focus of adaptation research; however, the cultural dimensions of climate change are equally important because cultural dimensions inform perceptions of risk. Furthermore, many Arctic and Subarctic IK climate change studies document observations of change and knowledge of the elders and older generations in a community, but few include the perspectives of the younger population. These observations by elders and older generations form a historical baseline record of weather and climate observations in these regions. However, many indigenous Arctic and Subarctic communities are composed of primarily younger residents. We focused on the differences in the cultural dimensions of climate change found between young adults and elders. We outlined the findings from interviews conducted in four indigenous communities in Subarctic Alaska. The findings revealed that (1) intergenerational observations of change were common among interview participants in all four communities, (2) older generations observed more overall change than younger generations interviewed by us, and (3) how change was perceived varied between generations. We defined “observations” as the specific examples of environmental and weather change that were described, whereas “perceptions” referred to the manner in which these observations of change were understood and contextualized by the interview participants. Understanding the differences in generational observations and perceptions of change are key issues in the development of climate change adaptation strategies.
Climate change has been characterized as the most serious threat to Arctic biodiversity. In addition to gradual changes such as climate warming, extreme weather events, such as melting temperatures in winter and rain on snow, can have profound consequences for ecosystems. Rain-on-snow events lead to the formation of ice layers in the snow pack, which can restrict access to forage plants and cause crashes of herbivore populations. These direct impacts can have cascading effects on other ecosystem components, often mediated by trophic interactions. Here we document how heavy rain in early winter, leading to the formation of a thick layer of ice, was associated with dramatic mortality of domestic reindeer on Yamal Peninsula, Russia. In the subsequent summer, breeding of two boreal generalist predators, red fox and Hooded Crow, was recorded for the first time in a monitoring area in the Low Arctic tundra of this region. We suggest that the resource pulse created by the abnormally high reindeer mortality and abundance of carrion may have facilitated these breeding events north of the known breeding range of the two species. Our observations provide an example of how specific emergent weather events may indirectly pave the way for more abrupt, although possibly temporary, species range changes.
In the interests of improving engagement with Pacific Island communities to enable development of effective and sustainable adaptation strategies to climate change, we looked at how traditional oral narratives in rural/peripheral Fiji communities might be used to inform such strategies. Interviews were undertaken and observations made in 27 communities; because the custodians of traditional knowledge were targeted, most interviewees were 70-79 years old.
The view that oral traditions, particularly those referring to environmental history and the observations/precursors of environmental change, were endangered was widespread and regretted. Interviewees' personal experiences of extreme events (natural disasters) were commonplace but no narratives of historical (unwitnessed by interviewees) events were found. In contrast, experiences of previous village relocations attributable (mainly) to environmental change were recorded in five communities while awareness of environmentally driven migration was more common. Questions about climate change elicited views dominated by religious/fatalist beliefs but included some more pragmatic ones; the confusion of climate change with climate variability, which is part of traditional knowledge, was widespread.
The erosion of traditional environmental knowledge in the survey communities over recent decades has been severe and is likely to continue apace, which will reduce community self-sufficiency and resilience. Ways of conserving such knowledge and incorporating it into adaptation planning for Pacific Island communities in rural/peripheral locations should be explored.
There has been much public comment on the recent Encyclical Letter of Pope Francis. Not least this has come from climate change commentators, communicators and policy advocates welcoming the Pope’s engagement with the issue. In this short commentary I want to question whether this Papal intervention is really about climate change, or even about the environment more broadly. Rather, he offers a profound analysis of humanity’s earthly predicament.
Assessing the cultural benefits provided by non-market ecosystem services can contribute previously unknown information to supplement conservation decision-making. The concept of sense of place embeds all dimensions of peoples’ perceptions and interpretations of the environment, such as attachment, identity or symbolic meaning, and has the potential to link social and ecological issues. This review contains: (1) an evaluation of the importance of sense of place as an ecosystem service; and (2) comprehensive discussion as to how incorporating sense of place in an evaluation can uncover potential benefits for both biodiversity conservation and human well-being. Sense of place provides physical and psychological benefits to people, and has neglected economic value. The biodiversity-related experiences are essential components of the service that need to be further explored. A conceptual framework was used to explore how the existing knowledge on sense of place derived from other fields can be used to inform conservation decision-making, but further research is needed to fill existing gaps in knowledge. This review contributes to a better understanding of the role biodiversity plays in human well-being, and should inform the Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES).
Rapid climate change in the Himalaya threatens the traditional livelihoods of remote mountain communities, challenges traditional systems of knowledge, and stresses existing socio-ecological systems. Through semi-structured interviews, participatory photography, and repeat photography focused on climate change and its impacts on traditional livelihoods, we aim to shed light on some of the socio-cultural implications of climate related change in Manang, a remote village in the Annapurna Conservation Area of Western Nepal. Observed changes in temperature, precipitation, permanent snow cover, and glacial extent directly inform villagers’ perceptions of and adaptations to Himalayan climate change. Adaptation strategies include a shift from traditional agropastoral practices to a more diversified blend of agropastoralism, tourism services, and cashcrop production. Climate change has tipped the scales in favor of the production of fruits and vegetables, cash crops previously unsuitable to the local climate. Diversification of livelihood strategies signifies transformation within the socio-ecological system of Manang and may enable greater resiliency to long-term climatic change. Continued development of relevant, place-based adaptations to rapid Himalayan climate change depends on local peoples’ abilities to understand the potential impacts of climate change and to adjust within complex, traditional socio-ecological systems.
This paper reviews recent progress in the study and understanding of extreme seasonal events in the Amazon
region, focusing on drought and floods. The review includes a history of droughts and floods in the past, in the present
and some discussions on future extremes in the context of climate change and its impacts on the Amazon region. Several
extreme hydrological events, some of them characterized as ‘once in a century’, have been reported in the Amazon region
during the last decade. While abundant rainfall in various sectors of the basin has determined extreme floods along the river’s
main stem in 1953, 1989, 1999, 2009, 2012–2015, deficient rainfall in 1912, 1926, 1963, 1980, 1983, 1995, 1997, 1998,
2005 and 2010 has caused anomalously low river levels, and an increase in the risk and number of fires in the region, with
consequences for humans. This is consistent with changes in the variability of the hydrometeorology of the basin and suggests
that extreme hydrological events have been more frequent in the last two decades. Some of these intense/reduced rainfalls and
subsequent floods/droughts were associated (but not exclusively) with La Niña/El Niño events. In addition, moisture transport
anomalies from the tropical Atlantic into Amazonia, and from northern to southern Amazonia alter the water cycle in the
region year-to-year. We also assess the impacts of such extremes on natural and human systems in the region, considering
ecological, economic and societal impacts in urban and rural areas, particularly during the recent decades. In the context of
the future climate change, studies show a large range of uncertainty, but suggest that drought might intensify through the 21st
century.
Science as it has come to be defined in Western thought is at the root of our current environmental problems. This article reviews the historical trajectory of specific facets in Western thought, including the disenchantment of nature, the apotheosis of reason, the technological domination of nature, and the Puritan temper. Illuminating this history points out that what is called “rational” and what popularly acceptable as “science” is in fact a by-product of specific historical, cultural, and political circumstances, and has produced a culture of “scientism” that is ideological, not value-free, and is in fact contrary to the open inquiry of science. These ideas are linked to economic rationality, colonialism, and human rights, severing modern humans from our Indigenous roots and fostering an ideology of rapacious environmental exploitation. The author proposes “indigeneity” as embracing the holistic knowledge and wisdom found in traditional cultures while also utilizing the advances in science and other areas of human endeavor. Specifically, the paper argues for bringing about a new cultural discourse that helps reshape human behavior into a more sustainable direction. The role of communication and storytelling is emphasized, with an example given in the story of Polynesian voyaging and the five values of the voyaging canoe.
Indigenous societies hold a great deal of ethnoclimatological knowledge that could potentially be of key importance for both climate change science and local adaptation; yet, we lack studies examining how such knowledge might be shaped by media communication. This study systematically investigates the interplay between local observations of climate change and the reception of media information amongst the Tsimane’, an indigenous society of Bolivian Amazonia where the scientific discourse of anthropogenic climate change has barely reached. Specifically, we conducted a Randomized Evaluation with a sample of 424 household heads in 12 villages to test to what degree local accounts of climate change are influenced by externally influenced awareness. We randomly assigned villages to a treatment and control group, conducted workshops on climate change with villages in the treatment group, and evaluated the effects of information dissemination on individual climate change perceptions. Results of this work suggest that providing climate change information through participatory workshops does not noticeably influence individual perceptions of climate change. Such findings stress the challenges involved in translating between local and scientific framings of climate change, and gives cause for concern about how to integrate indigenous peoples and local knowledge with global climate change policy debates.
Eurasian fall snow cover changes have been suggested as a driver for changes in the Arctic Oscillation and might provide a link between sea-ice decline in the Arctic during summer and atmospheric circulation in the following winter. However, the mechanism connecting snow cover in Eurasia to sea-ice decline in autumn is still under debate. Our analysis is based on snow observations from 820 Russian land stations, moisture transport using a Lagrangian approach derived from meteorological re-analyses. We show that declining sea-ice in the Barents and Kara Seas (BKS) acts as moisture source for the enhanced Western Siberian snow depth as a result of changed tropospheric moisture transport. Transient disturbances enter the continent from the BKS region related to anomalies in the planetary wave pattern and move southward along the Ural mountains where they merge into the extension of the Mediterranean storm track.
Climate warming is expected to induce treelines to advance to higher elevations. Empirical studies in diverse mountain ranges, however, give evidence of both advancing alpine treelines and rather insignificant responses. The inconsistency of findings suggests distinct differences in the sensitivity of global treelines to recent climate change. It is still unclear where Himalayan treeline ecotones are located along the response gradient from rapid dynamics to apparently complete inertia. This paper reviews the current state of knowledge regarding sensitivity and response of Himalayan treelines to climate warming, based on extensive field observations, published results in the widely scattered literature, and novel data from ongoing research of the present authors.
Several sensitivity indicators such as treeline type, treeline form, seed-based regeneration, and growth patterns are evaluated. Since most Himalayan treelines are anthropogenically depressed, observed advances are largely the result of land use change. Near-natural treelines are usually krummholz treelines, which are relatively unresponsive to climate change. Nevertheless, intense recruitment of treeline trees suggests a great potential for future treeline advance. Competitive abilities of seedlings within krummholz thickets and dwarf scrub heaths will be a major source of variation in treeline dynamics. Tree growth–climate relationships show mature treeline trees to be responsive to temperature change, in particular in winter and pre-monsoon seasons. High pre-monsoon temperature trends will most likely drive tree growth performance in the western and central Himalaya. Ecological niche modelling suggests that bioclimatic conditions for a range expansion of treeline trees will be created during coming decades.
The first challenge faced by a project that seeks to bring concerns with ontology and indigeneity into a conversation is to sort out the various (and possibly divergent) projects that are being mobilized when the former term is used, not the least because what do we mean by ontology impinges upon how we can conceive indigeneity. In this article I play a counterpoint between two ontological' projects: one in geography, that foregrounds a reality conceived as an always-emergent assemblage of human and non-humans and troubles the politics that such assemblages imply. The other in ethnographic theory, that foregrounds that we are not only dealing with a shifting ontology, a (re)animated world, but also with multiple ontologies, a multiplicity of worlds animated in different ways. Thus, if the heterogeneity of always emerging assemblages troubles the political, the very heterogeneity of these heterogeneous assemblages troubles it even more. What kinds of politics and what kinds of knowledges does this troubling demand? I advance the notion of political ontology as a possible venue to explore this question.
Seasonal prediction skill of winter mid and high northern latitudes climate from sea ice variations in eight different Arctic regions is analyzed using detrended ERA-interim data and satellite sea ice data for the period 1980-2013. We find significant correlations between ice areas in both September and November and winter sea level pressure, air temperature and precipitation. The prediction skill is improved when using November sea ice conditions as predictor compared to September. This is particularly true for predicting winter NAO-like patterns and blocking situations in the Euro-Atlantic area. We find that sea ice variations in Barents Sea seem to be most important for the sign of the following winter NAO—negative after low ice—but amplitude and extension of the patterns are modulated by Greenland and Labrador Seas ice areas. November ice variability in the Greenland Sea provides the best prediction skill for central and western European temperature and ice variations in the Laptev/East Siberian Seas have the largest impact on the blocking number in the Euro-Atlantic region. Over North America, prediction skill is largest using September ice areas from the Pacific Arctic sector as predictor. Composite analyses of high and low regional autumn ice conditions reveal that the atmospheric response is not entirely linear suggesting changing predictive skill dependent on sign and amplitude of the anomaly. The results confirm the importance of realistic sea ice initial conditions for seasonal forecasts. However, correlations do seldom exceed 0.6 indicating that Arctic sea ice variations can only explain a part of winter climate variations in northern mid and high latitudes.
Coping with global environmental change demands new forms of civic engagement and interaction able to transform passive audiences attending to the drama of unsustainability into committed actors for sustainability. This entails linking diverse sources of scientific knowledge with personal experiences, emotion and ethical judgments. In this paper, we assess the potential as well as the limitations of innovative theatre-based participatory tools and methods aimed at supporting sustainability learning and agent transformation. To this aim, we first review a series of experiences using theatrical performance and introduce the notion of performative methods. Second, we assess to what extent these new approaches can be of relevance in environmental action research and sustainability science, practice and learning. Finally, we list a series of key research questions to further guide methodological innovation in this promising area of sustainability science and practice. Our findings show a growing and successful use of such methodologies worldwide, both in academia and in implementation-oriented approaches. An increasing number of topics and complexity is being embraced by these methods, offering a fertile ground for innovation in participatory sustainability science.
Dedicated to Kwaxsistalla Wathl'thla Chief Adam Dick (1929–2018)
“Music is our heartbeat exposed, lit up and choreographed—so it reaches us and touches us all at an ancestral level”—Ogwi'low'gwa (Kim Recalma-Clutesi, Qualicum Nation)
Premise of the study:
With biodiversity and rates of climate change among the highest, the eastern Himalaya are critical for understanding the interaction of these two variables. However, there is a dearth of longitudinal data sets that address the effects of climate change on the exceptional alpine biodiversity of the Himalaya.
Methods:
We established permanent alpine vegetation monitoring plots in three mountain chains of the Hengduan Mountains, the easternmost Himalaya, which have warmed 0.03-0.05°C yr-1 since 1985. Recently, we resampled plots (176 1-m2 quadrat plots and 88 sections of 11 summits in three Hengduan mountain chains) to measure changes in vegetation after 7 years.
Key results:
Over 7 years, Tibetan alpine vegetation increased in number of species (+8 species/summit; +2.3 species/m2 ), in frequency (+47.8 plants/m2 ), and in diversity (+1.6 effective species/m2 ). Stepwise regressions indicated that warmer temperatures, southerly aspects, and higher elevations were associated with greater increases in these vegetation metrics. Unexpectedly, Himalayan endemic species increased (+1.4 species/m2 ; +8.5 plants/m2 ), especially on higher-elevation summits. In contrast, the increase in relative abundance of non-alpine species was greater at lower-elevation summits. Plants used by local Tibetans also increased (+1.3 species/m2 ; +32 plants/m2 ).
Conclusions:
As in other alpine areas, biodiversity is increasing with climate change in the Himalaya. Unlike other areas, endemic species are proliferating at the highest summits and are indicators of change.
Seasonal timing (phenology) of reproduction is a critical dimension of life-history, affecting ecological and evolutionary processes including individual fitness, community interactions, species boundaries and climate change adaptation. Staggered phenological sequences, or progressions, of flowering in plants have long been a topic of interest. Less well studied are multi-dimensional progressions across seasonal time and elevational space, which may be especially vital to understanding montane and alpine environments that are among the ecosystems most vulnerable to climate change.
To further our understanding of how phenological progressions are structured and to predict how they may respond to climate change, we collected data from an assemblage of ten co-occurring Himalayan Rhododendron species on Mt. Yulong, China, through two years of phenology monitoring in transects spanning a 1400 m elevation gradient, greenhouse experiments, and in comparison with the results of long-term models of species phenological responses to temperature derived from herbarium specimens. We asked whether we could quantitatively support flowering as a multi-dimensional progression in Mt. Yulong Rhododendron species, whether species that are part of this progression show differential phenological responses to changes in temperature, and how these responses impact reproductive success.
We found evidence for a progression of flowering, with Rhododendron species significantly overdispersed in elevation and flowering time and showing significantly less inter-species overlap in flowering time-space niche (2.9%) than expected by chance (8.5%). As a whole, the progression responded to changes in weather (−2.4 days / °C) and to experimentally increased greenhouse temperatures (−9.3 days / °C). However, individual species responses varied in their response (from −26 – 2 days / °C). Models derived from historical herbarium specimens predicted contemporary observed flowering well (>95% of plants flowering within prediction intervals) and showed corresponding species differences. Reproductive output was affected by phenology, with the quantities of flowers and fruits greater in plants which flowered slightly earlier than their population mean (flowers p < 0.05; fruits p < 0.01), and in plants that responded to warmer weather with commensurately earlier flowering (flowers p < 0.01; fruits p < 0.001).
The elaborately sequenced progression of flowering over season and elevation in Himalayan Rhododendron highlights the intricacy of species assemblages in time and space. Varying phenological responses among species and the associated reproductive impacts make this progression, like other staggered phenological sequences, vulnerable to disruption with ongoing climate change.
How dynamic is place-based traditional ecological knowledge (TEK)? In what ways can its generative and conservative processes allow adaption to a changed environment? How do different cultures mediate TEK of a shared place? We address these questions with an in depth study of TEK of the diverse and socio-ecologically salient genus Rhododendron among the indigenous Naxi and immigrant Nuosu Yi of Mt. Yulong, NW Yunnan, China. TEK in both cultures is rich and intimately connected to the seasonal and elevational progression of rhododendrons. Naxi and Yi knowledge of trends and drivers of change parallel those in ecological studies. Knowledge richness was connected with place (urban vs. rural dwelling and elevation of village) and the immigrant Yi had a knowledge base as rich as that of the indigenous Naxi. Both Yi and Naxi interviewees credited this knowledge equality to a combination of generative processes (Yi villages were higher in elevation and Yi livelihoods made more use of mountain resources, which enabled them to acquire knowledge of plants quickly) and conservative processes (Yi migrated from an equally diverse mountain region in which Rhododendron is also salient; its position was retained in their system of TEK, though its elements were adapted). Among rural Naxi, cultural systems (seasonal festivals and ethnotaxonomy) conserved knowledge, even while their direct use of rhododendrons decreased with changing life-ways.
The study of climate change has been based strongly on data collected from instruments, but how local people perceive such changes remains poorly quantified. We conducted a meta-analysis of climatic changes observed by subsistence-oriented communities. Our review of 10,660 observations from 2,230 localities in 137 countries shows that increases in temperature and changes in seasonality and rainfall patterns are widespread (≈70% of localities across 122 countries). Observations of increased temperature show patterns consistent with simulated trends in surface air temperature taken from the ensemble average of CMIP5 models, for the period 1955-2005. Secondary impacts of climatic changes on both wild and domesticated plants and animals are extensive and threaten the food security of subsistence-oriented communities. Collectively, our results suggest that climate change is having profound disruptive effects at local levels and that local observations can make an important contribution to understanding the pervasiveness of climate change on ecosystems and societies.
Amazonia is never quite what it seems. Despite regular attention in the media and numerous academic studies the Brazilian Amazon is rarely appreciated as a historical place home to a range of different societies. Often left invisible are the families who are making a living from the rivers and forests of the region. Broadly characterizing these people as peasants Amazon Peasant Societies in a Changing Environment seeks to bring together research by anthropologists, historians, political ecologists and biologists. A new paradigm emerges which helps understand the way in which Amazonian modernity has developed. This book addresses a comprehensive range of questions from the politics of conservation and sustainable development to the organization of women's work and the diet and health of Amazonian people. Apart from offering an analysis of a neglected aspect of Amazonia this collection represents a unique interdisciplinary exercise on the nature of one of the most beguiling regions of the world.
The art of storytelling is traced from its roots in indigenous cultural societies. Storytelling in education is described as a participatory learning process that promotes community and understanding.
This paper explores the linkages between social-ecological resilience and adaptive learning. We refer to adaptive learning as a method to capture the two-way relationship between people and their social-ecological environment. In this paper, we focus on traditional ecological knowledge. Research was undertaken with the Anishinaabe people of Iskatewizaagegan No. 39 Independent First Nation, in northwestern Ontario, Canada. The research was carried out over two field seasons, with verification workshops following each field season. The methodology was based on site visits and transects determined by the elders as appropriate to answer a specific question, find specific plants, or locate plant communities. During site visits and transect walks, research themes such as plant nomenclature, plant use, habitat descriptions, biogeophysical landscape vocabulary, and place names were discussed. Working with elders allowed us to record a rich set of vocabulary to describe the spatial characteristics of the biogeophysical landscape. However, elders also directed our attention to places they knew through personal experiences and journeys and remembered from stories and collective history. We documented elders' perceptions of the temporal dynamics of the landscape through discussion of disturbance events and cycles. Again, elders drew our attention to the ways in which time was marked by cultural references to seasons and moons. The social memory of landscape dynamics was documented as a combination of biogeophysical structures and processes, along with the stories by which Iskatewizaagegan people wrote their histories upon the land. Adaptive learning for social-ecological resilience, as suggested by this research, requires maintaining the web of relationships of people and places. Such relationships allow social memory to frame creativity, while allowing knowledge to evolve in the face of change. Social memory does not actually evolve directly out of ecosystem dynamics. Rather, social memory both frames creativity within, and emerges from, a dynamic social-ecological environment. Copyright © 2003 by the author(s). Published here under licence by The Resilience Alliance.
The ethnography of human-object relations in native Amazonia can help to illuminate the role of technological artifacts in modern society. Rather than abandon the categories of "subject" and "object" and of "Society" and "Nature," as suggested by proponents of the "ontological turn," anthropologists can compare subject-object transformations and the naturalization of social power relations in the two contexts. In native Amazonian animism the attribution of subjectivity and agency to artifacts often includes personhood and intentionality, while in modernity technological objects tend to be perceived merely as autonomous agents, but both these kinds of perceptions can be understood as statements about fetishized social relations. In the former case an external observer can conclude that the delegation of agency to artefacts is dependent on human consciousness, while it is generally believed that technology operates independently of human perceptions. However, in acknowledging the ultimate dependence of modern technology on exchange rates and financial strategies in a globalized economy, we realize that the agency of modern artifacts is also dependent on human subjectivity. In shifting the focus of comparative anthropology from ontology to political economy, we can detect that modern technology is a globalized form of magic.
Over the past decade, the Arctic has seen unprecedented declines in the summer sea ice area, leading to larger and longer exposed open water areas. The Atmospheric Infrared Sounder is a useful yet underutilized tool to study corresponding atmospheric changes and their feedbacks between 2003 and 2013. Most pronounced warming occurs between November and April, with skin and air temperatures increasing on average 2.5 K and 1.5 K over the Arctic Ocean. In response to sea ice loss, evaporation rates (i.e., moisture flux) increased between August and October by 1.5 × 10−3 g m−2 s−1 (3.8 W m−2 latent heat flux energy), increasing the water vapor feedback and cloud cover. Although most trends are positive over the Arctic Ocean, there is considerable interannual variability. Increasing specific humidity in May and corresponding downward moisture fluxes cause earlier melt onset; warming skin temperatures and radiative responses to increased water vapor and cloud cover in autumn delay freeze-up.
Empirical data on resilience in social-ecological systems (SESs) are reviewed from local and regional scale case studies among full-time nomads in the neighboring Nenets and Yamal-Nenets Autonomous Okrugs, Russia. The focus is on critical cultural factors contributing to SES resilience. In particular, this work presents an integrated view of people situated in specific tundra landscapes that face significantly different prospects for adaptation depending on existing or planned infrastructure associated with oil and gas development. Factors contributing to general resilience are compared to those that are adapted to certain spatial and temporal contexts. Environmental factors include ample space and an abundance of resources, such as fish and game (e. g., geese), to augment the diet of not only the migratory herders, but also residents from coastal settlements. In contrast to other regions, such as the Nenets Okrug, Yamal Nenets households consist of intact nuclear families with high retention among youth in the nomadic tundra population. Accepting attitudes toward exogenous drivers such as climate change and industrial development appear to play a significant role in how people react to both extreme weather events and piecemeal confiscation or degradation of territory. Consciousness of their role as responsible stewards of the territories they occupy has likely been a factor in maintaining viable wildlife populations over centuries. Institutions administering reindeer herding have remained flexible, especially on Yamal, and so accommodate decision-making that is sensitive to herders' needs and timetables. This affects factors such as herd demography, mobility and energetics. Resilience is further facilitated within the existing governance regimes by herders' own agency, most recently in the post-Soviet shift to smaller, privately managed herds that can better utilize available pastures in a highly dynamic environment experiencing rapid socio-economic, climate and land use change.
The Anthropocene narrative portrays humanity as a species ascending to power over the rest of the Earth System. In the crucial field of climate change, this entails the attribution of fossil fuel combustion to properties acquired during human evolution, notably the ability to manipulate fire. But the fossil economy was not created nor is it upheld by humankind in general. This intervention questions the use of the species category in the Anthropocene narrative and argues that it is analytically flawed, as well as inimical to action. Intra-species inequalities are part and parcel of the current ecological crisis and cannot be ignored in attempts to understand it.
This article explores the relationship between seasonality and sociality in a village of caboclos (Portuguese-speaking peasants of mixed descent) on the banks of the River Amazon. The aim is to revive Mauss's initial attempt to treat seasonality as intrinsic to the current and quality of social life, rather than simply as part of a framework of external environmental constraints. However, Mauss's argument was stuck in the contradictions generated by a strong nature/culture dichotomy. Contemporary dissolutions and revisions of this dichotomy provide the opportunity to return to Mauss. I shall argue that in the case of floodplain dwellers of the Brazilian Amazon, seasonality is constituted by the movements of people and the rhythmic structure of their social activities, which resonate with and respond to periodic changes in their floodplain environment. I conclude that this environment can be seen as work in motion, in which people's activities are a crucial part of that work, and seasonality is the periodicity of the creative movement itself.