Info, news & views for anyone interested in biodiversity conservation and good environmental decision making
“Our point isn’t that climate change is not happening – it’s here, it’s now and it’s global in its devastation. But, our research shows climate change shouldn’t be used as a “get out of jail free” card to excuse bad decision-making and poor planning decisions.”
Quentin Grafton et al (see item 1)
In this issue of Dbytes
1. Excessive water extractions, not climate change, are most to blame for the Darling River drying
2. Resilience – the good, the bad and the ugly
3. Four Common Problems In Environmental Social Research Undertaken by Natural Scientists
4. ‘Gut-wrenching and infuriating’: why Australia is the world leader in mammal extinctions, and what to do about it
5. Professionalisation and the spectacle of nature: Understanding changes in the visual imaginaries of private protected area organisations in Australia
6. Encouraging undergraduate ecology students into insect research
7. Megafauna extinctions produce idiosyncratic Anthropocene assemblages
-~<>~-
1. Excessive water extractions, not climate change, are most to blame for the Darling River drying
Our new research investigated the effects of climate change and water resource development on the Darling River over the past 40 years. We found much of the recent decline of river (stream) flow has not been because of climate change, but almost certainly a result of increased water extractions. This is important, because naming climate change as the primary culprit for drying rivers may let water managers, ministers and irrigation lobbyists off the hook for failing to effectively control water consumption.
https://globalwaterforum.org/2022/10/25/excessive-water-extractions-not-climate-change-are-most-to-blame-for-the-darling-river-drying/
-~<>~-
2. Resilience – the good, the bad and the ugly
Some people have accused resilience thinking of being somewhat vague. Others have even suggested that this is deliberate and even important when it comes to framing complexity. For all the value and insight that comes with resilience thinking, it has collected some unfortunate baggage along the way. It can be clunky when it comes to implementation, and our political and corporate leaders are quick to hide behind the notion of resilience as a way of shirking responsibility.
https://sustainabilitybites.home.blog/2022/10/25/resilience-the-good-the-bad-and-the-ugly/
-~<>~-
3. Four Common Problems In Environmental Social Research Undertaken by Natural Scientists
Why do natural scientists continue to conduct and review environmental social science research without training and experience in the social sciences? Perhaps they have come to realize that many of the environmental challenges we face are, fundamentally, human problems. Perhaps they assume that asking people questions is easy, or their well-intentioned efforts are attempts to address the long-standing calls for better integration of the social and natural sciences (Heberlein 1988, Mascia et al. 2003, Metzger and Zare 1999). Whatever the reason, rather than working with social scientists, many natural scientists continue to “[step] over disciplinary boundaries to conduct attitude studies. And, this is a problem.” (p. 583; Heberlein 2012). The problem is that when researchers do not have adequate training, knowledge, and experience, their social scientific studies are often poorly designed, neglect vast bodies of social scientific knowledge, and are full of methodological flaws. Ultimately, these problems lead to misinterpretation of the results and unsubstantiated conclusions.
https://academic.oup.com/bioscience/article/70/1/13/5638891?login=false
-~<>~-
4. ‘Gut-wrenching and infuriating’: why Australia is the world leader in mammal extinctions, and what to do about it
In fewer than 250 years, the ravages of colonisation have eroded the evolutionary splendour forged in this continent’s relative isolation. Australia has suffered a horrific demise of arguably the world’s most remarkable mammal assemblage, around 87% of which is found nowhere else. Being an Australian native mammal is perilous. Thirty-eight native mammal species have been driven to extinction since colonisation and possibly seven subspecies.
https://theconversation.com/gut-wrenching-and-infuriating-why-australia-is-the-world-leader-in-mammal-extinctions-and-what-to-do-about-it-192173
-~<>~-
5. Professionalisation and the spectacle of nature: Understanding changes in the visual imaginaries of private protected area organisations in Australia
Imaginaries of protected areas as state-based fortresses have been challenged by expansion of the global nature conservation estate on non-government lands, notably in contexts such as Australia where neoliberal reform has been strong. Little is known about the implications of this change for the meanings, purposes and practices of nature conservation. Images are central to public understandings of nature conservation. We thus investigate the visual communication of environmental non-government organisations (ENGOs) involved in private protected areas in Australia, with particular focus on Bush Heritage Australia (BHA). We employ a three-part design encompassing quantitative and qualitative methods to study the visual imaginaries underlying nature conservation in BHA’s magazines and the web homepages of it and four other ENGOs over 2004–2020. We find that visual imaginaries changed across time, as ENGOs went through an organisational process of professionalisation comprising three dynamics: legitimising, marketising, and differentiating. An imaginary of dedicated Western volunteer groups protecting scenic wilderness was replaced by the spectacle of uplifting and intimate individual encounters with native nature. Amenable to working within rather than transforming dominant political-economic structures, the new imaginary empowers professional ENGOs and their partners as primary carers of nature. It advertises a mediated access to spectacular nature that promises positive emotions and redemption for environmental wrongs to financial supporters of ENGOs. These findings reveal the role of non-government actors under neoliberal conditions in the use of visual representations to shift the meanings, purposes and practices of nature conservation.
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/25148486221129418
-~<>~-
6. Encouraging undergraduate ecology students into insect research
A few recent conversations got me thinking about whether the way we teach undergraduate ecology is doing enough to attract students into research pathways relevant to insect conservation. I’m not talking about entomology, the specialised science of insects, which generally attracts students with specific interests and skills. I’m talking about training ecologists and environmental scientists who want to work on insect-related conservation problems.
Encouraging undergraduate ecology students into insect research – Ecology is not a dirty word
-~<>~-
7. Megafauna extinctions produce idiosyncratic Anthropocene assemblages
The “trophic downgrading of planet Earth” refers to the systematic decline of the world’s largest vertebrates. However, our understanding of why megafauna extinction risk varies through time and the importance of site- or species-specific factors remain unclear. Here, we unravel the unexpected variability in remaining terrestrial megafauna assemblages across 10 Southeast Asian tropical forests. Consistent with global trends, every landscape experienced Holocene and/or Anthropocene megafauna extirpations, and the four most disturbed landscapes experienced 2.5 times more extirpations than the six least disturbed landscapes. However, there were no consistent size- or guild-related trends, no two tropical forests had identical assemblages, and the abundance of four species showed positive relationships with forest degradation and humans. Our results suggest that the region’s megafauna assemblages are the product of a convoluted geoclimatic legacy interacting with modern disturbances and that some megafauna may persist in degraded tropical forests near settlements with sufficient poaching controls.
Megafauna extinctions produce idiosyncratic Anthropocene assemblages | Science Advances
-~<>~-
About Dbytes
Dbytes is a weekly eNewsletter presenting news and views on biodiversity conservation and environmental decision science. ‘D’ stands for ‘Decision’ and refers to all the ingredients that go into good, fair and just decision-making in relation to the environment.
From 2007-2018 Dbytes was supported by a variety of research networks and primarily the Centre of Excellence for Environmental Decisions (CEED). From 2019 Dbytes is being produced by David Salt (Ywords). Dbytes is supported by the Global Water Forum.
If you have any contributions to Dbytes (ie, opportunities and resources that you think might think be of value to other Dbyte readers) please send them to David.Salt@anu.edu.au. Please keep them short and provide a link for more info.
Anyone is welcome to receive Dbytes. If you would like to receive it, send me an email and I’ll add you to the list.
Or you could subscribe to the WordPress version by visiting https://ozdbytes.wordpress.com/ and press the follow button.
David Salt
and you can follow me on twitter at
@davidlimesalt
Dbytes 