Scuba diving, environmental change and sustainability

A conservation paradox for riparian habitats and river corridor species

Global environmental changes threaten the feeding activity of soil detritivores.

Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size Notes 1. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Climate Change 2001: Impacts, Adaptation, and Vulnerability Technical Summary, A Report of Working Group II of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001). 2. Exposure, in the context of global change, was defined in 2008 by R. M. Leichenko and K. L. O'Brien (in Environmental Change and Globalization: Double Exposures [Oxford: Oxford University Press]) as "prone or sensitive to change." Sensitivity leads to vulnerability, that is, the "negative outcomes from stresses and shocks." This conceptualization of global change in terms of context, response, and outcome explicitly considers social and environmental outcomes. 3. B. Smit and J. Wandel, "Adaptation, Adaptive Capacity and Vulnerability," Global Environmental Change 16 (2006): 282–292. 4. W. N. Adger and P. M. Kelly, "Social Vulnerability to Climate Change and the Architecture of Entitlements," Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Global Change 4 (1999): 253–266. 5. Arid (including hyperarid) areas receive less than 250 mm of preciptation per year; semiarid areas receive 250 to 500 mm. C. F. Hutchinson, R. G. Varady, and S. Drake, "Old and New: Changing Paradigms in Arid Lands Water Management," in G. Schneier-Madanes and M. F. Courel, eds., Water and Sustainability in Arid Regions (Dordrecht, the Netherlands: Springer, 2009), pp. 311–332. We use "arid" to include semiarid, in that both imply water-short conditions. 6. The Water Center for Arid and Semi-Arid Zones in Latin America and the Caribbean (http://www.cazalac.org/eng/mision_eng.php, accessed on 19 January 2012) notes that aridity characterizes some 4.5 million sq km from Mexico to South America, where decisionmakers lack appropriate knowledge on water management and preservation. 7. World Economic Forum Water Initiative, Water Security: The Water-Food-Energy-Climate Nexus (Washington, DC: Island Press, 2011). 9. "Humans shoulder at least half the blame," according to Diana Liverman's reading of the 2007 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report, "From Uncertain to Unequivocal," in Environment 49, no. 8 (2007): 28–32. 9. H. Eakin and M. C. Lemos, "Institutions and Change: The Challenge of Building Adaptive Capacity in Latin America," Global Environmental Change 20 (2010): 1–3. 10. Ongoing support is provided by the Inter-American Institute for Global Change Research (http://www.iai.int). 11. See related article: W. Laird-Benner and H. Ingram, "Sonoran Desert Network Weavers," Environment 53, no. 1 (2011): 6–16. 12. B. J. Morehouse, D. Ferguson, G. Owen, A. Browning-Aiken, P. Wong-Gonzales, N. Pineda, and R. G. Varady," Science and Socio-Ecological Sustainability: Examples From the Arizona-Sonora Border," Environmental Science and Policy 11, no. 3 (2008): 272–284. 13. G. Saliba and K. L. Jacobs, "Saving the San Pedro River: Science, Collaboration, and Water Sustainability in Arizona," Environment 50, no. 6(2008): 30–32. See also R. G. Varady, M. A. Moote, and R. Merideth, "Water Allocation Options for the Upper San Pedro Basin: Assessing the Social and Institutional Landscape," Natural Resources Journal 40, no. 2 (2000): 223–235. 14. R. G. Varady and E. Ward, "Transboundary Conservation in Context: What Drives Environmental Change?," in L. Lopez-Hoffman, E. McGovern, R. G. Varady, and K. W. Flessa, eds., Conservation of Shared Environments: Learning From the United States and Mexico (Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 2009), pp. 9–22. A. K. Gerlak and M. Wilder, "Exploring the Textured Landscape of Water Insecurity and the Human Right to Water," Environment 54, no. 2 (2012): (in press). 15. C. Pahl-Wostl, "The Implications of Complexity For Integrated Resources Management," Environmental Modelling & Software 22 (2007): 561–569. 16. R. E. Saunier and R. A. Meganck, Dictionary and Introduction to Global Environmental Governance (London: Earthscan, 2007). 17. C. A. Scott, S. Dall'erba, and R. Díaz, "Groundwater Rights in Mexican Agriculture: Spatial Distribution and Social and Economic Determinants," Professional Geographer 62, no. 1 (2010): 1–15. 18. H. A. Loaiciga, "Climate Change and Ground Water," Annals of the Association of American Geographers 93, no. 1 (2003): 30–41. 19. "Virtual water" is embedded or hidden water, as in irrigation to grow crops. The concept was developed by J. A. Allan in 1993. See Allan, J. A. "Virtual water - the water, food and trade nexus: useful concept or misleading metaphor?" Water International, 28 (2003): 4-11. 20. M. Wilder, C. A. Scott, N. Pineda Pablos, R. G. Varady, G. M. Garfin, and J. McEvoy, "Adapting Across Boundaries: Climate Change, Social Learning, and Resilience in the U.S.–Mexico Border Region," Annals of the Association of American Geographers 100, no. 4 (2010): 917–928. 21. C. A. Scott and M. J. Pasqualetti, "Energy and Water Resources Scarcity: Critical Infrastructure for Growth and Economic Development in Arizona and Sonora," Natural Resources Journal 50, no. 3 (2010): 645–682. 22. C. J. Bauer, "Dams and Markets: Rivers and Electric Power in Chile," Natural Resources Journal 49 (2009): 583–651. 23. F. J. Meza, D. S. Wilks, L. Gurovich, and N. Bambach, "Impacts of Climate Change on Irrigated Agriculture in the Maipo Basin, Chile: Reliability of Water Rights and Changes in the Demand for Irrigation," Journal of Water Resources Planning and Management (in press). 24. The critical need to "reconnect science and policy" is highlighted in a recent report by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP, 21 Issues for the 21st Century: Results of the UNEP Foresight Process on Emerging Environmental Issues, Alcamo, J., Leonard, S.A. (Eds.). United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), Nairobi, Kenya, 56pp., 2012). Based on an extensive survey of scientists, decisionmakers, and other stakeholders, the report calls for "a new look at… how the science-society-policy interface can be improved." In addition, it addresses numerous key issues that the dialogue process presented in this article also focuses on, including freshwater, climate change, food, biodiversity, land, and energy. 25. These science-policy interactions have been generously funded by the Inter-American Institute for Global Change Research, U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), National Science Foundation, U.S. Geological Survey, Dialogue on Water and Climate (The Netherlands), and Morris K. and Stewart L. Udall Foundation. In Mexico the workshops were supported by the national water commission (CONAGUA), the Univesity of Sonora, El Colegio de Sonora, the national water research institute (IMTA), the national meteorological service (SMN), the Sonoran state water agency, and local governments. 26. Dialogues have been held in Hermosillo (2006, 2008, 2010), Guaymas (2006), Cuernavaca (2009), Mexico City (2005, 2006), Puerto Peñasco (2009), Tucson (2009, 2010), and Cabos (2011). Findings were promulgated at the World Water Forums (2003, 2006, and 2009), Hydrology for the Environment, Life and Policy meetings (Tucson 1999, 2008; Kalmar [Sweden] 2002; Dundee [Scotland] 2001, 2004; Guayaquil [Ecuador] 2005; Panama 2011), Internationally Shared Aquifer Resources Management Program (Paris 2010), and other fora. 27. See F. J. Meza, "Variability of Reference Evapotranspiration and Water Demands. Association to ENSO in the Maipo River Basin, Chile," Global and Planetary Change 47 (2005): 212–220; Meza et al. (in press), note 23, above. See also: http://cambioglobal.uc.cl/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=81&Itemid=62&lang=en 28. See http://www.planestrategico.mendoza.gob.ar. 29. R. G. Varady and A. Browning-Aiken, "The Birth of a Mexican Watershed Council in the San Pedro Basin in Sonora," in C. Fuentes-Flores and S. Peña-Medina, eds., Planeación y Cooperación Transfronteriza en la Frontera México-Estados Unidos (Transboundary Planning and Cooperation in the U.S.-Mexico Border Region) (Ciudad Juárez, Mexico: El Colegio de la Frontera Norte & Universidad Autónoma de Ciudad Juárez, Ambiente y Desarrollo, 2005), pp. 165–183. 30. U.S. Public Law 109-448, the United States–Mexico Transboundary Aquifer Assessment Act, was approved in late 2006 and authorized up to $50 million; to date, $2 million has been appropriated. The intent is to provide scientific information useful to policymakers and water managers. 31. R. G. Varady, R. Salmón Castillo, and S. Eden, "Key Issues, Institutions, and Strategies for Managing Transboundary Water Resources in the Arizona–Mexico Border Region," in S. B. Megdal, R. G. Varady, and S. Eden, eds. Shared Borders, Shared Waters: Israeli-Palestinian and Colorado River Basin Water Challenges (Delft, The Netherlands: UNESCO-IHE Press in collaboration with Taylor & Francis, in press); C. A. Scott, S. Megdal, L. A. Oroz, J. Callegary, and P. Vandervoet, "Climate Change and Population Growth Impacts on the Transboundary Santa Cruz Aquifer," Climate Research 51 (2012):159-170, doi: 10.3354/cr01061. 51: 159–170, doi: 10.3354/cr01061 32. G. Young, H. Zavala, J. Wandel, B. Smit, S. Salas, E. Jimenez, M. Fiebig, R. Espinoza, H. Diaz, and J. Cepeda, "Vulnerability and Adaptation in a Dryland Community of the Elqui Valley, Chile," Climatic Change 98 (2010): 245–276, doi: 10.1007/s10584-009-9665-4; E. Montaña, "Central Andean Foothill Farmers Facing Global Environmental Change," IHDP Update 2 (2008): 36–39. See http://www.ihdp.unu.edu/file/get/7724. 33. Young et al. (2010), note 32, above. 34. G. Schneier-Madanes and M. F. Courel, "Introduction," in G. Schneier-Madanes and M. F. Courel, eds., Water and Sustainability in Arid Regions (Dordrecht, the Netherlands: Springer, 2010), pp. xvii–xxii.

Global Climate and Environmental Change is an international hot field. To enhance native awareness on climate change is one mission of "State Policy and Action on Climate Change 2009 in China". As an implement, a course on Global Climate and Environmental Change has been opened in Shanghai Normal University since 2005. The course includes three fields. In the first field, it is introduced on which problems and harms have been caused from Global Climate and Environmental Changes according to UNEP Year Books 2003~2013. In the second field, to introduce the Earth System and Climate-Environment Change. In the third part, the hot climate-environmental issues are analyzed and discussed. By joining this course, the students have understanding earth system science and global change. It helped students to set up the view of ecological civilization of the harmonious development between human and nature, inspire students responsibility to protect the earth. During past 8 year, there were 4 to 5 classes opening for different levels in Shanghai Normal University for each year, more than 1000 students joined the study in the course.

Ours is an age of unprecedented levels of environmental alteration and biodiversity loss. Beyond the exposure to environmental hazards, conditions such as environmental degradation, biotic impoverishment, climate change, and the loss of ecosystem services create important health threats by changing the ecology of many pathogens and increasing the incidence and/or severity of certain noncommunicable conditions. They also threaten health in the future by weakening the Earth's life support systems.Although physicians remain one of the most often accessed and most trusted sources of information about the environment, there is currently little emphasis on educating medical professionals about these environmental issues. This lack of training reduces the ability of most physicians to be efficient science-public interfaces and makes them ineffective at contributing to address the fundamental causes of environmental problems or participate in substantive environmental policy discussions. This is an important challenge facing medical education today.To turn medical students into effective physician-citizens, an already-overwhelmed medical school curriculum must make way for a thoughtful exploration of environmental stressors and their impacts on human health. The overarching question before medical educators is how to develop the competencies, standards, and curricula for this educational endeavor. To this end, the authors highlight some of the critical linkages between health and the environment and suggest a subset of key practical issues that need to be addressed in order to create environmental education standards for the physician of the future.

Coral reef ecosystems are threatened on a worldwide basis, with overfishing, diseases, eutrophication, hurricanes, overpopulation, and global climate change all contributing to recent declines in reef-forming corals or phase shifts in community structure on time scales not observed previously (1–3). These changes are in contrast to recent periods of long-term stability in coral reef communities over geological time scales of thousands of years (4, 5). A recent meta-analysis of coral cover throughout the Caribbean has shown an 80% decline that has been both long term (e.g., decadal) in duration and region-wide (6). For the last two decades, coral reef biologists have attributed much of the increase in coral mortality to coral bleaching subsequent to elevated seawater temperatures occurring on both regional and global spatial scales (7). Coral bleaching, a stress response of reef-forming corals, results in the loss of their symbiotic algal partner that supplies a large percentage of the nutritional requirements of the coral host and causes the corals to appear white (ref. 7 and Fig. 1). Since 1979, there have been dozens of reports of coral bleaching associated with elevated sea surface temperatures (SSTs), whereas from 1876 to 1979, only three events were recorded (8). The recently released Fourth Assessment Report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC; www.ipcc.ch) states with 90% certainty that most of the observed warming of the planet over the last half-century has been caused by human activities from the accumulation of greenhouse gases. On the heels of the IPCC report, in this issue of PNAS, Donner et al. (9) provide a quantitative assessment of the contribution of human-induced climate change for the most devastating coral-bleaching event on record, the Caribbean-wide coral bleaching in 2005.

Global environmental change substantially affects soil detritivores, including earthworms, impacting host-microbiota interactions and altering key soil biogeochemical processes such as litter decomposition. As microbial communities are inherently capable of rapid evolution, responses of earthworms and associated microbiota (i.e. earthworm holobionts) to global environmental change may likely involve the interplay of ecological and evolutionary processes and feedback. Although species-level responses of earthworms to global environmental change are well studied, the potential ecological and evolutionary responses of earthworm holobionts to environmental change remain unexplored. Here, we provide a conceptual framework to elaborate on the complex network of earthworm host-microbiota interactions that modify their traits in response to global environmental change, jointly shaping their ecology and evolution. Based on the literature, we synthesize evidence of global environmental change impacts on earthworm host-microbiota and discuss evidence of their ecological and evolutionary responses to environmental change. Lastly, we highlight the agro- and eco-system-level consequences of environmental change-mediated shift in earthworm host-microbiota functions. Soil legacies of environmental change have cascading detrimental impacts on the abundance, diversity, and functional dynamics of earthworm host-microbiota interactions in agriculture and ecosystems. The primary mechanisms driving such responses of earthworm hosts and associated microbial communities to environmental change include altered litter quality and host dietary preferences, competitive interactions and exclusion, habitat homogenization, and a shift in soil physicochemical and biological processes. Therefore, advancing knowledge of the intricate animal-microorganism interactions is crucial for belowground biodiversity management in a changing global environment.

Given the phylogenetic proximity and similar morphology of opossums (Didelphis spp.), they are good models to study factors that facilitate or impede coexistence of syntopic species and to better understand how landscape changes affect species distributions and habitat use. For this purpose, we used single-species and two-species occupancy models using records of D. albiventris, considered the dominant species, and D. aurita from a camera-trap survey conducted in an agricultural and conservation landscape in the Atlantic Forest of Argentina. We evaluated which factors determined the probability of species occurrence: habitat preferences or interspecific relationships. We also estimated the overlap in daily activity patterns between species, and evaluated changes in D. aurita activity in response to the occupancy probability of D. albiventris. Didelphis aurita had higher occupancy probabilities in the continuous native forest, whereas D. albiventris had higher occupancy probabilities in fragmented forests with less complex and more open vegetation structure, and greater proximity to buildings. Both opossums were almost absent in pine plantations. Results of the co-occurrence models and the overlap in diel activity suggest that D. aurita is not avoiding D. albiventris. Occurrences of these two opossums most probably reflect different adaptations by each species to different habitats, and competitive interactions seem to play a minor role in shaping their current distributions. Didelphis albiventris may be replacing D. aurita mainly as a result of changing environmental conditions, which become unfavorable to the latter but promote the creation of new habitat for the former.

Global Environmental Change and National Security of China

Coffee is one of the leading plantation commodities in the world trade area. The utilization of plant waste in the form of water shoots from BP308 robusta coffee is a new innovation in anticipating global environmental changes. The research aims to support seed availability by utilizing wastewater shoots as seed candidates in anticipation of global environmental changes that can provide added value and income for farmers. The research was conducted in the District of Pupuan, Tabanan, Bali. The implementation period is 2 years (2018-2020). This study was designed using a paired experimental design in the form of existing technological innovations and new seed innovations. Data were analyzed using the t test. The results showed that the seeds of existing technological innovations and new innovations were significantly different and not significantly different. Coffee leaf rust disease showed no significant differences in attack rates. Wet weight, total seed weight and shoot oven dry weight were higher in the new innovations respectively 42.14; 51.99 and 40.59%. The added value obtained from wastewater shoots is IDR 10,500.00 per tree. Conversion of added value for each farmer with ownership of 0.3–0.8 hectares (population 300-800) of trees generates an added value of IDR 3,150,000.00 to IDR 8,400,000.00 per year per farmer.

Current rates of global environmental and climate change pose potential challenges for migratory species that must cope with or adapt to new conditions and different rates of change across broad spatial scales throughout their annual life cycle. North American migratory hummingbirds may be especially sensitive to changes in environment and climate due to their extremely small body size, high metabolic rates, and dependence on nectar as a main resource. We used occurrence information from the eBird citizen‐science database to track migratory movements of five North American hummingbird species (Archilochus alexandri, A. colubris, Selasphorus calliope, S. platycercus, and S. rufus) across 6 years (2008–2013) at a daily temporal resolution to describe annual and seasonal variation in migration patterns. Our findings suggest that the timing of the onset of spring migration generally varies less than the arrival on the wintering grounds. Species follow similar routes across years, but exhibit more variation in daily longitude than latitude. Long distance migrants generally had less annual variation in geographic location and timing than shorter distance migrants. Our study is among the first to examine variation in migration routes and timing for hummingbirds, but more work is needed to understand the capacity of these species to respond to different rates of environmental change along their migratory routes.

Ecosystem coupling: A unifying framework to understand the functioning and recovery of ecosystems

Analysis of the financial and economic security management system of business in the system of the global economic environment requires a detailed study of the prerequisites for the development of the corresponding system in the context of ensuring the stability and viability of business, adaptation to changes in the global environment, optimization of costs and resources, strengthening of competitive positions, attraction of investments and responsibility to society. In the global economic context, enterprises face various external and internal risks. Researching the prerequisites allows for developing effective mechanisms for identifying, analyzing, and minimizing potential threats, thereby ensuring stable operation and development of the enterprise. Globalization of the economy, political fluctuations, changes in legislation, currency fluctuations, technological innovations, and other global challenges require business flexibility and the ability to adapt quickly. The article analyzes the prerequisites for developing a financial and economic security management system for business in the global economic environment. Previous studies indicate the need for an integrated approach to managing a business’s financial and economic security, including risk management, innovation, intellectual property protection, digitization of processes, and a responsible attitude to social and environmental aspects of activity. The need to transform the management system of financial and economic security of business is caused by factors that require companies to be flexible, innovative, and resistant to external and internal challenges of the modern globalized world. It was determined that digitalization processes and technological development largely influenced the transformation of the business’s financial and economic security management system. Rapid advances in digital technologies such as blockchain, artificial intelligence, big data, and the Internet of Things fundamentally change how we do business. This requires companies to implement new approaches to data management, cybersecurity, and information technology to ensure financial security. Keywords: management, financial and economic security, business, global economic environment.

International business decisions to be taken by executive managers of multinational firms are becoming more challenging due to uncertainties in business environment which is due to fast changing and unpredictable domestic, foreign, and global environment for long term sustainability. Even though firms are cautious and take precautions while taking decisions on international investment for production and marketing, their sustainability for a long time in a given business is shaking due to continuous changes in domestic, foreign, and global business environment. This is mainly due to variations in economic conditions, political scenarios, socio-cultural environment, technological breakthroughs, legal aspects and human behavioural effects on opportunities and challenges on the international business performance of multinational firms. In this paper, we have studied in brief, the various domestic, foreign, and global environmental issues which affects the multinational firm’s business decisions related to international investments and marketing. The paper also discusses the impact of the domestic environment, foreign environment, and global environment on economical, political, technological, legal, and cultural issues on investment and expansion decisions of multinational corporations in general.

Wild populations must continuously respond to environmental changes or they risk extinction. Those responses can be measured as phenotypic rates of change, which can allow us to predict contemporary adaptive responses, some of which are evolutionary. About two decades ago, a database of phenotypic rates of change in wild populations was compiled. Since then, researchers have used (and expanded) this database to examine phenotypic responses to specific types of human disturbance. Here, we update the database by adding 5675 new estimates of phenotypic change. Using this newer version of the data base, now containing 7338 estimates of phenotypic change, we revisit the conclusions of four published articles. We then synthesize the expanded database to compare rates of change across different types of human disturbance. Analyses of this expanded database suggest that: (i) a small absolute difference in rates of change exists between human disturbed and natural populations, (ii) harvesting by humans results in higher rates of change than other types of disturbance, (iii) introduced populations have increased rates of change, and (iv) body size does not increase through time. Thus, findings from earlier analyses have largely held-up in analyses of our new database that encompass a much larger breadth of species, traits, and human disturbances. Lastly, we use new analyses to explore how various types of human disturbances affect rates of phenotypic change, and we call for this database to serve as a steppingstone for further analyses to understand patterns of contemporary phenotypic change.