Reducing risks by transforming landscapes: Cross-scale effects of land-use changes on ecosystem services

Globally, anthropogenic environmental change is exacerbating the already vulnerable conditions of many people and ecosystems. In order to obtain food, water, raw materials and shelter, rural people modify forests and other ecosystems, affecting the supply of ecosystem services that contribute to livelihoods and well-being. Despite widespread awareness of the nature and extent of multiple impacts of land-use changes, there remains limited understanding of how these impacts affect trade-offs among ecosystem services and their beneficiaries across spatial scales. We assessed how rural communities in two forested landscapes in Indonesia have changed land uses over the last 20 years to adapt their livelihoods that were at risk from multiple hazards. We estimated the impact of these adaptation strategies on the supply of ecosystem services by comparing different benefits provided to people from these land uses (products, water, carbon, and biodiversity), using forest inventories, remote sensing, and interviews. Local people converted forests to rubber plantations, reforested less productive croplands, protected forests on hillsides, and planted trees in gardens. Our results show that land-use decisions were propagated at the landscape scale due to reinforcing loops, whereby local actors perceived that such decisions contributed positively to livelihoods by reducing risks and generating co-benefits. When land-use changes become sufficiently widespread, they affect the supply of multiple ecosystem services, with impacts beyond the local scale. Thus, adaptation implemented at the local-scale may not address development and climate adaptation challenges at regional or national scale (e.g. as part of UN Sustainable Development Goals or actions taken under the UNFCCC Paris Agreement). A better understanding of the context and impacts of local ecosystem-based adaptation is fundamental to the scaling up of land management policies and practices designed to reduce risks and improve well-being for people at different scales

Flow to nowhere: the disconnect between environmental watering and the conservation of threatened species in the Murray–Darling Basin, Australia

The Murray–Darling Basin Plan was established with the objective of restoring water from irrigation to the environment, thereby conserving wetlands and biodiversity. We examined whether the Plan is achieving this objective by assessing whether environmental watering has helped conserve threatened flow-dependent fauna. Two frog species, two waterbirds and four fishes, were assessed for their conservation status in relation to (1) whether they were targeted in environmental watering plans, (2) whether population monitoring had occurred and (3) evidence of population recovery. We determined indicators of abundance and occurrence of species between 2012–13 and 2018–19 and found widespread inconsistencies in the targeting of environmental watering for these species, including their being overlooked in watering plans and actions in several catchments. Environmental watering had some positive outcomes for some threatened species in some locations on some occasions, but benefits, and their monitoring and reporting, are patchy and inconsistent. Monitoring of temporal trends in distribution, occurrence and abundance of species is inadequate to evaluate success. If the Plan is to achieve its objective and uphold Australia’s international environmental treaty obligations, more needs to be done to target and deliver environmental water for threatened species and improve the monitoring and reporting of outcomes

A Rejoinder to the Comment by Stewardson et al. (2021) to the published article by Colloff et al. (2021) that were published in the Australasian Journal of Water Resources.

This is a rejoinder to Stewardson et al. ‘The politicisation of science in the Murray–Darling Basin, Australia: discussion of ‘Scientific integrity, public policy and water governance’’ published online in the Australasian Journal of Water Resources (AJWR) on 29th October 2021. Stewardson et al. (2021) was a Comment to an earlier published article by Colloff, Grafton and Williams, ‘Scientific integrity, public policy and water governance in the Murray-Darling Basin, Australia’ published online in the AJWR on 26th April 2021. The paper by Colloff et al. (2021) focused on scientific integrity and was triggered by ‘An open letter from scientists on the Murray–Darling Basin’ - published on 19th July 2019 (Vertessy et al. 2019a). The 27 signatories to the Open Letter (see Vertessy et al. 2019a) were ostensibly responding to a television programme entitled ‘Cash Splash’ (ABC 2019), broadcast on 8th July 2021 and produced by the Four Corners team of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC). Of the 23 original signatories to the letter, 17 are co-authors of the paper by Stewardson et al. (2021). To contextualise this rejoinder, Colloff, Grafton and Williams have each undertaken research on the science and policy of water reform and management over many years, as their publication records attest (see, for example, Grafton et al. (2020) ‘Confronting a ‘post-truth water world’: facts versus fiction in the Murray-Darling Basin, Australia.’ Water Alternatives 13(1), 1–28). Further, they have always promoted open, evidence-based debate, dialogue, and interactions with policy- and decision-makers in Federal and State governments and their agencies. Colloff, Grafton and Williams have also supported the development of a range of policy options, not just within current policy settings, for the sustainable use of water resources in the Murray–Darling Basin. Over many years, their interactions have included briefings and face-to-face dialogue with State and Federal Ministers, parliamentarians, members of the media, senior public servants, community groups, academic and public audiences, as well as submissions to multiple parliamentary and public inquiries

Adapting land restoration to a changing climate: Embracing the knowns and unknowns

CIFOR Infobrief 249, Center for International Forestry Research, Bogor, doi:10.17528/cifor/007261Land restoration will happen under climate change and different knowledge systems are needed to navigate uncertainties and plan adaptation. • The emergence of novel ecosystems presents a challenge for land restoration; they harbor unknown unknowns. • This brief presents key research linking land restoration and societal adaptation and an example of a practical framework for transformative adaptation. • It also proposes questions that can guide stakeholders in exploring different change narratives for adaptation and restoration planning

Beyond calendars and maps: Rethinking time and space for effective knowledge governance in protected areas

Protected area managers rely on relevant, credible, and legitimate knowledge. However, an increase in the rate, extent, severity, and magnitude of the impacts of drivers of change (e.g., climate change, altered land use, and demand for natural resources) is affecting the response capacity of managers and their agencies. We address temporal aspects of knowledge governance by exploring time-related characteristics of information and decision-making processes in protected areas. These areas represent artefacts where the past (e.g., geological periods and evolutionary processes), the present (e.g., biodiversity richness), and the future (e.g., protection of ecosystem services for future generations) are intimately connected and integrated. However, temporal horizons linked with spatial scales are often neglected or misinterpreted in environmental management plans and monitoring programs. In this paper, we present a framework to address multi-dimensional understandings of knowledge-based processes for managing protected areas to guide researchers, managers, and practitioners to consider temporal horizons, spatial scales, different knowledge systems, and future decisions. We propose that dealing with uncertain futures starts with understanding the knowledge governance context that shapes decision-making processes, explicitly embracing temporal dimensions of information in decision-making at different scales. We present examples from South Africa and Colombia to illustrate the concepts. This framework can help to enable a reflexive practice, identify pathways or transitions to enable actions and connect knowledge for effective conservation of protected areas

Contrasting diversity patterns of breeding Anatidae in the Northern and Southern Hemispheres

For sustaining ecosystem functions and services, environmental conservation strategies increasingly target to maintain the multiple facets of biodiversity, such as functional diversity (FD) and phylogenetic diversity (PD), not just taxonomic diversity (TD). However, spatial mismatches among these components of biodiversity can impose challenges for conservation decisions. Hence, understanding the drivers of biodiversity is critical. Here, we investigated the global distribution patterns of TD, FD, and PD of breeding Anatidae. Using null models, we clarified the relative importance of mechanisms that influence Anatidae community. We also developed random forest models to evaluate the effects of environmental variables on the Anatidae TD, FD, and PD. Our results showed that geographical variation in Anatidae diversity is hemispheric rather than latitudinal. In the species-rich Northern Hemisphere (NH), the three diversity indices decreased with latitude within the tropical zone of the NH, but increased in the temperate zone reaching a peak at 44.5-70.0 degrees N, where functional and phylogenetic clustering was a predominant feature. In the Southern Hemisphere (SH), Anatidae diversity increased poleward and a tendency to overdispersion was common. In NH, productivity seasonality and temperature in the coldest quarter were the most important variables. Productivity seasonality was also the most influential predictor of SH Anatidae diversity, along with peak productivity. These findings suggested that seasonality and productivity, both consistent with the energy-diversity hypothesis, interact with the varying histories to shape the contrasting hemispheric patterns of Anatidae diversity. Phylogenetic diversity (PD) and FD underdispersion, widespread across the species-rich, seasonally productive mid-to-high latitudes of the NH, reflects a rapid evolutionary radiation and resorting associated with Pleistocene cycles of glaciation. The SH continents (and southern Asia) are characterized by a widespread tendency toward PD and FD overdispersion, with their generally species-poor communities comprising proportionately more older lineages in thermally more stable but less predictably productive environments

Determining water requirements for Black Box (Eucalyptus largiflorens) floodplain woodlands of high conservation value using drip-irrigation

Black Box (Eucalyptus largiflorens F. Muell.), is a keystone tree species of lowland semi-arid floodplain ecosystems in south-eastern Australia. E. largiflorens woodlands are of high conservation value and threatened by climate change-induced drought and irrigation water diversions due to their location on upper floodplain areas where flood frequency has declined. Water requirements of E. largiflorens have not been well quantified using empirical data. Accordingly, knowledge gaps exist in relation to volumes of environmental water required to maintain and improve ecological condition for disconnected floodplain woodlands. To further assist conservation and water resource management, we tested the use of drip irrigation to provide a variety of water regimes to experimental plots in order to monitor tree responses. Water was provided via irrigation delivery across four regimes representing known volumes of water, referred to as an environmental water provision, applied over a 22-week period for two Austral summers. Benefits to trees were identified by measuring transpiration and plant water status using sap flow sensors and a Scholander pressure chamber, respectively. Results indicate that volumes of 0.3, 0.4, 0.7 and 0.8 ML increased transpiration and improved plant water status in comparison to a control, with delivery recommended to commence early autumn. Greater volumes (1.4 ML), substantially increased transpiration and improved water status, especially when delivered at a rate of similar to 25 mm week(-1) compared to a monthly 'burst' which broadly represented natural, sporadic summer rainfall in the region. For an environmental watering provision of 25 mm week(-1), similar to 178 ha of E. largiflorens woodland can be watered with a 1 GL environmental water allocation. The study methods presented are relevant worldwide and our results further the collective understanding of the benefits environmental water provides to E. largiflorens.The authors gratefully acknowledge funding from the BiodiversityFund of the South Australian Murray-Darling Basin Natural ResourceManagement Board. We thank Riverland West Landcare and RebeccaTurner for their support and assistance; Treasury Wine Estates PtyLtd for provision of environmental water and for establishing andmaintaining the drip irrigation, led by Brendan Turner; Kelly Marsland(MDBA) and Kate Holland (CSIRO Land and Water, Adelaide) foradvice on experimental design; Kate Frahn (SARDI) and JodiePritchard (CSIRO) for field assistance; Martin Nolan and Sultan Umoru(CSIRO Land and Water, Adelaide) for GIS assistanc

Australian forested wetlands under climate change:Collapse or proliferation?

Climatically driven perturbations (e.g. intense drought, fire, sea surface temperature rise) can bring ecosystems that are already stressed by long-term climate change and other anthropogenic impacts to a point of collapse. Recent reviews of the responses of Australian ecosystems to climate change and associated stressors have suggested widespread ecosystem collapse is occurring across multiple biomes. Two commonly cited case studies concern forested wetland ecosystems: mangrove forest dieback in northern Australia (2015-16) and riverine forest dieback in the south-east of the continent (2002-09). We present an alternative interpretation that emphasises the dominant signal of climate change effects, rather than the interdecadal signal of climate variability that drives wetland forest dynamics. For both the south-east Australian riverine forests and mangroves of northern Australia, aerial extent remains greater after dieback than in the early 1990s. We interpret dieback and defoliation in both systems as a dry phase response and provide evidence of a current and near-future climate change trajectory of increased areal extent and cover (i.e. tree colonisation and range infilling). In both case studies, climate change-driven increases in tree cover and extent are occurring at the expense of wetland grasslands and the important ecosystem functions they support