An institutional analysis of sasi laut in Maluku, Indonesia

This study provides an understanding of the extent and functioning of community based coastal resource management systems in Maluku province, Indonesia and suggests recommendations for national, provincial and village government to support, maintain and develop effective traditional and indigenous resource management institutions. The study has shown that the Sasi Laut has benefits that can be used as a basis for building local level management institutions.Fisheries, Co-management, Resource management, Indonesia,

Here and now: perceptions of Indian Ocean islanders on the climate change and migration nexus

Empirical studies exploring the links between climate change and migration are increasing. Often, perceptions are not fully explored from the people most affected by the climate change and migration nexus. This article contributes to filling this gap by eliciting and analyzing perceptions regarding climate change and migration from an understudied population labelled as being amongst those most immediately and directly affected by climate change: Indian Ocean islanders. Open-ended, semi-structured interviews were conducted in two case study communities in Maldives (Kaafu Guraidhoo with 17 interviews and Raa Dhuvafaaru with 18 interviews) and two case study communities in Lakshadweep, India (Kavaratti with 35 interviews and Minicoy with 26 interviews). The results present the interviewees’ perceptions of climatic variability and change that they experience; how they perceive the causes of these changes; and links to migration decisions. The interviews demonstrate that perceptions of climate change, of migration, and of the links or lack thereof between the two are centred on the interviewees’ own experiences, their own locations, and the immediate timeframe. External information and direction has limited influence. Their perceptions are framed as being the ‘here and now’ through topophilia (here) and tempophilia (now). The islanders’ views do not avoid, but rather encompass, long-term livelihoods and the future. Such a future might be in another location, but the anchor is expressing future hopes and aspirations through the here and now. It is not linked to the wide-scale, long-term issue of climate change

Thermal ecotypes of amphi-Atlantic algae. II. Cold-temperate species (Furcellaria lumbricalis andPolyides rotundus)

Two species of cold-temperate algae from the North Atlantic Ocean, Polyides rotundus and Furcellaria lumbricalis, were tested for growth and survival over a temperature range of -5 to 30-degrees-C. In comparisons of eastern and western isolates, both F. lumbricalis, a North Atlantic endemic, and P. rotundus, a species having related populations in the North Pacific, were quite homogeneous. F. lumbricalis tolerated -5 to 25-degrees-C and grew well from 0 to 25-degrees-C, with optimal growth at 10-15-degrees-C. P. rotundus tolerated -5 to 27-degrees-C, grew well from 5 to 25-degrees-C, and had a broad optimal range of 10-25-degrees-C. Both species tolerated 3 months in darkness at 0-degrees-C. In neither case could any geographic boundary be explained in terms of lethal seasonal temperatures, suggesting that these species are restricted in distribution by strict thermal and/or daylength requirements for reproduction. The hypothesis that northern species are more homogeneous than southern taxa in terms of thermal tolerance was supported. A second hypothesis, that disjunct cold-temperate species should be more variable than pan-Arctic species, was not supported

Thermal ecotypes of amphi-Atlantic algae. I. Algae of Arctic to cold-temperate distribution (Chaetomorpha melagonium, Devaleraea ramentacea andPhycodrys rubens)

Three species of Arctic to cold-temperate amphi-Atlantic algae, all occurring also in the North Pacific, were tested for growth and/or survival at temperatures of -20 to 30-degrees-C. When isolates from both western and eastern Atlantic shores were tested side-by-side, it was found that thermal ecotypes may occur in such Arctic algae. Chaetomorpha melagonium was the most eurythermal of the 3 species. Isolates of this alga were alike in temperature tolerance and growth rate but Icelandic plants were more sensitive to the lethal temperature of 25-degrees-C than were more southerly isolates from both east and west. With regard to Devaleraea ramentacea, one Canadian isolate grew extraordinarily well at -2 and 0-degrees-C, and all tolerated temperatures 2-3-degrees-C higher than the lethal limit (18-20-degrees-C) of isolates from Europe. Concerning Phycodrys rubens, both eastern and western isolates died at 20-degrees-C but European plants tolerated the lethal high temperature longer, were more sensitive to freezing, and attained more rapid growth at optimal temperatures. The intertidal species, C. melagonium and D. ramentacea, both survived freezing at -5 and -20-degrees-C, at least for short time periods. C. melagonium was more susceptible than D. ramentacea to desiccation. Patterns of thermal tolerance may provide insight into the evolutionary history of seaweed species