Comparison of metal bioaccumulation in crop types and consumable parts between two growth periods

A high proportion of populations in most developing countries live below the poverty line and those near refuse grounds resort to dumpsite farming to grow food. Consequently, high levels of waste‐derived contaminants are found in crops consumed by these people. This study investigates the extent to which crops cultivated on the Mbale dumpsite (Uganda) were contaminated by 11 metals and 2 non‐metals: iron (Fe), aluminum (Al), zinc (Zn), manganese (Mn), copper (Cu), mercury (Hg), lead (Pb), nickel (Ni), cobalt (Co), cadmium (Cd), selenium (Se), chromium (Cr), and arsenic (As). We investigated how element bioaccumulation in crops was influenced by the growth period (short‐ and long‐term crop maturity). The short‐term crops were Zea mays and Amaranthus cruentus, whereas the long‐term crops were Manihot esculenta, Colocasia esculenta, Musa acuminata, Carica papaya, Coffea arabica, and Saccharum officinarum. Results showed that nine metals were present at concentrations above World Health Organization/Food and Agriculture Organization (WHO/FAO) food safety recommendations and hence may pose health risks to consumers. In this study, leaves contained higher metal concentrations than other analyzed consumable parts. Pb and Co were found at higher concentrations in leaves of short‐term crops than in long‐term crops. Among short‐term crops, only Z. mays seeds contained permissible metal concentrations by WHO/FAO standards. The growth period was also found to influence metal bioaccumulation in crop types. Pb, Co, Fe, Al, and Cu concentrations were significantly higher in the short‐term crops than in long‐term crops, while Mn, Ni, and Cr concentrations were higher in long‐term crops than in short‐term crops. Overall, public awareness about the health risks associated with consuming short‐term leafy crops grown on dumpsites should be improved to reduce toxic metal exposure. While implementing such a campaign, the food supply of individuals whose survival depends on such crops should not be jeopardized. Therefore, farmers need alternative farming areas outside dumpsites. Integr Environ Assess Manag 2022;18:1056–1071. © 2021 The Authors. Integrated Environmental Assessment and Management published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of Society of Environmental Toxicology & Chemistry (SETAC)

Tapping fresh currents: fostering early-career researchers in transdisciplinary water governance research

Article published in Water AlternativesWater governance is an important, yet complex and contested field. A central challenge for researchers is to engage with multiple understandings and perspectives that can shape water governance, and to move towards more transdisciplinary approaches. These challenges are magnified for early-career researchers (ECRs), and while the need for transdisciplinary approaches and better support for ECRs is increasingly recognised, there remains a lack of understanding of how to achieve this within the wider research community. Thus, this paper investigates through an auto-ethnographic inquiry the practical experiences and challenges faced by a diverse group of ECRs engaging in water governance research. Reflecting on our own endeavours and relevant literature, we identify a range of path-finding experiences and challenges, and explore strategies employed by ECRs to navigate the 'uncharted waters' of evolving career pathways in water governance research. 'Communities of Practice' are identified as a promising opportunity to support ECRs by enhancing opportunities for reflection and learning. Overall, we argue that there is significant merit in enhancing the way in which water governance research is understood, and improving the means by which ECRs are supported to build capability and contribute in this field.Water governance is an important, yet complex and contested field. A central challenge for researchers is to engage with multiple understandings and perspectives that can shape water governance, and to move towards more transdisciplinary approaches. These challenges are magnified for early-career researchers (ECRs), and while the need for transdisciplinary approaches and better support for ECRs is increasingly recognised, there remains a lack of understanding of how to achieve this within the wider research community. Thus, this paper investigates through an auto-ethnographic inquiry the practical experiences and challenges faced by a diverse group of ECRs engaging in water governance research. Reflecting on our own endeavours and relevant literature, we identify a range of path-finding experiences and challenges, and explore strategies employed by ECRs to navigate the 'uncharted waters' of evolving career pathways in water governance research. 'Communities of Practice' are identified as a promising opportunity to support ECRs by enhancing opportunities for reflection and learning. Overall, we argue that there is significant merit in enhancing the way in which water governance research is understood, and improving the means by which ECRs are supported to build capability and contribute in this field.http://www.water-alternatives.org/index.php/alldoc/articles/vol6/v6issue2/217-a6-2-14/fil

The ‘Bush Capital’—A Review of 100+ Years of Integrative Spatio-Temporal Planning for a City in the Landscape and Nature in the City

Over approximately 100 years, the Australian capital, Canberra, has evolved in association with the predominant values, vision and cultural relationships of people to the area. The location and design of the city derived from a formal intention to integrate nature and culture for the benefit and edification of residents and in symbolisation of the city’s importance as the seat of national decision-making and legislature. Established on a native grassland surrounded by wooded hills and ridges, and with nearby confluences of rivers as security of water supply, the city’s landscape was transformed through centralised planning and implementation of Garden City and City Beautiful constructs to become one of the world’s most liveable regions. Twentieth-century expansion of the city’s suburbs, tree streetscapes and gardens progressed with varying emphasis on exotic versus native species, and contemporary programs aim to increase urban tree canopy cover to 30%. Yet, there is increasing acknowledgement of the landscape’s rich history of culture–nature interactions extending back at least 25,000 years. Indicators are evident in human modification of tree-dominated ecosystems, the overlapping ways in which people related to elemental landscape features, and a continuity of valuing particular sites for ceremonies, social activities and human movement. With projected steady population growth, climate change, and associated impacts on the environment and natural resources, contemporary planning must be innovative and integrative to ensure ecologically sustainable development. Strong visionary leadership is needed to develop a landscape policy that encompasses key natural assets including threatened woodlands and mature native trees for their intrinsic values and as habitat for threatened fauna, cultural landscape values such as forested montane and ridge areas, and heritage and protected trees. From pre-European to current times, planning, modification and management of environmental and ecosystem values has been integral to enabling local people to sustain themselves. The next challenge is to create clarity about the future of this cultural landscape and enhance the community’s attachment to and stewardship of the city and its landscape

Most of nature: a framework to resolve the twin dilemmas of the decline of nature and rural communities

Recognition of the interrelationships between the global loss of nature and collapse of rural communities is essential. Compartmentalising or ignoring the diversity of stakeholder perspectives, policy objectives, and the complexity of nature has not worked. We must improve all natural and human capital to address the growing problems. Progressing environmental and development policies in isolation diminishes policy effectiveness, polarises communities by engendering dislocation, fear and conflict, and leads to ineffectual or deleterious natural and rural systems management. Conservation and rural policy can be recast to a new rural-urban dynamic: progressing from food and fibre production with little regard for externalities to one of food, fibre and sustainable natural and rural systems. We propose a conceptual framework based on the interdependence of humans and nature that recognises multiple forms of capital, and their role in environmental management and community development. Specifically, the 'forms of capital' framework directs attention to the transformational properties of different forms of capital and to the deterministic socio-economic and political drivers of change. Integrating system governance and stewardship, in conjunction with coordinated, self-adapting processes of research, planning, monitoring and system evaluation, offers a means of improving sustainable management of the complex inter-relationships between people and nature

Appendix C. Comparison of mean trait values using recorded and interpolated traits.

Comparison of mean trait values using recorded and interpolated traits

Appendix A. Elevation, precipitation, and mean annual temperature across Tasmania.

Elevation, precipitation, and mean annual temperature across Tasmania

Appendix B. Description of environmental variables applied in modeling traits and composition.

Description of environmental variables applied in modeling traits and composition

Appendix E. The Generalized Dissimilarity Model of compositional turnover.

The Generalized Dissimilarity Model of compositional turnover