Climate-ready conservation objectives: a scoping study

AbstractAnticipated future climate change is very likely to have a wide range of different types of ecological impact on biodiversity across the whole of Australia. There is a high degree of confidence that these changes will be significant, affecting almost all species, ecosystems and landscapes. However, because of the complexity of ecological systems and the multiple ways climate change will affect them, the details of the future change are less certain for any given species or location. The nature of the changes means that the multiple ways biodiversity is experienced, used and valued by society will be affected in different ways. The likely changes present a significant challenge to any societal aspiration to preserve biodiversity in its current state, for example, to maintain a species in its current abundance and distribution. Preserving biodiversity ‘as is’ may have been feasible in a stationary climate (one that is variable but not changing), but this will not be possible with the widespread, pervasive and large ecological changes anticipated under significant levels of climate change. This makes the impacts of climate change quite unlike other threats to biodiversity, and they challenge, fundamentally, what it actually means to conserve biodiversity under climate change: what should the objectives of biodiversity conservation be under climate change? And what are the barriers to recalibrating conservation objectives?Based on key insights from the scientific literature on climate change and biodiversity, the project developed three adaptation propositions about managing biodiversity:Conservation strategies accommodate large amounts of ecological change and the likelihood of significant climate change–induced loss in biodiversity. Strategies remain relevant and feasible under a range of possible future trajectories of ecological change.Strategies seek to conserve the multiple different dimensions of biodiversity that are experienced and valued by society. Together these propositions summarise the challenge of future climate change for biodiversity conservation, and define a new way of framing conservation we called the ‘climate ready’ approach. In the near term, conservation strategies may be able to include some consideration of these propositions. However, under significant levels of climate change many of the current approaches to conservation will become increasingly difficult and ineffective (e.g. maintaining community types in their current locations). This challenge is fundamentally different from that posed by other threats to biodiversity, and the climate-ready approach is akin to a paradigm shift in conservation.The project used a review of 26 conservation strategy documents (spanning scales from international to local) and four case studies with conservation agencies to test and refine the climate-ready approach. The project found the approach to be robust and highly relevant; in the majority of situations, if adopted, it would lead to significant changes in the objectives and priorities of conservation. There were also many ‘green shoots’ of elements of the new approach in existing conservation practice. However, the project found there are currently substantial barriers to fully adopting a climate-ready approach. These include the need for: further development of ecological characterisation of ecosystem health and human activities in landscapesmuch better understanding of how society values different aspects of biodiversity, including ecosystems and landscapesdevelopment of policy tools to codify and implement new ecologically robust and socially endorsed objectives.  Anticipated future climate change is very likely to have a wide range of different types of ecological impact on biodiversity across the whole of Australia. There is a high degree of confidence that these changes will be significant, affecting almost all species, ecosystems and landscapes. However, because of the complexity of ecological systems and the multiple ways climate change will affect them, the details of the future change are less certain for any given species or location. The nature of the changes means that the multiple ways biodiversity is experienced, used and valued by society will be affected in different ways. The likely changes present a significant challenge to any societal aspiration to preserve biodiversity in its current state, for example, to maintain a species in its current abundance and distribution. Preserving biodiversity ‘as is’ may have been feasible in a stationary climate (one that is variable but not changing), but this will not be possible with the widespread, pervasive and large ecological changes anticipated under significant levels of climate change. This makes the impacts of climate change quite unlike other threats to biodiversity, and they challenge, fundamentally, what it actually means to conserve biodiversity under climate change: what should the objectives of biodiversity conservation be under climate change? And what are the barriers to recalibrating conservation objectives?Based on key insights from the scientific literature on climate change and biodiversity, the project developed three adaptation propositions about managing biodiversity:Conservation strategies accommodate large amounts of ecological change and the likelihood of significant climate change–induced loss in biodiversity. Strategies remain relevant and feasible under a range of possible future trajectories of ecological change.Strategies seek to conserve the multiple different dimensions of biodiversity that are experienced and valued by society. Together these propositions summarise the challenge of future climate change for biodiversity conservation, and define a new way of framing conservation we called the ‘climate ready’ approach. In the near term, conservation strategies may be able to include some consideration of these propositions. However, under significant levels of climate change many of the current approaches to conservation will become increasingly difficult and ineffective (e.g. maintaining community types in their current locations). This challenge is fundamentally different from that posed by other threats to biodiversity, and the climate-ready approach is akin to a paradigm shift in conservation.The project used a review of 26 conservation strategy documents (spanning scales from international to local) and four case studies with conservation agencies to test and refine the climate-ready approach. The project found the approach to be robust and highly relevant; in the majority of situations, if adopted, it would lead to significant changes in the objectives and priorities of conservation. There were also many ‘green shoots’ of elements of the new approach in existing conservation practice. However, the project found there are currently substantial barriers to fully adopting a climate-ready approach. These include the need for: further development of ecological characterisation of ecosystem health and human activities in landscapesmuch better understanding of how society values different aspects of biodiversity, including ecosystems and landscapesdevelopment of policy tools to codify and implement new ecologically robust and socially endorsed objectives. Please cite this report as: Dunlop M, Parris, H, Ryan, P, Kroon, F 2013 Climate-ready conservation objectives: a scoping study, National Climate Change Adaptation Research Facility, Gold Coast, pp. 102

The other voice in the room: restorative justice facilitators’ constructions of justice

Restorative justice represents an approach to managing conflict initiated by a wrongdoing that focuses on restoring the participants materially, psychologically, and relationally. Restorative interventions usually involve facilitators who act as “experts” in helping the parties to manage their conflict restoratively. They also help participants to understand how restorative justice differs from traditional justice and what restorative justice looks like. However, we lack an understanding of how facilitators conceptualize justice in the first place. Drawing on interviews with facilitators, this study identifies facilitators’ justice constructions during victim-offender conferences. Together, these constructions constitute a multi-dimensional, multi-layered model of justice in victim-offender conferences

Effect of exposure conditions and concrete quality on pyrrhotite oxidation and internal sulfate attack

Thousands of homes in County Donegal, Ireland, are damaged by cracks formed a few years after construction. The authorities have erroneously attributed the damages to the presence of muscovite mica in the concrete blocks used to build the homes. Only recently, research has shown that pyrrhotite oxidation triggering internal sulfate attack (ISA) is the cause. In this study, the strip foundation, the rising blocks elevating the structure to ground level and the inner and outer leaf of one affected home are investigated. As these four types of structural components differ by concrete quality, exposure condition or both, their effect on pyrrhotite oxidation and ISA is investigated. Sulfur analysis, X-ray diffraction and scanning electron microscopy are used to characterize the concrete

A trigonotarbid arachnid from the early Devonian of Tredomen, Wales

A new trigonotarbid (Arachnida: Trigonotarbida) Arianrhoda bennetti gen. et sp. nov. is described from the Lower Devonian (Lochkovian) of a quarry near Tredomen, Powys, mid Wales, UK. This relatively complete specimen is the first record of a pre-Carboniferous arachnid from Wales, one of only a handful of early Devonian arachnids, and the second oldest trigonotarbid recorded. Based on the rounded prosomal dorsal shield and the relatively narrow, elongate opisthosoma we refer this new fossil to the family Anthracosironidae. A distinct flange-like ornament on the leg 4 tibia in the new fossil is unique among trigonotarbids and is the primary autapomorphy for the new genus

The characteristics of ribbed moraine and assessment of theories of their genesis.

Ribbed (Rogen) moraines are large subglacially formed transverse ridges that cover extensive areas of the beds of the former Laurentide, Fennoscandian and Irish ice sheets. Since the flow speeds and stability of ice sheets are known to be sensitive to conditions operating at the bed, a full understanding of the processes of ribbed moraine genesis are critical if we are to appreciate their role in ice sheet dynamics. Several theories of ribbed moraine genesis have been published, however, these could not be tested due to the paucity of data on ribbed moraines. This thesis addresses this deficit by producing the first representative data set on ribbed moraine characteristics. Various remote sensing and GIS techniques were used to record the morphological, morphometric and spatial characteristics of ribbed moraines in Ireland, Canada and Sweden, over a combined area of 81,000 km2 • This established that some published accounts were inaccurate or untrue, and that ribbed moraine morphology is more complex than was hitherto reported. This thesis demonstrates that ribbed moraines form independent of topographic influences, are not always curved down-ice, do not have accordant summits, can have both steep proximal and distal sides, have undulating crests and resemble waves, are not always anastomosing and do not necessarily fit neatly together like a jigsaw. This thesis also provides the first quantitative database of ribbed moraine ridge length, width, height and wavelength, and demonstrates they exist over a larger scale range than was previously thought. The above data were used to test the various ribbed moraine theories. This led to the rejection of the topographic model of shear and stack and undermined the credibility of all other shear and stack hypotheses, the two-step hypothesis, the megaflood hypothesis and the thennal fracturing model of fonnation. Ribbed moraine wavelength data were used to test the only numerical computer model of ribbed moraine formation, which argues that they are the product of instability in a deforming subglacial till. Extensive tests failed to falsify the model and it is concluded that it remains the prime candidate of explanation. However, if future tests or observations do falsify this model, we argue that because ribbed moraines share many common properties of other natural instabilities, it will be another instability mechanism that will emerge as being successful is explaining their genesis

Using soil geochemistry to investigate gold and base metal distribution and dispersal in the glaciated north of Ireland

Soil geochemistry is routinely and effectively used for mineral prospecting in areas of glaciated terrain, notably in Canada and Finland. This study uses the Tellus and Tellus Border soil geochemical data to investigate possible glacial dispersal of gold and base metals in the Down–Longford terrane of Ireland. Results from multivariate statistical analysis of the data correlate well with known mineralisation and prove effective in identifying further areas of potentially high prospectivity. Dispersal of gold and base metals is identified, reflecting single and multiple ice flow directions over relatively short distances (≤20 km)

A FOSSIL WHIP-SCORPION (ARACHNIDA: THELYPHONIDA) FROM THE UPPER CARBONIFEROUS OF THE CARNIC ALPS (FRIULI, NE ITALY)

A new and well-preserved fossil whip scorpion (Arachnida: Uropygi: Thelyphonida) is described from the Late Carboniferous of the Carnic Alps, Friuli, Italy. It is referred to Parageralinura marsiglioi n. sp. The new specimen is the first Carboniferous arachnid to be described from mainland Italy and is possibly the youngest Palaeozoic thelyphonid

Principal component analysis of the geochemistry of soil developed on till in Northern Ireland

This paper presents results from the first regional statistical analysis of soils developed on till in Northern Ireland, using the Geological Survey of Northern Ireland's Tellus geochemical database. Till geochemistry is largely determined by its parent bedrock and soils developed on tills are known to inherit this geochemical signature. Soil geochemistry from areas of till can therefore be used to establish sediment provenance which in turn provides information on palaeo ice flow directions and ice sheet history. In this study, we use Principal Component Analysis to establish geochemical groupings that can be related back to likely bedrock parent material for the tills in the region. The maps, presented here at 1:445,000 scale, show the results of the first regional investigation of soil geochemistry of part of the northern sector of the Irish Ice Sheet. The results indicate that the upper surface of the majority of tills in the study area have a close relationship to local bedrock with rapid geochemical changes observed at lithological boundaries. This suggests that tills in this sector of the Irish Ice Sheet are primarily local in origin, indicating rapid entrainment of bedrock and low rates of evacuation of debris to the ice margin