The impact of local networks on subsistence resilience and biodiversity in a low-lying Moluccan reef system between 1600 and the present

Abstract

Using field data for the 1980s and historical material, I show how the central places of networks crucial for regional and long-distance trade in the Moluccas between 1600 and the present were often environmentally vulnerable volcanic islands and low-lying reefs. After reviewing existing data on hazards, and evaluating the evidence for erosion and degradation, I suggest how resilience has been historically achieved through social and material exchanges between islands, accommodating the consequences of specific perturbations. Re-interpretation of published data shows how inter-island trade has re-organised patterns of biological interaction spatially and over the long-term, helping us assesses whether in the face of climate change effects such areas are zones of robustness or of potential fragility