An introduction to the Ramsar Convention on wetlands
- Authors: Gell, Peter , Finlayson, C. , Davidson, Nick
- Date: 2023
- Type: Text , Book chapter
- Relation: Ramsar Wetlands: Values, Assessment, Management Chapter 1 p. 1-36
- Full Text: false
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- Description: The Ramsar Convention on the conservation and wise use of the World’s wetlands was agreed in response to widespread recognition of the declining condition of wetlands and the impact of this on wetland habitats and associated fauna. Since 1971, over 2000 wetlands have been listed as internationally important by 172 countries and covering more than 2,000,000km2. There have been considerable advances in the scientific understanding of wetlands, and today, the monitoring of these systems draws on multiple disciplinary approaches. The Convention itself has responded to these advances and the ongoing challenge to conserve the world’s wetlands. Importantly, signatory nations regularly report on the condition of wetlands, update listings, and have adopted a framework to ensure wise use of all wetlands. In turn, healthy wetlands are increasingly seen to afford considerable ecosystem services to human communities that rely on them for the provision of food and water and recreation and for their cultural and aesthetic values. Whilst the Convention has now passed its 50th anniversary, it is increasingly recognised that wetlands continually change over many time scales and that direct human pressures are merely one of the drivers that affect wetlands. The monitoring of these changes continues to allow the Convention and signatory nations to amend the framework to reflect emerging understanding of wetland change. These advances enable the Convention to encourage, and better allow, signatory nations to pursue social and economic outcomes whilst continuing to contribute to the pursuit of conserving the natural assets accommodated within the global network of significant wetlands. © 2023 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Trajectories in wetland condition : setting limits of acceptable change
- Authors: Newall, Peter , Fisk, Greg
- Date: 2023
- Type: Text , Book chapter
- Relation: Ramsar Wetlands: Values, Assessment, Management Chapter 13 p. 335-355
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- Description: Limits of acceptable change (LAC) are an important component of Ramsar wetland descriptions, allowing management authorities to assess for changes in ecological character, commence notifications of change, and initiate management requirements. A major difficulty in the determination of LAC lies in the separation of adverse, human-induced change from natural variability. Another difficulty in deriving LAC is the often-encountered paucity of monitoring data at Ramsar sites. This chapter provides a practical solution to these difficulties through the use of a 3-level process to derive LAC, based on the availability of, and confidence in, relevant data. This chapter also discusses problems associated with environmental trajectories impacting the ecological character of Ramsar wetlands and provides management options ranging from defending current ecological character, through building resilience and developing new LAC, to accepting inevitable losses. Trajectories are categorised on the basis of magnitude and gradient of change, and management considerations are present for each category. © 2023 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
A review of south pacific tropical cyclones : impacts of natural climate variability and climate change
- Authors: Chand, Savin , Dowdy, Andrew , Bell, Samuel , Tory, Kevin
- Date: 2020
- Type: Text , Book chapter
- Relation: Springer Climate p. 251-273
- Full Text: false
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- Description: Impacts of tropical cyclones in the South Pacific Island countries are of great significance. Now with the growing threats from human-induced climate change, the need for effective disaster risk management and adaptation strategies for these island countries is more important than before. In order to implement appropriate strategies, a comprehensive understanding of South Pacific tropical cyclone activity—and how it is likely to change as a result of human-induced climate change—is essential. While a number of past studies have examined various aspects of tropical cyclone activity in the South Pacific basin, a review that consolidates those studies with new information is essential. In this chapter, we first examine tropical cyclone data quality for the South Pacific basin and then review the robustness of the relationship between South Pacific tropical cyclones and drivers of natural climate variability. Note that an understanding of the limitations of the data quality is important to determine the extent of natural climate variability and signatures—if any—of human-induced climate change on tropical cyclones. We then examine the influence of climate change on tropical cyclones using up-to-date historical observations and climate model projections. © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020.
Climate change scenarios and projections for the pacific
- Authors: Chand, Savin
- Date: 2020
- Type: Text , Book chapter
- Relation: Springer Climate 3 p. 171-199
- Full Text: false
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- Description: Small island countries in the Pacific have characteristics which enhance their vulnerability and reduce their resilience to the effects of climate change, sea-level rise and extreme events. Over the past decade, a number of studies have been undertaken to improve our understanding of climate variability and change in the Pacific. This chapter provides an overview of those studies and discusses possible challenges associated with climate model projections for the small island countries in the Pacific. © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020.
Impacts of climate change on weeds, insect pests, plant diseases and crop yields: Synthesis
- Authors: Jabran, Khawar , Florentine, Singarayer , Chauhan, Bhagirath
- Date: 2020
- Type: Text , Book chapter
- Relation: Crop protection under changing climate 6 p. 189-195
- Full Text: false
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- Description: Three distinct components of climate change in the recent times are warming of the earth, increased levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and erratic changes in water availability to plants. These changes in the global climate not only impact the growth and life cycles of plants but also affect their pests. Recent research demonstrates that the effects of climate change on pests, pesticides (their efficacy and post-application chemistry) and pest management are complex. This is important to document changes in the behaviour of pests and pesticides in the wake of climate change and propose pest management strategies accordingly. Nevertheless, non-chemical methods and integrated pest management will play an important role in sustainable pest control under climate change. Further, the effects of climate change factors on crop protection and crop production are desired to be understood in order to maintain the global food supplies and global food security.
Managing freshwater protected areas in the global landscape
- Authors: Finlayson, C. Max , Davidson, Nick , Gell, Peter , Kumar, Ritesh , McInnes, Robert
- Date: 2018
- Type: Text , Book chapter
- Relation: Freshwater Ecosystems in Protected Areas: Conservation and Management Chapter 12 p. 221-241
- Full Text: false
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- Description: The increasing demand for freshwater, as well as uncertainties associated with climate change, has placed growing pressure on wetland and natural resource managers to develop sustainable approaches that extend across landscapes and ensure the many benefits we obtain from freshwater wetlands are not further reduced.
On some open problems in optimal control
- Authors: Dontchev, Asen
- Date: 2018
- Type: Text , Book chapter
- Relation: Control Systems and Mathematical Methods in Economics : Essays in Honor of Vladimir M. Veliov (part of the Lecture Notes in Economics and Mathematical Systems book series) p. 3-13
- Relation: http://purl.org/au-research/grants/arc/DP160100854
- Full Text: false
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- Description: Several open problems are presented concerning regularity properties of solutions of optimal control problems with constraints.
Animal Extinctions
- Authors: Toukhsati, Samia
- Date: 2017
- Type: Text , Book chapter
- Relation: Animals and Human Society Chapter 21 p. 499-518
- Full Text: false
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- Description: Extinctions refer to the death of a single or multiple species (or taxon) and are common in the history of life on this planet. Using the fossil record, it has been estimated that 99.9% of the species that existed on earth is now extinct. Extinctions occur when a species fails to meet or adapt to changing environmental forces (such as global warming or cooling, habitat loss, destruction, or fragmentation) or when species origination is low, creating ecological niches for new, better adapted, species. This process of “background” extinction and new species evolution is natural, occurs continuously, and describes the way life diversified and radiated on this planet. However, when extinctions involve vast numbers of species and appear to occur around the same time in many different regions, as may be the case in modern times, they are termed “mass extinctions”; these are much less common, but greatly reduce species diversity. There is much debate and little consensus as to the cause and timescale of mass extinctions, generally referred to as the “Big Five” extinction events, which mark the point of transition to new geological epochs. This chapter will focus on the modern-day Holocene–Anthropocene extinction, which attributes the possible loss of up to 58,000 species per year to human activities.
Sensitivity and threat in high-elevation rainforests: Outcomes and consequences of the IBISCA-Queensland project
- Authors: Kitching, Roger , Ashton, Louise , Burwell, Chris , Boulter, Sarah , Greenslade, Penelope , Laidlaw, M.J. , Lambkin, C.L , Maunsell, Sarah , Nakurama, Aki , Odegaard, F.
- Date: 2013
- Type: Text , Book chapter
- Relation: Treetops at risk: Challenges of global canopy ecology and conservation p. 131-139
- Full Text: false
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- Description: The IBISCA approach to biodiversity assessment in forests was, initially, the brainchild of Yves Basset, Bruno Corbara and Hector Barrios (Basset et al. 2007). The four IBISCA projects carried out to date have examined selected aspects of beta-diversity in tropical, subtropical and temperate forests. In each case a set of research questions were defined and a sampling design executed. Researchers with interests in particular taxa or ecological processes were invited to join one or more of the proposed field expeditions to carry out sub-projects of their choice within the general experimental design. When successful, this approach not only provides individual researchers or groups of researchers with analyzable and publishable data sets in their specific areas of interest but it also facilitates comparative and other meta-analyses with homogeneous criteria.
Climate change and water management
- Authors: Kelly, Tim , Gehling, Jim , Westell, Kelly , Ingleton, Greg , Gell, Peter
- Date: 2010
- Type: Text , Book chapter
- Relation: Adelaide: Water of a city p. 267-287
- Full Text: false
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- Description: To understand the risks of climate change and variability on Adelaide's water supply system, it is useful to consider the changes that have occured throughout the earth's history, and changes due to natural climate variability that occur across decades and centuries. In this we first take a look at climate change in earth's history that has helped shape the natural systems of the Murray-Darling (MDB) and the Mount Lofty Ranges (MLR), which provides Adelaide with its drinking water. We consider the forces that drive natural climate variability. In the second part, we introduce the new climate change force of increasing greenhouse gases, caused by human civilisations. The chapter explores future global scenarios of human behaviour and examines SA Water's role in managing its greenhouse gas emissions as it adapts to climate change, seeks to reduce its emissions, and supports necessary research. "From introduction"
Holidays at home : Exploring the role of regional recreation in a low-carbon society
- Authors: Winter, Caroline , Frew, Elspeth
- Date: 2009
- Type: Text , Book chapter
- Relation: Climate change in regional Australia : Social learning and adaption Chapter 15 p. 283-300
- Full Text: false
- Description: 2003007869
How do communities respond to reduced water supply? The relationship between climate change and social change in regional Victoria
- Authors: McEachern, Steven
- Date: 2009
- Type: Text , Book chapter
- Relation: Climate change in regional Australia : Social learning and adaption Chapter 17 p. 324-341
- Full Text: false
- Description: 2003007876
Innovation policy and social learning : An economic framework for sustainable development in regional Australia
- Authors: Courvisanos, Jerry
- Date: 2009
- Type: Text , Book chapter
- Relation: Climate change in regional Australia : Social learning and adaption Chapter 14 p. 256-281
- Full Text: false
- Description: 2003007865