Global change threatens invertebrate biodiversity and its central role in numerous ecosystem functions and services. Functional trait analyses have been advocated to uncover global mechanisms behind biodiversity responses to environmental change, but the application of this approach for invertebrates is underdeveloped relative to other organism groups. From an evaluation of 363 records comprising >1.23 million invertebrates collected from rivers across nine biogeographic regions on three continents, consistent responses of community trait composition and diversity to replicated gradients of reduced glacier cover are demonstrated. After accounting for a systematic regional effect of latitude, the processes shaping river invertebrate functional diversity are globally consistent. Analyses nested within individual regions identified an increase in functional diversity as glacier cover decreases. Community assembly models demonstrated that dispersal limitation was the dominant process underlying these patterns, although environmental filtering was also evident in highly glacierized basins. These findings indicate that predictable mechanisms govern river invertebrate community responses to decreasing glacier cover globally. ; This work was funded by the following organisations: The UK Natural Environment Research Council grants and studentships GR9/2913, NE/E003729/1, NE/E004539/1, NE/E004148/1, 20 NE/G523963/1, NER/S/A/2003/11192, and NE/L002574/1; the European Union Environment and Climate Programme Arctic and Alpine Stream Ecosystem Research (AASER) project (ENV-CT95-0164); EU-FP7 Assessing Climate impacts on the Quality and quantity of WAter (ACQWA) project (212250); Icelandic Research Council (954890095, 954890096); University of Iceland Research Fund (GMG96, GMG97, GMG98), Wyoming Center for Environmental Hydrology and Geophysics-National Science Foundation (1208909); USA-Wyoming NASA Space Grant Faculty Research Initiation (#NNX10A095H); USA-NSF Wyoming Epscor; Nationalpark Hohe Tauern, Austria; the Royal Society (International Outgoing Grant 2006/R4); the Leverhulme Trust; the Universities of Leeds, Birmingham, Iceland and Innsbruck; European Centre for Arctic Environmental Research (ARCFAC): a Research Infrastructures Action of the European Community FP6 (026129-2008- 72); the Stelvio National Park (2000-2001); the Autonomous Province of Trento (HIGHEST project, 2001-2004, del. PAT n. 1060/2001; VETTA project, 2003-2006, del. PAT n. 3402/2002); MUSE-Museo delle Scienze. We are grateful to Russell Taylor and Mike Winterbourn at the University of Canterbury, NZ, who helped to collect NZ invertebrate data and assisted with identification, and to Hakon Adalsteinsson who contributed to data collection in Iceland. Many other people, too numerous to mention, assisted with fieldwork at all of the study locations. The European Science Foundation sponsored an exploratory ┘ラヴニゲエラヮ WミデキデノWS さGノ;IキWヴ-fed rivers, hydroecology and climate change: current knowledge and future network of monitoring sites (GLAC-HYDROECO-NETぶざ デエ;デ ┘;ゲ エWノS キミ Birmingham, UK in September of 2013 where some of the ideas in this paper were first discussed ; Peer Reviewed
Climate change is stronger at high than at temperate and tropical latitudes. The natural geothermal conditions in southern Iceland provide an opportunity to study the impact of warming on plants, because of the geothermal bedrock channels that induce stable gradients of soil temperature. We studied two valleys, one where such gradients have been present for centuries (long-term treatment), and another where new gradients were created in 2008 after a shallow crustal earthquake (short-term treatment). We studied the impact of soil warming (0 to +15 C) on the foliar metabolomes of two common plant species of high northern latitudes: Agrostis capillaris, a monocotyledon grass; and Ranunculus acris, a dicotyledonous herb, and evaluated the dependence of shifts in their metabolomes on the length of the warming treatment. The two species responded differently to warming, depending on the length of exposure. The grass metabolome clearly shifted at the site of long-term warming, but the herb metabolome did not. The main up-regulated compounds at the highest temperatures at the long-term site were saccharides and amino acids, both involved in heat-shock metabolic pathways. Moreover, some secondary metabolites, such as phenolic acids and terpenes, associated with a wide array of stresses, were also up-regulated. Most current climatic models predict an increase in annual average temperature between 2–8 C over land masses in the Arctic towards the end of this century. The metabolomes of A. capillaris and R. acris shifted abruptly and nonlinearly to soil warming >5 C above the control temperature for the coming decades. These results thus suggest that a slight warming increase may not imply substantial changes in plant function, but if the temperature rises more than 5 C, warming may end up triggering metabolic pathways associated with heat stress in some plant species currently dominant in this region. ; This research was supported by the European Research Council Synergy grant ERC-2013-SyG-610028 IMBALANCE-P, the Spanish Government grant CGL2016-79835, the Catalan Government grant SGR 2014-274, the Scholarly Studies programme of the Smithsonian Institution, projects LM2015061 and LO1415 of the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports of the Czech Republic, and the Research Foundation—Flanders (FWO aspirant grant to N.L.). ; Peer Reviewed
As the world's social-environmental problems increasingly extend across boundaries, both disciplinary and political, there is a growing need for interdisciplinarity, not only in research per se, but also in doctoral education. We present the common pitfalls of interdisciplinary research in doctoral education, illustrating approaches towards solutions using the Nordic Centre for Research on Marine Ecosystems and Resources under Climate Change (NorMER) research network as a case study. We provide insights and detailed examples of how to overcome some of the challenges of conducting interdisciplinary research within doctoral studies that can be applied within any doctoral/postdoctoral education programme, and beyond. Results from a self-evaluation survey indicate that early-career workshops, annual meetings and research visits to other institutions were the most effective learning mechanisms, whereas single discipline-focused courses and coursework were among the least effective learning mechanisms. By identifying the strengths and weaknesses of components of NorMER, this case study can inform the design of future programmes to enhance interdisciplinarity in doctoral education, as well as be applied to science collaboration and academic research in general. ; This study is a product of the Nordic Centre for Research on Marine Ecosystems and Resources under Climate Change (NorMER, Project no. 36800), which is funded by the Norden Top-level Research Initiative sub-programme 'Effect Studies and Adaptation to Climate Change'. We thank Nils Chr. Stenseth for support during the preparation of this manuscript, as well as 3 anonymous reviewers for useful and constructive comments. ; Peer Reviewed
Climate change constitutes one of the most pressing challenges faced by tourism today. Tourism research on climate-induced environmental changes has contributed to an increase in knowledge about adaptation during the last decade. Despite a general recognition of the urgent need to adapt, as well as a large-scale scientific effort in this field underlining evidence of potential risk, the impacts of adaptation research on practices and policies in tourism appear to be relatively low. To reduce the gap between adaptation research and practitioner action this thesis aims to increase the understanding of adaptation to climate-induced changes in nature-based tourism, by analyzing the adaptation processes and practices of tourism actors involved in glacier tourism. Glacier tourism is a highly relevant example of a type of tourism which needs to adapt to climate-induced environmental changes. Therefore, this thesis examines: what is the state-of-the-field knowledge concerning relationships among tourism, the glacial environment, and climate change; how do glacier tourism actors adapt to the current and future impacts of climate change; and how can glacier tourism actors' engagement with science contribute to proactive adaptation. The research conducted in this thesis uses a combination of two analytical approaches. An actor-oriented approach is employed to investigate tourism actors' experiences and perceptions of climate change and their adaptation behavior. The other approach draws on transdisciplinary research, involving an active engagement of local stakeholders and scientists to form dialogues to combine knowledge bases, and to verify the social relevance of research on climate change adaptation. An embedded case study design was chosen due to its potential to integrate an actor-oriented approach with transdisciplinary research. The glacier sites of southeast Iceland form the case-study area wherein the adaptation processes of glacier tourism actors were examined. The case study constitutes the setting for the collection of empirical data by means of quantitative methods, such as literature review and visitor surveys, as well as qualitative methods, such as interviews and participatory scenario workshops. The results reveal a limited but growing body of scholarly work that examines the relationships between tourism, glaciers, and climate change impacts and responses. The existing work lacks however important data concerning the motives, preferences, experiences, and behaviors of actors in glacier tourism in general and specifically in the context of climate change. The results of the analysis of tourism actors' adaptation practices furthermore show that climate change has already resulted in several impacts on glacier sites and that operators have responded to these implications in the form of a wait-and-see strategy combined with ad-hoc reactive adaptation. On the other hand, the results also show that visitors to glacier sites are more heterogeneous in their responses to future climate change–induced impacts. Furthermore that adaptation processes of glacier tourism actors are shaped by the interaction of actors' attributes of agency, such as risk perception, concerns, motivations and interests, with structural elements of the glacier destination systems, such as type of visitation implication, prevailing economic rationale or lack of effective climate change institutions. Lastly, the results stress the development and application of a participatory scenario planning process, as a form of science-practitioner engagement, to be a valuable tool to support the adaptation planning of glacier sites through sharing knowledge, elaborating on long-term changes and associated uncertainties, and exploring proactive adaptation options. Climate is only one of the drivers of change that determine the development of glacier tourism. It is thus concluded that climate change implications cannot be understood as isolated factors; rather, they should be viewed as constituting interconnected and cumulative effects on socioeconomic and natural environments. Mainstreaming climate change adaptation into current destination planning and management or integrating climate change adaptation with related science fields, such hazard reduction research or sustainability science, would thus provide more promising approaches than studying climate change adaptation in isolation. ; Loftslagsbreytingar eru ein stærsta áskorun sem ferðaþjónusta heimsins stendur frammi fyrir í dag. Síðastliðinn áratug hafa rannsóknir innan ferðamálafræði á breyttum umhverfisaðstæðum vegna loftlagsbreytinga stuðlað að aukningu rannsókna á aðlögum að loftslagsbreytingum. Þrátt fyrir almenna viðurkenningu á þörfinni fyrir aðlögun að breyttum aðstæðum, og umfangsmiklar rannsóknir sem sýna fram á mögulega áhættu sem fylgir slíkum breytingum, virðast áhrif aukinnar þekkingar um aðlögun á starfsemi og stefnu í ferðaþjónustu enn vera tiltölulega lítil. Með það að leiðarljósi að minnka bilið á milli rannsókna á aðlögun að loftslagsbreytingum og aðgerða ferðaþjónustunnar, leggur þessi doktorsritgerð áherslu á að auka skilning á aðlögun að breyttum umhverfisaðstæðum vegna loftlagsbreytinga í náttúrutengdri ferðaþjónustu, með því að greina aðlögunarferli og starfshætti ferðaþjónustuaðila sem stunda jöklaferðamennsku. Jöklaferðamennska er mjög skýrt dæmi um ferðaþjónustu sem þarf að aðlaga sig að breyttu umhverfi vegna áhrifa loftslagsbreytinga. Meginmarkmið þessarar ritgerðar eru að meta: hver er staða þekkingar á sambandi ferðamennsku, jökulumhverfis og loftslagsbreytinga; hvernig ferðaþjónustuaðilar sem stunda jöklaferðamennsku aðlagist að núverandi og framtíðar áhrifum loftslagsbreytinga; og hvernig tengsl ferðaþjónustuaðila við vísindi geti stuðlað að framvirkri aðlögun. Rannsóknirnar í þessari doktorsritgerð nota sambland af tveimur greiningaraðferðum. Annars vegar gerendanálgun til að rannsaka reynslu og viðhorf ferðaþjónustuaðila til loftslagsbreytinga sem og aðlögunarhegðun þeirra. Hins vegar aðferð sem byggir á þverfaglegri nálgun sem felur í sér gagnvirka þátttöku hagaðila í héraði og sérfræðinga til að ræða saman og mynda sameiginlegan þekkingargrunn, og til að sannreyna félagslegt mikilvægi rannsókna á aðlögun að loftslagsbreytingum. Til að samþætta þessar tvær aðferðir, þ.e. gerendanálgun og þverfaglega nálgun, var ákveðið að styðjast við tilviksrannsókn. Nokkrir áfangastaðir við sunnanverðan Vatnajökul voru valdir sem rannsóknarsvæði, þar sem söfnun gagna fór fram. Stuðst var við bæði megindlega aðferðafræði, svo sem spurningakannanir til ferðamanna, og eigindlega aðferðafræði, svo sem viðtöl, þátttökuathuganir og sviðsmyndagreiningu. Niðurstöður sýna takmarkaða en vaxandi rannsóknavirkni sem beinir sjónum að tengslum ferðamennsku, jökla, áhrifum loftslagsbreytinga og viðbrögðum við slíkum áhrifum. Jafnframt, að enn vanti töluvert af rannsóknum sem beini sjónum að reynslu, hegðun og óskum gerenda í jöklaferðamennsku, bæði almennt en sérstaklega þó í tengslum við loftslagsbreytingar. Niðurstöður sýna enn fremur að loftslagsbreytingar hafa þegar haft töluverð áhrif á jöklasvæðin við sunnanverðan Vatnajökul og að ferðaþjónustuaðilar hafa brugðist við þessum afleiðingum í formi "bíða-og-sjá-til" afstöðu, ásamt samsvarandi afturvirkum aðgerðum. Á hinn bóginn sýna niðurstöðurnar einnig að ferðafólk sem heimsækir jökulsvæðin er innbyrðis breytilegt varðandi viðbrögð við framtíðar áhrifum loftslagsbreytinga. Enn fremur að aðlögunarferli gerenda í jöklaferðamennsku mótist af gagnvirku samspili gerendahæfni þeirra, varðandi þætti eins og áhættuskynjun, hugsjónir, hvata, og áhugasvið, við skipulagningu ferðaþjónustunnar og innviði á einstökum áfangastöðum, svo sem varðandi þau áhrif sem ferðamennskan hefur, viðhorf til hagþróunar og hvort til staðar séu skilvirkar stofnanir sem sinna loftlagsmálum. Síðast en ekki síst, leggja niðurstöður rannsóknanna áherslu á mikilvægi þróunar og beitingu þátttökusviðsmynda til að samtvinna viðhorf hagsmunaaðila í héraði og vísindamanna í skipulagsferli. Slíkar þátttökusviðsmyndir eru mikilvægt verkfæri til að styðja við skipulega aðlögun áfangastaða jöklaferðamennsku að breyttum umhverfisaðstæðum vegna loftlagsbreytinga, í gegnum gagnkvæma miðlun þekkingar, íhugunar um langtíma breytingar og þá óvissu sem þeim fylgir, og skoðunar á mögulegum framvirkum aðlögunaraðgerðum til að mæta slíkum breytingum Loftslagsbreytingar eru aðeins einn þeirra drifkrafta sem stýra þróun jöklaferðamennsku. Ekki er hægt að horfa á áhrif loftslagsbreytinga sem einangraða þætti; heldur verður að horfa heildrænt á alla áhrifaþætti til að skilja betur hin flóknu og gagnvirku tengsl á milli hinna samfélagslegu, hagrænu og umhverfislegu sviða. Með því að setja aðlögun að loftslagsbreytingum í forgrunn í núverandi áfangsstaðaáætlunum og stýringaraðgerðum, eða með því að samþætta aðlögun að loftslagsbreytingum við ákveðin vísindasvið eins og áhætturannsóknir eða sjálfbærnirannsóknir, væri hægt að leiða fram mun betri nálgun en með því að horfa á aðlögun að loftslagsbreytingum sem einangrað fyrirbæri. ; University of Iceland Eimskip Fund, Icelandic Tourism Research Centre, Hornafjörður Research center, the Friends of Vatnajökull, Nature Conservation Fund of Pálmi Jónsson, Kvískerjasjóður research fund and European Union Interreg Northern Periphery and Arctic Programme
Ólíkar birtingarmyndir tveggja dýrategunda, hvítabjarna og lunda, eru hér til umfjöllunar í samhengi efnismenningar og frásagna fortíðar og samtíma. Rætt er um með hvaða hætti hlutverk þeirra hefur fléttast saman við sjálfsmyndir og mismunandi menningarlegt samhengi. Spurt er hvernig merking þessara dýra hefur frá fornu fari tekið breytingum og þróast. Þar má nefna ýmsa merkingarauka í tengslum við loftslagsbreytingar, aukna umhverfisvitund og vaxandi áherslur á norðurslóðir sem birtast í myndrænni og efnislegri framsetningu, til dæmis í íslenskri ferðaþjónustu, á söfnum og í myndlist. Bakgrunnur ímyndanna í frásagnarhefð er skoðaður með tilliti til tákna og túlkunar á samskiptum manneskjunnar við náttúruöflin. Tekin eru til umfjöllunar dæmi um hvernig íslenskir myndlistarmenn hafa unnið með þessi dýr í verkum sínum, meðal annars til að vekja upp spurningar um umhverfismál en einnig til að varpa gagnrýnu ljósi á flókna menningarlega sjálfsmynd Íslendinga í hnattvæddum og kynlegum heimi samtímans. Knýjandi áskoranir varðandi umhverfismál og sameiginlegt vistkerfi blasa við, þvert á tegundir, og er hér lögð áhersla á þétta samfléttun manneskju og dýra.
Á mannöld (e. anthropocene), þegar loftslagsbreytingar af mannavöldum ógna framtíð okkar og boða endalok þeirrar heimsmyndar sem við þekkjum, vaknar óhjákvæmilega sú spurning hvort pláss sé fyrir bókmenntir, eins og við höfum þekkt þær. Fyrstu tveir áratugir tuttugustu og fyrstu aldar hafa einkennst af æ fleiri örforlögum sem fara gegn straumnum, en starfsemi þeirra grundvallast á breyttu viðhorfi til bókmennta, bókaútgáfu og bókarinnar sem slíkrar. Þau vinna út frá hefð framúrstefnunnar og stefna að því að umbylta ríkjandi fagurfræði og menningarstarfsemi. Þær breytingar sem verða á bókmenntavettvanginum með tilkomu örforlaga fela í sér áherslur sem lagðar eru á: bókverk, takmarkað upplag, tilraunakennd form og fagurfræði, stefnumarkandi texta og gjörninga og loks annars konar dreifingu verka. Þessi stefnubreyting á menningarvettvanginum er í takt við svokallaða valsældarhyggju (e. alternative hedonism) sem einkennist af aukinni vistvitund og felur í sér að einstaklingur finnur nautn í því að neyta minna og á annan hátt. Ég mun leitast við að sýna fram á hvernig starfsemi örforlaga tengist gagnrýni slíkrar valsældarhyggju á kapítalisma og hvernig hún er ein athyglisverðasta birtingarmynd nýrrar umhverfisverndarorðræðu í bókmenntum Norðurlanda.
Publisher's version (útgefin grein) ; Glacial mountain environments are changing rapidly as a result of climate change and the expansion of nature-based recreation. Anticipatory planning to adapt to such changes is a key management challenge. The aim of this study was to explore how adaptation planning for recreation sites in these areas can be supported using participatory scenario planning (PSP). For this purpose, a study area in southeast Iceland was chosen where management is likely to be heavily impacted in the near future. PSP involves local stakeholder workshops in which participants generate maps reflecting plausible glacial land cover and land use in the near future. This process takes place in stages, including the identification of potential drivers of land-use change, development of multiple land-use scenarios, and examination of the potential consequences of these scenarios and options for adapting to them. The study demonstrates that PSP can be a valuable tool to support recreational land-use planning in glacial landscapes, and to improve anticipatory adaptation to potentially undesirable future changes. PSP also has the potential to provide salient and usable knowledge for local stakeholders, stimulate stakeholders to elaborate on long-term changes and associated uncertainties through scenario construction and visualization, provide insight into the adaptive capacity of current recreational planning systems, and reframe stakeholders' guiding assumptions to encourage a more future-oriented mentality. This approach could be valuable in other glaciated mountain areas and in recreation areas where there are multiple significant future changes in landscape attributes, processes, and uses at play simultaneously. ; This work is a part of a larger project supported by the European Union Interreg Northern Periphery and Arctic Programme (Interreg-npa.eu), titled BuSK (Building shared knowledge capital to support natural resource governance in the northern periphery). It also received financial support from Kvískerjasjóður research fund. We would further like to thank all workshop participants for their enthusiastic and productive cooperation. Thanks are also to our anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments and suggestions, which led to significant improvement of this paper. ; Peer Reviewed
