Browsing by Subject "adaptive capacity"
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Item Open Access Community Vulnerability and Adaptation to Climate Change in East Palo Alto(2016-08-23) Saena, FagamalamaClimate change and sea level rise continue to devastate communities around the globe. The impacts have a disproportionate effect on those of lower socio-economic levels, and the consequences are frequently not borne equally amongst impacted individuals (UNDP, 2013). Community-based adaptation has been widely used to assess vulnerabilities and impacts at the community level, with an inclusive process that addresses root causes of risk. The process provides the opportunity for local government to empower and engaged impacted communities in identifying and prioritising their urgent adaptation needs. This study aims to understand East Palo Alto community vulnerabilities by assessing local knowledge and perception of risk to climate change. East Palo Alto, an urban city in California with socio- economic challenges, is vulnerable to flooding and coastal inundation. The limited financial and institutional capacity of the local government and community increases vulnerability and risk. Recommendations and steps are presented to guide actions and programs that are crucial in addressing community priorities and concernsItem Open Access Community Vulnerability and Adaptation to Climate Change in East Palo Alto(2016-08-23)Climate change and sea level rise continue to devastate communities around the globe. The impacts have a disproportionate effect on those of lower socio-economic levels, and the consequences are frequently not borne equally amongst impacted individuals (UNDP, 2013). Community-based adaptation has been widely used to assess vulnerabilities and impacts at the community level, with an inclusive process that addresses root causes of risk. The process provides the opportunity for local government to empower and engaged impacted communities in identifying and prioritizing their urgent adaptation needs. This study aims to understand East Palo Alto community vulnerabilities by assessing local knowledge and perception of risk to climate change. East Palo Alto, an urban city in California with socio-economic challenges, is vulnerable to flooding and coastal inundation. The limited financial and institutional capacity of the local government and community increases vulnerability and risk. Recommendations and steps are presented to guide actions and programs that are crucial in addressing community priorities and concerns.Item Open Access Human risk to ocean acidification(2014-04-22) Doherty, CarolynOcean acidification is a global phenomenon generated from increased anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions. Increased rates of ocean acidification are projected to drastically alter marine and coastal ecosystems. Human communities are intrinsically linked to ocean acidification, both as the main drivers of the process and as a particularly vulnerable party to its expected effects. As part of a larger project that aims to highlight global hotspots of vulnerability to ocean acidification, this paper explores the concept of characterizing and measuring the socioeconomic, cultural, and political forces that influence human vulnerability. This paper offers a concise overview of vulnerability, sensitivity, and adaptive capacity as they relate to ocean acidification, and provides a comparison of five vulnerability studies to explore commonalities between vulnerability framework methodologies. This paper also provides a detailed review of the collection and initial analysis of variables considered in determining which human communities are most at risk from ocean acidification.Item Open Access Using Landscape Genomics to Conserve Adaptive Capacity: A Case Study with a Southern Appalachian Salamander(2017) Forester, BrennaLandscape genomics is an emerging field that investigates how environmental features drive patterns of neutral and adaptive genetic variation across landscapes. Importantly, landscape genomics can provide insight into the adaptive potential of wild populations of non-model species, since these analyses do not require prior genomic information or the use of manipulative experiments such as reciprocal transplants. However, a fundamental challenge in landscape genomics is detecting genetic markers under selection from large genomic data sets. This analytical step is particularly important since partitioning these data into neutral and adaptive components of genetic diversity provides the information upon which management decisions are based.
Difficulties with the partitioning step include distinguishing neutral demographic signals from signals of selection, detecting selection across heterogeneous landscapes, and detecting signals of selection that are derived from multilocus adaptive processes. To address these issues, I used two different sets of landscape genetic simulations to test a suite of genotype-environment association (GEA) analyses across a range of landscape heterogeneities, selection strengths, dispersal abilities, demographic histories, sample sizes, sampling designs, and genetic architectures. I found that multivariate GEA methods showed a superior combination of low false positive and high true positive rates across simulation scenarios, providing a powerful tool for investigating the genetic basis of local adaptation and improving management actions.
I then applied a multivariate GEA approach to a reduced representation genomic data set for Weller's salamander (Plethodon welleri). This endemic, fully terrestrial, forest-dwelling salamander is a species of conservation concern across its small range in the Southern Appalachian Mountains. Its restriction to mountaintop habitats makes it particularly vulnerable to ongoing habitat fragmentation and climate change. I developed and illustrated the use of an “adaptive dissimilarity” index to characterize the scope of adaptive variation across the Weller’s salamander range. In combination with other metrics including neutral genetic variation, population differentiation, and effective population size, I addressed a series of conservation scenarios that were improved by the explicit consideration of differences in adaptive genetic variation among populations. These scenarios included: (1) site prioritization to ensure evolutionary resiliency across the species range; (2) genetic rescue to increase genetic diversity and population fitness while minimizing the risk of outbreeding depression; and (3) assisted gene flow to maximize adaptive potential in response to rapid climate change. These analyses are helping us better understand the capacity of species to adapt to changing conditions and what management actions will be most effective to conserve biodiversity under global change. These efforts must be part of the broader effort to stem the biodiversity crisis by conserving not just genetic diversity, but also the ecological and evolutionary processes that sustain it.