Communicating climate change and biodiversity loss with local populations: exploring communicative utopias in eight transdisciplinary case studies

Climate change and biodiversity loss trigger policies targeting and impacting local communities worldwide. However, research and policy implementation often fail to sufficiently consider community responses and to involve them. We present the results of a collective self-assessment exercise for eight case studies of communications with regard to climate change or biodiversity loss between project teams and local communities. We develop eight indicators of good stakeholder communication, reflecting the scope of Verran's (2002) concept of postcolonial moments as a communicative utopia. We demonstrate that applying our indicators can enhance communication and enable community responses. However, we discover a divergence between timing, complexity and (introspective) effort. Three cases qualify for postcolonial moments, but scrutinising power relations and genuine knowledge co-production remain rare. While we verify the potency of various instruments for deconstructing science, their sophistication cannot substitute trust building and epistemic/transdisciplinary awareness. Lastly, we consider that reforming inadequate funding policies helps improving the work in and with local communities.

Stakeholder Analysis on Ecosystem Services of Lake Manyara Sub-basin (Tanzania): How to Overcome Confounding Factors

Ecosystem services are a telling concept to discuss the integrated management of natural resources, such as integrated water and soil, with non-academic stakeholders. Stakeholders have different perceptions regarding the management of various ecosystem services, which is challenging when aiming to develop and foster sustainable ecosystem management. We performed a stakeholder analysis as part of a social-ecological study in preparation of a decision support system for integrated water management within the Lake Manyara sub-basin (LMSB), Tanzania. The area includes a National Park and UNESCO Biosphere Reserve. A group discussion listed 26 stakeholders, categorized according to the sector, influence, and interest. The stakeholders were grouped into six functional categories: local Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs), other civil society groups, Belgian and international NGOs, authorities, academics associated to international donors and the private sector. We empirically identified advantages, shortcomings and associated risks when performing a stakeholder analysis with an interest-influence matrix. Confounding factors may include, e.g., the omission of important stakeholders, a different understanding of 'influence' and 'interest', or the omission of fragile groups. Instead of 'low' or 'high' interest and influence, we propose the terms 'supportive', 'potentially supportive', 'unsupportive', 'not interested', 'low or no influence' and 'antagonistic'. Further, we consider stakeholders who directly extract resources from the social-ecological system (SES) as a separate category, because of their direct dependence and impact on the SES. This improved stakeholder analysis framework for developing decision support systems in water basins can contribute to better analysis, understanding and management of aquatic social-ecological systems in general.

The good, the bad and the ugly: framing debates on nature in a One Health community

Originating in medical and veterinary spheres, the One Health concept stands as an open call for collaboration also between these disciplines or professions and those of environmental and social science. However, the communities of practice in question show uneasy or under-developed collaborations, due to a variety of factors. We argue that an important factor is the way issues are raised and questions are formulated, i.e., their framing. Based on complementary perspectives on health and knowledge, this overview provides an inter- and trans-disciplinary analysis of the role of the framing of « nature » in One Health discourses as a barrier or a facilitator to collaboration, as revealed by the scientific literature. We find that the lack of reflection by scientists about the framing under which they operate appears as a major factor of misunderstanding between disciplines, and a barrier for inter- and trans-disciplinary solutions to improve management of health risks and benefits. Hence, to build such solutions, framing will have to be a conscious and repeated step in the process, acknowledging and explaining the diversity of viewpoints and values. The interdisciplinary dialogues inherent in this process promote translation between scientific domains, policy-makers and citizens, with a critical but pluralistic recourse to various framings of health risks and benefits associated with nature, and a deep awareness of their practical and ethical consequences.

Behavioral changes and acute toxicity to the freshwater shrimp Atyaephyra desmaresti Millet (Decapoda: Natantia) from exposure to acid mine drainage

Short-term 48 h laboratory bioassays with water from an acid mine drainage (AMD: pH 3.3, 4.4, 5.0, 5.5, 6.4, control) and water from an arsenic containing reservoir were performed with the freshwater shrimp Atyaephyra desmaresti Millet, validated in situ and compared to acidified control water (ACID). Behaviour, mortality and time to death were monitored with the Multispecies Freshwater Biomonitor (MFB). The shrimps had equal 24 h-LC50s at pH 4 in AMD and ACID. However, after 48 h AMD proved more toxic (48 h-LC50 at pH 5.2) than ACID (48 h-LC50 at pH 4.5). Stress behaviour in AMD consisted at pH < or = 6.4 of a pH-dependent decrease in activity, with disappearance of circadian rhythmicity, and at pH 4.4 a clear increase of ventilation. At pH 5.5 bioaccumulation of metals was higher and locomotion lower than at pH 5.0. In ACID, only at pH < or = 4.4 locomotion became abated and arythmic. Locomotion in the field was equal or higher compared to the laboratory, whereas the ventilation was higher in the laboratory. A. desmaresti is a valuable species to be used in short term behavioural bioassays of AMD in Europe.

Evidence for the Stepwise Stress Model: Gambusia holbrooki and Daphnia magna under acid mine drainage and acidified reference water stress

The Stepwise Stress Model (SSM) states that a cascade of regulative behavioral responses with different intrinsic sensitivities and threshold values offers increased behavioral plasticity and thus a wider range of tolerance for environmental changes or pollutant exposures. We tested the SSM with a widely introduced fish Gambusia holbrooki (Girard) (Pisces, Poeciliidae) and the standard laboratory test species Daphnia magna Straus (Crustacea, Daphniidae). The stress was simulated by short-term exposure to acid mine drainage (AMD) and to acidified reference water (ACID). Recording of behavioral responses with the multispecies freshwater biomonitor (MFB) generated continuous time-dependent dose-response data that were modeled in three-dimensional (3D) surface plots. Both the pH-dependent mortalities and the strong linear correlations between pH and aqueous metals confirmed the toxicity of the AMD and ACID gradients, respectively, for fish and Daphnia, the latter being more sensitive. AMD stress at pH < or = 5.5 amplified circadian rhythmicity in both species, while ACID stress did so only in G. holbrooki. A behavioral stepwise stress response was found in both species: D. magna decreased locomotion and ventilation (first step) (AMD, ACID), followed by increased ventilation (second step) (AMD). G. holbrooki decreased locomotion (first step) (AMD, ACID) and increased ventilation at intermediate pH levels (second step) (AMD). Both species, although from different taxonomic groups and feeding habits, followed the SSM, which might be expanded to a general concept for describing the behavioral responses of aquatic organims to pollution. Stepwise stress responses might be applied in online biomonitors to provide more sensitive and graduated alarm settings, hence optimizing the "early warning" detection of pollution waves.

Effects of acid mine drainage on larval Chironomus (Diptera, Chironomidae) measured with the Multispecies Freshwater Biomonitor

The abandoned Säo Domingos mine (Portugal) offers a pH and metal gradient of acid mine drainage (AMD), and is an ideal model for ecotoxicological studies. Short-term 24-h bioassays with water from the AMD (pH 3.3, 4.4, and 5.5, and control) were performed with fourth instars of Chironomus in the laboratory and in situ (AMD at pH 5.5) in artificial flow-through channels. This was compared to reference water acidified to the respective pH values (acid only). Behavioral stress responses were monitored online with the Multispecies Freshwater Biomonitor (MFB). The exposure to AMD and acid only was in the sublethal range (mortality 0-20%). The use of MFB chambers did not affect survival. Stress behavior of Chironomus consisted mainly of decreased locomotory activity in AMD and increased activity in acid-only tests, indicating that the metals in the AMD played a role as stress factor. Field exposure in the AMD mixing zone (pH 5.5) generated similar activity as in the corresponding laboratory exposure.