Recreation ecology – the study of the environmental consequences of outdoor recreation/nature‐based tourism activities and their effective management – is an emerging field of global importance. A primary research generalization in this field, the use–impact relationship, is commonly described as curvilinear, with proportionally more impact from initial recreation/tourism use. This finding has formed the basis of visitor management strategies in parks, wilderness, and protected areas in many parts of the world. In this paper, however, we argue that the current generalization may be an oversimplification derived from one ecological response: the response of vegetation cover in some plant communities to trampling. Use–response functions for other plant communities, wildlife, soils, and aquatic/marine systems, for example, can differ and require alternative management strategies for sustainable use. On the basis of the available literature, we propose several alternative response relationships.
Highlights: Human effects on ecological connectivity in aquatic ecosystems are reviewed. 40 Threats include: habitat loss, altered hydrology, invasive species, climate change. Case studies show improved understanding from multi-disciplinary approaches. Data on autecology, population structure, movement and physiology are critical. Planning requires data synthesis across life histories and temporal/spatial scales. AbstractUnderstanding the drivers and implications of anthropogenic disturbance of ecological connectivity is a key concern for the conservation of biodiversity and 50 ecosystem processes. Here, we review human activities that affect the movements and dispersal of aquatic organisms, including damming of rivers, river regulation, habitat loss and alteration, human-assisted dispersal of organisms and climate change.Using a series of case studies, we show that the insight needed to understand the nature and implications of connectivity, and to underpin conservation and 55 management, is best achieved via data synthesis from multiple analytical approaches.We identify four key knowledge requirements for progressing our understanding of the effects of anthropogenic impacts on ecological connectivity: autecology; population structure; movement characteristics; and environmental tolerance/phenotypic plasticity. Structuring empirical research around these four 60 broad data requirements, and using this information to parameterise appropriate models and develop management approaches, will allow for mitigation of the effects of anthropogenic disturbance on ecological connectivity in aquatic ecosystems.
Global water research and monitoring typically focus on the household's “main source of drinking‐water.” Use of multiple water sources to meet daily household needs has been noted in many developing countries but rarely quantified or reported in detail. We gathered self‐reported data using a cross‐sectional survey of 405 households in eight communities of the Republic of the Marshall Islands (RMI) and five Solomon Islands (SI) communities. Over 90% of households used multiple sources, with differences in sources and uses between wet and dry seasons. Most RMI households had large rainwater tanks and rationed stored rainwater for drinking throughout the dry season, whereas most SI households collected rainwater in small pots, precluding storage across seasons. Use of a source for cooking was strongly positively correlated with use for drinking, whereas use for cooking was negatively correlated or uncorrelated with nonconsumptive uses (e.g., bathing). Dry season water uses implied greater risk of water‐borne disease, with fewer (frequently zero) handwashing sources reported and more unimproved sources consumed. Use of multiple sources is fundamental to household water management and feasible to monitor using electronic survey tools. We contend that recognizing multiple water sources can greatly improve understanding of household‐level and community‐level climate change resilience, that use of multiple sources confounds health impact studies of water interventions, and that incorporating multiple sources into water supply interventions can yield heretofore‐unrealized benefits. We propose that failure to consider multiple sources undermines the design and effectiveness of global water monitoring, data interpretation, implementation, policy, and research.
Abstract. Many aquatic ecosystems have been severely degraded by water-resource development affecting flow regimes and biological connectivity. Freshwater fish have been particularly affected by these changes and climate change will place further stress on them. The Murray-Darling Basin (MDB), Australia, represents a highly affected aquatic system with dramatically modified flow regimes. This has impaired the health of its rivers, and potentially limited the adaptive capacity of its biota to respond to a changing climate. Here, we present our predictions of the potential impacts of climate change on 18 native fish species across their distributional ranges against the back-drop of past and continuing waterresource development (WRD). Because most of these species are found across a wide range of geographical and hydrological settings, we classified the MDB into 10 regions to account for likely variation in climate-change effects, on the basis of latitude, elevation and WRD. Cold water-tolerant species will be under greater stress than are warm watertolerant species. In some regions, the negative impacts on exotic fish such as trout are likely to improve current conditions for native species. Because the impacts of climate change on any given species are likely to vary from region to region, regional fish assemblages will also be differentially affected. The most affected region is likely to occur in the highly disturbed Lower Murray River region, whereas the dryland rivers that are less affected in the northern MDB are likely to remain largely unchanged. Although climate change is a current and future threat to the MDB fish fauna, the continued over-regulation of water resources will place as much, if not more, stress on the remnant fish species.
The routine use of multiple water sources to meet household water needs is widely practiced and has been reported in many developing countries. However, it is typically neglected by implementers, development organizations, and researchers who tend to focus exclusively on the "main source of drinking water." In this Perspective, we explain the nature and scope of multiple water source use (MWSU) at the household level in developing countries. We also describe the implications of MWSU for human health and water resilience, and identify key knowledge gaps, risks, and opportunities associated with MWSU. Finally, we argue that understanding MWSU is feasible for researchers and implementers and is essential for properly designing research studies and water supply projects.npj Clean Water (2019) 2:6 ; https://doi.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has identified Australia as among the developed nations most at risk from climate change effects. Key tourism icon destinations and the tourism sector generally have been identified as being particularly at risk. This paper reports on an interdisciplinary, multi-case study approach to assess tourism stakeholders' knowledge of, and approaches to climate change adaptation, and to explore the potential for building a self assessment toolkit that can be exported to other tourism destinations. This study examined existing knowledge on anticipated biophysical changes and, through primary research (stakeholder interviews and social learning workshops), gauged the expected adaptive approaches of destination communities and the tourism sector to these changes for 2020, 2050 and 2070. The facilitated workshops generated a common set of adaptation strategies across a diverse set of tourist destinations. A key finding from the workshops is that the tourism sector is not yet ready to invest in climate change adaptation because of the perceived uncertainties. Ongoing leadership for such measures were seen to rest with the public sector, especially local authorities.Whether such assessments can be self generated, or require specialist facilitation, remains open to debate.
Seasonality in tourism is a regular and predictable cycle of visitation across ayear. Although seasonality in visitation is extremely common and is known, in principle, often to be driven by temporal changes in a range of natural and institutional factors, the relative importance of different individual pressures has yet to be quantified for any large-scale geographical areas. To assess the relative importance of natural versus institutional factors in driving tourism seasonality, data on visitation patterns were collated from 23 protected areas across six Koppen climate zones in eastern Australia. Analyses sought to determine the degree to which climatic variables (such as mean monthly rainfall and minimum and maximum temperatures) explained visitation patterns, and to understand how these relationships could assist in the prediction of tourism futures. Climate was the principal force driving seasonal patterns of visitation in equatorial, tropical, desert, grassland and temperate zones, whereas visitation to alpine/sub-alpine areas was driven by a complex array of natural and institutional factors. Tourism seasonality was driven mostly by institutional factors only in the sub-tropical climate zone. These analyses suggest that seasonal characteristics of current visitation could be used to predict the degree to which changes in climate and/or institutional arrangements, such as school holiday periods, might influence tourism opportunities in protected areas in eastern Australia.
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