Week 1

(NOTE: ALL ATTACHMENTS HAVE BEEN MOVED TO http://sites.google.com/site/conservationinmekong02/weekly-literature )

Week 1:

Readings:

[kwb] Abell, R., M.L.Thieme, C. Revenga, M. Bryer, M. Kottelat, N. Bogutskaya, B. Coad, N. Mandrak, S.C. Balderas, W. Bussing, M. Stiassny, P. Skelton, G.R. Allen, P. Unmack, A. Naseka, R. Ng, N. Sindorf, J. Robertson, E. Armijo, J.V. Higgins, T.J. Heibel, E. Wikramanayake, D. Olson, H.L. Lopez, R.E. Reis, J.G. Lundberg, M.H. Sabaj Perez, and P. Petry. 2008. Freshwater Ecoregions of the World: A New Map of Biogeographic Units for Freshwater Biodiversity Conservation. BioScience 58: 403-414. [kwb]

[wcm] map after the above source, Abell et al. 2008 of Mekong Ecoregions [wcm]

[wcm] image of Mekong watershed (from Wikipedia). [wcm]

(

[wcm] Yumul, G.P. Jr. , M.-F. Zhou, C.Y. Wang, T.-P. Zhao & C.B. Dimalanta. 2008. Geology and geochemistry of the Shuanggou ophiolite (Ailao Shan ophiolitic belt), Yunnan Province, SW China: Evidence for a slow-spreading oceanic basin origin. Journal of Asian Earth Sciences 32(5-6) 385-395.[wcm]

[hl] Kummu, M. & O. Varis. 2007. Sediment-related impacts due to upstream reservoir trapping, the Lower Mekong River. Geomorphology 85(3-4):275-293.[hl]

[fig] Voris, H. K. 2000. Maps of Pleistocene sea levels in Southeast Asia: shorelines, river systems and time durations.

Journal of Biogeography. 27(1):1153-1167. [fig]

Lee, Tung-Yi, Lawver, Laurence A. 1995. Cenozoic Plate Reconstruction of Southeast Asia. Tectonophysics. 251: 85-138.

(see attachment for full-text) [arb]

[mr] Gupta, A. & S.C. Liew. 2007. The Mekong from Satellite Imagery: A Quick Look at a Large River. Geomorphology 85(3-4):259-274. (see bottom for pdf.) [mr]

[ln] Lebel, L., P. Garden, and M. Imamura. 2005. The politics of scale, position, and place in the governance of water resources in the Mekong region. Ecology and Society 10(2): 18. [online] URL: http://www.ecologyandsociety.org/vol10/iss2/art18/ . [ln]

[NC] Costa-Cabral, M. C., J. E. Richey, G. Goteti, D. P. Lettenamier, C. Feldkoetter and A. Snidvongs, 2008, Landscape structure and use, climate, and water movement in the Mekong River basin , Hydrological Processes, 22, 1731-1746

Map shows average monthly precipitation over the Mekong basin after above source, Costa-Cabral et. al. 2008.

Verstappen, H. Th. 1997. The effect of climatic change on southeast Asian geomorphology. Journal of Quaternary Science, Vol. 12, 413 – 418.

article in the bottom. [NC]

Hogan, Z., et al. "Long distance migration and marine habitation in the tropical Asian catfish, Pangasius krempfi." Journal of Fish Biology 71.3 (Sep. 2007): 818-832.[DS]

[ss] Thongtham, Charunee Normita. 1987. Monitoring the Mekong. Ambio 16(6) list page numbers http://www.jstor.org/stable/4313403 [ss]

Find one measured and evaluated physical (non-biological, non-cultural, non-political) data source and write 2-4 sentences about how it is used.

Provide at least three definitions for "sustainability," "habitat fragmentation," and "diversity index" with complete citations for sources of each definition from the literature.

Sustainability

[ss] Sustainability according to http://www.epa.gov/Sustainability/ - means “meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.” [ss]

[fig]

The International Journal of Sustainability for Higher Education article, 'Dealing with Misconceptions on the Concept of Sustainability' offers several definitions for sustainability, with particular emphasis on sustainable developement:

1. the systematic, long-term use of natural resources ... so that these are available for future generations (here referring to country and local policies);

2. the modality of development that enables countries to progress, economically and socially, without destroying their environmental resources (here referring to country policies);

3. the type of development which is socially just, ethically acceptable, morally fair and economically sound (here referring to the social ramifications of development);

4. the type of development where environmental indicators are as important as economic indicators (here referring to the close links it bears with economic growth).

Fihlo, W. L. 2000. Dealing with Misconceptions on the Concept of Sustainability. International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education. 1(1):9-19. [fig]

Sustainability according to Encyclopedia Britannica "is an approach to economic planning that attempts to foster economic growth while preserving the quality of the environment for future generations." [DS]

"environmental law." Encyclopædia Britannica. 2009. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. 19 Jan. 2009 <http://search.eb.com/eb/article-224618>.

[ln] The definitions of sustainability depend on the fields that are spoken, commonly defined within ecological, social and economic contexts.

- Sustainability: “meeting human needs while conserving the Earth’s life support systems and reducing hunger and poverty” (NRC 1999).

- Ecological science and sustainability for a crowded planet. It is based on the views that:

1. The rich history of basic ecological research provides us with a strong foundation for moving forward in sustainability science, and

2. The central role that ecological science must play in the future of our planet places a unique responsibility on ecologists to develop and implement plans of action. The central goal must be to chart an understanding of how ecosystems help sustain humans and the ecological services they value and how we can balance conservation, restoration, and designed solutions to ensure that nature’s service continue into the future.

- Focusing on psychology and environmental sustainability, Koger & Scott indicated their ideas about learning for a Sustainable future: “ environmental programs provide opportunities to practice active citizenship – connecting curriculum to environmental action in school buildings and grounds, and in homes, neighbour-hoods and communities…volunteer and mentoring programs, [and] link to community action projects”.

Palmer, M. A., Bernhardt, E. S., Chornesky, E. A., Collins, S.L., Dobson, A. P., Duke, C. S., Gold, B. D., Jacobson, R., Kingsland, S., Kranz, R., Mappin, M. J., Martinez, M. L., Micheli, F., Morse, J. L., Pace, M. L., Pascual, M., Palumbi, S., Reichman, O. J., Townsend, A., & Turner, M. G. 2004. Ecological science and sustainability for a crowded planet. [Online] URL: http://www.esa.org/ecovisions/ppfiles/EcologicalVisionsReport.pdf

Koger, S., & Scott, B. (2007, January 1). Psychology and Environmental Sustainability: A Call for Integration.Teaching of Psychology, 34(1), 10-18. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. EJ755398) Retrieved January 21, 2009, from ERIC database. [ln]

Habitat Fragmentation

[fig]The Population Genetic Consequences of Habitat Fragmentation for Plants, (Young, A., Boyle, T., Brown, T. 1996) defines habitat fragmentation as the reduction of continuous habitat into several smaller spatially isolated remnants. Though not given as a definition persay, this excerpt from 'Effects of Habitat Fragmentation on Bird Species in a Relict Temperate Forest in Semiarid Chile' explains habitat fragmentation quite well:

The fragmentation of a previously continuous habitat entails habitat loss and an increase in isolation, which in turn usually trigger a cascade of biological effects such as edge effects, decreased colonization, increased mortality, and habitat degredation, causing an increase in extinction rate, loss of biological diversity (e.g., Wilcox & Murphy 1985; Saunders et all 1991), and nonrandom patterns of species distribution across fragments (Patterson & Atmar 1986; Blake 1991; Cutler 1991; Soule` et all. 1992).

Young, A., Boyle, T., & Brown, T.. 1996. The population genetic consequences of habitat fragmentation for plants. Trends in Ecology & Evolution. 11(10):413-418. Cited as (Young, A., Boyle, T., Brown, T. 1996)

Cornelius, C., Cofre, H., & Marquet, P. A. 2000. Effects of Habitat Fragmentation on Bird Species in a Relict Temperate Forest in Semiarid Chile. Conservation Biology. 14(2):534-543. [fig]

[tli] habitat fragmentation The disruption of extensive habitats into isolated and small patches; or the result of development in a large area where habitat is now fragmented into separate units; often applied to forested habitats that have been fragmented by agricultural development or logging.

Groom, Martha, Gary Meffe, and Ronald Carroll. 2006. Principles of Conservation Biology, 3rd. ed. Sinauer Associates, Inc. Publishers: Sunderland, Massachusetts. [tli]

[NC] Habitat Fragmentation is a major cause of functional disruption in plant-animal interaction in each habitat. This make the fragmentation of the ecological interaction, in this article is mention about the effect of fragmentation on plant regeneration. Habitat fragmentation can happened from natural cause, rocky mountain outcrop, and human activity, historical deforestation for castle grazing in this case. Fragmentation effects will decrease regeneration rate of plant or animal in the specific ecosystem or lead to habitat loss or the extinction.

Garcia, Daniel and Chacoff, P.Natacha. 2007. Scale-Dependent Effects of Habitat Fragmentation on Hawthorn Pollination, Frugivory, and Seed Predation. Conservation Biology. 21( 2): 400 - 411.[NC]

Diversity Index

[fig]Diversity indices attempt to summarize both the total number of species in a population and the degree of evenness of the species relative abundances, according to A. J. Baczkowski, D. N. Joanes, G. M. Shamia (1997). According to Ricota, C. (2002), traditional ecological diversity indices, such as the Shannon index and the Simpson index, summarize the information about the relative abundances of species within a species sample or community without regard to species names or differences between species.

Baczkowski, A. J., Joanes, D. N., Shamia, G. M. 1997. Properties of a Generalized Diversity Index. Journal of Theoretical Biology. 188(2):207-213. Cited as (A. J. Baczkowski, D. N. Joanes, G. M. Shamia (1997)).

Ricota, C. 2002. Bridging the gap between ecological diversity indices and measures of biodiversity with Shannon's entropy: Comment to Izsac and Papp. Ecological Modelling. 152(1):1-3. Cited as (Ricota, C. (2002)). [fig]

The above mentioned diversity indices measure alpha diversity, or total species richness, but two other categories of diversity measure exist. The first of these is beta diversity, which describes patchiness in distribution of species as it relates to niche diversity and various environmental gradients within a community. This is measured by comparing the relative importance of species between different sampling locations within a single community. Indices used include the Jaccard index and the Sorensen index. Gamma diversity is similar to beta diversity, but measured at the landscape or biome scale. The same sampling and diversity indices used for beta diversity are applicable here as well, but the experimental unit will be defined as the entire community. The Gamma diversity will then be calculated as the distance between the beta diversity measures of all communities within the greater geographical region under study.

Provide a one paragraph summary of annual weather patterns in SE Asia that includes important seasonal variations with complete citations for sources from the literature.

Southeast Asia can be understood in two parts (the result of physical geography): mainland and insular. The continental mainland is more influenced by the monsoon wind. Inland moisture-laden winds from the north of the continent causes more variety in temperature and rainfall, in contrast with insular areas that have a more equitable climate. There, equatorial air prevails continuously, accompanied by even temperatures and abundant rainfall in all seasons. The Lesser Sunda Islands have a tropical monsoon climate; their wet and dry seasons are regulated by the calendar rhythm of the Southern Hemisphere, which is characterized by a wet summer from November to February and a dry winter from June to October. On the mainland, monsoon wind is divided into two seasons: winter and summer. South and Southeast Asia are affected by northeasterly winds that blow from high-pressure areas of the North Pacific Ocean to the equatorial low-pressure zone. These winds are analogous to the trade winds and are known in South Asia as the northeast (or winter) monsoon. The winter monsoon occurs approximately December to March. An important feature of winter monsoons is that they block cold surges and high-pressure air masses from Siberia. The weather is dry and relatively cooler. Rainfall occurs only on the windward side of maritime regions (e.g. southern Vietnam). In winter, continental tropical air prevails in tropical Asia; in summer it is replaced by equatorial ocean air. The dry spring that follows the winter monsoon changes abruptly and dramatically into the rainy summer with the onset of the summer monsoon. The summer monsoon brings enormous amounts of rain. Summer monsoons blow from the northern part of Southeast Asia and contain low pressure from the Western Pacific to the Bay of Bengal which creates adequate precipitation on the mainland in summer time. High clouds prevent much solar radiation and low evaporation from the ocean that the evaporation on land is the highest rate among the region (McGregor and Nieuwolt 1998) . Typhoons may occur throughout the year but are most severe during the late summer and early autumn. These storms are accompanied by strong winds and torrential rains so heavy that the maximum precipitation from the typhoons locally may exceed the total amounts received during the normal summer monsoons.

[NC]Kim Chuan, Goh. 2005. The Climate of Southeast Asia. In Avijit Kupta. The Physical Geography of Southeast Asia. Oxford University press, 80 - 93.

McGregor, G. R., and Nieuwolt, S. 1998. Tropical Climatology. Chichester : Wiley (cited from Kim Chuan, Goh. 2005 p.83 ) [NC]

[tli] "Asia." Encyclopædia Britannica. 2009. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. 18 Jan. 2009 <http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/38479/Asia>. [tli]

[mr] Kyuma, K. 1972. Climate of South and Southeast Asia according to Thornthwaite's Classification Scheme. Southeast Asian Studies 9(1):136-158. [mr]

[ln] Wang. B., LinHo., Yongsheng Zhang., & M.-M. Lu. 2004. Definition of South China Sea Monsoon Onset and Commencement of the East Asia Summer Monsoon. American Meteorological Society. [ln]