In this article we summarize histories of nonlinear, complex interactions among societal, legal, and ecosystem dynamics in six North American water basins, as they respond to changing climate. These case studies were chosen to explore the conditions for emergence of adaptive governance in heavily regulated and developed social-ecological systems nested within a hierarchical governmental system. We summarize resilience assessments conducted in each system to provide a synthesis and reference by the other articles in this special feature. We also present a general framework used to evaluate the interactions between society and ecosystem regimes and the governance regimes chosen to mediate those interactions. The case studies show different ways that adaptive governance may be triggered, facilitated, or constrained by ecological and/or legal processes. The resilience assessments indicate that complex interactions among the governance and ecosystem components of these systems can produce different trajectories, which include patterns of (a) development and stabilization, (b) cycles of crisis and recovery, which includes lurches in adaptation and learning, and (3) periods of innovation, novelty, and transformation. Exploration of cross scale (Panarchy) interactions among levels and sectors of government and society illustrate that they may constrain development trajectories, but may also provide stability during crisis or innovation at smaller scales; create crises, but may also facilitate recovery; and constrain system transformation, but may also provide windows of opportunity in which transformation, and the resources to accomplish it, may occur. The framework is the starting point for our exploration of how law might play a role in enhancing the capacity of social-ecological systems to adapt to climate change.

Master of Science / Department of Horticulture and Natural Resources / Adam A. Ahlers / The muskrat (Ondatra zibethicus) is an economically and ecologically important furbearer species that occupy wetlands throughout North America. However, populations across the United States (US) are declining and there is little evidence as to the cause of this decline. Wetlands in the upper Midwest, US, are shifting into more homogeneous vegetation states due to an invasive hybrid cattail species, Typha x glauca (hereafter ‘T. x glauca’), outcompeting native vegetation. This hybrid cattail species is now an abundant potential resource for muskrats and has outcompeted native wetland vegetation. I investigated how landscape composition and configuration affected multiscale habitat use by muskrats during the summers of 2016 – 2017. Additionally, I assessed how fetch (impact of wind and wave action), a process dictated by large-scale landscape configuration, influenced muskrat habitat use at a local-scale representing a resource patch. I randomly selected 71 wetland sites within Voyageurs National Park, Minnesota, and used presence/absence surveys to assess site occupancy by muskrats. Each year, multiple surveys were conducted at each site and I used multiseason occupancy modeling to investigate how both local and landscape factors affect site occupancy and turnover. I predicted a positive relationship between local-scale (2 ha) sites, characterized by shallower and less open water, and muskrat occupancy and colonization rates. I also predicted increased occupancy probabilities and colonization rates in wetlands that contain higher amounts of T. x glauca. However, I expected the amount of fetch at each site to negatively influence site occupancy probabilities and colonization rates. At the landscape-scale (2 km), I expected habitat use by muskrats to be positively related to the percentage of T. x glauca and area of wetlands surrounding sites. At the local-scale, muskrats occupied wetlands that contained shallower water depths and less open water. As predicted, site occupancy probabilities were greater in areas with greater amounts of T. x glauca coverage. My results revealed a cross-scale interaction between the severity of fetch impacts and percent of T. x glauca coverage at sites. Muskrats were more likely to colonize areas with greater fetch impacts if there was also greater coverage of T. x glauca at these sites. At the landscape-scale, site-occupancy probabilities were positively influenced by the percent of open water and landscape heterogeneity surrounding each site. My study was the first to document how invasive T. x glauca populations can mitigate negative effects that high wave intensity may have on muskrat spatial distributions. I was also the first to identify multiscale factors affecting the spatial distribution of muskrats in lacustrine ecosystems.

The designation and enforcement of protected areas in southeast Brazil severely restricted livelihoods of rural inhabitants, who had limited options to adapt to new settings. Serious challenges emerged from deficiency in local capacity for the organization, management, and application of mitigation interventions. However, the Cananéia Oyster Producers’ Cooperative managed to overcome numerous challenges and was a finalist for the United Nations Development Programme’s 2002 Equator Prize for simultaneous poverty alleviation and biodiversity conservation. Qualitative research methods, including Rapid Rural Appraisal tools, were employed to examine the cooperative’s self-organization, cross-scale institutional linkages, and livelihood and conservation impact. Through various coordinated endevours such as the adoption of oyster rearing beds, depuration station, education, and designation of an extractive reserve, cooperative members have been able to improve their livelihoods while minimizing environmental impact. Lessons learned from the cooperative on simultaneous poverty alleviation and biodiversity conservation are presented in the final chapter of this thesis. / May 2006

The designation and enforcement of protected areas in southeast Brazil severely restricted livelihoods of rural inhabitants, who had limited options to adapt to new settings. Serious challenges emerged from deficiency in local capacity for the organization, management, and application of mitigation interventions. However, the Cananéia Oyster Producers’ Cooperative managed to overcome numerous challenges and was a finalist for the United Nations Development Programme’s 2002 Equator Prize for simultaneous poverty alleviation and biodiversity conservation. Qualitative research methods, including Rapid Rural Appraisal tools, were employed to examine the cooperative’s self-organization, cross-scale institutional linkages, and livelihood and conservation impact. Through various coordinated endevours such as the adoption of oyster rearing beds, depuration station, education, and designation of an extractive reserve, cooperative members have been able to improve their livelihoods while minimizing environmental impact. Lessons learned from the cooperative on simultaneous poverty alleviation and biodiversity conservation are presented in the final chapter of this thesis.

The designation and enforcement of protected areas in southeast Brazil severely restricted livelihoods of rural inhabitants, who had limited options to adapt to new settings. Serious challenges emerged from deficiency in local capacity for the organization, management, and application of mitigation interventions. However, the Cananéia Oyster Producers’ Cooperative managed to overcome numerous challenges and was a finalist for the United Nations Development Programme’s 2002 Equator Prize for simultaneous poverty alleviation and biodiversity conservation. Qualitative research methods, including Rapid Rural Appraisal tools, were employed to examine the cooperative’s self-organization, cross-scale institutional linkages, and livelihood and conservation impact. Through various coordinated endevours such as the adoption of oyster rearing beds, depuration station, education, and designation of an extractive reserve, cooperative members have been able to improve their livelihoods while minimizing environmental impact. Lessons learned from the cooperative on simultaneous poverty alleviation and biodiversity conservation are presented in the final chapter of this thesis.

The designation and enforcement of protected areas in southeast Brazil severely restricted livelihoods of rural inhabitants, who had limited options to adapt to new settings. Serious challenges emerged from deficiency in local capacity for the organization, management, and application of mitigation interventions. However, the Cananéia Oyster Producers’ Cooperative managed to overcome numerous challenges and was a finalist for the United Nations Development Programme’s 2002 Equator Prize for simultaneous poverty alleviation and biodiversity conservation. Qualitative research methods, including Rapid Rural Appraisal tools, were employed to examine the cooperative’s self-organization, cross-scale institutional linkages, and livelihood and conservation impact. Through various coordinated endevours such as the adoption of oyster rearing beds, depuration station, education, and designation of an extractive reserve, cooperative members have been able to improve their livelihoods while minimizing environmental impact. Lessons learned from the cooperative on simultaneous poverty alleviation and biodiversity conservation are presented in the final chapter of this thesis. / May 2006

Large dams represent complex social-ecological systems, perhaps the most complicated projects among large infrastructures. Nowadays, developing and developed countries consider large dams as a viable solution to provide low-cost energy production and flood control for agriculture production. However, the debate about dams is generally focused on technical arrangements, lacking of a holistic perspective of analysis, while their effects may be disruptive for a wider number of factors. The present paper proposes to study large dams within the theory of common-pool resources, focusing on the relation between water security and sustainability. The use of a social-ecological framework facilitates a dynamic analysis among different variables of large dams. What is more, it permits a cross-scale analysis, enabling one to understand the extreme complexity of social-ecological changes in a considered system. This research will focus on the Ethiopian large dam Gibe III, predicted to start functioning at the end of this year. It is already altering the downstream conditions of Omo River and Lake Turkana, shared by Ethiopia and Kenya, posing a threat to the livelihoods of thousand people. However, the current discussion about it still appears limited to technical solutions to the dam implementation. Arguing the opposite, the social-ecological framework enables one to include information sharing, climate change and collective-choice rules as important elements to be considered to bring the discussion at a broader level of understanding. From the analysis of Ethiopia, it is found that large dams cannot alone be the answer to water security if they are not connected to more vast social-economic reforms. The paper argues that the interpretation of large dams must be considered as part of the broader social, ecological and politico-economic situation, transcending from the mere local situation. The overall picture is not whether not to build them or not, as there is not a real choice, but how to foster instruments of analysis that preserve the environment and societies, while defeating poverty.

The linkage between barrier island morphologies and dune topographies, vegetation, and biogeomorphic feedbacks, has been examined. The two-fold stability domain (i.e., overwash-resisting and overwash-reinforcing stability domains) model from case studies in a couple of islands along the Georgia Bight and Virginia coast has been proposed to examine the resilience properties in the barrier dune systems. Thus, there is a need to examine geographic variations in the dune topography among and within islands. Meanwhile, previous studies just analyzed and compared dune topographies based on transect-based point elevations or dune crest elevations; therefore, it is necessary to further examine dune topography in terms of multiple patterns and processes across scales. In this dissertation, I develop and deploy a cross-scale data model developed from resilience theory to represent and compare dune topographies across twelve islands over approximately 2,050 kilometers of the US southeastern Atlantic coast. Three sets of topographic variables were employed to summarize the cross-scale structure of topography (elevational statistics, patch indices, and the continuous surface properties). These metrics differed in their degree of spatial explicitness, their level of measurement, and association with patch or gradient paradigms. Topographic metrics were derived from digital elevation models (DEMs) of dune topographies constructed from airborne Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR). These topographic metrics were used to construct dune topographic state space to investigate and visualize the cross-scale structure of dune topography. This study investigated (1) dune topography and landscape similarity among barrier islands in different barrier island morphologic contexts, (2) the differences in barrier island dune topographies and their resilience properties across large geographic extents, and (3) how geomorphic and biogeomorphic processes are related to resilience prosperities. The findings are summarized below. First, dune topography varies according to island morphologies of the Virginia coast; however, local controls (such as human modification of the shore or shoreline accretion and erosion) also play an important role in shaping dune topographies. Compared with tide-dominated islands, wave-dominated islands exhibited more convergence in dune topographies. Second, the dune landscapes of the Virginia Barrier Islands have a poorly consistent spatial structure, along with strong collinearity among elevational variables and landscape indices, which reflects the rapid retreat and erosion along the coast. The dune landscapes of the Georgia Bight have a more consistent spatial structure and a greater dimensionality in state space. Thus, the weaker multicollinearity and higher dimensionality in the dataset reflect their potential for resilience. Last, islands of different elevations may have similar dune topography characteristics due to the difference in resistance and resilience. Notwithstanding the geographic variability in geomorphic and biogeomorphic processes, convergence in dune topography exists, which is evidenced by the response curves of the topographic metrics that are correlated with both axes. This work demonstrates the usefulness of different representations of dune topography by cross-scale data modeling. Also, the two existing models of barrier island dune states were integrated to form a conceptual model that illuminates different, but complementary, resilience properties in the barrier dune system. The differences in dune topographies and resilience properties were detected in state space, and this information offers guidance for future study’s field site selections.

Knowledge of scale-dependent factors that affect the distribution of ungulate herds, such as cattle, is essential for the development of more accurate predictive models of animal movement and the management of sustainable agriculture. Our objectives were to evaluate the seasonal and diurnal patterns of herd spread, explore grouping dynamics, and the influence of dominance ranks, seasonal changes in forage biomass, use of shade, water and supplemental feed areas on cattle distribution. Positional and activity information of eleven free-ranging Bonsmara, Bos taurus, cows were obtained at five minute intervals using Global Positioning System collars. We conducted a total of 12 trials each of three weeks from August 2007 to August 2009 in a 457ha shrub-dominated savanna in South Texas. Spread was obtained by calculating the average Euclidean distance of individuals to the center of the herd. The association software package, ASSOC1, was used to analyze spatio-temporal interactions. Normalized Difference Vegetation Index, an indicator of available forage biomass, was calculated using satellite imagery. Number of GPS fixes was used as an indicator of animal use of shade patches and water and supplemental feeding areas. In this semi-arid environment, herd spread was greatest and subgroup division occurred during summer when forage biomass was high. Herd spread was the least and shade patches were used more during winter when forage biomass was low. Throughout the year spread was smallest and use of shade patches highest during the midday period compared to other periods of the day. Location of individuals in the center of the herd was not associated with their dominance ranking. There was no significant overall pattern of seasonal changes in cattle use of water and supplemental feeding areas. Seasonal forage availability and shade patches seem to have a greater influence on herd dispersion patterns and grouping dynamics than any effect of social dominance. Herd distribution is likely related to changes in forage biomass and temperature fluctuations which drive compensatory night-time feeding and thermoregulatory actions. Accurate ethological studies of herds depend on our ability to understand herd dynamics at multiple scales that affect and are relevant to animal's response to the landscape.

Alike many urban rivers, the Mapocho River in Santiago withstands enormous pressures from urban development. In the last decades there has been an increasing interest in the river, opening an opportunity to intervene its riparian areas where land is still available. But there is also the threat that future interventions will continue to be treated in isolation and respond to sectorial interests, hindering the river’s potential in the long run. With this in mind, the research aims to explore a way of understanding local contexts that takes into account both regional and local realities, providing a more holistic basis over which sustainable local interventions could take place in the future. Resilience theory is used as a conceptual framework to understand sustainability in its broad sense, aim at sustainability transformations through cross-scale interactions, and pay attention to the way in which social-ecological dimensions interact. Focusing on three local sites along the river, the analysis first explores priority ecosystem services from a regional perspective and then focuses on dimensions that become apparent at the local scale through site observations. This results in the proposition of a framework that explicitly links dimensions across scales by defining the way in which they interact to put forward what is possible and desirable in the current scenario. Within this interplay, the regional scale determines the influential capacity of the local site in question to alleviate regional sustainability challenges, while providing the relevance and urgency of specific ecosystem services to emerge. The local scale frames the spatial and socio-cultural feasibility to intervene the site, putting forward physical and value dimensions. The analysis of interactions highlights relevant linkages and conflicts that could inform and guide sustainable interventions at the local scale. Findings suggest that a specific ES can sometimes serve as a gateway to pursue synergicefforts between diverging interests, that physical dimensions like spatial delimitation and accessibility can play a key role, and that the consideration of value dimensions can help handle inevitable trade-offs. / Likt många andra urbana floder är Mapocho-floden i Santiago utsatt för omfattande påfrestningar till följd av en urban utveckling. Under de senaste decennierna har dock intresset för floden ökat, vilket har öppnat upp för nya möjligheter att kunna påverka flodens strandområden kring de platser där mark fortfarande finns tillgängligt. Trots detta kvarstår emellertid hotet om att framtida insatser ska fortsätta behandlas isolerat och svara på sektoriella intressen, vilket därmed skulle kunna inverka negativt på flodens potential på längre sikt. Med detta i åtanke syftar denna studie till att utforska sätt att förstå lokala sammanhang som tar hänsyn till både regionala och lokala verkligheter och som därmed kan bidra till en mer holistisk grund för hur lokalthållbara interventioner kan äga rum framöver. I studien används resiliensteorin som ett konceptuellt ramverk för att förstå hållbarhet i dessvida bemärkelse, syfta till hållbarhetsomvandlingar genom interaktiva interaktioner och uppmärksamma hur social-ekologiska dimensioner interagerar. (Hard to understand). I analysen har ett antal prioriterade ekosystemtjänster undersökts ur ett regionalt perspektiv för tre lokalaplatser längst floden och därefter har analyser utförts för de dimensioner som har kunnat identifierats på lokal skala genom platsobservationer. Resultatet av detta arbete har lett fram till ett ramverk tänkt att koppla samman dimensioner mellan skalor genom att definiera hur de interagerar och på så vis synliggöra vilka möjligheter som finns i de aktuellas cenarierna. Inom detta samspel är det den regionala skalan som avgör graden av påverkan de lokala platserna har i rollen att kunna motverka regionala hållbarhetsutmaningar, samtidigt som det blir möjligt att kartlägga specifika ekosystemtjänster som kan vara relevanta och av brådskande karaktär. Den lokala skalan ramar in de rumsliga och sociokulturella möjligheterna att kunna ingripa på platserna genom att lägga fram både fysiska och värdefulla dimensioner. Analysen av dessa interaktioner har således kunnat belysa relevanta kopplingar och konflikter som kan informera och vägleda beslutsfattare kring hur hållbara åtgärder kan genomföras på den lokala skalan. Studiens resultat visar även på att specifika ES ibland kan verka som en brygga för att bedriva synergiska kraftansträngningar mellan divergerande intressen, där fysiska dimensioner likt rumslig avgränsning och tillgänglighet kan spela nyckelroller samt där övervägning av diverse värdedimensioner kan bidra till att hantera oundvikliga trade-offs.