Coastal areas are very susceptible to environmental problems such as sea-level rise, coastal flooding, increased frequency and intensity of extreme events, and changes in marine ecosystems that are arising from global climate change and variability. In the South African context, the Agulhas Current is important for its crucial role in regional climate and weather as well as the fishing livelihood of the coastal communities along the east coast of South Africa. Despite the efforts made to understand the Agulhas Current and the impacts of climate and environmental change, the shelf region remains poorly understood mostly due to the difficulties associated with observing and modelling such strong currents. The marine resource users in the fishing communities along the east coast of South Africa show long term dependence on the neighbouring ocean going back at least three generations. These communities provide long term, rich, detailed, and contextualized environmental knowledge from their daily interactions with the sea. This study seeks to investigate the local climate and environmental change knowledge of the fishers based on their own observations, perceptions, and experiences. The convergence/divergence of the marine resource user’s knowledge with the traditional scientific findings is explored using a broad, participatory methodology including desktop literature analysis, interviews and an adopted version of the Rapid Vulnerability Assessment (RVA). Results show that fishers in Tshani-Mankosi have observed changes in the rainfall, sea surface temperature and wind patterns in their community. According to the fishers, sea surface temperature and annual rainfall seem to have decreased while winds and rainfall related extreme events have increased. Similar observations were noticed in the scientific research at a larger spatial and temporal scale. Key differences and similarities between the two types of knowledge come from factors such as knowledge construction processes, scales, type of data output and parameters of interest. Finally, the study reveals opportunities and challenges of research collaboration between the community and scientific researchers.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / Invasive exotic species have caused severe ecological and economic damages to many communities in the United States and elsewhere. It is therefore important to improve our understanding of how global environmental changes will affect the invasiveness and severity of these invasive species. Over the last century, anthropogenic activities have caused multiple environmental changes. Previous studies have generally focused on the impact of the increasing atmospheric CO2 level on the physiology and growth of invasive species. With atmospheric nitrogen (N) deposition on the rise over the past decades, it is essential to recognize how an increase in soil N will affect the invasiveness of some exotic species. To determine the impact of increased atmospheric N deposition and drought stress on invasive species, I studied the impact of different levels of N on Alliaria petiolata (garlic mustard), an exotic invasive species. In addition, I examined the interactive effects of N deposition and drought stress on garlic mustard. Multiple morphological measurements were used to analyze the growth rate at varying levels of N and soil moisture. The study on N deposition on plant growth will improve our understanding of the invasiveness of garlic mustard. The changes in precipitation patterns must also be examined to foresee if plants in increased atmospheric N conditions can overcome drought stress conditions. I found an increase in plant growth and photosynthetic rate at higher levels of N. Plants with adequate water displayed a continued increase from the lowest level to the highest level of N. Increases in drought stressed plants plateaued at an intermediate N level of 20 kg ha-1. My results demonstrated that during drought stress garlic mustard does not benefit from an increase in N above a certain level. These results are important to take into consideration when we analyze the spreading of invasive weeds due to global environmental changes, including increased atmospheric N deposition and regional drought, in order to apply the optimal management strategies for controlling invasive species.

The population and industrial complexes of Choctaw County obtains much of its water from an aquifer system in the Tertiary age Wilcox unit of the Mississippi Embayment. Utilizing 20 years of physical chemistry (P-Chem) analysis, potentiometric groundwater records of Choctaw County public water wells as well as industrial P-Chem analysis and surface and ground water level records from an industrial complex, this study examined the changes to the hydrosphere that has taken place since 1995. Analysis of the hydrosphere shows that over the last 20 years, there has been a drop in the potentiometric surface of the Wilcox aquifer system. The analysis also shows changes in the P-Chem of the hydrosphere, changes such as a decrease in the concentration of free CO2 and chloride, and fluctuations of Alkalinity. Comparisons between groundwater records taken from the industrial complex and other locations around Choctaw County, show little variation in the physical chemistry.

This study investigates organizational response as a mediating factor in the relationship between environmental change and deprofessionalization of stockbrokers between the years 1975 and 1990. Both quantitative and qualitative content analysis are used to analyze 412 business news articles concerning three brokerage firms. It is hypothesized that the environmental changes of jurisdictional competition resulting from deregulation of the industry, technological changes, and declining client trust resulting from scandals, will not have a direct effect on deprofessionalization of stockbrokers in these firms. It is expected, instead, that these environmental changes will be mediated by organizational responses, resulting in variation among the firms in the deprofessionalization of stockbrokers. The quantitative portion of the study shows different patterns of organizational response among the three firms examined regarding the environmental changes being investigated. The qualitative portion of the study indicates variation in deprofessionalization for stockbrokers within these firms resulting from differences in organizational response. The results of this study suggest a need for further investigation of the effects of organizational responses on the extent of deprofessionalization for professionals working in organizations. Organizational responses are likely to influence not only stockbrokers but other professionals in times of change and flux due to events both internal and external to the organization. / Ph. D.

No / The case study describes large-scale environmental change related to, and recent responses associated with, growing water scarcity in the Usangu Plains, a catchment of the Great Ruaha River in south-west Tanzania. The analysis uses outputs from two recent projects to critically examine various theories of environmental change and the `fit¿ of new river basin management strategies to the problems found, arguing that various perspectives are worryingly at odds with each other. We find that the investigators of the two projects presented a reasonable and sufficient case of the causes of water scarcity. Yet despite efforts to disseminate scientific findings, different stakeholder groups did not agree with this case. This, we believe, was due to three combined factors; firstly highly entrenched views existed that were also based on quasi-scientific reasoning; secondly, the projects¿ deliberations to date, in acknowledging their own uncertainty, were not assertive enough in ascribing causation to the various processes of change; thirdly, policy-uptake was not sufficiently managed by the scientists involved. We conclude that this complexity of the science¿policy interface is a feature of integrated water resources management (IWRM) and that the norms of scientific uncertainty in the face of competing theories (held by their protagonists with greater certainty) obliges scientists to take a more active role in sensitively managing the advice-to-policy process in order to improve management of water within river basins. Thus, the paper argues, the nature of integrated water resources management is one of `action research¿ to move towards an improved understanding of change, and of `action policy-advising¿ to draw policy-makers into a cycle of considered decision-making.

No / The environmental contexts of the karstic hominin sites in South Africa have been established largely by means of faunal associations; taken together these data suggest a trend from relatively closed and more mesic to open, drier environments from about 3 to 1.5 Ma. Vrba argued for a major shift within this trend ca. 2.4¿2.6 Ma, an influential proposal that posited links between bovid (and hominin) radiation in Africa and the intensification of Northern Hemisphere Glaciation. Yet faunal approaches often rely on habitat and feeding preferences of modern taxa that may differ from those of their extinct predecessors. Here we explore ways of extending 13C/12C data from fossil mammals beyond denoting ¿presence¿ or ¿absence¿ of C4 grasses using the evolution of open environments in South Africa as a case study. To do so we calculated the relative proportions of C3-, mixed-, and C4-feeding herbivores for all the hominin sites for which we have sufficient data based on 13C/12C analyses of fossil tooth enamel. The results confirm a general trend towards more open environments since 3 Ma, but they also emphasize a marked change to open grassy habitats in the latest Pliocene/early Pleistocene. Mean 13C/12C for large felids also mirrored this trend.

The recent revival of debates concerning livestock development in Africa follows the more widespread acceptance of paradigm shifts within rangeland science, and maintaining pastoral mobility is now recognised as fundamental for the future survival of pastoralism and sustainability of dryland environments. However, in southern Africa communal pastoral drylands continue to be enclosed and dissected by large-scale barrier fences designed to control livestock diseases, thus protecting lucrative livestock export agreements. This interdisciplinary research examines the extent to which these veterinary cordon fences have changed people’s access to, and effective management of, natural resources in northern Botswana and how fence-restricted resource use by livestock, wildlife and people has changed the natural environment. Critical political ecology informed the approach, given its emphasis on socio-political and historical influences on resource access, mobility and user relationships. This enabled the biophysical effects of social changes to be investigated fully, thereby moving beyond a tradition of discipline-based studies often resulting in severely repressive rangeland policies. The research demonstrates how enclosure by veterinary cordon fences restricts patterns of resource access and mobility within pastoral drylands, with serious implications for both social and environmental sustainability. Enclosure increases the vulnerability of people to risks and natural hazards, while resource access constraints and pastoral adaptations to enclosure have favoured the increasing commercialisation of livestock production, thus obstructing pathways into pastoralism. While widespread environmental change in livestock areas cannot be attributed thus far to enclosure, the curtailment of wild migratory herbivores at the wildlife–livestock interface has caused some large-scale structural vegetation changes and there are indications that fence induced sedentarisation could be accentuating existing degradation trends. Given these changes, future rangeland policies in Africa should be aware of the social and environmental impacts associated with export-led disease management infrastructure and consider alternative, less intrusive, approaches to livestock development and disease control in extensive pastoral drylands.

A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Science, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Johannesburg, 2016. / In current Middle Stone Age research there is interest in understanding whether climatic and environmental factors played a role in behaviours related to subsistence, mobility patterns and material culture production. From a palaeoenvironmental perspective, the southern Cape is recognized as an important study region for exploring the link, if any, between past environmental conditions and key MSA occurrences. The research presented in this thesis aimed to contribute to the existing database of past environments in the southern Cape through the geochemical analysis of speleothems from a previously uninvestigated locality in the De Hoop Nature Reserve. Together, the De Hoop speleothems provide a discontinuous record of environmental change from marine oxygen isotope stage MIS 5a to MIS 3 (and the Holocene). Results from the De Hoop records indicate warm summer rain and C4 vegetation in early MIS 5a (c. 85 ka to 80 ka) but more variability by late MIS 5a (c. 79 ka to 74 ka). At Klasies River main site, also on the southern Cape coast, the upper MSA II is associated with the warm early MIS 5a conditions. At Blombos Cave, another important coastal MSA site, the Still Bay occurring within terminal MIS 5a was linked to warm but more variable late MIS 5a conditions. While early MIS 4 (c. 73 ka to 68 ka) was comparatively cooler, conditions were similar to those in early MIS 5a. From this research, the earlier phase of the Howiesons Poort at Klasies River main site and the Howiesons Poort at Klipdrift Shelter were correlated with the early MIS 4 conditions in De Hoop. By late MIS 4 (c. 67 ka to 60 ka), conditions remained cool, but were seemingly more variable than during the earlier part of this iii stage / GR2016

China has seen tremendous economic growth in the past three decades, and in the order of eight to ten per cent since 2000. This development has come with ever increasing energy consumption, and thus emissions of greenhouse gases (GHG). This trend has been an important topic in the international climate negotiations under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change; China is under constant pressure from other large economies to contribute to reversing the GHG emissions trend in order to avoid dangerous climate change. At the same time, the Chinese government has pursued an environmental and energy security agenda focussed at increasing the energy efficiency of its economy and the supply of energy from renewable sources. Alongside, a domestic climate change discourse has developed, and changed over time. This thesis examines elements of the country-specific political ecology in the area of greenhouse gas mitigation in China, looking closely at what climate change means in China, and discussing how this influences the development and institutionalisation of mitigation mechanisms. I take a political ecology approach to scrutinize the nature and evolution of a climate change discourse in China, and the influences and implications of existing governance structures and institutions that affect greenhouse gas mitigation in the country. Adopting mixed empirical methods comprising semi-structured interviewing, media and numerical data analyses, and participant observation in research processes close to the government, data was collected between 2008 and 2011. In five academic papers with distinctive angles, I show the importance of engaging deeply with the formative, distinctly Chinese political, economic and ecological environment when discussing mitigation in China. The Chinese climate change discourse has changed significantly in recent years, for example resulting in different discursively acceptable ways for the country to engage in mitigation. These meanings of climate change in China have developed through specific interactions of the political and academic spheres, based on Chinese understandings of nature and history (and China’s place in it), as well as with limited involvement of the media compared to western developed country cases. The notion of historical responsibility is a major component of what climate change means in China; in this thesis I therefore illuminate the numerical and conceptual ramifications of this part of the discourse, noting that the re-active nature of this frame, with China positioned against the developed countries, has not lend itself to support new mitigation action. Low carbon economy is another newer and now very important element of the discourse, a frame that locates China in an active, entrepreneurial subject position. My study on two cases – mitigation in the Beijing transportation sector and the introduction of seven local emission trading systems through a approach of governance through pilots – shows how this part of the discourse allows for the development of new mitigation approaches when they follow established institutions and governance mechanisms in a path-dependent manner. This thesis contributes to the research of global environmental change by advancing theoretical and practical ways of engaging with climate change in general, and mitigation in particular in China. It stresses the importance of considering the country-specific political ecology when formulating global climate change policy.

This thesis is a response to broad stroked claims that climate change and sea-level rise will cause mass displacements in areas such as the Mekong Delta. Instead, I argue for a more nuanced approach to understanding vulnerability and household response measures in contexts of environmental stress, and highlight the importance of deciphering differentiations of vulnerability across households of varying characteristics. I propose that in this way, by empirically understanding differentiated household vulnerabilities and response measures to stress rather than focusing on one type of stressor (environmental change) and response (migration), we would be better positioned to holistically address the root causes of vulnerability. To this end, I take a micro household-level approach, using an asset vulnerability framework, to assess the role of various household assets in mediating vulnerability and resilience in the rural Mekong Delta context. As a result, we are able to understand the interactions of numerous elements, including the effects of environmental stress and mobility decision-making processes, within the context of household asset profiles, which are in turn shaped by the broader political ecology. The main findings of this study furthermore include the ‘counterintuitive’ role of environmental stress, where it is found to be one of many stressors, often paling in comparison to the pressure of others. In the process of analysing resettlement outcomes, we encounter the process of vulnerability shifts, whereby some vulnerabilities are alleviated while others are increased as a result of resettlement. Finally, in terms of the link between environmental change and migration, a direct relationship is found to be tenuous. Instead, the key drivers, deterrents, and facilitators of migration are identified, pointing to the significance of assets and their role in shaping mobility decisions and outcomes for households. This leads us to not only think about those who move, but also those who do not have the option to move as a result of their poor asset profiles.