Emerging recognition of two fundamental errors under-pinning past polices for natural resource issues heralds awareness of the need for a worldwide fundamental change in thinking and in practice of environmental management. The first error has been an implicit assumption that ecosystem responses to human use are linear, predictable and controllable. The second has been an assumption that human and natural systems can be treated independently. However, evidence that has been accumulating in diverse regions all over the world suggests that natural and social systems behave in nonlinear ways, exhibit marked thresholds in their dynamics, and that social-ecological systems act as strongly coupled, complex and evolving integrated systems. This article is a summary of a report prepared on behalf of the Environmental Advisory Council to the Swedish Government, as input to the process of the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) in Johannesburg, South Africa in 26 August 4 September 2002. We use the concept of resilience—the capacity to buffer change, learn and develop—as a framework for understanding how to sustain and enhance adaptive capacity in a complex world of rapid transformations. Two useful tools for resilience-building in social-ecological systems are structured scenarios and active adaptive management. These tools require and facilitate a social context with flexible and open institutions and multi-level governance systems that allow for learning and increase adaptive capacity without foreclosing future development options.

https://bioone.org/journals/AMBIO-A-Journal-of-the-Human-Environment/volume-31/issue-5/0044-7447-31.5.437/Resilience-and-Sustainable-Development--Building-Adaptive-Capacity-in-a/10.1579/0044-7447-31.5.437.pdf

Resilience and sustainable development: building adaptive capacity in a world of transformations

This first report of the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment describes the conceptual framework that is being used in the MA. It is not a formal assessment of the literature, but rather a scientifically informed presentation of the choices made by the assessment team in structuring the analysis and framing the issues. The conceptual framework elaborated in this report describes the approach and assumptions that will underlie the analysis conducted in the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment. The framework was developed through interactions among the experts involved in the MA as well as stakeholders who will use its findings. It represents one means of examining the linkages between ecosystems and human well-being that is both scientifically credible and relevant to decision-makers. This framework for analysis and decision-making should be of use to a wide array of individuals and institutions in government, the private sector, and civil society that seek to incorporate considerations of ecosystem services in their assessments, plans, and actions.

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Ecosystems and human well-being: a framework for assessment

Communities of microscopic plant life, or phytoplankton, dominate the Earth's aquatic ecosystems. This important new book by Colin Reynolds covers the adaptations, physiology and population dynamics of phytoplankton communities in lakes and rivers and oceans. It provides basic information on composition, morphology and physiology of the main phyletic groups represented in marine and freshwater systems and in addition reviews recent advances in community ecology, developing an appreciation of assembly processes, co-existence and competition, disturbance and diversity. Although focussed on one group of organisms, the book develops many concepts relevant to ecology in the broadest sense, and as such will appeal to graduate students and researchers in ecology, limnology and oceanography.

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The Ecology of Phytoplankton

This paper considers the structure of freshwater phytoplankton assemblages and promotes a scheme of vegetation recognition', based upon the functional associations of species represented in the plankton. These groups are often polyphyletic, recognizing commonly shared adaptive features, rather than common phylogeny, to be the key ecological driver. Thirty-one such associations are outlined and the basic pattern of their distinctive ecologies is outlined. An invitation to other plankton scientists to assist in the development of this scheme is issued.

Towards a functional classification of the freshwater phytoplankton

The world's most biodiverse river basins—the Amazon, Congo, and Mekong—are experiencing an unprecedented boom in construction of hydropower dams. These projects address important energy needs, but advocates often overestimate economic benefits and underestimate far-reaching effects on biodiversity and critically important fisheries. Powerful new analytical tools and high-resolution environmental data can clarify trade-offs between engineering and environmental goals and can enable governments and funding institutions to compare alternative sites for dam building. Current site-specific assessment protocols largely ignore cumulative impacts on hydrology and ecosystem services as ever more dams are constructed within a watershed ( 1 ). To achieve true sustainability, assessments of new projects must go beyond local impacts by accounting for synergies with existing dams, as well as land cover changes and likely climatic shifts ( 2 , 3 ). We call for more sophisticated and holistic hydropower planning, including validation of technologies intended to mitigate environmental impacts. Should anything less be required when tampering with the world's great river ecosystems?

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Balancing hydropower and biodiversity in the Amazon, Congo, and Mekong

Águas doces no Brasil: capital ecológico, uso e conservação

Theoretical reservoir ecology and its applications

Água no século XXI: enfrentando a escassez

The species composition and abundance of the zooplankton community of seven reservoirs of the Paranapanema River, located between 22o37'-23o11'S and 48o55'-50o32'W, were analysed over four periods, in the year of 1979. The zooplankton community was composed of 76 species of Rotifera, 26 species of Cladocera and 7 species of Copepoda. For a large part of the period under study the Rotifera were dominant, followed by Copepoda. The Piraju and Salto Grande reservoirs, which occupy intermediate positions in the cascade of reservoirs, were richest in species, most of them belonging to Rotifera and Cladocera. In the reservoirs Rio Pari and Rio Novo, lateral to the cascade of reservoirs, a lower species richness was observed, although higher densities of organisms were found than in the other reservoirs located in the main river body. Different rotifer species occurred in succession, being abundant in different periods, with no defined pattern. Among the copepods, Thermocyclops decipiens predominated in the majority of the reservoirs. Ceriodaphnia cornuta was the most abundant cladoceran in the intermediate reservoirs of the cascade, and Daphnia gessneri, Bosminopsis deitersi and Moina minuta, in the reservoirs lateral to the cascade. The most frequent zooplankton species were Notodiaptomus conifer, Thermocyclops decipiens, Ceriodaphnia cornuta cornuta and C. cornuta rigaudi, Daphnia gessneri, Bosmina hagmanni, Keratella cochlearis and Polyarthra vulgaris. Some relationships were found between the trophic state of the reservoirs and the zooplankton community.

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Composition and abundance of zooplankton in the limnetic zone of seven reservoirs of the Paranapanema River, Brazil

Introduction M. Straskraba, J.G. Tundisi, A. Duncan. Part I: Comparative. I. A test of Hydropothesis Relating to the Comparative Limnology and Assessment of Eutrophication in Semi-Arid Man-Made Lakes J.A. Thornton, W. Rast. II. Limnology and Management of Reservoirs in Brazil J.G. Tundisi, T. Matsumura-Tundisi, M.C. Caliguri. III. Problems in Reservoir Trophic-State Classification and Implications for Reservoir Management O.T. Lind, T.T. Terrell, B.L. Kimmel. IV. Limnology of Subalpine Pump-Storage Reservoirs B. Kiefer, D. Imboden, F. Schanz. Part II: Mathematical Models and New Techniques. V. A Hierarchy of Mathematical Models: Towards Understanding the Physical Processes in Reservoirs B. Henderson-Sellers. VI. Modelling of Physical, Chemical and Biological Processes in Polish Lakes and Reservoirs J. Uchmanski, W. Szeligiewicz, M. Loga. VII. Sedimentation and Mineralization of Seston in a Eutrophic Reservoir, with a Tentative Sedimentation Model J.A. Galvez, F.X. Niel. VIII. Impact of Growth Factors on Competitive Ability of Blue Green Algae Analysed with Whole-Lake Simulation O. Varis. IX. Design of Limnological Observations for Detecting Processes in Lakes and Reservoirs J. Kettunen. X. Remote Sensing Estimation of Total Chlorophyll Pigments Distribution in Barra Bonita Reservoir M.L.M.E. Novo, F.Z.C. Braga, J.G. Tundisi. Part III: Reservoir Water Quality Management. XI. Succession of Fish Communities in Reservoirs of Central and East Europe J. Kubecka. XII. Framework for Investigation and Evaluation of Reservoir Water Quality in Czechoslovakia M. Straskraba et al. Part IV: Conclusions. XIII. State-of-the-Art of Reservoir Limnology and Water Quality Management M. Straskraba, J. Tundisi, A. Duncan. Index.

José Galizia Tundisi

Papers

Águas doces no Brasil: capital ecológico, uso e conservação

Theoretical reservoir ecology and its applications

Água no século XXI: enfrentando a escassez

Composition and abundance of zooplankton in the limnetic zone of seven reservoirs of the Paranapanema River, Brazil

Comparative reservoir limnology and water quality management