In previous blogs I have recognised the fact that animals are being adversely affected by the effects of climate change. My main focus has been primarily on birds (e.g. the Honeycreepers) , there are some less well known mammals which are also being put in danger: these are the Flying Foxes. These are large bats which are limited in worldwide distribution due to their tropical diet of nectar, blossom, pollen and fruit (Vardon 1995).
They are a threatened species generally but especially in the Pacific where cultural traditions and reliance on farming makes them more of a target from humans (Vardon 1995). In the Mariana Islands they are considered a local delicacy, the Maldives believe they cure asthma, and farmers attack the bats because they feed on their plantations.
The Mortlocks and other low lying coralline islands seem to be in the most trouble (Welbergen 2008). Aside from the loss of land on islands which are already very small, sea water encroachment into the water table along with more frequent total or near total inundation of the islands during storm surges would eliminate the food and roosting sites on which the bats currently depend (Buden 2013). the Volcanic islands will provide a safer environment for the flying fox which provides hope that extinction is not definite. There is concern that climate change will affect weather patterns which will affect vegetation type and food resources (Buden 2013). It is important to remember these lesser known species as some can be forgotten and can be led to extinction. One of the most recently confirmed mammalian extinctions was the Christmas Island pipistrelle, which scientists believed vanished forever in 2009 (Buden 2013). Therefore we should provide more focus on protecting the flying fox and other less known species.
Buden D W, Helgen KM, Wiles GJ (2013) Taxonomy, distribution, and natural history of flying foxes (Chiroptera: Pteropodidae) in the Mortlock Islands and Chuuk State, Caroline Islands.
Read more at http://news.mongabay.com/2013/1028-hance-mortlock-bats.html#TmMpSCfVKoIt1R3J.99
Vardon, M.J. & Tidemann, C.R. (1995) Harvesting of flyingfoxes (Pteropus spp.) in Australia: could it promote the conservation of endangered Pacific island species? In Conservation through sustainable use of wildlife (eds G. Grigg, P. Hale & D. Lunney), pp. 82–85, Brisbane, Australia.
Welbergen, J.; Klose, S.; Markus, N.; Eby, P. (2008). "Climate change and the effects of temperature extremes on Australian flying-foxes". Proceedings. Biological sciences / the Royal Society 275 (1633): 419–425.
Monday, 28 October 2013
Tuesday, 8 January 2013
Farewell Pacific - but it won't be long
It
is has come… the end, but hopefully not for long. It has been a pleasure and I will
be updating the blog on new and interesting developments in the South Pacific
but not as regularly as before.
Just
to recap I have looked at:
Water –
has been a recurring theme. Water shortages have been an issue for many islands,
especially low lying ones. Rising sea levels, increased frequency and intensity
of storms have increased the incidence of saltwater intrusion, contaminating
water supply. These tropical islands seem the furthest from dry, but it is
about having access to safe water which seems to be one of the largest concerns
with climate change.
Biodiversity –
coral bleaching caused by the effects of climate change have been a major
concern for marine biodiversity. Corals are an important ecosystem, they’re
demise is possible and management of them is paramount. In my blog post on
protecting corals I focused mainly on how local groups were dealing with them,
for more regional approaches such as MPAs (marine protected areas) I would recommend
a look at ‘Under the Sea: the curious case of coral’. Birds in Hawaii; has also
been an interesting aspect of biodiversity loss due to climate change. The
increasing air temperature increasing avian malaria may see the end of some of
the Honeycreeper species.
Some
of the articles I have read have been thought provoking and made me reassess a
variety of matters. Reading Fabotkos piece about climate change being
exaggerated in Tuvalu has made me more critical of pictures and youtube videos.
Trying to incorporate social capital into adaption schemes was also a new way
of thinking for me. These
two blog posts were in my top three most viewed; Tuvalu, Canary in a coalmine? And
Adapting in Fiji, more stressful than you’d expect. Have a re-read if you fancy.
I’d
like to thank my followers and my fellow bloggers for educating me and occasionally
referencing me J.
See
you soon!
Kate
x
Monday, 7 January 2013
Rising Sea levels, Raising water issues in Tuvalu
As
this will be one of my lasts posts I thought it would be appropriate to leave
with talking about the most famous Pacific Island when it comes to Climate
Change - Tuvalu. I’ll be looking at the issues faced by climate change and what
they will do to try and alleviate these problems, which I feel reflects the
topics I have raised in previous posts.
Tuvalu
is one of the smallest nations in terms of national economy, land mass and
population size. When they claimed independence from Britain in 1978, they were
advised by the British to join with Kiribati as their soils were infertile,
they have limited flora and fauna, and lack many resources (Aalsberberg andHay, 1992). They have the typical issues
of small islands states, but they could be worse, due to remittances (which
contribute to 20% of national income) and foreign aid Tuvalu is better off than
many other small islands (Asian Development Bank, 2002).
Despite
doing well from remittances and foreign aid, their economy is still weak and
their physical attributes – mainly being low lying, makes them extremely
vulnerable to climate change (Connell 2003). A rise of mean sea level would
lift the zone of flooding and intensify storm waves. This would erode the coast
line, which would be accentuated by greater frequency of storms (Connell 2003).
Land losses would create competition for land, reduce agricultural production,
and resources from flora and fauna (Connell 2003).
Fishing
would be affected as Mangrove habitats will be damaged. As well as reefs would
also be eroded, disturbing lagoon ecology (Connell 2003).
Islands
above a certain size (about 1.5 hectares) contain a permanent lens of fresh
water surrounded by salt water (Connell 2003). The volume is proportionate to
the land size, so loss of land would create a loss in freshwater. This is
worsened, less land increases the frequency of overwash, so water is
contaminated by salt water (Connell 2003). Overwash would also increase
coastal erosion and greater incidence of storms. Not only does drinking water
become undrinkable but agriculture becomes affected too, with the soil not
being the best already supplying it with salt water would only damage crop
production further (Roy and Connell, 1991). The green house affect will also
affect rainwater, provided another issue for water availability. Water scarcity
has been talked about in previous posts, although loss of land is an issue for
any island, even more so for an island like Tuvalu as it is far too small and
vulnerable to cope with land loss. Although the issue of imagined geographies
has already been examined and I am now presenting Tuvalu in this vulnerable
state, they will still be experiencing the effects worse than most as they do
have fewer resources to cope.
As
many are aware emigration has been a method of adapting to climate change, some
adaptation has been less extreme. De-salinization plants have been built to
cope with the water issues created by climate change. This video shows the sort
of methods used to conserve water and therefore live on the island with
satisfying water availability.
The
video presented a few ways of conserving water, desalinisation is attractive
but very expensive. Therefore UNESCO has advised collecting rainwater to be the
main priority (Indymedia Climate 2005). Education was highlighted as being
essential, as well as government intervention such as changing bank loan policies
so that water tanks are mandatory (Indymedia Climate 2005).
An
extreme response to the effects caused by climate change is emigration. In 2001
New Zealand accepted Tuvaluans as ‘environmental refugees’(Indymedia Climate2005). Around 3,000 refugees have been sent to New Zealand, but emigration is
looking less promising (Indymedia Climate 2005). Australia have said they will
not recognise Tuvaluans as environmental refugees and New Zealand have
stringent migration requirements so the sick, elderly and poor are less able to
migrate (Indymedia Climate 2005). Migration is an extreme measure, which some do
not realise when articles indicate that the island will physically disappear which
it will not. Tuvaluans do not want to leave, they decided to be a small country
and not join Kiribati to save their culture, they do not want to jeopardise
that again. This video presents some of the other options to adapting to
climate change:
Although
for the pessimist it seems migration seems to be the inevitable as demonstrated
in this video.
Friday, 4 January 2013
Tuvalu, Canary in a coalmine?
The
issue of sea level rise is often demonstrated with Tuvalu. Since the late 1980s
Tuvalu has been identified as threatened by sea level rise from Climate Change (Connell 2003). Tuvalu has been given a stage on the
political arena, provided with politicians to represent them in climate
affairs, as well as being the poster child for the effects of Climate change (Fabotko 2010). Tuvalu has been mentioned (not in
name) in Al Gores ‘An Inconvenient Truth’ and is used to publicise the effects
of Climate Change to; politicians at climate debates, for example at Copenhagen;
and to provoke countries and the public into action.
It
is incredible how its name has become so known, with no internal conflict,
nuclear testing or natural disaster so have been of little interest to
journalists and neighbouring countries. However now they play an important role
in Climate Change discourse. They are seen as Climate refugees, as imagined
geographies have presented them as country too small and poor to be without
foreign aid, and to solve their issues would be to move to mainland countries
such as Australia (Fabotko 2010).
Tuvalu has also been
the ‘global showcase’ for renewable energies, French environmentalists have
made efforts to rid all their islands of fossil fuels (Fabotko 2010). Why is it so attractive to journalists
and environmentalists? I suppose it is a site where uncertainty about global
climate change is miniaturised and resolved in and through the quest to know if
the sea around it is rising. Tuvalu has been compared to the metaphor ‘canary
in a coalmine’ which indicates that Tuvalu is not a value in itself but is
important to a larger (global) environmental purpose (Fabotko 2010).
Tuvalu has become a
space where the fate of the planet is brought forward in time and miniaturised
in space;
‘reduced
to a performance of rising seas and climate refugees played out for those with
most control over the current and future uses of fossil fuels.’ (Farbutko 2010 page 8)
In this way we can view Tuvalu as an ‘Island
Laboratory’, it can show us a scenario of what to come (Fabotko 2010). As
Tuvalu is a major player in Climate Change discourse there have been representational
leaps from the island being a ‘marginal laboratory’ to an ‘expendable
laboratory’ in pursuit of the larger purpose of saving the world (Fabotko 2010).
This view has led to exaggeration of the threats facing Tuvalu. For example
environmentalist, Mark Lynas, has a strong desire for Tuvalu to be almost
uninhabitable (Fabotko 2010). He made a piece about rising sea levels affecting
the high tides in Tuvalu, in which he has a photograph of a man, two children
with a barbeque knee deep in water (Fabotko 2010). It represents the high tides
that have been occurring more often due to climate change. However it has been
criticised as it is a misleading photograph and has been presented in may
reputable sources such as UNESCO which adds validity to the image. Although
high tides have been occurring more frequently, they occur around three
times a year, and last a few days (Fabotko 2010). There are many like
Lynas who are over exaggerating the effects of climate change in Tuvalu which should
be kept in mind when looking at the island (Fabotko 2010).
Which is why I found it
interesting to find a BBC news article about low lying Pacific Islands growing
not sinking. It claimed that a new geological survey showed the islands of
Tuvalu, Kiribati and the Federated States of Micronesia were indeed expanding
because of coral debris and sediment (Bryant 2010). The study showed that 27
islands over the last 60 years have remained stable, and some have grown (Zukerman2010). Historical images and satellite photography showed that 80% of the
islands had remained the same or had got bigger (Bryant 2010). Scientists
believe many of the islands will still be around for another 100 years
(Zukerman 2010). Although there are some issues with this article: historical
images can be subjective, and although they may not be sinking these islands are
still under threat from sea level rise. Although land may not be getting
scarcer the issues of salt water contamination, inundation and coastal erosion
are still issues brought on by climate change.
Thursday, 3 January 2013
Honey, I am talking about the Honeycreepers
I
couldn’t leave just one post to the Honeycreepers, these birds are fascinating
creatures. Endemic to Hawaii they hold much scientific interest as they are an
example of adaptive radiation, in other words an example of natural selection
(ScienceDaily 2011) (Guardian 2011).
There
was once at least 56 species, but only 18 now remain (Guardian 2011). This
valuable and delicate species is at a greater threat now due to climate change.
The
transmission of pox and malaria in Hawaii depends on climatic conditions, seasonal
changes in temperature and rainfall in particular influence the increase or
decrease mosquito populations (USGS 2009).
Hawaii
provided safe refuges for birds in its more mountainous areas as their usual habitats in the wet forests on lower ground have become malaria . It is thought this
area of higher altitude explained why the Honeycreepers were not completely
wiped out the first time these non native diseases were introduced (USGS 2009).
However the temperature in the mountains is increasing, putting Honeycreepers
at a higher risk of contracting pox or malaria. Today, native Hawaiian birds
face one of the highest rates of extinction in the world, only three species of
Honeycreepers is in decent shape (USGS 2009). The
Po‘ouli became extinct in 2004 (Pratt 2009) demonstrating the fragility to their species.
It
is thought if the 2ᵒC increase does happen
around 60 to 96 % of the high-elevation disease refuges will vanish (USGS 2009).
The
tropical inversion layer which is the thin cloud that surrounds the upper parts
of the mountains will soon play a larger role in Honeycreepers survival. With
the increase in temperature the layer has become more frequent. The tropical
inversion layer affects plant growth so will make habitats further up, away
from malaria risk areas, inhospitable for Honeycreepers (USGS 2009).
Deforestation
could further alter the patterns of malaria transmission (Sehgal 2009). Deforestation,
for example, of the Alaka`I Wilderness Preserve on Kaua`I Island could adjust
the pattern of seasonal transmission of avian malaria to a pattern of
continuous yearly transmission (Atkinson and LaPointe, 2009).
Natural
resistance to avian malaria has developed in one species, the Hawaii amakihi,
which is more populous in lower parts of the forest than more elevated areas
despite high levels of mosquitoes (Woodworth et al 2005; Kilpatrick et al 2006).
It is thought that good habitat management could help other honeycreepers
develop some resistance to avian malaria (Kilpatrick 2006). However;
warming may be increasing at a rate that will make it impossible for Hawaiian
birds to develop a resistance in time. It looks like humans will need to take
action or these valuable bird species will be overwhelmed by global warming (Miller 2012).
Previous
posts have focused much more on the effects climate change has on humans, we
need to also remember the other creatures that are affected.
Reference
Miller,
S. (2012) ‘Climate Change Threatens Hawaiian Forest Birds’, in Keener, V. et al
(ed.) Climate Change and Pacific Islands:
Indicators and Impacts, PIRCA: Island Press, 11-12
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