We have developed a technology to manufacture multilayered lipid vesicles. Individual bilayers are deposited layer‐by‐layer, allowing us to regulate the number of bilayers and their individual ...composition. This depiction of our structures portrays the self‐assembly underpinning our method (bottom left) and our discovery that phase‐separated domains align with one another through the layers (yellow). The undulating membranes represent the fluctuation analysis technique that we use to show that the mechanical properties of the vesicle scale with the number of layers. More information can be found in the Full Paper by Y. Elani et al. Image by Zehua Hu.
During the last ten years, the Western Sahara Project has undertaken large scale archaeological and environmental research that has begun to address the gaps in our knowledge of the archaeology and ...palaeoenvironments of Western Sahara, and to develop narratives of prehistoric cultural adaptation and change from the end of the Pleistocene to the Late Holocene and place it within its wider Saharan context. Here, a detailed discussion of past environmental change and a presentation of results from the environmental component of the extensive survey work are provided.
Contrary to much perceived wisdom, the Sahara is a rich and varied tapestry of diverse environments that sustain an array of ecosystems. Throughout its history, the Sahara has been a stage for human ...evolution, with human habitation, movement and lifeways shaped by a dynamic environment of successive phases of relative humidity and aridity driven by wider global climatic changes. The nature of human utilization of the landscape has undergone many changes, from the ephemeral and ill-defined lithic scatters of the Early Holocene to the dense and complex funerary landscapes of Late Holocene Pastoral period. Generally speaking, the living have left very little trace of their existence while funerary monuments endure, stamping the landscape with a cultural timelessness that marks certain regions of the desert as “special". During the last ten years, the Western Sahara Project has undertaken large scale archaeological and environmental research that has begun to address the gaps in our knowledge of the archaeology and palaeoenvironments of Western Sahara, and to develop narratives of prehistoric cultural adaptation and change from the end of the Pleistocene to the Late Holocene and place it within its wider Saharan context. A detailed discussion of past environmental change and a presentation of results from the environmental component of the extensive survey work are provided. A typology of built stone features – monuments and funerary architecture is presented together with the results of the archaeological component of the extensive survey work, focusing on stone features, but also including discussion of ceramics and rock art and the analysis of lithic assemblages. Chapters focusing on intensive survey work in key study areas consider the landscape contexts of monuments and the results of excavation of burial cairns and artifact scatters.
Climate change poses a challenge to the dominant development paradigm with its concepts of modernisation, economic growth and globalisation which treat the environment as an externality and largely ...ignore climate variability. This article explores the extent of the challenge, drawing on archaeological evidence showing that adaptation to severe climate change can involve much more radical changes in human societies than are currently envisaged. Furthermore, short‐term adaptation can result in long‐term maladaptation, increasing vulnerability to climate shocks. The article argues that development urgently needs to shift its focus away from prevailing growth and yield‐maximisation models towards alternatives encouraging resilience and risk‐spreading.
In recent years the population of the Hindu Kush Himalayas (HKH) has been confronted with rapid social, economic, demographic, and political changes. In addition, the region is particularly ...vulnerable to climate change. However, there is a scarcity of cohesive information on the state of the environment and on the socio-economic situation of the approximately 210 million people who reside in the HKH. Specifically, data on livelihood vulnerability are lacking. As part of the Himalaya Climate Change Adaptation Programme, the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development, in consultation with regional and international partners, has developed the Multidimensional Livelihood Vulnerability Index (MLVI), a measure to explore and describe livelihood vulnerability to climatic, environmental, and socio-economic change in the HKH region. This paper documents how the MLVI was developed and demonstrates the utility of this approach by using primary household survey data of 16 selected districts of three sub-basins in the HKH region. The analysis gives important clues about differences in the intensity and composition of multidimensional livelihood vulnerability across these locations that should be useful to decision makers to identify areas of intervention and guide their measures to reduce vulnerability.
This paper explores the possible links between rapid climate change (RCC) and social change in the Near East and surrounding regions (Anatolia, central Syria, southern Israel, Mesopotamia, Cyprus and ...eastern and central Sahara) during the ‘long’ 4th millennium (∼4500–3000) BC. Twenty terrestrial and 20 marine climate proxies are used to identify long-term trends in humidity involving transitions from humid to arid conditions and vice versa. The frequency distribution of episodes of relative aridity across these records is calculated for the period 6300–2000 BC, so that the results may be interpreted in the context of the established arid episodes associated with RCC around 6200 and 2200 BC (the 8.2 and 4.2 kyr events). We identify two distinct episodes of heightened aridity in the early-mid 4th, and late 4th millennium BC. These episodes cluster strongly at 3600–3700 and 3100–3300 BC. There is also evidence of localised aridity spikes in the 5th and 6th millennia BC. These results are used as context for the interpretation of regional and local archaeological records with a particular focus on case studies from western Syria, the middle Euphrates, southern Israel and Cyprus. Interpretation of the records involves the construction of plausible narratives of human–climate interaction informed by concepts of adaptation and resilience from the literature on contemporary (i.e. 21st century) climate change and adaptation. The results are presented alongside well-documented examples of climatically-influenced societal change in the central and eastern Sahara, where detailed geomorphological studies of ancient environments have been undertaken in tandem with archaeological research. While the narratives for the Near East and Eastern Mediterranean remain somewhat speculative, the use of resilience and adaptation frameworks allows for a more nuanced treatment of human–climate interactions and recognises the diversity and context-specificity of human responses to climatic and environmental change. Our results demonstrate that there is a need for more local environmental data to be collected ‘at source’ during archaeological excavations.
•We identify two episodes of aridity ∼3600–3700 and 3100–3300 BC in the Near East.•We observe societal change across the region coincident and consistent with RCC.•We identify four case studies in the Near East likely to be linked to RCC.•We complement these with discussions of RCC in the eastern and central Sahara.•We situate our interpretations in resilience and adaptation models.
The environmental conditions of Earth, including the climate, are determined by physical, chemical, biological, and human interactions that transform and transport materials and energy. This is the ..."Earth system": a highly complex entity characterized by multiple nonlinear responses and thresholds, with linkages between disparate components. One important part of this system is the iron cycle, in which iron-containing soil dust is transported from land through the atmosphere to the oceans, affecting ocean biogeochemistry and hence having feedback effects on climate and dust production. Here we review the key components of this cycle, identifying critical uncertainties and priorities for future research.
Adaptation finance addresses the effects of climate variability and change on development and physical insecurity. Yet, adaptation has proven difficult to systematically measure and assess, resulting ...in a lack of coherent and comparable evidence to learn about good adaptation practice. Measurement has become even more challenging since the integration of resilience into policy framings. Measuring climate resilience requires evidence of resistance to, and recovery from, shocks and stresses. But resilience of what, to what seldom guides the design of assessments. Researchers tend to use proxy indicators and aggregated units of analysis that cloud the relationships under study, and crucially, leave unclear the interactions between climate and development. This viewpoint documents these common barriers to progress in the field. It then outlines two methods for practitioners and researchers to link climate shocks and stresses to climate-sensitive development outcomes as a key first step to research and evaluation design. Both methods enable prediction of expected levels of development outcomes, given the extent of climate shocks and stresses, which is then comparable with actual levels achieved under climate resilience interventions. The product is standardized and comparable metrics to learn about the performance of climate adaptation policymaking and resilient development programming.
Climate-related risks to African agriculture are highly contextual. Climatic conditions are changing in diverse agro-ecological environments throughout Africa, and populations are being affected by, ...and responding to, these changes. The paper describes how climate change risks in African agriculture are mediated by multiple factors, ranging from the availability of physical resources through policy contexts to the role of culture. Consequently, support to adaptation needs to be complemented with research that can generate contextual information to inform adaptation policies, strategies, and measures. Interventions need to go beyond just technical fixes such as the development of new crop varieties, and must be based on an understanding of how different factors interact in a complex manner to drive risks and results in specific contexts to diverse outcomes.
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