The marine bivalve, Tridacna spp. is an iconic invertebrate of the Indo-Pacific coral reef communities from Eocene to present. However, field observations found that the population of Tridacna spp. ...has declined in recent decades and some species are now endangered in the northern South China Sea (SCS) of western Pacific, which are speculated to be connected with the human overfishing and/or climate changes. Thus distinguishing the impacts of human activities and climate changes on Tridacna spp. populations is essential for understanding the dynamic of Tridacna spp. population variability. Such effort will be important in launching conservation policies and restoring population. Here, extensive sampling was applied on sub-fossil Tridacna spp. shells at the North Reef of the northern SCS, and the long-lived (with a lifespan more than 30 years) Tridacna spp. population index (LTPI) over the past 4500 years was obtained based on the AMS14C dating method. The results show that LTPI has experienced several short-term collapses (shorter than 200 years) over the past 4500 years, which may be associated with excessive cold winter temperatures. Remarkably, LTPI usually recovered rapidly after the rewarming of temperatures, indicating a robust self-recruitment mechanisms in response to natural climate changes. However, the last catastrophic collapse of LTPI that occurred at around ~1820 CE – ~1900 CE didn't rebound despite the significant rise in temperature over the recent 100 years. The decoupling between LTPI and climate changes in recent hundred years was probably induced by the increased commercial fishing in the SCS, which has overwhelmed and exacerbated the self-recruitment mechanisms between Tridacna spp. population and climate changes.
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•Tridacna spp. are now endangered in the northern South China Sea.•Tridacna spp. populations have experienced several short collapses over the past 4500.•Variability of Tridacna spp. populations may be associated with climate changes.•Tridacna spp. populations have robust recruitment mechanism under natural states.•Recovery mechanism have been overwhelmed by modern human overfishing.
The present study analyzes the meanings bilingual and multilingual speakers attach to the term
, a familiar concept which is most often intuitively understood, but difficult to define. Taking as the ...main frame of reference the vulnerable linguistic communities of Serbia, the authors assess the answers given by the interviewees to the open question “What does the notion of
mean to you?” asked in the pilot sociolinguistic questionnaire the study is based on. The responses are classified in several categories, which are then analyzed and discussed. The findings show that the speakers give equal importance to the period of language acquisition, in early childhood, and the role of the family in language transmission for defining
. The diversity of responses obtained in the study suggests that the definitions provided by the censuses, used in the education context, human rights literature, or sociolinguistics, do not necessarily overlap with the social reality, as the actual members of the linguistic communities perceive the concept as being more heterogeneous than generally assumed and do not automatically connect it to mothers.
Heritage relies, to a large extent, on notions of endangerment and consequential attempts to arrest or reverse processes of loss and change. The papers in this special issue engage critically with ...this underlying orientation, exploring the social and cultural work which is produced through efforts to avert loss. In doing so, the papers also point towards alternative ways of valuing objects, places and practices which are not solely determined by notions of endangerment and risk. We suggest three general themes which connect critical investigation of these issues across the varied natural and cultural heritage contexts through which these papers work - the inevitability of loss; the politics of loss; and the potential in loss. These themes have significant implications not only for the future of natural and cultural heritage preservation, conservation and management but also in mapping out future research directions for critical heritage studies.
Many of the world's vertebrates have experienced large population and geographic range declines due to anthropogenic threats that put them at risk of extinction. The largest vertebrates, defined as ...megafauna, are especially vulnerable. We analyzed how human activities are impacting the conservation status of megafauna within six classes: mammals, ray‐finned fish, cartilaginous fish, amphibians, birds, and reptiles. We identified a total of 362 extant megafauna species. We found that 70% of megafauna species with sufficient information are decreasing and 59% are threatened with extinction. Surprisingly, direct harvesting of megafauna for human consumption of meat or body parts is the largest individual threat to each of the classes examined, and a threat for 98% (159/162) of threatened species with threat data available. Therefore, minimizing the direct killing of the world's largest vertebrates is a priority conservation strategy that might save many of these iconic species and the functions and services they provide.
This study investigated language shift among middle-age, adult, and youth age groups of the Bajau Sama Kota Belud indigenous people. The cross-sectional study involved 243 participants, selected ...using stratified sampling. The questionnaire was based on language transmission assessment by Brenzinger et al. (2003). Results showed that language shift across different skill areas — speaking, understanding, reading, and writing — showed that the Malay language in everyday life is more dominant than their mother tongue among adults and youths. The language skills and the language daily use scores of Bajau Sama adults and youths are not significantly correlated. The two groups manifest the four variables of language shift in Bajau Sama. This study shows that the language shift phenomenon in Bajau Sama is accelerated in the younger generation, and they serve as the living agent of language shift. Following this, there is an urgency to develop a Bajau Sama language corpus and to implement revitalisation initiatives in Kota Belud, Sabah.
Language death is a phenomenon with symptoms related to demeaning vocabulary count and depletion of domains of language use along with the simplicity of linguistic structures. It commences by ...exhibiting traits of a declining number of fluent speakers, dwindling attitude of the speakers with regard to their heritage language, language shift, lack of inter-generational language transfer accompanied by a feeling that heritage language is inferior to outside languages, and Gulgulia exhibits every trait of such a dying language. It has become a waning language that is very close to its permanent extinction. The present study elucidates the ethnolinguistic vitality of Gulgulia tested through chosen sociolinguistic parameters which were found suitable to Gulgulia’s scenario. It also explores the linguistic situation of the Gulgulian community in Dhanbad, the community members’ language use in their homes and in their miscellaneous interethnic interactions and examines what relation prevails between the community’s language preference and their vitality. It was found that speaker variables, such as age, gender, and language competence governed the speaker’s attitude toward the heritage language. The location of the speech community is also a regulating factor in determining the inclination for preservation or attrition of the native language. The analysis of the speech behavior in the Gulgulian community confirms the loss of major genres such as the art of narration. Out of all the genres of language use, only two are surviving, which is alarming.
In Aotearoa New Zealand children learn about biodiversity loss and protection through a bicultural environmental education (EE) program. Connected with Predator Free NZ, a nationwide restoration ...project, the program teaches children about killing possums, rats, and stoats. Children's involvement in possum killing has a long, troubling history in Aotearoa and EE is now working to transform attitudes from 'hating possums' into respecting all animals. This paper analysis the recent shift in rhetoric, with a focus on the discord between animal rights scholars and EE and by addressing the histories of Aotearoa, possums, and EE. With the help of Donna Haraway, Rangimārie Rose Pere, and other indigenous scholars, the troubles obscuring the move into interspecies respect are made visible. Militarized discourse, war games, individualism, Restoration, nature-culture divide, and human exceptionalism, are all emphasized as barriers. This paper also draws attention to a major concern with possum-child worlds and EE research in that children's voice is seriously lacking. It is then argued that children's stories must be present in future EE research, and that the pathway toward respecting possums is one and the same, located in indigenous, interspecies, children's, and ecofeminist stories. Positions that emphasize interconnected ecologies between people, place, and animals.
Local minority languages and dialects, through the local knowledge and expertise associated with them, can play major roles in analysing climate change and biodiversity loss, in facilitating ...community awareness of environmental crises and in setting up locally‐adapted resilience and sustainability strategies. While the situation and contribution of Indigenous and Tribal Peoples are of emblematic importance, the issue of the relationships between cultural and linguistic diversity and environmental awareness and protection does not solely concern peripheral highly‐specialized communities in specific ecosystems of the Global South, but constitutes a worldwide challenge, throughout all of the countries, whatever their geographical location, their economical development, or their political status. Environmental emergency and climate change resilience should therefore raise international awareness on the need to promote the survival and development of minority languages and dialects and to take into account their creativity and expertise in relation to the dynamics of their local environments.
Local languages and dialects are essential for nurturing connections with the environment, facilitating early perception of environmental modifications, monitoring these modifications, and adapting local processes and practices of environmental protection and management to climate change resilience, sustainability and food security. Environmental emergency and climate change resilience should raise awareness on the need to promote the survival and development of minority languages and to take into account the creativity and expertise of minority languages in relation to their local cultures and environments.
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