Social-Ecological Drivers of Land Cover/Land Use Change on Islands: A Synthesis of the Patterns and Processes of Change
Island ecosystems around the world are undergoing considerable change as a consequence of complex social-ecological forces that operate at a range of space-time scales. From the molecular or landscape level, and over short- or long-term periods, the force
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zation in the twenty-first century is posing new challenges to humans and natural ecosystems (Carter, Walsh, Jacobson, & Miller, 2014; Sun, 2014). From climate change to increasingly mobile human populations to the global economy, the relationship between humans and their environment is being modified in ways that will have long-term impacts on ecological health, biodiversity, ecosystem goods and services, human activities, land cover/land use change (LCLUC), and system sustainability (Kerr, 2005; Uyarra et al., 2005; Zhang & Walsh, 2018). These changes and challenges are perhaps nowhere more evident than in island ecosystems (Zhao et al., 2004; Charles & Chris 2009; Miller, Carter, Walsh, & Peake, 2014; Mena, Quiroga, & Walsh, 2020). Influenced by rising ocean temperatures, extreme weather events, sea-level rise, tourism, population migration and development, and invasive species (MacDonald, Anderson, & Dietrich, 1997; Tye, 2001; Alongi, 2008; Walsh et al., 2008; Brewington, 2013; Walsh, 2018), islands
S. J. Walsh (*) Center for Galapagos Studies, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA e-mail: [email protected] F. Laso · R. E. Bilsborrow · J. Arce Nazario · P. H. Page · B. G. Frizzelle · F. Pizzitutti University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA e-mail: [email protected] L. Brewington East-West Center, Honolulu, HI, USA Y. Shao Virginia Tech University, Blacksburg, VA, USA H. Mattei University of Puerto Rico, San Juan, Puerto Rico © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020 S. J. Walsh et al. (eds.), Land Cover and Land Use Change on Islands, Social and Ecological Interactions in the Galapagos Islands, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-43973-6_3
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represent both great vulnerabilities as well as scientific opportunities for studying the impacts and significance of global change on ecosystem processes and sustainability (Schwartzman, Moreira, & Nepstad, 2000; Mejía & Brandt, 2015; Johannes de Haan, Quiroga, Walsh, & Bettencourt, 2019). Human migration and tourism have brought profound changes to the natural environment in places like the Hawaiian and Canary Islands, and beyond (Juan, Eduardo, & Vanessa, 2008). With the rise in global wealth, pressure on unique island ecosystems increases as more people seek to visit and experience these “special” places, thereby introducing new threats to island sustainability. While islands are often geographically remote, relatively small in size, irregular in shape, and varied in their morphological, ecological, human, and topographic settings, they are also fragile and highly sensitive to changes caused by natural and anthropogenic factors. Processes such as climate change, urbanization, agricultural extensification, deforestation, and population migration are increasingly associated with the “temporary” migration of tourists to islands (Walsh & Mena, 2013). These forces and factors of change are often manifested as drivers of LCLUC that occur across a range of space-time scales and whose patterns
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