Lynda Chambers - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Papers by Lynda Chambers

Springer eBooks, 2013

ABSTRACT This chapter outlines the historical context of phenological observation and study in Au... more ABSTRACT This chapter outlines the historical context of phenological observation and study in Australia and New Zealand. Details of early records are given as they provide a valuable baseline against which current phenology may be assessed. It also sum-marises the results of phenological studies undertaken in recent years and identi-fies further long-term phenological data yet to be analysed. The information presented here begins to address the acknowledged lack of phenological studies undertaken in both countries. Community-based phenological networks and their contribution to the collection of phenological data are also described.

Malaria Journal, Nov 19, 2018

Malaria Journal, Oct 22, 2018

Marine Ecology Progress Series, May 21, 2012

The largest colony of Little Penguins in Western Australia is located on Penguin Island, 50 km so... more The largest colony of Little Penguins in Western Australia is located on Penguin Island, 50 km south of Perth, and the breeding performance of a nestbox subpopulation has been monitored for over 20 years. From our long term data set, high SSTs in April and May, both offshore and close to the colony, are correlated with fewer chicks per pair and lower masses of chicks at fledging. In the summer of 2010 and throughout 2011, the waters along the south-western coast of Western Australia were impacted by a record strength Leeuwin Current and above average sea surface temperatures. In 2011, the penguins breeding participation and success were the lowest observed since monitoring began. Less than a third of the average number of eggs was laid and only 10% of these resulted in successful fledglings. In addition, four times the average number of penguins was found dead from August-December 2011. The dead penguins were found on Penguin Island and along the coast, up to 400 km south of the colony. Autopsies revealed that many of the penguins had died from starvation. Diet composition studies revealed that whitebait, Hyperlophus vittatus, the major constituent of their diet in previous years, was absent in 2011. It is likely that the anomalous oceanographic conditions impacted the presence of the whitebait in the local coastal waters. However the construction of a boat ramp adjacent to the major whitebait nursery in 2010 may have also played a role. These data highlight the ability to use penguins as sentinels of climate change but also the difficulty in decoupling environmental and anthropogenic causes of change. The next step is to determine how resilient both the coastal ecosystem and this genetically distinct penguin colony are.

International Journal of Biometeorology, Dec 23, 2015

Marine and Freshwater Research, 2012

(a) Number of southern hemisphere phenological data sets by taxon and main foraging habi... more (a) Number of southern hemisphere phenological data sets by taxon and main foraging habitat, (b) Summary of direction of trends in southern hemisphere phenological data (%) by main season of phenological event, as a percentage of cases.(c) Summary of southern hemisphere phenological data (number) by phenophase.Not all datasets had published trends (and those that did were predominantly from Australia, see text for details) or directions of change and only those which explicitly tested for temporal trends are included here. A subset of these, which also recorded the standard error of the trend estimate, is analysed in more detail in <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0075514#pone.0075514.s002" target="_blank">Appendix S2</a>. No change indicates a trend was calculated but was not considered statistical significant (confidence level as reported in original papers, generally 5% level). Mean trend in days per decade. § Range is based on 5th to 95th percentiles. Ratio (−/+) is the ratio of the number of negative to the number of positive trends observed, irrespective of the significance of the trend. Not all studies provided trends estimates [e.g. days/year] so the sum of the two ratio values do not equal the sum of Earlier, Later, No Change (<a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0075514#pone-0075514-t002" target="_blank">Table 2a</a>), N in <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0075514#pone-0075514-t002" target="_blank">Table 2b</a> or the sum of the two ratio values. South American plant datasets were classified as wet or dry season but, as none had trends recorded, they have been excluded from this table.</p

Nature Climate Change, 2018

Weather, Climate, and Society, 2021

Traditional calendars document seasonal cycles and the communities’ relationships to their biophy... more Traditional calendars document seasonal cycles and the communities’ relationships to their biophysical environment and are often used by communities, particularly subsistence farmers, to synchronize their livelihood activities with the timing of ecological processes. Because the timing of these ecological processes is not always consistent from year to year, the use of traditional seasonal calendars can help communities to cope with climate variability, particularly when biophysical phenomena become less predictable in relation to the Gregorian calendar, as has been observed in relation to climate change. Although the structure and content of seasonal calendars vary across the Pacific Ocean region, for many indigenous communities, knowledge of seasonal calendars can increase their capacity to cope with climate variability and change. To increase the effectiveness of their products and enhance their relevance to and uptake by the community, several Pacific meteorological services are...

The Palgrave Handbook of Climate Resilient Societies, 2021

Many communities in the developing world do not utilize weather service broadcasts to the degree ... more Many communities in the developing world do not utilize weather service broadcasts to the degree expected. Reasons for this include inappropriate methods of forecast delivery, time scales and contexts that inhibit application to their needs. In addition, modern scientific forecasts are generally not well understood by the lay person without specialist training. For these, and other, reasons many indigenous communities in the Pacific Islands continue to predict seasonal climatic conditions through personal observations and the monitoring of meteorological, astronomical and biological indicators (e.g. phases of moon, behaviour of plants and animals). Built over many generations, traditional climate indicators can provide forecasts that are more accessible, better understood and cover a time and spatial scale more appropriate to the needs of many Pacific Island communities. However, increasing climate variability and land-use change may make traditional indicators less reliable than before, thus increasing the community's exposure to climate-related risks. In this context we argue that public understanding and potential use of forecasts could be greatly improved by verifying and incorporating reliable traditional climate indicators with modern scientific forecasts. We demonstrate how several Pacific Island Meteorological Services have set up a framework to accomplish this. We discuss these efforts and review the potential that traditional knowledge has to provide nature based solutions for increased adaptation to extreme events and climate variability in the region.