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This study evaluated the potential of cultural management practices (CMPs) to service sustainable social and ecological adaptation to the invasive fruit fly spotted wing drosophila (SWD). We sampled SWD and parasitoids under different CMPs in tart cherry orchards in Michigan to assess the efficacy and ecological costs of CMPs. Additionally, we interviewed Michigan tart cherry growers to understand their adaptation behaviors in response to SWD. We found no difference in SWD or parasitoid abundances among the CMPs and no effect of parasitoids on SWD abundances. Growers generally saw CMPs as supplementary to chemical sprays without the potential to reduce or replace spraying. While CMPs showed low efficacy in SWD management and growers expressed limited confidence in their efficacy, diverse cultural pest management practices should continue to be explored for their potential to support ecological diversity and adaptive agricultural systems under the threat of invasive species. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Adaptation to climate change is one of the greatest challenges facing coastal communities today. Coastal communities are subject to a wide range of stressors related to climate change, including biological resource decline and natural hazards. Small historically natural-resource-dependent communities are particularly vulnerable because of their close reliance on ecosystem goods and services that are likely to be affected by climate change (e.g., fisheries, forests) and their limited access to outside technical and financial resources needed for adaptation. Exogenous adaptation policies, while helpful for fostering new behavioral adjustments to address resource decline and natural hazards, can in some cases exacerbate socioeconomic disruption, further burdening communities already struggling to adapt. This paper presents an investigation of how six historically natural-resource-dependent coastal communities in Oregon, USA, have experienced and responded to external stressors and how adaptation in these communities has been shaped by interactions between past and present practices, processes, and vulnerabilities. Despite climate-related impacts identified by the scientific community, climate change was not salient in the community members’ reports of stressors and impacts, and thus was not a trigger of adaptation. Rather, communities were responding to stressors associated with decades of declines in natural resource industries, an economic recession, restrictive natural resource management and land use policies, demographic change, and natural hazards. These findings confirm other research findings that chronic everyday problems, including those related to the maintenance of livelihoods, or consequences of inadequate livelihoods, often eclipse potentially disastrous threats in the minds of rural community members, thereby influencing adaptation strategies. In some cases communities do not prioritize such threats because people have come to accept living with them, or they feel powerless and unable to change the circumstances of daily life. The findings improve understanding of adaptation in natural-resource-based coastal communities in the USA and support the need for policy makers and planners to integrate climate change adaptation into livelihood improvement strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Because wildfire size and frequency are expected to increase in many forested areas in the United States, organizations involved in forest and wildfire management could arguably benefit from working together and sharing information to develop strategies for how to adapt to this increasing risk. Social capital theory suggests that actors in cohesive networks are positioned to build trust and mutual understanding of problems and act collectively to address these problems, and that actors engaged with diverse partners are positioned to access new information and resources that are important for innovation and complex problem solving. We investigated the patterns of interaction within a network of organizations involved in forest and wildfire management in Oregon, USA, for evidence of structural conditions that create opportunities for collective action and learning. We used descriptive statistical analysis of social network data gathered through interviews to characterize the structure of the network and exponential random graph modeling to identify key factors in the formation of network ties. We interpreted our findings through the lens of social capital theory to identify implications for the network's capacity to engage in collective action and complex problem-solving about how to adapt to environmental change. We found that tendencies to associate with others with similar management goals, geographic emphases, and attitudes toward wildfire were strong mechanisms shaping network structure, potentially constraining interactions among organizations with diverse information and resources and limiting opportunities for learning and complex problem-solving needed for adaptation. In particular, we found that organizations with fire protection and forest restoration goals comprised distinct networks despite sharing concern about the problem of increasing wildfire risk. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]