Community engagement and power dynamics in conservation philanthropy grant making.

Funding decisions influence where, how, and by whom conservation is pursued globally. In the context of growing calls for more participatory, Indigenous-led, and socially just conservation, we undertook the first empirical investigation of how philanthropic foundations working in marine conservation globally engage communities in grant-making decisions. We paid particular attention to whether and how community engagement practices reinforce or disrupt existing power dynamics. We conducted semistructured remote interviews with 46 individuals from 32 marine conservation foundations to identify how conservation foundations engage communities in setting their priorities and deciding which organizations and projects to fund. We found that community engagement in foundation decision-making was limited in practice. Eleven of the 32 foundations reported some form of community engagement in funding decisions. Two of these foundations empowered communities to shape funding priorities and projects through strong forms of engagement. Many engagement practices were one way, one time, or indirect and confined to certain points in decision-making processes. These weaker practices limited community input and reinforced unequal power relations, which may undermine the legitimacy, equity, and effectiveness of conservation efforts. We suggest that foundations aim for stronger forms of community engagement and reflect on how their grant-making practices affect power relations between foundations and communities.

Participación comunitaria y dinámicas de poder en la concesión de subsidios para la filantropía de la conservación Resumen Realizamos la primera investigación empírica sobre la forma en que las fundaciones filantrópicas que trabajan con la conservación marina a nivel mundial involucran a las comunidades en las decisiones para la concesión de subsidios. Prestamos especial atención a cómo y si las prácticas de participación ciudadana refuerzan o interrumpen las dinámicas de poder existentes. Entrevistamos de forma remota a 46 individuos de 32 fundaciones de conservación marina para identificar cómo las fundaciones de conservación involucran a las comunidades para establecer sus prioridades y decidir cuáles organizaciones y proyectos financiar. Encontramos que la participación comunitaria en las decisiones de financiamiento estaba limitada en la práctica. Once de las 32 fundaciones reportaron algún tipo de participación ciudadana en sus decisiones de financiamiento. Dos de estas fundaciones empoderaron a las comunidades para que formaran las prioridades de financiamiento y a los proyectos por medio de una participación sólida. Muchas de las prácticas de participación eran de una manera, de una vez o indirectas y confinadas a ciertos puntos en el proceso de decisión. Estas prácticas más débiles limitaron la aportación comunitaria y reforzaron las relaciones desiguales de poder, lo que puede debilitar la legitimidad, equidad y eficiencia de los esfuerzos de conservación. Sugerimos que las fundaciones busquen maneras más sólidas de involucrar a la comunidad y reflexionen sobre el efecto de sus prácticas de concesión de subsidios sobre las relaciones de poder entre las fundaciones y las comunidades.

Climate change impacts on marine ecosystems.

In marine ecosystems, rising atmospheric CO2 and climate change are associated with concurrent shifts in temperature, circulation, stratification, nutrient input, oxygen content, and ocean acidification, with potentially wide-ranging biological effects. Population-level shifts are occurring because of physiological intolerance to new environments, altered dispersal patterns, and changes in species interactions. Together with local climate-driven invasion and extinction, these processes result in altered community structure and diversity, including possible emergence of novel ecosystems. Impacts are particularly striking for the poles and the tropics, because of the sensitivity of polar ecosystems to sea-ice retreat and poleward species migrations as well as the sensitivity of coral-algal symbiosis to minor increases in temperature. Midlatitude upwelling systems, like the California Current, exhibit strong linkages between climate and species distributions, phenology, and demography. Aggregated effects may modify energy and material flows as well as biogeochemical cycles, eventually impacting the overall ecosystem functioning and services upon which people and societies depend.

Intensity-ratio error compensation for triangular-pattern phase-shifting profilometry.

We present an intensity-ratio error-compensation method to decrease the measurement error caused by projector gamma nonlinearity and image defocus in triangular-pattern phase-shifting profilometry. The intensity-ratio measurement error is first determined by simulating the measurement with the triangular-pattern phase-shifting method with ideal and real captured triangular-pattern images based on the ideal and real gamma nonlinearity functions. A lookup table that stores the intensity-ratio measurement error corresponding to the measured intensity ratio is constructed and used for intensity-ratio error compensation. Experiments demonstrated that the intensity-ratio error compensation method significantly reduced the measurement error in the triangular-pattern phase-shifting method by 28.5%.

Multiple-step triangular-pattern phase shifting and the influence of number of steps and pitch on measurement accuracy.

We present new extensions of the two-step, triangular-pattern phase-shifting method for different numbers of phase-shifting steps to increase measurement accuracy and to analyze the influence of the number of phase-shifting steps and pitch of the projected triangular intensity-profile pattern on the measurement accuracy. Phase-shifting algorithms to generate the intensity ratio, essential for surface reconstruction, were developed for each measurement method. Experiments determined that higher measurement accuracy can be obtained with a greater number of phase-shifting steps and a lower value of pitch, as long as the pitch is appropriately selected to be divisible by the number of phase-shifting steps and not below an optimal value, where intensity-ratio unwrapping failure would occur.