The field of seascape genetics aims to evaluate the effects of environmental features on spatial genetic patterns of marine organisms. Although many methods of genetic analysis and inference appropriate to “marine landscapes” derive from terrestrial landscape genetics, aspects of marine living introduce special challenges for assessing spatial genetic variation. For instance, marine organisms are often highly dispersive, so that genetic patterns can be subtle, and the temporal variability of the marine environment makes these patterns difficult to characterise. Tools and techniques from oceanography can help describe the highly connected and dynamic nature of the marine environment. In particular, models incorporating physical oceanography and species attributes in realistic simulations (e.g. biophysical models) can help us understand this complex process and formulate spatially explicit biologically-informed predictions of gene flow. Thus, researchers embarking on a seascape genetic study need a solid understanding of marine organisms and spatial genetics perhaps combined with knowledge of physical oceanography and ecological modeling. Although some researchers may acquire proficiency in all of these areas, seascape genetic studies incorporating biophysical modeling are likely to bring together groups of investigators with complementary expertise. This preliminary guide is intended to be a starting point for a reader new to either seascape genetics or biophysical models.

Seascape genetics is the study of how spatially variable structural and environmental features influence genetic patterns of marine organisms. Seascape genetics is conceptually linked to landscape genetics and this likeness frequently allows investigators to use similar theoretical and analytical methods for both seascape genetics and landscape genetics. But, the physical and environmental attributes of the ocean and biological attributes of organisms that live in the sea, especially the large spatial scales of seascape features and the high dispersal ability of many marine organisms, differ from those of terrestrial organisms that have typified landscape genetic studies. This paper reviews notable papers in the emerging field of seascape genetics, highlighting pervasive themes and biological attributes of species and seascape features that affect spatial genetic patterns in the sea. Similarities to, and differences from, (terrestrial) landscape genetics are discussed, and future directions are recommended.

The paper argues that development, understood as the set of economic, social, cultural and political processes oriented towards improving people’s lives, is a normative project which rests on ethical foundations. Working in international development requires therefore an ethical reflection. The paper discusses development ethics as an inter-disciplinary field of study. It describes one leading contemporary ethical perspective in development studies, the capability approach, and examines how it can be used to analyse concrete cases of development. It argues that the capability approach presents aspects of different ethical frameworks, each of which provides a distinctive angle to the ethical analysis of development processes. The paper concludes with analysing a development case in Peru using the capability approach.

There has been a recent increase of interest within the academic literature on the justice issues posed by climate change and the human responses to its present and forecasted effects. In two parts (here and in a previous article), we review and synthesize the recent literature by asking what climate justice concerns have been identified within three related realms: (i) the characterization of climate change itself and the assignment of responsibility for that change; (ii) the differential or uneven impacts of climate change; and (iii) the actions taken to address the problems associated with climate change, including both mitigation and adaptation. Here in Part 2, we focus on the justice concerns of climate action, examining the scholarship on climate change mitigation mechanisms formulated at the international level (i.e., REDD+, CDM) and climate change adaptation projects and finance. We argue that geographers are well-positioned to conduct (and already well engaged in) research on the local climate justice paradoxes emerging from the currently uncritical focus of climate action policy on justice at the level of the national state.

There has been a recent increase of interest within the academic literature on the justice issues posed by climate change and the human responses to its present and forecasted effects. This literature is partially shaped by debates from environmental justice scholarship, but also has roots in various subfields of geography. In two parts (here and in a subsequent article), we review and synthesize the recent literature by asking what climate justice concerns have been identified within three related realms: (i) the characterization of climate change itself and the assignment of responsibility for that change; (ii) the differential or uneven impacts of climate change; and (iii) the actions taken to address the problems associated with climate change, including mitigation and adaptation. Here, in Part 1, we provide a basic outline of justice concepts; we address the characterization of climate change and the associated discursive framings; and we discuss the uneven impacts of climate change with a focus on the conceptualization of vulnerability. We suggest that the field of geography has much to offer to the debate on climate justice because of its unique understandings of the human-environment relationship based on a longstanding engagement with the spatiality and scale of environmental change, the corresponding human impacts, and the conceptual inseparability of nature and society. We identify, across Part 1 and Part 2, the need for a more comprehensive theory of justice to inform climate justice considerations – one that pays more attention to linked procedural, recognition, and scalar concerns.