Understanding inaction in confronting ecosystem collapse: community perspectives from California&amp;#8217;s Salton Sea

Holly J Buck

doi:10.5751/es-11443-250127

Abstract

Understanding inaction in confronting ecosystem collapse: community perspectives from California&#8217;s Salton Sea

Highlights

Ecosystems are being degraded around the world at an unprecedented rate, and attempts are underway to assess which might be at risk of collapse
This paper draws on 30 semistructured interviews in the Coachella and Imperial valleys around the lake, as well as observation of community meetings and archival material, to explore the following: How do people living around the Salton Sea view its collapse, including the failure to stop it? What measures do they see as having the potential to avert its collapse? These interviews indicate a clear understanding of the imminent decline, and a variety of conjectures about why nothing has been done, attributing this to its peripherality, power inequalities, the professionalization of Salton Sea solutions, and systematic incapacity on the part of the state of California
Stakeholder understanding of ecosystem collapse In the communities surrounding the Salton Sea, many people are unaware of the Salton Sea and its ecology

Summary

Introduction

Ecosystems are being degraded around the world at an unprecedented rate, and attempts are underway to assess which might be at risk of collapse. The one ecosystem assessed by the IUCN to be collapsed, far, is the Aral Sea. The one ecosystem assessed by the IUCN to be collapsed, far, is the Aral Sea This inland sea faced water withdrawals that caused a 92% reduction in water volume within 50 years, transforming the ecosystem into one of saline lakes and desert plains, and eradicating most fish and invertebrates (Micklin 2010, Bland et al 2018). The sea lacks natural outflows and inflows, and lies at a tipping point where increased salinity will eliminate all fish (Cohen 2014), shifting it from an ecosystem where fish are the trophic level on which birds feed to one where birds feed on a dwindling number of invertebrates, with significant impacts for migratory bird populations as well as human communities that will be exposed to increasing amounts of hazardous dust from the drying shores (Bradley and Yanega 2018, Reclamation 2007, Frie et al 2019). It will triple over the 30 years, making the sea unsuitable for most forms of life, besides algae, bacteria, and viruses (SSMP 2017)

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