The Large-scale Biosphere-Atmosphere Experiment in Amazonia (LBA) is a multinational, interdisciplinary research program led by Brazil. Ecological studies in LBA focus on how tropical forest conversion, regrowth, and selective logging influence carbon storage, nutrient dynamics, trace gas fluxes, and the prospect for sustainable land use in the Amazon region. Early results from ecological studies within LBA emphasize the variability within the vast Amazon region and the profound effects that land-use and land-cover changes are having on that landscape.

Research was conducted in Selaru Island, West Southeast Moluccas Regency which hasareal 32,217 ha. The purpose of the research was to study land suitability class and directive of land use for developingfood crop and estate plant. The results indicated that Selaru Island was suitable land (S) for upland rice, corn,peanuts, mungbean, sweet potato, calladium, and coconut which had areal of 28,312 ha, 19,330 ha, 19,330 ha, 19,330ha, 19,330 ha, 28,312 ha, and 12,886 ha, respectively.

PURPOSE: The peri-urban region to the south east of Madrid contains a mixture of housing, manufacturing industry and farming, some of which disperse metals, in particular cadmium, copper, lead, and zinc, into the soil. We have mapped the concentrations of these elements and identified the major influences on their distributions. MATERIAL AND METHODS: We sampled the topsoil at 125 sites across 1,050� km² of peri-urban land to the south east of the city on two grids, one nested inside the other. At each site, we measured the current contents of the four trace elements in the soil.

Humans have fundamentally altered global patterns of biodiversity and ecosystem processes. Surprisingly, existing systems for representing these global patterns, including biome classifications, either ignore humans altogether or simplify human influence into, at most, four categories. Here, we present the first characterization of terrestrial biomes based on global patterns of sustained, direct human interaction with ecosystems. Eighteen “anthropogenic biomes” were identified through empirical analysis of global population, land use, and land cover.

Despite being recognized as a key baseline dataset for many applications, especially those relating to biogeochemical cycles, land cover products in their current form are limiting. Typically they lack the thematic detail necessary for driving the models that depend upon them. This study has demonstrated the ability to produce a highly detailed (both spatially and thematically) land cover/land use dataset over Russia – by combining existing datasets into a hybrid information system.

This article examines the transition from shifting cultivation to rubber production for a study area in northern Laos PDR using an agent-based model of land-cover change. A primary objective of the model was to assess changes in household-level inequality with the transition from shifting cultivation to rubber adoption. A secondary objective was to develop explanations for the rate of rubber adoption in the study area.

The paper presents the development of a groundwater potential index (GWPI) map of the Araniar River basin, India, through an overlay analysis of climatic, geologic, geomorphic, soil and land use/land cover features of the basin using Landsat5 Thematic Mapper (TM) data and ArcGIS9.2. A correlation analysis of the developed GWPI map was carried out with a yield map of the basin to standardize the weights assigned to each theme.

Event based rainfall-runoff simulation is very important in water resources management. In this paper, an integrated watershed model considering important hydrological processes has been presented for the event based runoff simulation. Green–Ampt–Mein–Larson model has been used for the estimation of infiltration. For runoff estimation, kinematic wave equations are solved for a channel network using finite-element method. Remotely sensed data have been used for evaluating land use/land cover data.

Local land-use planning procedures are increasingly recognized as potentially crucial to ensure off-reserve biodiversity protection. Mainstreaming systematic conservation planning maps in these decision-making procedures has been proposed as a mechanism to achieve this. However, research is lacking on how to convince officials and politicians to change their behaviour and include the maps in their decision-making. Social marketing is a tool commonly used to effect behaviour change in many sectors but its application in conservation is limited.

We studied the ecological characteristics of 45-50-yr-old subtropical dry forest stands in Puerto Rico that were growing on sites that had been deforested and used intensively for up to 128 yr. The study took place in the Guánica Commonwealth Forest. Our objective was to assess the long-term effects of previous land use on this forest--i.e., its species composition, structure, and functioning. Previous land-use types included houses, farmlands, and charcoal pits. Stands with these land uses were compared with a nearby mature forest stand.

We investigated the role of land use/land cover and agriculture practices on stream dissolved organic carbon (DOC) dynamics in the Willow Slough watershed (WSW) from 2006 to 2008. The 415km² watershed in the northern Central Valley, California is covered by 31% of native vegetation and the remaining 69% of agricultural fields (primarily alfalfa, tomatoes, and rice). Stream discharge and weekly DOC concentrations were measured at eight nested subwatersheds to estimate the DOC loads and yields (loads/area) using the USGS developed stream load estimation model, LOADEST.