Operational use of the ecosystem service (ES) concept in conservation and planning requires quantitative assessments based on accurate mapping of ESs. Our goal is to review spatial assessments of ESs, with an emphasis on the socioecological drivers of ESs, the spatial datasets commonly used to represent those drivers, and the methodological approaches used to spatially model ESs. We conclude that diverse strategies, integrating both spatial and aspatial data, have been used to map ES supply and human demand.

Urbanization can alter nutrient cycling. This research evaluated how urbanization affected nutrient dynamics in the subtropics. We established 17–0.04 ha plots in five different land cover types—slash pine (Pinus elliottii) plantations (n = 3), rural natural pine forests (n = 3), rural natural oak forests (n = 4), urban pine forests (n = 3) and urban oak forests (n = 4) in the Florida panhandle, a subtropical region that has experienced rapid urbanization.

Land cover composition is a valuable indicator of the ecological performance of a city. Single-family housing areas constitute a substantial part of most cities and may as such play an important role for sustainable urban development. From aerial photos we performed detailed GIS-based mapping of land cover in three detached single-family housing areas in Denmark of different urban form but comparable housing densities (ranging from 10.0 to 11.3 houses per hectare). The findings were subjected to statistical analysis and landscape metrics.

Recently, extreme meteorological events have occurred frequently owing to climate change and its influence. Impacts of concentrated precipitation events include the damage caused by landslides. Many areas in Gangwondo (Korea) are located at high elevation and have large elevation differences; these areas are thus at high risk of landslides. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the landslide hazard of the province using representative concentration pathways (RCP) scenarios 4.5 and 8.5 and to compare results.

As urbanization can involve multiple alterations to the soil environment, it is uncertain how urbanization effects soil nitrogen cycling.

System thinking and integrated research are widely applied approaches in environmental management, often facilitating the organization of information from different levels and sources. They are here applied to support the review of (1) political and management instruments and (2) elements that characterize the Bahia de Cádiz Nature Park (Spain). The latter objective is sustained by the DPSIR (Driver-Pressure-State-Impact-Response) framework. A first DPSI conceptual map offers a broader view of the park capturing a range of elements that act at global, national and regional levels.

CONTEXT: Integrative mitigation and adaptation strategies are needed to counter climate change. Indicators can be valuable that focus on the specific relevance of cities’ socioeconomic and spatial properties. While previous analyses have identified socioeconomic influences on urban greenhouse gas emissions, information about the role of spatial urban structures and land use and land cover patterns is sparse. OBJECTIVE: This study advances the use of spatial metrics for analyzing the linkages between the spatial properties of a city and its greenhouse gas emissions.

We applied an intermediate disturbance-complexity approach to the land-use change of cultural landscapes in the island of Mallorca from c. 1850 to the present, which accounts for the joint behaviour of human appropriation of photosynthetic capacity used as a measure of disturbance, and a selection of land metrics at different spatial scales that account for ecological functionality as a proxy of biodiversity. We also delved deeper into local land-use changes in order to identify the main socioeconomic drivers and ruling agencies at stake.

Soil microorganisms regulate fundamental biochemical processes in plant litter decomposition and soil organic matter (SOM) transformations. Understanding how microbial communities respond to changes in vegetation is critical for improving predictions of how land‐cover change affects belowground carbon storage and nutrient availability.

The Hydrological Simulation Program-Fortran (HSPF), which is a hydrological and water-quality computer model that was developed by the United States Environmental Protection Agency, was employed to simulate runoff and nutrient export from a typical small watershed in a hilly eastern monsoon region of China. First, a parameter sensitivity analysis was performed to assess how changes in the model parameters affect runoff and nutrient export. Next, the model was calibrated and validated using measured runoff and nutrient concentration data.

The terrestrial export of dissolved organic nitrogen (DON) is associated with climate, geography and land use, and thus is influenced by geo-climatic variability, human interference, the farmland and woodland in soil, and hydrological connection levels to rivers. A data-set was presented including two catchments covering the major land use types and different hydrological connection levels to rivers within Eastern China: Middle Yangtze (river-isolated lakes) and Huai River (non-river-connected lakes).

The coyote (Canis latrans) has dramatically expanded its range to include the cities and suburbs of the western US and those of the Eastern Seaboard. Highly adaptable, this newcomer’s success causes conflicts with residents, necessitating research to understand the distribution of coyotes in urban landscapes. Citizen science can be a powerful approach toward this aim.