Human conversion of land cover alters biotic communities and sets the stage for ongoing change as species interact within new environments. We studied the response of a native forest specialist, the Pacific wren (Troglodytes pacificus), to immediate and ongoing environmental changes facilitated by urbanization. We found evidence of a synergistic effect of native land cover loss followed by increased aggressive interactions with a native generalist, the Bewick’s wren (Thryomanes bewickii), resulting in the decline of Pacific wrens in urbanizing environments.

Pest control that results from the activity of naturally occurring parasitoids is an important service that could help reduce pesticide use. We analyzed parasitism in codling moth diapausing larvae from a total of 122 apple orchards in southeastern France during five consecutive years (2006–2010) in relation to the agronomic and land cover characteristics at both the local and landscape levels. Three species of hymenoptera parasitoids were observed, including two primary (Braconidae and Ichneumonidae) and one hyperparasitoid (Perilampidae) wasps.

The latest breed of very high resolution (VHR) commercial satellites opens new possibilities for cartographic and remote-sensing applications. In fact, one of the most common applications of remote-sensing images is the extraction of land-cover information for digital image base maps by means of classification techniques. The aim of the study was to compare the potential classification accuracy provided by pan-sharpened orthoimages from both GeoEye-1 and WorldView-2 (WV2) VHR satellites over urban environments.

The ability to spatially quantify changes in the landscape and create land-cover maps is one of the most powerful uses of remote sensing. Recent advances in object-based image analysis (OBIA) have also improved classification techniques for developing land-cover maps. However, when using an OBIA technique, collecting ground data to label reference units may not be straightforward, since these segments generally contain a variable number of pixels as well as a variety of pixel values, which may reflect variation in land-cover composition.

Measurements of land-cover changes suggest that such shifts may alter atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases (GHGs). However, owing to the lack of large-scale GHG data, a quantitative description of the relationships between land-cover changes and GHG concentrations does not exist on a regional scale. The Greenhouse Gases Observing Satellite (GOSAT) launched by Japan on 23 January 2009 can be of use in investigating this issue.

Increasing the accuracy of thematic maps produced through the process of image classification has been a hot topic in remote sensing. For this aim, various strategies, classifiers, improvements, and their combinations have been suggested in the literature. Ensembles that combine the prediction of individual classifiers with weights based on the estimated prediction accuracies are strategies aiming to improve the classifier performances.

Binary images from one or more spectral bands have been used in many studies for land-cover change/no-change identification in diverse climatic conditions. Determination of appropriate threshold levels for change/no-change identification is a critical factor that influences change detection result accuracy. The most used method to determine the threshold values is based on the standard deviation (SD) from the mean, assuming the amount of change (due to increase or decrease in brightness values) to be symmetrically distributed on a standard normal curve, which is not always true.

The climatic and anthropogenic control on Holocene sediment dynamics was not well constrained for the Western Mediterranean basin. The paucity of high resolution palaeoenvironmental records long hampered a detailed understanding of the human impact on erosion rates. This paper analyses Holocene sediment dynamics in the context of regional climatic conditions, land cover and human occupation based on an extended compilation of recently published high-resolution paleoenvironmental proxy data from both terrestrial and marine environments.

Swat is part of the high mountain Hindu-Kush Himalayan region of Pakistan, with diverse biophysical and socio-economic characteristics. The region is endowed with many fragile and fragmented ecosystems, and land use and land cover changes have accelerated destructive processes with irreversible effects on ecosystems. The paper aims to (1) find proximate and underlying causes of land use and land cover changes; (2) analyse the drivers of change; and (3) reflect on the role of governance and policy.

In this study, a two-step classification procedure was used for classifying urban land cover. First, a hierarchy of seven image segmentations of different scales was created for an urban scene, and preliminary classifications were performed for each of the segmentations using a classification algorithm that provides the probability that a segment belongs to a land-cover class in addition to the class assignment. A higher probability for the assigned class indicates that a segment is more likely to have been classified correctly.

Wetlands cover large areas in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. However, their extent and distribution have not been accurately mapped. While wetland forests remain largely undisturbed, increasing threats by anthropogenic activities have been observed in areas with high population density per arable or exploitable land. The scarcity of terra firma forests in some territories of the Democratic Republic of the Congo has forced local communities to develop cropping methods that allow for cultivation in periodically flooded areas.

The distribution of mosquito populations is spatially heterogeneous and influenced by factors acting at a wide range of scales. The aim of this study was to assess the role of environmental heterogeneity at the landscape level in shaping the composition of immature mosquito communities inhabiting surface water habitats. The Paraná Lower Delta (Argentina) is a temperate wetland that extends along a 1º north–south gradient and presents high landscape heterogeneity, due to the combined action of geomorphology, hydrology and human intervention.