AIM: Deforestation and climate change are two of the most serious threats to tropical birds. Here, we combine fine‐scale climatic and dynamic land cover models to forecast species vulnerability in rain forest habitats. LOCATION: Sulawesi, Indonesia. METHODS: We sampled bird communities on four mountains across three seasons in Lore Lindu National Park, Sulawesi, Indonesia (a globally important hotspot of avian endemism), to characterize relationships between elevation and abundance. Deforestation from 2000 to 2010 was quantified, and predictors of deforestation were identified.

Protected areas, a corestone of biodiversity conservation, provide a vast array of ecosystem services to support livelihoods of people. However, protected areas, especially freshwater, are under threat with overexploitation of resources changing the land covers and degrading their capacity to supply services. Information on land cover changes and its implications on ecosystems, its services and people, especially in developing countries at a local scale, is largely absent.

Channel changes are the consequence of changes in sediment yield from the slopes and in the connectivity between slopes and channels because of distinct land use and climate impacts. In this study, we investigated the characteristics and evolution of a short reach in the headwater of the Ijuez River, central–southern Pyrenees. Assessment of a series of sedimentary and geomorphic structures confirmed major changes to the valley bottom, mainly related to changes in the intensity of human activity.

A geoinformatics-based land suitability assessment approach was used to examine the prospects for precision farming in the Savanna River basin in Nigeria. The procedure involved the overlay analysis of land use, land cover characteristics interpreted on Landsat Thematic Mapper (TM) imagery and physico-chemical soil properties and nutrient attributes in line with FAO suitability guidelines and models. The empirical analysis revealed areas of high, moderate and marginal suitability for the cultivation of maize, yam, cassava and oil palm in the basin.

During the 1990's community-based forest management gained momentum in Nepal. This study systematically evaluates the impacts that this had on land cover change and other associated aspects during the period 1990–2010 using repeat photography and satellite imagery in combination with interviews with community members.

A cross-sectional serological study was carried out to screen the sheep and goat population of Thessaly, Greece for evidence of infection with Toxoplasma, Toxocara, Leishmania, and Echinococcus and to determine the risk factors related to herd characteristics, herd management practices, farmer status, and the bioclimatic variables associated with these zoonotic parasitic infections. A total of 540 sheep and goat serum samples were examined. The seroprevalence of infection in all examined animals was 24.5% for Toxoplasma, 32% for Toxocara, 0% for Leishmania and 85.9% for Echinococcus.

The Okavango catchment in southern Africa is subject to environmental as well as socio‐economic transformation processes such as population growth and climate change. The degradation of soil and vegetation by deforestation and overgrazing is one of the downsides of this development, reducing the capacity of the land to provide ecosystem functions and services. In this study, climate simulations are brought together with secondary socioeconomic, pedologic and remote‐sensing data in a GIS‐based assessment of the factors commonly associated with land degradation risk.

Insular Southeast Asia experienced the highest level of deforestation among all humid tropical regions of the world during the 1990s. Owing to the exceptionally high biodiversity in Southeast Asian forest ecosystems and the immense amount of carbon stored in forested peatlands, deforestation in this region has the potential to cause serious global consequences. In this study, we analysed deforestation rates in insular Southeast Asia between 2000 and 2010 utilizing a pair of 250 m spatial resolution land cover maps produced with regional methodology and classification scheme.

The impacts of human activities on the natural environment are becoming more and more pronounced. One of the most obvious areas of concern is land use and land cover change. As a result, projects such as Urbanization and Global Environmental Change (UGEC) launched by the International Human Dimension Programme on Global Environmental Change (IHDP) and the Global Land Project (GLP) jointly proposed by IHDP and IGBP were developed to study the interactions between human activities, land systems, and natural environmental change.

1. A spatially-extensive data set of stream macroinvertebrate communities from 49 northern New Zealand sites sampled over a 10-year period was analysed to assess relationships between the environment (catchment land-cover, landscape position and regional-scale weather patterns), and (i) community persistence and stability based on the constancy of species occurrence (presence-absence) and abundance (per cent composition), respectively and (ii) the temporal variability of various community condition metrics. 2.

National Agriculture Imagery Program (NAIP) orthophotography is a potentially useful data source for land cover classification in the United States due to its nationwide and generally cloud-free coverage, low cost to the public, frequent update interval, and high spatial resolution. Nevertheless, there are challenges when working with NAIP imagery, especially regarding varying viewing geometry, radiometric normalization, and calibration.

The objective of this study was to quantify forest cover changes in three watersheds (Gilgel Abbay (1,646� km²), Birr (980� km²), and Upper-Didesa (1,980� km²) of the Blue Nile Basin between 1957 and 2001. Four land cover maps were produced for each watershed for 1957/1958, 1975, 1986, and 2000/2001. Nine different types of land cover were identified, five of which were forest cover classes. Between 1957 and 2001, the total forest cover increased in Gilgel Abbay (from 10 to 22� % cover) and decreased in Birr (from 29 to 22� % cover) as well as in Upper-Didesa (from 89 to 45� % cover).