The Huajiang and Hongfenghu demonstration areas represent typical karst landforms and rocky desertification landscapes in Guizhou, China. These were selected for a comparison of rocky desertification and land use cover. Based mainly on 5� m resolution Spot 5, remote sensing images, topographic maps (1:10,000) and land use maps, the intensity and extent of rocky desertification, and slope characteristics of the two areas were interpreted. Spatial overlay analysis was used to compare the land use/land cover (LULC) and rocky desertification within each.

The aquatic vegetation of Číčov Lake in the Danube floodplain, which is listed in the Ramsar Convention, was investigated to address three main questions: (1) how have landscape composition and the structures of the lake and its buffer zone changed from the mid-20th century; (2) how have species richness and the abundance of the aquatic macrophyte assemblage in this lake ecosystem changed over the last 34 years; and (3) which landscape metrics can best explain these temporal changes for floating-leaved macrophytes?

BACKGROUND: Francisella tularensis, the causative agent of tularemia, is a zoonotic agent that remains across much of the northern hemisphere, where it exists in enzootic cycles. In Ukraine, tularemia has a long history that suggests a need for sustained surveillance in natural foci. To better characterize the host-vector diversity and spatial distribution of tularemia, we analyzed historical data from field collections carried out from 1941 to 2008. FINDINGS: We analyzed the spatial-temporal distribution of bacterial isolates collected from field samples.

Riparian vegetation plays a crucial role on affecting the floodplain hydraulic roughness, which in turn significantly influences the dynamics of flood waves. This paper explores the potential accuracies of retrieving vegetation hydrodynamic parameters through satellite multispectral data.

Questions: Can the climatic adaptive capacity of natural ecosystems be estimated with using landscape indicators based on vegetation or land-cover data? Can species distribution model (SDM) outputs be enhanced using such indicators? What are the data requirements and optimal parameter values of potential indicators? Location: Indicator framework: unspecified. Case study: Kiskunság, Hungary. Methods: (1) We define a general framework for handling adaptation in ecological climate change impact assessments based on IPCC definitions.

Landscapes in the humid tropics are undergoing a continuous change in land use. Deforestation is still taking its toll on forested areas, but at the same time more and more secondary forests emerge where formerly agricultural lands and pastures are being abandoned. Regarding soil hydrology, the extent to which secondary succession can recover soil hydrological properties disturbed by antecedent deforestation and pasture use is yet poorly understood.

AIM: Our aim was to determine the role of environmental variables in explaining occurrence and abundance patterns of bumblebee (Bombus) species in a mountain region. We also used a historical dataset to compare historical and recent habitat suitability predictions for forecasting variations in species' responses to regional climate warming. LOCATION: The Cantabrian Range (Iberian Peninsula, south‐western Europe).

Recently, the science and policy agenda on biodiversity moved to include ecosystem services assessments and it is recognised that for determining the effectiveness and progress of policy frameworks monitoring is crucial. Within European monitoring schemes, data is collected following different sampling protocols for a range of biodiversity or context related aspects; from EU-wide general land cover mapping to red list species within Annex I habitats.

Nabis pseudoferus Remane and N. palifer Seidenstucker are predators that feed on a wide range of insect pests. To reveal their current potential habitats, the effects of climate change and their future distribution in various areas of Iran we used maximum entropy modeling (Maxent). To produce the models, samples were collected from 218 areas of Iran resulting in discovering 271 points where the nabids were found. The accuracy and performance of distribution models were also evaluated by the area under receiver operating characteristic curve and jack‐knife analysis.

Ecosystem services, i.e., services provided to humans from ecological systems have become a key issue of this century in resource management, conservation planning, and environmental decision analysis. Mapping and quantifying ecosystem services have become strategic national interests for integrating ecology with economics to help understand the effects of human policies and actions and their subsequent impacts on both ecosystem function and human well-being.

The spatial structure, functionality and dynamics of forest landscapes in peninsular Spain and the Balearic Islands were compared over the last five decades. Two particular features were studied in the sample sites: forest connectivity for wildlife and areas burnt by wildfires. 191 Squares, each 4km×4km, were selected from the SISPARES (the monitoring framework designed to evaluate the trends in the structure of Spanish rural landscapes) environmental strata.

This study investigates four decades of socio-economic and environmental change in a shifting cultivation landscape in the northern uplands of Laos. Historical changes in land cover and land use were analyzed using a chronological series of remote sensing data. Impacts of landscape change on local livelihoods were investigated in seven villages through interviews with various stakeholders.