Capsule The bioclimatic zone and habitat type within which birds winter are the most important determinants of population trends.Aims To investigate whether regional factors on wintering grounds, phenological mismatch, or habitat on breeding or wintering grounds show relationships with population changes of Afro-Palaearctic migrant birds.Methods We modelled breeding bird survey trends of 26 species of Afro-Palaearctic migrant birds that breed in Britain, and assessed the most important variables.

The nation's family forest lands can be an important contributor to carbon sequestration efforts. Yet very little is known about how family forest landowners view programs that enable them to sell carbon credits generated from the growth of their forest and the compensation that would be required to encourage a meaningful level of participation. To address this information gap, we conducted a study to identify and quantify family forest landowner interest in participating in a voluntary carbon market trading program in the Lake States, USA.

Purpose: Why do farmers not take better care of their soils? This article aims to give insight into how farmers look at soil quality management. Design/methodology/approach: It analyses diverse land management practices and visions on soils and soil quality of ten agroecological and 14 conventional smallholder farmers in Araponga, Minas Gerais, Brazil. As agroecological farming (that is, managing soils with minimum use of external inputs) requires more complex knowledge, it is assumed that agroecological farmers would be more knowledgeable on soils compared to conventional farmers.

We used land‐cover maps and active fire detection based on satellite imagery to evaluate the rates and spatial distribution of peatland deforestation in Southeast Asia from 1990 to 2010. Over this time period, the proportion of forest cover in the peatlands of Peninsular Malaysia, Sumatra, and Borneo fell from 77% to 36%. After two decades of extensive deforestation (31 000 km²; 4.9% yr⁻¹) strongly associated with fire activity, Sumatra has been left with just 28% of its historical forested peatlands.

A better understanding of the spatial linkage between the distribution of land vulnerable to degradation and long-term population growth may contribute to sustainable land management of dry regions. Such a nexus has received increasing attention among politicians and local stakeholders, as its complex outcomes depend on mutual interactions between socioeconomic and biophysical factors. This is particularly true in southern Europe, where important processes of land degradation (LD) have been observed in recent years.

For the past 160 years, the prior appropriation system of the Western United States has adapted to changing water uses and shifting societal priorities. This paper argues that prior appropriation creates sufficient certainty to allow for economic development and facilitate water markets, yet is flexible enough to adapt to changing priorities and water supplies. Because it possesses both flexibility and certainty, it is a strong enough framework for the Western United States to weather the possible effects of climate change on water supply.

An attempt is made here to shed light on how water legislation could address the climate change challenge. Although climate change legislation provides a framework for the integration of climate change issues into government policies on several topics, it does not cover water resources as such. Therefore, water legislation must provide for such integration. The challenge is to find a balance between well-defined water rights, duties and administrative functions on the one hand and, on the other, the flexibility required to respond to the vagaries of a changing climate.

Much concern has been raised about how multifactor global change has affected food security and carbon sequestration capacity in China.

This study uses a combination of Landsat series data (Multispectral Scanner or MSS, Thematic Mapper or TM and Enhanced Thematic Mapper or ETM+) to map land-use and land-cover change (LULCC) from 1975 to 2001. It extends the land change record to 2008 using Chinese–Brazil Earth Resources Satellite (CBERS)-2 and CBERS-2B data on a multi-scene level. It also establishes a methodology to correct for systematic distortion inherent in CBERS imagery without the loss of information present in Landsat 7 ETM+ imagery post-2003.

In light of impending water and arable land shortages, population growth and climate change, it is more important than ever to examine how forest tree domestication can be accelerated to sustainably meet future demands for wood, biomass, paper, fuel and biomaterials. Because of long breeding cycles, tree domestication cannot be rapidly achieved through traditional genetic improvement methods alone. Integrating modern genetic and genomic techniques with conventional breeding will expedite tree domestication.

Drainage of acid sulphate soils (ASS) increases oxidation, leading to extensive leaching of acidity and metals to rivers (Al, Cd, Cr, Fe, Ni and Zn). This is often apparent during high runoff periods in spring and autumn after long dry periods with low groundwater levels and associated ASS oxidation. Regression models were used to study changes in these water quality variables according to various discharge scenarios. The knowledge of seasonal patterns of water quality variables in future is important for planning land use of the catchments in relation to WFD of European Union.

Ranching generally causes a progressive deforestation. Nevertheless in Mediterranean countries trees are still present in many pastoral systems, here referred to as silvopastoral systems (SPs). Trees provide products as fruits as human food, fruits or leaves as fodder, wood and firewood, environmental services like patches of soil fertility and shelter for animals, and environmental goods such as carbon sequestration, water yield and quality and reinforced biodiversity.