We attempt to describe and explain the peculiarly restricted distribution of the globally threatened Ethiopian Bush-crow Zavattariornis stresemanni. At a regional scale, models containing only correlates of land cover suggested a far wider distribution of suitable habitat in north-east Africa than the area actually occupied. However, models including only climate variables predicted the known distribution almost perfectly, and suggested that the species’ area of occupancy is delimited by a pocket of climate that is cooler, dryer and more seasonal than surrounding areas.

Understanding changes in landscape productivity patterns is critical for management of ecosystems, characterising biodiversity, and monitoring climate change. Vegetation productivity, a key functional component of terrestrial ecosystems, can be readily monitored using remote sensing and can also be combined with other spatial information, such as land cover and topography, to provide a more comprehensive understanding, at the landscape scale, of ecosystem dynamics.

The aim of this paper is to outline current foundations for sustainable landscape management in the Vilhelmina Model Forest, northwest Sweden. A case study revealed that the remaining patches of undisturbed or less disturbed boreal forest ecosystems comprise multiple values and, thus, constitute the basis for landscape planning. By identifying these patches, it is also possible to construct a spatial planning infrastructure for implementing sustainable management and land use.

Sedge dominated peatlands do not rehabilitate well after being drained for rangelands and specific approaches are required in order to restore these sites. Restoration by blocking drainage canals aims to recover peatland functions, principally by raising the water table. Field surveys in Ruoergai, China identified the status of peatland degradation and satellite image analysis concluded that most of Ruoergai's peatlands are degraded mainly due to drainage and overgrazing.

Invasive species are especially problematic when introduced into ecosystems with native congeners. The extent to which niches overlap in space determines whether the introduced species threatens the native one or the native species can escape competition or the effect of control. We compared the spatial distribution in relation to landscape and land-use/ land-cover variables of introduced and native Phragmites australis (common reed) in a landscape of protected freshwater wetlands in Quebec, Canada. Results showed that the wetlands still serve as refuges for native P. australis.

A multi-scale study has been undertaken to explore the relationships between climate, water resources, land use and diffuse pollution in order to assess the significance of projected future changes in climate and the uncertainty inherent in these projections. Two climate simulations from the GCM–RCM Perturbed Physics Ensemble developed by the UK Met Office Hadley Centre, broadly representing the extremes of future climate simulations, were downscaled and applied to a grid-based dynamic national water balance and nitrate model for Scotland.

Expected achievement of land consolidation depends on the priority given to the protection of water, soil and air quality which are the elements of rural environmental balance. Today, many of researches have carried out to determine the effects of land consolidation on the local hydrology and agricultural productivity.

The acceleration of soil erosion by water in most regions of the world in response to the anthropogenic modification of landscapes is a serious threat to natural ecosystem functionalities because of the loss of invaluable constituents such as soil particles and organic carbon (OC). While soil OC erosion is likely to be a major component of the global C cycle, water erosion-induced CO₂ emissions remain uncertain. In this study, our main objective was to compare the release of CO₂ from eroded topsoils and from the sediments exported by diffuse erosion during an entire rainy season.

Climate change mitigation mechanisms related to reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD) may provide significant opportunities for re-arranging political networks and overcome forest governance problems, of which land tenure is the main constraint for REDD and reforestation projects in the Amazon. We present a case study of a pilot REDD project associated with reforestation and payment for environmental services in Apuí, southern Amazonas.

In Cameroon and elsewhere in the Congo Basin, the majority of rural households and a large proportion of urban households depend on plant and animal products from the forests to meet their nutritional, energy, cultural and medicinal needs. This paper explores the likely impacts of climate-induced changes on the provisioning of forest ecosystem goods and services and its effect on the economic and social well-being of the society, including the national economy and the livelihoods of forest-dependent people.

The present study investigates the potential of pre-treatment of olive mill wastewaters (OMW) at laboratory and mill scale and their subsequent use in agriculture to satisfy irrigation and fertilisation needs for widely cultivated crops. The ultimate objective of this approach is the development of a feasible decentralized treatment scheme in parts of the Mediterranean region where most olive mills are small family businesses, soils have low organic matter and the risk of desertification is high.

The productivity of arid environments and the reproductive success of vertebrates in these systems, are typically thought to be primarily influenced by rainfall patterns. Data from our 15 year study at an Australian arid zone site reveals asynchronous demographic responses to rainfall and other climatic variables among different lizard species.