Soils are the biggest carbon store in the world (1500Gt, e.g. 1.5×10²¹g). The European Commission indicates the accounting of soil organic carbon (SOC) variations in space and time as the first step in the strategy for soil protection. It is indeed necessary in evaluating the risk of soil organic matter decline and soil biodiversity decline, and when evaluating the role played by soils in global CO₂ accounting. Previous maps of SOC variations in Italy did not consider the direct effect of climate. There is a marked inter-dependence between SOC and climate.

It is widely accepted that natural resources should only be sustainably exploited and utilized to effectively preserve our planet for future generations. To better manage the natural resources, and to better understand the closely linked Earth systems, the concept of Digital Earth has been strongly promoted since US Vice President Al Gore's speech in 1998. One core element of Digital Earth is the use and integration of remote sensing data.

Human impacts have been severe on Icelandic soils and vegetation. In order to assess human impact on soils soil quality, soil organic C (SOC), soil bulk density (BD), soil moisture content (SMC), soil mass, and SOC sequestration were measured from two Histosol cores in West Iceland. The cores cover a period from around 665 BC to present, capturing the initial human settlement of Iceland in AD 871. Tephrochronology allowed for a reliable correlation and comparison between the two cores.

It is urgent in science and society to address climate change and other sustainability challenges such as biodiversity loss, deforestation, depletion of marine fish stocks, global ill-health, land degradation, land use change and water scarcity. Sustainability science (SS) is an attempt to bridge the natural and social sciences for seeking creative solutions to these complex challenges. In this article, we propose a research agenda that advances the methodological and theoretical understanding of what SS can be, how it can be pursued and what it can contribute.

Tajikistan, with 93% of its surface area taken up by mountains and 65% of its labor forceemployed in agriculture, is judged to be highly vulnerable to risks, including climate changerisks and food insecurity risks. The article examines a set of land use policies and practices thatcan be used to mitigate the vulnerability of Tajikistan’s large rural population, primarily byincreasing family incomes. Empirical evidence from Tajikistan and other CIS countries suggeststhat families with more land and higher commercialization earn higher incomes and achievehigher well-being.

Humans have been changing the natural fire regimes in most Brazilian vegetation types for over 4000 years. Natural lightning fires can easily happen in savannas and grasslands, but they are rare in the moist rainforests. Today, anthropogenic fires are frequent in both the fire-adapted cerrado (Brazilian savanna) and the fire-sensitive rainforest. In this paper, I compare two very different biomes concerning their susceptibilities and responses to fire: the Amazon rainforest and the cerrado.

Natural and anthropogenic processes and products of mining affect quality of life in highly mineralised areas, such as the derelict Enyigba-Abakaliki agriculture-oriented lead–zinc mining area, which has degradation of land and groundwater resources. This study establishes that Nigeria and other developing nations should maximise the benefits and mitigate the negative impacts of adverse natural and mining activities so as to achieve poverty alleviation.

Wild bees provide vital pollination services for many native and agricultural plant species, yet the landscape conditions needed to support wild bee populations are not well understood or appreciated. We assessed the influence of landscape composition on bee abundance and species richness in apple (Malm spp.) orchards of northeastern Wisconsin during the spring flowering period. A diverse community of bee species occurs in these apple orchards, dominated by wild bees in the families Andrenidae and Halictidae and the honey bee, Apis mellifera L.

In sub-Saharan Africa, natural vegetation is being transformed into agricultural lands at a fast rate, endangering ecosystem services and increasing soil-loss potential, which may trigger land degradation. For the Taita Hills study area in Kenya, multi-temporal land-cover models of 1987, 1999 and 2003, derived from Satellite Pour l'Observation de la Terre (SPOT) imagery using a multi-scale segmentation/object relationship modelling (MSS/ORM) methodology and a rainfall layer, a digital elevation model (DEM) and a digital soil map were applied to model potential soil loss.

Environmental targets are often used in planning for sustainable agricultural landscapes but their impacts are rarely known. In this paper we introduce landscape futures analysis as a method which combines linear programming optimisation with scenario analysis in quantifying the environmental, economic, and social impacts associated with achieving environmental targets, on a landscape scale. We applied the technique in the Lower Murray in southern Australia.

High nutrient loads are a widespread problem for many rivers and river catchments and cause damage to various ecological assets. Negative effects can be mitigated by changes in land management such as land use changes and/or implementation of intervention measures such as – amongst others – the construction of artificial wetlands and water treatment plants.

A dried soil layer (DSL) formed in the soil profile is a typical indication of soil drought caused by climate change and/or poor land management. The responses of a soil to drought conditions in water-limited systems and the impacts of plant characteristics on these processes are seldom known due to the lack of comparative data on soil water content (SWC) in the soil profile. The occurrence of DSLs can interfere in the water cycle in soil–plant–atmosphere systems by preventing water interchanges between upper soil layers and groundwater.