Dissolved organic carbon (DOC) concentrations in upland surface waters in many northern hemisphere industrialised regions are at their highest in living memory, provoking debate over their “naturalness”. Because of the implications for drinking water treatment and supply there is increasing interest in the potential for mitigation through local land management, and for forecasting the likely impact of environmental change. However, the dominant controls on DOC production remain unresolved, hindering the establishment of appropriate reference levels for specific locations.

Land use changes are known to significantly affect the soil C balance by altering both C inputs and losses. Since the late 1990s, a large area of the Loess Plateau has undergone intensive land use changes during several ecological restoration projects to control soil erosion and combat land degradation, especially in the Grain for Green project. By using remote sensing techniques and the Yasso07 model, we simulated the dynamics of soil organic carbon (SOC) stocks in the Yangjuangou catchment of the Loess Plateau.

Understanding species distributions and population responses to environmental parameters is important for addressing landscape-level species conservation. We assessed American black bear (Ursus americanus) resource selection based on spatial distribution of a recolonizing population in Mississippi, USA. Given the philopatric behavior of female bears and the risk-disturbance hypothesis, we predicted that bears recolonizing Mississippi would occupy areas close to their source population but avoid areas near roads and with greater human population density.