Soil erosion by water is considered as one of the most significant forms of land degradation that affects sustained productivity of agricultural land use and water quality. It is influenced by a considerable number of factors (including climate, soil, topography, land use and types of land management), so that the information on the spatial distribution of soil erosion rate and its related effects can be effectively employed as a baseline data for land use development and water protection.

A cutover bog contaminated with seawater in New Brunswick, Canada remained barren 5 years after peat extraction operations ceased despite the proximity of natural seed sources. The aim of the study was to identify abiotic stresses impeding plant establishment and test transplanting of salt-tolerant wetland plants. The site consisted of long cambered rectangular fields that sloped down (2%) to the drainage ditches on both sides. Across this slope, zones were delineated based on moisture gradient as: Up-areas (drier), Mid-areas (moist) and Low-areas (wet).

Eastern Mediterranean ecosystems are prone to desertification when under grazing pressure. Therefore, management of grazing intensity plays a crucial role to avoid or to diminish land degradation and to sustain both livelihoods and ecosystem functioning. The dynamic land-use model LandSHIFT was applied to a case study on the country level for Jordan. The impacts of different stocking densities on the environment were assessed through a set of simulation experiments for various combinations of climate input and assumptions about the development of livestock numbers.

Inappropriate agricultural practices and conversion of marginal land to cultivation and grazing have led to severe land degradation in the Ethiopian highlands. Consequently, the government has invested substantial resources in soil and water conservation (SWC). One of such interventions was exclosure, which was aimed restoring biodiversity, biomass and soil fertility. The aim of this study was to analyze the impact of exclosures on soil fertility restoration and examine its variability across age, agro-ecology and landscape position.

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.

The analysis of evaluable information on degradation and dangerous natural processes at the agricultural lands on Asian territory of the Russian Federation (according to the data of 1991-2015) was done. The natural processes negatively affecting the soil (available land) are divided into groups according to their hazard extent: a) processes oriented to destroy the soils and lands, b) processes changing the soil cover pattern and leading to degradation of soils and decreasing their fertility

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.

The Yanqi Basin, one of the most productive agricultural areas, has a high population density in Xinjiang, Northwest China. Land use changes, mainly driven by oasis expansion, significantly impact ecosystem services and functions, but these effects are difficult to quantify. The valuation of ecosystem services is important to clarify the ecological and environmental changes caused by agriculturalization of oasis.

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.

The estimation of environmental sensibility to desertification at regional scale requires the setting up of elaboration and updating methodologies capable of handling considerable amounts of data in an integrated approach. This would allow evaluating the different stages of environmental degradation as well as the existing interactions among the singular components of the territory. These maps are also strongly related to climate conditions, land use changes and new data availability.

This work evaluated aroeira (Schinus terebinthifolius Raddi) seedling quality (diameter, height, dry weight and rootgrowth potential), cultivated in different plastic tube sizes and evaluated the seedling post-planting performance in the field cultivatedin plastic tubes and in plastic bags. It was found that plastic tube size and seedling densities, significantly, influenced the seedling quality(diameter, height, dry weight and root growth potential). The seedling post-planting performance did not show significant differencewhen cultivated in plastic tubes or in plastic bags.

The island of Sri Lanka is free from serious natural hazards such as volcanic activity and earthquakes resulting from climatic extremes, but there are impacts of many natural disasters, such as landslides, floods and droughts, the intensity and frequency of which are increasing due to human interventions. Some areas of Sri Lanka are also periodically subject to cyclones that occur due to climatic conditions and geographical locations.Land degradation denotes all natural or anthropogenic processes that diminish or impair productivity of land.