BACKGROUND AND AIMS: The Karoo biomes of South Africa are major feed resources for livestock farming, yet soil nutrient depletion and degradation is a major problem. The objective of this study was to assess impacts of long-term (>75 years) grazing during spring (SPG), summer (SUG), winter (WG) and exclosure (non-grazed control) treatments on soil nutrients, penetration resistance and infiltration tests.

The present study investigates the relationship between land degradation and the evolution of the productive structure in Italy during the last 50 years (1960–2010). The objectives of the study are twofold: (i) to present and discuss an original analysis of the income–environment relationship in an economic-convergent and environmental–divergent country and (ii) to evaluate the impact of the (changing) productive structure and selected socio-demographic characteristics on the level of land vulnerability.

The premise of this paper is that the key to effective water resources management is understanding that the water cycle and land management are inextricably linked: that every land use decision is a water use decision. Gains in agricultural water productivity, therefore, will only be obtained alongside improvements in land use management. Expected increases in food demands by 2050 insist that agricultural production - and agricultural water use - must increase.

Environmental land degradation is a major impediment to the utilization of land in many arid and semi-arid regions of the World and is a major issue in the East Nile Delta (END), Egypt. Waterlogging and salt-affected soil problems have serious implications for irrigated areas leading to socio-economic and agricultural development problems.

Land degradation is a process negatively affecting environmental sustainability and requires permanent monitoring for understanding its nonlinear trajectories of change over time and space. Environmental sustainability is linked to a theoretical definition of dynamic balance among various components contributing to the ecosystem quality and functioning.

Multitemporal 1 km NOAA/AVHRR Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) maximum composite imagery was utilized in combination with rainfall, soil types, and field survey data on dominant rural activities to assess the risk of land degradation in southern Mauritania. Mauritania is one of eight continental West African Sahel countries that stretch from Chad to the northwestern Atlantic coast, and from the southern fringe of the Sahara Desert to the northern limit of the Sudanian climatic zone.

Human activities, such as land use change, cause severe land degradation in many ecosystems around the globe with potential impacts on soil processes. Restoration practices aim at reverting such impacts and reconstituting the biotic composition and functioning of an ecosystem to its initial condition. The aim of this study was to monitor soil microbial properties in degraded lands in Northeast Brazil and to compare those with land under restoration.

BACKGROUND: Ethiopia encompasses an extraordinary number of ecological zones and plant diversity. However, the diversity of plants is highly threatened due to lack of institutional capacity, population pressure, land degradation and deforestation. An adequate documentation of these plants also has not been conducted. The farmers in Ethiopia face serious and growing food insecurity caused by drought, land degradation and climate change. Thus, rural communities are dependent on underutilized wild edible plants to meet their food and nutritional needs.

Geomorphologic and hydrologic research heavily depends on digital elevation models (DEM) which are currently being prepared from digital contours. The present study examines the use and applicability of freely available global elevation data source (3 arc seconds finished Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM)) in landform characterisation, geomorphometry, river basin studies and other allied scientific applications in comparison with contour elevation data derived from the surveyed topographical sheets.

Effects of salinity and sodicity on some soil physical properties were discussed in this article. Effects of salinity and sodicity on floculation, dispersion, infiltration, hydraulic conductivity, runoff and seal formation were taken into consideration in assessment. In many studies it is indicated that high natrium concentration of soil decreases infiltration and hydraulic conductivity values and stimulates crust formation and dispersion occurrence associated with many factors such as texture, structure, Ca and Mg concentration in solution.

[Formula: see text] [ Martin A. J. Parry ] The balance between the supply and demand of the major food crops is fragile, fueling concerns for long‐term global food security. The rising population, increasing wealth and a proliferation of non‐food uses (e.g. bioenergy) has led to growing demands on agriculture, while increased production is limited by greater urbanization, and the degradation of land. Furthermore, global climate change with increasing temperatures and lower, more erratic rainfall is projected to decrease agricultural yields.

The United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) remains the only ‘Rio Convention’ that is not well served by the scientific community and lacks the equivalent of an IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) or the proposed IPBES (Intergovernmental Science–Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services).