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Effects of land cover conversion on soil properties and soil microbial activity in an alpine meadow on the Tibetan Plateau

Journal Articles & Books
december, 2015
China

Land cover conversion intensively occurred in the Tibetan Plateau of China during the past decades. However, responses of soil properties and soil microbial activities to land cover conversion under different land cover types have not been fully understood. The objective was to assess the effects of land cover conversion on soil C and N stocks and soil microbial properties of topsoil of an alpine meadow in the Tibetan Plateau. Soil cores of surface soil (0–20 cm) were collected from three adjacent land cover types: native alpine meadow, artificial grassland and mound-shaped denuded land.

Anticipated climate and land‐cover changes reveal refuge areas for Borneo's orang‐utans

Journal Articles & Books
december, 2015

Habitat loss and climate change pose a double jeopardy for many threatened taxa, making the identification of optimal habitat for the future a conservation priority. Using a case study of the endangered Bornean orang‐utan, we identify environmental refuges by integrating bioclimatic models with projected deforestation and oil‐palm agriculture suitability from the 1950s to 2080s. We coupled a maximum entropy algorithm with information on habitat needs to predict suitable habitat for the present day and 1950s.

Coupling of South American Soybean and Cattle Production Frontiers: New Challenges for Conservation Policy and Land Change Science

Journal Articles & Books
december, 2015
South America

Different drivers and places of land use change in South America have often been studied in isolation. Evidence suggests, however, that in many instances, both places and drivers are becoming increasingly interconnected. The growing diversification and internationalization of agricultural commodity chains is creating new linkages across production frontiers and sectors that have important implications for conservation.

Termite diversity and complexity in Vietnamese agroecosystems along a gradient of increasing disturbance

Journal Articles & Books
december, 2015
Vietnam

The rapid development of the Vietnamese coffee industry caused widespread deforestation, land degradation, desertification, and soil and water degradation in the late 1990s. However, little is known about the impact of intensification of coffee farming on arthropod diversity in Vietnamese coffee agroecosystems.

Synergistic effects of spring temperatures and land cover on nest survival of urban birds

Journal Articles & Books
december, 2015
United States of America

Climate change has the potential to influence avian population dynamics through nest-fate sensitivity to temperatures during the breeding season. Nest fate also varies across spatially heterogeneous habitat, and changing land uses may independently introduce stressors on reproductive outcome. Identifying the individual and synergistic effects of climate change and land-use change is necessary for understanding the impact of global change on native species. We studied the nest fate of 3 sympatric species breeding in urban habitat in an arid region of the western United States.

Methods and applications for ecological vulnerability evaluation in a hyper-arid oasis: a case study of the Turpan Oasis, China

Journal Articles & Books
december, 2015
China

The Turpan Oasis is a typical fragile environment that lies in an arid region of eastern Xinjiang and is affected by natural conditions and human activities. The severity of the land degradation and desertification in this area is increasing; therefore, ecological vulnerability evaluations are important for environmental management of the region. In this study, theories and methods of evaluating ecological vulnerability and the typical characteristics of ecological vulnerability were summarized.

Combining asset- and species-led alien plant management priorities in the world’s most intact Mediterranean-climate landscape

Journal Articles & Books
december, 2015
Australia

Minimising the spread and impact of alien plants is a crucial component of land management for biodiversity conservation. Alien plant management typically focuses on either controlling selected alien species (‘species-led’), or on minimizing invasions within selected biodiversity or cultural assets (‘asset-led’). Here, we compare and combine species- and asset-led approaches to prioritise alien plant management activities in the world’s largest Mediterranean-climate woodland, located in south-western Australia.

Developing robust field survey protocols in landscape ecology: a case study on birds, plants and butterflies

Journal Articles & Books
december, 2015

Sustainable land management requires scientists to provide reliable data on diversity distribution patterns. Resource restrictions limit the affordable sampling effort, both with respect to number of survey sites and amount of effort per site. We compared different levels of survey effort in a case study in Central Romania, varying the number of repeats per site and number of survey sites. Target taxa were plants, birds and butterflies. For plants, we surveyed three 10 m²plots and ten plots of 1 m²at each site.

Best management practices to face degraded territories occupied by Cistus ladanifer shrublands – Portugal case study

Journal Articles & Books
december, 2015
Portugal

Land degradation in the Mediterranean Basin is clearly connected to the resilience of perturbed ecosystems, contributing to land abandonment, recurrent fires and biodiversity loss, with the prevalence of secondary shrublands that tend to occupy large areas. This is the case of Cistus ladanifer shrublands, one of the most widespread shrub communities in the Iberian Peninsula and a poor, uniform and resilient system. Here, we analyse the impact of several management practices in the recovery of territories largely occupied by this shrubland.

Reflectance spectroscopic approach for estimation of soil properties in hot arid western Rajasthan, India

Journal Articles & Books
december, 2015
India

Periodic and regular assessment of land degradation in arid regions of the world is essential for implementing suitable corrective measures in time. Assessment of soil properties based on soil sampling from hot arid tracts followed by laboratory analysis is a formidable task. Reflectance spectroscopy appears to be an emerging technology for the assessment of soils in extreme environment.

Rangeland ecosystem services: shifting focus from supply to reconciling supply and demand

Journal Articles & Books
december, 2015

Ecosystem services have been extensively studied in terms of their production, spatial extent, and valuation. Human reliance on ecosystem services is a function of the capacity of ecosystems to supply these services and the societal demand for these benefits. Considerably more attention has been placed on the supply of services compared with their demand. Sustainable land management depends on reconciling supply of and demand for ecosystem services among different stakeholders. The emphasis is now shifting from the supply to the attaining of a balance between supply and demand.

Evaluating landslide hazards using RCP 4.5 and 8.5 scenarios

Journal Articles & Books
december, 2015
Republic of Korea

Recently, extreme meteorological events have occurred frequently owing to climate change and its influence. Impacts of concentrated precipitation events include the damage caused by landslides. Many areas in Gangwondo (Korea) are located at high elevation and have large elevation differences; these areas are thus at high risk of landslides. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the landslide hazard of the province using representative concentration pathways (RCP) scenarios 4.5 and 8.5 and to compare results.