In this article, we evaluate and compare results from three integrated assessment models (GCAM, IMAGE, and ReMIND/MAgPIE) regarding the drivers and impacts of bioenergy production on the global land system. The considered model frameworks employ linked energy, economy, climate and land use modules. By the help of these linkages the direct competition of bioenergy with other energy technology options for greenhouse gas (GHG) mitigation, based on economic costs and GHG emissions from bioenergy production, has been taken into account.

Rapidly accelerating climate change in the Himalaya is projected to have major implications for montane species, ecosystems, and mountain farming and pastoral systems. A geospatial modeling approach based on a global environmental stratification is used to explore potential impacts of projected climate change on the spatial distribution of bioclimatic strata and ecoregions within the transboundary Kailash Sacred Landscape (KSL) of China, India and Nepal.

Adaptation in agro-ecological systems will be important for moderating the impacts of climate change. Vulnerability assessments provide the basis for developing strategies to reduce social vulnerability and plan for climate adaptation. Primary industries have been identified as the most vulnerable industry sector globally. We review how primary producers might be socially vulnerable to climate change and develop a ‘vulnerability typology’ of cattle producers based on survey responses from 240 producers across northern Australia.

There has been a concerted effort by the international scientific community to understand the multiple causes and patterns of land-cover change to support sustainable land management. Here, we examined biophysical suitability, and a novel integrated index of “Economic Pressure on Land” (EPL) to explain land cover in the year 2000, and estimated the likelihood of future land-cover change through 2050, including protected area effectiveness.

The onset of the grain price spikes in late 2007 heralded a heated discussion among economists and policy makers on the source of the problem and appropriate policy responses. The subsequent rounds of price surges hit landless poor consumers hard, and transferred billions of dollars from them to landowners worldwide. Economists offered a list of highly plausible explanations for the recent jumps in grain price levels.

Here, we use a unique long‐term data set on total organic carbon (TOC) fluxes, its climatic drivers and effects of land management from a large boreal watershed in northern Finland. TOC and runoff have been monitored at several sites in the Simojoki watershed (3160� km²) since the early 1960s. Annual TOC fluxes have increased significantly together with increased inter‐annual variability. Acid deposition in the area has been low and has not significantly influenced losses of TOC.

Tropical coastal wetlands form complex and dynamic ecosystems based on a mixture of vegetation, soil, and water components. Optical remotely sensed data have often been used to characterize and monitor these ecosystems, which are among the environments most threatened by climate change and anthropogenic activity worldwide.

Internationally, there is interest in increasing the trade in ‘green’ market products, such as organic, fair trade, reduction of deforestation and forest degradation/reduction of deforestation and forest degradation+ for reduced deforestation and mitigation of climate change, and environmental goods and services. This crucially needs to be extended to the many poor, hungry and marginalized smallholder farmers in developing countries.

Climate change is projected to substantially alter the hydrological cycles of mountainous regions, with pronounced consequences for the human settlements in these areas. Because projections of climatic changes and their environmental and societal impacts in local settings are uncertain, policies to reduce vulnerability and strengthen adaptation should be informed by ongoing processes in sites already exposed to climatic variability and change.

A large portion of the Occidental Region of Paraguay consists of a semi-arid territory with vegetation adapted to the features of this region. For just over a decade, a process of intense deforestation has resulted from the expansion of mechanized farming, carried out without any form of land management or planning; this has led to the fragmentation of the forests in this region.

The assessment of freshwater resources in a drainage basin is not only dependent on its hydrologic parameters but also on the socio-economic system driving development in the watershed area; the socio-economic aspect, that is often neglected in hydrologic studies, is one of the novelties of this study. The aim of this paper is twofold: (1) presenting an integrated working methodology and (2) studying a local case of a North African watershed where scarce field data are available.

Mountain ecosystems are, however, fragile and particularly vulnerable to the adverse impacts of climate change, deforestation and forest degradation, land-use change, land degradation and natural disasters.