Land use change is the most important driving factor of terrestrial carbon stock change. Soil is the largest carbon reservoir of terrestrial ecosystems, and the impact of land use change on soil carbon sequestration is related to major issues such as the global warming process and food security. The research can provide a basis for land managers and policy makers to develop appropriate planning strategies for soil carbon sequestration management. Despite the widespread attention of relevant studies, macro reviews are still lacking.

The rural residential land functions are the comprehensive embodiment of the storage quantity and structural organization of the rural man–land system. Mastering the evolution rule and allocation situation is the basis of effective rural land management and targeted poverty alleviation activities.

Future climate change is expected to significantly alter the growth of vegetation in grassland systems, in terms of length of the growing season, forage production, and climate-altering gas emissions. The main objective of this work was, therefore, to simulate the future impacts of foreseen climate change in the context of two pastoral systems in the central Italian Apennines and test different adaptation strategies to cope with these changes. The PaSim simulation model was, therefore, used for this purpose.

The rate of change in the relative amount of active and passive carbon (AC and PC) due to the land management practices (cropping systems combined with tillage) may vary with soil types depending on their level of chemical and/or physical protection from the decomposition but has rarely been directly measured.

Landscape composition and configuration determine the source of pollutants. They also determine the interception and pollution-holding potential of the surface landscape. Using the upper reaches of the Si River Basin, a major grain-producing region in Shandong province in east-central China, as a case study, this study analyzed the influence of landscape characteristics on river water quality (RWQ) after superimposing topographic slope factors for 2017, and investigated which spatial scale had the strongest influence on RWQ.

As a land use management system, agroforestry has environmental, economic and societal benefits over conventional agriculture or forestry. Important benefits of combining tree growth with agricultural crops and/or forage production systems include higher biodiversity through more diverse habitats, the control of runoff and soil erosion, the augmentation of soil water availability, the creation of microclimates, carbon sequestration and provision of a more diverse farm economy.

Carbon and nitrogen are among the most important biogenic elements in terrestrial ecosystems, and carbon and nitrogen stable isotopes (δ13C and δ15N) are often used to indicate the sources of carbon and nitrogen elements and turnover processes, and the study of C and N isotopes coupling can provide more precise indications.

The active participation of stakeholders is a crucial requirement for effective land-use planning (LUP). Involving stakeholders in LUP is a way of redistributing the decision-making power and ensuring social justice in land-management interventions. However, owing to the growing intricacy of sociopolitical and economic relations and the increasing number of competing claims on land, the choice of dynamic land use has become more complex, and the need to find balances between social, economic, and environmental claims and interests has become less urgent.

Soil erosion is an important environmental problem that can have various negative consequences, such as land degradation, which affects sustainable development and agricultural production, especially in developing countries like Tunisia. Moreover, soil erosion is a major problem around the world because of its effects on soil fertility by nutriment loss and siltation in water bodies. Apart from this, soil erosion by water is the most serious type of land loss in several regions both locally and globally.

Global environmental governance (GEG) is one of the world’s major attempts to address climate change issues through mitigation and adaptation strategies. Despite a significant improvement in GEG’s structural, human, and financial capital, the global commons are decaying at an unprecedented pace. Among the global commons, land has the largest share in GEG. Land use change, which is rooted in increasing populations and urbanization, has a significant role in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.

Soil erosion is a global environmental problem and a pervasive form of land degradation that threatens land productivity and food and water security. Some of the biggest sources of sediment in catchments are cultivated and abandoned lands. However, the abandonment of cultivated fields is not well-researched. Our study assesses the level of degradation in cultivated and abandoned lands using a case study in South Africa. We answer three main questions: (1) What is the extent of crop field degradation on used, partly used, and abandoned fields?

Short-term land rental agreements such as the traditional conacre system in Northern Ireland offer flexibility between the landowners and the farmers renting the land. However, the uncertainty of tenure linked to such short-term land rental systems does not allow for farmers renting the land to make longer-term investment planning and decisions, particularly around sustainable land management practices. Long-term tenancy agreements have been identified as a viable option to cope with short-term uncertainties and improve the environmental management of the land.