Planned changes to land use in West Africa have been proposed to both combat desertification and to preserve biodiversity in the region, however, there is an urgent need for tools to assess the effects of these proposed changes on local and regional scale precipitation. We use a high-resolution, convection-permitting numerical weather prediction (NWP) model to study how the initiation and propagation of mesoscale convective systems (MCS) depends on the surface vegetation cover. The simulations covered a 4-day period during the West African monsoon in August 2006.

Memory is among the most important and neglected forces that shapes animal movement patterns. Research on the movement–memory interface is crucial to understand how animals use spatial learning to navigate across space because memory‐based navigation is directly linked to animals' space use and home range behaviour; however, because memory cannot be measured directly, it is difficult to account for. Here, we incorporated spatial memory into step selection functions (SSF) to understand how resource selection and spatial memory affect space use of feral hogs (Sus scrofa).

Changes in the spatial distribution of land cover and land use can have significant impacts on ecological processes at multiple scales; estimating these changes provides critical data for both monitoring and understanding land-use effects on these processes. One approach to mapping landcover changes, particularly useful over longer periods of time, is comparison of existing landcover maps, (post-classification change analysis).

Relationships between behavioral regulation, environmental temperatures, and physiological tolerance are critical to conservation policy; however, these relationships may not be consistent among sister taxa. A species geographic range is influenced by various factors including physiological tolerance to temperature change. In this study, we investigated the effects of temperature variation on thermal preference and standard metabolic rates (SMR) of two species of larval salamanders, Eurycea cirrigera (Southern Two-Lined Salamander) and Eurycea wilderae (Blue Ridge Two-Lined Salamander).

A species distribution combines the resources and climatic tolerances that allow an individual or population to persist. As these conditions change, one mechanism to maintain favorable resources is for an organism to shift its range. Much of the research examining range shifts has focused on dynamic distribution boundaries wheras the role of species breeding habitat or migration strategies on shift tendencies has received less attention.

We analyze the spatial patterns of natural dune cover patches and their plant richness, comparing coastal sites with different levels of human pressure in central Italy. We created a detailed land cover map of dune sites. The spatial pattern of natural dune cover types was characterized by computing a set of patch-based metrics. To quantify patch plant richness, we used 16 m ² vegetation plots, randomly distributed on coastal dune cover types. For each patch, the richness of the entire pool of species and of three guilds (i.e., typical dune, ruderal, and alien species) was considered.

Facing increasing levels of ecosystem degradation, scientists and practitioners aim to preserve ecological integrity — to maintain structures and functions expected of ecosystems in a region. This requires an understanding of the relationship between structural components and functional integrity. In this paper we focused on the study forests of the Credit River Watershed (Southern Ontario, Canada).

This paper introduces this special issue of Aquatic Sciences. It outlines a multi-scale, hierarchical framework for developing process-based understanding of catchment to reach hydromorphology that can aid design and delivery of sustainable river management solutions. The framework was developed within the REFORM (REstoring rivers FOR effective catchment Management) project, funded by the European Union’s FP7 Programme. Specific aspects of this ‘REFORM framework’ and some applications are presented in other papers in this special issue.

This research presents an analysis of river responses to flow regulation and other disturbances over time. The study was conducted in the Porma and Curueño rivers, using the hierarchical multi-scale process-based framework developed within the European REFORM Project.

In much of the United States and elsewhere, urbanization continues to transform landscapes. In central Texas, anthropogenic conversion of land is due in part to a rapidly growing population in the Austin and San Antonio metro areas and the subsequent infrastructure and resources needed to support that growth. Protected natural areas adjacent to urbanized landscapes are often intended to mitigate the impact of land development by serving as wildlife habitat.

The ungauged wet semi-arid watershed cluster, Seethagondi, lies in the Adilabad district of Telangana in India and is prone to severe erosion and water scarcity. The runoff and soil loss data at watershed, catchment, and field level are necessary for planning soil and water conservation interventions. In this study, an attempt was made to develop a spatial soil loss estimation model for Seethagondi cluster using RUSLE coupled with ARCGIS and was used to estimate the soil loss spatially and temporally.

The increase of global urbanization can have effects on wildlife species, including carnivores such as coyotes (Canis latrans). As coyotes continue to settle in more urban areas, reports of human-coyote conflicts, such as attacks on humans or pets, may also increase. Understanding environmental variables that might influence whether or not coyotes and human-coyote conflicts will occur in certain urban areas may assist wildlife officials in creating management plans for urban wildlife.