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Displaying 706 - 710 of 1605Cross-cultural perceptions of ecosystem services: A social inquiry on both sides of the Israeli–Jordanian border of the Southern Arava Valley Desert
This research explores local resident perspectives on ecosystem services (ES) in the hyper-arid Arava Valley/Wadi Araba, which spans across both Israel and Jordan. Identifying and characterizing ES, an increasingly popular precursor for crafting sustainable natural resource management and land use policy, is an inherently multi-disciplinary endeavor. Our goal is to apply social research tools, in particular in-depth interviews with local residents, to understand their perspectives concerning ES.
Mountain vegetation change quantification using surface landscape metrics in Lancang watershed, China
Land cover and vegetation change are among the most important aspects of environmental change. Vegetation change can be quantified by landscape pattern indices (LPI). Landscape indices are routinely calculated using planar land use/land cover (LU/LC) maps, obtained by the projection of a non-flat landscape surface into a two-dimensional Cartesian space. Especially in mountainous areas, quantification on planar maps can lead to underestimation of vegetation and land cover changes. Hoechstetter et al.
Impacts of heavy grazing on plant species richness: A comparison across rangeland biomes of South Africa
The net effect of heavy grazing and land degradation on plant diversity and richness is insufficiently understood for incorporation in national biodiversity assessments. A study was undertaken to determine the effects of heavy grazing primarily on richness of vascular plant species across the arid and semi-arid rangeland biomes of South Africa. Major grazing contrasts were systematically identified for sampling in rangelands of Succulent Karoo, Nama-Karoo, Thicket, Grassland, Kalahari dune savanna and Mopane savanna.
Agricultural management affects the response of soil bacterial community structure and respiration to water-stress
Soil microorganisms are responsible for organic matter decomposition processes that regulate soil carbon storage and mineralisation to CO₂. Climate change is predicted to increase the frequency of drought events, with uncertain consequences for soil microbial communities. In this study we tested the hypothesis that agricultural management used to enhance soil carbon stocks would increase the stability of microbial community structure and activity in response to water-stress.
Redistributions of ¹³⁷Cs and soil components on cultivated hill slopes with hedgerows as conservation measures
¹³⁷Cs tracing technique combined with soil composition characterization was used to investigate the mechanism and effectiveness of conservation measures for cultivated hill slopes of strongly weathered acidic Acrisol. The results of analysis of 66 soil samples taken across six plots showed much lower losses of ¹³⁷Cs, soil organic carbon (SOC), and nutrients in the four treatments of alley cropping with hedgerows compared to the two control treatments of bare land and without conservation measures.