Search results for "land-use change"

Impacts of oak deforestation and rainfed cultivation on soil redistribution processes across hillslopes using 137Cs techniques

2021

Abstract Background As one of the main components of land-use change, deforestation is considered the greatest threat to global environmental diversity with possible irreversible environmental consequences. Specifically, one example could be the impacts of land-use changes from oak forests into agricultural ecosystems, which may have detrimental impacts on soil mobilization across hillslopes. However, to date, scarce studies are assessing these impacts at different slope positions and soil depths, shedding light on key geomorphological processes. Methods In this research, the Caesium-137 (137Cs) technique was applied to evaluate soil redistribution and soil erosion rates due to the effects …

The significance of soils and soil science towards realization of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals

2016

Abstract. In this forum paper we discuss how soil scientists can help to reach the recently adopted UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in the most effective manner. Soil science, as a land-related discipline, has important links to several of the SDGs, which are demonstrated through the functions of soils and the ecosystem services that are linked to those functions (see graphical abstract in the Supplement). We explore and discuss how soil scientists can rise to the challenge both internally, in terms of our procedures and practices, and externally, in terms of our relations with colleague scientists in other disciplines, diverse groups of stakeholders and the policy arena. To meet th…

Land use functions — a multifunctionality approach to assess the impact of land use changes on land use sustainability

2008

Part 5. Regional and local evaluation - 17; International audience; The dramatic changes in land use observed in Europe in the last fifty years have generally resulted in improvement of human welfare and economic development. On the other hand, they have caused serious environmental problems. There is therefore a need for approaches that help to understand in an integrative way the economic, environmental and societal impacts that land use changes have on sustainability. Sustainability Impact Assessment(SIA), which assesses the impact of policies on sustainability, addresses this challenge. SIA partly builds on the concept of the multifunctionality of land which helps to deal with the compl…

Changes in Climate and Land Use Over the Amazon Region: Current and Future Variability and Trends

2018

This paper shows recent progress in our understanding of climate variability and trends in the Amazon region, and how these interact with land use change. The review includes an overview of up-to-date information on climate and hydrological variability, and on warming trends in Amazonia, which reached 0.6-0.7 °C over the last 40 years, with 2016 as the warmest year since at least 1950 (0.9 °C +0.3°C). We focus on local and remote drivers of climate variability and change. We review the impacts of these drivers on the length of dry season, the role of the forest in climate and carbon cycles, the resilience of the forest, the risk of fires and biomass burning, and the potential “die back” of …

Restoring ecosystem structure and functions : results from Sphagnum peatlands degraded by forestry drainage

2014

Soil is brown gold in the Emilia-Romagna region, Italy

2014

Soil is a natural resource essential to human welfare by virtue of its numerous crucial functions. In the past, soil has been taken for granted because of its widespread, albeit finite, availability. However, now that world's population is projected to exceed ten billion before the end of this century, soil is increasingly perceived as a precious commodity. Consequently, soil is increasingly under pressure by rich private investors and governments within the poorest countries to satisfy appetites for food production and biofuel. A case study is used to explore the plausibility of soil being considered as ‘brown gold’. Based on the comparison of land use maps, we estimated the value in terms…

Population trends of birds across the iron curtain: Brain matters

2011

One approach to assess human impact on species’ population dynamics is to correlate ecological traits of species with their long-term population trends. Yet, few studies investigated population trends in multiple regions that differ in human impact to reveal which traits explain population trends over larger geographic areas and which only regionally. We examined the relationship between various species traits and long-term population trends of 57 common passerine bird species from 1991 to 2007 in three adjacent regions in central Europe that experienced differences in socioeconomic history: North-Western Germany, Eastern Germany and the Czech Republic. We tested effects of habitat, dietary…

Repercussion of anthropogenic landscape changes on pedodiversity and preservation of the pedological heritage

2013

Over a period of time people have lived in and with their surrounding landscapes and for several thousand years transformed the soilscapes and the vegetation into cultural landscape types important for their economy and to meet their needs (Richter 2007, Ellis 2011, Hjelle 2012). The sustainable provision of goods and services depends critically on managing soils without damaging the natural soilscapes and the related natural resources. To support the transition towards sustainable development, science needs to understand how land-use change affects the environment and how this, in turn, feeds back into human livelihood strategies or infl uences the vulnerability of the environment (Rounsev…

Transitions in European land-management regimes between 1800 and 2010

2015

Land use is a cornerstone of human civilization, but also intrinsically linked to many global sustainability challenges—from climate change to food security to the ongoing biodiversity crisis. Understanding the underlying technological, institutional and economic drivers of land-use change, and how they play out in different environmental, socio-economic and cultural contexts, is therefore important for identifying effective policies to successfully address these challenges. In this regard, much can be learned from studying long-term land-use change. We examined the evolution of European land management over the past 200 years with the aim of identifying (1) key episodes of changes in land …

KLUM@GTAP: Introducing biophysical aspects of land-use decisions into a general equilibrium model: A coupling experiment

2006

In this paper the global agricultural land use model KLUM is coupled to an extended version of the computable general equilibrium model (CGE) GTAP in order to consistently assess the integrated impacts of climate change on global cropland allocation and its implication for economic development. The methodology is innovative as it introduces dynamic economic land-use decisions based also on the biophysical aspects of land into a state-of-the-art CGE; it further allows the projection of resulting changes in cropland patterns on a spatially more explicit level. A convergence test and illustrative future simulations underpin the robustness and potentials of the coupled system. Reference simulat…