We investigated the effects of land-use changes on soil carbon storage and soil CO2 flux by comparing soils from mature cloud forest and 31-year-old secondary forest, both in the Santa Elena Forest Reserve, a municipallyowned reserve at an elevation of 1600 to 1700 m near the town of Monteverde, and a clear-cut pasture near the reserve. Soils in the mature forest exhibit only weak horizonation ...

One of the major challenges for agriculture is to understand the effects of agricultural practices on soil properties and diffuse pollution, to support practical farm-scale land management. Three conventionally managed grassland fields with similar short-term management, but different ploughing histories, were studied on a long-term research platform: the North Wyke Farm Platform. The aims were...

When you compare a horse owner to someone raising other classes of livestock, there are some definite similarities, but also some striking differences. It is in the differences and similarities that you find the opportunities and challenges related to the use of pastures by the horse owner. While both can and do use pasture as part of their feeding programs, the horse owner is often more willin...

A distributed hydrologic modeling and GIS approach is applied for the assessment of land use impact in the Steinsel sub-basin, Alzette, Grand-Duchy of Luxembourg. The assessment focuses on the runoff contributions from different land use classes and the potential impact of land use changes on runoff generation. The results show that the direct runoff from urban areas is dominant for a flood eve...

This pilot project determines the potential for growing cool climate grapes, high yield pasture and blue gum across Gippsland (Victoria), and the likely shift in that potential as projected climate change occurs in the region. It provides an indication of the information that can be generated combining land suitability analysis and climate change scenarios. By considering the changing suitabili...

This paper aims at evaluating the impacts of climate change on land use patterns in Brazil. To this purpose, we specify and estimate an econometric land use model to assess how climate variables affect land allocation decisions according to three types of use: cropland, pasture and forestland. Based on the econometric model estimates, we then simulate how farmers will adapt their land use choic...

Interactions between food demand, biomass energy and forest preservation are driving both food prices and land-use changes, regionally and globally. This study presents a new model called Nexus Land-Use version 1.0 which describes these interactions through a generic representation of agricultural intensification mechanisms within agricultural lands. The Nexus Land-Use model equations combine b...

Cultivated land has been feeding the world for thousands of years. Only in the last few decades, remote sensing is used to assess and monitor the extent and status of cultivated land. One of the greatest challenges when working with existing land cover datasets is the lack of consistent and reliable data on the location and area intensity of cultivation. By most counts land cover datasets ident...

Insects of the orders Ephemeroptera, Plecoptera, and Trichoptera (EPT) are often used to assess the conditions of aquatic environments, but few studies have examined the differences in these communities between riffles and pools. Our objective was to test whether riffles shelter greater richness and abundance of EPT, as well as to assess the sensitivity of these insects for detecting impacts fr...

Rainfall intensity is predicted to increase under a changing climate, leading to increased risks of hillslope erosion, downstream sedimentation and flooding. For many catchments used for grazing and agricultural land uses, it will become increasingly important to maintain ecohydrological functioning despite climatic extremes. One means to achieve this is through strategic reforestation using lo...