Land-cover and land-use changes are an important part of global change but determine as well livelihoods at local and regional level. The knowledge of change trajectories and possible future conditions is important for a sustainable development strategy. Further on, reliable scenarios with spatial explicit simulations are needed as planning tools for decision makers. This paper describes an exa...

Although climate change is predicted to place mountain-top and other narrowly endemic species at severe risk of extinction, the ecological processes involved in such extinctions are still poorly resolved. In addition, much of this biodiversity loss will likely go unobserved, and therefore largely unappreciated. The Haleakalā silversword is restricted to a single volcano summit in Hawai'i, but i...

Alpine and arctic lemming populations appear to be highly sensitive to climate change, and when faced with warmer and shorter winters, their well-known high-amplitude population cycles may collapse. Being keystone species in tundra ecosystems, changed lemming dynamics may convey significant knock-on effects on trophically linked species. Here, we analyse long-term (1988-2010), community-wide mo...

The US food system functions within a complex nexus of social, political, economic, cultural, and ecological factors. Among them are many dynamic pressures such as population growth, urbanization, socioeconomic inequities, climate disruption, and the increasing demand for resource-intensive foods that place immense strains on public health and the environment. This review focuses on the role th...

Rural populations are undergoing rapid changes in both their livelihoods and land uses, with associated impacts on ecosystems, global biogeochemistry, and climate change. A primary challenge is, thus, to explain these shifts in terms of the actors and processes operating within a variety of land systems in order to understand how land users might respond locally to future changes in broader-sca...

Global demands on agricultural land are increasing due to population growth, dietary changes and the use of biofuels. Their effect on food security is to reduce humans' ability to cope with the uncertainties of global climate change. In light of the 2008 food crisis, to secure reliable future access to sufficient agricultural land, many nations and corporations have begun purchasing large tract...

Climate change is impacting multiple aspects of life, many of which resonate with the wellbeing of humankind. Indigenous peoples, including First Nations and Inuit communities around the world are more vulnerable to the risks associated with global warming. In this synthesis, examples of direct and indirect impacts and vulnerabilities on First Nations and Inuit people inhabiting Canada have bee...

Niger—with the world’s fastest growing population, its highest total fertility rate (TFR), a small and diminishing amount of arable land, low annual rainfall, a high level of malnutrition, extremely low levels of education, gross gender inequities and an uncertain future in the face of climate change—is the most extreme example of a catastrophe that is likely to overtake the Sahel. The policies...

BACKGROUND Large-scale inter-basin water transfer (IBWT) projects are commonly proposed as solutions to water distribution and supply problems. These problems are likely to intensify under future population growth and climate change scenarios. Scarce data on the distribution of freshwater fishes frequently limits the ability to assess the potential implications of an IBWT project on freshwater ...

Many studies have reported statistically significant associations between bird migratory phenology and climatic variables, and, consequently, it is mostly accepted that recent shifts in migration dates are a reaction to present climate change. Impacts of weather and climate on departure date, progression and stopover frequency and duration have been reviewed in order to explain the current know...