Geographisches Institut, Universität zu Köln, Albertus Magnus Platz, 50923 Köln, Germany b Indo-German Centre of Sustainability, Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Chennai 600 036, India c Institut für Hydrologie, Karlsruher Institut für Technologie, Kaiserstraße 12, 76131 Karlsruhe, Germany d Lehrstuhl für Grünlandlehre, Technische Universität München, Alte Akademie 12, 85350 Freising-Weih...

Earthworms play an important role in soil ecology and can serve as practical indicators in land quality evaluation. The abundance and distribution of earthworms were determined in 84 cropping and pasture soils in north-east Victoria and southern New South Wales (NSW), Australia. Overall, an average density of 89 earthworms mÿ2 was found, with an average species richness of 1±2 per site, indicat...

Extensive changes in land cover during the 20th century are known to have had detrimental effects on biodiversity in rural landscapes, but the magnitude of change and their ecological effects are not well known on regional scales. We digitized historical maps from the beginning of the 20th century over a 1652 km(2) study area in southeastern Sweden, comparing it to modern-day land cover with a ...

Soils are the largest terrestrial pool of organic carbon, with up to 50% soil carbon (SOC) stored below 30 cm. Knowledge impact land use on mechanisms by which SOC is in subsoils critical developing and delivering strategies mitigate climate change. We characterized under arable, grassland, deciduous woodland uses lowland England determine how affects topsoil subsoil protected. Soil matter (SOM...