PREMISE OF STUDY Plant functional traits are commonly used as proxies for plant responses to environmental challenges, yet few studies have explored how functional trait distributions differ across gradients of land-use change. By comparing trait distributions in intact forests with those across land-use change gradients, we can improve our understanding of the ways land-use change alters the d...

A variety of management options are used to minimize losses of nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), and other potential pollutants from agricultural source areas. There is little information available, however, to indicate the effectiveness of these options (sometimes referred to as Best Management Practices, or BMPs) on basin scales. The objective of this study was to assess the water quality effecti...

The proper management of soil, in order to improve ecosystem services, requires knowledge how different fractions carbon respond land use/land cover changes. This study aimed evaluate the responses total soil organic carbon, and its fractions, reforestation age use changes an Ultisol Posses catchment, a pilot area Brazilian program Payment for Environmental Services, located Southeastern Brazil...

Extensive livestock production has been Mongolia’s major industry for centuries and traditional nomadic herding lifestyle and Mongolia’s expansive rangelands sustain this industry. After the democratic election and economic liberalization in 1992, formerly state-owned collectives were disbanded and Mongolia’s livestock population was privatized. There was no longer a state institution to formal...

Understanding successional trends in energy and matter exchange across the ecosystem-atmosphere boundary layer is an essential focus in ecological research; however, a general theory describing the observed pattern remains elusive. This paper examines whether the principle of maximum entropy production could provide the solution. A general framework is developed for calculating entropy producti...

When improperly managed, land application of animal manures can harm the environment; however, limited watershed-scale runoff water quality data are available to research and address this issue. The water quality impacts of conversion to poultry litter fertilization on cultivated and pasture watersheds in the Texas Blackland Prairie were evaluated in this three-year study. Edge-of-field N and P...

Land applications of manure from confined animal systems and direct deposit by grazing animals are both major sources of nutrients in streams. The objectives of this study were to determine the effects of P-based manure applications on total suspended solids (TSS) and nutrient losses from dairy manures and poultry litter surface applied to pasturelands and to compare the nutrient losses transpo...

Conventional ranching in Chiapas, Mexico includes a yearly pasture burn and agrochemical use that decreases the biodiversity and forest cover of ranch lands. Ranchers, self-described members of a “club” in the Fraylesca region of Chiapas, Mexico, have bucked convention and eliminated burns and agrochemicals from their systems after decades of use because they believed that the land and their pr...

Effects of land-use management on agricultural sustainability and greenhouse gas emissions are major issues for researchers, regional councils and farmers in New Zealand. This study was undertaken to investigate the environmental impact of land-use management on field-CO2 emissions in Ohakea silt loam soil (Typic andoaqualf) that had been converted from permanent pasture to forage cropping for ...