Due to human impact under climatic variations, western part of Northeast China has suffered substantial land degradation during past decades. This paper presents an integrated study of expansion process of salinized wasteland in Da’an County, a typical salt-affected area in Northeast China, by using Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and remote sensing. The study explores the temporal and spa...

This study describes implementation of hydrological climate change impact assessment tool utilising a combination of statistical spatiotemporal downscaling and an operational hydrological model known as the Nile Forecasting System. A spatial rainfall generator was used to produce high-resolution (daily, 20km) gridded rainfall data required by the distributed hydrological model from monthly GCM ...

Grazing and cultivation are two important management practices worldwide that can cause significant soil organic carbon (SOC) losses. However, it remains elusive how soil microbes have responded to soil carbon changes under these two practices. Based on a four-decade long field experiment, this study investigated the effects of grazing and cultivation on SOC stocks and microbial properties in t...

Horqin Sandy Land is a fragile, seriously desertified region located in Inner Mongolia of China. Overgrazing is one of the primary drivers of desertification in this region. We investigated whether the establishment of grazing exclosures in areas with active sand dunes enhances soil carbon (C) sequestration and benefits soil recovery. The results showed that soil organic C storage was 1.4, 1.9,...

As carbon and energy flow through the soil food web they are depleted by the metabolic and production functions of organisms. To be sustained, a "long" food web, with a large biomass at higher trophic levels, must receive a high rate of rhizodeposition or detrital subsidy, or be top-populated by organisms of slow growth and long life cycle. Disturbed soil food webs tend to be bottom heavy and r...

Livestock overgrazing can threaten the ecological integrity of rangelands, and can also threaten the sustainability of pastoralist societies who depend on rangelands for their livelihood. Using facilitator plants in the restoration of degraded semi-arid rangelands offers a promising strategy because in such environments, facilitators can ameliorate harsh conditions that often limit the establis...

1. Overgrazing by exotic herbivores has a widespread impact on plant communities. We used the removal of exotic European rabbits, goats and donkeys from the San Benito Islands, Mexico, as an experimental manipulation to examine the importance of top-down and bottom-up processes in the impact and recovery of an island plant community. 2. Using a paired approach, we removed herbivores from one is...

Mineral dust aerosol is created by wind erosion of soil particles. In addition to its direct radiative effect, dust aerosol mediates ocean carbon uptake and the chemical cycles of other aerosols like sulfates. Dust observations during the past decade span measurements of local concentration and deposition to global satellite retrievals of aerosol optical thickness [Prospero et al., 2002]. Measu...

Restoration of riparian areas is an important step towards improving water flow and water quality of the Rio Conchos in northern Mexico. To provide background data for restoration decisions we characterized the ecological integrity of a 40 km long riparian corridor along the middle Rio Conchos. The characterization consisted of determining dominant species of trees and shrubs, structure, and ri...

Overgrazing and mining affect vegetation, particularly in mountains. At times, it goes to such an extent that the plant species become vulnerable and slowly extinct from its habitat. Such endemic species need to be protected. One such endemic species Hedysarum chaiyrakanicum Kurbatsky, a vulnerable steppe vegetation of Tuva Republic, Russia was evaluated for its genetic diversity and taxonomic ...