This paper uses the introduction of barbed wire fences to the American Midwest in the late 19th century to estimate the effects of property rights on farmers’ production decisions. Farmers were both formally and informally required to build fences to secure exclusive land-use rights, yet preferred wooden fences had been prohibitively expensive in areas with little woodland. The introduction and...

Many institutions have substantial landholdings, but few consider soil carbon preservation and augmentation in their management plans. A methodical framework was developed to analyse terrestrial stocks (soil tree biomass) for credible offsetting strategies institutional land. This approach demonstrated at two farms (805 hectares) managed by Newcastle University. Soil three depths (0–30 cm, 30–6...

Context Little is known of the ecology Micromyrtus minutiflora, a threatened plant species endemic to Cumberland subregion, New South Wales, Australia. Aims To fill ecological knowledge gaps M. including habitat preferences, population size and structure, survivorship; responses fire disturbance inform appropriate management practices. Methods Surveys distribution abundance, regeneration mode r...

Conservation increasingly operates at the landscape scale. For this to be effective, we need landscape scale information on species distributions and the environmental factors that underpin them. Species records are becoming increasingly available via data centres and online portals, but they are often patchy and biased. We demonstrate how such data can yield useful habitat suitability models, ...

Accurate quantification of land use/cover change (LULCC) is important for efficient environmental management, especially in regions that are extremely affected by climate variability and continuous population growth such as West Africa. In this context, accurate LULC classification and statistically sound change area estimates are essential for a better understanding of LULCC processes. This st...

In Western Europe, recreational amenity is presented as an important cultural ecosystem service that, along with other values, helps justify policies to conserve biodiversity. However, whether recreational use by the public is enhanced at protected areas designated for nature conservation is unknown. This is the first study to model outdoor recreation at a national scale, examining habitat pref...

Data on the status of caribou {Rangifer tarandus) herds throughout the circumpolar region during the last 20 years were obtained from the literature and personal communication with researchers. Information was analysed in relation to ecotype (insular, montane, barren-ground, and woodland/forest), population status (increasing, stable, decreasing), herd size, human impact, and temporal change in...

We studied three cerrado physiognomies (campo cerrado, a savanna woodland; cerrado sensu stricto, a woodland; and cerradão, a tall woodland) in a reserve with 1,225 ha, in Santa Rita do Passa-Quatro (21 degrees 36-38'S and 47 degrees 36-39'W), São Paulo State, South-eastern Brazil, to compare plant communities structure. As descriptors of the vegetation structure, we used richness, density, bas...

Previous studies of the consequences for breeding birds of climate change have explored how their populations may respond to increasing temperatures. However, few have considered the likely outcome of predicted extreme conditions and the relative vulnerability of populations in different habitats. Here, we compare phenology and breeding success in great tits and blue tits over a 10 year period,...

We investigated the conditions under which plastic responses to density are adaptive in natural populations of Impatiens capensis and determined whether plasticity has evolved differently in different selective environments. Previous studies showed that a population that evolved in a sunny site exhibited greater plasticity in response to density than did a population that evolved in a woodland ...