Similar submarine canyon systems exist on scales ranging from less than a kilometer to nearly 1000 km. The shallowest end is a submarine canyon and canyon head(s). Further down the canyon is buried by the upper part of a submarine fan with meandering and cross-cutting channels. The fan eventually merges with a nearly flat-lying depositional basin. We have used the deposits associated with these...

Tropical peatlands store a significant portion of the global soil carbon (C) pool. However, tropical mountain peatlands contain extensive peat soils that have yet to be mapped or included in global C estimates. This lack of data hinders our ability to inform policy and apply sustainable management practices to these peatlands that are experiencing unprecedented high rates of land use and land c...

A hierarchical-based classification method was designed to develop time series land-use/land-cover datasets from Landsat images between 1977 and 2008 in Lucas do Rio Verde, Mato Grosso, Brazil. A post-classification comparison approach was used to examine land-use/land-cover change trajectories, which emphasis is on the conversions from vegetation or agropasture to impervious surface area, from...

Landsat satellite imagery covering the entire forested portion of the Brazilian Amazon Basin was used to measure, for 1978 and 1988, deforestation, fragmented forest, defined as areas less than 100 square kilometers surrounded by deforestation, and edge effects of 1 kilometer into forest from adjacent areas of deforestation. Tropical deforestation increased from 78,000 square kilometers in 1978...

Human pressure threatens many species and ecosystems, so conservation efforts necessarily prioritize saving them. However, conservation should clearly be proactive wherever possible. In this article, we assess the biodiversity conservation value, and specifically the irreplaceability in terms of species endemism, of those of the planet's ecosystems that remain intact. We find that 24 wilderness...