Historical records and archaeological discoveries have shown that prosperous agricultural activities developed in the ancient Juyan Oasis of northwestern China, an important oasis that once flourished on the ancient Silk Road. However, how the irrigation canals were distributed in historical time was unknown. Here, we identified and mapped the spatial distribution of ancient abandoned irrigatio...

BACKGROUND Habitat fragmentation, water resources and biological characteristics are important factors that shape the genetic structure and geographical distribution of desert plants. Analysis of the relationships between these factors and population genetic variation should help to determine the evolutionary potential and conservation strategies for genetic resources for desert plant populatio...

C. Schwarz † , S. Fritz, R. Bassini, M. Begemann-Blaich , S.J. Gaff-Ejakov, D. Gourio, C. Groß, G. Immé, I. Iori, U. Kleinevoß , G.J. Kunde , W.D. Kunze, U. Lynen, V. Maddalena, M. Mahi, T. Möhlenkamp, A. Moroni, W.F.J. Müller, C. Nociforo, B. Ocker , T. Odeh, F. Petruzzelli, J. Pochodzalla ‖ , G. Raciti, G. Riccobene, F.P. Romano, A. Saija, M. Schnittker, A. Schüttauf , W. Seidel, V. Serfling,...

A method is explored to assess the quality of road network data based on image information in a reliable and accurate way. Therefore, the quality of the image information resulting from a ridge extraction procedure is characterized in terms of detection rate. The optimal parameter set for the ridge extraction is predicted based on typical road samples extracted from the image, resulting in an o...

Roads are conspicuous components of landscapes and play a substantial role in defining landscape pattern. Previous studies have demonstrated the link between roads and their effects on ecological processes and landscape patterns. Less understood is the relationship between landscape patterns imposed by the network in relation to road network configuration, spatial heterogeneity etc. Our hypothe...

Roads provide humans with a means of mobility between destinations, be it for transportation of goods and services or as a means of connecting with others. However, roads are also known to contribute toward a number of deleterious landscape processes, such as habitat destruction and fragmentation, pollution (e.g., chemical, noise and light) and animal mortality. Few studies however have investi...