This Distributed Graduate Seminar (DGS) aims to synthesize current ecological information on the role that biodiversity in agricultural landscapes (agrobiodiversity) plays in providing ecosystem services. In recent years numerous studies aimed at examining the importance of agroecosystems to the conservation of biodiversity have been published. These studies focus on identifying the types of ag...

This article analyzes the process of forest fragmentation of a floodplain landscape of the Lower Amazon over a 30-year period and its implications for the biodiversity and the provision of ecosystem services to the riverine population. To this end, we created a multi-temporal forest cover map based on Landsat images, and then analyzed the fragmentation dynamics through landscape metrics. From t...

The agricultural expansion and intensification required to meet growing food and agri-based product demand present important challenges to future levels and management of biodiversity and ecosystem services. Influential actors such as corporations, governments, and multilateral organizations have made commitments to meeting future agricultural demand sustainably and preserving critical ecosyste...

www.frontiersinecology.org © The Ecological Society of America C of beneficial arthropods in agricultural landscapes is increasingly justified based on the value of the services they provide to society. The annual value of natural enemies and native pollinators to agriculture has recently been estimated at nearly $8 billion in the US alone (Losey and Vaughn 2006). These arthropod-mediated ecosy...

The Latin America and Caribbean (LAC) region harbors major centers of origin and diversity for a number of organisms that support current world food production and industry. Agriculture and biodiversity are closely linked to biotechnology; the sustainability of protected biodiversity areas depends to a large extent on what transpires in intervened adjacent areas. Sound agricultural intensificat...

Drainage ditches, either seasonally flooded or permanent, are commonly found on intensively managed lowland farmland in the UK. They are potentially important for wetland biodiversity but, despite their ubiquity, information on their biodiversity and management in the wider countryside is scarce. We surveyed 175 ditches for their physical and chemical characteristics, spatial connectivity, plan...

Raising domestic tax revenues is a priority for most sub-Saharan African countries. But the tax bases in most African countries are undermined by widespread tax avoidance and evasion. A new study from CMI supports the claim that improved knowledge about the tax system makes a difference in people’s willingness to pay tax. The study shows that exposure to Value-AddedTax (VAT) makes people take a...

The Chinese Seed Systems Project started in January 2000 in Southwest China. It is co-funded by IDRC (International Development Research Centre, Canada) and Ford Foundation, and is carried out by the Centre for Chinese Agricultural Policy (CCAP) of the China Academy of Science (CAS), in collaboration with the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Centre (CIMMYT) and with academic supervisio...