Soil enzymes are widely used as indicators of soil quality because they are sensitive to various land management practices. In particular, enzyme kinetic behaviour and the derived kinetic parameters (Vₘₐₓ and Kₘ) can be indirectly influenced by changes of soil structure, organic matter quantity and quality due to the addition of organic amendments to the soil. When measuring enzyme kinetics, the calculation of the specificity constant (Kₐ), i.e.: the ratio Vₘₐₓ to Kₘ, is advisable to obtain additional information on the whole catalytic process.

Here, we use a unique long‐term data set on total organic carbon (TOC) fluxes, its climatic drivers and effects of land management from a large boreal watershed in northern Finland. TOC and runoff have been monitored at several sites in the Simojoki watershed (3160� km²) since the early 1960s. Annual TOC fluxes have increased significantly together with increased inter‐annual variability. Acid deposition in the area has been low and has not significantly influenced losses of TOC.

Historically monitoring of grazing impacts in rangelands has been seriously compromised by the small area, infrequency and variability of field-based sampling plots. Remote sensing of vegetation cover, which can be a surrogate for overall ecosystem condition, permits adequate spatial and temporal monitoring of land condition but can still be compromised by considerable inter and intra-paddock (field) variability. Cross-fence sample pairs control for local clines and patchiness in spatial and temporal variables such as vegetation, landform, soil type, surface-flows, and rainfall.

Agricultural soil quality is drastically affected in modern societies by human activities. This paper evaluates the anthropogenic influence on agricultural soil quality variation in Zhangjiagang County, China from 1980 to 2004 based on indicator selection and standard scoring function (SSF). The results indicated that after 24 years of anthropogenic influence, soil organic matter (SOM), total nitrogen (TN), cation exchange capacity (CEC) and available phosphorus (av-P) increased significantly and total phosphorus (TP) and available potassium (av-K) decreased slightly.

Rangelands and savannas occupy 70% of the Australian continent and are mainly used for commercial grazing of sheep and cattle. In the center and north, where there are extensive areas of indigenous land ownership and pastoral production is less intensive, savanna burning is frequent. Greenhouse gas emissions from rangelands have been overwhelmingly from land clearing and methane production by livestock.

The protection and regeneration of wetlands has been of crucial importance as a goal in ecological research and in nature conservation for some time and is more important than ever now. Knowledge about the biophysical properties of wetlands' vegetation retrieved from satellite images enables us to improve the monitoring of these unique areas, which are otherwise very often impenetrable and therefore difficult to examine, analyze and assess by means of site visits.

Regional-scale assessment of soil C pools is essential to provide information for C cycling models, land management, and policy decisions, and elucidate the relative contribution of different C pools to total C (TC). We estimated TC and four soil C fractions, namely recalcitrant C (RC), hydrolyzable C (HC), hot-water-soluble C (SC), and mineralizable C (MC), at 0 to 30 cm across a 3585-km2 mixed-use watershed in north-central Florida.

Non-point source simulation models are commonly used tools for examining water and water quality issues. The dynamic agricultural non-point source assessment tool (DANSAT) is the distributed-parameter, physically-based, and continuous-simulation model for simulating the spatial and temporal impacts of agricultural best management practices (BMPs) on hydrology and water quality in small agricultural watersheds.

The spatial and temporal dynamics in the stream water NO3-N concentrations in a major European river-system, the Garonne (62,700 km2), are described and related to variations in climate, land management, and effluent point-sources using multivariate statistics. Building on this, the Hydrologiska Byrans Vattenbalansavdelning (HBV) rainfall-runoff model and the Integrated Catchment Model of Nitrogen (INCA-N) are applied to simulate the observed flow and N dynamics.

The effects of soil bunds on runoff, losses of soil and nutrients, and crop yield are rarely documented in the Central Highlands of Ethiopia. A field experiment was set up consisting of three treatments: (i) barley‐cultivated land protected with graded soil bunds (Sb); (ii) fallow land (F); and (iii) barley‐cultivated land without soil bund (Bc). For 3 years (2007–2009), the effect of soil bunds on runoff, losses of soil and nutrients, and crop productivity was studied.