Globally, peatlands are regarded as important carbon stores and their conservation essential for ensuring continuation of terrestrial carbon storage. Numerous peatlands in particular regions of Europe have been degraded by drainage, burning, extraction, overgrazing and pollution in recent decades, often leading to erosion, loss of peat mass and a loss of a variety of flora. In the UK, some 90% of peatlands can be regarded as degraded.

Accurate a priori predictions of the sensitivity of species to vegetation management depend on an understanding of mechanisms underlying species response. To date information on where birds forage in the vegetation strata has been used to predict bird species response to vegetation change caused by livestock grazing. Profiting from this link between vegetation structural diversity and bird diversity, we test whether this variable, bird foraging height, can be used to predict the impact of a different type of habitat alteration; vegetation encroachment.

As the demands for food, feed and fuel increase in coming decades, society will be pressed to increase agricultural production - whether by increasing yields on already cultivated lands or by cultivating currently natural areas - or to change current crop consumption patterns. In this analysis, we consider where yields might be increased on existing croplands, and how crop yields are constrained by biophysical (e.g. climate) versus management factors. This study was conducted at the global scale.

In many European lowland rivers and riparian floodplains diffuse nutrient pollution is causing a major risk for the surface waters and groundwater to not achieve a good status as demanded by the European Water Framework Directive. In order to delimit the impact of diffuse nutrient pollution substantial and often controversial changes in landuse and management are under discussion.

A new methodological framework for plant diversity assessment at the landscape scale is presented that exhibits the following strengths: (1) potential for easily standardizable sampling procedure; (2) characterization of disturbance regime; (3) use of selected disturbance descriptors as explanatory variables which probably allow for better transferability than site specific land use types--for example, to evaluate the emerging use of energy plants that pose novel management challenges without historic precedence to many landscapes; (4) analysis of quantitative and qualitative aspects of pla

The aim of this study was to evaluate the impacts of land leveling on some of soil properties. Land leveling as an effective strategy for paddy land management is one of the most important programs run by the Ministry of Jihad-Agriculture in Guilan province, northern part of Iran. Precise land leveling improves irrigation application, fertilization efficiency, and uniform soil moisture for germination. Also, it increases yields and cultivable lands and reduces delivery losses.

The Florida Scrub ecosystem depends on fire to sustain ecosystem function and to support resident plant and animal species. A recent study addressed the relationship between the time since last fire (TSF) and resident amphibians and reptiles in rosemary bald, one Florida Scrub habitat type. This is a parallel study in another Florida Scrub habitat type, scrubby flatwoods, at Archbold Biological Station (ABS), Lake Placid, Florida, USA. We installed 36 400-m² enclosures (four burn units within each of three TSF categories X 3 replicates per burn unit) at ABS.

Understanding of tillage effects on soil chemical properties and cations in soil solution dynamics is essential for making appropriate land-management decisions. Measurements were made after more than 25 years of different tillage treatments: conventional tillage (CT) and conservation tillage, which includes no-till (NT) and minimum tillage (MT). pH and bulk density did not show important changes but exchangeable cations and cations in soil solution were affected by depth and different tillage.

This project, carried out as a follow-up to M.Sc thesis research,
aimed at addressing issues identified as climate change priorities
was a direct result of the urgent climate change adaptation
priorities identified in Kabale district during the MSc. research.
Upon completion of the MSc. research, a Field Attachment
Programme Award (FAPA)was provided to disseminate the
results of the MSc research. The project used participatory
approaches to disseminate climate change adaptation strategies

The management of soils is an important issue for policy makers in Ethiopia. However, most of the interventions designed to conserve the soil resources have fallen short of the expectations, performing impressively in the short run, but proving unsustainable on a long-term basis. There are no simple explanations for the failure of these interventions to reverse soil degradation, but it has been evident for some time that there is an uneasy connection between 'objective' assessments of the state of the land and the way this information is used in the policy-making processes.

Groundwater vulnerability assessment is an important task in water resources and land management. The most sophisticated among the vulnerability assessment techniques is the GIS-based DRASTIC model. However, despite its popularity, it is marred with excessive subjectivity glitches; little research has been conducted to address the shortcomings associated with this method. This study investigates various issues regarding the application of the GIS-based DRASTIC model through a critical review of relevant literatures.