Quantifying the impacts of climate change on the hydrology and ecosystem is important in the study of the Loess Plateau, China, which is well known for its high erosion rates and ecosystem sensitivity to global change. A distributed ecohydrological model was developed and applied in the Jinghe River basin of the Loess Plateau. This model couples the vegetation model, BIOME BioGeochemicalCycles (BIOME-BGC) and the distributed hydrological model, Water and Energy transfer Process in Large river basins (WEP-L).

Native fauna in Australia’s arid zone has declined significantly since European settlement; however, Martu country in the Western Desert of Western Australia retains a diversity of iconic and threatened species that were once more widespread. An innovative partnership between The Nature Conservancy, BHP Billiton and the Martu people (represented by Kanyirninpa Jukurrpa – KJ) is achieving positive social, cultural, economic and environmental outcomes, which builds on funding from the Australian Government for land management on Martu country.

The aim of this study was to investigate the main factors that influence smallholders' adoption decision of soil conservation measures in the Gedeb watershed. Data from 498 household heads who live in the three districts of the watershed were analysed using the binary logistic regression model. We find that farmers need adequate cash to invest in soil conservation measures. Moreover, farmers would be more encouraged to implement soil conservation measures when they have larger areas of cropland.

Recently, researchers indicated great changes in the chemistry of atmosphere due to faster oxidation of soil organic carbon. The increases of greenhouse gasses especially CO2 concentration can affect climate, plant physiology, microbial activity, soil organic matter, and decomposition. Soil can be a store or source for atmospheric CO2. The amount of soil organic carbon stored in the soil or release to the atmosphere depends on net ecosystem productivity and heterotrophic respiration.

Requirements for the infrastructure and functionality of dynamic models of the production process of agricultural plants, which are necessary for building computer systems to support long-term solutions in agriculture and land management, are described. The extent to which domestic and foreign developments meet these requirements is shown.

In the conditions of the Republic of Belarus there was analysed the experience of state regulation of agricultural lands rotation in foreign countries. There were determined the key aspects of functioning of developed market of agricultural lands, which should be accounted and controlled by organs of state authority. There were systematized multiple forms and methods of state intervention into market rotation of lands. On this basis there was developed the purpose, tasks and methods of regulation of land rotation for the developing market of lands in the Republic of Belarus.

The guanaco Lama guanicoe was the only large native herbivore widely distributed across Patagonia until the introduction of domestic sheep Ovis aries. Guanacos have declined because of competition with sheep for forage, high hunting pressure and habitat degradation. Península Valdés is a protected area where sheep ranching is the predominant activity. A ranch formerly dedicated to sheep production was converted into a private wildlife reserve, from which all the sheep were removed in 2005.

In the southwestern agricultural region of Western Australia, the clearing of the original perennial vegetation for annual vegetation-based dryland agriculture has lead to rising saline groundwater levels. This has had effects such as reduced productivity of agricultural land, death of native vegetation, reduced stream water quality and infrastructure damage. These effects have been observed at many locations within the 18 million ha of cleared land.

Commitment of local communities to protected areas is essential for conserving biodiversity. However, in many developing countries like Benin, former management strategies kept human from protected areas using coercion. Fortunately, more recent regimes attempt to give local populations more control on the management but little is known about local residents' perceptions, beliefs and attitudes toward the management of these areas.

Sustainable land management requires that water and matter (nutrients and base cations) are efficiently recycled within ecosystems so that irreversible losses of matter from topsoils are minimised. Matter losses are connected to water flow. The division of water into evapotranspiration that is loss-free, and seepage to groundwater or surface water flow that both carry material losses, is decisive in determining total losses of dissolved matter in a given catchment. Investigations of areal matter losses confirmed the instrumental role of vegetation cover.