Highly managed biotic systems, such as agricultural crops and managed turf, often require multiple applications of pesticides that may be transported with runoff to areas beyond the intended target site. Pesticides have been detected in surface waters of rural and urban watersheds raising questions concerning their source, potential environmental effects and a need for strategies to reduce their inputs.

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Stoichiometric relations drive powerful constraints on many ecosystem processes. However, our understanding of the hierarchical responses of plant C:N:P stoichiometry at different levels of biological organization to global change factors remains limited. METHODS: we examined the plant C:N:P stoichiometric responses to N deposition and mowing (hay making) at both species- and community-level by carrying out a 4-year field experiment in the temperate steppe of northern China.

1. Little is known about the diversity and land management response of native solitary bees in globally rare barrens restricted to the northeastern United States. Herein we assess solitary bee diversity in a scrub oak barrens 2 years after a mow and herbicide treatment. 2. Standard bowl‐trap and sweep‐net surveys were repeated six times during June–August in four treated scrub oak patches and a nearby untreated scrub oak patch. 3. Bee richness and total abundance (all specimens) did not differ appreciably between the treated and untreated scrub oak.

Ecosystem level processes and species interactions have become important concepts in conservation and land management. Despite being New Zealand’s greatest contributors to global diversity, native invertebrates have been largely overlooked in the assessment of land values, and their diversity has often been assumed to reflect native plant diversity without justification. Invertebrates can in fact affect plant species composition, and in ecosystems such as New Zealand’s remaining indigenous and semi-modified tussock grasslands can do so in excess of more conspicuous vertebrate grazers.

At present, spatially very detailed data sets can be obtained about soil, landscape and crop variability. However, there is a need to select independent key properties to identify management classes needed for precise land management. In a previous study performed in the European loess belt, topsoil pH, apparent electrical conductivity (ECa) and elevation were identified as key properties. In this study we enlarged the number of soil properties by including gamma ray measurements and employed a similar methodology to a field in the sand belt of northern Europe.

This article describes the WEPS management submodel component which simulates the effects of typical cropping management practices, such as tillage, planting, harvesting, irrigation, or residue burning, at an operational level. Such management practices can affect the surface conditions, which in turn affect wind erosion potential. A variety of land management operations is simulated by identifying the primary physical processes involved and representing each individual operation as a sequenced set of those processes.

Fine particulates less than 2.5 μm (PM2.5) or 10 μm (PM10) are often emitted from river bank or other alluvial lands to the atmosphere during dry and windy seasons worldwide, which contribute to land degradation and poor air quality. Investigation of PM2.5 and PM10 emission potential could contribute to the development of mitigation strategy and better land management practices. In the lowprecipitation zone (

The excessive use of plant protection products (PPPs) has given rise to issues of public and environmental health because of their toxicity. Reducing the use of toxic PPPs and replacing them with products that are less toxic for human health and the environment have become socially, environmentally and economically indispensable.

The effect of shallow water table fluctuations on the evaporation and CO₂ fluxes in a peatland is investigated. The fluxes of evaporation and net ecosystem exchange of carbon were measured from mid-spring to the end of summer in 2005 and 2006 and simulated independently with process models. The observed and modelled data were then compared along a gradient of water levels. Any variation along the gradient would imply an influence of the water table on the flux. It became evident that changes in the water table had no effect on the evaporation and CO₂ fluxes of the peatland.

Due to a rapidly expanding human population in Florida, fire management has become hampered by urban encroachment, smoke management issues, and forest fragmentation. For these and other reasons, fire has been excluded from many stands, resulting in the buildup of dangerous fuel loads. These fuel loads have begun to result in recurrent destructive wildfires. Already, different communities are responding to these dangerous fuel loads in various ways.

In response to a drying climate, an integrated property planning tool was developed over three years to help landowners make better use of available rainfall. A sequence was identified which indicated how parts of each property are affected by soil moisture limitations. The sequence was combined with soil properties to indicate targeted strategies for each location aimed to improve soil moisture availability, biomass utilisation, and long-term viability of the farm or ranching enterprise.