Restoring natural forests after field abandonment is a land management objective that fosters the recovery of forest biodiversity. We performed seeding and transplanting of native tree species 40 years after the abandonment of an arable field that became dominated by a dwarf bamboo (Pleioblastus chino (Franch. et Sav.) Makino) and by kudzu (Pueraria lobata (Willd.) Ohwi). By permutation tests, the removal of competing vegetation (gap creation) significantly increased the survival of three seeded species of Fagaceae and of eight transplanted species.

Efficient land use plays an important role in the context of sustainable agricultural development. Assuming that it will be viable only in cases when individuals employed in agriculture can ensure themselves an income equivalent and not less than the average wage in the national economy. Certain sizes of agricultural area, which are different for every key agricultural sector, are required to achieve it.

Comprehensive maps that characterize the variation in agricultural landscapes across Europe are lacking. In this paper we present a new Europe-wide, spatially-explicit typology and inventory of the diversity in composition, spatial structure and management intensity of European agricultural landscapes. Agricultural landscape types were characterized at a 1km2 resolution based on Europe-wide datasets that represent land cover, landscape structure and land management intensity.

Sixteen organochlorine pesticides (OCPs) were investigated in the 80 agricultural topsoil samples of Three Gorges Dam region, China. The concentration of OCPs ranged from 1.26 to 22.15 ng g⁻¹, with a mean concentration 6.49 ng g⁻¹. Dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethanes (DDTs) and hexachlorocyclohexanes (HCHs) were predominant compared to other OCPs, with mean concentrations 1.80 and 1.27 ng g⁻¹, respectively, accounting for 28 and 20 % of the total OCPs. Ratio analysis indicated that there is new input of DDTs in this study area.

The influence of re-wetting of pastures on the occurrence of important endoparasites in cattle was monitored over the course of three years. The study was conducted on a peninsula at the German North-Sea Coast. The cattle were stabled from November to April. During summer season, they were kept on pastures included in a nature protection program differentiating between three states of re-wetting. Faecal samples from randomly selected animals were analysed with routine diagnostic methods for the occurrence of Eimeria spp., nematode and trematode eggs and lungworm larvae.

Selected environments ranging from cultivated soils under vines and olive groves to sequential abandonment with forest, meadow and scrub cover were investigated for their impact on relevant physical and chemical properties in the shallow soils of the Cap de Creus Peninsula (NE Spain). Both insufficient agricultural practices and periodical wildfire occurrence in abandoned areas were focused as components triggering degradation processes. Despite that, less fire affected soils under Erica scrubs or meadows were found to be more active in carbon preservation potential.

The Northern Forest spans New York and three New England states and contains over 26 million ac, making it the largest contiguous forest east of the Mississippi. Most of the forestland is privately owned and public access to private land is a time-honored tradition in the region. Residents fear this tradition of open access may be threatened by recent acceleration in land tenure change across the region. We surveyed those who own 1,000 ac or more in the four-state region and found that newer owners were not more likely to post their land.

The most widely applied soil carbon models partition the soil organic carbon into two or more kinetically defined conceptual pools. The initial distribution of soil organic matter between these pools influences the simulations. Like many other soil organic carbon models, the DAYCENT model is initialised by assuming equilibrium at the beginning of the simulation.

Baobab fruit are harvested and used throughout Africa as an important source of food and are sold to generate income. Commercial use is increasing rapidly as derivatives of the fruit such as baobab seed oil and fruit pulp are being exported to Europe and North America. The cash derived from the sale of fruit support thousands of rural people. This study examines baobab fruit yields in an area being harvested for commercial use.

Determining appropriate topics and target audiences is essential to design effective educational outreach programs. Based on landowner responses to a mail survey, we determined both the importance and the availability of wildlife and forest management information topics to Mississippi landowners. Combining this information clearly identified the appropriate subject matter for outreach programs-topics important to landowners and for which information was relatively unavailable.

This article discusses the origins of natural ecosystem patterns from global to local scales. It describes how understanding these patterns can help scientists and managers in two ways. First, the local systems are shown within the context of larger systems. This perspective can be applied in assessing the connections between action at one scale and effect at another, the spatial transferability of models, and the links between terrestrial and aquatic systems. Second, scientists and managers can benefit because they gain information about the geographic patterns in ecosystems.