Global climate change, especially the phenomena of global warming, is expected to increase the intensity of land-falling hurricanes. Societal adaptation is needed to reduce vulnerability from increasingly intense hurricanes.
Improving the long-term sustainability and resilience of smallholder agriculture in Africa is highly dependent on conserving or improving the quality of the natural resource. Conservation agriculture is conceived around more integrated and effective management strategies for provisioning both food and other ecosystem services.
Soils of the world’s agroecosystems (croplands, grazing lands, rangelands) are depleted of their soil organic carbon (SOC) pool by 25–75% depending on climate, soil type, and historic management. The magnitude of loss may be 10 to 50tonsC/ha. Soils with severe depletion of their SOC pool have low agronomic yield and low use efficiency of added input.
Experimental forests and ranges are living laboratories that provide opportunities for conducting scientific research and transferring research results to partners and stakeholders. They are invaluable for their long-term data and capacity to foster collaborative, interdisciplinary research.
Kangayam grassland in the tropical region of south India has been sustainably managed for over one hundred and fifty years. In a region with meagre rainfall, growing grass is the farmers' main vocation. Between 1855 and 1881, the majority of government 'wastelands' were given on lease to farmers who organized the land into grazing paddocks and fenced with hedges of Balasmodendron berryi.
Kangayam grassland in the tropical region of south India has been sustainably managed for over one hundred and fifty years. In a region with meagre rainfall, growing grass is the farmers' main vocation. Between 1855 and 1881, the majority of government 'wastelands' were given on lease to farmers who organized the land into grazing paddocks and fenced with hedges of Balasmodendron berryi.
Degraded lands are common in human-influenced tropical semiarid areas, and the potential for C sequestration through rehabilitation of these areas is substantial.
Over the last 20 years, a change in traditional land use practices has taken place in central Germany. Formerly species-rich dry grassland communities have been converted into communities with greatly reduced diversity in many places. Whereas grass species have expanded, several forbs have declined in abundance.
Livestock grazing is an important form of land use, affecting ecosystems worldwide. In ecoregions that evolved with low densities of large ungulates, such as those in the western United States, there is ongoing debate as to the appropriate concentrations of livestock that can be sustained.
Mediterranean ecosystems are global hotspots of biodiversity threaten by human disturbances. Growing evidence indicates that regeneration of Mediterranean forests can be halted under certain circumstances and that successional stages can become notoriously persistent.