Artemisia ordosica Krasch. is a semishrub native to the Ordos Plateau of Inner Mongolia, northern China, and forms a unique and dominant vegetation type in the sandland of the region. To determine the variation of productivity in A. ordosica rangeland, we investigated net primary production (NPP), fine root turnover, soil microbial C (Cmic), and soil organic carbon density (SOCd) on sand dunes differing in mobility (i.e., fixed, semifixed, and shifting sand dunes) in Mu Us sandland.

Research on the adoption and relinquishment of horses, both domestic and wild, remains limited. As a result, little is known about adopters, their adopted horses, and their adoption experience. This study surveyed and interviewed 17 adopters of Colonial Spanish mustangs through the Corolla Wild Horse Fund (CWHF). Together, they adopted 22 horses of varying ages and genders from 2002 to 2012. The participants, who had a range of previous experience with and knowledge of horses, were generally very satisfied with their horses and their adoption experience.

Should farming and conservation policies aim broadly to separate land for nature and land for production (land sparing) or integrate production and conservation on the same land (wildlife-friendly farming)? Most studies that try to address this question suffer from flaws in sampling design, inappropriate metrics, and/or failure to measure biodiversity baselines. We discuss how these failings can be addressed, and what existing information tells us about the key debates on this topic. The evidence available suggests that trade-offs between biodiversity and yield are prevalent.

Local communities often have substantial knowledge related to trends in soil quality and the associated limiting factors. Despite this, soil quality (SQ) degradation is a critical problem in Ethiopia and there is little or insufficient scientific information documenting local community experience in assessing SQ. This paper presents experiences of local communities in diagnosis of SQ and assesses the contribution of local knowledge as a strategy for sustainable development decision making within the Mai-Negus catchment of northern Ethiopia.

Although a great deal of information exists about the effect of land use on soil enzyme activities, much of this is contradictory and brings into question the suitability of soil enzyme activities as indicators of how land use affects soil quality. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of land use on different soil biochemical properties, especially hydrolytic enzyme activities, with the aim of providing knowledge about the problems related to the use of enzymes as indicators of soil quality.

There is growing interest in the applications of soil enzymes as early indicators of soil quality change under contrasting agricultural management practices. However, despite there being an abundant literature on this subject, most comparative assessments have been based on a limited number of experimental farms and, therefore, conclusions are not as robust as desired. In this study, we compare 18 pairs of organic and neighbouring conventional olive orchards in southern Spain.

Land issues, exploitation of natural resources, and Forests of Rural Communities in the periphery of Kinshasa, DRC. Peri-urban forests are under strong anthropic pressure. Any activity needs a previous identification of stakeholders, landscape perception, socio-economic trends in local communities and their relationships with land and natural resources. Kinshasa (capital of Democratic Republic of Congo, DRC) is a 10 millions inhabitants city with rapid growth and increasing impacts on surrounding villages linked with forest natural resources.

Multivariate analysis of data from approximately 700 arable fields from France was carried out to partition the respective importance of environmental factors versus management practices on weed species richness and composition. Overall, canonical correspondence analysis indicated that the major variations in species composition between fields were associated with human management factors; (1) the current crop type and (2) the preceding crop type. Three main weed communities were identified according to sowing season: winter, spring and summer-sown crops.