Soil organic carbon (SOC) dynamics affect soil quality, agricultural productivity and atmospheric CO₂ concentration. Despite the need for spatial assessments of SOC content over time, reliable estimates from traditional field survey methods are limited by data availability; where measurements are often made at discrete point locations, at a coarse sample spacing or over a limited spatial extent.

From April to September 2014 the field experiment to determine responsiveness of plants to a depth of sowing and the economic and environmental value of dry matter yield on ecologically important and/or waterside areas was carried out in the valley of the river Pesnica (Zamarkova). The experiment was designed as split-plot with four replications. The plants treatments on main plots were: alfalfa (

This study investigates the micro-determinants of land use change usingcommunity, household and plot histories, an ethnographic method that constructs paneldata from systematic oral recalls. A 20-year historical timeline (1975-1995) isconstructed for the village of La Lima in central Honduras, based on a random sample of97 plots. Changes in land use are examined using transition analysis and multinomiallogit analysis.

Several of the major processes that result in N loss from soil (nitrification, ammonia volatilization, and denitrification) discriminate against ¹⁵N and fractionate the stable N isotopes, thus δ¹⁵N of ecosystem components has been suggested as an indicator of ecosystem N leakiness. This concept has been applied more successfully to native systems (primarily forest) than to managed systems where N inputs are greater and N cycling processes have potentially been modified.

Land management practices, invasive species expansion, and changes in the fire regime greatly impact the distribution of native plants in natural areas. Wyoming big sagebrush (Artemisia tridentata ssp. wyomingensis), a keystone species in the Great Basin, has seen a 50% reduction in its distribution. For many dryland species, reestablishment efforts have focused on direct seeding but achieved only minor success due to irregular seed germination and poor survival.

Simulation models are widely used to assess the impacts of management and environmental variables on soil organic matter dynamics, to address questions on ecosystem sustainability and carbon cycling under global change. We tested the Century ecosystem model for two long-term experiments in north-eastern Italy: one (SF) comparing nutrient management treatments in small confined plots containing widely contrasting soil types (i.e., sandy, clay and peat) and the other (CR) involving a field study with crop rotation, nutrient, and management intensity variables.

Several social theories have been proposed to explain the uneven distribution of vegetation in urban residential areas: population density, social stratification, luxury effect, and ecology of prestige. We evaluate these theories using a combination of demographic and socio-economic predictors of vegetative cover on all residential lands in New York City. We use diverse data sources including the City’s property database, time-series demographic and socio-economic data from the US Census, and land cover data from the University of Vermont’s Spatial Analysis Lab (SAL).

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.