Reynolds, W. D., Drury, C. F., Yang, X. M., Tan, C. S. and Yang, J. Y. 2014. Impacts of 48 years of consistent cropping, fertilization and land management on the physical quality of a clay loam soil. Can. J. Soil Sci. 94: 403–419. Soil physical quality (SPQ) is often ignored or under-monitored in long-term field studies designed to determine the economic and environmental sustainability of agricultural practices.

We examined factors that potentially influenced reproductive success in Ferruginous Hawks (Buteo regalis) in the Uintah Basin, Utah, and determined whether oil and gas well development was one of those factors. For three breeding seasons (2002–2004), we measured the number of nestlings, fledglings, and dispersed young that were produced by pairs of Ferruginous Hawks nesting within 2365 km² managed by the Bureau of Land Management.

A large number of mathematical models have been developed to support land resource allocation decisions and land management needs; however, few of them can address various uncertainties that exist in relation to many factors presented in such decisions (e.g., land resource availabilities, land demands, land-use patterns, and social demands, as well as ecological requirements). In this study, a multi-objective interval-stochastic land resource allocation model (MOISLAM) was developed for tackling uncertainty that presents as discrete intervals and/or probability distributions.

The interactions between wind-blown sand transport, pioneer vegetation and succession vegetation in coastal dune fields play an important role in landform development and determine the balance between stabilization and re-activation of these aeolian landscapes.

Scattering slash (downed woody materials) after tree removal is increasingly prescribed by land managers as a treatment to promote the establishment and growth of understory vegetation in pinyon-juniper woodlands. However, the effects of scattering slash on soil resources and plant communities are poorly understood and often confounded with the release from tree competition.

Raw materials for animal feeding are highly deficient in Europe, which results in massive imports of soya beans from North and South America. These imports are connected with a number of environmental problems. Increasing the grain legume production in Europe could be a promising alternative. The impacts of introducing grain legumes into existing European crop rotations are investigated in this article. The environmental impacts are evaluated by using the SALCA (Swiss Agricultural Life Cycle Assessment) life cycle assessment method and the ecoinvent life cycle inventory database.

Agri-environment schemes (AES) were introduced in Europe to mitigate the loss of biodiversity in cultivated landscapes. In Switzerland, farmers have to convert 7% of the arable land into ecological compensation areas (ECA) in order to enhance biodiversity, low-input grassland making up the major part of ECA. This study investigated during 6 years the effect of ECA grassland on butterfly diversity at the field and the landscape scales in two farming landscape units of the Swiss Plateau.

Resistance to the use of prescribed fire is strong among many private land managers despite the advantages it offers for maintaining fire‐adapted ecosystems. Even managers who are aware of the benefits of using prescribed fire as a management tool avoid using it, citing potential liability as a major reason for their aversion. Recognizing the importance of prescribed fire for ecosystem management and the constraints current statutory schemes impose on its use, several states in the United States have undertaken prescribed burn statutory reform.