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Vulnerability of African mammals to anthropogenic climate change under conservative land transformation assumptions

Journal Articles & Books
December, 2006
Africa

Recent observations show that human-induced climate change (CC) and land transformation (LT) are threatening wildlife globally. Thus, there is a need to assess the sensitivity of wildlife on large spatial scales and evaluate whether national parks (NPs), a key conservation tools used to protect species, will meet their mandate under future CC and LT conditions. Here, we assess the sensitivity of 277 mammals at African scale to CC at 10[prime] resolution, using static LT assumptions in a 'first-cut' estimate, in the absence of credible future LT trends.

Do ecological networks in South African commercial forests benefit grassland birds? A case study of a pine plantation in KwaZulu-Natal

Journal Articles & Books
December, 2010
South Africa
Southern Africa

Grasslands in South Africa have been extensively transformed and fragmented, but are poorly protected. Commercial afforestation poses a particular threat to grassland biodiversity because areas suitable for forestry coincide with those supporting the greatest richness of endemic and threatened biota. To comply with international forestry standards, commercial timber growers leave “ecological networks” of interconnected open corridors within plantations: however, the value of these networks for conservation is unclear.

Intensification of agriculture, landscape composition and wild bee communities: A large scale study in four European countries

Journal Articles & Books
December, 2010
France
Switzerland
Belgium
Netherlands

The impacts of agricultural practices and landscape composition on bee communities were investigated in 14 sites located in four Western European countries (Belgium, France, the Netherlands and Switzerland). Standardized interviews with farmers assessed agricultural practices in terms of agricultural inputs (nitrogen fertilization and pesticides), livestock density and crop types. The proportion of semi-natural habitats was calculated for each site. We showed negative effects of agricultural intensification on species richness, abundance and diversity of wild bees.

Forest fragments modulate the provision of multiple ecosystem services

Journal Articles & Books
December, 2014
Canada

Agricultural landscapes provide the essential ecosystem service of food to growing human populations; at the same time, agricultural expansion to increase crop production results in forest fragmentation, degrading many other forest‐dependent ecosystem services. However, surprisingly little is known about the role that forest fragments play in the provision of ecosystem services and how fragmentation affects landscape multifunctionality at scales relevant to land management decisions.

Landscape Planning Education: Utilizing a Design Charrette for Rural Children

Journal Articles & Books
December, 2006

Although there are efforts underway to educate the public on landscape planning and land management, educational efforts geared toward children have been limited. This study recognizes the importance of landscape planning education, children's inherent spatial cognition, and their observational and creative skills. However, there are limited opportunities for children to be landscape planners and the elements children believe are important in the design and planning of their ideal community are unknown.

Applicability of SRTM data for landform characterisation and geomorphometry: a comparison with contour-derived parameters

Journal Articles & Books
December, 2011

Geomorphologic and hydrologic research heavily depends on digital elevation models (DEM) which are currently being prepared from digital contours. The present study examines the use and applicability of freely available global elevation data source (3 arc seconds finished Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM)) in landform characterisation, geomorphometry, river basin studies and other allied scientific applications in comparison with contour elevation data derived from the surveyed topographical sheets.

process-based and distributed model for nutrient dynamics in river basin: Development, testing and applications

Journal Articles & Books
December, 2012
Japan

A new grid-based model of nutrient dynamics and transport process has been developed within a distributed hydrological modelling framework and integrated with river network module. The key aspect of this development is a process based description of nutrient generation process on the land surface and its related nutrient release with hydrologic runoff and soil erosion.

Post-Wildland fire Desertification: Can Rehabilitation Treatments Make a Difference

Journal Articles & Books
December, 2009

Desertification, caused by land degradation as opposed to the immediate creation of classical deserts, is of prime concern in the 21st century. As a result of human activities and climate change, the land loses its proper hydrologic function and biological productivity. Desertification affects 33 % of the earth's surface and over a billion people. Fire-related desertification has a number of environmental, social, and economic consequences. The two key environmental consequences are soil erosion and non-native plant invasions. Erosion after wildland fires can be in the range of

dominant erosion processes supplying fine sediment to three major rivers in tropical Australia, the Daly (NT), Mitchell (Qld) and Flinders (Qld) Rivers

Journal Articles & Books
December, 2012
Australia

The tropics of northern Australia have received relatively little attention with regard to the impact of soil erosion on the many large river systems that are an important part of Australia's water resource, especially given the high potential for erosion when long dry seasons are followed by intense wet season rain. Here we use ¹³⁷Cs concentrations to determine the erosion processes supplying sediment to two major northern Australian Rivers; the Daly River (Northern Territory), and the Mitchell River (Queensland).

Prioritizing land management efforts at a landscape scale: a case study using prescribed fire in Wisconsin

Journal Articles & Books
December, 2016
United States of America

One challenge in the effort to conserve biodiversity is identifying where to prioritize resources for active land management. Cost–benefit analyses have been used successfully as a conservation tool to identify sites that provide the greatest conservation benefit per unit cost. Our goal was to apply cost–benefit analysis to the question of how to prioritize land management efforts, in our case the application of prescribed fire to natural landscapes in Wisconsin, USA.