To address severe grassland degradation problems, China has been implementing a number of national restoration programs, whose significant environmental effect has attracted the attention of many researchers. In this paper, land use and cover change (LUCC) in the Inner Mongolia grassland and the consequent change in net primary productivity (NPP) were studied by combining the land use data of the study area for 2001 and 2009 derived from the MODIS global land cover product and the CASA (Carnegie–Ames–Stanford Approach) model driven with MODIS-NDVI data.

Population of two cities in Pakistan has already crossed the 10-million figure and for the rest of the areas in the country populations are also increasing rapidly. Urbanization has boosted the use of energy in the cities and so is greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions but the ground situation as to the extent, vulnerability, past trends and future scenarios are not unveiled for the cities of Pakistan. Dearth of data in Pakistan is a huge hindrance to the investigation of energy use and actual GHG emissions.

The agriculture, forestry and other land use (AFOLU) sector is responsible for approximately 25% of anthropogenic GHG emissions mainly from deforestation and agricultural emissions from livestock, soil and nutrient management. Mitigation from the sector is thus extremely important in meeting emission reduction targets. The sector offers a variety of cost‐competitive mitigation options with most analyses indicating a decline in emissions largely due to decreasing deforestation rates.

Most of the plantation impact studies reported in literature normally use either one of the sensitivity-based approach or a hydrological model with few actually comparing the impact results from these different approaches. This paper investigates the impacts of increase or decrease in plantations and climate variability on streamflow using two approaches: the sensitivity-based approach (including a non-parametric model and six Budyko framework based models) and the hydrological modelling approach (using Xinanjiang and SIMHYD models) for three medium sized catchments in Australia.

BACKGROUND: For agricultural systems to achieve climate-smart objectives, including improved food security and rural livelihoods as well as climate change adaptation and mitigation, they often need to be take a landscape approach; they must become ‘climate-smart landscapes’. Climate-smart landscapes operate on the principles of integrated landscape management, while explicitly incorporating adaptation and mitigation into their management objectives.

Adequate quantification of evapotranspiration (ET) is crucial to assess how climate change and land cover change (LCC) interact with the hydrological cycle of terrestrial ecosystems. The Mongolian Plateau plays a unique role in the global climate system due to its ecological vulnerability, high sensitivity to climate change and disturbances, and limited water resources. Here, we used a version of the Terrestrial Ecosystem Model that has been modified to use Penman–Monteith (PM) based algorithms to calculate ET.

Much of the biodiversity‐related climate change impacts research has focused on the direct effects to species and ecosystems. Far less attention has been paid to the potential ecological consequences of human efforts to address the effects of climate change, which may equal or exceed the direct effects of climate change on biodiversity. One of the most significant human responses is likely to be mediated through changes in the agricultural utility of land.

This paper examines the past, present, and future use of the concept of historical range and variability (HRV) in land management. The history, central concepts, benefits, and limitations of HRV are presented along with a discussion on the value of HRV in a changing world with rapid climate warming, exotic species invasions, and increased land development. This paper is meant as a reference on the strengths and limitations of applying HRV in land management.

The study presented in this paper is part of the ACCELERATES (Assessing Climate Change Effects on Land Use and Ecosystems from Regional Analysis to The European Scale) project whose main goal is the construction of integrated predictions of future land use in Europe. The scenarios constructed in the project include estimates not only due to changes in the climate baseline, but also estimates due to possible future changes in socio-economics.

Agricultural productivity in both developing and developed countries will have to improve to achieve substantial increases in food production by 2050 while land and water resources become less abundant and the effects of climate change introduce much uncertainty. Already less resilient production areas will suffer the most, as temperatures will rise further in tropical and semi-tropical latitudes and water-scarce regions will face even drier conditions.

BACKGROUND: Soil organic carbon (SOC) is fundamental for mitigating climate change as well as improving soil fertility. Databases of SOC obtained from soil surveys in 1981 and 2011 were used to assess SOC change (0–20 cm) in croplands of Heilongjiang Province in northeast China. Three counties (Lindian, Hailun and Baoqing) were selected as typical croplands representing major soil types and land use types in the region. RESULTS: The changes in SOC density (SOCD) between 1981 and 2001 were −6.6, −14.7 and 5.7 Mg C ha⁻¹ in Lindian, Hailun and Baoqing Counties respectively.

Adaptation in agro-ecological systems will be important for moderating the impacts of climate change. Vulnerability assessments provide the basis for developing strategies to reduce social vulnerability and plan for climate adaptation. Primary industries have been identified as the most vulnerable industry sector globally. We review how primary producers might be socially vulnerable to climate change and develop a ‘vulnerability typology’ of cattle producers based on survey responses from 240 producers across northern Australia.