The climatic and anthropogenic control on Holocene sediment dynamics was not well constrained for the Western Mediterranean basin. The paucity of high resolution palaeoenvironmental records long hampered a detailed understanding of the human impact on erosion rates. This paper analyses Holocene sediment dynamics in the context of regional climatic conditions, land cover and human occupation based on an extended compilation of recently published high-resolution paleoenvironmental proxy data from both terrestrial and marine environments.

The aim of this study was to examine the influence of land cover changes on soil organic carbon (SOC) and soil total nitrogen (STN) in the Daqing Prefecture of China, where heavy industrialisation in the form of dense oil wells has impacted the environment. Time‐series presentations for the period 1978 to 2008 of remotely sensed data and soil survey data were used to assess the extent of the changes.

Swat is part of the high mountain Hindu-Kush Himalayan region of Pakistan, with diverse biophysical and socio-economic characteristics. The region is endowed with many fragile and fragmented ecosystems, and land use and land cover changes have accelerated destructive processes with irreversible effects on ecosystems. The paper aims to (1) find proximate and underlying causes of land use and land cover changes; (2) analyse the drivers of change; and (3) reflect on the role of governance and policy.

The West African savannas are subject to changes in fire regimes related to land use intensification, which may infer significant biological modifications. We investigated the efficiency of MODIS fire products to account for the variability of fire regimes in relation to changes in land cover and savanna vegetation. The specificity and complementarities of both MODIS active fire (MOD14A2 and MYD14A2) and burnt area (MCD45A1) products were assessed in order to characterize fire regimes and to relate them with land cover.

Land cover is a key parameter in geosciences and a linkage between many aspects of the physical and human environments. Savannas belong to the biomes where land cover mapping with remote sensing faces the most difficulties and several studies already addressed the challenging definition of savanna land cover classes. With the aim to standardize ongoing mapping activities, the Land Cover Classification System (LCCS) was initiated in 1993.

The distribution of mosquito populations is spatially heterogeneous and influenced by factors acting at a wide range of scales. The aim of this study was to assess the role of environmental heterogeneity at the landscape level in shaping the composition of immature mosquito communities inhabiting surface water habitats. The Paraná Lower Delta (Argentina) is a temperate wetland that extends along a 1º north–south gradient and presents high landscape heterogeneity, due to the combined action of geomorphology, hydrology and human intervention.

Exploitation of groundwater and frequent failure of monsoons has produced rapid water table depletion in present days. Rainwater is discharged as surface runoff without replenishing the groundwater table. Identification of potential zones for groundwater recharge has become an important event to replenish the groundwater resources. The recharge potential is governed by various features of surface, subsurface and hydrometeorological parameters. Remote sensing technique is found to be very effective tool for the integration of various features of these factors.

Spatial data quality is a paramount concern in all geographical information systems (GIS) applications. Existing standards and guidelines for spatial data commonly assume the positional error is normally distributed. While non-normal behaviour of the error in digital elevation data has been observed in previous research, current guidelines for digital elevation data still assume that the errors for observations in open terrain are normally distributed.

This work presents a new four-tier hierarchical change-point algorithm designed to detect land-cover change from satellite data. We tested the algorithm using Global Inventory Modelling and Mapping Studies (GIMMS) data for eastern Africa. Using a unique sequence of four statistical change-point detection methods, we identified significant increases or decreases in normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), estimated the approximate time of change, and characterized the likely forms of change (i.e. linear trend, abrupt mean and/or variability change, and hockey-stick shaped change).

In this study we investigate the potential of fraction images derived from a linear spectral mixture model to detect vegetation phenology in Amazonia, and evaluate their relationships with the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) vegetation indices. Time series of MODIS 250-m data over three contrasting land cover types in the Amazon were used in conjunction with rainfall data, a land cover map and a forest inventory survey to support the interpretation of our findings.

The poor water condition in agricultural watersheds in Poland provides evidence of a major impact of this sector on water quality, especially with regard to nutrients. What is specific about Polish agriculture, especially in the Wielkopolska region, is a large area of arable land and a high concentration of point sources. The outflow from these sources is very changeable and depends strongly on weather conditions, in particular precipitation. Therefore, it is very difficult to measure the runoff from those sources.

The Scops Owl Otus scops (L., 1758) is a species of European concern, which suffered a noticeable decrease in distribution in the last decades, and changes in agricultural practices have been proposed as a major threat for this owl. We studied the habitat preference of the Scops Owl by assessing the habitat occupancy of 401 territories distributed in a large area in northwest Italy, with a special focus on 98 territories located in a high-density area (Monferrato).