land cover

AIM: The rate of climate change might exceed the migration capacity of plants, particularly where habitats became fragmented by human land use. Except for some tree species, the extent to which habitat fragmentation decreases migration rates has nevertheless been little evaluated.

Some communities are susceptible to invasions and some are not. Why? Elton suggested in 1958 that the ability of the community to withstand invading species – its biotic resistance – depends on the number of resident species. Later contributors have emphasized the habitat's ability to support species, as well as the contribution of individual species to the resistance.

CONTEXT: Changing global environmental conditions, especially at northern latitudes, are threatening to shift species distributions and alter wildlife communities. OBJECTIVE: We aimed to establish current distributions and community arrangements of small mammals to provide important baselines for monitoring and conserving biodiversity into the future.

Wetlands are impacted by surrounding land use and land cover (LULC), but little information is available specifically on headwater wetlands. A total of 30 headwater wetlands were examined in coastal Alabama, USA, representing a range of surrounding LULC.

NO₃, Mn, Fe, and SO₄act as terminal electron acceptors (TEAs), modifying mineralization pathways and coupling biogeochemical cycles. Although single TEA concentrations and fluxes have been intensively studied, the factors regulating the simultaneous fluxes and molar ratios of TEAs are poorly elucidated.

We investigated the distribution, storage and landscape partitioning of soil amorphous silica (ASi) in a central Canadian region dominated by tundra and peatlands to provide a first estimate of the amount of ASi stored in Arctic permafrost ecosystems.

CONTEXT: Century-long interaction between societies and their environment has shaped the cultural landscapes across Europe. Specific farming systems have persisted for long periods, and their abandonment has led to far-reaching and rapid changes in patterns of land use and land cover.

Land use and land cover change (LUCC) have a significant influence on regional ecosystems and on the carbon cycle. The Sanjiang Plain is one of the largest grain production bases in China, and has experienced rapid land cover change, making it a critical area in which to assess the environmental impact of LUCC and propose strategies for minimizing its impact on net primary productivity (NPP).

The purpose of this study was to investigate the spatial distribution of annual soil loss in the Danjiangkou Reservoir Region, China. Soil erosion was estimated by integrating the universal soil loss equation (USLE) model with GIS.

Extreme droughts, heat waves, frosts, precipitation, wind storms and other climate extremes may impact the structure, composition and functioning of terrestrial ecosystems, and thus carbon cycling and its feedbacks to the climate system.

Biodiversity conservation is a primary function of protected areas. However, protected areas also attract people, and therefore, land use has intensified at the boundaries of these lands globally. In the USA, since the 1970s, housing growth at the boundaries (

Human‐induced land cover change threatens species diversity and ecosystem services. The rapid pace of current change makes predicting species’ declines imperative, but leaves little time for thorough study of all species. One solution is to make generalizations about species’ vulnerability to urbanization based on traits common among studied species in decline.