Soil moisture is an important hydrologic variable of great consequence in both natural and agricultural ecosystems. Unfortunately, it is virtually impossible to accurately assess the spatial and temporal variability of surface soil moisture using conventional, point measurement techniques. Remote sensing has the potential to provide areal estimates of soil moisture at a variety of spatial scales. This investigation evaluates the use of European Remote Sensing Satellite (ERS-2) C-band, VV polarization, synthetic aperture radar data for regional estimates of surface soil moisture.

In this study, the Surface Energy Balance Algorithms for Land (SEBAL) model and Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) products from Terra satellite were combined with meteorological data to estimate evapotranspiration (ET) over the Sanjiang Plain, Northeast China. Land cover/land use was classified by using a recursive partitioning and regression tree with MODIS Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) time series data, which were reconstructed based on the Savitzky-Golay filtering approach.

Urbanization can alter nutrient cycling. This research evaluated how urbanization affected nutrient dynamics in the subtropics. We established 17–0.04 ha plots in five different land cover types—slash pine (Pinus elliottii) plantations (n = 3), rural natural pine forests (n = 3), rural natural oak forests (n = 4), urban pine forests (n = 3) and urban oak forests (n = 4) in the Florida panhandle, a subtropical region that has experienced rapid urbanization.

The commonly used discretization approaches for distributed hydrological models can be broadly categorized into four types, based on the nature of the discrete components: Regular Mesh, Triangular Irregular Networks (TINs), Representative Elementary Watershed (REWs) and Hydrologic Response Units (HRUs). In this paper, a new discretization approach for landforms that have similar hydrologic properties is developed and discussed here for the Integrated Hydrologic Model (IHM), a combining simulation of surface and groundwater processes, accounting for the interaction between the systems.

Large carnivores, with their expansive home range and resource requirements, are a good model for understanding how animal populations alter habitat selection and use as human densities and development increase. We examined the habitat selection of red wolves (Canis rufus) in North Carolina, USA, where the population of red wolves resides in a mosaic of naturally occurring and human-associated land cover. We used locations from 20 GPS-collared red wolves, monitored over 3years, to develop resource selection functions at the landscape level.

The study used a combination of ethno-social surveys and Geographical Information Systems (GIS) to assess 651 pastoral households and their land use under agropastoral production systems in Ogun State, Nigeria. Yields of arable crops on agropastoralists' fields were generally low. Livestock productivity was similar on all parameters to levels in comparable contexts elsewhere across the West African subregion, but generally below possible potentials and on-farm research findings. Pastoral households' activities presently influence between 221 km2 and 523 km2 of land in Ogun State.

Incorporating ecological processes and animal behaviour into Species Distribution Models (SDMs) is difficult. In species with a central resting or breeding place, there can be conflict between the environmental requirements of the ‘central place’ and foraging habitat. We apply a multi-scale SDM to examine habitat trade-offs between the central place, roost sites, and foraging habitat in Myotis nattereri. We validate these derived associations using habitat selection from behavioural observations of radio-tracked bats.

The aim of the research is to analyse the landscape structure changes from the end of the Soviet times in 1974–1986 until 2005 when market economy existed in Lithuania. The changes of landscape structure were observed in 100 sample areas (squares) each of them having 2.5 km2 area and distributed in different landscape types. The changes in sample areas (squares) with determination of land cover structure transformations were observed using topographic photos and ortophoto images at a scale 1:10 000.

Riparian ecosystems are interfaces between aquatic and terrestrial environments recognized for their nutrient interception potential in agricultural landscapes. Stream network maps from a broad range of map resolutions have been employed in watershed studies of riparian areas. However, map resolution may affect important attributes of riparian buffers, such as the connectivity between source lands and small stream channels missing in coarse resolution maps.

Recently, extreme meteorological events have occurred frequently owing to climate change and its influence. Impacts of concentrated precipitation events include the damage caused by landslides. Many areas in Gangwondo (Korea) are located at high elevation and have large elevation differences; these areas are thus at high risk of landslides. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the landslide hazard of the province using representative concentration pathways (RCP) scenarios 4.5 and 8.5 and to compare results.

The installation of green roofs, defined here as rooftops with a shallow soil cover and extensive vegetation, has been proposed as a possible measure to mitigate the loss of green space caused by the steady growth of cities. However, the effectiveness of green roofs in supporting arthropod communities, and the extent to which they facilitate connectivity of these communities within the urban environment is currently largely unknown.

Human activities are radically changing natural land cover and increasing the delivery of soil, organic compounds, nutrients, toxic agrochemicals and other contaminants to aquatic ecosystems. The eutrophication of streams, rivers, lakes, reservoirs and costal zones is one of the most important consequences of human activities. In this study we assessed the trophic status of 28 wadeable stream reaches of the Santa Lucía basin, an important economic region of Uruguay. We developed a Trophic State Index of Benthic Invertebrates (TSI-BI), the first of its kind for South American lotic systems.