The Zagros region of western Iran has been affected by the recent changes both in amount and in structure of forest cover. We evaluated the influence of several driving forces on forest cover and structure, including socioeconomic (urban and rural population and rural income) and climatic (mean annual rainfall and mean annual temperature) variables. We acquired all time series Landsat images of a study site from 1972 to 2009. The images were classified to produce a land cover map of each year.

Temporal variations in land-atmosphere water vapor exchange are more pronounced in seasonal environments, especially grass-dominated savannas (known as campo sujo Cerrado) of the southern and eastern Amazon Basin. Recent work in campo sujo indicates that rates of canopy conductance (gc) were directly and indirectly affected by a variety of meteorological variables, which limited our understanding of how seasonal variation in meteorology affected rates of gc. Thus, our overall objective here is to determine how individual meteorological variables affect seasonal variations in gc.

We analyzed water and sediment chemistry, catchment land cover, and microbial dehydrogenase (DHA) and extracellular enzymes activities (EEA) related to microbial C, N, P, and S acquisition in more than 2100 1st–10th order streams. The streams and their catchments represented gradients in water and sediment chemistry (C, N, P, S) and land cover (% forest, % wetland, % row crop agriculture) against which to compare biofilm and sediment DHA and EEA, and to estimate the extent of nutrient limitation in US streams and rivers.

Namibia is mostly an arid and semi-arid country with a high number of reptile and fewer amphibian species. We review the herpetological literature dealing with Namibian species over the past fifty years, and provide up-to-date amphibian and reptile accounts using a widely accepted taxonomy and nomenclature. We critically discuss species accounts, draw attention to the historical development of species inventories for the country, and indicate species endemism for Namibia and the Namib Desert.

Identifying the primary causes and examining the processes and trends of land use change are crucial for land use planning, utilization of regional resources and environment management. Combining the ecological quantity analysis with GIS technology, based on the land use data and remote sense images, the changes of land use and land cover and the driving force were analyzed in the mainstream of the Tarim River from 1973 to 2005.

With an increasing population and rapid development of the economy and society of the Yellow River Basin region, the Yellow River is at crisis point. The discrepancy between supply and demand of water resources is a key issue. In 2000–2006, the mean annual discharge of the Yellow River entering the delta was 13.2 billion m³, a reduction of 18.6 billion m³ compared with the 1980s, and 9 billion m³ less than in the 1990s. The water requirements of various sectors are increasing. Large amounts of water essential to maintain the health of the delta ecosystem have been diverted for other users.

Rapidly accelerating climate change in the Himalaya is projected to have major implications for montane species, ecosystems, and mountain farming and pastoral systems. A geospatial modeling approach based on a global environmental stratification is used to explore potential impacts of projected climate change on the spatial distribution of bioclimatic strata and ecoregions within the transboundary Kailash Sacred Landscape (KSL) of China, India and Nepal.

Conducting quantitative studies on the carbon balance or productivity of oil palm is important in understanding the role of this ecosystem in global climate change. In this study, we evaluated the accuracy of MODIS (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer) annual gross primary productivity (GPP) (the product termed MOD-17) and its upstream products, especially the MODIS land cover product (the product termed MOD-12). We used high-resolution Google Earth images to classify the land cover classes and their percentage cover within each 1 km spatial resolution MODIS pixel.

Dissolved organic carbon (DOC) concentrations in upland surface waters in many northern hemisphere industrialised regions are at their highest in living memory, provoking debate over their “naturalness”. Because of the implications for drinking water treatment and supply there is increasing interest in the potential for mitigation through local land management, and for forecasting the likely impact of environmental change. However, the dominant controls on DOC production remain unresolved, hindering the establishment of appropriate reference levels for specific locations.

There is general consensus in the scientific literature that human-induced climate change has taken place and will continue to do so over the next century. The Fourth Assessment Report (AR4) of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change concludes with “very high confidence” that anthropogenic activities such as fossil fuel burning and deforestation have affected the global climate.