This paper examines and predicts the effects of climate change and climate extremeson China’s land use conversion and soil carbon sequestration under two alternativeclimate change scenarios. It intends to investigate the following three questions. 1)How did climate factors affect land-use conversion in China from 1988 to 2000 andwhat was the relative importance of these factors? 2) How would the predicted futureclimate change pattern affect land-use choice under alternative climate changescenarios?

Ecosystems around the world are already threatened by land‐use and land‐cover change, extraction of natural resources, biological disturbances, and pollution. These environmental stressors have been the primary source of ecosystem degradation to date, and climate change is now exacerbating some of their effects. Ecosystems already under stress are likely to have more rapid and acute reactions to climate change; it is therefore useful to understand how multiple stresses will interact, especially as the magnitude of climate change increases.

In this study, a new framework was developed for the estimation of groundwater recharge based on a hybrid method. In this regard, the homogeneous recharge zones were determined by the analytical hierarchy process (AHP). The recharge rates in these zones were calculated using the Thornthwaite and Mather’s method. These zones and their recharge rates were entered into the MODFLOW model. Next, the modeling processes, modification of recharge, and calibration of empirical models were interactively continued in the MODFLOW.

Feedbacks between climate warming and fire have the potential to alter Arctic and sub-Arctic vegetation. In this paper we assess the effects and interactions of temperature and wildfire on plant communities across the transition between the Arctic and sub-Arctic. Mackenzie Delta region, Northwest Territories, Canada. We sampled air temperatures, green alder (Alnus viridis ssp. fruticosa) cover, growth, reproduction and age distributions, and overall plant community composition on burned and unburned sites across a latitudinal gradient.

Testate amoebae represent a crucial component of soil microfauna and have been studied extensively in ombrotrophic peatlands. However, little is known about their ecology in moorlands which are important habitats in terms of biodiversity and carbon storage potential. Moorlands are under threat from a range of factors such as drainage, burning, over grazing, pollution and climate change.

Phenology is the study of recurring life‐cycle events, classic examples being the flowering of plants and animal migration. Phenological responses are increasingly relevant for addressing applied environmental issues. Yet, challenges remain with respect to spanning scales of observation, integrating observations across taxa, and modeling phenological sequences to enable ecological forecasts in light of future climate change.

Land use change, natural disturbance, and climate change directly alter ecosystem productivity and carbon stock level. The estimation of ecosystem carbon dynamics depends on the quality of land cover change data and the effectiveness of the ecosystem models that represent the vegetation growth processes and disturbance effects. We used the Integrated Biosphere Simulator (IBIS) and a set of 30- to 60-m resolution fire and land cover change data to examine the carbon changes of California's forests, shrublands, and grasslands.

Modeling human–environment systems presents many challenges, including incorporating structure and agency and addressing uncertainty in system components and relationships. Exploring perceptions not only gives us insight into decision-making (agency) but also reveals structural constraints influencing those decisions (including perceived constraints). This study focuses on the human–nature dynamics of Fanjingshan National Nature Reserve (FNNR) in China, a biodiversity hotspot and the only habitat for the Guizhou golden monkey (Rhinopithecus brelichi).

Using data at a high spatial resolution, we estimate a cereal yield response function conditional upon climatological and topographical features using a recently developed estimator for spatial process models when sample selection is of concern. We control for localized spatial correlationin unobserved disturbances affecting both the selection to plant cereals as well as in the resulting conditional yield response.

The robustness of the physically-based, semi-distributed hydrological model ECOMAG with respect to changing (climatic or land-use) conditions was evaluated for two basins, considered within the modelling workshop held in the frame of the 2013 IAHS conference in Göteborg, Sweden. The first basin, the Garonne River basin, France, is characterized mostly by changes in climatic conditions, while the second, Obyån Creek, Sweden, was exposed to drastic land cover change due to deforestation.

Several long-term agroecosystem experiments (LTAEs) across Canada have been maintained for periods of up to a century. Much scientific knowledge of changes in soil properties through time has been learned from these few, highly productive LTAEs. We determined the effects of land management changes (LMC) on soil organic carbon (SOC) by re-sampling 27 LTAEs across Canada using identical sampling and laboratory protocols.

AIM: Efforts to adapt conservation to climate change are hampered by a scarcity of studies of community‐level ecological responses. We examined temporal (40 years) and spatial (1700 m elevational gradient) variation in butterfly communities, aiming to test whether the composition of communities in terms of species' thermal envelopes tracked regional warming, and whether local habitat influenced community responses to climate variation. LOCATION: Sierra de Guadarrama (central Spain).