Relationships between land use/cover (LUC) and stream water quality have been well-documented in many environments and at a range of spatial scales. From these analyses, reduced in-stream biological integrity and habitat quality are commonly associated with increasing amounts of anthropogenic LUC. However, very few studies have examined the influence of landscape condition, relative to studies using LUC, on water quality parameters. Landscape condition indices use remote sensing-based data to quantify biophysical land surface condition.

In developing countries across the globe the impact of livestock on deforestation levels has
been profound. This paper explores the role of the cattle industry in household decision
making for small landholders in the Brazilian Amazon. Important inquiries raised in the
literature are addressed, including the determinants of the co-evolution of deforestation and cattle herds, the possibility of production specialization, and the role of cattle in household livelihoods. Panel data suggest that households have changed focus from crop

This paper reports on a contingent choice study in which residents of a rural Rhode Island community were asked to express their preferences for packages of growth management outcomes, where surveys presented both spatial and non-spatial attributes of growth management outcomes. Surveyresults provide insight on the extent to which estimated willingness to pay (WTP) for marginal changes in specific landscape features or land uses may be influenced by spatial considerations.

Livestock grazing is the principal land use in arid central Asia, and range degradation is considered a serious problem within much of the high-elevation region of western China termed the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau (QTP). Rangeland degradation on the QTP is variously attributed to poor livestock management, historical-cultural factors, changing land tenure arrangements or socioeconomic systems, climate change, and damage from small mammals. Few studies have examined currently managed pastures using detailed data capable of isolating fine-scale livestock–vegetation interactions.

Environmental factors controlling the distribution and abundance of boreal avifauna are not fully understood, limiting our ability to predict the consequences of a changing climate and industrial development activities underway. We used a compilation of avian point‐count data, collected over 1990–2008 from nearly 36 000 locations, to model the abundance of individual forest songbird species within the Canadian boreal forest.

Research studies aimed at integrating socio-economic and geo-bio-physical factors are increasingly being used in order to improve our understanding of the causes and effects of land-use change and to support sustainable landscape development. In line with such approaches, the study reported in this paper addresses land-use change and its drivers in the peripheral area of the Pyrenees National Park (PNP), France. The focus is land-use change on private farmland currently utilised by the farmers.

The importance of soil storage in global carbon cycling is well recognised and factors leading to increased losses from this pool may act as a positive feedback mechanism in global warming. Upland peat soils are usually assumed to serve as carbon sinks, there is however increasing evidence of carbon loss from upland peat soils, and DOC concentrations in UK rivers have increased markedly over the past three decades.

Scientists have called repeatedly for a broader conservation agenda that emphasizes not only protected areas but also the landscapes in which those areas are embedded. We describe key advances in the science and practice of engaging private landowners in biodiversity conservation and propose a conceptual model for integrating conservation management on reserves and privately owned lands. The overall goal of our model is to blur the distinction between land management on reserves and the surrounding landscapes in a way that fosters widespread implementation of conservation practices.

The pastoral resources in eastern Sudan are changing under the combined impact of increasing anthropogenic activities such as clearance of natural vegetation and the effect of state policies that favour crop farming against pastoralism. Remotely sensed data are used to detect spatial and temporal changes from 1979 to 2009 in the land use/land cover (LULC) across three study sites. Areas of natural vegetation have been reduced from 26.1% in 1979 to 12.6% in 1999 and further to 9.4% in 2007. The majority of this reduction went into agricultural land.

In course of the research there were formulated the concepts, content and the main principles of territory organization in conditions of economy globalization. Bio-energetic approaches to its basing were suggested and their essence was shown. Methods of territory organization with the use of these approaches were presented. Indicators of estimation of territory organization variants and formulae for their calculation and developed the algorithm of territory organization were also shown.

Intensification of human activities has caused drastic losses in semi-natural habitats, resulting as well in declining connectivity between remaining fragments. Successful future restoration should therefore increase both habitat area and connectivity. The first steps in a framework for doing so are addressed here, which involve the mapping of past habitat change.