Most anthropogenic activities impacted on water quality and quantity, and further impacted on ecosystem services (ESs) in watershed are related to land use and climate changes those may cause losses of ecosystem functions. Effective information regarding ESs and their optimal priority conservation planning responded to land use and climate changes provide useful support for diverse stakeholders in ESs planning, management and policies.

Climate change is affecting biodiversity worldwide inducing species to either “move, adapt or die”. In this paper we propose a conceptual framework for analysing range shifts, namely a catalogue of the possible patterns of change in the distribution of a species along elevational or other environmental gradients and an improved quantitative methodology to identify and objectively describe these patterns.

[Formula: see text] [ Martin A. J. Parry ] The balance between the supply and demand of the major food crops is fragile, fueling concerns for long‐term global food security. The rising population, increasing wealth and a proliferation of non‐food uses (e.g. bioenergy) has led to growing demands on agriculture, while increased production is limited by greater urbanization, and the degradation of land. Furthermore, global climate change with increasing temperatures and lower, more erratic rainfall is projected to decrease agricultural yields.

The United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) remains the only ‘Rio Convention’ that is not well served by the scientific community and lacks the equivalent of an IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) or the proposed IPBES (Intergovernmental Science–Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services).

Reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation in developing countries (REDD+) is regarded by its proponents as one of the more efficient and cost effective ways to mitigate climate change. There was further progress toward the implementation of this mechanism at the 16th Conference of Parties (COP) in Cancun in December 2010. Many countries in southern African, including South Africa, have not been integrated (do not participate) into the UN-REDD+ programme, probably due to their low forest cover and national rates of deforestation.

The response of West African climate zones to anthropogenic climate change during the late 21st century is investigated using the revised Thornthwaite climate classification applied to ensembles of CMIP5, CORDEX, and higher-resolution RegCM4 experiments (HIRES). The ensembles reproduce fairly well the observed climate zones, although with some notable discrepancies. CORDEX and HIRES provide realistic fine-scale information which enhances that from the coarser-scale CMIP5, especially in the Gulf of Guinea encompassing marked landcover and topography gradients.

Pooled water beetle species lists from 1826 British national grid 10-km squares were analysed using multivariate ordination and classification methods. The relationships of pool groups to the climate, altitude and land cover variables were assessed using constrained and partial ordinations. Ordination of the species pool data indicated a major trend between squares in the north-west of Scotland and those in southern England, illustrating differences in acid and basic water standing water. Secondary variation was from acid standing water to fast-flowing streams and rivers.

The goal of this paper is to introduce a statistical concept to derive ecological classifications of terrestrial and marine environments. Such ecological regionalisations reflect spatial combinations of biotic and abiotic characteristics and therefore may serve for environmental planning and monitoring issues. Referring to two case studies the paper presents how to calculate and map ecological defined regions from geodata by use of decision tree models and GIS-techniques. The first study deals with marine environments, exemplified by benthic habitats in the North Sea.

Research on the effects of urban sprawl on carbon stocks within urban forests can help support policy for sustainable urban design. This is particularly important given climate change and environmental deterioration as a result of rapid urbanization. The purpose of this study was to quantify the effects of urban sprawl on dynamics of forest carbon stock and density in Xiamen, a typical city experiencing rapid urbanization in China.

This paper presents a range of future, spatially explicit, land use change scenarios for the EU15, Norway and Switzerland based on an interpretation of the global storylines of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) that are presented in the special report on emissions scenarios (SRES). The methodology is based on a qualitative interpretation of the SRES storylines for the European region, an estimation of the aggregate totals of land use change using various land use change models and the allocation of these aggregate quantities in space using spatially explicit rules.

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 studied the mean concentrations, exports, and molar ratios of TEAs from 27 boreal catchments differing in land cover (percentage of agricultural land, peatland, forest, and built-up area) during the years 2000–2011.