The influence of different vegetation covers of the set-aside land on the volumetric water content (VWC) and its variations during the day in upper soil layers (5 and 15 cm) was observed using the TDR method in 15 min intervals from May to August in 2002 and 2003. A spontaneous fallow was established in autumn 2001 and plots with artificial revegetation sowed with the mixture of Dactylis polygama and Trifolium repens in spring 2002. The experimental plots were mulched twice during the vegetation period. VWC was registered in the same time also on bare ground.

During the last 50 years the humus content in the arable layer of the soil in the basic agrarian regions of Ukraine (steppe and forest steppe) has diminished by 15−18 %. Optimisation of the structure of land areas and stabilisation of agricultural landscapes should be based on the soil indicators that ensure conservation of land. It has been substantiated that the contour-meliorative system of land use under the conditions of the development of farming enterprises as the main form of the contemporary land system should be modernised.

Lack of statistical data constitutes the main constraint to assess the effects of land use change in developing countries like Guinea. Here we examine the role of land use change in improving the livelihood of local mangrove rice farmers in the Guinean coastal zone based on both satellite and field survey data. We investigated land use change dynamics using spatial analysis and field survey data for the Dubreka prefecture, Guinea, where statistics and maps are not sufficiently available.

The paper demonstrates the application of a new water accounting plus (WA+) framework to produce information on depletion of water resources, storage change, and land and water productivity in the Indus basin. It shows how satellite-derived estimates of land use, rainfall, evaporation (E), transpiration (T ), interception (I ) and biomass production can be used in addition to measured basin outflow, for water accounting with WA+. It is demonstrated how the accounting results can be interpreted to identify existing issues and examine solutions for the future.

This paper describes a method for monitoring winter wheat growth using multi-temporal TerraSAR-X dual-polarimetric data. Six TerraSAR-X HH/VV images were collected in Hokkaido, and the temporal responses to the winter wheat fields were analyzed. The height, moisture content and dry matter of the crops were measured at nearly the same time as TerraSAR-X data was acquired, and the relationships between these parameters and SAR data, including sigma naught and coherence, were studied. Quadratic relationships between the crop height and sigma naught were observed for HH polarization.

Background: The divergent glacial histories of southern and northern Europe affect present-day species diversity at coarse-grained scales in these two regions, but do these effects also penetrate to the more fine-grained scales of local communities?

The role of urban agriculture in global food security is a topic of increasing discussion. Existing research on urban and peri-urban agriculture consists largely of case studies that frequently use disparate definitions of urban and peri-urban agriculture depending on the local context and study objectives. This lack of consistency makes quantification of the extent of this practice at the global scale difficult.