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Displaying 521 - 525 of 1605Underlying and proximate driving causes of land use change in district Swat, Pakistan
Swat is part of the high mountain Hindu-Kush Himalayan region of Pakistan, with diverse biophysical and socio-economic characteristics. The region is endowed with many fragile and fragmented ecosystems, and land use and land cover changes have accelerated destructive processes with irreversible effects on ecosystems. The paper aims to (1) find proximate and underlying causes of land use and land cover changes; (2) analyse the drivers of change; and (3) reflect on the role of governance and policy.
Managing semi-arid woodlands for carbon storage: Grazing and shrub effects on above- and belowground carbon
Shrub cover has increased in semi-arid regions worldwide. This change has generally been viewed as land degradation, due to shrub-induced declines in pastoral productivity. As a consequence, widespread management treatments to reduce shrub density have been applied in many pastoral areas. These treatments, however, often do not have long-term positive benefits for forage production.
Codling moth parasitism is affected by semi-natural habitats and agricultural practices at orchard and landscape levels
Pest control that results from the activity of naturally occurring parasitoids is an important service that could help reduce pesticide use. We analyzed parasitism in codling moth diapausing larvae from a total of 122 apple orchards in southeastern France during five consecutive years (2006–2010) in relation to the agronomic and land cover characteristics at both the local and landscape levels. Three species of hymenoptera parasitoids were observed, including two primary (Braconidae and Ichneumonidae) and one hyperparasitoid (Perilampidae) wasps.
Independent two-step thresholding of binary images in inter-annual land cover change/no-change identification
Binary images from one or more spectral bands have been used in many studies for land-cover change/no-change identification in diverse climatic conditions. Determination of appropriate threshold levels for change/no-change identification is a critical factor that influences change detection result accuracy. The most used method to determine the threshold values is based on the standard deviation (SD) from the mean, assuming the amount of change (due to increase or decrease in brightness values) to be symmetrically distributed on a standard normal curve, which is not always true.
Keeping wetlands wet in the western United States: Adaptations to drought in agriculture-dominated human-natural systems
Water is critical to protecting wetlands in arid regions, especially in agriculture-dominated watersheds. This comparative case study analyzes three federal wildlife refuges in the Bear River Basin of the U.S. West where refuge managers secured water supplies by adapting to their local environmental context and their refuge's relationship to agriculture in being either irrigation-dependent, reservoir-adjacent or diked-delta wetlands.