Articles

Vulnerability analysis of smallholder farmers to climate variability and change: an agro-ecological system-based approach in the Fincha’a sub-basin of the upper Blue Nile Basin of Ethiopia

Ethiopia is frequently cited as a country that is highly vulnerable to climate variability and change. The country’s high vulnerability arises mostly from climate-sensitive agricultural sector that suffers a l...

Authors: Israel Tessema and Belay Simane

The spatial variability of actual evapotranspiration across the Amazon River Basin based on remote sensing products validated with flux towers

Actual evapotranspiration (ET) is a major component of the water balance. While several international flux measurement programs have been executed in the tropical rain forest of the Amazon, those measurements ...

Authors: Victor Hugo da Motta Paca, Gonzalo E. Espinoza-Dávalos, Tim M. Hessels, Daniel Medeiros Moreira, Georges F. Comair and Wim G. M. Bastiaanssen

Views and attitudes of local people towards community versus state forest governance in Tehulederi District, South Wollo, Ethiopia

Restoring the degraded sites with vegetation cover is an optimal solution to mitigate environmental disasters. Starting from the 1980s, donor-assisted land rehabilitation activities were taking place in Tehule...

Authors: Birhan Ali Woldie and Solomon Ayele Tadesse

Functional perspectives on tropical tree demography and forest dynamics

Disentangling the processes that drive population, community and whole forest structure and dynamics is a challenge. It becomes a grand challenge in the tropics where there are a large number of species, small...

Authors: Samantha J. Worthy and Nathan G. Swenson

Trajectory from beech and oak forests to eastern broadleaf forests in Indiana, USA

Historical forests (circa 1799 to 1846) of Indiana were predominantly composed of American beech (25% of all trees) and upland oaks (27% of all trees). I compared historical forest composition, using studies o...

Authors: Brice B. Hanberry

Variable retention harvesting in Victoria’s Mountain Ash (Eucalyptus regnans) forests (southeastern Australia)

Variable retention harvesting is a silvicultural system that focuses on retaining key elements of stand structure at the time of logging and is increasingly being used worldwide. We describe the design and est...

Authors: David Lindenmayer, David Blair and Lachlan McBurney

Appraisal of arid land status: a holistic assessment pertains to bio-physical indicators and ecosystem values

Appraisal of arid land status is very crucial one to know the extent and factors associated with their degradation. Previous studies from arid regions are mostly qualitative in nature (indicator assessment lik...

Authors: Manish Mathur and S. Sundaramoorthy

Carbon stock potential of scattered trees on farmland along an altitudinal gradient in Tigray, Northern Ethiopia

Trees on agricultural landscape play a vital role in ecosystem services including food security that supports human livelihood. They can further offer synergy between adaptation and mitigation in addressing cl...

Authors: Yikunoamlak Gebrewahid, Tewolde-Berhan Gebre-Egziabhier, Kassa Teka and Emiru Birhane

Characterizing selected soil attributes of different land-use management to assess reforestation benefits of deforested riparian buffers

The information available on the sensitivity of soil biotic and abiotic attributes, which can be used to track the impact of reforestation in riparian buffers, is often insufficient to refine management practi...

Authors: Velu Rasiah and Singarayer K. Florentine

Effect of spring grass fires on vegetation patterns and soil quality in abandoned agricultural lands at local and landscape scales in Central European Russia

Abandonment of agricultural land is often happening all over the world and widespread in Russia. Such lands are subject to successional changes in vegetation and it seems necessary to provide effective methods...

Authors: Larisa G. Khanina, Vadim E. Smirnov, Michael S. Romanov and Maxim V. Bobrovsky

Enhanced aboveground biomass by increased precipitation in a central European grassland

Global climate change is projected to increase temperature and alter precipitation pattern, which could affect grassland ecosystem. Long-term observation at a field experiment can be a powerful approach to exp...

Authors: Md Lokman Hossain and Carl Beierkuhnlein

Farmers’ perceptions on cultivation and the impacts of climate change on goods and services provided by Garcinia kola in Nigeria

Garcinia kola is an indigenous multipurpose tree species commonly found in the tropical rain forest zone of West and Central Africa. Providing economic, ecological, and socio-cultural benefits for people, they ha...

Authors: Onyebuchi Patrick Agwu, Adama Bakayoko, Saka Oladunni Jimoh and Porembski Stefan

A spatial framework for detecting anthropogenic impacts on predator-prey interactions that sustain ecological integrity in Mexico

This paper presents several spatial indicators developed to evaluate anthropogenic impacts on predator-prey interactions and their relationship with ecological integrity loss in Mexico. Ecological integrity lo...

Authors: Franz Mora

Human-climate induced drivers of mountain grassland over the last 40 years in Sidama, Ethiopia: perceptions versus empirical evidence

Mountain grasslands are globally important ecosystems. They are considered as heritage sites with “outstanding values” to ecological communities by adding a further “layer and support to the existing protectio...

Authors: Denbeshu Debeko, Ayana Angassa, Aster Abebe, Ashenafi Burka and Adugna Tolera

The influence of cultivation frequency on weed species composition and diversity in flood recession farming in the Okavango Delta, Botswana

Flood recession farming, locally known as molapo farming, is an important livelihood activity for the subsistence farming community around the Okavango Delta. The study was aimed at investigating the influence of...

Authors: Modise Nthaba, Keotshephile Kashe and Michael Murray-Hudson

Competition for land resources: driving forces and consequences in crop-livestock production systems of the Ethiopian highlands

Ethiopia has made efforts to tackle the challenges of low crop and livestock productivity and degradation of land resources through various rural development strategies. However, increasing demands for food, a...

Authors: Wuletaw Mekuria, Kindu Mekonnen, Peter Thorne, Melkamu Bezabih, Lulseged Tamene and Wuletawu Abera

Extrapolating plot-scale CO₂ and ozone enrichment experimental results to novel conditions and scales using mechanistic modeling

The Aspen-FACE experiment was an 11-year study of the effect of elevated CO₂ and ozone (alone and in combination) on the growth of model aspen communities (pure aspen, aspen-birch, and aspen-maple) in the field i...

Authors: Eric J. Gustafson, Mark E. Kubiske, Brian R. Miranda, Yasutomo Hoshika and Elena Paoletti

Association patterns reveal dispersal-aggregation dynamics among cattle in a South Texas Rangeland, USA

The spatial association dynamics of free-ranging cattle herds are not fully understood; however, they can have a direct influence on the spatial patterns of resource utilization. The aim of our study was to ex...

Authors: Christopher Cheleuitte-Nieves, Humberto L. Perotto-Baldivieso, X. Ben Wu and Susan M. Cooper

Spatial variation of the influence of distance from surface water on riparian plant communities in the Okavango Delta, Botswana

Understanding the environmental factors that influence riparian vegetation community composition and distribution is important for understanding wetland ecosystem functioning. This understanding can further se...

Authors: Gaolathe Tsheboeng

Heavy metals accumulation in suburban roadside plants of a tropical area (Jengka, Malaysia)

This study aims to examine the uptake and translocation of Cd, Cu, Fe, and Pb in different parts of three roadside plant species grown in the semi-urban of Jengka, Pahang, Malaysia.

Authors: Fazrul Razman Sulaiman and Huda Asilah Hamzah

Determination of soil physicochemical attributes in farming sites through visible, near-infrared diffuse reflectance spectroscopy and PLSR modeling

An accurate and reliable detection of soil physicochemical attributes (SPAs) is a difficult and complicated issue in soil science. The SPA may be varied spatially and temporally with the complexity of nature. ...

Authors: Amol D. Vibhute, Karbhari V. Kale, Suresh C. Mehrotra, Rajesh K. Dhumal and Ajay D. Nagne

Classification and management of community forests in Indian Eastern Himalayas: implications on ecosystem services, conservation and livelihoods

Evidence is mounting that traditional knowledge can play a critical role in shaping the biodiversity conservation strategies and maintaining ecosystem services. This study was conducted with Adi community of A...

Authors: Ranjay K. Singh, Shah M. Hussain, T. Riba, Anshuman Singh, Egul Padung, Orik Rallen, Y. J. Lego and Ajay Kumar Bhardwaj

Indian time: time, seasonality, and culture in Traditional Ecological Knowledge of climate change

Western climate science and Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) represent complementary and overlapping views of the causes and consequences of change. In particular, observations of changes in abundance, d...

Authors: Samantha Chisholm Hatfield, Elizabeth Marino, Kyle Powys Whyte, Kathie D. Dello and Philip W. Mote

Forestry projections for species diversity-oriented management: an example from Central Europe

Changes in socio-economy and climate are affecting the demand of wood products globally. At the same time, society requires that forest supporting structures like biodiversity are maintained and preserved whil...

Authors: Astor Toraño Caicoya, Peter Biber, Werner Poschenrieder, Fabian Schwaiger and Hans Pretzsch

Biomass production and carbon stock inventory of high-altitude dry temperate land use systems in North Western Himalaya

Carbon stock estimation in different land use systems is necessary for curbing global climatic crisis. In the present study, high-altitude dry temperate land use systems (LUS) at three altitudinal ranges “A_1, 190...

Authors: Kafula Chisanga, D. R. Bhardwaj, Nazir A. Pala and C. L. Thakur

Explaining farmers’ reluctance to adopt recommendations for sustainable ecosystem management

The lower Syr Darya River Basin is an integral part of the Aral Sea Basin that is shared by four riparian countries. In Kazakhstan, the water is mainly used for agricultural purposes. However, the poor quality...

Authors: Bezaiet Dessalegn, Ludmilla Kiktenko, Balzhan Zhumagazina, Saltanat Zhakenova and Vinay Nangia

The effects of nutrients on stream invertebrates: a regional estimation by generalized propensity score

The effects of nutrients on stream conditions within individual streams or small areas have been studied extensively, but the same effects over a large region have rarely been examined due to the difficulty of...

Authors: Zutao Ouyang, Song S. Qian, Richard Becker and Jiquan Chen

Tropical ash (Fraxinus udhei) invading Andean forest remnants in Northern South America

Exotic invasive species represent a major driver of the loss of biological diversity and services provided by ecosystems globally. An important cause of species becoming invasive is the development of commerci...

Authors: Kelly A. Saavedra-Ramírez, Andrés Etter and Alberto Ramírez

A systematic review on the aboveground biomass and carbon stocks of Indian forest ecosystems

Tropical forests play a crucial role as source and sink in global carbon cycle. Development and other anthropogenic activities have led to degradation of forest land, and ultimately, it results in loss of biod...

Authors: Onkar Salunkhe, P. K. Khare, Richa Kumari and M. L. Khan

Adult bobcat (Lynx rufus) habitat selection in a longleaf pine savanna

Pine savannas are primarily managed with frequent prescribed fire (≤ 3 years) to promote diversity of flora and fauna, and to maintain open, park-like conditions needed by species such as the endangered red-co...

Authors: Andrew R. Little, L. Mike Conner, Michael J. Chamberlain, Nathan P. Nibbelink and Robert J. Warren

Land use change in highland area and its impact on river water quality: a review of case studies in Malaysia

The policy of encouraging agriculture and development for mass tourism has led to environmental problems in Cameron Highlands, Malaysia. Rampant development and land clearing have significantly altered the lan...

Authors: Azlini Razali, Sharifah Norkhadijah Syed Ismail, Suriyani Awang, Sarva Mangala Praveena and Emilia Zainal Abidin

Nature experience promotes preference for and willingness to coexist with wild animals among urban and suburban residents in Malaysia

A decline in direct experience with nature can lead to disaffection of natural environments, wildlife, and public indifference towards biodiversity conservation. This study measured on affective attitude towar...

Authors: Huda Farhana Mohamad Muslim, Hosaka Tetsuro, Numata Shinya and Noor Azlin Yahya

Factors affecting farmers’ participation in watershed management programs in the Northeastern highlands of Ethiopia: a case study in the Teleyayen sub-watershed

This study investigated factors affecting farmers’ participation in watershed management programs in the Northeastern highlands of Ethiopia by taking the Teleyayen sub-watershed as a case study. Data were coll...

Authors: Alem-meta Assefa Agidew and K. N. Singh

Does adaptation to climate change and variability provide household food security? Evidence from Muger sub-basin of the upper Blue-Nile, Ethiopia

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the associated impact of adoption of adaptation options to climate change and variability on household food security in the Muger sub-basin of the upper Blue-Nile of Et...

Authors: Abayineh Amare and Belay Simane

Growth and competition among understory plants varies with reclamation soil and fertilization

Following oil sands mining in Alberta, Canada, the main land management goal is to establish a functioning boreal forest ecosystem, including the understory plant community. One of the challenges with restorin...

Authors: Jennifer Buss, Kyle Stratechuk and Bradley D. Pinno

Correction to cffdrs: an R package for the Canadian Forest Fire Danger Rating System

The original publication [1] has an error in the citation of figure 1. Below you will find the correct version.

Authors: Xianli Wang, B. Mike Wotton, Alan S. Cantin, Marc-André Parisien, Kerry Anderson, Brett Moore and Mike D. Flannigan

Preface for the article collection “Ecohydrological Processes and Ecosystem Services”

Authors: Ge Sun, Dennis W. Hallema and Heidi Asbjornsen

Short-term desalination of Pulicat lagoon (Southeast India) due to the 2015 extreme flood event: insights from Land-Ocean Interactions in Coastal Zone (LOICZ) models

We investigated the magnitude and duration of desalination of Pulicat—a coastal lagoon ecosystem connected to the Bay of Bengal on the South-eastern coast of India—during the 2015 South India flood event which...

Authors: Harini Santhanam and Thulasiraman Natarajan

Water quality impacts of small-scale hydromodification in an urban stream in Connecticut, USA

Construction activities in and along urban streams increase the sediment input into surface waters, causing an overall decline in water quality and aquatic ecosystems. In this case study, we investigate the wa...

Authors: Bin Zhu, Daniel S. Smith, Anthony P. Benaquista, Dylan M. Rossi, Betsy M. Kadapuram, Man Lok Yu, Andrew S. Partlow and Nathan R. Burtch

Effect of Senna obtusifolia (L.) invasion on herbaceous vegetation and soil properties of rangelands in the western Tigray, northern Ethiopia

Invasion of exotic plant species is a well-known threat to native ecosystems since it directly affects native plant communities by altering their composition and diversity. Moreover, exotic plant species displ...

Authors: Maru G. Gebrekiros and Zewdu K. Tessema

Farmers’ perception of climate change and adaptation strategies in the Dabus watershed, North-West Ethiopia

This study is aimed at analyzing farmers’ perception and adaptation to climate change in the Dabus watershed. It is based on analysis of data collected from 734 randomly selected farm householdheads substantia...

Authors: Paulos Asrat and Belay Simane

Soil organic carbon stock in Abune Yosef afroalpine and sub-afroalpine vegetation, northern Ethiopia

Soil is the major reservoir of organic carbon. There is a paucity of soil organic carbon (SOC) stock data of afroalpine and sub-afroalpine vegetation in Ethiopia. Hence, this study was conducted to estimate th...

Authors: Kflay Gebrehiwot, Temesgen Desalegn, Zerihun Woldu, Sebsebe Demissew and Ermias Teferi

Enhancement of diversity, stand structure and regeneration of woody species through area exclosure: the case of a mopane woodland in northern Botswana

An area exclosure is the practice of land management that involves the exclusion of livestock and humans from openly accessing an area that is characterized by severe degradation. Area exclosures have been emp...

Authors: Demel Teketay, Keotshephile Kashe, Joseph Madome, Monica Kabelo, John Neelo, Mmusi Mmusi and Wellington Masamba

Impacts of long-term land-use changes on herd size and mobility among pastoral households in Amboseli ecosystem, Kenya

Long-term changes in rangeland ecosystems of the world have impacted on the livestock production, a key livelihood strategy in these areas. This paper presents perceptions of the pastoral community on the dyna...

Authors: Kennedy Sakimba Kimiti, David Western, Judith Syombua Mbau and Oliver Vivian Wasonga

Quantifying the spatial and temporal distribution of tanglehead (Heteropogon contortus) on South Texas rangelands

Tanglehead is a grass native to southwestern US rangelands; however, its prevalence as a native invasive on South Texas rangelands has increased rapidly during the last decade. Large areas of monotypic stands ...

Authors: Jose M. Mata, Humberto L. Perotto-Baldivieso, Fidel Hernández, Eric D. Grahmann, Sandra Rideout-Hanzak, John T. Edwards, Michael T. Page and Taylor M. Shedd

Abundance and habitat-suitability relationship deteriorate in fragmented forest landscapes: a case of Adinandra griffithii Dyer, a threatened endemic tree from Meghalaya in northeast India

A strong positive ‘abundance and habitat-suitability’ relationship is crucial for conservation of species. Nevertheless, anthropogenic alteration of natural landscapes leading to land use and land cover change...

Authors: Dibyendu Adhikari, Aabid Hussain Mir, Krishna Upadhaya, Viheno Iralu and Dilip Kumar Roy

Characterizing drought in California: new drought indices and scenario-testing in support of resource management

California’s recent drought (2012–2016) has implications throughout the state for natural resource management and adaptation planning and has generated many discussions about drought characterization and recov...

Authors: Lorraine E. Flint, Alan L. Flint, John Mendoza, Julie Kalansky and F. M. Ralph

Identification of habitat controls on northern red-legged frog populations: implications for habitat conservation on an urbanizing landscape in the Pacific Northwest

In the Pacific Northwest of North America, research addressing lentic-breeding amphibian population vulnerability has emphasized aquatic habitats, frequently neglecting terrestrial habitats. Consequently, wetl...

Authors: Lauren A. Grand, Marc P. Hayes, Kristiina A. Vogt, Daniel J. Vogt, Paul R. Yarnold, Klaus O. Richter, Christopher D. Anderson, Elissa C. Ostergaard and Jo O. Wilhelm

Effect of rangeland rehabilitation on the herbaceous species composition and diversity in Suswa catchment, Narok County, Kenya

Land degradation is a serious environmental problem of our time. In Kenya, it is estimated that 30% of the total land mass is severely degraded. Suswa catchment within Narok County is a good example with gulli...

Authors: N. J. Ombega, S. M. Mureithi, O. K. Koech, A. N. Karuma and C. K. K. Gachene

Carbon pool trends and dynamics within a subtropical peatland during long-term restoration

The Florida Everglades has undergone significant ecological change spanning the continuum of disturbance to restoration. While the restoration effort is not complete and the ecosystem continues to experience s...

Authors: Paul Julian II, Stefan Gerber, Alan L. Wright, Binhe Gu and Todd Z. Osborne