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Previous work examining the interactions between people and their physical environment in the U.S. West has tended to neglect the spatial scale between individual sites, such as settlements and regions. This study seeks a solution to this problem by testing the methods of landscape history in three case studies in the State of Colorado. The use of historical maps alongside other manuscript sources reveals that western landscapes provide a fruitful arena for such work. For instance, it is possible to show that there is great variation in human settlement and land use within individual landscapes and between the case study areas. At the same time, is has been possible to chart patterns of change and continuity in the human use and alteration of the landscapes through the construction of settlements, roads, and field systems and to suggest reasons why these features took certain forms. Consequently, there is great potential for similar studies elsewhere in the U.S. West, and such studies are likely to have a significant impact upon on our understanding of the region's history. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article responds to work on development-centred technical and scientific expertise at the decline of the British empire in Africa. It focuses on the imagining of future agricultural landscapes in Sudan, exploring how such imagining was framed by the social and colonial worlds in which scientific knowledge about agricultural capacity in the north and south was produced. It draws on a private archive of letters, photographs and objects compiled by Roger Brain, an agricultural scientist engaged in research and census work for the University of Khartoum in Sudan between 1953 and 1959. His archive reveals the underlying assumptions, conventions and anxieties that framed the ways in which he viewed and understood the landscapes in which he worked. I argue that this framing shaped regionalized notions of inevitable technological transformation in the north, and notions of a fragile cultural distinctiveness coupled with a deep nostalgia for rural intransience in the south. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on agricultural infrastructure and the gardens of Middleton Place. It mentions Geometric gardens and geomorphic rice fields mirrored each other, as earthworks and water flow organized the two landscapes and structured the daily and seasonal movements. It mentions scholarship focusing on the gardens in isolation from the larger agricultural landscape, and on the dominant, white culture in isolation from the domains of enslaved workers.

Ephemeral agricultural outbuildings and landscape elements that were integral to the management and production of Virginia plantations, such as barns, sheds, pens, and fence lines, are often difficult to locate and analyze using traditional archaeological survey and excavation techniques. The archaeological signatures of these types of sites are usually characterized by a relatively light scatter of nails, which can be efficiently found and preliminarily interpreted using a combination of metal-detector survey and nail-batch analysis. Drawing upon the historic Montpelier plantation as a case study, this study shows how these survey-level data can help archaeologists begin to interpret how outbuildings were located, constructed, deconstructed, and used in the 18th and 19th centuries. Using these easily replicated methodologies, archaeological data relating to ephemeral rural landscapes from a variety of regions and time periods can be recovered and examined, allowing for more holistic understandings of spaces and places in the past. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract The 190 km2 Calhoun Critical Zone Observatory in the Piedmont region of South Carolina, USA lies in an ancient, highly weathered landscape transformed by historic agricultural erosion. Following the conversion of largely hardwood forests to cultivated fields and pastures for ~200 years, excess runoff from fields led to extreme sheet, rill, and gully erosion across the landscape. Roads, terraces, and a variety of other human disturbances have increased the landscape's surface roughness. By the 1950s, cultivation-based agriculture was largely abandoned across most of the Southern Piedmont due to soil erosion, declining agricultural productivity, and shifting agricultural markets. Secondary forests, dominated by loblolly and shortleaf pines, have since regrown on much of the landscape, including the 1500 km2 Sumter National Forest, which was purchased from farmers and private land owners in the 1930s. Although this landscape was intensively farmed for approximately 150 years, there are a few hardwood forest stands and even entire small watersheds that have never been plowed and degraded by farming. Such relatively old hardwood stands and watersheds comprise relic landforms whose soils, regoliths, and vegetation are of interest to hydrologists, environmental historians, biogeochemists, geomorphologists, geologists, pedologists, and others interested in understanding the legacy of land-use history in this severely altered environment. In this work we champion the need for high-resolution terrain mapping and demonstrate how Light Detection And Ranging (LiDAR) digital elevation model (DEM) data and microtopographic terrain roughness analyses (MTRA) can be used to infer land use history and management. This is accomplished by analyzing fine scale variation in terrain slope across the 1190 km2 CCZO using data derived from three independent and overlapping LiDAR datasets at varying spatial resolutions. Terrain slope variability MTRA is further compared to three other methods of capturing and quantifying fine-scale surface roughness. We lastly demonstrate how these analyses can be employed in concert with historic aerial photography from the 1930's, contemporary Landsat remote sensing data, and ecological field data to identify reference relic landforms: hardwood stands, hillslopes, and small watersheds that have experienced minimal anthropogenic erosion for study and conservation. Highlights • Human activities roughen the ground surface via enhanced erosion. • Minimally eroded areas can be extremely difficult to identify within large areas. • Remote sensing can be used distinguish highly vs. minimally impacted areas. • Minimally impacted areas have great value for research and conservation. • Our work increases researchers' ability to locate and utilize these areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Historical structures of the agricultural landscapes (HSAL) result from interactions among natural and human factors within a geographic area. The paper is focused on HSAL consisting of arable land and grassland with the typical occurrence of terraces. This type was found in 23 localities, covering 23.85% of the agricultural land in the cadastral district of Čierny Balog (Slovakia). HSAL were classified into 8 categories (according to their land cover composition, and current land uses); 40% of HSAL was cultivated actively. Generally, we proposed incentives focusing on preservation of landscape character, including protection of habitats on terraces and removing non-forest woody vegetation covering the HSAL. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Achieving global targets for forest restoration will require cost‐effective strategies to return agricultural land to forest, while minimizing implementation costs and negative outcomes for agricultural production.We present a landscape approach for optimizing the cost‐effectiveness of large‐scale forest restoration. Across three different landscapes within Brazil's Atlantic Forest biodiversity hotspot, we modelled landscape scenarios based on spatially explicit data on the probability of natural regeneration, restoration costs, land opportunity costs, and forest restoration outcomes for increasing carbon stocking and landscape connectivity. We compare benefits of our cost‐reduction approach to the legally mandated riparian restoration and randomly distributed approaches.Compared with riparian prioritization and considering both implementation and opportunity costs, our cost‐reduction scenario produced the greatest savings (20.9%) in mechanized agricultural landscapes.When only considering implementation costs, our cost‐reduction scenario led to the highest savings (38.4%) in the landscape with highest forest cover where natural regeneration potential is highest and enables cost‐effective carbon stocking and connectivity.Synthesis and applications. We present a guide for forest restoration planning that maximizes specific outcomes with minimal costs and reduction of agricultural production. Furthermore, we show how policies could encourage prioritization of low‐cost restoration via natural regeneration, increasing cost‐effectiveness. While our study focuses on Brazil's Atlantic Forest, the approach can be parameterized for other regions. We present a guide for forest restoration planning that maximizes specific outcomes with minimal costs and reduction of agricultural production. Furthermore, we show how policies could encourage prioritization of low‐cost restoration via natural regeneration, increasing cost‐effectiveness. While our study focuses on Brazil's Atlantic Forest, the approach can be parameterized for other regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Agriculture's influence on humanity is a dichotomy of promise and peril. Research on the food‐environment dilemma has highlighted the environmental consequences of food production, yet the identification of management solutions is an ongoing challenge.We suggest "bright spots" as a promising tool to identify levers of change by finding areas that exceed expectations for goals, such as agricultural landscape multifunctionality and biodiversity.We identified bright, dark and average spots within a complex agricultural landscape and explored the associated socioeconomic patterns. We found that areas exceeding expectations for biodiversity and landscape multifunctionality were neither spatially congruent nor in conflict. It was more common for areas to underperform (dark spots) for both biodiversity and multifunctionality than over perform for both (bright spots).While dark spots for multifunctionality were alike in their ecosystem service composition, bright spots were bright in multiple, diverse ways. The socioeconomic attributes that characterize bright and darks spots included both farm characteristics as well as farming practices, suggesting that both have potential to be levers of change.Synthesis and applications. Our results suggest that while biodiversity and landscape multifunctionality show similar spatial patterns due to underlying biophysical drivers, managing for biodiversity or landscape multifunctionality alone will not implicitly achieve the other in this system. Bright spots (areas exceeding expectations) in multifunctionality were associated with many different combinations of ecosystem services, but dark spots were uniquely agricultural intensive areas devoted to maximizing crop production at the expense of all other services. From a management perspective, specific farm characteristics and farming practices may impact the potential for multifunctionality: increased mechanization, increased agricultural inputs and larger farm size and capital were associated with dark spots, while smaller farms with potentially greater space for innovation were associated with bright spots. Our results suggest that while biodiversity and landscape multifunctionality show similar spatial patterns due to underlying biophysical drivers, managing for biodiversity or landscape multifunctionality alone will not implicitly achieve the other in this system. Bright spots (areas exceeding expectations) in multifunctionality were associated with many different combinations of ecosystem services, but dark spots were uniquely agricultural intensive areas devoted to maximizing crop production at the expense of all other services. From a management perspective, specific farm characteristics and farming practices may impact the potential for multifunctionality: increased mechanization, increased agricultural inputs and larger farm size and capital were associated with dark spots, while smaller farms with potentially greater space for innovation were associated with bright spots. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Europe, agri‐environmental schemes (AES) have been unsuccessful in halting biodiversity declines to any great extent. Two shortcomings of AES include the low farm uptake and the modest efficacy of many AES options. Partly in response to these shortcomings, initiatives encouraging farmers to take an active role in biodiversity conservation have gained in popularity. However, almost no evaluations of such initiatives exist.We evaluated uptake of conservation advice on farms in the Swedish Volunteer & Farmer Alliance, a BirdLife Sweden‐coordinated project aimed at farmland bird conservation, and the response of farmland birds to those actions using farm‐level survey data, in a before‐after implementation assessment.Uptake was higher for unsubsidised (i.e. non‐AES) measures than for AES options, and depended mainly on farmers' interest in nature, with farm size and production type having less importance.In general, abundances of non‐crop nesting and field‐nesting bird species declined between inventory years (median interval 3 years). Decreases were more marked in agriculturally marginal regions than in more arable‐dominated regions, and declines were stronger on organic than on conventional farms.Negative abundance trends among non‐crop nesting species were reduced by an increasing number of conservation measures at the farm, but only in the more arable‐dominated landscapes. Changes in field‐nesting species, or at species level, did not significantly relate to implemented measures, but the power to detect such effects was generally small due to the small sample size of high‐uptake farms as well as high inter‐farm variability.Synthesis and applications. Our results suggest that volunteer farmer alliances and the addition of unsubsidised measures may be successful in changing the local number of non‐crop nesting farmland birds, at the farm level, particularly in intensively managed agricultural landscapes. Thus, unsubsidised measures can be a useful addition to the set of agri‐environment tools, although their effects on breeding bird numbers are (as with agri‐environmental schemes) dependent on landscape context, as well as on ensuring high on‐farm uptake of different interventions. Our results suggest that volunteer farmer alliances and the addition of unsubsidised measures may be successful in changing the local number of non‐crop nesting farmland birds, at the farm level, particularly in intensively managed agricultural landscapes. Thus, unsubsidised measures can be a useful addition to the set of agri‐environment tools, although their effects on breeding bird numbers are (as with agri‐environmental schemes) dependent on landscape context, as well as on ensuring high on‐farm uptake of different interventions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights • Agricultural landscapes impact nine-banded armadillo occupancy. • Native closed-canopy forest and watercourse proximity had a positive effect. • Managed forests had a negative effect. • The Brazilian Forest Code is key for armadillo conservation in rural landscapes. Abstract Given the accelerating worldwide expansion of agriculture, biofuel production and managed forest plantations, the future of many tropical mammals depends on understanding why or when some species successfully survive in anthropogenically modified habitats, while others do not. Armadillos are potentially able to adapt to agricultural landscapes and play a key role as ecosystem engineers. However, it is not clear how dependent armadillos are on natural areas in agricultural landscapes and, more specifically, how or if armadillos can use sugar cane or managed forests as alternative habitats. Here, we assessed the relative effects of landscape features, composition and configuration, anthropogenic impacts and degree of protection, as potential predictors of landscape occupancy of the nine-banded armadillo ( Dasypus novemcinctus ). We deployed 203 camera trap stations in three agricultural landscapes of the Brazilian Cerrado, where sugar cane or managed forest cover most (>50%) of the landscape. We found that cover by native forests and proximity to watercourses strongly and positively affect the occupancy of nine-banded armadillo. In contrast, managed forests mostly composed of Eucalyptus spp. had a negative effect on this armadillo’s landscape occupancy. We did not detect the effect of sugar cane, although this particular result might be biased due to our sampling design. Overall, our findings indicate that even disturbed native forest strips, particularly those close to watercourses, are important habitats for this armadillo in agricultural matrices, demonstrating the utmost importance of native forests existing both within and outside protected areas. The Brazilian Forest Code protects native vegetation existing in rural private properties in Brazil, but adherence to this law by rural owners is still weak. Therefore, our study supports the strategic role this law plays in conservation in Brazil. Although not endangered by extinction, maintaining the nine-banded armadillo is important for a broader biota because of its putative role as an ecosystem engineer. The effective implementation of the Forest Code is therefore key not only to maintain this armadillos’ populations but also to increase ecosystem services in agricultural landscapes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Urea‐based fertilisers have grown in popularity over the past half‐century and are now the dominant nitrogen (N) form applied to agricultural landscapes. The widespread use of urea fertilisers has favoured its export to local waterways, and urea pollution may be contributing to the propagation and maintenance of cyanobacteria harmful algal blooms in fresh waters. The relative success of cyanobacteria in response to urea and inorganic N additions was studied to understand whether the recent changes in the magnitude and composition of N loading have created a scenario that now favours the dominance of cyanobacteria in fresh waters. Growth and photosynthetic efficiency of three bloom‐forming freshwater cyanobacteria (Microcystis, Dolichospermum and Synechococcus) grown on nitrate ( NO 3 −), ammonium ( NH 4 +) and urea (CO(NH2)2) as the sole N form were monitored. We hypothesised that N substrates that require the lowest energetic investment or offer the highest energetic return would favour optimal growth and photosynthetic performance. We predicted that urea would result in higher cellular growth and pigment production relative to NH 4 + or NO 3 −, as urea provides twice the amount N and an additional carbon (C) source making it more energetically efficient. Cyanobacteria biomass was not significantly enhanced on urea relative to inorganic N forms. Growth on urea was matched by NO 3 − for all species, whereas growth on NH 4 + was halved compared urea or NO 3 −. However, cyanobacteria cells had higher pigment concentrations when grown on urea relative to inorganic N sources. These findings suggest that the additional nutrient building blocks supplied from the hydrolysis of urea were not directed towards active growth, but rather accumulated in secondary pools to increase production of N‐rich compounds, such as pigments. Although urea did not influence cyanobacteria quantity “(i.e. biomass)” compared to inorganic N sources, it produced higher “quality” cells by enhancing pigment synthesis and potentially giving cyanobacteria a competitive advantage in light‐limiting conditions. Furthermore, when supplied in excess, cyanobacteria rapidly consumed urea in excess of their biosynthetic requirements suggesting a form of urea “gluttony.” These results demonstrate the importance of N speciation on cyanobacteria physiological responses and reinforce the emerging links between urea and cyanobacteria harmful algal blooms in inland waters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Land-cover change from energy development, including solar energy, presents trade-offs for land used for the production of food and the conservation of ecosystems. Solar energy plays a critical role in contributing to the alternative energy mix to mitigate climate change and meet policy milestones; however, the extent that solar energy development on nonconventional surfaces can mitigate land scarcity is understudied. Here, we evaluate the land sparing potential of solar energy development across four nonconventional landcover types: the built environment, salt-affected land, contaminated land, and water reservoirs (as floatovoltaics), within the Great Central Valley (CV, CA), a globally significant agricultural region where land for food production, urban development, and conservation collide. Furthermore, we calculate the technical potential (TWh year-1) of these land sparing sites and test the degree to which projected electricity needs for the state of California can be met therein. In total, the CV encompasses 15% of CA, 8415 km² of which was identified as potentially land-sparing for solar energy development. These areas comprise a capacity-based energy potential of at least 17 348 TWh year-1 for photovoltaic (PV) and 2213 TWh year-1 for concentrating solar power (CSP). Accounting for technology efficiencies, this exceeds California's 2025 projected electricity demands up to 13 and 2 times for PV and CSP, respectively. Our study underscores the potential of strategic renewable energy siting to mitigate environmental trade-offs typically coupled with energy sprawl in agricultural landscapes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Monitoring health in wild great apes is integral to their conservation and is especially important where they share habitats with humans, given the potential for zoonotic pathogen exchange. We studied the intestinal parasites of wild chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes schweinfurthii) inhabiting degraded forest fragments amid farmland and villages in Bulindi, Uganda. We first identified protozoan and helminth parasites infecting this population. Sixteen taxa were demonstrated microscopically (9 protozoa, 5 nematodes, 1 cestode, and 1 trematode). DNA sequence analysis enabled more precise identification of larval nematodes (e.g. Oesophagostomum stephanostomum, O. bifurcum, Strongyloides fuelleborni, Necator sp. Type II) and tapeworm proglottids (genus Bertiella). To better understand the ecology of infections, we used multidimensional scaling analysis to reveal general patterns of association among parasites, climate, and whole leaf swallowing–a prevalent self-medicative behaviour at Bulindi linked to control of nodular worms (Oesophagostomum spp.). Prevalence of parasites varied with climate in diverse ways. For example, Oesophagostomum sp. was detected in faeces at higher frequencies with increasing rainfall but was most clearly associated with periods of low temperature. Certain parasites occurred together within chimpanzee hosts more or less frequently than expected by chance. For example, the commensal ciliate Troglodytella abrassarti was negatively associated with Balantidium coli and Oesophagostomum sp., possibly because the latter taxa make the large intestine less suitable for T. abrassarti. Whole leaves in faeces showed independent associations with the prevalence of Oesophagostomum sp., Strongyloides sp., and hookworm by microscopic examination, and with egestion of adult O. stephanostomum by macroscopic inspection. All parasites identified to species or genus have been reported in wild chimpanzees inhabiting less-disturbed environments than Bulindi. Nevertheless, several disease-causing taxa infecting these chimpanzees are potentially transmissible between apes and humans (e.g. rhabditoid and strongyle nematodes), underscoring the importance of identifying and reducing risks of pathogen exchange in shared landscapes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Predicted climate change can significantly affect ecosystem services in agricultural landscapes. Possibilities of predicting climate change effects on growing conditions of crops are therefore sought for practical reasons. The aim of the present study is to contribute to the current discussions about the impact of climate change on agriculture. The case study from the Czech Republic presents methods and results of environmental modelling of the impact of predicted climatic changes on future conditions for growing grapevines. The model is based on the ecological relationship between climate and vegetation zonation of the landscape and thus belongs to the group of process biogeographic models applicable on a regional scale. The results of the presented model show significant enlargement of areas climatically suitable for growing grapes within the studied area. The results of the model relevant to the Czech Republic are in line with the previous assumptions of trends in future impacts of climate change on viticulture in Europe. However, the data resulting from the presented model, which relate to the time horizon beyond 2050, should be regarded as indicative and fraught with a high degree of uncertainty linked with the uncertainty of the input climatological prediction for this time period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Coffee is a commodity of international trade significance, and its value chain can benefit from age-specific thematic maps. This study aimed to assess the potential of Landsat 8 OLI to develop these maps. Using field-collected samples with the random forest classifier, splitting coffee into three age classes (Scheme A) was compared with running the classification with one compound coffee class (Scheme B). Higher overall classification accuracy was obtained in Scheme B (90.3% for OLI and 86.8% for ETM+) than in Scheme A (86.2% for OLI and 81.0% for ETM+). The NIR band of OLI was the most important band in intra-class discrimination of coffee. Landsat 8 OLI mapped area closely matched farm records (R2 = 0.88) compared to that of Landsat 7 ETM+ (R2 = 0.78). It was concluded that Landsat 8 OLI data can be used to produce age-specific thematic maps in coffee production areas although disaggregating coffee classes reduces overall accuracy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the preliminary results of a survey project which is being carried out in the small village of Fatschenbrunn, in Lower Franconia, Germany. The project combines archaeological, historical geographical, botanical, geological and pedological data to reconstruct the farming regimes and land use in the late medieval and post-medieval era. Although the project is still on-going, the collected data allows the formulation of hypotheses on the formation of fertile agricultural soils through long-term human intervention in the past. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dating agricultural terraces is a notoriously difficult problem for archaeologists. The frequent occurrence of residual material in terrace soils and the potential for post-depositional disturbance mean that conventional artefactual and lab-based dating methods often provide unreliable dates. In this paper we present a new technique using luminescence field profiling coupled with OSL dating to produce complete (relative) sequences of dates for sedimentary stratigraphies associated with agricultural terraces and earthworks. The method is demonstrated through a series of case-studies in western Catalonia, Spain, in which we reconstruct the formation sequence of earthwork features from the Middle Ages through to the present day. OSL profiling at the time of archaeological survey and excavation permitted spatially and temporally resolved sediment ‘chronologies’ to be generated, and provides the means to interpret the environmental and cultural archives contained in each. The case-studies presented here show that luminescence approaches are a valuable tool to reconstruct landscape histories. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The influence of habitat structure on helminth communities of three sigomdontinae rodent species (Akodon cursor, A. montensis and Oligoryzomys nigripes) was investigated in forest fragments within an agricultural landscape in south-eastern Brazil. This is a pionner study correlating the occurrence of helminth species of rodent hosts with microhabitat characteristics. Rodents were collected from 12 fragments and in a continuous conserved area. Up to 13 nematode, three cestode and two trematode species were identified, and habitat fragmentation was found to have more influence on the helminth composition of O. nigripes compared to the other two rodent species. Fragmentation appeared to limit the development of some helminths' life cycles, e.g. with some species such as Trichofreitasia lenti, Protospirura numidica, Cysticercus fasciolaris and Avellaria sp., occurring mostly in areas with less anthropic impact. However, fragmentation did not seem to affect the life cycles of other dominant helminths, such as the trematode Canaania obesa, the nematodes Stilestrongylus lanfrediae, S. eta and S. aculeata, and the cestode Rodentolepis akodontis. The helminth community structure followed a nested pattern of distribution in A. montensis and O. nigripes. Stilestrongylus lanfrediae seemed to be more associated with dense understorey, C. obesa with open canopy and dense understorey, and Guerrerostrongylus zetta with organic matter on the ground. Their presence in each area may be explained by aspects of their life cycles that take place in the external environment outside the host. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A central preoccupation for archaeologists is how and why material culture changes. One of the most intractable examples of this problem can be found between AD 400 and 800 in the enigmatic transformation of sub-Roman into Anglo-Saxon England. That example lies at the heart of this review, explored through the case of the agricultural economy. Although the ideas critically examined below relate specifically to early medieval England, they represent themes of universal interest: the role of migration in the transformation of material culture, politics, and economy in a post-imperial world, the significance of 'core' and 'periphery' in evolving polities, ethnogenesis as a strategy in kingdom building, property rights as a lens for investigating cultural change, and the relationship between hierarchical political structures and collective forms of governance. The first part of my argument proposes a structured response to paradigmatic stalemate by identifying and testing each underlying assumption, premise, and interpretative framework. The recognition of any fallacies, false premises, and flawed arguments might assist with an overall evaluation of the continuing utility of a discourse-whether it has life in it yet, or should be set aside. In either case, the recognition of its structure should enable arguments to be developed that do not lead into a disciplinary cul-de-sac, prevented by the orthodoxy from exploring new avenues for research. In the second part of the review, I deliberately adopt a starting point outside the limits of the current discourse. Freed from the confines of the conventional consensus, I experiment with an alternative 'bottom-up' approach to change in early medieval England that contrasts with conventional 'top-down' arguments. I focus in particular on how rights over agricultural property-especially collective rights-and the forms of governance implied by them may assist in illuminating the roles of tradition and transformation in effecting cultural change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the dynamic relationship between national and local imaginaries in Ottawa through two treed landscapes at the Central Experimental Farm: the Dominion Arboretum and the Fletcher Wildlife Garden. Established a century apart and located side by side on the Farm's eastern edge, the Arboretum and the Wildlife Garden offer two visions of science and the place of humans in the world. Where the Arboretum was planted to support national imaginaries of settlement in the west, the Wildlife Garden supports a local geographic imaginary and restoration ethic that privileges native flora. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Grassland for livestock production is a major form of land use throughout Europe and its intensive management threatens biodiversity and ecosystem functioning in agricultural landscapes. Modest increases to conventional grassland biodiversity could have considerable positive impacts on the provision of ecosystem services, such as pollination, to surrounding habitats., Using a field-scale experiment in which grassland seed mixes and sward management were manipulated, complemented by surveys on working farms and phytometer experiments, the impact of conventional grassland diversity and management on the functional diversity and ecosystem service provision of pollinator communities were investigated., Increasing plant richness, by the addition of both legumes and forbs, was associated with significant enhancements in the functional diversity of grassland pollinator communities. This was associated with increased temporal stability of flower-visitor interactions at the community level. Visitation networks revealed pasture species Taraxacum sp. ( Wigg.) (dandelion) and Cirsium arvense ( Scop.) (creeping thistle) to have the highest pollinator visitation frequency and richness. Cichorium intybus (L.) (chichory) was highlighted as an important species having both high pollinator visitation and desirable agronomic properties., Increased sward richness was associated with an increase in the pollination of two phytometer species; Fragaria × ananassa (strawberry) and Silene dioica (red campion), but not Vicia faba (broad bean). Enhanced functional diversity, richness and abundance of the pollinator communities associated with more diverse neighbouring pastures were found to be potential mechanisms for improved pollination., Synthesis and applications. A modest increase in conventional grassland plant diversity with legumes and forbs, achievable with the expertise and resources available to most grassland farmers, could enhance pollinator functional diversity, richness and abundance. Moreover, our results suggest that this could improve pollination services and consequently surrounding crop yields (e.g. strawberry) and wildflower reproduction in agro-ecosystems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 1955, on the bicentenary of the Acadian deportation, the National Film Board released Les aboiteaux, the first film with an original Acadian script and one that spoke volumes about the changing contours of Acadian identity in the postwar period. Directed by Le´onard Forest, one of the many Acadian artists depicting their society's engagement with modernity, the film challenged the Acadian self-image of constituting a diasporic people. Instead, Les aboiteaux advanced a more territorial view of Acadian identity, grounded in places such as southeastern New Brunswick where the film takes place. Here Acadians were still living on a landscape created by their pre-deportation forebears through the construction of a system of dykes, known as aboiteaux, which drained the marshlands and allowed the people to settle along the rivers that flowed into the Bay of Fundy. By the 1940s, economic circumstances had led to the decay of the aboiteaux, and so Forest's film, using local actors to give it a documentary feel, describes one Acadian community trying to preserve the ancestral landscape. It shows modern techniques, introduced by the federal Maritime Marshland Rehabilitation Administration, which were able to coexist with more traditional ways, suggesting a bright future for Acadians in a territory they could call their own. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite upland Eastern Connecticut being located near the densely populated Megalopolian corridor, the often bucolic landscape can be read as a palimpsest of several eras of pre‐human and human impacts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the last 50 years, the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) has impacted the evolution of European agricultural landscapes by driving changes in land use and farming practices. We propose a typology characterising the scales relevant for agricultural landscapes management and argue that action is required on three scales: (1) a landscape oriented management at the farm level; (2) the coordination of land managers’ actions at the landscape level; and (3) the conservation of the diversity of agricultural landscapes in the EU. We provide evidence that until now the CAP has mainly focused on the first scale. We also illustrate how agricultural policy could encourage coordinated actions at the landscape- and EU-scales. In particular, we propose policy instruments to coordinate actions of individual land owners (e.g. collective bonus in agro-environmental contracts or support to environmental cooperatives (scale 2)). We also analyse how the recognition and transposition of the European Landscape Convention could promote trans-frontier landscape cooperation in order, not only to conserve high-quality rural landscapes, but also to ensure the conservation of the diversity of EU landscapes (scale 3). This paper provides a knowledge base to support an integrated CAP design in the direction of improved landscape management, as an important component of the EU project towards more sustainable agriculture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The conversion of natural lands to agriculture is a leading cause of the worldwide loss of biodiversity. In particular, cropland monocultures alter insect abundance and diversity compared to adjacent natural habitats. While agricultural lands can provide large numbers of insect pests as prey items to predators such as bats, insect pest population size vary greatly throughout growing seasons. This study assesses the importance of land use and corn earworm moth availability as spatial and temporal drivers of bat activity. We quantified spatial variation in land use patterns at fifteen sites located within the Winter Garden region in south central Texas and used bat detectors and insect pheromone traps to monitor nightly bat activity and corn earworm moth abundance across the landscape and throughout most of the year. Our temporal analyses show that bat activity was positively correlated with moth abundance, but only early in the growing season when moth abundance is at its peak. The key result from this study is a positive relationship between bat activity and natural habitat cover during late summer months, corresponding to periods of low moth abundance and a peak in bat activity. During the late summer period, bats were more active at sites containing a larger percentage of natural habitats than those containing a larger percentage of agricultural land. Our results strongly suggest that intensive agricultural practices create systems providing bats with inconsistent resource supply, but the persistence of natural habitats provides consistency in food supply though time. Taken together, these findings illustrate the importance of protecting and restoring natural habitats for the conservation for bats and the pest-suppression services they provide in agricultural ecosystems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Habitat fragmentation is extensive throughout the world, converting natural ecosystems into fragments of varying size, density and connectivity. The potential value of remnant trees in agricultural landscapes as seed sources and in connecting fragments has formed a fertile area of debate. This study contrasted the mating patterns of bat-pollinated Pachira quinata trees in a continuous forest to those in pasture through microsatellite-based paternity analysis of progeny. The breeding system was determined by analysis of pollen tube growth and seed production from controlled pollinations. Fitness of selfed and outcrossed seed was compared by germination and seedling growth. There was more inbreeding within pasture trees (outcrossing=0.828±0.015) compared with forest trees (0.926±0.005). Pasture trees had fewer sires contributing to mating events, but pollen dispersal distances were greater than those in the forest. Paternity analysis showed variation in outcrossing rates among pasture trees with high proportions of external and self pollen sources detected. A leaky self-incompatibility system was found, with self pollen having reduced germination on stigmas and slower growth rate through the style. Controlled pollinations also showed a varied ability to self among trees, which was reflected in the selfing rates among pasture trees shown by the paternity analysis (0-80% selfing). Self pollination resulted in lower seed set, germination and seedling growth compared with outcrossing. While remnant trees in agricultural landscapes are involved in broader mating patterns, they show increased but varied levels of inbreeding, which result in reduced fitness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hollows, also known as tree cavities, are critical to the survival of many animal species but are too poorly mapped across landscapes to allow for their adequate consideration in regional planning. Managing cost is important, so we tested whether freely available satellite-derived foliage projective cover and field-measured stand attributes could be used separately or combined to predict tree hollow abundance in relictual Australian temperate woodlands. Satellite-derived foliage projective cover revealed variation in woody vegetation densities both within mapped woodland remnants and cleared areas of the agricultural matrix. Plot-based field assessment of the actual number of hollows in each one-hectare site ( n = 110 sites) revealed a relationship with foliage cover. Improvement of the model was achieved if site-based estimates of the proportion of the canopy due to Eucalyptus species and the number of mature trees per hectare were included. Remotely sensed foliage cover can improve on traditional vegetation mapping for predicting hollow-bearing tree and hollow abundances at landscape scales when managing hollow-dependent fauna habitat across relictual woodlands in temperate Australian agricultural landscapes. At finer scales, the addition of other predictors is necessary to raise the accuracy of the predicted hollow densities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The eclectic twentieth-century Italian intellectual and militant Emilio Sereni (1907–1977) is well known for his works dealing with the history of the Italian agricultural landscape, which enjoyed widespread editorial success and were translated into English and French. Yet his intellectual influences, as well as his scientific personality, have generated little academic interest. This is partly the effect of the relative academic marginality of Sereni, who was an example of an intellectual who alternated political work and ‘pure’ research outside the university. Using the primary sources held in the extraordinary archives Sereni left behind, and which have only recently been opened to researchers, this paper addresses his connection to geography, a discipline that played a pivotal and little-known role in his interdisciplinary work. It also shows the importance of the international transfer and circulation of knowledge to that work. At the same time, by retracing Sereni's references, the paper analyses the complex and controversial relationship between science and political commitment which characterised both his career and his intellectual generation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim Conservation conflict takes place where food production imposes a cost on wildlife conservation and vice versa. Where does conservation impose the maximum cost on production, by opposing the intensification and expansion of farmland? Where does conservation confer the maximum benefit on wildlife, by buffering and connecting protected areas with a habitable and permeable matrix of crop and non-crop habitat? Our aim was to map the costs and benefits of conservation versus production and thus to propose a conceptual framework for systematic conservation planning in agricultural landscapes. Location World-wide. Methods To quantify these costs and benefits, we used a geographic information system to sample the cropland of the world and map the proportion of non-crop habitat surrounding the cropland, the number of threatened vertebrates with potential to live in or move through the matrix and the yield gap of the cropland. We defined the potential for different types of conservation conflict in terms of interactions between habitat and yield (potential for expansion, intensification, both or neither). We used spatial scan statistics to find 'hotspots' of conservation conflict. Results All of the 'hottest' hotspots of conservation conflict were in sub-Saharan Africa, which could have impacts on sustainable intensification in this region. Main conclusions Systematic conservation planning could and should be used to identify hotspots of conservation conflict in agricultural landscapes, at multiple scales. The debate between 'land sharing' (extensive agriculture that is wildlife friendly) and 'land sparing' (intensive agriculture that is less wildlife friendly but also less extensive) could be resolved if sharing and sparing were used as different types of tool for resolving different types of conservation conflict (buffering and connecting protected areas by maintaining matrix quality, in different types of matrix). Therefore, both sharing and sparing should be prioritized in hotspots of conflict, in the context of countryside biogeography. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Statements of willingness to pay ( WTP) have been shown to be dependent upon the framing of the hypothetical market. In this paper we investigate the effects of variations in the timing and location of choice experiment questions concerned with conservation of a UK national park, as research involving measurement of psychological well-being suggests potential differences for the same individual dependent upon when and where preferences are elicited. We apply the choice experiment technique to the valuation of changes in upland agricultural and semi-natural landscapes in the Peak District National Park in the UK, to investigate whether timing and location of elicitation (context) affects the value associated with changes in ecosystem services under different management regimes. Four treatments are employed - using the same sample of individuals answering the same choice scenarios - to measure WTP ex-ante (off site), in situ (on site), and ex-post at two different time intervals (off site). We show that our on-site ( in situ) treatment generates very different estimates of preferences than any of the off-site treatments. That stated preferences associated with environmental goods are so context dependent may have implications for the use of stated preferences in policy analysis in terms of identifying how environmental policy is funded and the divergence in value attributed to sampling different populations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Heritage has been defined differently in European contexts. Despite differences, a common challenge for historic urban landscape management is the integration of tangible and intangible heritage. Integration demands an active view of perception and human-landscape interaction where intangible values are linked to specific places and meanings are attached to particular cultural practices and socio-spatial organisation. Tangible and intangible values can be examined as part of a system of affordances (potentialities) a place, artefact or cultural practice has to offer. This paper discusses how an 'affordance analysis' may serve as a useful tool for the management of historic urban landscapes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Plant diversity is threatened in many agricultural landscapes. Our understanding of patterns of plant diversity in these landscapes is mainly based on small-scale (<1000 m2) observations of species richness. However, such observations are insufficient for detecting the spatial heterogeneity of vegetation composition. In a case-study farm on the North- West Slopes of New South Wales, Australia, we observed species richness at four scales (quadrat, patch, land use and landscape) across five land uses (grazed and ungrazed woodlands, native pastures, roadsides and crops). We applied two landscape ecological models to assess the contribution of these land uses to landscape species richness: (i) additive partitioning of diversity at multiple spatial scales, and (ii) a measure of habitat specificity - the effective number of species that a patch contributes to landscape species richness. Native pastures had less variation between patches than grazed and ungrazed woodlands, and hence were less species-rich at the landscape scale, despite having similar richness to woodlands at the quadrat and patch scale. Habitat specificity was significantly higher for ungrazed woodland patches than all other land uses. Our results showed that in this landscape, ungrazed woodland patches had a higher contribution than the grazed land uses to landscape species richness. These results have implications for the conservation management of this landscape, and highlighted the need for greater consensus on the influence of different land uses on landscape patterns of plant diversity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Modelling processes that occur at the landscape scale is gaining more and more attention from theoretical ecologists to agricultural managers. Most of the approaches found in the literature lack applicability for managers or, on the opposite, lack a sound theoretical basis. Based on the metapopulation concept, we propose here a modelling approach for landscape epidemiology that takes advantage of theoretical results developed in the metapopulation context while considering realistic landscapes structures. A landscape simulator makes it possible to represent both the field pattern and the spatial distribution of crops. The pathogen population dynamics are then described through a matrix population model both stage- and space-structured. In addition to a classical invasion analysis we present a stochastic simulation experiment and provide a complete framework for performing a sensitivity analysis integrating the landscape as an input factor. We illustrate our approach using an example to evaluate whether the agricultural landscape composition and structure may prevent and mitigate the development of an epidemic. Although designed for a fungal foliar disease, our modelling approach is easily adaptable to other organisms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

European agroecosystems host a variety of farm woodlands that act as primary determinants of biodiversity and ecosystem services. While woodland areas have been in decline worldwide, they have regionally increased, for example, in Eastern Germany. This study performs a quantitative and spatially explicit assessment of differences in species richness, diversity, and evenness as well as forest physiognomy and structure among Eastern German farm woodlands established during (1) the presocialist era (until 1945), (2) the socialist era (1945-1990), and (3) the postsocialist era (after 1990). Aerial imagery was used to allocate woodlands to one of the three eras, after which a forest inventory of 120 woodlands was performed. The results show substantial differences in forest composition and structure. Presocialist-era woodlands are composed of native (mean 96 %), deciduous (mean 94 %) tree species. Mean diameters and species richness values are high. Typical socialist woodland species are nonnative (mean 35 %) and/or coniferous (mean 51 %). Stands have a uniform, even-aged stand structure. Species richness/diversity indices are generally low. Postsocialist woodlands exhibit a high degree of variability. Percentages of nonnative (7 %) and coniferous (10 %) individuals are low. The findings suggest that socialist and postsocialist farmland and forest policies translated into distinct land-use legacies in the newly established farm woodlands, which differ considerably from the composition and structure of presocialist woodlands. We argue that forest conservation planning should actively consider land-use legacies, which are of particular relevance in the landscapes of Central and Eastern Europe, as these have undergone multiple, abrupt, and severe land-use transitions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

European farmland biodiversity is declining due to land use changes towards agricultural intensification or abandonment. Some Eastern European farming systems have sustained traditional forms of use, resulting in high levels of biodiversity. However, global markets and international policies now imply rapid and major changes to these systems. To effectively protect farmland biodiversity, understanding landscape features which underpin species diversity is crucial. Focusing on butterflies, we addressed this question for a cultural-historic landscape in Southern Transylvania, Romania. Following a natural experiment, we randomly selected 120 survey sites in farmland, 60 each in grassland and arable land. We surveyed butterfly species richness and abundance by walking transects with four repeats in summer 2012. We analysed species composition using Detrended Correspondence Analysis. We modelled species richness, richness of functional groups, and abundance of selected species in response to topography, woody vegetation cover and heterogeneity at three spatial scales, using generalised linear mixed effects models. Species composition widely overlapped in grassland and arable land. Composition changed along gradients of heterogeneity at local and context scales, and of woody vegetation cover at context and landscape scales. The effect of local heterogeneity on species richness was positive in arable land, but negative in grassland. Plant species richness, and structural and topographic conditions at multiple scales explained species richness, richness of functional groups and species abundances. Our study revealed high conservation value of both grassland and arable land in low-intensity Eastern European farmland. Besides grassland, also heterogeneous arable land provides important habitat for butterflies. While butterfly diversity in arable land benefits from heterogeneity by small-scale structures, grasslands should be protected from fragmentation to provide sufficiently large areas for butterflies. These findings have important implications for EU agricultural and conservation policy. Most importantly, conservation management needs to consider entire landscapes, and implement appropriate measures at multiple spatial scales. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Considerable uncertainties exist on how increased biofuel cropping affects biodiversity. Regarding oilseed rape, the most common biofuel crop in the EU, positive responses of flower-visiting insects to plentiful nectar and pollen seem apparent. However, previous investigations on this insect guild revealed conflicting results, potentially because they focused on different taxonomic groups representing a narrow range of ecological traits and considered only short time periods. Here, using trap nests in landscapes with independent gradients in area of oilseed rape and seminatural habitats, we assessed the whole community of cavity-nesting bees and wasps, including early- and late-emerging species. Our study's temporal resolution allowed determination of flowering and postflowering effects of oilseed rape on these species' richness, abundance, and mortality. Species richness of cavity-nesting bees and wasps significantly increased with oilseed rape, although nesting activity was considerably higher after mass flowering. In addition to increasing richness independently of oilseed rape, the amount of seminatural habitat in the landscape was the sole positive driver of insect abundance once the community's dominant species was accounted for as a covariate. Thus, growth of the co-occurring species' community is not stimulated by the resource pulse provided by oilseed rape early in the year, but by persistent resources provided by seminatural habitats after mass flowering. Early individuals of bivoltine species' first generations accumulated in seminatural habitats when these habitats were scarce, but became increasingly diluted when habitat availability increased. Once established, later foraging females generally benefited from the resource availability of seminatural habitats when initializing the second generation. We conclude that mass-flowering crops, despite covering only a short interval of the community's main activity phase, benefit bee and wasp species richness. However, seminatural habitats are crucial in maintaining viable communities of flower-visiting insects at the landscape scale, mitigating potential negative effects of high land-use intensities in modern agro-ecosystems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights: [•] Demand and supply of pollination in the European Union were mapped. [•] In half of the area with a high demand for pollination, the supply is low. [•] Green linear elements are highly important for providing pollination in agricultural landscapes. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This paper is largely based on interviews collected or overseen in Northumberland by the authors since 2003. It summarizes the way in which oral history has been used by British historians and describes an evolving approach to researching the interaction between landscape and community. Focusing on stock management, the authors discuss how insight into activities carried out beyond living memory can be gained using descriptions and interpretations of landscape features provided by current farmers and shepherds. A case study exemplifies how the combining of oral testimony, historical map research, and archaeological fieldwork has made possible the verification of an historical drover's route in Northumberland. It is concluded that archaeology can be used to identify the surviving physical correlates of activities recorded in oral accounts, while oral history can enhance the dynamic interpretation of archaeological finds, interpretations that might otherwise only be assumed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights: [•] We investigated the importance of small habitat elements for grassland plant diversity. [•] Smallest share of specialists was found in small habitats in modern agricultural landscapes. [•] β-Diversity was highest in the most intensively managed agricultural landscape. [•] Species richness declined with distance to grasslands in modern landscapes. [•] Small habitats provide an important function for plant richness at a landscape scale. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Analyses of fossil mollusc successions have rarely been used to study the development of floodplain forests during the Holocene. The Ohře River, located in a prehistorically settled chernozem area in the Czech Republic, is partly situated in Cretaceous marlstones, yielding sediments suitable for fossilization directly in floodplain deposits. We analysed five fossil mollusc successions situated in the lower stretch of the Ohře River and compared the results with recent mollusc assemblages studied along the entire 256 km of the river. Fossil samples were composed mostly of open-country species throughout the Holocene or the whole preserved succession. Only some samples also contained woodland assemblages, but these were always greatly impoverished, with a very low frequency of strictly woodland species. Although the natural-looking appearance of the present-day floodplain forests of the lower river stretch has resulted in its being declared a nature reserve, modern floodplain forest mollusc assemblages there are also impoverished. This reduction in the distribution of strictly woodland species compared with modern assemblages in the upper stretch of the river seems to be the result of an ancient human settlement and continuous disturbances of the floodplain forest development since the Neolithic. Thus, fully developed floodplain forest assemblages occur recently only in the upper non-impacted stretch of the river. Based on the studied fossil successions we can conclude that the lower Ohře River floodplain was probably a mosaic of open and disturbed forest habitats throughout the Holocene. This area is part of a central European landscape island, where forests probably never fully developed and open patches from the early Holocene continually developed into an agricultural landscape. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Landscape composition plays an important, but poorly understood, role in the population dynamics of agricultural pest species with broad host ranges including both crops and weeds. One such pest, the generalist plant bug Lygus hesperus Knight ( Hemiptera: Miridae), is a key cotton pest that feeds on various hosts differing in quality in California's San Joaquin Valley ( USA). We investigated the effects of 15 common crops and uncultivated agricultural land on L. hesperus populations, by correlating the densities of L. hesperus in focal cotton fields with the areas of the 16 crops in surrounding rings. Insect counts were provided by private pest-control advisors, and spatial data were obtained from Kern County records. We first calculated Spearman's partial correlation coefficients on an annual basis for each crop separately, and then performed a meta-analysis of these correlations across years to describe the overall effect of a particular crop on L. hesperus after the effects of the 15 other crops are removed. Consistent with studies conducted in other areas, L. hesperus density was positively correlated with safflower, and negatively with cotton. Lygus hesperus density was also correlated with several other crops that are often not considered in pest management, including grape, oat, and onion (positive correlations), and almond, pistachio, and potato (negative correlations). Lygus hesperus density was also found to be negatively correlated with alfalfa and positively correlated with uncultivated habitats, a relationship that receives mixed support in the literature. Several other crops tested were not significantly correlated with L. hesperus densities in focal cotton fields, suggesting a neutral role for them in L. hesperus dynamics. The improved understanding of the effects of a greater variety of crops on L. hesperus population dynamics will be useful in the design of agricultural landscapes for enhanced management of this important polyphagous pest. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article evaluates the extent to which the architectural organization of a Dutch plantation compound was designed to aid in plantation administrators' and owners' ability to engage in acts of social control via surveillance. The particular compound, Groot Walling, is located on Banda Besar, the largest of the Banda islands, maluku Province, indonesia. our initial hypothesis is that the compound was designed to aid in surveillance activity by administrators against slaves and contract workers. After discussing the history of the islands and prior historical archaeological research into surveillance, we employ GiS-based visibility analysis to evaluate this hypothesis. A series of single viewsheds were calculated within Groot Walling and compared against viewsheds generated from hypo- thetical organizations of that same compound. The results, while preliminary, are not consistent with our hypothesis, and we tentatively reject it. We follow up these results with some exploratory analyses, utilizing a series of total viewsheds to try to better characterize the visual properties of this compound. We then suggest some alternative hypotheses for our results, and end with a discussion of future research directions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The genetic structure of populations is impacted by environmental factors of both natural and anthropogenic origin. These factors can affect dispersion, gene flow and selective pressures. We test whether natural environmental factors or anthropogenic factors influence the genetic structure of the amphipod, Melita plumulosa (Crustacea: Melitidae), which serves as an indicator of environmental health in estuaries along eastern Australia. Sequence data from one mitochondrial and two nuclear loci were collected and analyzed from eight geographically distinct populations spanning the known distribution of this species. We identified two major clades corresponding to the east and south coasts of Australia, and populations also largely grouped according to geography within each clade. Population differentiation indicated all sampling localities to be distinct from one another and sequence divergences suggested ancient divergence, with the deepest genetic divergences between the eastern and southern populations. Reproductive compatibility did not indicate cryptic speciation between populations. Sequence divergence and population differentiation suggest historic geographic isolation dating back to the Pleistocene to have influenced the population biogeography of M. plumulosa. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Community garden is a popular vegetation landscape mode with production, ecology and life functions. On the basis of eco-service functions of community garden, this paper selected 14 such gardens in Los Angeles and studies them by field survey. It researched the response of diversity of urban vegetation varieties and distribution pattern to planters' ethnic background and construction mode, then it analyzed its implications for China's urban green space construction and leisure agriculture. A total of 439 varieties of plant were studied, indicating that community garden is an important species pool of urban ecosystem; it can maintain rich native taxa resources; plant function is mainly edible plant, which plays a great role in protecting ethnic traditional culture and regional native culture; landscape structure and function of vegetation are influenced by ethnic background and construction mode. Researches show that the community garden, as the intersection landscape of ecological diversity and cultural diversity, is a feasible construction mode for realizing urban green infrastructure construction and leisure agricultural development. China should learn from this experience, take into consideration interested parties when making green space planning and conducting eco-vegetation construction. This is of great significance to launching urban eco-vegetation construction and developing leisure agriculture in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Deep hard coal mining manifests itself in the landscape in a specific way: primarily through anthropogenic landforms and secondarily through land cover changes not directly related to mining activity. A majority of these displays can be interpreted using aerial photos. Multitemporal data then make it possible to analyse the development of identified displays. However, correct interpretation is based on a profound acquaintance with the displays of deep coal mining in aerial photos. This article focuses on the identification of primary and secondary displays of deep hard coal mining in aerial photos as well as the interpretation of elementary landscape processes that are conditioned by mining. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Changes in the extent and occurrence of non-forest woody vegetation in the agricultural landscape of the Novodvorsko and Žehušicko region in the Central Bohemia during the last 60 years are presented in the paper. The study is based on a comparison of data (landscape structure indicators) from two time horizons - 1950 and the present (2011). Historical black and white aerial photographs from 1950 and color orthophotomaps from 2006 were used as data sources. Furthermore, the present state of the vegetation was investigated and specified by field mapping in 2011. The extent and changes of non forest woody vegetation were observed in natural (biochores) and cultural (landscape character areas) units with the aim to find out differences dependent on natural and cultural conditions. Results confirm that the quantity as well as the distribution of elements of non-forest woody vegetation changed during the last 60 years in an important way. Significant decrease in the area of non-forest woody vegetation and extinction of many important biotopes are among the main results of the work. The study provides strong evidence that changes in land use and landscape structure have a great influence on non-forest woody vegetation in all aspects. At the end of the paper, the reasons for the changes are discussed. In general, intensification and mechanization of agriculture has caused extinction of fine-grained landscape microstructure especially as to arable lands connected with removal of dispersed vegetation structures. Straightening of watercourses and destruction of meanders with their riparian vegetation has had the same effect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The modeling of soil erosion by water supposes an accurate and thorough understanding of the hydrology. Thus, it is critical to have a good delineation of the surface flow path. The flow network data are critical for important uses such as flood forecasting and watershed management. Geographic Information System (GIS) functions are able to compute a flow network directly from the digital elevation models. Because the flow directions are only based on the topography, the other factors controlling the flow directions are overlooked. In the agricultural areas, work such as tillage can have a large impact on the flow direction. We propose a 5-step procedure to account for such man-made features. The use of this procedure clearly improves the quality of the computed flow network. This procedure has been successfully implemented in a GIS and improves the prediction of surface flow and therefore improves water erosion modeling at the watershed scale. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Landscape management for enhanced natural pest control requires knowledge of the ecological function of the habitats present in the landscape mosaic. However, little is known about which habitat types in agricultural landscapes function as reproduction habitats for arthropod pests and predators during different times of the year., We studied the arthropod assemblage on six crops and on the seven most abundant native plant species in two landscapes over 1 year in Australia. Densities of immature and adult stages of pests and their predators were assessed using beat sheet sampling., The native plants supported a significantly different arthropod assemblage than crops. Native plants had higher predator densities than crops over the course of the year, whereas crops supported higher pest densities than the native plants in two out of four seasonal sampling periods. Crops had higher densities of immature stages of pests than native plants in three of four seasonal sampling periods, implying that crops are more strongly associated with pest reproduction than native plants. Densities of immature predators, excluding spiders, were not different between native plants and crops. Spiders were, however, generally abundant and densities were higher on native plants than on crops but, because some species disperse when immature, there is less certainty in identifying their reproduction habitat., Because the predator to pest ratio on native plant species showed little variation, and spatial variation in arthropod assemblages was limited, the predator support function of native vegetation may be a general phenomenon. Incentives that maintain and restore native remnant vegetation can increase the predator to pest ratio at the landscape scale, which could enhance pest suppression in crops. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]