Social and Behavioral Sciences | Open Access Articles

Middle-Range Theories Of Land System Change, P. Meyfroidt, Rinku Roy Chowdhury, A. De Bremond, E. C. Ellis, K. H. Erb, T. Filatova, R. D. Garrett, J. M. Grove, A. Heinimann, T. Kuemmerle, C. A. Kull, E. F. Lambin, Y. Landon, Y. Le Polain De Waroux, P. Messerli, D. Müller, J. Nielsen, G. D. Peterson, V. Rodriguez García, M. Schlüter, B. L. Turner, P. H. Verburg

Geography

Changes in land systems generate many sustainability challenges. Identifying more sustainable land-use alternatives requires solid theoretical foundations on the causes of land-use/cover changes. Land system science is a maturing field that has produced a wealth of methodological innovations and empirical observations on land-cover and land-use change, from patterns and processes to causes. We take stock of this knowledge by reviewing and synthesizing the theories that explain the causal mechanisms of land-use change, including systemic linkages between distant land-use changes, with a focus on agriculture and forestry processes. We first review theories explaining changes in land-use extent, such as agricultural expansion, …

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Smart Earth: A Meta-Review And Implications For Environmental Governance, Karen Bakker, Max Ritts

Geography

Environmental governance has the potential be significantly transformed by Smart Earth technologies, which deploy enhanced environmental monitoring via combinations of information and communication technologies (ICT), conventional monitoring technologies (e.g. remote sensing), and Internet of Things (IoT) applications (e.g. Environmental Sensor Networks (ESNs)). This paper presents a systematic meta-review of Smart Earth scholarship, focusing our analysis on the potential implications and pitfalls of Smart Earth technologies for environmental governance. We present a meta-review of academic research on Smart Earth, covering 3187 across the full range of academic disciplines from 1997 to 2017, ranging from ecological informatics to the digital humanities. We …

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The Spatial And Temporal Domains Of Modern Ecology, Lyndon Estes, Paul R. Elsen, Timothy Treuer, Labeeb Ahmed, Kelly Caylor, Jason Chang, Jonathan J. Choi, Erle C. Ellis

Geography

To understand ecological phenomena, it is necessary to observe their behaviour across multiple spatial and temporal scales. Since this need was first highlighted in the 1980s, technology has opened previously inaccessible scales to observation. To help to determine whether there have been corresponding changes in the scales observed by modern ecologists, we analysed the resolution, extent, interval and duration of observations (excluding experiments) in 348 studies that have been published between 2004 and 2014. We found that observational scales were generally narrow, because ecologists still primarily use conventional field techniques. In the spatial domain, most observations had resolutions ≤1 m2 …

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On The Use Of Unmanned Aerial Systems For Environmental Monitoring, Salvatore Manfreda, Matthew F. Mccabe, Pauline E. Miller, Richard Lucas, Victor Pajuelo Madrigal, Giorgos Mallinis, Eyal Ben Dor, David Helman, Lyndon Estes, Giuseppe Ciraolo, Jana Müllerová, Flavia Tauro, M. Isabel De Lima, João L.M.P. De Lima, Antonino Maltese, Felix Frances, Kelly Caylor, Marko Kohv, Matthew Perks, Guiomar Ruiz-Pérez, Zhongbo Su, Giulia Vico, Brigitta Toth

Geography

Environmental monitoring plays a central role in diagnosing climate and management impacts on natural and agricultural systems; enhancing the understanding of hydrological processes; optimizing the allocation and distribution of water resources; and assessing, forecasting, and even preventing natural disasters. Nowadays, most monitoring and data collection systems are based upon a combination of ground-based measurements, manned airborne sensors, and satellite observations. These data are utilized in describing both small- and large-scale processes, but have spatiotemporal constraints inherent to each respective collection system. Bridging the unique spatial and temporal divides that limit current monitoring platforms is key to improving our understanding of …

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Policy Effects Of Resistance Against Mega-Projects In Latin America: An Introduction, Eduardo Silva, Maria Akchurin, Anthony J. Bebbington

Geography

In this introductory article, we present the special issue and outline our research agenda on extractive development, social mobilization, and policy impact in Latin America. We propose a shift in analytical focus from the study of resistance to studying the policy and institutional impacts of mobilization. We outline possible outcomes of interest and conditions contributing to the attainment of policy and institutional change. These conditions include movement characteristics - such as coalitions, repertoires, and alliances with state actors - and the socioeconomic, political, and ideational conditions that shape and constrain patterns of mobilization and the likelihood and durability of its …

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Conflicts Over Extractivist Policy And The Forest Frontier In Central America, Anthony J. Bebbington, Laura Aileen Sauls, Herman Rosa, Benjamin Fash, Denise Bebbington

Geography

Central America is characterized by an asymmetric forest transition in which net deforestation is a product of both forest loss and patches of forest resurgence. Forest loss is also associated with rights violations. We explore the extent to which extractive industry and infrastructure investments create pressure on forest resources, community rights and livelihoods. Drivers of this investment are identified, in particular: constitutional, legislative and regulatory reforms; energy policies; new financial flows; and ideas of development emphasizing the centrality of infrastructure in combining geographical integration and economic growth. We discuss forms of contentious action that have emerged in response to these …

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Homogenization Of Plant Diversity, Composition, And Structure In North American Urban Yards:, William D. Pearse, Jeannine Cavender-Bares, Sarah E. Hobbie, Meghan L. Avolio, Neil Bettez, Rinku Roy Chowdhury, Lindsay E. Darling, Peter M. Groffman, J. Morgan Grove, Sharon J. Hall, James B. Heffernan, Jennifer Learned, Christopher Neill, Kristen C. Nelson, Diane E. Pataki, Benjamin L. Ruddell, Meredith K. Steele, Tara L.E. Trammell

Geography

Urban ecosystems are widely hypothesized to be more ecologically homogeneous than natural ecosystems. We argue that urban plant communities assemble from a complex mix of horticultural and regional species pools, and evaluate the homogenization hypothesis by comparing cultivated and spontaneously occurring urban vegetation to natural area vegetation across seven major U.S. cities. There was limited support for homogenization of urban diversity, as the cultivated and spontaneous yard flora had greater numbers of species than natural areas, and cultivated phylogenetic diversity was also greater. However, urban yards showed evidence of homogenization of composition and structure. Yards were compositionally more similar across …

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Cross-Scale Correlation Between In Situ Measurements Of Canopy Gap Fraction And Landsat-Derived Vegetation Indices With Implications For Monitoring The Seasonal Phenology In Tropical Forests Using Modis Data, Nicholas Cuba, John Rogan, Deborah Lawrence, Christopher A. Williams

Geography

Deciduousness in dry tropical forests results in substantial seasonal changes to canopy gap fractions. The characterization of such structural properties over large areas is necessary for understanding energy and nutrient distribution within forest ecosystems. However, a spatial extrapolation of measurements from relatively few, spatially-concentrated field observations can yield estimated values that have questionable accuracy and precision at regional scales. This paper uses linear regression models to compare measurements of canopy gap fraction from in situ digital cover photography in the dry tropical forest of the Southern Yucatán, Mexico, to measurements of seasonal vegetation change based on three vegetation indices-the Normalized …

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Evaluating Wildlife Vulnerability To Mercury Pollution From Artisanal And Small-Scale Gold Mining In Madre De Dios, Peru, K. E. Markham, Florencia Sangermano

Geography

Illegal, artisanal and small-scale gold mining (ASGM) often occurs in remote highly biodiverse areas, such as the Madre de Dios region of Peru. Mercury used in gold mining bioaccumulates in the environment and poses developmental, hormonal, and neurological threats to wildlife. The impact of ASGM on biodiversity remains largely unknown. We used geographic information science to create a spatial model of pollution risk from mining sites, in order to predict locations and species assemblages at risk. Multicriteria evaluation was used to determine how flow accumulation, distance from mining areas, total suspended sediment load, and soil porosity influenced the vulnerability of …

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Measurements And Observations In The Xxi Century (Moxxi): Innovation And Multi-Disciplinarity To Sense The Hydrological Cycle, Flavia Tauro, John Selker, Nick Van De Giesen, Tommaso Abrate, Remko Uijlenhoet, Maurizio Porfiri, Salvatore Manfreda, Kelly Caylor, Tommaso Moramarco, Jerome Benveniste, Giuseppe Ciraolo, Lyndon Estes, Alessio Domeneghetti, Matthew T. Perks, Chiara Corbari, Ehsan Rabiei, Giovanni Ravazzani, Heye Bogena, Antoine Harfouche, Luca Broccai, Antonino Maltese, Andy Wickert, Angelica Tarpanelli, Stephen Good, Jose Manuel Lopez Alcala, Andrea Petroselli, Christophe Cudennec, Theresa Blume, Rolf Hut, Salvatore Grimaldia

Geography

To promote the advancement of novel observation techniques that may lead to new sources of information to help better understand the hydrological cycle, the International Association of Hydrological Sciences (IAHS) established the Measurements and Observations in the XXI century (MOXXI) Working Group in July 2013. The group comprises a growing community of techenthusiastic hydrologists that design and develop their own sensing systems, adopt a multidisciplinary perspective in tackling complex observations, often use low-cost equipment intended for other applications to build innovative sensors, or perform opportunistic measurements. This paper states the objectives of the group and reviews major advances carried out …

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Criteria To Confirm Models That Simulate Deforestation And Carbon Disturbance, Robert Gilmore Pontius

Geography

The Verified Carbon Standard (VCS) recommends the Figure of Merit (FOM) as a possible metric to confirm models that simulate deforestation baselines for Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation (REDD). The FOM ranges from 0% to 100%, where larger FOMs indicate more-accurate simulations. VCS requires that simulation models achieve a FOM greater than or equal to the percentage deforestation during the calibration period. This article analyses FOM's mathematical properties and illustrates FOM's empirical behavior by comparing various models that simulate deforestation and the resulting carbon disturbance in Bolivia during 2010-2014. The Total Operating Characteristic frames FOM's mathematical properties as …

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Natural Climate Solutions For The United States, Joseph E. Fargione, Steven Bassett, Timothy Boucher, Scott D. Bridgham, Richard T. Conant, Susan C. Cook-Patton, Peter W. Ellis, Alessandra Falcucci, James W. Fourqurean, Trisha Gopalakrishna, Huan Gu, Benjamin Henderson, Matthew D. Hurteau, Kevin D. Kroeger, Timm Kroeger, Tyler J. Lark, Sara M. Leavitt, Guy Lomax, Robert I. Mcdonald, J. Patrick Megonigal, Daniela A. Miteva, Curtis J. Richardson, Jonathan Sanderman, David Shoch, Seth A. Spawn, Joseph W. Veldman, Christopher A. Williams, Peter B. Woodbury, Chris Zganjar, Marci Baranski, Patricia Elias, Richard A. Houghton

Geography

Limiting climate warming to <2°C requires increased mitigation efforts, including land stewardship, whose potential in the United States is poorly understood. We quantified the potential of natural climate solutions (NCS)-21 conservation, restoration, and improved land management interventions on natural and agricultural lands-to increase carbon storage and avoid greenhouse gas emissions in the United States. We found a maximum potential of 1.2 (0.9 to 1.6) Pg CO2e year−1, the equivalent of 21% of current net annual emissions of the United States. At current carbon market prices (USD 10 per Mg CO2e), 299 Tg CO2e year−1 could be achieved. NCS would also provide air and water filtration, flood control, soil health, wildlife habitat, and climate resilience benefits.

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Upside-Down Fluxes Down Under: Co2 Net Sink In Winter And Net Source In Summer In A Temperate Evergreen Broadleaf Forest, Alexandre A. Renchon, Anne Griebel, Daniel Metzen, Christopher A. Williams, Belinda Medlyn, Remko A. Duursma, Craig V.M. Barton, Chelsea Maier, Matthias M. Boer, Peter Isaac, David Tissue, Victor Resco De Dios, Elise Pendall

Geography

Predicting the seasonal dynamics of ecosystem carbon fluxes is challenging in broadleaved evergreen forests because of their moderate climates and subtle changes in canopy phenology. We assessed the climatic and biotic drivers of the seasonality of net ecosystem-atmosphere CO2 exchange (NEE) of a eucalyptus-dominated forest near Sydney, Australia, using the eddy covariance method. The climate is characterised by a mean annual precipitation of 800mm and a mean annual temperature of 18°C, hot summers and mild winters, with highly variable precipitation. In the 4-year study, the ecosystem was a sink each year (-225gCm-2yr-1 on average, with a standard deviation of 108gCm-2yr-1); …

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Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences

Geography

Smart Earth: A Meta-Review And Implications For Environmental Governance, Karen Bakker, Max Ritts

Geography

The Spatial And Temporal Domains Of Modern Ecology, Lyndon Estes, Paul R. Elsen, Timothy Treuer, Labeeb Ahmed, Kelly Caylor, Jason Chang, Jonathan J. Choi, Erle C. Ellis

Geography

Geography

Policy Effects Of Resistance Against Mega-Projects In Latin America: An Introduction, Eduardo Silva, Maria Akchurin, Anthony J. Bebbington

Geography

Conflicts Over Extractivist Policy And The Forest Frontier In Central America, Anthony J. Bebbington, Laura Aileen Sauls, Herman Rosa, Benjamin Fash, Denise Bebbington

Geography

Geography

Cross-Scale Correlation Between In Situ Measurements Of Canopy Gap Fraction And Landsat-Derived Vegetation Indices With Implications For Monitoring The Seasonal Phenology In Tropical Forests Using Modis Data, Nicholas Cuba, John Rogan, Deborah Lawrence, Christopher A. Williams

Geography

Evaluating Wildlife Vulnerability To Mercury Pollution From Artisanal And Small-Scale Gold Mining In Madre De Dios, Peru, K. E. Markham, Florencia Sangermano

Geography

Geography

Criteria To Confirm Models That Simulate Deforestation And Carbon Disturbance, Robert Gilmore Pontius

Geography

Geography

Geography