Multi-proxy record of environmental changes and past land use practices in a Mediterranean landscape: The Punta Mesco cape (Liguria - Italy) between the 15th and 20th century

2018 ◽  
Vol 463 ◽  
pp. 376-390 ◽  
Author(s):  
Valentina Pescini ◽  
Carlo Alessandro Montanari ◽  
Diego Teodorico Moreno
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
20Th Century ◽  
Environmental Changes ◽  
Proxy Record ◽  
Mediterranean Landscape ◽  
Land Use Practices ◽  
Past Land Use

The distribution of the Fiji frogs, Platymantis spp.: New records and ramifications.

2013 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 175 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tamara Osborne ◽  
Alivereti Naikatini ◽  
Clare Morrison ◽  
Nunia Thomas
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
20Th Century ◽  
Geographic Distribution ◽  
New Records ◽  
Iucn Red List ◽  
Red List ◽  
Conservation Threats ◽  
Land Use Practices ◽  
Near Threatened

The present study reports new records of the distribution of Fiji frogs from extensive geographic sampling on islands where both species were previously reported to persist. Platymantis vitianus is found in populations of varying sizes on six islands (Viwa, Ovalau, Taveuni, Gau, Vanua Levu and Viti Levu). Its congener, P. vitiensis has extant populations on the two largest islands, Viti Levu and Vanua Levu. Based on these recent surveys, our findings suggest that the current IUCN Red List status for P. vitiensis needs to be reclassified from ‘near threatened’ (NT) to ‘vulnerable’ (VU B1b[i]c[ii]). The discovery of a much wider geographic distribution for P. vitianus in recent surveys than recorded in the latter half of the 20th century is encouraging and reveals the need to re-examine known conservation threats. Recommendations for frog conservation in Fiji, with regard to current land-use practices are discussed.

scholarly journals Mapping Food Production in Hyper Arid and Arid Saharan Africa in the Holocene. A View from the Present

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carla Lancelotti ◽  
Stefano Biagetti
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Food Production ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Living Space ◽  
Ongoing Effort ◽  
Production Strategies ◽  
Long Time ◽  
New Research ◽  
Land Use Practices ◽  
Past Land Use

The reconstruction of land use practices in hyper arid Saharan Africa is often hampered by the accuracy of the available tools and by unconscious biases that see these areas as marginal and inhospitable. Considered for a long time the living space of pastoral mobile communities, new research is showing of agriculture might have been more important in these areas than previously thought. In this paper, after a review of present-day land use strategies in Saharan Africa, we show how ethnographic and ethnoarchaeological data can offer us a different point of view and help in better defining land use and food production strategies in this area. Ultimately, these insights can be integrated into the ongoing effort of reconstructing past land use globally.

scholarly journals Mapping Food Production in Hyper-Arid and Arid Saharan Africa in the Holocene—A View from the Present

Quaternary ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 13
Author(s):  
Carla Lancelotti ◽  
Stefano Biagetti
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Food Production ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
The Holocene ◽  
Living Space ◽  
Production Strategies ◽  
Long Time ◽  
New Research ◽  
Land Use Practices ◽  
Past Land Use

The reconstruction of land use practices in hyper-arid Saharan Africa is often hampered by the accuracy of the available tools and by unconscious biases that see these areas as marginal and inhospitable. Considered that this has been for a long time the living space of pastoral mobile communities, new research is showing that agriculture might have been more important in these areas than previously thought. In this paper, after a review of present-day land use strategies in Saharan Africa, we show how ethnographic and ethnoarchaeological data can offer us a different point of view and help in better defining land use and food production strategies in this area. Ultimately, these insights can be integrated into the ongoing efforts to reconstruct past land use globally.

Accelerating Change

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Erin Stewart Mauldin
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
African Americans ◽  
Labor Relations ◽  
Cotton Production ◽  
Economic Independence ◽  
Contract Negotiations ◽  
Reduced Frequency ◽  
Ecological Event ◽  
Land Use Practices ◽  
Ecological Regime

Emancipation proved to be a far-reaching ecological event. Whereas the ecological regime of slavery had reinforced extensive land-use practices, the end of slavery weakened them. Freedpeople dedicated less time to erosion control and ditching and used contract negotiations and sharecropping arrangements to avoid working in a centrally directed gang. Understandably, freedpeople preferred to direct their own labor on an individual plot of land. The eventual proliferation of share-based or tenant contracts encouraged the physical reorganization of plantations. The combination of these two progressive alterations to labor relations tragically undermined African Americans’ efforts to achieve economic independence by tightening natural limits on cotton production and reducing blacks’ access to the South’s internal provisioning economy. The cessation, or even reduced frequency, of land maintenance on farms exacerbated erosion, flooding, and crops’ susceptibility to drought.

Deferring Crisis

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Erin Stewart Mauldin
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Environmental Impacts ◽  
Shifting Cultivation ◽  
Crop Production ◽  
Animal Husbandry ◽  
Antebellum South ◽  
Westward Expansion ◽  
The Cost ◽  
Land Use Practices ◽  
Ecological Regime

This chapter explores the ecological regime of slavery and the land-use practices employed by farmers across the antebellum South. Despite the diverse ecologies and crop regimes of the region, most southern farmers employed a set of extensive agricultural techniques that kept the cost of farming down and helped circumvent natural limits on crop production and stock-raising. The use of shifting cultivation, free-range animal husbandry, and slaves to perform erosion control masked the environmental impacts of farmers’ actions, at least temporarily. Debates over westward expansion during the sectional crisis of the 1850s were not just about the extension of slavery, they also reflected practical concerns regarding access to new lands and fresh soil. Both were necessary for the continued profitability of farming in the South.

scholarly journals A research framework for projecting ecosystem change in highly diverse tropical mountain ecosystems

Oecologia ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jörg Bendix ◽  
Nicolay Aguire ◽  
Erwin Beck ◽  
Achim Bräuning ◽  
Roland Brandl ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Functional Traits ◽  
Biomass Production ◽  
Environmental Changes ◽  
Ecosystem Functions ◽  
Ecosystem Change ◽  
Mountain Ecosystems ◽  
Abiotic Conditions ◽  
Research Framework ◽  
Tropical Mountain

AbstractTropical mountain ecosystems are threatened by climate and land-use changes. Their diversity and complexity make projections how they respond to environmental changes challenging. A suitable way are trait-based approaches, by distinguishing between response traits that determine the resistance of species to environmental changes and effect traits that are relevant for species' interactions, biotic processes, and ecosystem functions. The combination of those approaches with land surface models (LSM) linking the functional community composition to ecosystem functions provides new ways to project the response of ecosystems to environmental changes. With the interdisciplinary project RESPECT, we propose a research framework that uses a trait-based response-effect-framework (REF) to quantify relationships between abiotic conditions, the diversity of functional traits in communities, and associated biotic processes, informing a biodiversity-LSM. We apply the framework to a megadiverse tropical mountain forest. We use a plot design along an elevation and a land-use gradient to collect data on abiotic drivers, functional traits, and biotic processes. We integrate these data to build the biodiversity-LSM and illustrate how to test the model. REF results show that aboveground biomass production is not directly related to changing climatic conditions, but indirectly through associated changes in functional traits. Herbivory is directly related to changing abiotic conditions. The biodiversity-LSM informed by local functional trait and soil data improved the simulation of biomass production substantially. We conclude that local data, also derived from previous projects (platform Ecuador), are key elements of the research framework. We specify essential datasets to apply this framework to other mountain ecosystems.

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