Pre-Columbian landscape impact and agriculture in the Monumental Mound region of the Llanos de Moxos, lowland Bolivia

2013 ◽  
Vol 80 (2) ◽  
pp. 207-217 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bronwen S. Whitney ◽  
Ruth Dickau ◽  
Francis E. Mayle ◽  
J. Daniel Soto ◽  
José Iriarte
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Land Use Change ◽  
Complex Network ◽  
Sediment Core ◽  
Large Lake ◽  
San Jose ◽  
The Earth ◽  
Bolivian Amazon ◽  
European Colonization ◽  
Savanna Soils

We present a multiproxy study of land use by a pre-Columbian earth mounds culture in the Bolivian Amazon. The Monumental Mounds Region (MMR) is an archaeological sub-region characterized by hundreds of pre-Columbian habitation mounds associated with a complex network of canals and causeways, and situated in the forest–savanna mosaic of the Llanos de Moxos. Pollen, phytolith, and charcoal analyses were performed on a sediment core from a large lake (14 km2), Laguna San José (14°56.97′S, 64°29.70′W). We found evidence of high levels of anthropogenic burning from AD 400 to AD 1280, corroborating dated occupation layers in two nearby excavated habitation mounds. The charcoal decline pre-dates the arrival of Europeans by at least 100 yr, and challenges the notion that the mounds culture declined because of European colonization. We show that the surrounding savanna soils were sufficiently fertile to support crops, and the presence of maize throughout the record shows that the area was continuously cultivated despite land-use change at the end of the earth mounds culture. We suggest that burning was largely confined to the savannas, rather than forests, and that pre-Columbian deforestation was localized to the vicinity of individual habitation mounds, whereas the inter-mound areas remained largely forested.

scholarly journals Evaluation of the Potential Change to the Ecosystem Service Provision Due to Industrialization

2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (9) ◽  
pp. 3355 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arturo Sanchez-Porras ◽  
María Tenorio-Arvide ◽  
Ricardo Peña-Moreno ◽  
María Sampedro-Rosas ◽  
Sonia Silva-Gómez
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Land Use Change ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Potential Effect ◽  
Field Trips ◽  
Demographic Information ◽  
San Jose ◽  
Joint Effort ◽  
Continuous Growth ◽  
Automotive Company

The provision of ecosystem services (ES) in a particular region is strongly related to land use. In 2013, San José Chiapa, México, was selected as the new operations base for an automotive company. The installation of the new automotive plant will encourage population growth from 8000 to 200,000 inhabitants by 2050. Consequently, the rise in the demand for land to urbanize will increase at a rate expected to have a significant impact in terms of land-use change, affecting the provision of ES in the region. This paper aims to characterize the ES provision that was present in the region before industrialization and to evaluate the potential effect of land-use change on ES provision. This study analyzed geographic and demographic information and involved a series of field trips to characterize the services present in the area. The ES budget is positive regarding the production of biomass, due to the rural nature of most of the study area. However, this picture is changing with the continuous growth of urban areas due to economic development. This is a critical point for the region regarding ES provision, and only a joint effort between municipalities and industry will make it possible for the region to seize on development while maintaining ES provision.

scholarly journals The scaling structure of the global road network

2017 ◽  
Vol 4 (10) ◽  
pp. 170590 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emanuele Strano ◽  
Andrea Giometto ◽  
Saray Shai ◽  
Enrico Bertuzzo ◽  
Peter J. Mucha ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Land Use Change ◽  
Network Structure ◽  
Road Network ◽  
Global Scale ◽  
Self Organized ◽  
The Earth ◽  
Major Increase ◽  
The Mean ◽  
The Difference

Because of increasing global urbanization and its immediate consequences, including changes in patterns of food demand, circulation and land use, the next century will witness a major increase in the extent of paved roads built worldwide. To model the effects of this increase, it is crucial to understand whether possible self-organized patterns are inherent in the global road network structure. Here, we use the largest updated database comprising all major roads on the Earth, together with global urban and cropland inventories, to suggest that road length distributions within croplands are indistinguishable from urban ones, once rescaled to account for the difference in mean road length. Such similarity extends to road length distributions within urban or agricultural domains of a given area. We find two distinct regimes for the scaling of the mean road length with the associated area, holding in general at small and at large values of the latter. In suitably large urban and cropland domains, we find that mean and total road lengths increase linearly with their domain area, differently from earlier suggestions. Scaling regimes suggest that simple and universal mechanisms regulate urban and cropland road expansion at the global scale. As such, our findings bear implications for global road infrastructure growth based on land-use change and for planning policies sustaining urban expansions.

Global soil erosion: Storm on the horizon 

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pasquale Borrelli ◽  
David A. Robinson ◽  
Panos Panagos ◽  
Emanuele Lugato ◽  
Jae E. Yang ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Land Use ◽  
Soil Erosion ◽  
Land Use Change ◽  
Land Surface ◽  
Water Erosion ◽  
Global Dynamics ◽  
Modeling Framework ◽  
The Earth ◽  
Global Soil

<p>We use the latest projections of climate and land use change (year 2070) to assess potential global soil erosion rates by water erosion (interrill and rill processes) (Borrelli et al., 2020) using the RUSLE-based semiempirical modeling platform (GloSEM) (Borrelli et al., 2017). With some degree of uncertainty, GloSEM allows prediction of both state and change of soil erosion, identifying hotspots thanks to its high resolution (250 × 250 m) and predicting future variation based on projections of change in land use, soil conservation practices, and climate change.</p><p>Three alternative scenarios (2.6, 4.5, and 8.5) are tested using the Shared Socioeconomic Pathway and Representative Concentration Pathway (SSP-RCP) (LUH2 data) and 14 General Climate Models (GCMs) (WorldClim data), for a total of 42 modelling scenarios.</p><p>In the 2015 scenario, we estimate global soil erosion equal to 43 (+9.2/−7) Pg yr<sup>−1</sup>; with a study area covering ∼95.5% of the Earth’s land surface (in Borrelli et al. 2017 the study area was ~84.1% of the Earth’s land surface). The future scenarios suggest that socioeconomic developments impacting land use will either decrease (SSP1-RCP2.6–10%) or increase (SSP2-RCP4.5 +2%, SSP5-RCP8.5 +10%) water erosion by 2070. By contrast, climate projections, for all global dynamics scenarios, indicate a trend, moving toward a more vigorous hydrological cycle, which could increase global water erosion (+30 to +66%). Quantitatively, 56.1 (+20.6+ /- 16.4) Pg yr<sup>−1</sup>, 64.8 (+28.5/-21.4) Pg yr<sup>−1</sup>, and 71.6 (+32.5/-24.7) Pg yr<sup>−1</sup> are predicted for the SSP1-RCP2.6, SSP2-RCP4.5, and SSP5-RCP8.5 scenarios, respectively.</p><p>The modeling framework presented in this study adopts standardized data in an adequate format to communicate with adjacent disciplines and moves us toward robust, reproducible, and open data science.</p><p> </p><p>References</p><p>Borrelli, P., Robinson, D.A., Fleischer, L.R., Lugato, E., Ballabio, C., Alewell, C., Meusburger, K., Modugno, S., Schütt, B., Ferro, V. and Bagarello, V., 2017. An assessment of the global impact of 21st century land use change on soil erosion. Nature communications, 8(1), pp.1-13.</p><p>Borrelli, P., Robinson, D.A., Panagos, P., Lugato, E., Yang, J.E., Alewell, C., Wuepper, D., Montanarella, L. and Ballabio, C., 2020. Land use and climate change impacts on global soil erosion by water (2015-2070). Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 117(36), pp.21994-22001.</p>

scholarly journals Ecological responses to land use change in the face of European colonization of Haytí island

2020 ◽  
Vol 241 ◽  
pp. 106407
Author(s):  
Alvaro Castilla-Beltrán ◽  
Henry Hooghiemstra ◽  
Menno L.P. Hoogland ◽  
Timme H. Donders ◽  
Jaime R. Pagán-Jiménez ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Land Use Change ◽  
Ecological Responses ◽  
The Face ◽  
European Colonization

Assessment of land-use change in coastal areas through geographical information systems

2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (10) ◽  
Author(s):  
Verónica Lango-Reynoso ◽  
Karla Teresa González-Figueroa ◽  
Fabiola Lango-Reynoso ◽  
María del Refugio Castañeda-Chávez ◽  
Jesús Montoya-Mendoza
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Land Use Change ◽  
Geographical Information Systems ◽  
Design Methodology ◽  
Scientific Information ◽  
Coastal Ecosystems ◽  
Coastal Areas ◽  
Geographical Information ◽  
Coastal Zones ◽  
Computer Based

Objective: This article describes and analyzes the main concepts of coastal ecosystems, these as a result of research concerning land-use change assessments in coastal areas. Design/Methodology/Approach: Scientific articles were searched using keywords in English and Spanish. Articles regarding land-use change assessment in coastal areas were selected, discarding those that although being on coastal zones and geographic and soil identification did not use Geographic Information System (GIS). Results: A GIS is a computer-based tool for evaluating the land-use change in coastal areas by quantifying variations. It is analyzed through GIS and its contributions; highlighting its importance and constant monitoring. Limitations of the study/Implications: This research analyzes national and international scientific information, published from 2007 to 2019, regarding the land-use change in coastal areas quantified with the digital GIS tool. Findings/Conclusions: GIS are useful tools in the identification and quantitative evaluation of changes in land-use in coastal ecosystems; which require constant evaluation due to their high dynamism.

Monitoring land use change in the Lake Taupo catchment between 1975, 1990 and 2002 using satellite remote sensing data

2007 ◽  
pp. 17-22
Author(s):  
H. Lilienthal ◽  
A. Brauer ◽  
K. Betteridge ◽  
E. Schnug
Keyword(s):  
Remote Sensing ◽  
Water Quality ◽  
Land Use ◽  
Land Use Change ◽  
Satellite Remote Sensing ◽  
Remote Sensing Data ◽  
Native Vegetation ◽  
Lake Water Quality ◽  
Livestock Farming ◽  
Slow Decline

Conversion of native vegetation into farmed grassland in the Lake Taupo catchment commenced in the late 1950s. The lake's iconic value is being threatened by the slow decline in lake water quality that has become apparent since the 1970s. Keywords: satellite remote sensing, nitrate leaching, land use change, livestock farming, land management

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document