Land-use legacies and soil development in semi-natural ecosystems in the marginal uplands of Ireland

The Tehuacán-Cuicatlán Valley, Mexico, is the semiarid region with the richest biodiversity of North America and was recently recognized as a UNESCO's World Heritage site. Original agricultural practices remain to this day in agroforestry systems (AFS), which are expressions of high biocultural diversity. However, local people and researchers perceive a progressive decline both in natural ecosystems and AFS. To assess changes in location and extent of agricultural land use, we carried out a visual interpretation of very-high resolution imagery and field work, through which we identified AFS and conventional agricultural systems (CAS) from 1995 to 2003 and 2012. We analyzed five communities, representative of three main ecological and agricultural zones of the region. We assessed agricultural land use changes in relation to conspicuous landscape features (relief, rivers, roads, and human settlements). We found that natural ecosystems cover more than 85% of the territory in each community, and AFS represent 51% of all agricultural land. Establishment and permanence of agricultural lands were strongly influenced by gentle slopes and the existence of roads. Contrary to what we expected, we recorded agricultural areas being abandoned, thus favoring the regeneration of natural ecosystems, as well as a 9% increase of AFS over CAS. Agriculture is concentrated near human settlements. Most of the studied territories are meant to preserve natural ecosystems, and traditional AFS practices are being recovered for biocultural conservation.

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Persistent land-use legacies increase small-scale diversity and strengthen vegetation–soil relationships on an unmanaged heathland

Basic and Applied Ecology ◽

10.1016/j.baae.2018.10.004 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 34 ◽

pp. 15-24

Author(s):

Sebastian Kepfer-Rojas ◽

Kris Verheyen ◽

An De Schrijver ◽

Jonas Morsing ◽

Inger Kappel Schmidt

Keyword(s):

Land Use ◽

Small Scale ◽

Land Use Legacies

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Accumulation patterns of soil organic matter in forests as a legacy of historical charcoal burning

10.5194/egusphere-egu21-5161 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Anna Schneider ◽

Alexander Bonhage ◽

Florian Hirsch ◽

Alexandra Raab ◽

Thomas Raab

Keyword(s):

Land Use ◽

Organic Matter ◽

Soil Organic Matter ◽

Large Scale ◽

Soil Surface ◽

Landscape Scale ◽

Legacy Effects ◽

Charcoal Production ◽

Study Region ◽

Land Use Legacies

<p>Human land use and occupation often lead to a high heterogeneity of soil stratigraphy and properties in landscapes within small, clearly delimited areas. Legacy effects of past land use also are also abundant in recent forest areas. Although such land use legacies can occur on considerable fractions of the soil surface, they are hardly considered in soil mapping and inventories. The heterogenous spatial distribution of land use legacy soils challenges the quantification of their impacts on the landscape scale. Relict charcoal hearths (RCH) are a widespread example for the long-lasting effect of historical land use on soil landscapes in forests of many European countries and also northeastern USA. Soils on RCH clearly differ from surrounding forest soils in their stratigraphy and properties, and are most prominently characterized by a technogenic substrate layer with high contents of charcoal. The properties of RCH soils have recently been studied for several regions, but their relevance on the landscape scale has hardly been quantified.</p><p>We analyse and discuss the distribution and ecological relevance of land use legacy soils across scales for RCH in the state of Brandenburg, Germany, with a focus on soil organic matter (SOM) stocks. Our analysis is based on a large-scale mapping of RCH from digital elevation models (DEM), combined with modelled SOM stocks in RCH soils.&#160;The distribution of RCH soils in the study region shows heterogeneity at different scales. The large-scale variation is related to the concentration of charcoal production to specific forest areas and the small-scale accumulation pattern is related to the irregular distribution of single RCH within the charcoal production fields. Considerable fractions of the surface area are covered by RCH soils in the major charcoal production areas within the study region. The results also show that RCH can significantly contribute to the soil organic matter stocks of forests, even for areas where they cover only a small fraction of the soil surface. The study highlights that considering land use legacy effects can be relevant for the results of soil mapping and inventories; and that prospecting and mapping land use legacies from DEM can contribute to improving such approaches.</p>

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How do land-use legacies affect ecosystem services in United States cultural landscapes?

Landscape Ecology ◽

10.1007/s10980-017-0545-4 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 32 (11) ◽

pp. 2205-2218 ◽

Cited By ~ 19

Author(s):

Carly Ziter ◽

Rose A. Graves ◽

Monica G. Turner

Keyword(s):

United States ◽

Land Use ◽

Ecosystem Services ◽

Cultural Landscapes ◽

Land Use Legacies

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Land-use legacies rather than climate change are driving the recent upward shift of the mountain tree line in the Pyrenees

Global Ecology and Biogeography ◽

10.1111/geb.12407 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 25 (3) ◽

pp. 263-273 ◽

Cited By ~ 55

Author(s):

Aitor Ameztegui ◽

Lluís Coll ◽

Lluís Brotons ◽

Josep M. Ninot

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Land Use ◽

Tree Line ◽

Upward Shift ◽

Land Use Legacies

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Land Use Legacies and the Future of Southern Appalachia

Society & Natural Resources ◽

10.1080/08941920500394857 ◽

2006 ◽

Vol 19 (2) ◽

pp. 175-190 ◽

Cited By ~ 63

Author(s):

Ted L. Gragson ◽

Paul V. Bolstad

Keyword(s):

Land Use ◽

Southern Appalachia ◽

The Future ◽

Land Use Legacies

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Baseline-Dependent Responses of Soil Organic Carbon Dynamics to Climate and Land Disturbances

Applied and Environmental Soil Science ◽

10.1155/2013/206758 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 2013 ◽

pp. 1-7 ◽

Cited By ~ 6

Author(s):

Zhengxi Tan ◽

Shuguang Liu

Keyword(s):

Land Use ◽

Land Surface ◽

Management Practices ◽

C Sequestration ◽

The United States ◽

Natural Ecosystems ◽

Organic C ◽

Realistic Option ◽

Managed Ecosystems ◽

Land Use And Management

Terrestrial carbon (C) sequestration through optimizing land use and management is widely considered a realistic option to mitigate the global greenhouse effect. But how the responses of individual ecosystems to changes in land use and management are related to baseline soil organic C (SOC) levels still needs to be evaluated at various scales. In this study, we modeled SOC dynamics within both natural and managed ecosystems in North Dakota of the United States and found that the average SOC stock in the top 20 cm depth of soil lost at a rate of 450 kg C ha−1 yr−1in cropland and 110 kg C ha−1 yr−1in grassland between 1971 and 1998. Since 1998, the study area had become a SOC sink at a rate of 44 kg C ha−1 yr−1. The annual rate of SOC change in all types of lands substantially depends on the magnitude of initial SOC contents, but such dependency varies more with climatic variables within natural ecosystems and with management practices within managed ecosystems. Additionally, soils with high baseline SOC stocks tend to be C sources following any land surface disturbances, whereas soils having low baseline C contents likely become C sinks following conservation management.

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In Search of Sustainability

10.1071/9780643092112 ◽

2005 ◽

Cited By ~ 12

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Land Use ◽

Water Resources ◽

Urban Design ◽

Environmental Issues ◽

Economic Systems ◽

Sustainable Society ◽

Natural Ecosystems ◽

Wide Range ◽

Key Issues

What must we do to achieve a sustainable society? There is no one answer. The first steps towards sustainability cover a whole spectrum of economic, social and environmental issues. In this volume Australian leaders from a wide range of fields discuss the key issues we must address if we are to move towards a more just and sustainable future. They identify the major concerns and challenges for achieving sustainability in the areas of: human health, water resources, land use and natural ecosystems, energy, equity and peace, economic systems, climate change, labour forces and work, urban design and transport, and population. Achieving sustainability will require major changes in our current approaches. The thought-provoking chapters in this book provide a solid introduction to the issues in the search for a genuine path to sustainability.

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Influence of Land-Use Legacies Following Shrub Reduction and Seeding of Big Sagebrush Sites

Rangeland Ecology & Management ◽

10.1016/j.rama.2018.06.004 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 71 (6) ◽

pp. 695-704 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Thomas A. Monaco ◽

Allison Jones ◽

Mary Pendergast ◽

Eric T. Thacker ◽

Linden Greenhalgh

Keyword(s):

Land Use ◽

Big Sagebrush ◽

Land Use Legacies

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Proposal of a System for Assessment of the Sustainability of Municipalities (Sasmu) Included in the Spanish Network of National Parks and Their Surroundings

Geosciences ◽

10.3390/geosciences10080298 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 10 (8) ◽

pp. 298 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Javier Martínez-Vega ◽

David Rodríguez-Rodríguez ◽

Francisco M. Fernández-Latorre ◽

Paloma Ibarra ◽

Maite Echeverría ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Land Use ◽

Environmental Economic ◽

Protected Areas ◽

Habitat Loss ◽

National Parks ◽

Natural Ecosystems ◽

Efficient Tool ◽

Target Value ◽

Network Scale

It is usually considered that Protected Areas (PAs) are an efficient tool for policies to conserve biodiversity. However, there is evidence that some pressures and threats arise from processes taking place both inside them and in their surroundings territories—habitat loss, changes in land use, fragmentation of natural ecosystems. In this paper, we aim to test the hypothesis that municipalities located in the Socioeconomic Influence Zones (SIZs) of the fifteen National Parks (NPs) in Spain are more sustainable than those in their surroundings or, conversely, that the municipalities of their surroundings are more unsustainable. To measure their sustainability, we propose a system for assessment using fifteen indicators selected by experts. The methodology is based on the normalization of the data of each indicator, comparing them with a desirable target value defined in terms of sector policies and strategies. We then aggregate the indicators for each group in three indices that cover the classic dimensions of sustainability—environmental, economic and social. On a network scale, the results show that municipalities inside the SIZs are 1.594 points more sustainable environmentally, 0.108 economically and 0.068 socially than those of their surroundings. A system for assessment of the sustainability of municipalities (SASMU) may be a useful tool for NP managers, and for local and regional administrations, when setting priorities for policies, projects and compensation for regulatory restrictions related to NPs.

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