In the United States, government sponsored conservation programs are under increasing pressure to quantify the environmental benefits of practices they subsidize. To meet this objective, conservation planners need tools to accurately predict phosphorus (P) loss from agricultural lands. Existing P export coefficient based tools are easy to use, but do not adequately account for local conditions....

BACKGROUND Changes in agricultural practices-notably changes in crop varieties, application of fertilizer and manure, rotation and tillage practices-influence how much and at what rate carbon is stored in, or released from, soils. Quantification of the impacts of land use on carbon stocks in sub-Saharan Africa is challenging because of the spatial heterogeneity of soil, climate, management cond...

The magnitude and extent of soil erosion in the Pacific Northwest region of the US still makes chilling reading. In a conventional farming approach in land mostly planted to winter wheat, there can be a loss of 12 bushels of topsoil, mostly from water erosion, for each bushel of wheat produced, with on-site losses of up to 1/8 in. of this highly fertile topsoil. Off-site outcomes were equally d...

Key Laboratory Soil and Water Conservation and Desertification Combating, Ministry of Education, College of Soil and Water Conservation, Beijing Forestry University, Beijing 100083, PR China College of Landscape Architecture and Ornamental Horticulture, Beijing Forestry University, Beijing 100083, PR China c The Ecosystems Center, Marine Biological Laboratory, Woods Hole, MA 02543, USA Raleigh ...