Current sampling methods require a large number of samples to account for spatial variation of environmental covariates, which often conflicts the available financial resources. Thus, efficient sampling strategies are desirable. The aim of this study was to evaluate the potential of land-surface segmentation in stratifying a landscape into homogeneous areas, which can be used as support in opti...

Spatial variation of tropical forest tree height is a key indicator of ecological processes associated with forest growth and carbon dynamics. Here we examine the macroscale variations of tree height of humid tropical forests across three continents and quantify the climate and edaphic controls on these variations. Forest tree heights are systematically sampled across global humid tropical fore...

A field study was conducted on hummocky terrain at the Manitoba Zero Tillage Association Research Farm near Brandon, Manitoba, Canada to determine the variability of crop yield as related to landscape position, soil properties, weed populations and plant disease. This information was used to develop a method for delineation of management units related to precision farming. Variable-rate fertili...

If the rate of bedrock conversion to a mobile layer of soil depends on the local thickness of soil, then hillslopes on uniform bedrock in a landscape approaching dynamic equilibrium should be mantled by a uniform thickness of soil. Conversely, if the depth of soil varies across an actively eroding landscape, then rates of soil production will also vary and, consequently the landscape will not b...

The relative importance of environmental factors and host factors in explaining variation in prevalence and intensity of flea parasitism in small mammal communities is poorly established. We examined these relationships in an East African savanna landscape, considering multiple host levels: across individuals within a local population, across populations within species, and across species withi...

Wilfried Mirschel⁎, Ralf Wieland, Marion Voss, Igbekele Ajibefun, Detlef Deumlich Leibniz-Center for Agricultural Landscape Research, Institute of Landscape Systems Analysis, Eberswalder Str. 84, 15374 Muencheberg, Germany Department of Agricultural Economics and Extension, Federal University of Technology, Akure, Nigeria Leibniz-Center for Agricultural Landscape Research, Institute of Soil Lan...

The formation of an anisotropic landscape is influenced by natural and/or human 2 processes, which can then be inferred on the basis of geometric indices. In this 3 study, two minimal bounding rectangles in consideration of the principles of 4 mechanics (i.e. minimal width bounding (MWB) box and moment bounding 5 (MB) box) were introduced. Based on these boxes, four novel shape indices, 6 namel...

We assessed the effects of deforestation on soil carbon (C) and nutrient stocks in the premontane landscape near Las Cruces Biological Station in southern Costa Rica, where forests were cleared for pasture in the mid-1960s. We excavated six soil pits to a depth of 1 m in both pasture and primary forest, and found that C stocks were ~20 kg C/m in both settings. Nevertheless, soil dC suggests ~50...

Real soil-landscapes are complex consisting of an inextricable mix of patterns and noise varying continuously in the space-time continuum. Soils and parent material show gradual variations in the horizontal and vertical planes forming 3D bodies that are commonly anisotropic. There is no real beginning and end point in soil-landscapes because environmental conditions are dynamically changed thro...

Z. E. Kayler, M. Kaiser, A. Gessler, R. H. Ellerbrock, and M. Sommer Institute for Landscape Biogeochemistry, Leibniz-Center for Agricultural Landscape Research (ZALF), Eberswalderstr. 84, 15374 Müncheberg, Germany University of California – Merced, 4225 N. Hospital Road, Atwater 95301, California, USA Institute of Soil Landscape Research, Leibniz-Center for Agricultural Landscape Research (ZAL...