Species distribution models (SDM) can be valuable for identifying key habitats for conservation management of threatened taxa, but anthropogenic habitat change can undermine SDM accuracy. We used data for the Red Siskin (Spinus cucullatus), a critically endangered bird and ground truthing to examine anthropogenic habitat change as a source of SDM inaccuracy. We aimed to estimate: (1) the Red Si...

Land degradation is a major threat to the sustainability of human habitation, and it is essential to assess it quantitatively. Assessment of the human-induced aspect is especially important for planning appropriate prevention measures. This paper used the Three-North Shelter Forest Program region as the study area, and assessed the land degradation dynamic using a time series of summed normaliz...

This document presents proposals for the design and implementation of a Baseline Survey for the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD). It has been prepared at the request of the Secretariat of the UNCCD. The Baseline Survey is to be initiated as part of the UNCCD's Ten Year Strategic Plan, and will form the starting point for monitoring long-term trends in desertification so that prog...

Satellite observations identify the Mongolian steppes as a hotspot of global biomass reduction, the extent of which is comparable with tropical rainforest deforestation. To conserve or restore these grasslands, the relative contributions of climate and human activities to degradation need to be understood. Here we use a recently developed 21-year (1988-2008) record of satellite based vegetation...

Mediterranean coastal areas are experiencing rapid land cover change caused by human-induced land degradation and extreme climatic events. Vegetation index time series provide a useful way to monitor vegetation phenological variations. This study quantitatively describes Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI) temporal changes for Mediterranean land-covers from the perspective of vegetation phenology a...

Steppe degradation is a major ecological and economic problem in the Inner Mongolia steppe region, China because it reduces grassland productivity and leads to desertification. The objective of this study was to assess the spatial extent and severity of steppe degradation in the Xilin River Basin, Inner Mongolia using a landscape-scale approach. Our approach combined information from field surv...

The concentrations of atrazine in the freshly added soils and the soils that had been incubated for 50 days significantly decreased 1 day after the addition of the enzyme atrazine chlorohydrolase or the soil bacterium Pseudomonas sp. strain ADP as compared with those in the uninoculated soils. Atrazine chlorohydrolase or ADP had no effect on the degradation of metolachlor. The half-lives of atr...

This study aims to assess the effect of grazing intensity on vegetation structure, soil nutrient concentrations and soil physical properties. The study was carried out in steppe rangelands of Saveh, Markazi province, Iran. Four sites with four grazing intensities including very high, high, moderate and non-grazed with the same ecological conditions were selected. To study various vegetation and...

The choice of sampling methods is a crucial step in every field survey in herpetology. In countries where time and financial support are limited, the choice of the methods is critical. The methods used to sample snakes often lack objective criteria, and the traditional methods have apparently been more important when making the choice. Consequently researches using not-standardized methods are ...