introduction land use and land cover change (lucc) is a complex issue resulted from biophysical, socio-economic, cultural, organizational and technological factors in different spatial and temporal scales. lucc considered as an important threat to biodiversity as causing the fragmentation, natural vegetation destruction and natural areas isolation the regions which managed by environmental prot...

Based on the comparative advantages of forestland in providing a variety of products and services, it is not arguable that different kinds of forestland should produce different compositions of outputs. To investigate the issue regarding forestland-use specialization or the pursuit of multiple uses on same piece of land, this paper starts by revisiting Vincent and Binkley’s paper ‘Efficient Mul...

China’s new round tenure reform has devolved collective forests to individuals on an egalitarian basis. To balance the equity–efficiency dilemma, forestland transfers are highly advocated by policymakers. However, the forestland rental market is still inactive after the reform. To examine the role of off-farm employment in forestland transfers, a simultaneous Tobit system of equations was emplo...

In the Loess Hilly Region of China, the widespread conversion of cropland to forestland and grassland has resulted in great increased in organic carbon (C), nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) stocks in the shallow soil layers. However, knowledge regarding changes in C, N, and P in deep soil is still limited. To elucidate the responses of deep soil C, N, and P stocks and stoichiometry in response t...

Forest fragmentation threatens the sustainability of forest communities in the eastern United States. Forest communities exhibiting either a low total area or low percentage of intact forest are subject to relatively higher risk of shifts in stand composition towards edge-adapted and invasive species. Such changes in stand composition could result in local extirpation of communities, homogeniza...

Scientists have aimed at exploring land use and land cover change (LUCC) and modeling future landscape pattern in order to improve our understanding of the causes and consequences of these phenomena. This study addresses LUCC in the upper reaches of Minjiang River, China, from 1974 to 2000. Based on remotely sensed images, LUCC and landscape pattern change were assessed using cross-tabulation a...