Rapid biofuel expansion has significantly reshaped agricultural land use in the United States, raising concerns about the conversion and long-term sustainability of marginal croplands. Understanding how policy incentives influence these land-use chan...
The lignocellulose in forage crops represents a second generation of biomass feedstock for conversion into energy-related end products. Some of the most extensively studied species for cellulosic feedstock production include forages such as switchgra...
The northwestern highlands of Ethiopia are characterized by severe land degradation and apparently low agricultural productivity. This situation is continuously threatening the livelihoods of smallholder farmers who mainly sustain their living from t...
From land cover analysis, cropland expansion was a major driving factor for land use land cover changes in Nigeria from 2000 to 2020. This further highlights the food production needs in the country. While this land use change indicates a significant...
The most suitable land for agricultural use has been gradually occupied by crops around the world. Large, uninterrupted croplands have been created, while disproportionate amounts of fertilizers, insecticides, fungicides and herbicides are applied on...
Despite agricultural land abandonment threatening the food security and the livelihoods of smallholder farmers, it is pervasive globally and in developing countries. Yet land abandonment is an understudied aspect of land use change in social–ec...
As a form of land marginalization, abandoned cropland has an important impact on food security and the effective supply of agricultural products. With rapid urbanization across the world, large areas of cropland are abandoned in some regions, especia...
Climate change is likely to decrease surface water availability in Central Asia, thereby necessitating land use adaptations in irrigated regions. The introduction of trees to marginally productive croplands with shallow groundwater was suggested for...
This paper’s working hypothesis is that the indigenous farming practices of Timorese farmers are those most suitable and adaptable with regard to these farmers’ circumstances. Intensive farming and the acceleration of land conversion in J...
Cropland abandonment (CRA) is an extreme case of cropland marginalization. With the continuous development of global industrialization and urbanization, the phenomenon of CRA gradually spreads from developed countries such as eastern and western Euro...
Exploring the spatiotemporal dynamics, spatial mismatch, and complex influencing mechanism of grain production and cropland productivity in the black soil region of northeast China (BSRNC) is essential for the synergistic protection and utilization o...
Understanding the temporal dynamics and spatial distribution of key soil properties is essential for sustainable land management and informed decision-making. This study assessed the spatial variability and decadal changes (2013–2023) of topsoi...
Land degradation is recognized as one of the major threats to the buffer zones of protected areas (PAs) in Vietnam. In particular, the expansion of land degradation into the PAs is exerting pressure on biodiversity conservation efforts. This degradat...
Soil organic carbon (SOC) is declining globally due to intensification of agriculture. Reversing declines should reduce soil erosion, maintain yields, raise the soil’s atmospheric carbon sink, and improve habitat for biodiversity. Commercial fi...
Across the United States, there has been a growing interest in local food production, which provides an alternative way to increase self-sufficiency and support greater well-being and food security at the community level. This study focused on the No...
Research on the development of plants grown for energy purposes is important for ensuring the global energy supply and reducing greenhouse gas emissions, and simulation is an important method to study its potential. This paper evaluated the marginal...
We present an analysis of the impacts of weather change and large-scale vegetation conservation programs on the vegetation dynamics in China’s Loess Plateau from 2000 through 2009. We employed a multiple lines of evidence approach in which multi-scal...
Accurate estimates of evapotranspiration (ET) over croplands on a regional scale can provide useful information for agricultural management. The hybrid ET model that combines the physical framework, namely the Penman-Monteith equation and machine lea...
Understanding the response of the mechanisms driving ecosystem services (ESs) to socioecological factors is imperative for regional sustainable ecosystem management. However, previous studies of the mechanisms driving ESs have focused more on the deg...
In recent years, regulatory agencies in the USA and Europe have begun to require documentation that land used to produce crops and biofuels has not been converted from carbon-capturing grasslands or forests. Precise measurement of these land cover ch...
The quality of water in the Red River is a complex interplay between human-induced changes and inherent natural variables. This research utilized the snapshot sampling approach, garnering water quality data from 45 sampling sites in the Red River and...
Identification of cropland suitability is obligatory to adapting to the increased food needs driven by population expansion, environmental contamination, and climate change. Given this, the present study was conducted to assess cereal crops’ su...
Globally, processes that drive urbanization have mostly evolved within economic downturns. Economic crises have been more severe and frequent, particularly in the Mediterranean region. However, studies on the recession effects on urbanization are lim...
Land Use/Land Cover (LULC) change is a major global concern and a topic of scientific debate. In West Africa, the key trend among the changes of the past few years is the loss of natural vegetation related to changes in different LULC categories, e.g...
Rapid urbanization exerts immense pressure on cultivated land. Among these, slope-classified cultivated land (referring to cropland categorized by slope gradients) is especially vulnerable to fragmentation due to its ecological fragility, challenging...
Landscape connectivity has widely been recognized as one of the key objectives in studies of forest landscape management, ecological conservation and construction. Protecting virgin forests and afforesting marginal cropland are two long-term ecologic...
This study investigates proximate drivers of cropland and forest degradation in the Kloto district (Togo, West Africa) as a way of exploring integrated sustainable landscape approaches with respect to socioeconomic and environmental needs and require...
Understanding the interrelationships between land use, climate change, and regional water yield is critical for effective water resource management and ecosystem protection. However, comprehensive insights into how water yield evolves under different...
To fulfill the national bioenergy goals of the United States, conversion of marginal lands to intensive biomass crop production and/or application of greater amounts of nutrients to existing cropland could be expected. Such change in agricultural pra...
Southwest China’s karst region represents a global hotspot for ecological restoration, with natural succession on abandoned farmland emerging as a pivotal mechanism under recent land-use transitions. Despite its ecological significance, empiric...
Land is a limited yet vital resource, which is fundamental for food security and national stability. Ensuring its effective use requires modern tools to support informed decision making. This study evaluates land suitability for irrigation in the Kyz...
Rural areas in Tibet, with its complex terrain, fragile ecology, and poor facilities, are subject to a combination of social–ecological system elements, facing the typical risks of recurrent, marginal, and potential poverty. At present, the spa...
Agriculture encroachment over alpine pastoral land is posing serious threats to the sustainable use of natural resources and agro-pastoral systems in the upland environment. This study aimed to understand the scenario of agriculture encroachment with...
In recent years, global climate change and human alterations to land use have led to a decrease in ecosystem services, making ecosystems more vulnerable. However, unlike the well-established risk assessment frameworks used in natural disaster researc...
The Honghe Hani Rice Terraces, a UNESCO World Heritage agroecosystem, embody a millennia-old synergy of cultural heritage and ecological resilience, yet face declining water yields amid land-use intensification and climate variability. This study emp...
Incorporating native perennial grasses adjacent to annual row crop systems managed on marginal lands can increase system resiliency by diversifying food and energy production. This study evaluated (1) soil organic C (SOC) and total N stocks (TN) unde...
Agriculture is the backbone of the Ethiopian economy, and the agricultural sector is dominated by smallholder farming systems. The farming systems are facing constraints such as small land size, lack of resources, and increasing degradation of soil q...
Urban growth is crucial for economic advancement, but it results in the fragmentation and depletion of natural and semi-natural ecosystems, which are often replaced by built-up areas. The balance between urban green spaces (UGSs) and impervious surfa...
Bangladesh is one of the emerging economies in the Global South, and rapid urbanization is the driving force behind its economic development. Urban growth and development are closely associated with land use/land cover changes in any area, which some...
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Industrialized small-scale pig farming has been rapidly developed in developing regions such as China and Southeast Asia, but the environmental problems accompanying pig farming have not been fully recognized. This study investigated 168 small-scale...
Increasing global demand for oil seeds and cereals during the past 50 years has caused an expansion in the cultivated areas and resulted in major soil management and crop production changes throughout Bolivia, Paraguay, Uruguay, Argentina and souther...
The majority of the world’s plants rely on animal pollinators for reproduction, making pollination a key ecosystem service for the maintenance of natural and cultivated plant communities. Mutual interactions between plants and pollinators, also...
Although advances in remote sensing have enhanced mapping and monitoring of irrigated areas, producing accurate cropping information through satellite image classification remains elusive due to the complexity of landscapes, changes in reflectance of...
The small Mediterranean islands, unique geographical places where coastlines and mountains converge due to volcanic genesis, are among the most threatened environments on Earth. Their marginality, which has historically led to their use as places of...
Tracking ecosystem productivity in fast-evolving estuarine wetlands is often constrained by the trade-off between spatial detail and temporal continuity in satellite observations. To address this, we developed a reproducible fusion–VPM framewor...
Optimizing the “production–living–ecological” space (PLES) is critical for achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), particularly in ecologically sensitive mountainous border regions. This study investigates the s...
Climate change has proven to have a profound impact on the growth of vegetation from various points of view. Understanding how vegetation changes and its response to climatic shift is of vital importance for describing their mutual relationships and...
Evaluating the management effectiveness of protected areas (PAs) is critical for refining conservation strategies. One of the key components in the management of PA is the regulation of human disturbance. We evaluated the management effectiveness of...
Diversifying agronomic production systems by combining crops and livestock (i.e., Integrated Crop Livestock systems; ICL) may help mitigate the environmental impacts of intensive single-commodity production. In addition, harvesting row-crop residues...