Ecosystems and Land Use Change

About this book

Land use is at the center of one of the most vexing challenges for the coming decades: to provide enough food, fiber and shelter for the world's population; raise the standard of living for the billion people currently below the poverty line; and sustain the world's ecosystems for use by humans and other species.

What are the intended and unintended consequences of land use change, from cropland expansion to urban growth, and more? How does an integrated understanding of the land and our use of it advance the science we need to lead the lives we want without endangering ecosystems? Ecosystems and Land Use Change responds to such questions by focusing on three areas of concern: Multiple ecosystem responses to land use change, including: hydrologic, climatic and biogeochemical, with human health and species diversity responses; Observing, forecasting, and hindcasting land use change; and Regional studies of ecosystem interactions with land use change.

Contents

Preface
      Ruth S. DeFries, Gregory P. Asner, and Richard A. Houghton vii
Trade-Offs in Land-Use Decisions: Towards a Framework for Assessing Multiple Ecosystem Responses to Land-Use Change
      Ruth S. DeFries, Gregory P. Asner, and Richard Houghton 1

Section I. The Multiple Ecosystem Responses to Land-Use Change
Hydrological Consequences of Land Use Change: A Review of the State-of-the-Science
      Keith N. Eshleman 13
Impacts of Agriculture on Aquatic Ecosystems in the Humid United States
      Kenneth W. Potter, Jamie C. Douglas, and Edmund M. Brick 31
Hydro-Ecologic Responses to Land Use in Small Urbanizing Watersheds Within the Chesapeake Bay Watershed
      Glenn E. Moglen, Karen C. Nelson, Margaret A. Palmer, James E. Pizzuto, Catriona E. Rogers, and Mohamad I. Hejazi 41
Biogeophysical Feedbacks Between Land Cover and Climate
      Gordon B. Bonan 61
Implications of Tropical Deforestation for Regional and Global Hydroclimate
      Roni Avissar, Renato Ramos da Silva, and David Werth 73
Effects of Land-Use Change on the Carbon Balance of Terrestrial Ecosystems
      R. A. Houghton and C. L. Goodale 85
Biogeochemistry of Desertification and Woody Encroachment in Grazing Systems
      Gregory P. Asner and Roberta E. Martin 99
Nitrogen Emissions Along the Colorado Front Range: Response to Population Growth, Land and Water Use Change, and Agriculture
      J. S. Baron, S. Del Grosso, D. S. Ojima, D. M. Theobald, and W. J. Parton 117
Effects of Urbanization on Nutrient Biogeochemistry of Aridland Streams
      Nancy B. Grimm, J. Ramon Arrowsmith, Chris Eisinger, James Heffernan, Amanda MacLeod, David B. Lewis, tela Prashad, Tyler Rychener, W. John Roach, and Richard W. Sheibley 129
Loss of Nutrients From Terrestrial Ecosystems to Streams and the Atmosphere Following Land Use Change in Amazonia
      Eric A. Davidson, Christopher Neil I, Alex V. Krusche, Victoria V. R. Ballester, Daniel Markewitz, and Ricardo de O. Figueiredo 147
Land Use Change and Human Health
      Jonathan A. Patz and Douglas E. Norris 159
Land-Use Change and Infectious Disease in West Africa
      M. C. Thomson, P. J. Ericksen, A. Ben Mohamed, and S. J. Connor 169
Rapid Land-Use Change and Its Impacts on Tropical Biodiversity
      William E Lauranee 189

Section II. Observing, Forecasting, and Hindcasting Land-Use Change
Footprints From the Past: Blueprint for the Future?
      Kees Klein Goldewijk 203
Landscape Level Analysis of the Spatial and Temporal Complexity of Land-Use Change
      Peter H. Verburg, A. Veldkamp, Louise Willemen, Koen P. Overmars, and Jean-Christophe Castella 21 7
Observing and Monitoring Land Use and Land Cover Change
      Thomas R. Loveland and Ruth S. DeFries 231

Section III. Regional Case Studies of Ecosystem Interactions With Land-Use Change
Land Use, Land Cover, and Climate Change Across the Mississippi Basin: Impacts on Selected Land and Water Resources
      Jonathan A. Foley, Christopher J. Kucharik, Tracy E. Twine, Michael T. Coe, and Simon D. Donner 249
Integrated Analysis of Ecosystem Interactions With Land Use Change: The Chesapeake Bay Watershed
      Scott J. Goetz, Claire A. Jantz, Stephen D. Prince, Andrew J. Smith, Dmitry Varlyguin, and Robb K. Wright 263
Integrated Analysis of Ecosystem Interactions With Land-Use Change: The Southern Yucatan Peninsular Region
      Deborah Lawrence, Henricus F. A/I. Vester, Diego Perez-Salicrup, J. Ronald Eastman, B. L. Turner II, and Jacqueline Geoghegan 277
Eurasian Land Use Impacts on Rangeland Productivity
      Dennis S. Ojima, Togtohyn Chuluun, Boldyn Bolortsetseg, Compton J. Tucker, and Jeff Hicke 293
Long-Term Ecological Changes in the Densely Populated Rural Landscapes of China
      Erie C. Ellis 303
The Large-Scale Biosphere-Atmosphere Experiment in Amazonia: Analyzing Regional Land Use Change Effects
      Michael Keller, Maria Assungao Silva-Dias, Daniel C. Nepstad, and Meinrat O. Andreae 321

Conclusion
Typological Responses of Ecosystems to Land Use Change
      Gregory P. Asner, Ruth  DeFries, and Richard Houghton  337

Customer Reviews