Publications

Effectiveness of protected areas in the Caucasus Mountains in preventing rangeland degradation
As land use intensifies globally, it increasingly exerts pressure on protected areas. Despite open, nonforested landscapes comprising …
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Recent Sociocultural Changes Reverse the Long-Term Trend of Declining Habitat Availability for Large Wild Mammals in Europe
Aim: People have strongly influenced the biosphere for millennia, but how their increasing activities have shaped wildlife distribution …
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Links between deforestation, conservation areas and conservation funding in major deforestation regions of South America
  1. Land-use change is a major driver of biodiversity loss, affecting tropical forests and savannas at an unprecedented rate. To protect …
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Moving beyond simplistic representations of land use in conservation
Land use is both a major cause of the biodiversity crises and a potential solution to it. Decisions about land use are made in complex …
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The best of two worlds: using stacked generalization for integrating expert range maps in species distribution models

Aim: Species distribution models (SDMs) are powerful tools for assessing suitable habitats across large areas and at fine spatial …
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Mapping opportunities and barriers for coexistence between people and pumas in the Argentine Dry Chaco
Aim: The persistence of large carnivore populations depends on their survival outside protected areas, where they often impact local …
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Troubled waters at the frontier: Mapping forest-dependent people's access to surface water in the Dry Chaco
Several studies have demonstrated that agricultural commodity frontier expansion impacts local populations’ access to terrestrial …
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Same, but different: similar states of forest structure in temperate mountain regions of Europe despite different social-ecological forest disturbance regimes

Context: ecosystem services provided by mountain forests are critically linked to forest structure. Social-ecological disturbance …
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What is still at stake in the Gran Chaco? Social-ecological impacts of alternative land-system futures in a global deforestation hotspot
Commodity agriculture continues to spread into tropical dry forests globally, eroding their social-ecological integrity. Understanding …
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Reinstating freshwater megafauna populations can facilitate ecosystem restoration
Freshwater megafauna, such as sturgeons, giant catfishes, river dolphins, hippopotami, crocodylians, large turtles, and giant …
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Risk response towards roads is consistent across multiple species in a temperate forest ecosystem
Roads can have diverse impacts on wildlife species, and while some species may adapt effectively, others may not. Studying multiple …
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Determinants of livestock depredation risk by Persian leopards in southern Iran
Human-wildlife conflict is a major conservation challenge worldwide, with negative consequences for people and wildlife alike. Large …
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The impacts of reduced connectivity on multiple facets of aquatic insect diversity in floodplain wetlands, Northeast China
River-floodplain ecosystems are highly complex and dynamic systems that are subjected to human disturbance, such as the construction of …
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An actor-centered, scalable land system typology for addressing biodiversity loss in the world’s tropical dry woodlands
Land use is a key driver of the ongoing biodiversity crisis and therefore also a major opportunity for its mitigation. However, …
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Reflecting on the role of human-felid conflict and local use in big cat trade
Illegal trade in big cat (Panthera spp.) body parts is a prominent topic in scientific and public discourses concerning wildlife …
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Silvopastoral management for lowering trade-offs between beef production and carbon storage in tropical dry woodlands
Tropical dry woodlands and savannas harbour high levels of biodiversity and carbon, but are also important regions for agricultural …
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Changing Determinants of International Conservation Funding Committed to Major Deforestation Regions in South America
International conservation funding to low- and middle-income countries has increased significantly in recent years. However, …
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Governance and conservation effectiveness in protected areas and Indigenous and locally managed areas
Increased conservation action to protect more habitat and species is fueling a vigorous debate about the relative effectiveness of …
Yin Zhang, Paige West, Lerato Thakholi, Kulbhushansingh Suryawanshi, Miriam Supuma, Dakota Straub, Samantha S. Sithole, Roshan Sharma, Judith Schleicher, Ben Ruli, David Rodríguez-Rodríguez, Mattias Borg Rasmussen, Victoria C. Ramenzoni, Siyu Qin, Deborah Delgado Pugley, Rachel Palfrey, Johan Oldekop, Emmanuel O. Nuesiri, Van Hai Thi Nguyen, Nouhou Ndam, Catherine Mungai, Sarah Milne, Mathew Bukhi Mabele, Sadie Lucitante, Hugo Lucitante, Jonathan Liljeblad, Wilhelm Andrew Kiwango, Alfred Kik, Nikoleta Jones, Melissa Johnson, Christopher Jarrett, Rachel Sapery James, George Holmes, Lydia N. Gibson, Arash Ghoddousi, Jonas Geldmann, Maria Fernanda Gebara, Thera Edwards, Wolfram H. Dressler, Leo R. Douglas, Panayiotis G. Dimitrakopoulos, Veronica Davidov, Eveline M.F.W. Compaoré-Sawadogo, Yolanda Ariadne Collins, Michael Cepek, Paul Berne Burow, Dan Brockington, Michael Philippe Bessike Balinga, Beau J. Austin, Rini Astuti, Christine Ampumuza, Frank Kwaku Agyei
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A novel, post-Soviet fire disturbance regime drives bird diversity and abundance on the Eurasian steppe
Many grassland ecosystems and their associated biodiversity depend on the interactions between fire and land-use, both of which are …
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Increasing mortality of European bison (Bison bonasus) on roads and railways
Aim: Traffic mortality can pose a serious risk to endangered species that occur in small populations, are mobile and occupy fragmented …
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Understanding habitat selection of range-expanding populations of large carnivores: 20 years of grey wolves (Canis lupus) recolonizing Germany
Aim: The non-stationarity in habitat selection of expanding populations poses a significant challenge for spatial forecasting. Focusing …
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Integrating animal tracking datasets at a continental scale for mapping Eurasian lynx habitat
Aim: The increasing availability of animal tracking datasets collected across many sites provides new opportunities to move beyond …
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Tropical dry woodland loss occurs disproportionately in areas of highest conservation value
Tropical and subtropical dry woodlands are rich in biodiversity and carbon. Yet, many of these woodlands are under high deforestation …
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Partitioning the effects of habitat loss, hunting and climate change on the endangered Chacoan peccary
Aim: Land-use change and overexploitation are major threats to biodiversity, and climate change will exert additional pressure in the …
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Advancing protected area effectiveness assessments by disentangling social-ecological interactions: A case study from the Luangwa Valley, Zambia
Protected and conserved areas (PCAs) target at biodiversity conservation and human well-being, but often reflect low levels of …
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Prerequisites for coexistence: human pressure and refuge habitat availability shape continental-scale habitat use patterns of a large carnivore
Adjustments in habitat use by large carnivores can be a key factor facilitating their coexistence with people in shared landscapes. …
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Spatial variation in red deer density in a transboundary forest ecosystem
Forests in Europe are exposed to increasingly frequent and severe disturbances. The resulting changes in the structure and composition …
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Making conventional farming more biodiversity friendly
We contend that it is conventional farming, not the conservation policies of the European Union, that is driving most of the …
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Enabling spaces for bridging scales: scanning solutions for interdisciplinary human-environment research
To tackle the twenty-first-century challenges for sustainability, a deeper understanding of their complexity is needed. Hence, …
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Widespread habitat for Europe's largest herbivores, but poor connectivity limits recolonization
Several large-mammal species in Europe have recovered and recolonized parts of their historical ranges. Knowing where suitable habitat …
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Social considerations are crucial to success in implementing the 30×30 global conservation target
Following intense negotiation over several years, the Convention on Biological Diversity’s Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity …
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Protect old-growth forests in Europe now
Old-growth forests harbor high and unique biodiversity, store vast amounts of carbon, are important for water and nutrient cycling, and …
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Priority areas for promoting co-benefits between conservation and the traditional use of mammals and birds in the Chaco
As ambitious new targets to increase area-based conservation are discussed, there is a growing concern that such an expansion might …
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Opportunities and challenges for monitoring a recolonizing large herbivore using citizen science
Monitoring is a prerequisite for evidence-based wildlife management and conservation planning, yet conventional monitoring approaches …
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Linking disturbance history to current forest structure to assess the impact of disturbances in tropical dry forests
Tropical dry forests are widespread, harbour vast amounts of carbon and unique biodiversity, and underpin the livelihoods of millions. …
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Explaining the stickiness of supply chain relations in the Brazilian soybean trade
The global trade of agricultural commodities has profound social-ecological impacts, from potentially increasing food availability and …
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Agricultural intensification, Indigenous stewardship and land sparing in tropical dry forests
Agricultural intensification, an increase in per-area productivity, may spare forests otherwise lost to agricultural expansion. Yet …
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Frontier metrics for a process-based understanding of deforestation dynamics
Agricultural expansion into tropical and subtropical forests often leads to major social-ecological trade-offs. Yet, despite ever-more …
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Analysis of differences and commonalities in wildlife hunting across the Africa-Europe South-North gradient
Hunting and its impacts on wildlife are typically studied regionally, with a particular focus on the Global South. Hunting can, …
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Using historical spy satellite photographs and recent remote sensing data to identify high-conservation-value forests
High-conservation-value forests (HCVFs) are critically important for biodiversity and ecosystem service provisioning, but they face …
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Understanding spatial patterns of poaching pressure using ranger logbook data to optimize future patrolling strategies
Poaching is driving many species toward extinction, and as a result, lowering poaching pressure is a conservation priority. This …
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Uncovering major types of deforestation frontiers across the world’s tropical dry woodlands
Tropical dry woodlands are rapidly being lost to agricultural expansion, but how deforestation dynamics play out in these woodlands …
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Toward Causal Inference for Spatio-Temporal Data: Conflict and Forest Loss in Colombia
How does armed conflict influence tropical forest loss? For Colombia, both enhancing and reducing effect estimates have been reported. …
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The relative importance of COVID-19 pandemic impacts on biodiversity conservation globally
The COVID-19 pandemic has had an enormous impact on almost all aspects of human society and endeavor; the natural world and its …
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The geography of international conservation interest in South American deforestation frontiers
International funding is increasingly important in supporting conservation in mega-biodiverse countries. However, it remains unclear …
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Ten facts about land systems for sustainability
Land use is central to addressing sustainability issues, including biodiversity conservation, climate change, food security, poverty …
Patrick Meyfroidt, Ariane de Bremond, Casey M. Ryan, Emma Archer, Richard Aspinall, Abha Chhabra, Gilberto Camara, Esteve Corbera, Ruth DeFries, Sandra Diaz, Jinwei Dong, Erle C. Ellis, Karl-Heinz Erb, Janet A. Fisher, Rachel D. Garrett, Nancy E. Golubiewski, H. Ricardo Grau, J. Morgan Grove, Helmut Haberl, Andreas Heinimann, Patrick Hostert, Esteban G. Jobbagy, Suzi Kerr, Tobias Kuemmerle, Eric F. Lambin, Sandra Lavorel, Sharachandra Lele, Ole Mertz, Peter Messerli, Graciela Metternicht, Darla K. Munroe, Harini Nagendra, Jonas Ostergaard Nielsen, Dennis S. Ojima, Dawn Cassandra Parker, Unai Pascual, John R. Porter, Navin Ramankutty, Anette Reenberg, Rinku Roy Chowdhury, Karen C. Seto, Verena Seufert, Hideaki Shibata, Allison Thomson, Billie L. Turner II, Jotaro Urabe, Tom Veldkamp, Peter H. Verburg, Gete Zeleke, Erasmus K. H. J. zu Ermgassen
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Societal drought vulnerability and the Syrian climate-conflict nexus are better explained by agriculture than meteorology
Droughts are often suspected to increase the risk of violent conflict through agricultural production shocks, and existing studies …
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Resource pulses and human–wildlife conflicts: linking satellite indicators and ground data on forest productivity to predict brown bear damages
Pulsed resources have prominent effects on community and ecosystem dynamics; however, there is little research on how resource pulses …
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Quantifying the relationship between prey density, livestock and illegal killing of leopards
Many large mammalian carnivores are facing population declines due to illegal killing (e.g. shooting) and habitat modification (e.g. …
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Prioritizing livestock grazing right buyouts to safeguard Asiatic cheetahs from extinction
Livestock husbandry exerts major pressures on wildlife across the world. Large carnivores are particularly at risk because they are …
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Patterning Conservation Flows: How Formal and Informal Networks Shape Transnational Conservation Practice
Conservation Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) are crucial actors in global conservation governance. They shape resource flows, …
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Mapping the distribution and habitat of Persian leopard across its historical range
Persian leopards Panthera pardus tulliana, once widespread across Western and Central Asia, currently only occupy a fraction of their …
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Localized versus wide-ranging effects of the post-Soviet wars in the Caucasus on agricultural abandonment
Wars are frequent and can affect land use substantially, but the effects of wars can vary greatly depending on their characteristics, …
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Large carnivore range expansion in Iberia in relation to different scenarios of permeability of human‐dominated landscapes
Large carnivores are currently recolonizing parts of their historical ranges in Europe after centuries of persecution and habitat loss. …
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Hunting as land use: Understanding the spatial associations among hunting, agriculture, and forestry
Hunting is a widespread but often overlooked land-use activity, providing major benefits to society. Hunting takes place in most …
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Humans rather than Eurasian lynx (Lynx lynx) shape ungulate browsing patterns in a temperate forest
The recolonization of human-dominated landscapes by large carnivores has been followed with considerable scientific interest; however, …
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Human disturbance is the most limiting factor driving habitat selection of a large carnivore throughout Continental Europe
Habitat selection is a multi-scale process driven by trade-offs between benefits, such as resource abundance, and disadvantages, such …
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Ecoregion-wide, multi-sensor biomass mapping highlights a major underestimation of dry forests carbon stocks
Tropical dry forests harbor major carbon stocks but are disappearing rapidly across the globe as agriculture expands into them. …
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Disentangling the numbers behind agriculture-driven tropical deforestation
Tropical deforestation continues at alarming rates with profound impacts on ecosystems, climate, and livelihoods, prompting renewed …
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Conservation frontiers: understanding the geographic expansion of conservation
Land-use frontiers, such as agriculture expanding into forests, remain a major driver of biodiversity loss, and often lead to …
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Changing patterns of conflict between humans, carnivores and crop-raiding prey as large carnivores recolonize human-dominated landscapes
Large carnivores are making remarkable comebacks in Europe, but how this affects human-wildlife conflict remains unclear. Rebounding …
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An Outcome-Oriented, Social-Ecological Framework for Assessing Protected Area Effectiveness
Both the number and the extent of protected areas have grown considerably in recent years, but evaluations of their effectiveness …
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Agents of Forest Disturbance in the Argentine Dry Chaco
Forest degradation in the tropics is a widespread, yet poorly understood phenomenon. This is particularly true for tropical and …
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A range-wide monitoring framework for the Persian leopard and its prey
The long-term survival of the Persian leopard Panthera pardus tulliana requires concerted regional conservation efforts. Understanding …
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Zoning has little impact on the seasonal diel activity and distribution patterns of wild boar (Sus scrofa) in an UNESCO Biosphere Reserve
Understanding the spatio-temporal distribution of ungulates is important for effective wildlife management, particularly for …
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Training future generations to deliver evidence‐based conservation and ecosystem management
To be effective, the next generation of conservation practitioners and managers need to be critical thinkers with a deep understanding …
Harriet Downey, Tatsuya Amano, Marc Cadotte, Carly N. Cook, Steven J. Cooke, Neal R. Haddaway, Julia P. G. Jones, Nick Littlewood, Jessica C. Walsh, Mark I. Abrahams, Gilbert Adum, Munemitsu Akasaka, Jose A. Alves, Rachael E. Antwis, Eduardo C. Arellano, Jan Axmacher, Holly Barclay, Lesley Batty, Ana Benitez-Lopez, Joseph R. Bennett, Maureen J. Berg, Sandro Bertolino, Duan Biggs, Friederike C. Bolam, Tim Bray, Barry W. Brook, Joseph W. Bull, Zuzana Burivalova, Mar Cabeza, Alienor L. M. Chauvenet, Alec P. Christie, Lorna Cole, Alison J. Cotton, Sam Cotton, Sara A. O. Cousins, Dylan Craven, Will Cresswell, Jeremy J. Cusack, Sarah E. Dalrymple, Zoe G. Davies, Anita Diaz, Jennifer A. Dodd, Adam Felton, Erica Fleishman, Charlie J. Gardner, Ruth Garside, Arash Ghoddousi, James J. Gilroy, David A. Gill, Jennifer A. Gill, Louise Glew, Matthew J. Grainger, Amelia A. Grass, Stephanie Greshon, Jamie Gundry, Tom Hart, Charlotte R. Hopkins, Caroline Howe, Arlyne Johnson, Kelly W. Jones, Neil R. Jordan, Taku Kadoya, Daphne Kerhoas, Julia Koricheva, Tien Ming Lee, Szabolcs Lengyel, Stuart W. Livingstone, Ashley Lyons, Grainne McCabe, Jonathan Millett, Chloe Montes Strevens, Adam Moolna, Hannah L. Mossman, Nibedita Mukherjee, Andres Munoz-Saez, Nuno Negroes, Olivia Norfolk, Takeshi Osawa, Sarah Papworth, Kirsty J. Park, Jerome Pellet, Andrea D. Phillott, Joshua M. Plotnik, Dolly Priatna, Alejandra G. Ramos, Nicola Randall, Rob M. Richards, Euan G. Ritchie, David L. Roberts, Ricardo Rocha, Jon Paul Rodriguez, Roy Sanderson, Takehiro Sasaki, Sini Savilaakso, Carl Sayer, Cagan Sekercioglu, Masayuki Senzaki, Grania Smith, Robert J. Smith, Masashi Soga, others
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Survival and cause-specific mortality of European wildcat (Felis silvestris) across Europe
Humans have transformed most landscapes across the globe, forcing other species to adapt in order to persist in increasingly …
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Shocks to food systems in times of conflict
Armed conflicts have devastating humanitarian consequences, both direct and indirect. A crucial yet overlooked outcome is the …
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Satellite-based habitat monitoring reveals long-term dynamics of deer habitat in response to forest disturbances
Disturbances play a key role in driving forest ecosystem dynamics, but how disturbances shape wildlife habitat across space and time …
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Regional matters: On the usefulness of regional land‐cover datasets in times of global change
Unprecedented amounts of analysis-ready Earth Observation (EO) data, combined with increasing computational power and new algorithms, …
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Reducing persecution is more effective for restoring large carnivores than restoring their prey
Large carnivores are currently disappearing from many world regions because of habitat loss, prey depletion, and persecution. Ensuring …
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Rear‐edge populations are important for understanding climate change risk and adaptation potential of threatened species
Climate change disproportionately threatens alpine species, by reducing available habitat and by isolating their populations. These …
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Post-Soviet shifts in grazing and fire regimes changed the functional plant community composition on the Eurasian steppe
Globally, grasslands are shaped by grazing and fire, and grassland plants are adapted to these disturbances. However, temperate …
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Integrating inductive and deductive analysis to identify and characterize archetypical social-ecological systems and their changes
Archetype analysis is a key tool in landscape and sustainability research to organize social-ecological complexity and to identify …
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Integrated framework for stakeholder participation: Methods and tools for identifying and addressing human–wildlife conflicts
As wild areas disappear and agricultural lands expand, understanding how people and wildlife can coexist becomes increasingly …
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How do habitat amount and habitat fragmentation drive time-delayed responses of biodiversity to land-use change?
Land-use change is a root cause of the extinction crisis, but links between habitat change and biodiversity loss are not fully …
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Habitat destruction and overexploitation drive widespread declines in all facets of mammalian diversity in the Gran Chaco
Global biodiversity is under high and rising anthropogenic pressure. Yet, how the taxonomic, phylogenetic, and functional facets of …
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Fading opportunities for mitigating agriculture-environment trade-offs in a south American deforestation hotspot
Strong trade-offs between agriculture and the environment occur in deforestation frontiers, particularly in the world’s rapidly …
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European primary forest database v2.0
Primary forests, defined here as forests where the signs of human impacts, if any, are strongly blurred due to decades without forest …
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Distribution, ecology, and conservation of Xenarthra in Bolivia — update to 2021
We present an update on the taxonomy, distribution, ecology, threats, and conservation status of Bolivian Xenarthra (orders Cingulata …
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Developing transboundary monitoring of the jaguar in southern South America
PDF Project DOI
Characterizing forest disturbances across the Argentine Dry Chaco based on Landsat time series
Forest loss in the tropics affects large areas, but whereas full forest conversions are routinely assessed, forest degradation patters …
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Changes in the grasslands of the Caucasus based on Cumulative Endmember Fractions from the full 1987–2019 Landsat record
Grasslands are important for global biodiversity, food security, and climate change analyses, which makes mapping and monitoring of …
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Anthropogenic resistance: accounting for human behavior in wildlife connectivity planning
Maintaining or restoring connectivity among wildlife populations is a primary strategy to overcome the negative impacts of habitat …
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Agricultural expansion and the ecological marginalization of forest-dependent people
Agricultural expansion into subtropical and tropical forests causes major environmental damage, but its wider social impacts often …
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Widespread and major losses in multiple ecosystem services as a result of agricultural expansion in the Argentine Chaco
Where agriculture expands into tropical and subtropical forests, social–ecological impacts are typically strong. However, where and how …
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Using occupancy models to assess the direct and indirect impacts of agricultural expansion on species’ populations
Land-use change is a global threat to biodiversity, but how land-use change affects species beyond the direct effect of habitat loss …
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Untangling the imprints of climate, geography and land use/cover on bird diversity in the South American Gran Chaco
To evaluate the structure of bird communities throughout the South American Gran Chaco determining the effects of climate, geography …
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Understanding the distribution of cattle production systems in the South American Chaco
Impacts of cattle production vary among different production systems, but data on their distribution is scarce for most world regions. …
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Tropical forest loss enhanced by large-scale land acquisitions
Tropical forests are vital for global biodiversity, carbon storage and local livelihoods, yet they are increasingly under threat from …
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Trade‐offs between biodiversity and agriculture are moving targets in dynamic landscapes
Understanding how biodiversity responds to intensifying agriculture is critical to mitigating the trade-offs between them. These …
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Short-term vegetation loss versus decadal degradation of grasslands in the Caucasus based on Cumulative Endmember Fractions
Land degradation affects over one-third of the global land area and is projected to become even more widespread due to climate change …
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Protection gaps and restoration opportunities for primary forests in Europe
Primary forests are critical for forest biodiversity and provide key ecosystem services. In Europe, these forests are particularly …
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Mapping connectivity and conflict risk to identify safe corridors for the Persian leopard
Many large carnivores depend on habitat patches outside protected areas, as well as safe corridors between them. However, corridor …
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Land-cover change in the Caucasus Mountains since 1987 based on the topographic correction of multi-temporal Landsat composites
Mountainous regions are changing rapidly across the world due to both land-use change and climate change. Given the importance of …
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Increasing synergistic effects of habitat destruction and hunting on mammals over three decades in the Gran Chaco
Habitat destruction and overexploitation are the main threats to biodiversity and where they co-occur, their combined impact is often …
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Inclusion, Transparency, and Enforcement: How the EU-Mercosur Trade Agreement Fails the Sustainability Test
Trade agreements could help to protect human rights, critical ecosystems, and the climate—but only if sustainability becomes a …
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Identifying priority areas for restoring mountain ungulates in the Caucasus ecoregion
Mountain ungulates around the world have been decimated to small, fragmented populations. Restoring these species often is limited by …
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Framing the search for a theory of land use
Land system science and affiliated research linked to sustainability require improved understanding and theorization of land and its …
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European bison conservation must move beyond entrenched debates – response to Kerley et al. (2020)
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Declining human pressure and opportunities for rewilding in the steppes of Eurasia
Large and ecologically functioning steppe complexes have been lost historically across the globe, but recent land-use changes may allow …
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Connectivity or isolation? Identifying reintroduction sites for multiple conservation objectives for wisents in Poland
Large herbivores and carnivores today often only occupy small fractions of their former ranges, and restoring them is a conservation …
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Cold War spy satellite images reveal long-term declines of a philopatric keystone species in response to cropland expansion
Agricultural expansion drives biodiversity loss globally, but impact assessments are biased towards recent time periods. This can lead …
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Changes in agriculture-biodiversity trade-offs in relation to landscape context in the Argentine Chaco
Better balancing agricultural production and biodiversity conservation is a central goal for many landscapes. Yet, empirical work on …
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Annual Landsat time series reveal post-Soviet changes in grazing pressure
Temperate grasslands are globally widespread, play an important role as carbon storage, and harbor unique biodiversity. Livestock …
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Aligning biodiversity conservation and agricultural production in heterogeneous landscapes
Understanding the trade-offs between biodiversity conservation and agricultural production has become a fundamental question in …
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Trade-offs between carbon stocks and biodiversity in European temperate forests
Policies to mitigate climate change and biodiversity loss often assume that protecting carbon-rich forests provides co-benefits in …
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Thresholds in forest bird communities along woody vegetation gradients in the South American Dry Chaco
World-wide, tropical savannas and dry forests are under increasing pressure from land use. The environmental impacts of agricultural …
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Sustainable intensification in land systems: trade-offs, scales, and contexts
Sustainable intensification of agricultural production is expected to be an important pathway for achieving future food security while …
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Rewilding complex ecosystems
The practice of rewilding has been both promoted and criticized in recent years. Benefits include flexibility to react to environmental …
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Post-Soviet Land-Use Change Affected Fire Regimes on the Eurasian Steppes
Fire is an important disturbance in grassland ecosystems. Anthropogenic factors, especially land use, have drastically altered fire …
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Marmots from space: assessing population size and habitat use of a burrowing mammal using publicly available satellite images
Social, burrowing mammals such as prairie dogs, ground squirrels or marmots are keystone species in grassland ecosystems. Grasslands …
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Mapping Land System Archetypes to Understand Drivers of Ecosystem Service Risks
Land system archetypes are unique patterns of land-use intensity within prevailing environmental and socio-economic conditions that …
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Mapping and modelling past and future land use change in Europe’s cultural landscapes
Cultural landscapes are valued for their landscape character and cultural heritage. Yet, these often low-intensity, multifunctional …
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Make EU trade with Brazil sustainable
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Large greenhouse gas savings due to changes in the post-Soviet food systems
As the global food system contributes significantly to global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, understanding the sources of GHG …
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Habitat metrics based on multi‐temporal Landsat imagery for mapping large mammal habitat
Up-to-date and fine-scale habitat information is essential for managing and conserving wildlife. Studies assessing wildlife habitat …
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Habitat loss and overhunting synergistically drive the extirpation of jaguars from the Gran Chaco
Understanding how habitat loss and overhunting impact large carnivores is important for broad-scale conservation planning. We aimed to …
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Fires scorching Bolivia's Chiquitano forest
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Conservation Telecouplings
Local threats to biodiversity are increasingly caused by distal drivers. Likewise, conservation responses are increasingly shaped by …
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Biodiversity loss in deforestation frontiers: Linking occupancy modelling and physiological stress indicators to understand local extinctions
Tropical deforestation is a main driver of the global biodiversity crisis. Impact assessments typically focus on species’ …
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Assessing niche overlap between domestic and threatened wild sheep to identify conservation priority areas
Populations of large ungulates are dwindling worldwide. This is especially so for wild sheep, which compete with livestock for forage, …
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Agricultural abandonment and re-cultivation during and after the Chechen Wars in the northern Caucasus
Armed conflicts are globally widespread and can strongly influence societies and the environment. However, where and how armed conflicts …
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A pivotal year for Bolivian conservation policy
As Bolivia approaches presidential elections in October 2019, the country’s environmental leadership is at stake. We discuss urgent …
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Where are Europe’s last primary forests?
Primary forests have high conservation value but are rare in Europe due to historic land use. Yet many primary forest patches remain …
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Water availability limits brown bear distribution at the southern edge of its global range
Large carnivores are among the most threatened species in the world because of their natural low densities and need for expansive …
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The potential impact of economic policies on future land-use conversions in Argentina
Agricultural expansion and intensification drive the conversion of natural areas worldwide. Scenarios are powerful tools to explore …
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The emergence of cannabis agriculture frontiers as environmental threats
On agricultural frontiers, minimal regulation and potential windfall profits drive opportunistic land use that often results in …
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Spatial variation in determinants of agricultural land abandonment in Europe
Knowledge of the spatial distribution of agricultural abandonment following the collapse of the Soviet Union is highly uncertain. To …
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Spatial distribution of arable and abandoned land across former Soviet Union countries
Knowledge of the spatial distribution of agricultural abandonment following the collapse of the Soviet Union is highly uncertain. To …
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Simulating and delineating future land change trajectories across Europe
Explorations of future land use change are important to understand potential conflicts between competing land uses, trade-offs …
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Sanctioning to extinction in Iran
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Pasture intensification is insufficient to relieve pressure on conservation priority areas in open agricultural markets
Agricultural expansion is a leading driver of biodiversity loss across the world, but little is known on how future land-use change may …
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One size does not fit all: European bison habitat selection across herds and spatial scales
Understanding habitat selection can be challenging for species surviving in small populations, but is needed for landscape-scale …
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Multiscale spatial planning to maintain forest connectivity in the Argentine Chaco in the face of deforestation
Agricultural expansion threatens biodiversity due to habitat loss and fragmentation. In the Gran Chaco, a global deforestation hotspot, …
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Models meet data: Challenges and opportunities in implementing land management in Earth system models
As the applications of Earth system models (ESMs) move from general climate projections toward questions of mitigation and adaptation, …
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Middle-range theories of land system change
Changes in land systems generate many sustainability challenges. Identifying more sustainable land-use alternatives requires solid …
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Mapping the timing of cropland abandonment and recultivation in northern Kazakhstan using annual Landsat time series
Much of the world’s temperate grasslands have been converted to croplands, yet these trends can reverse in some regions. This is …
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Mapping extinction debt highlights conservation opportunities for birds and mammals in the South American Chaco
Habitat loss is the primary cause of local extinctions. Yet, there is considerable uncertainty regarding how fast species respond to …
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Mapping continuous fields of tree and shrub cover across the Gran Chaco using Landsat 8 and Sentinel-1 data
Tropical dry forests and savannas provide important ecosystem services and harbor high biodiversity, yet are globally under pressure …
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Mapping agricultural land abandonment from spatial and temporal segmentation of Landsat time series
Agricultural land abandonment is a common land-use change, making the accurate mapping of both location and timing when agricultural …
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Global-scale patterns and determinants of cropping frequency in irrigation dam command areas
A growing human population and shifting consumption patterns increase the pressure on agricultural production systems. Reservoir-based …
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From tropical shelters to temperate defaunation: The relationship between agricultural transition stage and the distribution of threatened mammals
Aim
Agriculture is a key threat to biodiversity; however, its relationship with biodiversity patterns is understudied. Here, we evaluate …
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Drivers of agricultural land-use change in the Argentine Pampas and Chaco regions
Agricultural expansion and intensification in South America’s dry forests and grasslands increase agricultural production, but …
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Combining satellite data and agricultural statistics to map grassland management intensity in Europe
The world’s grasslands, both natural and managed, provide food and many non-provisioning ecosystem services. Although most …
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Archetypical patterns and trajectories of land systems in Europe
Assessments of land-system change have dominantly focused on conversions among broad land-use categories, whereas intensity changes …
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A large-area, spatially continuous assessment of land cover map error and its impact on downstream analyses
Land cover maps increasingly underlie research into socioeconomic and environmental patterns and processes, including global change. It …
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Underlying Drivers and Spatial Determinants of post-Soviet Agricultural Land Abandonment in Temperate Eastern Europe
Our goal was to understand the underlying drivers and spatial determinants of agricultural land abandonment following the collapse of …
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The role of soybean production as an underlying driver of deforestation in the South American Chaco
South America’s tropical dry forests and savannas are under increasing pressure from agricultural expansion. Cattle ranching and …
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The effect of protected areas on forest disturbance in the Carpathian Mountains 1985-2010
Protected areas are a cornerstone for forest protection, but they are not always effective during times of socioeconomic and …
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Rents, Actors, and the Expansion of Commodity Frontiers in the Gran Chaco
Theories of frontier expansion in the last four decades have been mostly shaped by studies of state-driven smallholder colonization. …
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Quasi-experimental methods enable stronger inferences from observational data in ecology
Many systems and processes in ecology cannot be experimentally controlled, either because the temporal and spatial scales are too …
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Nineteenth-century land-use legacies affect contemporary land abandonment in the Carpathians
Historical land use may shape landscapes for centuries into the future, but it remains unclear how much land-use legacies affect …
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Long-term land-cover/use change in a traditional farming landscape in Romania inferred from pollen data, historical maps and satellite images
Traditional farming landscapes in the temperate zone that have persisted for millennia can be exceptionally species-rich and are …
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Land management: data availability and process understanding for global change studies
In the light of daunting global sustainability challenges such as climate change, biodiversity loss and food security, improving our …
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Land Change in the Carpathian Region Before and After Major Institutional Changes
The Carpathian region represents an ideal showcase of several land change theories and their implications for conservation because this …
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Inside the Emerald Triangle: Modeling the Placement and Size of Cannabis Production in Humboldt County, CA USA
Cannabis agriculture is a multi-billion dollar industry, yet the factors driving the spatial location of cannabis production are not …
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Forest conservation: Remember Gran Chaco
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Differences in production, carbon stocks and biodiversity outcomes of land tenure regimes in the Argentine Dry Chaco
Rising global demand for agricultural products results in agricultural expansion and intensification, with substantial environmental …
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Deforestation and cattle expansion in the Paraguayan Chaco 1987–2012
The dry forests of Latin America are among the most dynamic deforestation frontiers in the world and are important carbon and …
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Conflictos con el puma (Puma concolor) en Bolivia: dos casos de estudio en paisajes andinos
Conflicts between humans and puma (Puma concolor) are common throughout rural areas of Bolivia. These affect the welfare and …
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Characterizing European cultural landscapes: Accounting for structure, management intensity and value of agricultural and forest landscapes
Almost all rural areas in Europe have been shaped or altered by humans and can be considered cultural landscapes, many of which now are …
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Carbon emissions from agricultural expansion and intensification in the Chaco
Carbon emissions from land-use changes in tropical dry forest systems are poorly understood, although they are likely globally …
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Biodiversity at risk under future cropland expansion and intensification
Agriculture is the leading driver of biodiversity loss. However, its future impact on biodiversity remains unclear, especially because …
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Assessing landscape connectivity for large mammals in the Caucasus using Landsat 8 seasonal image composites
Land-use is transforming habitats across the globe, thereby threatening wildlife. Large mammals are especially affected because they …
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Assessing land-use effects on European plant diversity using a biome-specific countryside species-area model
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Analyzing dynamics and values of cultural landscapes

What are cultural landscapes?

Does the term ‘cultural landscapes’ refer to just the few emblematic global hotspots of landscape beauty, …
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Agriculture rivals biomes in predicting global species richness
Species–area relationships (SARs) provide an avenue to model patterns of species richness and have recently been shown to vary …
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Understanding unexpected reintroduction outcomes: Why aren't European bison colonizing suitable habitat in the Carpathians?
Reintroductions are an important tool for re-establishing or reinforcing populations of threatened species, and thus to restore …
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The impacts of warfare and armed conflict on land systems
Land-use decisions can change abruptly in response to shocks, and warfare and armed conflicts are among the most drastic and globally …
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The Emerging Soybean Production Frontier in Southern Africa: Conservation Challenges and the Role of South-South Telecouplings
Soybean expansion has been a strong driver of deforestation and biodiversity loss in South America (SAM). Here, we highlight strong …
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The dynamics of beef trade between Brazil and Russia and their environmental implications
Changes in the production or consumption of agricultural commodities in one place can drastically affect land use and the environment …
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The driving forces of landscape change in Europe: A systematic review of the evidence
Over the past decades, landscapes worldwide have experienced changes (e.g., urbanization, agricultural intensification, expansion of …
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Representing composition, spatial structure and management intensity of European agricultural landscapes: A new typology
Comprehensive maps that characterize the variation in agricultural landscapes across Europe are lacking. In this paper we present a new …
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Recultivation of abandoned agricultural lands in Ukraine: Patterns and drivers
The recent rise in agricultural commodity prices and the expectation that high price will persist have triggered a wave of farmland …
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Reconciling agriculture, carbon and biodiversity in a savannah transformation frontier
Rapidly rising populations and likely increases in incomes in sub-Saharan Africa make tens of millions of hectares of cropland …
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Mapping cropland-use intensity across Europe using MODIS NDVI time series
Global agricultural production will likely need to increase in the future due to population growth, changing diets, and the rising …
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Legacy effects of past land use on current biodiversity in a low-intensity farming landscape in Transylvania (Romania)
Context
Ecological impacts of past land use can persist for centuries. While present-day land use is relatively easy to quantify, …
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Land-Use Competition in the South American Chaco
The dry forests of the Chaco in South America are under great land conversion pressure, mostly for establishing pastures and soybean …
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Identifying pathways to visions of future land use in Europe
Plausible scenarios of future land use derived from model projections may differ substantially from what is actually desired by …
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Hotspots of land use change in Europe
Assessing changes in the extent and management intensity of land use is crucial to understanding land-system dynamics and their …
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Forest management impacts on capercaillie (Tetrao urogallus) habitat distribution and connectivity in the Carpathians
Context
Distribution and connectivity of suitable habitat for species of conservation concern is critical for effective conservation …
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Drivers, constraints and trade-offs associated with recultivating abandoned cropland in Russia, Ukraine and Kazakhstan
Further cropland expansion might be unavoidable to satisfy the growing demand for land-based products and ecosystem services. A crucial …
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Drivers of changes in agricultural intensity in Europe
The global demand for agricultural products will increase in the 21st century, unless major transformations in consumptive behaviour …
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Current European policies are unlikely to jointly foster carbon sequestration and protect biodiversity
The extension of forest area is a globally accepted tool to offset CO2 emissions from deforestation and the combustion of fossil fuels. …
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Crying wolf: limitations of predator-prey studies need not preclude their salient messages
A rapidly growing body of the literature reveals the important roles apex predators play in shaping the composition and functioning of …
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Competition for Land-Based Ecosystem Services: Trade-Offs and Synergies
In this chapter, we define, conceptualize, and exemplify competition for ecosystem services derived from land. Competition for …
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Changes in the spatial patterns of human appropriation of net primary production (HANPP) in Europe 1990–2006
Understanding patterns, dynamics, and drivers of land use is crucial for improving our ability to cope with sustainability challenges. …
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Assessing differences in connectivity based on habitat versus movement models for brown bears in the Carpathians
Context
Connectivity assessments typically rely on resistance surfaces derived from habitat models, assuming that higher-quality habitat …
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A Review of the Application of Optical and Radar Remote Sensing Data Fusion to Land Use Mapping and Monitoring
The wealth of complementary data available from remote sensing missions can hugely aid efforts towards accurately determining land use …
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Using optimization methods to align food production and biodiversity conservation beyond land sharing and land sparing
Aligning food production with biodiversity conservation is one of the greatest challenges of our time. One framing of this challenge is …
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Transitions in European land-management regimes between 1800 and 2010
Land use is a cornerstone of human civilization, but also intrinsically linked to many global sustainability challenges—from climate …
Martin Rudbeck Jepsen, Tobias Kuemmerle, Daniel Muller, Karlheinz Erb, Peter H. Verburg, Helmut Haberl, Jens Peter Vesterager, Maja Andric, Marc Antrop, Gunnar Austrheim, Ismo Bjorn, Alberte Bondeau, Matthias Burgi, Jessica Bryson, Gilles Caspar, Louis F. Cassar, Elisabeth Conrad, Pavel Chromy, Vidmantas Daugirdas, Veerle Van Eetvelde, Ramon Elena-Rossello, Urs Gimmi, Zita Izakovicova, Vit Jancak, Ulf Jansson, Drago Kladnik, Jacek Kozak, Eva Konkoly-Gyuro, Fridolin Krausmann, Ulo Mander, John McDonagh, Jaan Parn, Maria Niedertscheider, Olgerts Nikodemus, Katarzyna Ostapowicz, Marta Perez-Soba, Teresa Pinto-Correia, Gintaras Ribokas, Mark Rounsevell, Despoina Schistou, Claude Schmit, Theano S. Terkenli, Aud M. Tretvik, Piotr Trzepacz, Angheluta Vadineanu, Ariane Walz, Edvin Zhllima, Anette Reenberg
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The relative effectiveness of protected areas, a logging ban, and sacred areas for old-growth forest protection in southwest China
Forests are critically important for life on earth, prompting a variety of efforts to protect them. Protected areas and logging …
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Testing the Effectiveness of Environmental Variables to Explain European Terrestrial Vertebrate Species Richness across Biogeographical Scales
We compared the effectiveness of environmental variables, and in particular of land-use indicators, to explain species richness …
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Rapid declines of large mammal populations after the collapse of the Soviet Union
Anecdotal evidence suggests that socioeconomic shocks strongly affect wildlife populations, but quantitative evidence is sparse. The …
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Post-Soviet land-use change effects on large mammals' habitat in European Russia
Land-use change can strongly affect wildlife populations, typically via habitat loss and degradation where land use expands, and also …
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Patterns and drivers of scattered tree loss in agricultural landscapes: orchard meadows in Germany (1968-2009)
Scattered trees support high levels of farmland biodiversity and ecosystem services in agricultural landscapes, but they are threatened …
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Mapping wood production in European forests
Wood production is an important forest use, impacting a range of other ecosystem services. However, information on the spatial patterns …
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Mapping seasonal European bison habitat in the Caucasus Mountains to identify potential reintroduction sites
In an increasingly human-dominated world, conservation requires the mitigation of conflicts between large mammals and people. Conflicts …
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Mapping farmland abandonment and recultivation across Europe using MODIS NDVI time series
Farmland abandonment is a widespread land-use change in temperate regions, due to increasing yields on productive lands, conservation …
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Long-term agricultural land-cover change and potential for cropland expansion in the former Virgin Lands area of Kazakhstan
During the Soviet Virgin Lands Campaign, approximately 23 million hectares (Mha) of Eurasian steppe grassland were converted into …
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Legacies of 19th century land use shape contemporary forest cover
Historic land use can exert strong land-use legacies, i.e., long-lasting effects on ecosystems, but the importance of land-use …
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Incorporating anthropogenic effects into trophic ecology: predator-prey interactions in a human-dominated landscape
Apex predators perform important functions that regulate ecosystems worldwide. However, little is known about how ecosystem regulation …
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Harnessing the biodiversity value of Central and Eastern European farmland
A large proportion of European biodiversity today depends on habitat provided by low-intensity farming practices, yet this resource is …
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Global patterns of agricultural land-use intensity and vertebrate diversity
Aim Land-use change is the single biggest cause of biodiversity loss. With a rising demand for resources, understanding how and where …
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Forest transitions in Eastern Europe and their effects on carbon budgets
Forests often rebound from deforestation following industrialization and urbanization, but for many regions our understanding of where …
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Exploring long-term trends in land use change and aboveground human appropriation of net primary production in nine European countries
Profound changes in land use occurred during the last century in Europe, driven by growing population, changes in affluence, and …
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Exploring ecosystem-change and society through a landscape lens: recent progress in European landscape research
Landscapes are closely linked to human well-being, but they are undergoing rapid and fundamental change. Understanding the societal …
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Effects of past and future land conversions on forest connectivity in the Argentine Chaco
Context Land-use change is the main driver of habitat loss and fragmentation worldwide. The rate of dry forest loss in the South …
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Effectiveness of protected areas in the Western Caucasus before and after the transition to post-socialism
Economic and social transition periods can have strong negative effects for the environment and for wildlife. The collapse of the …
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Conservation and conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo: The impacts of warfare, mining, and protected areas on deforestation
Tropical forests provide critical ecosystem services worldwide. Nonetheless, ongoing agricultural expansion, timber extraction, and …
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Archetypical patterns and trajectories of land systems in Europe
Assessments of land-system change have dominantly focused on conversions among broad land-use categories, whereas intensity changes …
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Potential impacts of oil and gas development and climate change on migratory reindeer calving grounds across the Russian Arctic
Aim Drivers of biodiversity loss are increasingly broad in scale, requiring conser-vation planning to move towards range-wide …
PDF DOI
Modelling avian biodiversity using raw, unclassified satellite imagery
Applications of remote sensing for biodiversity conservation typically rely on image classifications that do not capture variability …
DOI
Mapping Land Management Regimes in Western Ukraine Using Optical and SAR Data
The global demand for agricultural products is surging due to population growth, more meat-based diets, and the increasing role of …
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Land-use change in the Caucasus during and after the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict
Socioeconomic shocks can shape future land-use trajectories. Armed conflicts are an extreme form of a socioeconomic shock, but our …
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Land Sparing Versus Land Sharing: Moving Forward
To address the challenges of biodiversity conservation and commodity production, a framework has been proposed that distinguishes …
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Land management and land-cover change have impacts of similar magnitude on surface temperature
Anthropogenic changes to land cover (LCC) remain common, but continuing land scarcity promotes the widespread intensification of land …
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Forest disturbances, forest recovery, and changes in forest types across the Carpathian ecoregion from 1985 to 2010 based on Landsat image composites
Detailed knowledge of forest cover dynamics is crucial for many applications from resource management to ecosystem service assessments. …
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Forest and agricultural land change in the Carpathian region—A meta-analysis of long-term patterns and drivers of change
Humans have altered land cover for centuries, and land-cover change is a main component of global change. Land use transition …
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Finite land resources and competition
Today, global land use is affected by a variety of factors, including urbanization and the growing interconnectedness of economies and …
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Exploring the effects of drastic institutional and socio-economic changes on land system dynamics in Germany between 1883 and 2007
Long-term studies of land system change can help providing insights into the relative importance of underlying drivers of change. Here, …
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Effects of different matrix representations and connectivity measures on habitat network assessments
Assessing landscape connectivity is important to understand the ecology of landscapes and to evaluate alternative conservation …
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Drivers of forest harvesting intensity patterns in Europe
Forests provide humankind with essential raw materials and the demand for these materials is increasing. Further expanding forestry …
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A holistic approach to studying social-ecological systems and its application to southern Transylvania
Global change presents risks and opportunities for social-ecological systems worldwide. Key challenges for sustainability science are …
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The Elusive Pursuit of Interdisciplinarity at the Human–Environment Interface
Environmental challenges are complex and require expertise from multiple disciplines. Consequently, there is growing interest in …
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Regime shift on the roof of the world: Alpine meadows converting to shrublands in the southern Himalayas
Worldwide, changing climates and land use practices are escalating woody-plants encroachment into grasslands, reducing biodiversity and …
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Post-Soviet cropland abandonment and carbon sequestration in European Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus
Widespread cropland abandonment occurred after the collapse of socialism across the former Soviet Union, but the rates and spatial …
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Mapping the extent of abandoned farmland in Central and Eastern Europe using MODIS time series satellite data
The demand for agricultural products continues to grow rapidly, but further agricultural expansion entails substantial environmental …
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Mapping global land system archetypes
Land use is a key driver of global environmental change. Unless major shifts in consumptive behaviours occur, land-based production …
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Landsat-based mapping of post-Soviet land-use change to assess the effectiveness of the Oksky and Mordovsky protected areas in European Russia
Land-use and land-cover change (LULCC) is the main cause of the global biodiversity crisis and protected areas are critical to prevent …
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Hot moments for biodiversity conservation
Biodiversity conservation requires prioritization to be effective. Biodiversity hotspots and conservation planning identify where to …
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Continued loss of temperate old-growth forests in the Romanian Carpathians despite an increasing protected area network
Old-growth forests around the world are vanishing rapidly and have been lost almost completely from the European temperate forest …
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Challenges and opportunities in mapping land use intensity globally
Future increases in land-based production will need to focus more on sustainably intensifying existing production systems. …
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Bias in the attribution of forest carbon sinks
A substantial fraction of the terrestrial carbon sink, past and present, may be incorrectly attributed to environmental change rather …
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Beyond ‘land sparing versus land sharing’: environmental heterogeneity, globalization and the balance between agricultural production and nature conservation
By addressing the trade-offs between food production and biodiversity conservation at landscape and ecoregion scales, the land …
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Agricultural land change in the Carpathian ecoregion after the breakdown of socialism and expansion of the European Union
Widespread changes of agricultural land use occurred in Eastern Europe since the collapse of socialism and the European Union’s …
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A Pixel-Based Landsat Compositing Algorithm for Large Area Land Cover Mapping
Information on the changing land surface is required at high spatial resolutions as many processes cannot be resolved using coarse …
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A conceptual framework for analysing and measuring land-use intensity
Large knowledge gaps currently exist that limit our ability to understand and characterise dynamics and patterns of land-use intensity: …
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Using the Landsat record to detect forest-cover changes during and after the collapse of the Soviet Union in the temperate zone of European Russia
The political breakdown of the Soviet Union in 1991 provides a rare case of drastic changes in social and economic conditions, and as …
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Using Landsat imagery to map forest change in southwest China in response to the national logging ban and ecotourism development
Forest cover change is one of the most important land cover change processes globally, and old-growth forests continue to disappear …
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Using annual time-series of Landsat images to assess the effects of forest restitution in post-socialist Romania
The increasing availability of the Landsat image archive and the development of approaches to make full use of these data provide novel …
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Refugee species: which historic baseline should inform conservation planning?
Understanding species’ historical ranges can provide important information for conservation planning in the face of environmental …
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Reconstructing range dynamics and range fragmentation of European bison for the last 8000 years
Aim: Understanding what constituted species’ ranges prior to large-scale human influence, and how past climate and land use change have …
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Prices, Land Tenure Institutions, and Geography: A Matching Analysis of Farmland Abandonment in Post-Socialist Eastern Europe
This paper uses remote sensing data from 1989 to 2000 to examine the impacts of price liberalization, land tenure, and biophysical …
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Potential habitat connectivity of European bison (Bison bonasus) in the Carpathians
Habitat connectivity is important for the survival of species that occupy habitat patches too small to sustain an isolated population. …
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Monitoring the invasion of an exotic tree (Ligustrum lucidum) from 1983 to 2006 with Landsat TM/ETM+ satellite data and Support Vector Machines in Córdoba, Argentina
In central Argentina, the Chinese tree glossy privet (Ligustrum lucidum) is an aggressive invasive species replacing native forests, …
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Mapping abandoned agriculture with multi-temporal MODIS satellite data
Agriculture is expanding and intensifying in many areas of the world, but abandoned agriculture is also becoming more widespread. …
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Land-cover change and human population trends in the greater Serengeti ecosystem from 1984–2003
The growth of human populations around protected areas accelerates land conversion and isolation, negatively impacting biodiversity and …
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Future land use effects on the connectivity of protected area networks in southeastern Spain
Land-use change is a major driver of the global biodiversity crisis, mainly via the fragmentation and loss of natural habitat. Although …
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Forest restitution and protected area effectiveness in post-socialist Romania
The effectiveness of protected areas can diminish during times of pronounced socio-economic and institutional change. Our goals were to …
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Effects of institutional changes on land use: agricultural land abandonment during the transition from state-command to market-driven economies in post-Soviet Eastern Europe
Institutional settings play a key role in shaping land cover and land use. Our goal was to understand the effects of institutional …
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Conservation policy in traditional farming landscapes
Many traditional farming landscapes have high conservation value. Conservation policy in such landscapes typically follows a …
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Consequences of nuclear accidents for biodiversity and ecosystem services
Nuclear energy is a potential solution to electricity demand but also entails risks. Policy debates on nuclear accidents have focused …
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Challenges for land system science
While considerable progress has been made in understanding land use change, land system science continues to face a number of grand …
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Analytical solutions to trade-offs between size of protected areas and land-use intensity
Land-use change is affecting Earth’s capacity to support both wild species and a growing human population. The question is how …
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Rapid land use change after socio-economic disturbances: the collapse of the Soviet Union versus Chernobyl
Land use change is a principal force and inherent element of global environmental change, threatening biodiversity, natural ecosystems, …
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Predicting potential European bison habitat across its former range
Habitat loss threatens large mammals worldwide, and their survival will depend on habitat in human-dominated landscapes. Conservation …
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Post-Soviet farmland abandonment, forest recovery, and carbon sequestration in western Ukraine
Land use is a critical factor in the global carbon cycle, but land-use effects on carbon fluxes are poorly understood in many regions. …
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Patterns and drivers of post-socialist farmland abandonment in Western Ukraine
Farmland abandonment restructures rural landscapes in many regions worldwide in response to gradual industrialization and urbanization. …
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Impacts of surface gold mining on land use systems in Western Ghana
Land use conflicts are becoming increasingly apparent from local to global scales. Surface gold mining is an extreme source of such a …
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Differences in Landsat-based trend analyses in drylands due to the choice of vegetation estimate
Drylands cover about 41% of the globe’s surface and provide important ecosystem services, but land use and climate change exert …
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Cost-effectiveness of strategies to establish a European bison metapopulation in the Carpathians
Where populations are confined to fragmented, human-dominated landscapes, preventing declines and extirpations will often rely on …
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Conservation: limits of land sparing
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Comparison and assessment of coarse resolution land cover maps for Northern Eurasia
Information on land cover at global and continental scales is critical for addressing a range of ecological, socioeconomic and policy …
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Carbon implications of forest restitution in post-socialist Romania
The collapse of socialism in 1989 triggered a phase of institutional restructuring in Central and Eastern Europe. Several countries …
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Invasion of glossy privet (Ligustrum lucidum) and native forest loss in the Sierras Chicas of Córdoba, Argentina
Glossy privet (Ligustrum lucidum) is a tree native to China that successfully invades forests of central Argentina. To fully understand …
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Farm Size and Land Use Pattern Changes in Postsocialist Poland
The postsocialist transition resulted in widespread structural change in Polish agriculture, but fine-scale assessments of how these …
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European Bison habitat in the Carpathian Mountains
European Bison (Bison bonasus) barely escaped extinction in the early 20th century and now only occur in small isolated herds scattered …
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Using image texture to map farmland field size: a case study in Eastern Europe
Eastern Europe provides unique opportunities to study changes in land use patterns, because much farmland became parcelized in the …
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Reforestation in Central and Eastern Europe After the Breakdown of Socialism
The transition in Eastern Europe from command-driven to market-oriented economies brought about a sudden decline in agricultural …
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Lost in transition: determinants of post-socialist cropland abandonment in Romania
The transition from command to market-oriented economies drastically affected land ownership and land management in Eastern Europe and …
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Land use change in Southern Romania after the collapse of socialism
The drastic socio-economic and political changes that occurred after the breakdown of socialism in Eastern Europe triggered widespread …
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Land cover mapping of large areas using chain classification of neighboring Landsat satellite images
Satellite imagery is the major data source for regional to global land cover maps. However, land cover mapping of large areas with …
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How pollution legacies and land use histories shape post-communist forest cover trends in the Western Carpathians
Forests that encompass the border triangle of Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovakia currently suffer from centuries of inadequate …
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Global Change Research in the Carpathian Mountain Region
The Carpathian Mountains in Europe are a biodiversity hot spot; harbor many relatively undisturbed ecosystems; and are still rich in …
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Geomatics-based characterization of spatial and temporal trends in heterogeneous Mediterranean rangelands of Northern Greece
The county of Lagadas in northern Greece is typical for heterogeneous Mediterranean rangelands embedded within a patchwork of land use …
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Forest cover change and illegal logging in the Ukrainian Carpathians in the transition period from 1988 to 2007
Illegal logging is a major environmental and economic problem, and exceeds in some countries the amounts of legally harvested timber. …
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Differences in forest disturbance among land ownership types in Poland during and after socialism
Forest use can increase substantially during periods of societal change, but it is unclear how harvesting rates differ among different …
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Causes of Cropland Abandonment During the Post-socialist Transition in Southern Romania
We analyzed the causes of cropland abandonment in Argeş County, Romania, after the fall of the Iron Curtain in 1989. Cropland changes …
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Post-socialist land use change in the Carpathians
Broad-scale political and socio-economic conditions are powerful determinants of land use change. Yet, their relative importance is …
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Cross-border Comparison of Post-socialist Farmland Abandonment in the Carpathians
Agricultural areas are declining in many areas of the world, often because socio-economic and political changes make agriculture less …
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A method to detect and correct single-band missing pixels in Landsat TM and ETM+ data
Human land use is the main driver of terrestrial ecosystems change, and remote sensing is an important tool to monitor these changes. …
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Post-socialist forest disturbance in the Carpathian border region of Poland, Slovakia, and Ukraine
Forests provide important ecosystem services, and protected areas around the world are intended to reduce human disturbance on forests. …
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Adaptation of a grazing gradient concept to heterogeneous Mediterranean rangelands using cost surface modelling
Livestock grazing has been an important factor in shaping Mediterranean rangelands. Despite their long history of utilisation, recent …
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Separating grassland and shrub vegetation by multidate pixel-adaptive spectral mixture analysis
Monitoring and assessment of land degradation and the processes driving it require effective change indicators at appropriate scales …
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Mapping post-socialist agricultural fragmentation in Eastern Europe using texture measures
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Effectiveness of protected areas in the Carpathians differs among countries in post-socialist times
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Cross-border comparison of land cover and landscape pattern in Eastern Europe using a hybrid classification technique
Eastern Europe has experienced drastic changes in political and economic conditions following the breakdown of the Soviet Union. …
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Extension of retrospective datasets using multiple sensors. An approach to radiometric intercalibration of Landsat TM and MSS data
The establishment of monitoring frameworks for environmental problems is frequently based on retrospective, multi-temporal series of …
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Extending Time-Series of Satellite Images by Radiometric Intercalibration
In recent years, the necessity to assess the state and development of large environmental units has gained increasing attention. In …
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