Lignite burning is still the main source of energy in many countries, generating huge amounts of alkaline residues deposited in dumping sites, which affects the surrounding environment. There are only a few publications dealing with the effects on pH changes of surface horizons, but there are no reports on the impact on other soil properties. The aim of this paper was to characterize the changes occurring

Plant phenological responses under global climate change is a hot topic in current ecological research. However, it also has comprehensive interactions with other anthropogenic environmental factors including nitrogen (N) enrichment owing to atmospheric deposition and fertilization, and grassland degradation, which attracts less attention. Continuous photographic techniques enabled us to monitor the

Globally, urban wetlands are facing immense pressure of land use land cover changes (LULCCs) and associated water quality degradation that is severely affecting the trophic status of these pristine ecosystems. This study analyzed water quality degradation resulting due to the land system changes in the vicinity of Khushalsar, an urban wetland, in Srinagar city from 1980‐2017. The analysis of satellite

Soil management systems cause many changes in the microenvironment that directly affect activity and diversity of microorganisms. In lowlands, there is a gap in relation to the adoption of no‐tillage (zero‐tillage) and the impact it has on soil under cultivation of irrigated rice. This study, an in‐field experiment, evaluated the microbial enzymatic activity and diversity in an Entisol cultivated with

Detailed knowledge on the past events of erosion and redeposition is necessary to assess the frequency and magnitude of soil degradation and to provide more complete data, among all, to calculate rainfall thresholds and to develop strategies for controlling erosion. Therefore, in this study, we aimed to obtain a more comprehensive and accurate reconstruction of erosion–sedimentation events in a gully

Large‐scale cultivation and short‐term rotation of Eucalyptus trees for economic reasons have led to excessive consumption of soil water, raising broader ecological and environmental concerns. Therefore, exploring the balance between water use and plant growth of Eucalyptus trees has become increasingly important but remains understudied. Here we hypothesized that stand age and soil moisture gradient

Farmland evaluation has been a major topic in farmland protection research. Due to the lack of reasonable and scientific evaluation methods for farmland protection, the farmland quality and quantity are at high risk of degradation and destruction in China with rapid industrialization and urbanization. The Land Evaluation and Site Assessment (LESA) system has been successfully applied to protect important

High rainfall variability in drylands complicates comparison in time of productivity (ANPP) and soil fertility, and their changes due to altered management. In order to determine the extent, kinetics and mechanisms of soil and ecosystem recovery achievable in degraded loess plots in Southern Israel, ANPP and soil quality in three fenced plots were analyzed between 2011 and 2017 for experimental confirmation

The stress‐dominance hypothesis (SDH) predicts that environmental filtering will dominate in harsh habitats, while limiting similarity is more important in favourable environments. Here, we test the generality of the SDH to disentangle the relative importance of these two ecological processes along a sand desertification gradient. Data were collected from randomly selected locations in a desert steppe

Land use and coverage surveys show that 30.5% of Brazil's territory was dedicated to the production of food, fibers, biofuels, and raw materials. This paper fills a gap and provides information to society and decision‐makers about the effectiveness of the adoption of conservation agriculture (CA) principles with zero tillage (ZT/CA) and integrated crop–livestock–forest (iCLF‐CA) systems as the central

Maize (Zea mays L.) is Mexico's primary staple food, but the Country's degrading soils and climate variability limit its productivity. Conservation agriculture (CA), a management technique that combines minimal tillage, permanent soil cover, and crop diversification, could reduce soil degradation and help improve soil health. There is however a lack of information about the effects of CA on soil health

Hydrosedimentary connectivity is a key concept referring to the potential fluxes of water and sediment moving throughout a catchment. In forested catchments, these fluxes are prone to alterations caused by anthropogenic and natural disturbances. In this study, we modelled the interannual spatiotemporal evolution of hydrosedimentary connectivity influenced by forest cover change over the last four decades

The impact of climate change on future soil loss is commonly assessed with soil erosion models, which are suggested to be an important source of uncertainty. Here we present a novel soil erosion model ensemble to assess model uncertainty in climate change impact assessments. The model en semble consisted of five continuous process‐based soil erosion models that run at a daily time step (i.e. DHSVM

In desert ecosystems, the desertification process is characterized by increasing attenuation of plant productivity and deterioration of soil habitats, leading to enhanced environmental stress gradients for soil microbiomes. Despite the significance of microbial communities for multifunctionality in terrestrial ecosystems, the feedback dynamics of microbiomes and their contributions to maintaining deep

Decomposition of forest litter plays a major role in nitrogen (N) dynamics in soil. However, the effect of new litter on indigenous soil N and its contribution to soil N in natural forest remains unknown. An in situ soil column experiment was conducted and 15N labelled litter was added to decompose for 14 months to examine the effect of litter retention on soil N dynamics in a typical subtropical forest

Investigation of soil internal nitrogen cycles is useful for unravelling the mechanisms responsible for soil nitrogen availability change. Here, gross nitrogen transformations were investigated in a subtropical karst area after 16 years of vegetation restoration. The experiment included four treatments with one control and three restoration strategies, that is: (i) maize‐soybean rotation field (CR

Soil loss is a global environmental problem that can intensively damage surrounding ecosystems. To control soil loss and secure agricultural activities, check dams are constructed for soil conservation. However, due to ineffective management, many check dams are abandoned and are highly prone to be damaged due to rainstorms. Such a phenomenon would cause more serious damage to surrounding environments

The steep slopes of actively developed gullies are extremely sensitive to erosion in the Mollisol region of Northeast China; however, decision making on the optimal configuration for gully bank protection is under discussion. Here, five vegetation communities were established on regraded gully banks with bare slopes as the control to identify their controlling effects on flow hydraulics and soil erosion

Grazing exclusion has been applied as a suitable strategy for soil conservation worldwide, mainly on semiarid soils. However, it is unclear how grazing exclusion reduces the negative effects of overgrazing on the microbial community in the Caatinga biome. In our study, we assessed the bacterial community under three different soil managements in a semiarid region of the Brazilian Caatinga biome, as

Few studies have comprehensively evaluated the effect of changing land use on the soil quality in the Ecuadorian Amazon region that is subject to continued deforestation processes. This study evaluated the influence of different types of land use on soil quality using an integrated soil quality index (SQI) with a minimum set of indicators, based on 140 soil samples from 7 land use types, in seven productive

Salt‐tolerant variety Chuanqiao No.1 and salt‐sensitive one Chuanqiao No.2 of Tartary buckwheat were used as experimental materials to study the effect of saline soil and amino acids on quality and yield of field Tartary buckwheat. The treatment concentration of Pro, Glu and Asp is 30, 60 and 40 μM, respectively. Three kinds of amino acids were sprayed twice on the leaves at seedling stage (30 days

Land resources utilized for aquaculture development have raised many environmental issues worldwide. But no detailed information is available about the land‐use changes due to aquaculture in comparison with other land use modifications. Hence, the land‐use changes and predictions have been explored in India's leading aquaculture region using multi temporal satellite images (1986–2016), spatial techniques

Residue mulching has been adopted to improve soil organic carbon and to prevent soil erosion and degradation, which in turn promote the sustainable development of soil ecosystems. Nematode metabolic footprints provide information about the responses of nematodes to resources and also help in quantifying the contributions of nematodes to ecosystem functions and services. However, how production and

With growing global interest to improve soil quality and to adopt sustainable land management systems, there is an urgent need to find early indicators to monitor and manage sustainable soil health. Meta‐analyses provide useful information on microbial communities and community‐level molecular characteristics, which can be exploited as “biomarker” indicators of ecosystem processes for soil health evaluation

Restoration techniques using passive management rely on natural plant community succession after reclamation to return disturbed areas to native ecosystems. This approach is often used in areas affected by mining activity, but effectiveness is variable and depends on the ability of native plants to establish in highly degraded soil and outcompete invasive species. We evaluated the restoration progress

Soil constraints limit crop water and nutrient extraction and lead to yield loss globally. In rainfed agriculture, the selection of crop species more likely to yield well under constrained conditions is an important management tool. However, information on the most appropriate crops is often difficult to access due to its publication in a wide range of disparate sources and the various measures of

The restoration of surface mining sites is key to meeting global ecosystem restoration targets. With increased data accessibility and computing tool capabilities, it has become possible to expand restoration monitoring from single to multiple mine sites on a large scale. Based on the MODIS Global Disturbance Index (MGDI), this study proposed the mine landscape restoration index (MLRI), by coupling

δ13C and δ15N are extensively used to understand the biogeochemical mechanisms that moderate ecosystem carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) processes. Little is known about the responses of δ13C and δ15N to alpine grassland degradation on the Qinghai‐Tibetan Plateau (QTP), which prevents us from fully understanding degradation‐induced changes in C and N cycling there. We investigated the vegetation δ13C and

Tidal marsh wetlands in the Yellow River Delta provide valuable eco‐services to the local population and global ecology. However, this area is suffering from serious degradation under the stresses of social development and climate change. Hydrological connectivity, a new framework in hydrology and ecology, has been proposed as the main factor affecting the ecological processes in coastal wetlands;

Soil quality characteristics are poorly understood after cultivating oil palm (OP) under irrigated conditions. OP grown under irrigated ecosystem on tropical soils is supplied with huge quantities of water and nutrients without considering changes in soil quality parameters. This may lead to the degradation of fertile lands. To understand the changes that take place in soil properties due to different

In this study, we investigated two types of growth disturbance (GD) in tree‐ring sequences, namely, the abrupt growth reduction in annual tree‐ring width, and the formation of reaction wood, in tree stems growing on the thick colluvial Xiakou landslide in China. In total, 96 GDs were identified in 183 core samples that were acquired from the 81 trees on the Xiakou landslide, revealing nine reactivation

This study evaluates the effectiveness of remediation treatments in the long‐term (twenty years later) in one of the largest mine spills in the world, the Aznalcóllar accident. Soil recovery was carried out through the application of different rates of organic (compost and manure) and inorganic amendments (materials rich in iron oxides and calcium carbonate). Different amendment combinations were grouped

Increasing inputs of nitrogen (N) fertilizer greatly affect the functionality of farmland carbon (C) and N cycling. Soil contain various C and N fractions that have diverse chemical and physical characteristics, and they can be used as sensitive evaluation indicators for the change in soil C and N content; however, N application's effects on the deep soil layer N and C fractions of the North China

This paper investigated fabric coverings on their ability to remove salt from saline soils. Soil columns filled with saline soil were saturated with salt water first, then covered with four kinds of fabric materials (i.e., nylon, cotton, geotextile (150 g/m2), and gauze). The soil columns were heated under infrared lights for 25 days. The micro‐structural characteristics of the fabric materials before

Nitrogen‐fixing Nepalese alder (Alnus nepalensis D. Don.) is a rapidly‐growing pioneer tree species that often forms pure stands in areas affected by landslides, but also occurs mixed with other late‐successional species in the central Himalaya. In this study, we assessed the distribution of carbon in vegetation and soil in a chronosequence of A. nepalensis (3‐270 years old) forest stands and evaluated

Treated urban wastewater (WW) reuse for crop irrigation is seen as an way to mitigate prolonged drought effects and reduced freshwater (FW) availability for agriculture in arid west Texas. However, the impacts of WW on arid soil health are not clearly understood. This field study evaluated the effects of WW irrigation on soil health indicators including soil organic carbon (SOC), permanganate oxidizable

There is growing consensus that land degradation assessments should occur at local to regional scales, as global assessments fail to capture the complexity of land degradation processes, and how they manifest in different social‐ecological contexts. We have tested a statistically rigorous method for regional land degradation assessment in drylands, using fuzzy classification theory and techniques,

Monitoring the nonlinear trend of net primary productivity (NPP) is essential for assessing the changes of ecosystems quality. Land use change caused by human activities is considered to be a key factor leading to vegetation changes. However, how land use change impacts the nonlinear trend of NPP has not yet been determined. This article analyzed the nonlinear trend of NPP in arid and semiarid areas

Land serves as a vital production resource, and therefore land planning plays an important role in sustainable land‐use design. Iran includes large areas of the world's drylands, many of which are used as rangelands, and where the population has increased by 60% from 1985 to 2016. Further population increase in Iran would probably require more land resources to be allocated for human needs. However

In the last two decades, the productivity of the rice–wheat growing system (RWGS) in the upper Indo‐Gangetic Plains of India has come to a plateau, and, as a result, farmers are now shifting to other crop growing systems (cropping sysytems) to achieve a higher net productivity. Inclusion of other cropping systems in place of the rice–wheat system affects overall crop productivity; however, there is

Wind erosion is the main form of soil erosion in arid and semi‐arid areas. It leads to soil loss and land degradation, which aggravates ecosystem vulnerability and threatens regional sustainable development. Exploring wind erosion and associating driving factors can provide useful information to reduce soil wind erosion and solve corresponding environmental problems. Southern Africa is characterized

Desertification and the expansion of deserts are regarded as a major threat to human livelihoods and ecosystem services, as well as achieving Sustainable Development Goals. Humans have been recognized as significant agents in the expansion of desert‐like conditions, through the agency of desertification/land degradation, and through contributions to global climate change. Yet, how desertification changes

Understanding the changes in microbial community composition in wetlands affected by different types of degradation can help enrich theoretical knowledge about wetland degradation. However, studies of the relative role of microorganisms under different types of degradation of wetlands are rare in wetland ecology. Because of agricultural development, a large volume of groundwater has been extracted

Soil microorganisms are key to uncovering the mechanisms driving variation in soil biogeochemical processes associated with land‐use change. A large number of croplands have been converted to orchards on the Chinese Loess Plateau due to the increased economic benefits which result. However, the microbial community and their functional composition remain poorly understood. In this study, soil samples

Land use/cover plays a crucial role in gully head retreat (GHR). However, little is known about how land use/cover influences GHR rates. An in situ simulation experiment of rainfall and upstream inflow was conducted in a gullied loess region to investigate hydraulic erosion, mass movements and linear GHR processes under three types of land use/cover (bare land, grassland, and shrub‐grass land). The

The soybean‐wheat cropping system is the most dominant under the black soil of India which produces enormous amounts of nutrient‐rich residues. However, the soil has some production limitations, such as rapid drying, high bulk density, low nutrients, and microbial populations, leading to degradation. Optimal retention of soybean and wheat residues in black soil under the zero‐tillage system can improve

Decreasing vegetation cover leads to serious environmental problems, with negative impacts on human health and socioeconomic development. In recent years, these problems have seriously threatened human societies around the world. Although there have been many studies of urbanization's impacts on natural land cover, ecosystem health, and biodiversity, the effects of spatial variation of human factors

This study assessed changes in soil properties and soil fertility resulting from land‐use conversion from rainforest to oil palm and rubber plantations in Okomu Forest Reserve, Southern Nigeria. We collected 315 soil samples at 0–15, 15–30, and 30–60 cm and analyzed soil physicochemical properties. In addition, soil fertility index (SFI) was computed using the analytical hierarchical process. Our results

Little information is available about the effects of different species of shrubs on the composition of the soil seed bank (SSB) in the semiarid regions. We determined the role of three dominant shrub species on SSB characteristics and evaluated their potential for their possible use in rangeland restoration projects. Fifteen sites, each containing three shrub species (Amygdalus scoparia, Daphne mezereum

Ecological restoration projects, such as the Grain‐to‐Green Program (GTGP) and the Natural Forest Conservation Program (NFCP), have been implemented to recover vegetation cover since 1998. However, rapid urbanization also caused severe Land use/cover (LUC) changes in the Dong River Upstream Basin. Therefore, it is urgent to study the long‐term (1999‐2017) spatial‐temporal variation of LUC and soil

Droughts are predicted to become more frequent and persist for longer periods in the future, especially in the Alpine region due to climate change. However, the association mechanism between plant productivity response to drought timing and phenology in the alpine grassland of the Tibetan Plateau is unclear. Here, we conducted manipulative drought experiments on early growing season drought (ED) and

In recent decades, land degradation has accelerated due to an increase in unsustainable human activities. In a case study of the Andaman Islands, located in the South Asian region, changes in land degradation types, soil erosion and the effect of conservation measures for pre‐ (2000) and post‐tsunami periods (2006, 2019) were recorded using temporal remote sensing data (Landsat, Resourcesat, Cartosat)

Microtopographic variation is a common feature of natural ecosystems. On the Tibetan Plateau, this variation includes soil cracking that influences the dynamics of soil nutrients and seed trapping, which further affect species distributions. Despite their importance, cracks in alpine meadows have rarely been reported, and the effects of cracks on soil properties and plant distribution are poorly understood

Land Degradation threatens the sustainability of the human societies due to the loss of resources, services and goods. To assess land degradation, models are useful and fruitful due to the complex and multidisciplinary processes acting. The present research attempts to design and develop a new model to assess land degradation based on biophysical and socioeconomic parameters to determine the land affected

Natural succession and afforestation are the two main restoration methods of degraded soil in semiarid and arid regions. Up to now, the soil microbial communities and their roles in soil erodibility have been unclear. This work aims to evaluate the effects of ecological restoration on the diversity and composition of soil microbial communities at depths of 0‐20 cm and the interaction with soil erodibility

Soil heavy metals (HMs) pollution has caused significant land degradation by affecting soil properties and functions. Clarifying sources and spatial distributions of soil HMs is necessary for the investigation of land degradation, but lacks accurate and efficient methods. This study proposes a combined method for improving source apportionment and spatial prediction of soil HMs. Finite mixture distribution

Water erosion affects soil carbon (C) loss and C enrichment in deposited sediment. To better understand the dynamics of water erosion and topsoil C loss with sediments after vegetation restoration, we studied the sediment yield from each rainfall event over two growing seasons (June through October) in four runoff plots with different vegetation covers (Robinia pseudoacacia, Spiraea salicifolia, Stipa