Recent research on the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau (QTP) has focused on the human-land relationship and its evolution through time; fossil fungal spores are promising proxies for recovering information on paleoecological changes and ancient anthropogenic activity. Modern analog fungal spore datasets are crucial for accurate paleoecological interpretation of fossil fungal spores, however, these are lacking

Globally, poorly managed pasture can contribute to increasing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. In Brazil, sustainable management systems are being proposed to reduce carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions and increase the soil C stock under degraded pasture. However, despite the potential benefits in the adoption of sustainable management systems, few studies have been carried out seeking to analyze their long-term

Despite the increasing awareness regarding the importance of ecologically fragile areas in maintaining human well-being, there is a lack of understanding of the comprehensive quantification of the basin-scale ecosystem services. In this study, based on risk zoning, the regional difference coefficient (RDC) was introduced into an existing method proposed by Costanza to value the ecosystem services.

Landslides are recognized as dominant geomorphic events of morphological evolution in most mountainous and hilly landscapes. However, the lack of multitemporal high-resolution topographic data has resulted in a lack of quantitative estimates of topographic changes influenced by successive landslides. Taking a typical hillslope with successive loess landslides in the Heifangtai loess tableland, China

Soil microorganisms represent a significant component of terrestrial biodiversity and play a critical role in myriad ecological processes. The conversion of native forests to tree plantations is a major contributor to biodiversity loss on a global scale; however, our understanding of the influences of forest type conversion on soil microbial diversity and community composition remains unclear. Here

Infiltrating water accumulates in the plough pan because of the low permeability of this layer, which results in saturation or partial saturation (soil water contents between the field water capacity and saturated water content) of the cultivated layer during continuous rainfall. Even in sloping farmlands, soil infiltration via large pores created by roots, wormholes and straw rot continuously increases

Restoring in-stream spawning habitats in degraded rivers has received increasing attention as a tool for mitigating local wild fish population declines, notably in response to the European Water Framework Directive (WFD). However, spawning gravel placements are far too often designed without accurate knowledge of the morphodynamic river processes, resulting in a limited efficacy and longevity of the

It is unclear which of the land types of sand desert, gravel desert (Gobi), and farmland acts as the major source of dust emission in northern China. Based on field observations, this study compared the dust emission ability (E) of the three land types and investigated the principal influencing factors, i.e., horizontal mass flux (Q) and dust emission efficiency (μ). Results showed that E was greatest

Soil is considered as a non-renewable resource, which may be lost in sloping land more rapidly than it is formed thus leading to loss of fertility and ecosystem deterioration. We hypothesized that earthworms could counteract this process due to their cast forming activity. To test this hypothesis, we quantified the production of casts in small plots of 0.25 m2 established in three vegetation units

Returning maize residue not only helps maintain soil fertility but also local soil carbon balance. Although there have studies of maize residue decomposition, seldom focused on combining different parts of maize residue under field and incubation experiments at different temperatures in saline and alkaline soils. We carried out an incubated decomposition experiment of maize residue (15, 25, 35℃) and

Rainfall-induced landslides represent an important threat in mountainous areas. Therefore, a physically-based model called “Fast Shallow Landslide Assessment Model” (FSLAM) was developed to calculate large areas (>100 km2) with a high-resolution topography in a very short computational time. FSLAM applies a simplified hydrological model and the infinite slope theory, while the two most sensitive soil

The stoichiometry of carbon to nitrogen ratio (C:N) plays an important role in biogeochemical cycling in terrestrial ecosystems. As time goes by, the increase in atmospheric CO2 levels is expected; however, the impact of elevated atmospheric CO2 on the C:N stoichiometry of soils, plants, and microorganisms remains largely unclear. The results of the meta-analysis that included 174 studies with 1009

Landslides are considered to be among the most alarming natural hazards. Therefore, there is a growing demand for databases and inventories of these events worldwide, since they are a vital resource for landslide risk assessment applications. Given the recent advances in the field of image processing, the objective of this study is to evaluate the performance of a deep convolutional neural network

Soil salt accumulation and salt leaching are very important issues for a long-term irrigation-dominated oasis with shallow groundwater in arid land. The critical ratio of drainage to irrigation (CRDI) was defined and determined to help the guide drainage and irrigation practices and maintain sustainable oasis agricultural development. This study aimed to identify the soil salinity evolution under long-term

Detailed geomorphic evaluation, drill coring, and analysis of floodplain sediments, along with geophysical imaging, were used to study the evolution of the youngest terraces and palaeo-meanders in the lower reach of the Ohře River. Floodplain sediment dating was performed by optically simulated luminescence and via the examination of sediment contamination from historical mining of metals in the river

Volcanic eruptions are a universal cause of ecological and geological disturbance; however, the differences in microbial communities from Quaternary volcanic soils at different stages of development in Inner Mongolia are little known. Microbial communities were investigated in Quaternary volcanic soils from Late Pleistocene volcano and Holocene volcano with the objective of elucidating their differences

The pore structure is an important feature of loess fabric and significantly influences the hydraulic properties. The evolution of pore structure during loess collapse has been extensively investigated but some aspects are still not well understood. In this study, the 3D pore structure evolution within the same loess sample was characterized using X-ray micro-computed tomography in combination with

Limestone mountain ecosystem degradation has resulted in decreased soil fertility, low water holding capacity, and low biomass productivity. Afforestation has been proposed as an effective method to improve soil properties, however, scant information is available. In this study, the influence of Platycladus orientalis (PO), Broussonetia papyrifera (BP), a mixed shrub dominated by Ziziphus jujuba, Viter

Recovery of soil quality after wildfire is essential for soil functioning such as nutrient cycling, resistance to biochemical degradation and sustainable plant growth. Post-fire soil quality is crucial for the maintenance of ecosystem sustainability. The objective of this study was to develop a soil quality index (SQI) for assessing post-fire soil quality in upland rangeland ecosystems of a semi-arid

The potential of a stepwise fusion of proximally sensed portable X-ray fluorescence (pXRF) spectra and electromagnetic induction (EMI) with remote Sentinel-2 bands and a digital elevation model (DEM) was investigated for predicting soil physicochemical properties in pedons and across a heterogeneous 80-ha crop field in Wisconsin, USA. We found that pXRF spectra with partial least squares regression

Geomorphological investigations coupled with sedimentological, petrographical, and SEM analyses allowed to identify, for the first time, a paleo-fixed and inland aeolian dune field in the Gioia Tauro Plain, on the Tyrrhenian side of southern Calabria (southern Italy). The aeolian landforms, extended over an area of 43 km2, are characterized by smoothed and elongated NW-SE trending vegetation-fixed

To overcome the lack of historical archives at active rockfall environments, dendrogeomorphic techniques have been used extensively on forested slopes since the early 2000s and several approaches developed to extract rockfall signals from tree-ring records. Given the unpredictable nature of rockfall, these reconstructions are, in principle, of great help when it comes to relate fluctuations in rockfall

We quantified the short-range variation (<5 m) of soil texture and total carbon at a 330-ha arable farm in Wisconsin, USA. The farm is located in a young landscape (<12 ky), and geomorphic units include unglaciated parts, outwash plain, end moraine, and a former lacustrine bed. At 100 locations, three soil cores, in a 90-cm triangle configuration, were collected to 90-cm depth. The soil cores were

Internal phosphorus (P) released from sediments, which has been verified to be affected by iron (Fe) and sulfur (S) reactions, strongly influences P cycling and water eutrophication. However, minimal research has been performed to determine how increased low-level salinity in estuarine tidal marshes affects P mobility and its coupled processes. Herein, in situ high-resolution distributions of labile

Droughts exert far-reaching societal and economic impacts over the globe. A full recovery of drought-stricken areas depends on so many factors that a deterministic estimation of the timing is difficult. This study explores an alternative way to inform how likely a drought-prone region can recover from meteorological droughts over time. We focus on exploring the drought recovery patterns over Yangtze

This study explores the potential impacts of climate change on soil erosion in an agricultural catchment in eastern Canada. The Modified Universal Soil Loss Equation (MUSLE) was used to calculate the sediment yields from the Acadie River Catchment for the historical 1996–2019 period. The runoff variables of the MUSLE were obtained from a physically based hydrological model previously built and validated

Principal component analysis (PCA) has been widely used in the integrated soil fertility quality index (SFQI) (SFQIPCA) assessment. However, the traditional PCA, only established in variable space, does not consider the spatially varying relationships among soil fertility indicators in large-scale areas, and thus cannot appropriately determine the spatially varying relative importance (i.e., weight

The dynamic shoreline of Bangladesh was analyzed for the last thirty years in this study, in order to identify the positional changes due to erosion and accretion. Remotely acquired, multi-temporal Landsat images, of 30 m resolution and comparable tidal conditions, were collected for the period 1989–2019 at a five-year interval. Shorelines were then manually digitized, and a transect-based analysis

Studies on the effects of artificially restored vegetation on soil nutrient distribution are important to understand the relationship between vegetation restoration and soil environment evolution. However, studies for accurately assessing the ecological benefits of different vegetation restoration models are relatively limited. In this study, we examined the vertical distribution of soil nutrient contents

Although acidification is a natural soil formation process, atmospheric emissions of nitrogen and sulphur have exposed forest ecosystems to accelerated anthropogenic acidification for many decades. In Italy nitrogen deposition loads are high, and among the highest in Europe. Data from the Italian ICP-Forests monitoring network have shown that nitrogen deposition increases tree growth, and consequently

Soil shear strength is a critical parameter in slope stability. Shear strength properties may vary significantly over large areas. Thus, the spatial estimates of shear strength properties are necessary for deterministic slope susceptibility mapping over large areas. However, measurements of shear strength parameters are often limited as compared to other soil properties such as Atterberg limit, bulk

Soil aggregate stability is a feasible and effective factor to understand the complex interactions between physicochemical properties and soil structure. To reveal the distributions of soil aggregate stability and its influential factors following land use change from apple orchards abandonment and development in the Nangou watershed of the Loess Plateau, China, this study selected five ages of apple

There is an urgent need for reliable and cost-effective sediment source tracing techniques for apportioning aeolian sediment (sand dune) sources for guiding the selection of best management practices for wind erosion control. Accordingly, the main aim of this study was to quantify the contributions of aeolian sources to sand dune target sediment samples collected in a case study in central Iran using

Pedogenic carbonate materials are found most commonly in regions of dry climate, and rarely in forested humid regions. This paper nonetheless reports pedogenic carbonate nodules from central Tennessee in eastern North America, a forested region with average atmospheric precipitation exceeding 1300 mm/yr. Values of δ13C from these calcitic nodules range from −11.6 to −9.6‰ relative to VPDB, consistent

Permafrost carbon could produce a positive climate feedback. Until now, the ecosystem carbon budgets in the permafrost regions remain uncertain. Moreover, the frequently used models have some limitations especially regarding to the freeze–thaw process. Herein, we improved the IBIS model by incorporating an unfrozen water scheme and by specifying the parameters to estimate the present and future carbon

Plant litter is an important component of forest ecosystems and has a key role in reducing soil and water loss. This study evaluated the effect of land use change on rainfall interception and other hydrological processes associated with the litter layer in the tropical region of Southwest China, where large areas of tropical rainforest (TR) have been converted into rubber monoculture (RM) in the past

Leaf δ15N and δ13C are important functional traits in biogeographic studies of forest ecosystems. However, little is known about their relationships with soil fungal biodiversity, ectomycorrhizal and plant pathogenic abundance at large scales. In this study, leaf and soil samples were collected from 33 forest reserves along a large range across China to explore the associations between leaf δ15N and

Cation-ratio dating (RCD) is a non-destructive and rapid means of dating rock varnish. This study explored that use of rock varnish RCD as a means of aging tectonically exposed surfaces in a semi-arid region of northwestern Greece with varying degrees of tectonic activity. Tectonic structures in the study region were identified and aged using conventional dating techniques, and faults were classified

This study undertook a comprehensive application of 15 data mining (DM) models, most of which have, thus far, not been commonly used in environmental sciences, to predict land susceptibility to water erosion hazard in the Kahorestan catchment, southern Iran. The DM models were BGLM, BGAM, Cforest, CITree, GAMS, LRSS, NCPQR, PLS, PLSGLM, QR, RLM, SGB, SVM, BCART and BTR. We identified 18 factors usually

Sediment fingerprinting in data sparse regions, such as the mountainous areas of Iran, is more suited to a confluence-based sample design wherein tributary sub-basins are characterised by sediment samples using different size fractions. Our objective was therefore to fingerprint spatial source contributions to the < 37 and 37–63 µm fractions of fine-grained channel bed sediment samples collected in

Lakes on the Tibetan Plateau (TP) are sensitive indicators of climate change due to minimal disturbance by human activities. Estimations of lake water levels and storage variations on the TP are essential in evaluating water resources and modeling hydrologic processes in high-altitude endorheic basins. By integrating the ICESat/ICESat-2, Global Surface Water dataset, and HydroLAKES dataset, this study

Reclamation is a traditional method used to create new land from coastal wetlands for releasing pressures from human social development. Knowledge on the biological succession and mechanisms along soil development is important for enhancing biodiversity conservation after wetlands converted to lands. In this study, a 500-year soil chronosequence was identified at the coastal area of the Yellow Sea

The main purpose of this study is to investigate shallow landslide susceptibility by considering the infinite slope stability model and steady-state hydrological conditions. The prediction performance of the Stability Index Mapping (SINMAP) carried out by considering the mechanical and hydrological parameters and soil thickness values for different residual soils derived from different geological formations

Land-use changes have a profound impact on species diversity and distribution. Although soil fauna contribute substantially to global biodiversity and ecosystem functioning, the responses of soil fauna to land-use changes at the regional scale remain poorly understood. Non-native Robinia pseudoacacia (black locust, BL) has been widely planted on abandoned cropland to control soil erosion on the Chinese