Preserving ecosystem services and economic and environmental benefits will require future landscape policies to identify and incorporate specific landscape features. In this paper we define the term, agricultural landscape simplification, as the reduced compositional and configurational...

""Transforming the Prairies" proposes a new understanding of Canada’s Prairie Farm Rehabilitation Administration (PFRA), complicating common views of the agency as a model of effective government environmental management. Between 1935 and 2009, the PFRA promoted agricultural rehabilitation in...

Globally, grasslands are shaped by grazing and fire, and grassland plants are adapted to these disturbances. However, temperate grasslands have been hotspots of land-use change, and how such changes affect interrelations between herbivory, fire and vegetation are poorly understood. Such land-use...

Changes in land management and climate alter vegetation dynamics, but the determinants of vegetation changes often remain elusive, especially in global drylands. Here we assess the determinants of grassland greenness on the Mongolian Plateau, one of the world's largest grassland biomes, which...

Das Working Paper stellt die Ergebnisse einer Umfrage und eines Workshops zusammen, die von Wissenschaftlern und Wissenschaftlerinnen der Ressortforschungsinstitute Thünen-Institut, Julius Kühn-Institut (JKI) und Friedrich-Loeffler-Institut (FLI) im Herbst 2016 zusammengetragen und diskutiert...

[...] Die deutsche Land- und Forstwirtschaft ist von primären Klimafolgen wie stetig steigenden Durchschnittstemperaturen, veränderten Niederschlagsmustern und immer häufiger auftretenden, regional und saisonal sehr unterschiedlich ausgeprägten Extremwetterereignissen betroffen. Zudem...

Climate change affects the timing of phenological events, such as the start, end, and length of the growing season of vegetation. A better understanding of how the phenology responded to climatic determinants is important in order to better anticipate future climate-ecosystem interactions. We...

A burgeoning population, pressing development needs and increasing household consumption are rapidly accelerating water use in direct and indirect ways. Increasingly, regions around the world face growing pressure on sustainable use of their water resources especially in arid and semi-arid...

Through a study of the settlement of the Canadian Prairies, I examine if differences in violence across regions reflect the historical ability of the state to centralize authority and monopolize violence. I compare settlements that in the late 1880s were located near Mountie-created forts with...

Through a study of the settlement of the Canadian Prairies, I examine if differences in violence across regions reflect the historical ability of the state to centralize authority and monopolize violence. I compare settlements that in the late 1880s were located near Mountie-created forts with...

We investigate the relationship between yield stability and species diversity in managed grasslands. To this end, ecological economic and econometric frameworks are developed and applied to evaluate potential risk-reducing effects of species diversity from a farmer’s perspective. Our empirical...

Mongolia has made relatively minor contributions to global climate change, although its emissions per capita are relatively high and continuing to rise. In 2006, Mongolia’s total net (sources minus sinks) greenhouse gas emissions were approximately 15.6 million tons carbon dioxide equivalent....

Biodiversity loss in Europe is caused to a large extent by agricultural intensification. To halt this loss and to support species and habitat types in agricultural areas, agri-environment schemes have been introduced in Europe to compensate farmers for (costly) conservation measures. Currently,...

Biodiversity loss in Europe is caused to a large extent by agricultural intensification. To halt this loss and to support species and habitat types in agricultural areas, agri-environment schemes have been introduced in Europe to compensate farmers for (costly) conservation measures. Currently,...

Biodiversity loss in Europe is caused to a large extent by agricultural intensification. To halt this loss and to support species and habitat types in agricultural areas, agri-environment schemes have been introduced in Europe to compensate farmers for (costly) conservation measures. Currently,...

‘Climate-smart’ is the term coined to define agricultural systems that are resilient to climate change, and offer efficient emissions mitigation potential without compromising on productivity, food security and livelihoods. As part of the implementation of such systems, this study developed...

Large tracts (1000 ha) of prairie are essential to the sustainability of grassland ecosystem services, yet in many ecoregions only small fragments remain. Glacial Ridge is among the largest prairie-wetland restorations ever attempted. Started in 2000, the 9000 ha project in northwest Minnesota,...

There have long been concerns that federal crop insurance subsidies may significantly impact land use decisions. It is well known that classical insurance market information asymmetry problems can lead to a social excess of risky land entering crop production. We provide a conceptual model to...

Subsidized crop insurance may encourage conversion of native grassland to cropland. The Sodsaver provision of the 2008 farm bill could deny crop insurance on converted land in the Prairie Pothole states for 5 years. Supplemental Revenue Assistance payments, which are linked to crop insurance...

"Brazil has become one of today's major producers and net exporters of grains. This was achieved by converting barren land into one of the most productive agricultural regions in the world. Since the mid-1970s, the tropical savanna, known as Cerrado, has been transformed into one of the world's...

"Sarah Carter's "Imperial Plots: Women, Land, and the Spadework of British Colonialism on the Canadian Prairies" examines the goals, aspirations, andchallenges met by women who sought land of their own. Supporters of British women homesteaders argued they would contribute to the "spade-work" of...

"Although there is considerable historical literature describing the social and economic impact of drought on the prairies in the 1930s, little has been written about the challenges presented by drought in more contemporary times. The drought of 2001-02 was, for example, the most recent...

The need for global comparability has led to the recent standardization of ecological footprint methods. The use of global averages and necessary methodological assumptions has questioned the ability of the ecological footprint to represent local or national specific concerns. This paper...

Der vorliegende Arbeitsbericht entstand im Rahmen des F+E-Vorhabens 'Naturschutzfachliche Bewertung der GAP - Effizienzsteigerung durch Nutzung bestehender Datenbestände', das durch das Bundesamt für Naturschutz (BfN) mit Mitteln des Bundesministeriums für Umwelt, Naturschutz und...

Der vorliegende Arbeitsbericht entstand im Rahmen des F+E-Vorhabens 'Naturschutzfachliche Bewertung der GAP - Effizienzsteigerung durch Nutzung bestehender Datenbestände', das durch das Bundesamt für Naturschutz (BfN) mit Mitteln des Bundesministeriums für Umwelt, Naturschutz und...

The aim of this article is to explore how different quality dimensions (safety, aesthetics, ethics and rooted ness) are created in food networks; how these qualities are transferred until the consumers; and how this process is supported by the organisation of the food network. Our postulate is...

Der vorliegende Arbeitsbericht entstand im Rahmen des F+E-Vorhabens 'Naturschutzfachliche Bewertung der GAP - Effizienzsteigerung durch Nutzung bestehender Datenbestände', das durch das Bundesamt für Naturschutz (BfN) mit Mitteln des Bundesministeriums für Umwelt, Naturschutz und...

Der vorliegende Arbeitsbericht entstand im Rahmen des F+E-Vorhabens 'Naturschutzfachliche Bewertung der GAP - Effizienzsteigerung durch Nutzung bestehender Datenbestände', das durch das Bundesamt für Naturschutz (BfN) mit Mitteln des Bundesministeriums für Umwelt, Naturschutz und...

Feeding forages produced by early and frequent harvests may improve animal performance. This paper evaluates how harvesting regimes (HRs) in grass silage production influence optimal use of inputs and profitability in two types of Norwegian dairy farming systems: a mountain grassland farm and a...

Over the last decade, it has been shown in the ecology literature that species diversity increases yield stability in managed grasslands. Here, we develop and apply ecological economic and econometric frameworks to evaluate these potential risk-reducing effects of species diversity in terms of...

Nitrogen is essential to improving agricultural production systems, explaining why the contamination of groundwater by this nutrient is widespread. The aim of this paper was to describe data collected over 9 years on estimated leaching levels using a simple computation procedure and measurements...

There is empirical evidence that the proportions of different land uses or management regimes and their spatial arrangements can affect the long-term dynamics of bird species in agro-landscapes. The aim of our study was to assess the extent to which biodiversity can be enhanced by altering...