In grassland ecosystems, fire plays an important role in maintaining biodiversity and ecological functioning but also causes substantial greenhouse gas emissions. Both climate and herbivory are key determinants of fire regimes, yet the relative importance of these factors remains debated. We...

Subsistence farmers with high dependency on natural resources are exceptionally vulnerable to rainfall changes. Besides, they are in the front row when it comes to observing these changes. Studies that systematically investigate similarities and differences between measured and perceived...

Drawing on data for the 104 largest German cities, and deeper analysis of six mid-sized cities (including forerunners, followers and latecomers in climate mitigation and adaptation), we find that the spread of local mitigation and adaptation strategies across Germany can be explained by a...

Changes in land use and climate are the main drivers of change in soil organic matter contents. We investigated the impact of the largest policy-induced land conversion to arable land, the Virgin Lands Campaign (VLC), from 1954 to 1963, of the massive cropland abandonment after 1990 and of...

Forests in lowland Bolivia suffer from severe deforestation caused by different types of agents and land use activities. We identify three major proximate causes of deforestation. The largest share of deforestation is attributable to the expansion of mechanized agriculture, followed by cattle...