All publications and documents

This paper presents the main characteristics of soils under degraded beech forests on Mt. Javor and the possibility of the reintroduction of the spruce and fir that had been cut during previous negative human activity. Research into forest soil characteristics before reforestation is not common practice in the Republic of Srpska, and very often is not successful because it has not been…

Highlights •Monte Carlo methods forecast the range of outcomes, given known uncertainties. •We model the impact of conservation agriculture (CA) on yield at two sites. •Distributions of potential yield changes at both sites were almost entirely negative. •Without supportive measures, CA is unlikely to be successful at these locations. •Multi-disciplinary surveys and…

In 2014, the USAID project ‘Grazing lands, livestock and climate resilient mitigation in Sub-Saharan Africa’ held two workshops, hosted by the Colorado State University, which brought together experts from around the world. Two reports resulted from these workshops, one an assessment of the state of the science, and the other an inventory of related activities in the region to date. In this short…

Highlights •Predictive models for tree, soil and biodiversity attributes were studied. •Tree crown cover was predicted most accurately using RapidEye and Landsat data. •Prediction success might depend on correlation between the attribute and tree cover. •The higher spatial resolution of RapidEye improved accuracy only slightly. •Approach provides valuable information…

Highlights • Long-term livestock exclusion did not improve soil carbon in dry savanna ecosystem. • The influence of exclosure age on soil carbon was not linear. • Soil carbon sequestration is not well understood in drylands of Africa. • Baseline information is key to precisely evaluate exclosures. •Target multiple benefits than carbon sequestration per se

Functional ecology provides a framework that can link vegetation characteristics of various land uses with ecosystem function. However, this application has been mostly limited to [semi-]natural systems and small spatial scales. Here, we apply functional ecology to five agricultural landscapes in Kenya, Uganda and Ethiopia, and ask to what extent vegetation characteristics contribute to soil…