All publications and documents

The capacity of ecosystems to deliver essential services to society is already under stress. The additional stresses imposed by climate change in the coming years will require extraordinary adaptation. We need to track the changing status of ecosystems, deepen our understanding of the biological underpinnings for ecosystem service delivery and develop new tools and techniques for maintaining and…

Bio-energy, that is, energy produced from organic non-fossil material of biological origin, is promoted as a substitute for non-renewable (e.g., fossil) energy to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and dependency on energy imports. At present, global bio-energy use amounts to approximately 50 EJ/yr, about 10% of humanity's primary energy supply. We here review recent literature on the amount…

Degradation of soil and land resources is a critical global problem. It is widespread not only in drylands and cropped areas, but in most agro-ecologies and biomes around the world. Unless addressed, it may undermine global food security and negatively affect the livelihoods of billions of people, especially of the poor. Addressing land degradation requires public, community and private actions…

While overgrazing is widely recognized as one of the primary drivers of desertification, unlike other environmental problems, many countries have not taken basic measures to address it. After considering the sociological and biological dynamics associated with the phenomenon, the article reviews polices designed to reach sustainable levels of grazing that have been adopted in several countries…

Recent increase in atmospheric concentration of CO2 and decrease in land-based sink capacity are attributed to numerous anthropogenic activities including increase in severity and extent of soil degradation and desertification. There is a strong link between desertification and global warming with positive feedback of mutual reinforcement. The biophysical process is also driven by social,…

The phytogeographical region known as the Caldenal comprises an area of approximately 10 million ha in the central temperate part of Argentina (35–40° S, 62–66° W). The original physiognomy of the vegetation consisted of a gramineous steppe with isolated shrubs and trees. Rangeland deterioration was initiated in the early-1900s with the introduction of livestock by the colonizing European…