Fifty years of Landsat science and impacts

Remote Sensing of Environment, Journal Year: 2022, Volume and Issue: 280, P. 113195 - 113195

Published: July 28, 2022

Since 1972, the Landsat program has been continually monitoring Earth, to now provide 50 years of digital, multispectral, medium spatial resolution observations. Over this time, data were crucial for many scientific and technical advances. Prior program, detailed, synoptic depictions Earth's surface rare, ability acquire work with large datasets was limited. The early delivered a series technological breakthroughs, pioneering new methods, demonstrating capacity digital satellite imagery, creating template other global Earth observation missions programs. Innovations driven by have paved way subsequent science, application, policy support activities. economic value knowledge gained through long recognized, despite periods funding uncertainty, resulted in program's continuity, as well substantive ongoing improvements payload mission performance. Free open access data, enacted 2008, unprecedented substantially increased usage led proliferation science application opportunities. Here, we highlight key developments over past that influenced changed our understanding system. Major programmatic impacts realized areas agricultural crop mapping water use, climate change drivers impacts, ecosystems land cover monitoring, changing human footprint. introduction collection processing, coupled free policy, facilitated transition away from single images towards time analyses fostered widespread use science-grade data. launch Landsat-9 on September 27, 2021, advanced planning its successor mission, Landsat-Next, underscore sustained institutional program. Such commitment continuity is recognition both historic impact future potential build upon Landsat's remarkable 50-year legacy.

Language: Английский

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Agrochemicals, Environment, and Human Health

Annual Review of Environment and Resources, Journal Year: 2022, Volume and Issue: 47(1), P. 399 - 421

Published: June 9, 2022

Global consumption of agrochemicals continues to rise, despite growing evidence their adverse effects on environmental quality and human health. The extent increase varies across nations, by type chemical compounds severity the detrimental impacts. differential impacts are largely attributable level technology adoption regulation as well enforcement compliance. article highlights gaps in technical, legal, social aspects, which include paucity holistic long-term ecological impact assessment frameworks lack consideration for dimensions pesticide use regulatory decisions. Bridging these gaps, establishing global cooperation governance, a regional/national-level monitoring mechanism suggested. This, complemented with policy shift from current approach productivity enhancement augmenting agroecosystem services, would encourage sustainable nature-positive agriculture equipped meet multiple challenges food security, safety, climate resilience.

Language: Английский

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Getting ahead of climate change for ecological adaptation and resilience

Science, Journal Year: 2022, Volume and Issue: 376(6600), P. 1421 - 1426

Published: June 23, 2022

Changing the course of Earth's climate is increasingly urgent, but there also a concurrent need for proactive stewardship adaptive capacity rapidly changing biosphere. Adaptation ultimately underpins resilience complex systems; species, communities, and ecosystems shift evolve over time. Yet oncoming changes will seriously challenge current natural resource management conservation efforts. We review forward-looking approaches to enable adaptation resilience. Key opportunities include expanding beyond preservationist by including those that facilitate ecological change. Conservation should not just focus on change losers emerging opportunities. Local efforts conserve biodiversity generate habitat complexity help maintain diversity future options an unpredictable future.

Language: Английский

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Economic inequality is fueled by population scale, land-limited production, and settlement hierarchies across the archaeological record

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Journal Year: 2025, Volume and Issue: 122(16)

Published: April 14, 2025

Defining wealth broadly to include in people, relational connections, and material possessions, we examine the prehistory of inequality at level residential units using consistent proxy Gini coefficients calculated across areas contemporaneous units. In a sample >1,100 sites > 47,000 spanning >10,000 y, persistent typically lags onset plant cultivation by more than millennium. It accompanies landscape modifications subsistence practices which land (rather labor) limits production, growth hierarchies settlement size. are markedly higher through time settlements or near top such hierarchies; not enmeshed these systems remain relatively egalitarian even long after animal domestication. We infer that some households top-ranked were able exploit network effects, agglomeration opportunities, (eventually) political leverage provided effectively others, likely boosted efficient intergenerational transmission resources increased sedentism made common. Since population is associated with sedentism, land-limited appearance hierarchies, it deeply implicated postdomestication rise inequality. Governance mediate degree inequality, as do technical innovations use animals for portage, horseback riding, development iron smelting.

Language: Английский

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The use of fire to preserve biodiversity under novel fire regimes

Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B Biological Sciences, Journal Year: 2025, Volume and Issue: 380(1924)

Published: April 1, 2025

Novel fire regimes are emerging worldwide and pose substantial challenges to biodiversity conservation. Addressing these mitigating their impacts on will require developing a wide range of management practices. In this paper, we leverage research across taxa, ecosystems continents highlight strategies for applying knowledge in First, define novel outline different practices contemporary landscapes from parts the world. Next, synthesize recent use biodiversity, provide decision-making framework conservation under regimes. We recommend that preserving should consider both social ecological factors, iterative learning informed by effective monitoring, testing new actions. An integrated approach about help navigate complexities preserve rapidly changing This article is part theme issue ‘Novel climate changes human influences: impacts, ecosystem responses feedbacks’.

Language: Английский

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Grassy Ecosystems in the Anthropocene

Annual Review of Environment and Resources, Journal Year: 2022, Volume and Issue: 47(1), P. 261 - 289

Published: Aug. 1, 2022

As the Anthropocene advances, there are few parts of Earth that have not been impacted by human influence. Humans had a long-sustained interaction with grassy ecosystems, but they becoming severely direct and indirect impacts as advances. Grassy ecosystems easy to clear cultivate, poorly protected, defined due legacies colonial narratives can describe them deforested, wastelands, or derived. Climate change, land conversion, erosion processes shaped for millennia cascading cumulative on ecosystem extent integrity. We examine how these changes impacting more specifically, those fall into uncertain space—a climate envelope where vegetation is at equilibrium either forest occur. It within this space climate, CO2, disturbances (fire, herbivores) interact determine presence ecosystems. Changes any components reduce integrity grassyecosystems. The loss ancient biodiverse means an array services fundamental lives than 1 billion people alongside Earth-system altered albedo, carbon, hydrological cycles.

Language: Английский

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The Anthropocene condition: evolving through social–ecological transformations

Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B Biological Sciences, Journal Year: 2023, Volume and Issue: 379(1893)

Published: Nov. 13, 2023

Anthropogenic planetary disruptions, from climate change to biodiversity loss, are unprecedented challenges for human societies. Some societies, social groups, cultural practices, technologies and institutions already disintegrating or disappearing as a result. However, this coupling of socially produced environmental with disruptive changes—the Anthropocene condition—is not new. From food-producing hunter–gatherers, farmers, urban industrial food systems, the current entanglement has its roots in millennia evolving accumulating sociocultural capabilities shaping cultured environments that our societies have always lived (sociocultural niche construction). When these transformative shape coupled adaptations enabling more effectively live transformed environments, social–ecological scales intensities transformations can accelerate through positive feedback loop ‘runaway construction’. Efforts achieve better future both people planet will depend on guiding runaway evolutionary process towards outcomes by redirecting Earth's most force nature: power aspirations. To guide force, narratives appeal aspirations be effective than crisis overstepping natural boundaries. This article is part theme issue ‘Evolution sustainability: gathering strands an synthesis’.

Language: Английский

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Likely decline in the number of farms globally by the middle of the century

Nature Sustainability, Journal Year: 2023, Volume and Issue: 6(8), P. 949 - 954

Published: May 11, 2023

Language: Английский

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Agricultural practices and biodiversity: Conservation policies for semi-natural grasslands in Europe

Current Biology, Journal Year: 2024, Volume and Issue: 34(16), P. R753 - R761

Published: Aug. 1, 2024

Language: Английский

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The relationships between biotic uniqueness and abiotic uniqueness are context dependent across drainage basins worldwide

Landscape Ecology, Journal Year: 2024, Volume and Issue: 39(4)

Published: April 5, 2024

Abstract Context Global change, including land-use change and habitat degradation, has led to a decline in biodiversity, more so freshwater than terrestrial ecosystems. However, the research on freshwaters lags behind marine studies, highlighting need for innovative approaches comprehend biodiversity. Objectives We investigated patterns relationships between biotic uniqueness abiotic environmental drainage basins worldwide. Methods compiled high-quality data aquatic insects (mayflies, stoneflies, caddisflies at genus-level) from 42 spanning four continents. Within each basin we calculated (local contribution beta diversity, LCBD) of insect assemblages, types heterogeneity, LCEH), categorized into upstream land cover, chemical soil properties, stream site landscape position, climate. A mixed-effects meta-regression was performed across examine variations strength LCBD-LCEH relationship terms latitude, human footprint, major continental regions (the Americas versus Eurasia). Results On average, LCBD LCEH were weak. direction varied among basins. Latitude, footprint index, or location did not explain significant variation relationship. Conclusions detected strong context dependence Varying conditions gradient lengths basins, historical contingencies, stochastic factors may these findings. This underscores basin-specific management practices protect biodiversity riverine systems.

Language: Английский

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