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Multispectral data from two legume-grass mixtures (clover- and lucerne-grass) were collected in the year 2018 for aboveground biomass and nitrogen fixation (NFix) estimation. In addition to the mixtures, pure stands of legumes and of grasses of the two mixtures were sown in order to represent variable conditions in practical farming (0-100% legumes). All six treatments were cultivated in four replicates and harvested three times within the year (plot size: 1.5 x 12 m). Destructive biomass samples for fresh (FM) and dry matter (DM) and NFix determination were taken three times at harvest. To cover the entire vegetation season, sub-sampling for DM and FM was done five times between the harvests. Flight missions were carried out one day before each of the eight sampling dates. A multispectral sensor (Parrot Sequoia, MicaSense Inc, Seattle, USA) with four spectral bands (green, red, red edge, near infrared) was mounted on a low-cost unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV; DJI Phantom 3, Advanced, Shenzhen, China). Eight black and white ground control points (GCPs) were distributed in the pathways. Coordinates of the plot corners and GCPs were measured by a Leica real time kinematic global navigation satellite system (Leica RTK GNSS). Orthomosaics were created by the overlapping images with a photogrammetric processing software (Agisoft PhotoScan Professional, Agisoft LLC, St. Petersburg, Russia). The orthomosaics were georeferenced using the coordinates of the GCPs. The mean reflectance value of the four bands was extracted by zonal statistics in QGIS (Quantum Geografic Infromation System) using the four plot corners of each plot as boundaries. Furthermore, eight texture features of every band were calculated, provided by the processing tool HaralickTextureExtraction of the Orfeo Toolbox library (OTB) in QGIS.

Zooplankton treatment: HZ: zooplankton added, LZ: Zooplankton removedCarbon treatment: 0C: No glucose addition, 0.5: 0.5 x Redfield. 1: 1xRedfield, 2: 2xRedfield, 3: 3XRedfieldpH Treatment:NpH: Normal pH, LpH: Low pH

Here we present data from food selectivity experiments of four abundant Alpine decomposer species (two earthworms and two millipedes). We conducted cafeteria feeding experiments in microcosms in a climate chamber offering to the specimens three representative alpine litter types of differing in litter quality (i.e. dwarf shrub, grass, and forb) as single litters and mixtures. We monitored parameters such as biomass, consumption rates (absolute and relative), and calculated from the latter food selectivity indices to investigate preferences. The tested specimens showed a high intra- and interspecific variability as they fed on all offered litter types and qualities. The epi-endogeic earthworm Lumbricus rubellus (Hoffmeister, 1843), dominant in alpine pastureland, had highest mean consumption rates (34.7 ± 24.7 mg), while Dendrobaena octaedra (Savigny, 1826), a strictly epigeic earthworm, showed considerably lower consumption rates. The tested millipedes showed similar consumption patterns, with Cylindroiulus fulviceps (Latzel, 1884) being less active than C. meinerti (Verhoeff, 1891). We found several cases where litter mixtures were preferred over single litters, including higher consumption rates of low-quality dwarf shrub litter by D. octaedra and C. meinerti when mixed with high-quality litter.Nowadays, alpine pastureland are threatened mainly by abandonment which reverted to shrubland. Our results helped us to understand that alpine soil macro-decomposer such as earthworms and millipedes are generalists feeding on a wide range of litter qualities, allowing them, in theory, to better adapt to the new evolving litter resources that become available when pastures are abandoned.

We developed the first time series of carbon stocks (Aboveground- AGB, Belowground- BGB and Soil Carbon Stocks-SCS) for Western Bahia from 1990-2018. This region is located at the largest and most dynamic agricultural frontier in Brazil known as MATOPIBA.The methods used here to develop carbon stocks time series combine data from the literature for Aboveground (AGB) and Belowground (BGB), and Soil Carbon Stocks measurements (SCS) for six land use and land cover classes (irrigated agriculture, rainfed agriculture, pasture, Savana Formations, Grasslands formations, and Forest formations) with modeling and remote sensing techniques. All maps have a scale of 1:15,000 (30 m spatial resolution) and are in NetCDF (network Common Data Form) format.These time series were generated and discussed in the study "Carbon stocks and dynamics of different land uses on the Cerrado agricultural frontier", published in PLOS ONE journal. Data sources, assumptions and calculations are described in detail in the reference above.

Background: Urbanization is an important indicator of economic growth and social change but is associated with environmental degradation, which threatens sustainable growth of African cities. One of the most vulnerable ecosystems in urban areas are wetlands. In Uganda, wetlands cover an area of 11% of the country's land area. Half of the wetland areas in Ugandan cities have been converted to industry and residential areas, and urban agriculture. There is limited information on the extent of wetland conversion or utilization for urban agriculture. The objective of this study was to investigate the extent of wetlands lost in two Ugandan cities, Wakiso and Kampala, in the last 30 years. Secondly, we demonstrate a simple methodology to monitor agriculture on encroached wetlands.Methods: Using a field survey and free remote sensing data from Landsat TM 1986 and Landsat ETM 2016 we classified the rate of wetland loss and encroachment in the last 30 years. Using MODIS NDVI 16-day composites at 500-meter spatial resolution, we generated distinctive crops and crop mixtures in the encroached wetlands for urban agriculture using the ISODATA clustering algorithm.Results: Over a 30-year period, 72,828 ha (73%) of the Wakiso-Kampala wetlands have been lost. Agriculture area on the other hand doubled. Of the new cultivation area, 16,488 ha (23%) were reclaimed from wetlands. All cultivated agriculture in Kampala was in the wetlands while in Wakiso, 73% of crop agriculture was in the wetlands. The major crops grown in these urban wetlands were banana (20%), sugarcane (22%), maize (17%), Eucalyptus trees (12%), sweet potatoes (10%), while ornamental nurseries, pine trees, vegetables and passion fruits were each at 5%.Conclusions: Current wetland exploitation for food security for urban dwellers may be a trade-off between the provision of food in the short-term and the loss of important ecosystems services in the long-term.

The data set features the variance of aboveground plant biomass along a 600km long gradient in Mongolian rangeland vegetation. The data was collected to study the role of climatic variability for the effects of grazing in rangelands. 15 sites were selected across a 600 km long precipitation gradient in Central Mongolia. At each site, 5 subplots were sampled within each distance of 50m, 150m, 350, 750m and 1500m to a grazing hotspot. The 375 plots were visited in 2014 and resampled in 2015. The samples were clipped at ground level on 50 cm x 50 cm plots, separated into plant functional groups, dried at 65°C for 24h and weighted. More information is available in the corresponding paper.

Background: Urbanization is an important indicator of economic growth and social change but is associated with environmental degradation, which threatens sustainable growth of African cities. One of the most vulnerable ecosystems in urban areas are wetlands. In Uganda, wetlands cover an area of 11% of the country's land area. Half of the wetland areas in Ugandan cities have been converted to industry and residential areas, and urban agriculture. There is limited information on the extent of wetland conversion or utilization for urban agriculture. The objective of this study was to investigate the extent of wetlands lost in two Ugandan cities, Wakiso and Kampala, in the last 30 years. Secondly, we demonstrate a simple methodology to monitor agriculture on encroached wetlands.Methods: Using a field survey and free remote sensing data from Landsat TM 1986 and Landsat ETM 2016 we classified the rate of wetland loss and encroachment in the last 30 years. Using MODIS NDVI 16-day composites at 500-meter spatial resolution, we generated distinctive crops and crop mixtures in the encroached wetlands for urban agriculture using the ISODATA clustering algorithm.Results: Over a 30-year period, 72,828 ha (73%) of the Wakiso-Kampala wetlands have been lost. Agriculture area on the other hand doubled. Of the new cultivation area, 16,488 ha (23%) were reclaimed from wetlands. All cultivated agriculture in Kampala was in the wetlands while in Wakiso, 73% of crop agriculture was in the wetlands. The major crops grown in these urban wetlands were banana (20%), sugarcane (22%), maize (17%), Eucalyptus trees (12%), sweet potatoes (10%), while ornamental nurseries, pine trees, vegetables and passion fruits were each at 5%.Conclusions: The Kampala-Wakiso wetlands have been disappearing at a rate of 2500 ha annually for the last 30 years, implying that at this rate, there will be no wetlands left by 2029. Policy implications are that, ecosystem services by of urban wetlands have been lost, a large population of urban poor are using wetlands for survival and yet Poverty eradication policies are in conflict with wetland conservation policies. Policy recommendations we endorse are,the Government of Uganda needs to promote wetland reclamation programs so as to restore and reconstruct lost and fragmented wetlands. Secondly, ministries mandated to food security and poverty eradication need to convene with ministries regulating wetlands to merge these conflicting policies. Thirdly, there is need for the development of polices that are inclusive of challenges faced by the urban poor while at the same time minimize the pressures on urban environments.

We evaluated above- and belowground ecosystem changes in a 16 year, combined fertilization and warming experiment in a High Arctic tundra deciduous shrub heath (Alexandra Fiord, Ellesmere Island, NU, Canada). Soil emissions of the three key greenhouse gases (GHGs) (carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide) were measured in mid-July 2009 using soil respiration chambers attached to a FTIR system. Soil chemical and biochemical properties including Q10 values for CO2, CH4, and N2O, Bacteria and Archaea assemblage composition, and the diversity and prevalence of key nitrogen cycling genes including bacterial amoA, crenarchaeal amoA, and nosZ were measured. Warming and fertilization caused strong increases in plant community cover and height but had limited effects on GHG fluxes and no substantial effect on soil chemistry or biochemistry. Similarly, there was a surprising lack of directional shifts in the soil microbial community as a whole or any change at all in microbial functional groups associated with CH4 consumption or N2O cycling in any treatment. Thus, it appears that while warming and increased nutrient availability have strongly affected the plant community over the last 16 years, the belowground ecosystem has not yet responded. This resistance of the soil ecosystem has resulted in limited changes in GHG fluxes in response to the experimental treatments. Supplement to: Lamb, Eric G; Han, Sukkyun; Lanoil, Brian D; Henry, Gregory HR; Brummell, Martin E; Banerjee, Samiran; Siciliano, Steven D (2011): A High Arctic soil ecosystem resists long-term environmental manipulations. Global Change Biology, 17(10), 3187-3194 n=5 for all values except the Control treatment for CO2, CH4, and N2O where n=45. Data extracted in the frame of a joint ICSTI/PANGAEA IPY effort, see http://doi.pangaea.de/10.1594/PANGAEA.150150