Moving from ecological impacts to social vulnerability in data-scarce places.

Managers need to trace social impacts and vulnerability caused by environmental change all the way to its driving forces to target key system components for intervention. However, most available scientific evidence deals with either the ecological impacts of direct drivers or the value of ecosystem benefits to people. Our matrix-based tool combines these types of evidence to make environmental management problems traceable through a structured yet flexible procedure.

Plant rhizodeposition: A key factor for soil organic matter formation in stable fractions.

Soil organic carbon formation remains poorly understood despite its importance for human livelihoods. Uncertainties remain for the relative contributions of aboveground, root, and rhizodeposition inputs to particulate (POC) and mineral-associated (MAOC) organic carbon fractions. Combining a novel framework with isotope tracer studies, we quantified POC and MAOC formation efficiencies (% of C-inputs incorporated into each fraction).

Deforestation impacts on soil organic carbon stocks in the Semiarid Chaco Region, Argentina.

Land use change affects soil organic carbon (SOC) and generates CO emissions. Moreover, SOC depletion entails degradation of soil functions that support ecosystem services. Large areas covered by dry forests have been cleared in the Semiarid Chaco Region of Argentina for cropping expansion.