Risk Assessment Mapping of Landscape Development Based on Ecological Service and Goods in Malaysia Lowland Tropical Rainforest

Amongst the impacts of converting forest to agricultural activities are soil erosion and degradation of ecology service values and goods （ESVG）. The soil erosion can be seen as on-site impacts, such as the problems of decreasing soil fertility and also its off-site impact such as the problems of sedimentation of the nearby rivers, whilst the degradation of ESVG are more holistie in nature, These impacts can be devastating in environmental, biological, and socio-economic manners. This paper reports the study undertaken on the impacts of agricultural development in 0.8 million ha of forest dominated landscape in Pasoh Forest Region （PFR）, Malaysia, within period of 8 years from 1995 to 2003. Three folds of impacts on agricultural development examined and analysed, are： （i） relationship of total soil loss and changes in land use pattern, （ii） mapping trends of ESVG for PFR in 1995 and 2003, and （iii） risk assessment of ESVG based on simulation of converting 339,630 ha of primary forest into mass-scale oil palm plantation. Results of this study indicated that although only minor changes of about 1464 ha （about 0.2% of PFR） of primary forest was converted to agricultural activities, it have significantly increased the total soil loss from 59 to 69 million ton/ha/yr. The mean rate of soil is loss for PFR is 0.8 mil ton/ha/yr and if translated into ESVG term, the soil loss costs about US$ 4.8mil/yr. However, majority of the soil loss within all land use classes are within range of very low-low risk categories （〈10 ton/ha/yr）. ESVG for PFR were costing US$ 179 millions in 1995, declined to US$114 millions in 2003 due to 0.2% reduction of forested land. The ESVG of converting 339,630 ha primary forest into mass plantation cost less than original forest within period of 20 years examined; the 20th year of conversion, the ESVG of plantation and to-remain as forest cost US$ 963 and US$ 575 millions, respectively. However, this difference is only marginal when full attributes of ESVG are considered.

Digital Transformation:Reshaping China’s Development Landscape

The Chinese economy is currently undergoing a digital transformation.New growth drivers are replacing old ones,creating a new development landscape.Countries with strong digital industries will be the first to reap the benefits of digitalization.For China,the transformation to a digital economy is both of inevitability and heterogeneity fueled by dual circulations.Crowded out from more skill-based digitalized sectors,less-skilled labor moves to less digitalized sectors.New capital,industries and technology clusters emerge as new drivers of manufacturing and service sector development.With its large domestic market and industrial competitiveness,China has fostered a new development landscape of“dual circulations”.

Multifunctional landscapes—perspectives for the future

New methods in landscape ecology to study the link between landscape heterogeneity and landscape functionality are needed. Heterogeneity is a basic characteristic of landscape, and landscape function is the capacity to change the structural heterogeneity of a landscape system. In most developed countries the industrialisation of agriculture has in general resulted in a change of agricultural landscapes from a small-grained heterogeneous pattern towards more monotonous and monofunctional landscapes. During the 1990's this trends seems to have changed due to a diversification of rural land use and new trends in urbanisation. Weather these phases of landscape development should be expected in developing countries is a totally open question. Dealing with the study of multifunctionality of landscapes it is proposed to distinguish between ecological functionality of landscape ecosystems, functionality pertaining to land use and social functionality. Further, the relation between function, space and scale is important by the determination of spatial and time segregation as well as spatial and time integration of multifunctionality in landscapes.

Developmental transcription factors in age-related CNS disease: a phoenix rising from the ashes?

Few would doubt that understanding the developmental landscape from which a mature neuron is derived is essential to understand its biology.The temporal and spatial position of a cell from the very earliest stages of development predicts the unique combinations of growth factors it will subsequently be exposed to.

Human-driven topographic effects on the distribution of forest in a flat, lowland agricultural region

Complex topography buffers forests against deforestation in mountainous regions. However, it is unknown if terrain also shapes forest distribution in lowlands where human impacts are likely to be less constrained by terrain. In such regions, if important at all, to- pographic effects will depend on cultural-historical factors and thus be human-driven （an- thropogenic） rather than natural, except in regions where the general climate or extreme soils limit the occurrence of forests. We used spatial regression modeling to assess the extent to which topographic factors explain forest distribution （presence-absence at a 48x48 m resolu- tion） in a lowland agricultural region （Denmark, 43,075 km2） at regional and landscape scales （whole study area and 10x10 km grid cells, respectively）, how landscape-scale for- est-topography relationships vary geographically, and which potential drivers （topographic heterogeneity, forest cover, clay content, coastal/inland location） determine this geographic heterogeneity. Given a moist temperate climate and non-extreme soils all landscapes in Denmark would naturally be largely forest covered, and any topographic relationships will be totally or primarily human-driven. At regional scale, topographic predictors explained only 5% of the distribution of forest. In contrast, the explanatory power of topography varied from 0%-61% at landscape scale, with clear geographic patterning. Explanatory power of topog- raphy at landscape scale was moderately dependent on the potential drivers, with topog- raphic control being strongest in areas with high topographic heterogeneity and little forest cover. However, these conditioning effects were themselves geographically variable. Our findings show that topography by shaping human land-use can affect forest distribution even in flat, lowland regions, but especially via localized, geographically variable effects.