Note to users. If you're seeing this message, it means that your browser cannot find this page's style/presentation instructions -- or possibly that you are using a browser that does not support current Web standards. Find out more about why this message is appearing, and what you can do to make your experience of our site the best it can be.
Science Careers Booklet

Site Tools

  • AAAS
  • Subscribe
  • Feedback

Site Search

Search Advanced

Science 22 July 2005:
Vol. 309. no. 5734, pp. 570 - 574
DOI: 10.1126/science.1111772
Prev | Table of Contents | Next

Review

Global Consequences of Land Use

Jonathan A. Foley,1* Ruth DeFries,2 Gregory P. Asner,3 Carol Barford,1 Gordon Bonan,4 Stephen R. Carpenter,5 F. Stuart Chapin,6 Michael T. Coe,1{dagger} Gretchen C. Daily,7 Holly K. Gibbs,1 Joseph H. Helkowski,1 Tracey Holloway,1 Erica A. Howard,1 Christopher J. Kucharik,1 Chad Monfreda,1 Jonathan A. Patz,1 I. Colin Prentice,8 Navin Ramankutty,1 Peter K. Snyder9

Land use has generally been considered a local environmental issue, but it is becoming a force of global importance. Worldwide changes to forests, farmlands, waterways, and air are being driven by the need to provide food, fiber, water, and shelter to more than six billion people. Global croplands, pastures, plantations, and urban areas have expanded in recent decades, accompanied by large increases in energy, water, and fertilizer consumption, along with considerable losses of biodiversity. Such changes in land use have enabled humans to appropriate an increasing share of the planet's resources, but they also potentially undermine the capacity of ecosystems to sustain food production, maintain freshwater and forest resources, regulate climate and air quality, and ameliorate infectious diseases. We face the challenge of managing trade-offs between immediate human needs and maintaining the capacity of the biosphere to provide goods and services in the long term.

1 Center for Sustainability and the Global Environment (SAGE), University of Wisconsin, 1710 University Avenue, Madison, WI 53726, USA.
2 Department of Geography and Earth System Science Interdisciplinary Center, University of Maryland, College Park, College Park, MD 20742, USA.
3 Department of Global Ecology, Carnegie Institution of Washington, Stanford, CA 94305, USA.
4 National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), Post Office Box 3000, Boulder, CO 80307–3000, USA.
5 Center for Limnology, University of Wisconsin, 680 North Park Street, Madison, WI 53706, USA.
6 Institute of Arctic Biology, University of Alaska, Fairbanks, AK 99775, USA.
7 Center for Conservation Biology, Department of Biological Sciences, 371 Serra Mall, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305, USA.
8 QUEST, Department of Earth Sciences, University of Bristol, Wills Memorial Building, Bristol BS8 1RJ, UK.
9 Department of Atmospheric Sciences, University of Illinois, 105 South Gregory Street, Urbana, IL 61801, USA.

{dagger} Present address: Woods Hole Research Center, Woods Hole, MA 02543, USA.

* To whom correspondence should be addressed: jfoley{at}wisc.edu

Read the Full Text


THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
Field evidence that ecosystem service projects support biodiversity and diversify options.
R. L. Goldman, H. Tallis, P. Kareiva, and G. C. Daily (2008)
PNAS 105, 9445-9448
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
N availability does not modify plant-mediated responses of Trichoplusia ni to elevated CO2.
E. A. Sudderth and F. A. Bazzaz (2008)
J Plant Ecol
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Forests and Climate Change: Forcings, Feedbacks, and the Climate Benefits of Forests.
G. B. Bonan (2008)
Science 320, 1444-1449
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
The debt of nations and the distribution of ecological impacts from human activities.
U. T. Srinivasan, S. P. Carey, E. Hallstein, P. A. T. Higgins, A. C. Kerr, L. E. Koteen, A. B. Smith, R. Watson, J. Harte, and R. B. Norgaard (2008)
PNAS 105, 1768-1773
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Land Change Science Special Feature: The emergence of land change science for global environmental change and sustainability.
B. L. Turner II, E. F. Lambin, and A. Reenberg (2007)
PNAS 104, 20666-20671
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Changes in climate and land use have a larger direct impact than rising CO2 on global river runoff trends.
S. Piao, P. Friedlingstein, P. Ciais, N. de Noblet-Ducoudre, D. Labat, and S. Zaehle (2007)
PNAS 104, 15242-15247
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Empirical evidence for a recent slowdown in irrigation-induced cooling.
C. Bonfils and D. Lobell (2007)
PNAS 104, 13582-13587
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
From the Cover: Quantifying and mapping the human appropriation of net primary production in earth's terrestrial ecosystems.
H. Haberl, K. H. Erb, F. Krausmann, V. Gaube, A. Bondeau, C. Plutzar, S. Gingrich, W. Lucht, and M. Fischer-Kowalski (2007)
PNAS 104, 12942-12947
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Our share of the planetary pie.
J. A. Foley, C. Monfreda, N. Ramankutty, and D. Zaks (2007)
PNAS 104, 12585-12586
   Full Text »    PDF »
Stability and Diversity of Ecosystems.
A. R. Ives and S. R. Carpenter (2007)
Science 317, 58-62
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
The Macroecological Contribution to Global Change Solutions.
J. T. Kerr, H. M. Kharouba, and D. J. Currie (2007)
Science 316, 1581-1584
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Carbon-Negative Biofuels from Low-Input High-Diversity Grassland Biomass.
D. Tilman, J. Hill, and C. Lehman (2006)
Science 314, 1598-1600
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Chloride Effects on Nitrogen Dynamics in Forested and Suburban Stream Debris Dams.
R. L. Hale and P. M. Groffman (2006)
J. Environ. Qual. 35, 2425-2432
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Plant Genetic Resources Conservation and Utilization: The Accomplishments and Future of a Societal Insurance Policy.
P. Gepts (2006)
Crop Sci. 46, 2278-2292
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
A climate-change risk analysis for world ecosystems.
M. Scholze, W. Knorr, N. W. Arnell, and I. C. Prentice (2006)
PNAS 103, 13116-13120
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Parallel declines in pollinators and insect-pollinated plants in britain and the Netherlands..
J. C. Biesmeijer, S. P. M. Roberts, M. Reemer, R. Ohlemuller, M. Edwards, T. Peeters, A. P. Schaffers, S. G. Potts, R. Kleukers, C. D. Thomas, et al. (2006)
Science 313, 351-354
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Malaria risk and temperature: Influences from global climate change and local land use practices.
J. A. Patz and S. H. Olson (2006)
PNAS 103, 5635-5636
   Full Text »    PDF »
Ecosystem Service Supply and Vulnerability to Global Change in Europe.
D. Schroter, W. Cramer, R. Leemans, I. C. Prentice, M. B. Araujo, N. W. Arnell, A. Bondeau, H. Bugmann, T. R. Carter, C. A. Gracia, et al. (2005)
Science 310, 1333-1337
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »

E-Letters:

Read all E-Letters

Land Use Is Always Accompanied by Soil Change
Dan H YAALON
Science Online, 16 Nov 2005 [Full text]

ADVERTISEMENT
Click Me!

ADVERTISEMENT
Click Me!

To Advertise     Find Products

Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)