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This book brings together eleven works by scholars within and beyond geography, to argue the case for a continued engagement with smallholder agricultural studies. The research detailed is largely empirical and draws on a wide spectrum of mixed qualitative and quantitative methodologies. The case studies cover a range of geographic locations, including Brazil, Burkina Faso, South Africa, Botswana, Malawi, Madagascar, Vietnam, and the USA, with greatest emphasis in sub-Saharan Africa. Key themes that emerge include the structural and relative nature of "smallholder" as a category, the dynamic reality of smallholder livelihoods, the importance of smallholder farming and land-use practices to questions of environmental sustainability, and the challenges of vulnerability and adaptation in contemporary human–environment systems. Overall these studies show that smallholder studies are more pertinent than ever, especially in the face of finite resources and global environmental change.

adaptation --- agriculture --- agroecology --- climate change --- diversification --- forests --- households --- land management practices --- land tenure --- livelihoods --- poverty --- production chains --- smallholders --- sustainability --- vulnerability and resilience

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This Special Issue looks forward as well as backward to best analyze the forest conservation challenges of the Caribbean. This is made possible by 75 years of research and applications by the United States Department of Agriculture, International Institute of Tropical Forestry (the Institute) of Puerto Rico. It transforms Holocene-based scientific paradigms of the tropics into Anthropocene applications and outlooks of wilderness, managed forests, and urban environments. This volume showcases how the focus of the Institute’s programs is evolving to support sustainable tropical forest conservation despite uncertain conditions. The manuscripts showcased here highlight the importance of shared stewardship and a long-term, hands-on approach to conservation, research programs, and novel organizations intended to meet contemporary conservation challenges. Policies relevant to the Anthropocene, as well as the use of experiments to anticipate future responses of tropical forests to global warming, are reexamined in these pages. Urban topics include how cities can co-produce new knowledge to spark sustainable and resilient transformations. Long-term results and research applications of topics such as soil biota, migratory birds, tropical vegetation, substrate chemistry, and the tropical carbon cycle are also described in the volume. Moreover, the question of how to best use land on a tropical island is addressed. This volume is intended to be of interest to all actors involved in long-term sustainable forest management and research in light of the historical lessons and future directions that may come out of a better understanding of tropical cities and forests in the Anthropocene epoch.

Anthropocene --- Forest Service --- vision --- contemporary conservation --- biomass --- allometry --- volume expansion factors --- soil organic carbon --- tropical forest area --- forest inventory data --- novel forests --- tree plantations --- secondary forests --- mature forests --- dry tropical forests --- humid tropical forests --- tropical deforestation --- annual cycle --- carry over effects --- climate change --- Guánica --- Nearctic-Neotropical --- novel forests --- stoichiometry of leaf litter --- nitrogen fixing trees --- naturalized species --- C/N --- C/P --- and N/P ratios --- Puerto Rico --- Caribbean --- element concentration in leaf litter --- succession --- species dominance --- tropical forests --- invertebrates --- microbiota --- soil biota --- litter --- wood --- latitude --- elevation --- disturbance --- gradients --- tropical karst --- element concentration --- N/P ratios --- Ca/Al relationship --- ?13C --- ?15N --- knowledge co-production --- idiom of co-production --- knowledge infrastructures --- knowledge systems --- knowledge systems analysis --- cities --- land use governance --- Anthropocene --- disturbance --- hurricane --- succession --- long-term --- basal area --- species composition --- trees --- tropical --- Luquillo Experimental Forest --- Caribbean --- land use planning --- tropical agriculture --- tropical forests --- geospatial analyses --- n/a --- landscape conservation --- network governance --- strategic teams --- communications --- leadership --- adaptive management --- tropical forest --- Anthropocene --- U.S. Forest Service Planning Rule --- El Yunque National Forest --- Luquillo Experimental Forest --- introduced species --- leaf C and N densities --- novel forests --- photosynthetic nitrogen use-efficiency --- leaf mass per area --- Tropical Forestry Research --- Long-Term Ecological Research --- Tropical Forest Management --- Tropical Forest Conservation --- Luquillo Experimental Forest --- tropical --- experiments --- manipulations --- large-scale --- Puerto Rico --- Caribbean --- conservation --- American tropics --- long-term ecological research --- tropical forest management --- Anthropocene --- Puerto Rico

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Forests cover 30% of the Earth’s land area, or nearly four billion hectares. Enhancing the benefits and ecosystem services of forests has been increasingly recognized as an essential part of nature-based solutions for solving many emerging global environmental problems today. A core science supporting forest management is understanding the interactions of forests, water, and people. These interactions have become increasingly complex under climate change and its associated impacts, such as the increases in the intensity and frequency of drought and floods, increasing population and deforestation, and a rise in global demands for multiple ecosystem services including clean water supply and carbon sequestration. Forest watershed managers have recognized that water management is an essential component of forest management. Global environmental change is posing more challenges for managing forests and water toward sustainable development. New science on forest and water is critically needed across the globe. The International Forests and Water Conference 2018, Valdivia, Chile (http://forestsandwater2018.cl/), a joint effort of the 5th IUFRO International Conference on Forests and Water in a Changing Environment and the Second Latin American Conference on Forests and Water provided a unique forum to examine forest and water issues in Latin America under a global context. This book represents a collection of some of the peer-reviewed papers presented at the conference that were published in a Special Issue of Forests.

afforestation --- soil moisture --- precipitation gradient --- restoration strategy --- Loess Plateau --- post-fire hydrology --- source water protection --- drinking-water security --- multi-criteria analysis --- “Forests to Faucets” --- community drinking-water --- compound wildfire-water risk --- land use change --- forests --- ecosystem services --- hydrological modeling --- Mekong --- Cambodia --- native forest --- forest plantation --- shrubland --- grassland --- water provision --- water supply --- land use and land cover change --- NDC --- Chile --- land use change --- SWAT model --- Nenjiang River --- hydrology --- forest --- wetland --- timber harvesting --- forest operations --- nutrient concentrations --- load --- water quality --- water management --- participatory monitoring --- forest watersheds --- social capital --- water governance --- native forests --- forest plantations --- agricultural lands --- catchment management --- dissolved organic matter --- streamside native buffer --- riparian vegetation --- forest and water policy --- sustainability --- climate change --- forest hydrology --- SDGs --- climate change --- forest ecosystem management --- riparian buffer zones --- density management harvest --- aquatic-riparian ecosystems --- connectivity --- heat: moisture index --- Rhyacotriton --- Oregon --- US Pacific Northwest --- forestry --- ecohydrology --- watershed management --- global change --- sustainability

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Monitoring of vegetation structure and functioning is critical to modeling terrestrial ecosystems and energy cycles. In particular, leaf area index (LAI) is an important structural property of vegetation used in many land surface vegetation, climate, and crop production models. Canopy structure (LAI, fCover, plant height, and biomass) and biochemical parameters (leaf pigmentation and water content) directly influence the radiative transfer process of sunlight in vegetation, determining the amount of radiation measured by passive sensors in the visible and infrared portions of the electromagnetic spectrum. Optical remote sensing (RS) methods build relationships exploiting in situ measurements and/or as outputs of physical canopy radiative transfer models. The increased availability of passive (radar and LiDAR) RS data has fostered their use in many applications for the analysis of land surface properties and processes, thanks also to their insensitivity to weather conditions and the capability to exploit rich structural and textural information. Data fusion and multi-sensor integration techniques are pressing topics to fully exploit the information conveyed by both optical and microwave bands.

conifer forest --- leaf area index --- smartphone-based method --- canopy gap fraction --- terrestrial laser scanning --- forest inventory --- density-based clustering --- forest aboveground biomass --- root biomass --- tree heights --- GLAS --- artificial neural network --- allometric scaling and resource limitation --- structure from motion (SfM) --- 3D point cloud --- remote sensing --- local maxima --- fixed tree window size --- managed temperate coniferous forests --- point cloud --- spectral information --- structure from motion (SfM) --- unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) --- chlorophyll fluorescence (ChlF) --- drought --- Mediterranean --- photochemical reflectance index (PRI) --- photosynthesis --- R690/R630 --- recovery --- BAAPA --- remote sensing --- household survey --- forest --- farm types --- automated classification --- sampling design --- adaptive threshold --- over and understory cover --- LAI --- leaf area index --- EPIC --- simulation --- satellite --- MODIS --- biomass --- evaluation --- southern U.S. forests --- VIIRS --- leaf area index (LAI) --- Fraction of Photosynthetically Active Radiation absorbed by vegetation (FPAR) --- MODIS --- consistency --- uncertainty --- evaluation --- downscaling --- Pléiades imagery --- unmanned aerial vehicle --- stem volume estimation --- remote sensing --- clumping index --- leaf area index --- trunk --- terrestrial LiDAR --- HemiView --- forest above ground biomass (AGB) --- polarization coherence tomography (PCT) --- P-band PolInSAR --- tomographic profiles --- canopy closure --- global positioning system --- hemispherical sky-oriented photo --- signal attenuation --- geographic information system --- digital aerial photograph --- aboveground biomass --- leaf area index --- photogrammetric point cloud --- recursive feature elimination --- machine-learning --- forest degradation --- multisource remote sensing --- modelling aboveground biomass --- random forest --- Brazilian Amazon --- validation --- phenology --- NDVI --- LAI --- spectral analyses --- European beech --- altitude --- forests biomass --- remote sensing --- REDD+ --- random forest --- Tanzania --- RapidEye

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Biodiversity and Protected Areas assembles twelve topics from around the world, illustrating the complexities and promise of addressing the biodiversity crisis. Authors from Mongolia, Africa, India, Canada, Iraq, and the United States dwell on particular aspects and challenges relevant to those regions. Lessons and approaches from interesting localities, coupled with global analyses give the reader a synthetic view of emerging problems. The opportunities for understanding common issues across different geographies abound, such as comparing local conservation in sub-Saharan Africa with a distribution of very small protected areas in Massachusetts. Several topics will be of immediate interest to policymakers. The book is illustrated with numerous color maps and figures and the authors strove for clear, uncomplicated writing. The editors provide an overview of chapters, placing them in the context of other biodiversity and protected area literature. Students and conservationists attempting to broaden their views of biodiversity and protected areas should find this collection to be interesting.

Halgurd-Sakran National Park --- remote sensing --- GIS --- landscape metrics --- fragmentation --- Wilderness Study Areas --- light pollution --- noise pollution --- wildness --- protected areas --- protected areas --- climate change --- deforestation --- tropics --- biodiversity --- conservation --- Tiger --- conservation standards --- protected area management --- management effectiveness --- accreditation --- conservation assured --- Convention on Biological Diversity --- Aichi Target 11 --- conservation planning --- protected area reporting --- equity framework --- private land conservation --- privacy --- protected areas --- biodiversity --- conservation --- protected area management --- information communication technology --- Mongolia --- conservation landscapes --- scale of assessment --- conservation planning --- biodiversity conservation targets --- threat assessment --- prioritization --- biodiversity hotspots --- human population density --- protected areas --- conservation --- biodiversity --- ecosystems --- IUCN --- land use --- protected areas --- biocultural heritage --- sub-Saharan Africa --- traditional ecological knowledge --- hotspots --- sacred forests --- conservation --- biodiversity --- conservation targets --- protected areas --- Indigenous peoples --- IPCAs --- reconciliation --- Aichi Biodiversity Targets --- carbon finance --- global commons --- jurisdictional --- nested approaches --- public goods --- n/a