Land-Use Issues

Kees Klein Goldewijk*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingEntry for encyclopedia/dictionaryAcademicpeer-review

Abstract

Important land use processes are agricultural development and intensification, settlement, and extraction of natural resources. In response to human land use, the earth's land cover has changed from a mosaic of native ecosystems, to an increasingly impacted mixture of degraded and fragmented habitats. In the last three centuries, primary forests have declined 20%, natural grasslands and savannas have declined nearly 40%, whereas croplands have increased 390%, and pastures 460%. Almost 39% of earth's land surface is transformed into agricultural land and settlements, and an additional 37% of global land without such use has become embedded within these anthromes.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationEncyclopedia of Biodiversity (Third Edition)
EditorsSamuel M. Scheiner
Place of PublicationOxford
PublisherAcademic Press
Pages579-594
Number of pages16
ISBN (Electronic)9780128225622
ISBN (Print)9780323984348
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2023

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Keywords

  • Agriculture
  • Biodiversity
  • Deforestation
  • Degradation
  • Fragmentation
  • Intensification
  • Land cover
  • Land use
  • Population
  • Settlement and Urbanization

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