Global consequences of land use.
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.
Foley
Jonathan A
JA
Center for Sustainability and the Global Environment (SAGE), University of Wisconsin, 1710 University Avenue, Madison, WI 53726, USA. jfoley@wisc.edu
Defries
Ruth
R
Asner
Gregory P
GP
Barford
Carol
C
Bonan
Gordon
G
Carpenter
Stephen R
SR
Chapin
F Stuart
FS
Coe
Michael T
MT
Daily
Gretchen C
GC
Gibbs
Holly K
HK
Helkowski
Joseph H
JH
Holloway
Tracey
T
Howard
Erica A
EA
Kucharik
Christopher J
CJ
Monfreda
Chad
C
Patz
Jonathan A
JA
Prentice
I Colin
IC
Ramankutty
Navin
N
Snyder
Peter K
PK
D000383:Agriculture; D000397:Air Pollution; D000818:Animals; D000835:Animals, Wild; D002980:Climate; D003141:Communicable Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000635:transmission; D003247:Conservation of Natural Resources; D017753:Ecosystem; D004777:Environment; D005618:Fresh Water; D006802:Human Activities; D006801:Humans; D011050:Policy Making; D014197:Trees