Wageningen University and Research Centre

About: Wageningen University and Research Centre is a education organization based out in Wageningen, Netherlands. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Sustainability. The organization has 23474 authors who have published 54833 publications receiving 2608897 citations.

Globalization, Roving Bandits, and Marine Resources

Abstract: Marine resource exploitation can deplete stocks faster than regulatory agencies can respond. Institutions with broad authority and a global perspective are needed to create a system with incentives for conservation.

Self-organization of vegetation in arid ecosystems

Abstract: Scientists are still searching for possible unifying mechanisms to explain this range of spatial patterns (Tongway and Ludwig 2001), and an important question of this research is whether this range is the result of preexisting environmental heterogeneity, the result of spatial selforganization, or both (Klausmeier 1999; Couteron and Lejeune 2001; HilleRisLambers et al. 2001; Von Hardenberg et al. 2001). Here, we contribute to the ongoing debate about vegetation pattern formation in arid ecosystems by presenting novel, spatially explicit model analyses and results, extending on the work of HilleRisLambers et al. (2001). Our results show that these different vegetation patterns observed in arid ecosystems might all be the result of spatial self-organization, caused by one single mechanism: water infiltrates faster into vegetated ground than into bare soil, leading to net displacement of surface water to vegetated patches. This model differs from earlier model results (Klausmeier 1999; Couteron and Lejeune 2001; HilleRisLambers et al. 2001; Von Hardenberg et al. 2001) primarily in two ways: it is fully mechanistic, and it treats the lateral flow of water above and below the soil as separate, not independent, variables. Although the current model greatly simplifies the biophysics of arid systems, it can reproduce the whole range of distinctive vegetation patterns as observed in arid ecosystems, indicating that the proposed mechanism might be generally applicable. We further show that self-organized vegetation patterns can persist far into regions of high aridity, where plants would become extinct if homogeneously distributed, pointing to the importance of this mechanism for maintaining productivity of arid ecosystems (Noy-Meir 1973). Our analyses are based on the model first developed in HilleRisLambers et al. (2001)

Sources and delivery of carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus to the coastal zone : An overview of global nutrient export from watersheds (NEWS) models and their application

Abstract: [1] An overview of the first spatially explicit, multielement (N, P, and C), multiform (dissolved inorganic: DIN, DIP; dissolved organic: DOC, DON, DOP; and particulate: POC, PN, PP) predictive model system of river nutrient export from watersheds (Global Nutrient Export from Watersheds (NEWS)) is presented. NEWS models estimate export from 5761 watersheds globally as a function of land use, nutrient inputs, hydrology, and other factors; regional and global scale patterns as of 1995 are presented here. Watershed sources and their relative magnitudes differ by element and form. For example, anthropogenic sources dominate the export of DIN and DIP at the global scale, although their anthropogenic sources differ significantly (diffuse and point, respectively). Natural sources dominate DON and DOP export globally, although diffuse anthropogenic sources dominate in several regions in Asia, Europe and N. America. “Hot spots” where yield (kg km−2 yr−1) is high for several elements and forms were identified, including parts of Indonesia, Japan, southern Asia, and Central America, due to anthropogenic N and P inputs in some regions and high water runoff in others. NEWS models provide a tool to examine past, current and future river export of nutrients, and how humans might impact element ratios and forms, and thereby affect estuaries and coastal seas.