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1. Land Use and Land Cover Shape River Water Quality at a Continental Caribbean Land-Ocean Interface

   https://doi.org/10.3389/frwa.2022.737920  

   Clark, Kasey E.; Bravo, Viviana D.; Giddings, Sarah N.; Davis, Kristen A.; Pawlak, Geno; Torres, Mark A.; Adelson, Anne E.; César-Ávila, Carolina I.; Boza, Ximena; Collin, Rachel (March 2022, Frontiers in Water)

   Land use and land cover (LULC) can significantly alter river water, which can in turn have important impacts on downstream coastal ecosystems by delivering nutrients that promote marine eutrophication and hypoxia. Well-documented in temperate systems, less is known about the way land cover relates to water quality in low-lying coastal zones in the tropics. Here we evaluate the catchment LULC and the physical and chemical characteristics of six rivers that contribute flow into a seasonally hypoxic tropical bay in Bocas del Toro, Panama. From July 2019 to March 2020, we routinely surveyed eight physical and chemical characteristics (temperature, specific conductivity, salinity, pH, dissolved oxygen (DO), nitrate and nitrite, ammonium, and phosphate). Our goals were to determine how these physical and chemical characteristics of the rivers reflect the LULC, to compare the water quality of the focal rivers to rivers across Panama, and to discuss the potential impacts of river discharge in the Bay. Overall, we found that the six focal rivers have significantly different river water characteristics that can be linked to catchment LULC and that water quality of rivers 10 s of kilometers apart could differ drastically. Two focal catchments dominated by pristine peat swamp vegetation in San San Pond Sak, showed characteristics typical of blackwater rivers, with low pH, dissolved oxygen, and nutrients. The remaining four catchments were largely mountainous with >50% forest cover. In these rivers, variation in nutrient concentrations were associated with percent urbanization. Comparisons across Panamanian rivers covered in a national survey to our focal rivers shows that saltwater intrusions and low DO of coastal swamp rivers may result in their classification by a standardized water quality index as having slightly contaminated water quality, despite this being their natural state. Examination of deforestation over the last 20 years, show that changes were <10% in the focal catchments, were larger in the small mountainous catchments and suggest that in the past 20 years the physical and chemical characteristics of river water that contributes to Almirante Bay may have shifted slightly in response to these moderate land use changes. (See supplementary information for Spanish-language abstract). 

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2. Land Use and Land Cover Mapping in the Era of Big Data

   https://doi.org/10.3390/land11101692  

   Zhang, Chuanrong; Li, Xinba (October 2022, Land)

   We are currently living in the era of big data. The volume of collected or archived geospatial data for land use and land cover (LULC) mapping including remotely sensed satellite imagery and auxiliary geospatial datasets is increasing. Innovative machine learning, deep learning algorithms, and cutting-edge cloud computing have also recently been developed. While new opportunities are provided by these geospatial big data and advanced computer technologies for LULC mapping, challenges also emerge for LULC mapping from using these geospatial big data. This article summarizes the review studies and research progress in remote sensing, machine learning, deep learning, and geospatial big data for LULC mapping since 2015. We identified the opportunities, challenges, and future directions of using geospatial big data for LULC mapping. More research needs to be performed for improved LULC mapping at large scales. 

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3. Watershed impacts of climate and land use changes depend on magnitude and land use context

   https://doi.org/10.1002/eco.1870  

   Martin, Katherine L.; Hwang, Taehee; Vose, James M.; Coulston, John W.; Wear, David N.; Miles, Brian; Band, Lawrence E. (October 2017, Ecohydrology)
4. Assessing Global and Regional Effects of Reconstructed Land-Use and Land-Cover Change on Climate since 1950 Using a Coupled Land–Atmosphere–Ocean Model

   https://doi.org/10.1175/JCLI-D-20-0108.1  

   Huang, Huilin; Xue, Yongkang; Chilukoti, Nagaraju; Liu, Ye; Chen, Gang; Diallo, Ismaila (October 2020, Journal of Climate)

   null (Ed.)

   Abstract Land-use and land-cover change (LULCC) is one of the most important forcings affecting climate in the past century. This study evaluates the global and regional LULCC impacts in 1950–2015 by employing an annually updated LULCC map in a coupled land–atmosphere–ocean model. The difference between LULCC and control experiments shows an overall land surface temperature (LST) increase by 0.48 K in the LULCC regions and a widespread LST decrease by 0.18 K outside the LULCC regions. A decomposed temperature metric (DTM) is applied to quantify the relative contribution of surface processes to temperature changes. Furthermore, while precipitation in the LULCC areas is reduced in agreement with declined evaporation, LULCC causes a southward displacement of the intertropical convergence zone (ITCZ) with a narrowing by 0.5°, leading to a tripole anomalous precipitation pattern over the warm pool. The DTM shows that the temperature response in LULCC regions results from the competing effect between increased albedo (cooling) and reduced evaporation (warming). The reduced evaporation indicates less atmospheric latent heat release in convective processes and thus a drier and cooler troposphere, resulting in a reduction in surface cooling outside the LULCC regions. The southward shift of the ITCZ implies a northward cross-equatorial energy transport anomaly in response to reduced latent/sensible heat of the atmosphere in the Northern Hemisphere, where LULCC is more intensive. Tropospheric cooling results in the equatorward shift of the upper-tropospheric westerly jet in both hemispheres, which, in turn, leads to an equatorward narrowing of the Hadley circulation and ITCZ. 

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5. Looking beyond land-use and land-cover change: Zoonoses emerge in the agricultural matrix

   https://doi.org/10.1016/j.oneear.2023.08.010  

   Perfecto, Ivette; Chaves, Luis Fernando; Fitch, Gordon M; Hajian-Forooshani, Zachary; Iuliano, Benjamin; Li, Kevin; Medina, Nicholas; Morris, Jonathan; Jiménez, Beatriz Otero; Rivera-Salinas, Iris Saraeny; et al (September 2023, One Earth)