Anthropogenic Biomes, Land-Use Systems Erle Ellis Erle Ellis Department of Geography & Environmental Systems University of Maryland, Baltimore County German-US Conference Tough Choices - Land Use under a Changing Tough Choices - Land Use under a Changing Climate Climate Berlin, Germany October 2, 2008
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Anthropogenic Biomes, Land-Use Systems Erle Ellis Department of Geography & Environmental Systems University of Maryland, Baltimore County German-US Conference.
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Anthropogenic Biomes, Land-Use Systems
Erle EllisErle EllisDepartment of Geography & Environmental Systems
University of Maryland, Baltimore County
German-US ConferenceTough Choices - Land Use under a Changing ClimateTough Choices - Land Use under a Changing Climate
Berlin, Germany October 2, 2008
Trends in Agriculture & Global Climate Change
• Agricultural Change and Global Climate Change
• Anthropogenic Biomes & Land Use Systems– What is Agriculture?– Rangelands, Croplands & Villages
• Measuring & modeling global changes in multi-functional agricultural mosaics
Overview
Cropland and Pasture 2000Ramankutty, N., A. T. Evan, C. Monfreda, and J. A. Foley.
2008. Farming the planet: 1. Geographic distribution of global agricultural lands in the year 2000. Global
Biogeochemical Cycles 22:GB1003.
15 million km2
12% of ice free land
28 million km2
22% of ice free land
Pasture
Cropland
Ramankutty, N., J. A. Foley, and N. J. Olejniczak. 2002. People on the land: Changes in global population and croplands during the 20th century. AMBIO 31:251-257.
Changes in Cropland Area: 1960 - 1990
-+
Land clearing: tropics (plantations, crops)Land abandoned: Americas, China, Eastern EuropeReturn to production (recent grain prices): USA
Hazell, P. and S. Wood. 2008. Drivers of change in global agriculture. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 363:495-515.
Agriculture Intensifies: 1960 - 2000Changes in Management
Agriculture and Global Climate Change• Agricultural Change
• Changes in Areas: Extent and Landscape structure• Changes in Management Practices: e.g. irrigation…
• Agriculture is a cause of global climate change– Biophysical: surface heat balance, aerosols
• Agriculture is impacted by global climate change
– Altered environments for crops and livestock– Adaptation by managers
• Management: irrigation practices, varieties…• Extent and landscape structure: land abandonment,
new irrigation systems, land clearing …
Ramankutty, N., J. A. Foley, J. Norman, and K. McSweeney. 2002. The global distribution of cultivable lands: current patterns and sensitivity to possible climate change. Global Ecology and Biogeography 11:377-392.
Climate Change and Suitability for Crops
Colder regions get better Drier regions get worse
“Agriculture is embedded in Anthropogenic Biomes”
What is agriculture?• The cropped/grazed part of
landscapes• Agroecosystems• Part of land use systems• Part of multifunctional landscape
mosaics• Part of human systems• Part of Anthropogenic Biomes
(Anthromes)
Anthromes: global patterns of sustained human interaction with the biosphere.
Anthropogenic Biomesa new framework for ecology and earth science in the 21st century
Population density (urban, rural)
Croplands
Pastures
Irrigation
Rice
Tree & bare cover(Vegetation Continuous Fields)
ClusterAnalysis
Anthropogenic Biomes
Anthropogenic Biomes: An Empirical Approach
Ellis & Ramankutty, 2008
Wildlands 61 Wild forests
62 Sparse trees
63 Barren
Forested 51 Populated forests
52 Remote forests
Rangelands 41 Residential
42 Populated
43 Remote
Croplands 31 Residential irrigated
32 Residential rainfed mosaic
33 Populated irrigated
34 Populated rainfed
35 Remote
Anthropogenic Biomes of the World (v1)
*Mosaic: >25% tree cover mixed with > 25% pasture and/or cropland*