HR: 15:25h
AN: B13D-08    [Abstracts]
TI: Global Land-Use Practices are Undermining Ecosystem Services and Human Health
AU: * Foley, J A
EM: jfoley@wisc.edu
AF: University of Wisconsin, SAGE 1710 University Avenue, Madison, WI 53726
AB: Land use and land cover change are now environmental forces of global significance. Massive, worldwide changes to forests, farmlands, watersheds and air are being driven by human actions and the need to provide food, fiber, water and shelter to over six billion people. Croplands, pastures, managed forests and urban areas have all expanded in recent decades, accompanied by enormous increases in energy, water and fertilizer consumption, and dramatic losses of biodiversity. Such worldwide changes in land-use practices have enabled humans to appropriate an increasing fraction of the planet's resources, but they also undermine the capacity of ecosystems to sustain food production, maintain freshwater and forest resources, regulate climate and air quality, and ameliorate infectious diseases. We must improve our ability to assess and manage tradeoffs between meeting immediate human needs and maintaining the capacity of global ecosystems to provide goods and services in the long term.
DE: 0400 Biogeosciences
SC: Biogeosciences [B]
MN: 2004 AGU Fall Meeting