Dear colleague, Please circulate this e-mail to anyone who might be interested.
We would like to extend to you an invitation to submit abstracts for the following special AGU session: GC20: "Emerging drivers of land change in tropical ecosystems" Summary: Urbanization, shifts in consumption and the consolidation of global markets are influencing new modes of agricultural expansion in tropical areas. Large scale capitalized farming is becoming a prominent driver of land changes in some of the last agricultural frontiers in the world. The purpose of this session is to identify these and other emerging drivers of land change in the tropics and examine tradeoffs between agricultural production and the maintenance of ecosystem services. We welcome submissions that take a multi-scale approach to analyzing factors influencing new dynamics of land change in tropical areas and their implications for agriculture, biodiversity, carbon, climate, and hydrology, among others. Topics: Contributions analyzing or discussing linkages between land changes in tropical areas and the following topics are welcome. Globalization and land cover transitions in the tropics Land use intensification and land sparing for nature Intensification vs. wildlife friendly agriculture Sustainable agriculture in the face of land scarcity and increasing consumption Implications of intensive production for human health and livelihoods We particularly encourage presenting implications for carbon, biodiversity, and hydrology, among other environmental changes. Conveners: Ruth S. DeFries ([email protected]) Victor H. Gutierrez-Velez ([email protected]) Marcia Macedo ([email protected]) Gordon Southam ([email protected]) Ecology, Evolution and Environmental Biology (E3B), Columbia University, New York, NY, United States. Deadline: 4 August 23:59 EDT/03:59 +1 GMT. Conference dates: 5-9 December 2011 Sponsor: Global environmental change Description of the session: http://sites.agu.org/fallmeeting/scientific-program/session-search/343
