Anthropogenic land degradation affects many biogeophysical processes, including reductions of net primary production (NPP). Degradation occurs at scales from small fields to continental and global. While measurement and monitoring of NPP in small areas is routine in some studies, for scales larger than 1 km², and certainly global, there is no regular monitoring and certainly no attempt to measure degradation. Quantitative and repeatable techniques to assess the extent of deleterious effects and monitor changes are needed to evaluate its effects on, for example, economic yields of primary products such as crops, lumber, and forage, and as a measure of land surface properties which are currently missing from dynamic global vegetation models, assessments of carbon sequestration, and land surface models of heat, water, and carbon exchanges. This study employed the local NPP scaling (LNS) approach to identify patterns of anthropogenic degradation of NPP in the Burdekin Dry Tropics (BDT) region of Queensland, Australia, from 2000 to 2013. The method starts with land classification based on the environmental factors presumed to control (NPP) to group pixels having similar potential NPP. Then, satellite remotely sensing data were used to compare actual NPP with its potential. The difference in units of mass of carbon and percentage loss were the measure of degradation. The entire BDT (7.45 × 10⁶ km²) was investigated at a spatial resolution of 250 × 250 m. The average annual reduction in NPP due to anthropogenic land degradation in the entire BDT was −2.14 MgC m⁻² yr⁻¹, or 17 % of the non-degraded potential, and the total reduction was −214 MgC yr⁻¹. Extreme average annual losses of 524.8 gC m⁻² yr⁻¹ were detected. Approximately 20 % of the BDT was classified as “degraded”. Varying severities and rates of degradation were found among the river basins, of which the Belyando and Suttor were highest. Interannual, negative trends in reductions of NPP occurred in 7 % of the entire region, indicating ongoing degradation. There was evidence of areas that were in a permanently degraded condition. The findings provide strong evidence and quantitative data for reductions in NPP related to anthropogenic land degradation in the BDT.

Land degradation in drylands is the process in which undesirable conditions emerge due to human and natural causes. Despite the particularly deleterious effects of degradation, and it’s potentially irreversible nature, regional assessments have provided conflicting extents, rates, and severities of degradation, both globally and regionally. Current monitoring of degradation relies upon the detection of green, photosynthetically active parts of vegetation (e.g., leaves). Less is known, however, about the effect of degradation on the non-photosynthetic components of vegetation (e.g., wood, stems, leaf litter) and the relationship between photosynthetic vegetation (PV), non-photosynthetic vegetation (NPV), and bare soil under degraded conditions (BS). The major objective of the study was to evaluate regional patterns of fractional cover (i.e., PV, NPV, BS) under degraded and non-degraded NPP conditions in a managed rangeland in north Queensland, Australia. Homogenous environmental conditions were identified and each of NPP, PV, NPV, and BS were scaled according to their potential, reference values. We found a strong spatial and temporal correlation between scaled NPP with both scaled PV and scaled BS. Drastic differences were also found for PV and BS between degraded and non-degraded conditions. NPV displayed similarity to both PV and BS, however no clear relationship was found for NPV in all areas, irrespective of degradation conditions.

Anthropogenic land degradation affects many biogeophysical processes including reductions of net primary production (NPP). Degradation occurs at scales from small fields to continental and global. While measurement and monitoring of NPP in small areas is routine in some studies, for scales larger than 1 km², and certainly global, there is no regular monitoring and certainly no attempt to measure degradation. Quantitative and repeatable techniques to assess the extent of deleterious effects and monitor changes are needed to evaluate its effects on, for example, economic yields of primary products such as crops, lumber and forage, and as a measure of land surface properties which are currently missing from dynamic global vegetation models, assessments of carbon sequestration and land surface models of heat, water, and carbon exchanges. This study employed the Local NPP Scaling (LNS) approach to identify patterns of anthropogenic degradation of NPP in the Burdekin Dry Tropics (BDT) region of Queensland, Australia from 2000 to 2013. The method starts with land classification based on the environmental factors presumed to control (NPP) to group pixels having similar potential NPP. Then, satellite remotely sensing data were used to compare actual NPP with its potential. The difference in units of mass of carbon and percentage loss was the measure of degradation. The method is limited spatially only by the capacity to classify the land. The entire BDT (7.45x10⁶ km²) was investigated at a spatial resolution of 250x250 m. The average annual reduction in NPP due to anthropogenic land degradation in the entire BDT was −2.14 MgC m⁻² year⁻¹ or 17 % of the non-degraded potential, and the total reduction was −214 MgC year⁻¹. Extreme average annual losses of 524.8 gC m⁻² year⁻¹ were detected. Approximately 20 % of the BDT was classified as ‘degraded’. Varying severities and rates of degradation were found among the river basins, of which the Belyando and Suttor were highest. Inter-annual, negative trends in reductions of NPP, occurred in 7 % of the entire region, indicating on-going degradation. There was evidence of areas that were in a permanently degraded condition. The findings provide strong evidence and quantitative data for reductions in NPP related to anthropogenic land degradation in the BDT.

Substructure due to familial-associated divisions exists in all large populations. Geographical heterogeneity in US ethnic minorities is a function of historical, social, political, and economic factors overlaying regional geographical biodiversity. Using geospatial, historical, demographic, genetic, and epidemiological databases, we identify 40 US microethnic isolates across the US, the “minorities within ethnic minorities” and locate their geospatial distributions within the US. Key components of the environment relevant to health disparities are identified and elaborated in terms of their impact on genomics. US ethnic minority microethnic isolates often have distinct genetic and social histories from the US ethnic majority that put these isolates at a disadvantage in the quest for access to relevant, precision medicine because of the magnitude of imbedded (North Atlantic Euro-American) bias in the existing databases. However, these microethnic isolates are also at a disadvantage when simply aggregated with their nearest ethnic minority macroethnic group (e.g., generic African American). The use of geospatial and ethnographic analyses has the potential to accelerate the accurate identification of heretofore disadvantaged subgroups of ethnic minority groups, bringing them into the mainstream of genomic diversity studies and healthcare access