Published by the American Geophysical Union as part of the Geophysical Monograph Series, Volume 153. Land use is at the center of one of the most vexing challenges for the coming decades: to provide enough food, fiber and shelter for the world's population; raise the standard of living for the billion people currently below the poverty line; and simultaneously sustain the world's ecosystems for use by humans and other species. The intended consequence of cropland expansion, urban growth, and other land use changes is to satisfy demands from the increasing appetite of the world's population. Unintended consequences, however, can alter ecological processes and have far-reaching and long-term effects that potentially compromise the basic functioning of ecosystems. Recently, the scientific community has begun to confront such issues. Several national and international programs have been at the forefront of scientific enquiry on the causes and consequences of land use change, including: the Land Use and Land Cover Change Program of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the Land Use program element in the interagency U.S. Climate Change Science Program, and the International Geosphere-Biosphere's Land Use and Cover Change (LUCC) core project. The result has been significant advances in understanding the complex socioeconomic, technological, and biophysical factors that drive land use change worldwide.

Table of Contents:
Preface Ruth S. DeFries, Gregory P. Asner, and Richard A. Houghton vii Trade-Offs in Land-Use Decisions: Towards a Framework for Assessing Multiple Ecosystem Responses to Land-Use Change Ruth S. DeFries, Gregory P. Asner, and Richard Houghton 1 Section I. The Multiple Ecosystem Responses to Land-Use Change Hydrological Consequences of Land Use Change: A Review of the State-of-the-Science Keith N. Eshleman 13 Impacts of Agriculture on Aquatic Ecosystems in the Humid United States Kenneth W. Potter, Jamie C. Douglas, and Edmund M. Brick 31 Hydro-Ecologic Responses to Land Use in Small Urbanizing Watersheds Within the Chesapeake Bay Watershed Glenn E. Moglen, Karen C. Nelson, Margaret A. Palmer, James E. Pizzuto, Catriona E. Rogers, and Mohamad I. Hejazi 41 Biogeophysical Feedbacks Between Land Cover and Climate Gordon B. Bonan 61 Implications of Tropical Deforestation for Regional and Global Hydroclimate Roni Avissar, Renato Ramos da Silva, and David Werth 73 Effects of Land-Use Change on the Carbon Balance of Terrestrial Ecosystems R. A. Houghton and C. L. Goodale 85 Biogeochemistry of Desertification and Woody Encroachment in Grazing Systems Gregory P. Asner and Roberta E. Martin 99 Nitrogen Emissions Along the Colorado Front Range: Response to Population Growth, Land and Water Use Change, and Agriculture J. S. Baron, S. Del Grosso, D. S. Ojima, D. M. Theobald, and W. J. Parton 117 Effects of Urbanization on Nutrient Biogeochemistry of Aridland Streams Nancy B. Grimm, J. Ramon Arrowsmith, Chris Eisinger, James Heffernan, Amanda MacLeod, David B. Lewis, tela Prashad, Tyler Rychener, W. John Roach, and Richard W. Sheibley 129 Loss of Nutrients From Terrestrial Ecosystems to Streams and the Atmosphere Following Land Use Change in Amazonia Eric A. Davidson, Christopher Neil I, Alex V. Krusche, Victoria V. R. Ballester, Daniel Markewitz, and Ricardo de O. Figueiredo 147 Land Use Change and Human Health Jonathan A. Patz and Douglas E. Norris 159 Land-Use Change and Infectious Disease in West Africa M. C. Thomson, P. J. Ericksen, A. Ben Mohamed, and S. J. Connor 169 Rapid Land-Use Change and Its Impacts on Tropical Biodiversity William E Lauranee 189 Section II. Observing, Forecasting, and Hindcasting Land-Use Change Footprints From the Past: Blueprint for the Future? Kees Klein Goldewijk 203 Landscape Level Analysis of the Spatial and Temporal Complexity of Land-Use Change Peter H. Verburg, A. Veldkamp, Louise Willemen, Koen P. Overmars, and Jean-Christophe Castella 21 7 Observing and Monitoring Land Use and Land Cover Change Thomas R. Loveland and Ruth S. DeFries 231 Section III. Regional Case Studies of Ecosystem Interactions With Land-Use Change Land Use, Land Cover, and Climate Change Across the Mississippi Basin: Impacts on Selected Land and Water Resources Jonathan A. Foley, Christopher J. Kucharik, Tracy E. Twine, Michael T. Coe, and Simon D. Donner 249 Integrated Analysis of Ecosystem Interactions With Land Use Change: The Chesapeake Bay Watershed Scott J. Goetz, Claire A. Jantz, Stephen D. Prince, Andrew J. Smith, Dmitry Varlyguin, and Robb K. Wright 263 Integrated Analysis of Ecosystem Interactions With Land-Use Change: The Southern Yucatan Peninsular Region Deborah Lawrence, Henricus F. A/I. Vester, Diego Perez-Salicrup, J. Ronald Eastman, B. L. Turner II, and Jacqueline Geoghegan 277 Eurasian Land Use Impacts on Rangeland Productivity Dennis S. Ojima, Togtohyn Chuluun, Boldyn Bolortsetseg, Compton J. Tucker, and Jeff Hicke 293 Long-Term Ecological Changes in the Densely Populated Rural Landscapes of China Erie C. Ellis 303 The Large-Scale Biosphere-Atmosphere Experiment in Amazonia: Analyzing Regional Land Use Change Effects Michael Keller, Maria Assungao Silva-Dias, Daniel C. Nepstad, and Meinrat O. Andreae 321 Conclusion Typological Responses of Ecosystems to Land Use Change Gregory P. Asner, Ruth  DeFries, and Richard Houghton  337