This project addresses soil and water sustainability in landscapes undergoing transitions. Management and social-cultural changes create transitions, altering watershed properties (soil and water quality, and related ecosystem services) in a manner that stakeholders may not understand or appreciate. Yet changes affect stakeholders, what they want to preserve or change, and their views of land management strategies. The general theme of this project, to occur in France, Italy, Japan, Taiwan, and the United States, is to determine actual and perceived effects of land use transitions on critical zone (CZ) function in the context of land abandonment. Actual effects will consider biogeochemical cycles under changing inputs of altered land management. Water flows and nutrient concentration/discharge analysis of watersheds will apply available long-term data sets to assess transitions in the CZ that affect biogeochemical cycles, with supplemental sampling during the project. With input from stakeholders we will answer questions such as "Do abandoned landscapes return to a "natural" state or are novel ecosystems generated? and "How does environmental quality/ecosystem health vary based on current and future pathways of CZ dynamics, among landscapes with different land use management? Perceived effects will consider stakeholder expectation, preference and evaluation of ecosystem services and disservices. We will test the extent to which heterogeneity in such perceptions is a function of differences between and within stakeholders (e.g., urban vs. rural, resident vs. visitor, and endorsement of environmental values), and how change is framed across different spatial scales from a local to watershed scale or beyond (e.g., whether change reflects more vs. less human use of land and the reasons for change). We will examine associations between perceptions and support for land use change and management decisions (self-sustained or policy-driven), and inform ways to effectively communicate with stakeholders and consider their views of land use conversion and restoration.

Key Words:

Critical zone; Land abandonment; Soil biogeochemistry; Concentration discharge; Water quality; Nutrient dynamics; Place attachment; Ecosystem

services and disservices; Nature's contribution to people; Environmental values

Our project addresses four main reseach question (RQ)

RQ1 - DRIVERS: What are the environmental,

economic and social drivers of land use

change? (Arrow 1)

RQ2 – UNDERLYING MECHANISMS: What

underlying mechanism explain the spatial and

temporary patterns in environmental quality of

soil and water that are altered by different land

management patterns? (Arrow 2)

RQ3 - STAKEHOLDER PERCEPTIONS

AND PREFERENCES: Does understanding

stakeholders and their perceptions of land use

change help explain and facilitate the

development of sustainable land

management? (Arrows 5 to 9)

RQ4 SCENARIOS: What are the possible future

pathways of CZ structure and functions and

their impacts on humans and nature under

different scenarios of landscape/watershed

management (Arrows 3 & 4).