Common Land Research Articles

Integrating Earth observation, biophysical, and survey data to evaluate the ecological impacts of a common land protection and restoration intervention in Rajasthan, India

Integrating Earth observation, biophysical, and survey data to evaluate the ecological impacts of a common land protection and restoration intervention in Rajasthan, India

Clash of Titans: Exploring the Contested Issues between Chiefs and Local Government Authorities in New Juaben, Ghana

Though post-colonial governments vowed to ban chiefs, they reconstructed governance systems to accommodate traditional governance structures due to the primacy of the institution. Chiefs and local government authorities have instrumental roles to play in community development. However, the relationship between them is characterised by tensions and conflicts. The hostilities between the two stakeholders and by extension officials of modern government are due to the role chiefs played in the indirect rule system. Chiefs prior to independence were labelled as collaborators of the imperial regime and obstacles to independence. In Ghana, agitations from the educated elites about allegations of corruption against Native Authorities characterised the pre-independence era. Chiefs have been debarred from local governance, creating a tempestuous relationship between the two stakeholders at the grassroots. However, the contested issues have not been given the needed attention. The article examined the contested issues between chiefs and local government authorities in New Juaben, Ghana. The study involved 25 participants selected through simple random and purposive sampling techniques. The contested issues between the two actors were over power and economic resources. Economically, chiefs contested for portions of the District Assembly Common Fund and land ownership. The desire for consultation in the nomination of government appointees, and election of MMDCEs were the politically contested issues. The article recommends the institutional representation of chiefs in the Assembly and the allocation of funds to chiefs to curtail the conflict between the two actors of community development.

Afforestation of common land in the Classical Karst: relations between the authorities, the local population, and the economic consequences of afforestation

The findings of environmental history are in the service of ecology and represent an important contribution to the understanding of the sustainable management of land. The aim of this article is to shed light on the relations between the local population and the authorities regarding the afforestation of common land in Komen in the second half of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, placing them in a broader Mediterranean context. The local population was not opposed to afforestation per se, but to the prohibition of usufruct on afforested land, which had major economic consequences for the local population. Authorities did not always take into consideration the annual agricultural processes, local customs, and natural resource needs in their afforestation decisions. The prohibition of usufruct was followed by a shortage of fodder and firewood, which led to forest violations to satisfy demands. Thus, afforestation has undermined the basis of agriculture. In addition, already afforested land remained under common ownership for a relatively long time.

Texas Water Observatory: A Distributed Network for Monitoring Water, Energy, and Carbon Cycles under Variable Climate and Land Use on Gulf Coast Plains

Abstract In the Gulf Coastal Plains of Texas, a state-of-the-art distributed network of field observatories, known as the Texas Water Observatory (TWO), is developed to better understand the water, energy, and carbon cycles across the critical zone (encompassing aquifers, soils, plants, and atmosphere) at different spatiotemporal scales. Using more than 300 advanced real-time/near-real-time sensors, this observatory monitors high-frequency water, energy, and carbon storage and fluxes in the Brazos River corridor, which are critical for coupled hydrologic, biogeochemical, and land–atmosphere process understanding in the region. TWO provides a regional resource for better understanding and/or managing agriculture, water resources, ecosystems, biodiversity, disasters, health, energy, and weather/climate. TWO infrastructure spans common land uses in this region, including traditional/aspirational cultivated agriculture, rangelands, native prairie, bottomland hardwood forest, and coastal wetlands. Sites represent landforms from low-relief erosional uplands to depositional lowlands across climatic and geologic gradients of central Texas. We present the overarching vision of TWO and describe site design, instrumentation specifications, data collection, and quality control protocols. We also provide a comparison of water, energy, and carbon budget across sites, including evapotranspiration, carbon fluxes, radiation budget, weather, profile soil moisture and soil temperature, soil hydraulic properties, hydrogeophysical surveys, groundwater levels, and groundwater quality reported at TWO primary sites for 2018–20 (with certain data gaps). In conjunction with various Earth-observing remote sensing and legacy databases, TWO provides a master testbed to evaluate process-driven or data-driven critical zone science, leading to improved natural resource management and decision support at different spatiotemporal scales. Significance Statement We provide the vision, design setup, and data acquisition of a state-of-the-art network of field observatories across the Gulf Coastal Plains of Texas. This observatory provides a wealth of measurements of the water, energy, and carbon fluxes, thereby providing a critical testbed for improving the understanding of terrestrial hydrological, biogeochemical, and atmospheric processes across diverse land-use and climate conditions.

Food systems in protracted crises: examining indigenous food sovereignty amid de-development in Kashmir.

How do protracted crises shape indigenous food systems, and what are their ramifications for food and nutritional security? Building on decolonial and interdisciplinary research approaches, this paper assesses the consequences of militarised violence for Kashmir's food system. We document the impact of settler-colonialism and conflict-induced agrarian changes on delocalisation of diets. The protracted nature of the crises has two key implications for changes in dietary patterns. First, land control over common land dispossesses the local population and hinders food production. Second, disenfranchisement from (agricultural) land has led to increased reliance on markets that are flooded by imported foods as local production declines. The paper argues that the state plays an important role in food system changes by destroying local patterns of food production and consumption. Slow violence and agrarian de-development serve as tools to de-develop the local food system. Indigenous food cultures form part of everyday resistance and resilience that are operationalised as mitigation and adaptation strategies to address food insecurity.

Exploring Topography Downscaling Methods for Hyper‐Resolution Land Surface Modeling

AbstractHyper‐resolution land surface modeling provides an unprecedented opportunity to simulate locally relevant water and energy cycles. However, the available meteorological forcing data is often insufficient to fulfill the requirements of hyper‐resolution modeling. Here, we developed a comprehensive downscaling framework based on topography‐adjusted methods and automated machine learning (AutoML). With this framework, a 90 m and hourly atmospheric forcing data set was developed from ERA5 data at a 0.25° resolution, and the Common Land Model (CoLM) was then forced with the developed forcing data over two complex terrain regions (the Heihe River Basin and Upper Colorado River Basin). We systematically evaluated the downscaled forcing and the CoLM outputs against both in situ observations and gridded data. The ground‐based validation results suggested consistent improvements for all downscaled forcing variables with mean RMSE improved by 6.362%–95.86%. The downscaled forcings, which incorporated detailed topographic features, offered improved magnitude estimates, achieving a comparable level of performance to that of regional reanalysis forcing data. The downscaled forcing driving the CoLM model showed comparable or better skills in simulating water and energy fluxes, as verified by in situ validations. The hyper‐resolution simulations provided a detailed and more reasonable description of land surface processes and attained similar spatial patterns and magnitudes with high‐resolution land surface data, especially over highly elevated areas. Additionally, this study highlighted the benefits of using mountain radiation theory‐based shortwave radiation downscaling models and AutoML‐assisted precipitation downscaling models. These findings emphasized the significance of integrating topography‐based downscaling methods for hillslope‐scale simulations.

Commons land management in Southern, post-unification Italy: New evidence from a micro analysis on Salerno province

Abstract The aim of this study is to observe the ability of Southern Italian municipalities to respond to and redefine the management of common lands following the national privatisation and partition policies promoted by the State during the second half of the nineteenth century. The hypothesis tested is whether, through the analysis of new archival sources such as management rules, it is possible to identify good practices of management of common lands, along with the presence of resilience on the part of local communities during a period defined as one of uncontrollable ‘decline’ for these resources. Three Apennine areas (Campania Region) were identified as the observation sample. The analysis revealed that for these specific cases, it is imprecise to speak of decline and a lack of propensity to develop good management practices, but rather of institutions that are attentive to the protection and preservation of their commons through specific rules.

Soil greenhouse gas fluxes partially reduce the net gains in carbon sequestration in mangroves of the Brazilian Amazon

There is interest in assessing the potential climate mitigation benefit of coastal wetlands based on the balance between their greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and carbon sequestration. Here we investigated soil GHG fluxes (CO2 and CH4) on mangroves of the Brazilian Amazon coast, and across common land use impacts including shrimp farms and a pasture. We found greater methane fluxes near the Amazon River mouth (1439 to 3312 μg C m−2 h−1), which on average are equivalent to 37% of mangrove C sequestration in the region. Soil CO2 fluxes were predominant in mangrove forests to the East of the Amazon Delta. Land use change shifted mangroves from C sinks (mean sequestration of 12.2 ± 1.4 Mg CO2e ha−1 yr-1) to net GHG sources (mean loss of 8.0 ± 3.3 Mg CO2e ha−1 yr−1). Our data suggests that mangrove forests in the Amazon can aid decreasing the net annual emissions in the Brazilian forest sector in 9.7 ± 0.8 Tg CO2e yr−1 through forest conservation and avoided deforestation.

Drone remote sensing to define heat exchange between urban surfaces and stormwater runoff

ABSTRACT Urban water bodies are often subject to high runoff temperatures from heat exchange between rainfall and urban surfaces; however, this process can be difficult to define due to the complexity of spatially heterogeneous urban areas. This research seeks to improve our understanding of heat exchange in urban stormwater runoff by integrating in situ measurements of runoff temperature with land surface temperature data captured in high spatial resolutions by a drone. To do so, this study monitored four urban catchments in Milwaukee, WI that are dominated by different land surfaces (concrete parking lot, asphalt road, black bitumen roof, and grass). Results indicate that land surface temperature was variable among common land surface types (1.34–2.24 °C), with higher variations in surfaces subject to foot and vehicular traffic. In addition, the temperature of runoff from impervious surfaces responded differently between buildings and those with a ground subsurface, with higher event mean temperatures from concrete (21.4 °C) and asphalt (21.9 °C) ground surfaces as compared with the bitumen roof (19.8 °C), despite similar initial surface temperatures. Ultimately, these outcomes demonstrate how drone remote sensing of land surface temperature and in situ monitoring can be integrated to understand heat exchange processes in urban stormwater runoff.

Presence of vitamin B12 metabolism in the last common ancestor of land plants.

Vitamin B12, also known as cobalamin, is an essential organic cofactor for methionine synthase (METH), and is only synthesized by a subset of bacteria. Plants and fungi have an alternative methionine synthase (METE) that does not need B12 and are typically considered not to utilize it. Some algae facultatively utilize B12 because they encode both METE and METH, while other algae are dependent on B12 as they encode METH only. We performed phylogenomic analyses of METE, METH and 11 further proteins involved in B12 metabolism across more than 1600 plant and algal genomes and transcriptomes (e.g. from OneKp), demonstrating the presence of B12-associated metabolism deep into the streptophytes. METH and five further accessory proteins (MTRR, CblB, CblC, CblD and CblJ) were detected in the hornworts (Anthocerotophyta), and two (CblB and CblJ) were identified in liverworts (Marchantiophyta) in the bryophytes, suggesting a retention of B12-metabolism in the last common land plant ancestor. Our data further show more limited distributions for other B12-related proteins (MCM and RNR-II) and B12 dependency in several algal orders. Finally, considering the collection sites of algae that have lost B12 metabolism, we propose freshwater-to-land transitions and symbiotic associations to have been constraining factors for B12 availability in early plant evolution. This article is part of the theme issue 'The evolution of plant metabolism'.

A better simulation of water and carbon fluxes in a typical desert grassland ecosystem through the Common Land Model

How to improve the accuracy and fit-for-purpose of Land surface models (LSMs) in simulating carbon and water fluxes in arid regions, is still a great challenge, since the latent heat flux and terrestrial respiration are underestimated. In this study, we first modified the root water uptake, soil respiration, and stomatal conductance processes and introduced a Bayesian parameter optimization algorithm to optimize the newly introduced fitting parameters. Then, the performance of the calibrated model was evaluated by using eddy covariance observations at a typical desert grassland station. The results showed that the modified soil respiration model better captures the seasonal pattern of terrestrial ecosystem respiration (TER), with the distance between simulated and observed indices (DISO) value decreased from 1.45 to 0.95. Additionally, modifying the root water uptake process can noticeably enhance the simulation of water flux (i.e., latent heat flux) with DISO value decreased from 1.43 to 1.28, but uncertainties remain in simulating carbon flux (i.e., gross primary productivity). Through evaluating three stomatal conductance models under different levels of water stress, we found that both Ball-Woodrow-Berry (BWB) and Ball-Berry-Leuning (BBL) models could improve the CoLM performance in simulating carbon and water fluxes due to their effective response to the water stress with DISO values decreased from 1.96 to 1.68 and 1.67, respectively, while the Unified Stomatal Optimization (USO) model has a relatively poor simulation performance, which fails to capture the impact of water stress with DISO value increased to 2.13. Our study provides valuable insights for improving the simulations of carbon and water fluxes in arid regions by using CoLM.

Land use transformations in the Brazilian Savanna: A decade of soil erosion and runoff measurements

Changes in land cover and land use (LULC) are one of the main drivers of erosion and runoff. How ever, most research has relied on short-term observations and only focused on one or two land cover types. We investigated the long-term trade-off between common agricultural land covers (sugarcane, pasture, and soybean), runoff, and soil loss rates. We compared these to native forest (wooded Cerrado) and bare soil. The field observations were done in 100 m2 experimental plots in Brazil maintained during the past 10 years. The paper provides three main contributions: (1) long-term runoff and soil loss rates of plots under different LULCs, (2) comparison of runoff, soil loss, and pedological characteristics between plots constructed 10 years apart, and (3) analysis of the trade-off between different LULCs. When ranking land covers based on runoff and soil loss rates, there is a shift in ranking positions, making it difficult to determine which one is more environmentally harmful. However, it is evident that whatever agricultural practice is used, there is a significant impact when compared to native forest. For example, the area converted to pasture resulted in almost 20 times higher runoff, while conversion to sugarcane resulted in 5 times higher soil loss. Not only land cover plays a major influencing factor, but also weathering exposing time. Areas under the same land cover and environmental conditions had different rates of soil loss and runoff due to long-term exposure effects such as soil crusting. Our findings have high relevance for the hydrological and agricultural community by demonstrating (i) the magnitude of trade-off in terms of soil loss and runoff due to land cover changes and (ii) that soil loss should not be assumed to be a linear process over time, as it is commonly assumed.

Groundwater table prediction and seasonal variation influenced by short rotation willow plantation on marginal riparian lands of the Prairie potholes in Canada

Shallow groundwater consumption via phreatophytic transpiration and resulting vegetation-linked groundwater table (GWT) fluctuation is a typical soil hydrological process in wetland riparian areas. However, upland and riparian land use alterations may further influence the shallow GWT fluctuation, temporally and spatially. In this multi-year field study, we investigated whether introducing short rotation willow (SRW) positively or negatively affects the shallow GWT, soil water availability, and soil health on marginal riparian lands of the Prairie Pothole Region (PPR). We compared the impact of SRW on these parameters to two common land uses: annual crop (AC) and pasture (PA). Depth to GWT was monitored via data loggers from 28 wells in two semi-arid PPR sites. The GWT depth varied by land use practices only in site B (p < 0.001; PA > SRW = AC) but not significantly in site A (p = 0.325), and the patterns were inconsistent between sites. In GWT depth prediction, the performance of Artificial Neural Network (ANN) was better than Autoregressive Integrated Moving Average (ARIMA) models but was inconsistent alike with field observations. The GWT depth responded to seasonal precipitation and potential evapotranspiration (ET) patterns. The monthly GWT fluctuations peaked between June and August due to increased precipitation, while they were lower during May and September with reduced precipitation; however, these variations were not significant (p > 0.05). Higher precipitation and lower potential ET throughout the wet year (i.e., in 2014) significantly (p < 0.05) raised GWT (i.e., decreased depth to GWT) under all land uses, and vice versa. Our study indicated that planting SRW in marginal riparian land of the PPR would not negatively impact shallow GWT or soil water availability. Moreover, the SRW plantation could also help manage soil salinity without severely depleting the soil's nutrient pools or diminishing soil quality and health indicator parameters measured during the first rotation.

CWRF Downscaling with Improved Land Surface Initialization Enhances Spring–Summer Seasonal Climate Prediction Skill in China

Abstract This study investigates skill enhancement in operational seasonal forecasts of Beijing Climate Center’s Climate System Model through regional Climate–Weather Research and Forecasting (CWRF) downscaling and improved land initialization in China. The downscaling mitigates regional climate biases, enhancing precipitation pattern correlations by 0.29 in spring and 0.21 in summer. It also strengthens predictive capabilities for interannual anomalies, expanding skillful temperature forecast areas by 6% in spring and 12% in summer. Remarkably, during 7 of 10 years with relatively high predictability, the downscaling increases average seasonal precipitation anomaly correlations by 0.22 and 0.25. Additionally, the substitution of initial land conditions via a Common Land Model integration reduces snow cover and cold biases across the Tibetan Plateau and Mongolia–northeast China, consistently contributing to CWRF’s overall enhanced forecasting capabilities. Improved downscaling predictive skill is attributed to CWRF’s enhanced physics representation, accurately capturing intricate regional interactions and associated teleconnections across China, especially linked to the Tibetan Plateau’s blocking and thermal effects. In summer, CWRF predicts an intensified South Asian high alongside a strengthened East Asian jet compared to CSM, amplifying cold air advection and warm moisture transport over central to northeast regions. Consequently, rainfall distributions and interannual anomalies over these areas experience substantial improvements. Similar enhanced circulation processes elucidate skill improvement from land initialization, where the accurate specification of initial snow cover and soil temperature within sensitive regions persists in influencing local and remote circulations extending beyond two seasons. Our findings emphasize the potential of improving physics representation and surface initialization to markedly enhance regional climate predictions.

The Development of Rusunawa Triharjo: How Effective is it in Reducing Slum Settlements?

Rusunawa buildings are constructed in a segregated setting, with distinct sections organized both horizontally and vertically. These units are primarily intended for residential purposes and come with communal facilities, shared amenities, and common land. The objective of the Rusunawa development is to address the issue of slum regions and overcome the constraints of limited land availability. It aims to provide suitable and inexpensive housing options for low-income individuals, specifically those categorized as MBR. The objective of this study is to assess the efficacy of the Rusunawa Triharjo project in mitigating the prevalence of slum settlements in Kulon Progo Regency. The findings of this study indicate that: 1) The intended objective of developing Rusunawa has not been fulfilled by the residents of slum regions in Kulon Progo Regency; 2) The overall goal has not been accomplished due to the community's limited interest in residing in Rusunawa Triharjo.

Classification and detection of changes in land use and land cover using satellite images and GIS- near Suez Canal area

Egypt has developed significantly in the vicinity of the Suez Canal and its surrounding towns over the last ten years. Utilizing satellite pictures to identify land use and cover types from thematic maps remains difficult. Select the optimal strategy for successful satellite image classification across various applications. Enhancing classification accuracy requires the most effective algorithm. The effectiveness of a change detection system has not been tested in the community of Abu SUWEIR, located near the Suez Canal region in Ismailia City, Egypt. This project analyzes seven classification algorithms with the use of remotely sensed Planet Scope multispectral pictures to evaluate and monitor changes in land cover in ABU SUWEIR Village from 2016 to 2022. The post-January 25, 2011 revolution period in Egypt saw a transition from anarchy to the commencement of progress and improvement. This analysis demonstrates that the ANN classifier achieved an overall accuracy of 77.33% in 2016 and 72.00% in 2022, with corresponding KAPPA coefficients of 0.66 and 0.58 for each year. Agriculture was the most common land use type according to the ANN categorization, making up over 60.48% of the study area in 2016 and 53.89% in 2022. Bare terrain is the second most common landcover type, accounting for 30.31% in 2022 and 25.91% in 2016. On the contrary, urbanized regions, accounting for 13.61% in 2016 and 15.80% in 2022, are the least categorized.

Assessing landscape ecological risk in the Southern Hill and Mountain Belt of China: A 30-year analysis and future projection

Hills and mountains cover approximately 25 % of Earth’s landmass; therefore, investigating landscape ecological risk (LER) in these regions is imperative for ecosystem management. Hilly and mountainous regions susceptible to influences such as desertification and erosion include the Southern Hill and Mountainous Belt (SHMB) in southern China. Over the past 30 years, the SHMB has undergone significant changes, offering an excellent research case. A comprehensive assessment of the ecological status of this region is crucial for the protection and management of the ecosystems in the SHMB. This study assessed the LER of the SHMB, identified influencing factors over the past 30 years, and utilized a patch-generating land-use simulation model (PLUS) to project future land use and LER. Accounting for more than 90 % of the total area, cropland and forestland were the two most common land use types in the SHMB. From 1990 to 2020, impervious surface and water area saw obvious increases, rising by 154 % (from 1209.37 km2 to 3073.59 km2) and 21 % (from 1584.78 km2 to 1924.8 km2), respectively. Grasslands and shrublands decreased by 54 % and 34 %. It is anticipated that there will be little change in land-use types by 2030 compared to 2020. Additionally, the overall LER in the SHMB was low, with low- and medium–low-risk representing around 70 % of the overall risk. The general state of LER improved during the research period but did not converge. Specifically, the LER intensity did not decrease although the total LER showed a declining trend. In the western portion of the research region, the karst area displayed an increasing LER, and the severity of the high-risk area increased. Furthermore, natural factors promote the restoration of LER. For example, the abundance of hydrothermal conditions (i.e., increased temperature and precipitation) promotes the recovery of vegetation growth and reduces the LER. Human activities, such as the construction of stations, highways, and an increasing population, exacerbate LER, contributing to an increase in LER. This study offers helpful guidance for formulating ecological conservation strategies to maintain the ecological balance and sustainability of hilly and mountainous regions.

Embedding a novel phenology model into the Common Land Model for improving the modeling of land-atmosphere fluxes

Land surface models (LSMs) are essential tools for simulating the energy and momentum exchange between the land surface and the atmosphere. The vegetation phenology module, a pivotal component of LSMs, reflects the feedback of vegetation to climate variations. However, the vegetation phenology module in several LSMs, such as the Common Land Model (CoLM), face challenges concerning its rationality. Currently, the original satellite phenology mode in CoLM, which uses satellite-based leaf area index (LAI) data directly and statically, constrains the model's ability to accurately represent complex and dynamic ecosystem processes. In this study, we embedded a dynamic vegetation phenology model into CoLM, serving as a novel phenology module. We conducted an extensive comparison of the effects of various phenology modules on CoLM, focusing on their performance in the modeling of gross primary productivity (GPP) and evapotranspiration (ET) at both site and global scales. Results demonstrate an improvement in CoLM for modeling GPP and ET following the integration of the novel phenology module. Specifically, the Pearson's correlation coefficient for GPP increased by 1.29 % to 33.74 %, and for ET by 0.32 % to 7.47 % on a site scale. Furthermore, on a global scale, when compared with global reference datasets, the CoLM embedded with the novel phenology module successfully captures the spatiotemporal distribution of GPP and ET, and its performance is closer to the reference data than that of the CoLM with the original satellite phenology mode. This study highlights the importance of vegetation phenology in LSMs and its potential to improve the modeling of dynamic interactions between vegetation processes and environmental changes within LSMs.

Pacas Choquenzá: una experiencia poscapitalista sobre la producción de lo común

The Paca Digestora Silva [a composting technique], a system for using organic waste, arrived in 2019 in the Niza Antigua neighborhood in the Córdoba wetland, northwest of Bogotá (Colombia). Since then, the pacas (composting piles) have become a way of transforming pre-existing neighborhood dynamics and fostering the care of the common land, despite certain logics of fragmentation based on the defense of one’s own well-being. The Paca Digestora Silva is proposed here as a post-capitalist alternative that goes beyond the human-nature structural rupture so that the race for capital accumulation, reflected in landfills, can be overcome with the resignification of waste. The paper is constructed from the intersectional perspective of feminist political ecology and relates the process of pacas to the production of communality and the commons. This lens allows the analysis of care through two intertwined routes since the commons propitiate the care of a common good, and, in this care, which is reproduced in the doing in common, a community that watches over its protection and subsistence is strengthened or consolidated. This article documents community experiences with pacas and provides an alternative reading of this system, which transcends the dimension of waste utilization and demonstrates the possibility of building an ethic of care based on collective action.

Forest management for water yield: Assessing the barriers and impacts of privately-owned open pine woodlands in the Southeastern United States

In the Southeastern United States, freshwater resources are stressed due to human development, population growth, expansion of agricultural irrigation, and climate change. Restoring land to a low-density, fire-maintained longleaf pine (Pinus palustris) savanna and woodland ecosystem may provide distinct ecosystem services such as increases in water quantity for vulnerable watersheds. To understand how economic incentives may bolster restoration programs, we analyze the economic and hydrologic impacts of longleaf pine restoration scenarios. We compare these scenarios against other common land uses in the Coastal Plain of Georgia, a major forestry state located in the Southern United States, identifying the financial barriers and water use impacts of alternative forest management regimes. Longleaf pine restoration shows the greatest increase in water yield per acre at 66 % over baseline timber production scenarios but at a lower timber value return. Thinning planted loblolly pine (Pinus taeda) stands to low-density woodlands may offer a more cost-efficient, immediate alternative that improves water yields by 38 %. Current incentives to restore native habitats on private lands increase financial returns but lack sufficient incentives and governance to meet or exceed baseline forest income levels by $90-$235 ha-1 annually for longleaf savanna restoration. In the future, the emerging ecosystem service market in Georgia may steer decisions about competing values of carbon storage, water yield, and native habitat restoration.