Landscapes generate a wide range of valuable ecosystem services, yet land use decisions often ignore the value of these services. Using the example of the UK, we show the significance of land use change not only for agricultural production but also for emissions and sequestration of greenhouse gases, open-access recreational visits, urban green space and wild species diversity. We use spatially explicit models in conjunction with valuation methods to estimate comparable economic values for these services, taking account of climate change impacts. We show that, while decisions which focus solely upon agriculture reduce overall ecosystem service values, highly significant value increases can be obtained from targeted planning incorporating all potential services and their values, and that this approach also conserves wild species diversity.One Sentence Summary: Valuation of ecosystem services within land-use planning creates significant gains relative to current, market-dominated, decision making. Main Text:The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (1) provided important evidence of the ongoing global degradation of ecosystem services and highlighted the need to incorporate their value into the economic analyses which underpin real-world decision-making. Previous studies have shown that the overall values of unconverted natural habitats can exceed the private benefits following conversion (2, 3), that knowledge of landscape heterogeneity and ecological processes can support cost effective land planning (4-7), that trade-offs in land-use decisions affect values from ecosystem services and biodiversity at local level (8, 9), and that current land use is vulnerable to the impacts of global change (10, 11). In the UK National Ecosystem Assessment (NEA) (12), a comprehensive assessment of the UK's ecosystems was linked to a systematic, environmental and economic analysis of the benefits they generate. Here we show how taking account of multiple objectives in a changing environment (including, but not restricted to, climate change) fundamentally alters decisions regarding optimal land use. The NEA analyses are based upon highly detailed, spatially-referenced environmental data covering all of Great Britain. These data supported the design and parameterization of models of both the drivers and consequences of land use decisions, incorporating the complexity of the natural environment and its variation across space and time (13). Model outputs provide inputs to economic analyses which assess the value of both marketed and non-marketed goods (Table 1).The NEA specifically addressed the consequences of land use change driven by either just agricultural or a wider set of values, all within the context of ongoing climate change. To assess this, raw data on land use and its determinants were drawn from multiple sources to compile a 40 year dataset, spatially disaggregated at a resolution of 2km grid squares (400ha) or finer across all of Great Britain, forming more than ½ million sets of spatially referenced, time specific...

Visible-wavelength color and reflectance provide information about the geologic history of planetary surfaces. We present multispectral images (0.44 to 0.89 microns) of near-Earth asteroid (101955) Bennu. The surface has variable colors overlain on a moderately blue global terrain. Two primary boulder types are distinguishable by their reflectance and texture. Space weathering of Bennu surface materials does not simply progress from red to blue (or vice versa). Instead, freshly exposed, redder surfaces initially brighten in the near-ultraviolet (become bluer at shorter wavelengths), then brighten in the visible to near-infrared, leading to Bennu’s moderately blue average color. Craters indicate that the timescale of these color changes is ~105 years. We attribute the reflectance and color variation to a combination of primordial heterogeneity and varying exposure ages.

The antimicrobial efficiency of Phyllanthus amarus Schum. and Thonn., medicinal plants (leaf extracts), was examined using Methanol, Ethanol, Petroleum ether. and water, as solvents and tested against eight human pathogens like Bacteria: Bacillus cereus, Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli, and Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Fungi: Aspergillus niger, Aspergillus flavus, Fusarium oxisporum, and Rhizopus stolonifer, using the agar well-diffusion method and minimum inhibitory concentration. All the plants showed significant activity against all pathogens, but the alcoholic extract of P. amarus showed the maximum zone of inhibition and minimum inhibitory concentration against all the microorganisms. The minimum zone of inhibition and comparatively greater inhibitory concentration were determined in petroleum ether, and the aqueous extract of P. amarus showed less antimicrobial activity against all the experimental strains. The alcoholic extracts of these plants could be a possible source of obtaining new and effective herbal medicines to treat infections, hence, it justified the ethnic use of P. amarus against various infectious diseases.

We present a novel methodology for spatial-and ecosystem-sensitive estimation of recreational visit numbers and their values across Great Britain. Drawing upon an extensive and spatially explicit survey of current recreational behaviour, data are combined with highly detailed information on population characteristics, transport infrastructure and GIS generated measures of the availability of potential substitutes and complements. Analysis yields a readily transferable model of visit behaviour which is valued using a meta-analysis of the recreation valuation literature. The impacts of changes envisaged under the various UK National Ecosystem Assessment scenarios for future land use are then analysed and corresponding visits and (real) values estimated. A second analysis demonstrates the application of the methodology to assessment of a proposed single site. We conclude by considering limitations and future potential for this methodology.