ArticleAmbio2025
How is Gaia doing? Trends in global land degradation and improvement.
Article in Ambio, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
0 citing papers in PubMed.
No citing paper in PubMed yet.
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Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Land degradation is holding back attainment of the Sustainable Development Goals and exacerbating global heating. Land degradation and improvement since 1981 have been assessed by proxy using remotely sensed Normalised Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), translated into net primary productivity. The quantitative data show the extent and trends of changes over four decades and identify where further action is needed. During 1981-2021, 28.5% of land was degrading-most notably through megafires in boreal forests, land clearance and cultivation in sub-Saharan Africa and the East Indies and across the steppes. The degraded area increased by 4.5% compared to 1981-2003 yet affected fewer people-1.2 billion compared to 1.5 billion. Consistent policies on sustainability increased biological productivity on 26% of land (10.5% more than 1981-2003), particularly cropland in China, India and the European Union; 2.9 billion people now live in the improved areas compared with 0.8 billion in the improving areas of 1981-2003.
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Registered trials
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