Using a combination of historical remotely-sensed data and ground-based data and information, they have analyzed the links between agricultural policy, agricultural productivity, and land use change.

They are evaluating the proposition that intensification of agriculture will "save land for nature" by reducing expansion of agricultural lands, and conclude that, in this region, expansion of land use in the surrounding desert and coastal zone accompanies intensification within the agricultural district, and biogeochemical transfers from agricultural sites also affect non-agricultural ecosystems.

About Professor Pamela Matson
Prof. Pamela Matson works at Department of Geological and Environmental Sciences, and the Institute for International Studies, Stanford University

Matson carries out research in tropical forests and agricultural ecosystems. She studies the effects of natural and human-caused changes on biological and chemical processes in soils and on trace gas emissions to the atmosphere.

Her work has provided evidence that land-use change and agricultural intensification in the tropics contribute to the increasing atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases as well as gases involved in air pollution.

Matson and her team analyzes economic drivers and biogeochemical consequences of land-use decisions in developing world agricultural systems, with the objective of identifying practices that are both economically and environmentally viable, and that will reduce greenhouse gas emissions.