Editorial: Past land-use and land-cover change: the challenge of quantification at the subcontinental to global scales

Land-use change has influenced, and influences, many aspects of the environment such as pedogenesis, soil erosion, hydrology, vegetation, lakes' and rivers' nutrient status, microclimate and, last -but not least -regional and global climate. It is still a challenge, however, to quantify land-use change in the past and its effect on past environment through time and across space.