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Comparing with cities, rural communities especially those declining rural communities have become vulnerable to natural disasters owing to their backward socioeconomic conditions. Taking Xun County of China's Henan Province as the study area, the paper aims to evaluate rural community resilience to flood by unveiling the connection between individuals' cognition, follow-up actions and the community resilience. Research results show that: (1) The logic chain exists as individual's cognition to disaster leads to their constructive actions to cope with disaster, which contribute to community resilience. (2) At the cognition dimension, individual's knowledge reserve of disaster prevention and their recognition to local authority are playing an important role in their decision making and follow-up behaviors when disaster occurs. (3) At the action dimension, individual's familiarity with the disaster preparedness, efficient information transmission when disaster occurs and villagers' following order and their unity of action all contribute to community resilience to disaster. The paper proposes ways to improve rural community resilience to disasters based on the research findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The topic of health has gained importance in today's society in the context of a healthy China. The success of community environmental design is intimately correlated with everyone's physical and mental health since it is the setting for people's daily lives. At present, although the facilities and equipment of the community environment in our country are improving day by day, the important role of color psychology in the community environment has been neglected. Color has always been a part of human life and a very important component of the community environment. When it comes to the design of communal environments, the color design of various areas will have variable degrees of influence on the psychological space and perspective of individuals. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to investigate the application value of color psychology in the design of community health environments using color psychology as a scientific foundation. Additionally, the paper attempts to use color psychology as a scientific basis to study the thinking of health issues in the community environment. In addition, the results of the questionnaire survey are used to perform analysis and discussion in order to investigate the regular characteristics of the various research objects, as well as their preferences and psychological needs for color. This is done with the goal of providing empirical support for the improvement of the community environment and the health of the people living in it. In the end, the results of the questionnaire survey are compiled with four different design concepts. These design principles include functionality, naturalness, beauty, and safety. And the design intention and optimization strategy from the three directions the overall building, planting, and paving in the community healthy environment are then presented. This is done in order to create a colorful and comfortable healthy environment for the community life of people and to support the development of people's physical and mental health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights • Forest resource Metabolism Network model isdeveloped for ecological and economic analysis. • Exploitation index is developed to reveal the weaker sectors in the ecological relations. • A case study of Guangdong province, China isconducted to illustrate the potential benefits. • Scientific Basis are provided to allocate forestresources and stabilize industrial structure. Abstract Integrating forest resources into the socio-economic system correctly and reasonably is of vital importance to tackle the increasingly scarce forest resources. In this paper, forest resource input-output model and forest resource metabolism network model are established to provide new insights into the relationships among the systems, industries and sectors related to forest resources. A promising indicator named exploitation index is developed to reveal the weaker sectors in the ecological relations, which will further help to provide better corrective actions and integrated strategic measures. Guangdong is taken as an example to verify the availability of the model and solve the problem. The results show that the primary manufacturing consumes more direct timber, while advanced manufacturing and the service sector utilize timber indirectly. In addition, Guangdong forest metabolism system shows a negative correlation and the whole network does not achieve the mutualism state, leading to competition relationships between pairwise sectors that should not appear, such as Forestry sector and Papermaking and Paper Products sector. These results provide the corresponding reference for helping the decision makers to allocate forest resources and coordinate ecological and economic development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The dendrolites composed of light gray massive micrite limestone occur at the top of the Cambrian Zhangxia Formation in Houziyu Section, Zibo, Shandong Province. Because it is very difficult to study the genesis of microbial rocks through "the function of diagenesis filter," this paper analyzes its genetic mechanism by characterizing the sedimentary fabric and formation environment of dendrolites and it is of great significance to study microbial carbonate deposited in geological history in oil exploration. The Cambrian Zhangxia Formation in the Houziyu section is a marine deposit. The macroscopic shrub-like fabric of centimeter scale can be seen on the surface of the tree-shaped stone, with small biological burrows and remnants of calcareous mud components after filling. The microstructure observation shows that the main fabric of the dendrolites is a dark micrite matrix, bright calcite cement, clastic particles, and a calcified cyanobacteria biological community. Detailed supplementary information on the diversity of calcified microorganisms in dendrolites has been made through the study of various types of calcified cyanobacteria and calcified residual substances in the microbial membrane of calcified cyanobacteria in the dendrolites of the study area. It is clear that dendrolites are the product of the calcification of biofilms or microbial mats dominated by cyanobacteria. With the deepening of this kind of research, it is bound to raise the research of microbial carbonate to a new level in China and provide great help to find oil and gas resources in marine strata of microbial origin in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The end Permian to Middle Triassic interval (∼252–242 Ma) witnessed the largest marine mass extinction and the most delayed recovery in the Phanerozoic. The nature and mechanism of these biotic and environmental changes remain unclear. This special issue focuses on the Triassic marine sediments in South China, which provide unique documentation of the collapse and recovery of marine ecosystems. Six papers focus on biotic changes and their ecological significance in Early and Middle Triassic times, documenting evidence from bivalves, marine reptiles, stromatolites, hybodontid teeth, vertebrate coprolites, and other putative fossils. Two papers study conodont biostratigraphy across the Permian-Triassic boundary (PTB) and Induan-Olenekian boundary. Two papers reconstruct the palaeoenvironments of the Early Triassic Chaohu Fauna and Middle Triassic Luoping Biota. Two further papers present new marine δ13C records and biomarker data and link them to volcanic eruptions in Early Triassic times. These new findings are important for understanding the co-evolution between biotic and environmental changes in the aftermath of Permian-Triassic boundary mass extinction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The natural environment plays a good role in guiding people's psychology. The topic of rehabilitation landscape has increasingly become a hot topic studied by many scholars. In the environment that home-based elderly care has gradually become the main way of elderly care in the future, the natural environment of the community has become particularly important. At present, the construction of rehabilitation landscape in the community has not attracted widespread attention. In this paper, starting from rehabilitation landscape perspective, and deeply investigating landscape environment of outdoor activity space in college community, evaluation of the elderly group on its current situation and future needs are understood, and the aging creation orientation of rehabilitation landscape in college community in the future is explored. It could provide theoretical reference for effectively improving the living standard of the elderly, and actual significance and practical basis for proposing design strategy of rehabilitation landscape in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Diversity indices (dominance and evenness) and ecological spatial structure (lifestyles and relative abundances) are important features of Changhsingian brachiopod communities prior to the end‐Permian mass extinction (EPME) and could predict temporal and spatial extinction patterns during the EPME. In South China, Changhsingian brachiopod communities show higher diversity than other contemporaneous brachiopod communities in the world and have been reported from a variety of sedimentary environments. In this paper, brachiopods from 18 sections in South China were selected to divide communities and compare their ecological structure. Based on the results of network analysis, cluster analysis and quantitative data from the selected sections, we show that Changhsingian brachiopod communities in South China can be categorized into three assemblages along a marine depth gradient: the Neochonetes–Fusichonetes–Paryphella Assemblage from the shallow‐water clastic‐rock facies, Spinomarginifera–Peltichia–Oldhamina Assemblage from the shallow‐water carbonate platform facies and Fusichonetes–Crurithyris Assemblage from the deep‐water siliciclastic intracontinental basin facies. Compared with communities from carbonate platform facies, the communities from siliciclastic facies were characterized by high dominance, low evenness and low lifestyle diversity, which might be important biotic factors leading to earlier extinctions. After the extinction began in all environments, the whole earliest Triassic brachiopod community was first dominated by Fusichonetes and then by Crurithyris. These patterns of domination and replacement could be explained by morphological and ecological advantages. The domination of these two genera, which were already adapted to the oxygen and food‐limited deep‐water habitat, indicates that the cooler deep‐water environment might have been a relatively less stressed habitat after the beginning of the EPME. This suggests that global warming might be the main trigger among the previously proposed synergistic environmental stresses, while anoxia might not, at least for the beginning of EPME. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Due to their relative isolation, the previous studies of Monpa plant use were only conducted in north-east India. In October 2013, Mêdog County was no longer remote, thanks to completion of a highway into the county. This study of plant species used by the Monpa had three research objectives. These were (i) to identify and record local names and uses of plants in Mêdog County, (ii) to assess which of these were uses of endemic or near-endemic species within this part of the Indo-Burma biodiversity hotspot, and (iii) to assess how plant uses reflect socio-economic change in Mêdog County? Methods: Field surveys were conducted in 12 villages of four townships in Mêdog County, Tibet, China. Two field visits were made. The first field trip was in November 2017 and the second field trip was in May 2018. We interviewed 64 key informants between 21 and 84 years old. Most of them were the village leaders and other local people who are knowledgeable about plants. After transect walks with knowledgeable local people, we used free listing, key informant interviews, and semi-structured interviews during the field work. Plants traditionally used by the Monpa were documented. Utilization frequency was used to assess the significance of each species, and the Cultural Importance index was used to estimate the cultural significance of the species in common. We also used the informant consensus factor (FIC) to determine the homogeneity of the informants' knowledge of medicinal plants. Results: One hundred ninety-four plant species belonging to 82 families and 158 genera were recorded and collected. One hundred twenty-two species, primarily fruits, were food plants. Forty-five species were used as traditional medicines. This included highly valued species collected in alpine areas (Paris polyphylla) and brought to villages in Mêdog, which are at a lower altitude (between 728 and 1759 m a.s.l). Seven edible plant species were also used as herbal medicines. We also recorded 39 species used for other purposes in Monpa daily life. These included nine species that were used to make agricultural tools, five species for dyes and mordants, four species for timber, three species for fuelwood, four species for religious ritual use, three species for washing, two species for incense, two species for thatching, two species for fiber (rope and paper), two "calendar plants" were used to indicate seasons for agricultural purposes, two fish poison plant species, and one species were used as a tobacco substitute. Based on taxonomic insights and from studies elsewhere, we suggested that fiber species were under-reported (c. 14 species were used vs. one species reported used). Even though these plant species are rich and diverse, the use of endemic or near-endemic species was rarely recorded in previous studies. These species included Arenga micrantha (used for starch), Hornstedtia tibetica (fruits), Castanopsis clarkei (edible nuts) and Gnetum pendulum (edible nuts), Ophiorrhiza medogensis (vegetables), Derris scabricaulis (fish poison), Radermachera yunnanensis (agricultural tools), Litsea tibetana (seed oil), Dendrocalamus tibeticus (wine strainers and implements for administering medicine), Zanthoxylum motuoense (spices), Cinnamomum contractum (tobacco substitutes), Morus wittiorum (medicines), and Garcinia nujiangensis (funeral rituals). Despite the absence of roads until 2013 and the impression of "isolation," Monpa knowledge of plant use reflects three categories of change. Firstly, oral histories of plants used in Bhutan were also encountered by Monpa people after their migration from Bhutan to south-eastern Tibet. Secondly, a "slow change" through centuries of exchange of knowledge (for example of Chinese and Tibetan medical systems), seeds of introduced crops (finger millet (indigenous to Africa), maize (from Meso-America)), and experimentation and use of introduced medicinal plants (such as Datura stramonium, which originates from North America). Thirdly, "fast change" over the past decade. This is reflected in changes in traditional architecture and in rising commercial trade in selected plant resources such as Dendrobium orchid stems and Paris polyphylla rhizomes which are in demand in China's Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) markets). Conclusions: Monpa people in the south-eastern Tibet have detailed knowledge of the diverse plant resources. But that traditional knowledge is now faced with a crisis because of the modern socio-economic change. In addition, Monpa knowledge of plants reflects slower changes in knowledge as well. For example, Monpa ethnomedicine has been influenced by traditional Tibetan and Chinese medicine over a longer period in time. Overall, this study provides a deeper understanding of the Monpa peoples' knowledge on wild plants, including endemic and near-endemic species whose uses have not been previously recorded. Several of these narrowly distributed species, such as the fish poison Derris scabricaulis, could be the focus of further studies. Some wild edible plants may also have interesting dietary constituents which need in-depth studies. These detailed studies could enable the Monpa people to benefit from the use of their traditional plant-derived culture and therefore support the biodiversity conservation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Qinling Mountains include unique geography, geology, climate, ecology, and culture. • Regional economic growth and environmental preservation can coexist. • The "life community" promotes eco-friendly civilization and regional growth. China geography, geology, climate, ecology, and cultural landscape are bounded to the north and south by the Qinling Mountains. It has several challenges, including the need to maintain its biodiversity and the need to accelerate economic development. Therefore, the mining area development and ecological community research has strong theoretical and practical significance. In this paper, we studies the Environmental Kuznets Curve, the key influencing factors in the model and a comprehensive strategy of green ecological development based on the three contradictions between environmental protection and mining development in Qinling Mountains. The result of the studies suggested that the solution of resource development, pollution control, and climate change concerns can be accomplished by employing four distinct classifications of enhanced and iterative intelligent, green, and low-carbon comprehensive technological systems. These systems are achievable through the implementation of an independence and self-enhancement strategy in advanced science and technology. Furthermore, the proposed model of Environmental Kuznets curve suggested that there are no significant effect on the sustainable development of mining industry and ecological protection. Moreover, the long-term effects of changes in the ecological and socio-economic environments on a given habitat, an assessment of the sustainability of the ecological environment is more comprehensive and systematic. Thus, the "life community" of ecological preservation and mineral resource development in Qinling is the consequence of the ecologically green civilization and provides the most vigor to the growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The terrestrial Yanliao Biota in northeastern China represents a Jurassic biodiversity hotspot. Abundant and diverse fossils include the oldest known representatives of several groups of plants, invertebrates, and vertebrates that thrived in a forest ecosystem under a humid and warm climate. Since the early 21st century, discoveries associated with the Yanliao Biota have significantly improved our understanding of Jurassic terrestrial ecosystems. However, a robust chronostratigraphic framework is required to calibrate the biota with key evolutionary events and to improve understanding of possible links between evolution and tectonism. In this paper, we report novel 40Ar/39Ar ages for two tuff layers (161.4 ± 0.8 Ma and 161.6 ± 0.6 Ma) positioned directly above the less-studied but salamander fossil-rich beds in Reshuitang, near Lingyuan, Liaoning Province, China. These new age data improve knowledge of the timing of diversification of early salamanders. We also review all reported age data and summarize significant fossils from classic Yanliao outcrops. Our study indicates that the Reshuitang fossil beds were deposited slightly later than the well-known Daohugou fossil beds situated ∼15 km away in Inner Mongolia and somewhat earlier than the Linglongta fossil beds in western Liaoning Province. These findings advance understanding of the Jurassic world during an episode of pronounced climatic warming. • We provide detailed age calibration for the Jurassic Yanliao Biota. • Our study allows us to understand Jurassic terrestrial ecosystems. • A robust chrono-stratigraphy reconstructs the link between life and climate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Jehol Biota comprises significant fossils that help to elucidate the evolution of Early Cretaceous terrestrial ecosystems. In this paper, we provide three new zircon U Pb age constraints (124.3 ± 1.5 Ma, 124.9 ± 1.6 Ma, and 121.5 ± 1.4 Ma) from the base to the top of the Jiufengshan Formation (Xinganling Group) at the Naketa section in the north Great Xing'an Range of eastern Inner Mongolia, China, within a succession that contains the typical Eosestheria - Ephemeropsis trisetalis - Lycoptera davidi (EEL) assemblage of the Jehol Biota. Combined biostratigraphic and radio-isotopic dating suggests that the Jiufengshan Formation in the Naketa section corresponds to the upper part of the Yixian Formation and the lower part of the Jiufotang Formation, making it Barremian to earliest Aptian in age. Our findings allow us to test a widely accepted hypothesis about the migration and radiation of the Jehol Biota, and show that these organisms preserved within the lower part of the Jiufengshan Formation reached the Naketa area during the second and third evolutionary stages. The preservation of Jehol elements in the Naketa section provides valuable clues regarding the evolutionary history of the Jehol Biota and its spatiotemporal development. Furthermore, our study allows us to explore possible links between evolutionary processes and concurrent tectonism in the North China Craton, as the timing of this Jehol migration occurred when the tectonic setting changed from a compressional to an extensional regime. • We provide detailed fossil records and robust age for the far north Jehol outcrop. • This study refutes the widely accepted model for the Jehol migration. • Our results test the link between biological radiation and tectonic activity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • Heterogeneity index(H) is a structural parameter describing the distribution of species associations. • H is proposed to unveil the species turnover in community in this paper. • Eight lakes exhibit a eutrophication trend with different degrees from the 1950s. • H , species richness, evenness and Jaccard index respond differently to eutrophication. • H can serve as a complementary biodiversity metric to quantify functional diversity. Anthropogenic eutrophication in aquatic ecosystems has had significant negative effects on biodiversity and human wellbeing. Improving our understanding of the ways in which biological communities respond to eutrophication underlies biodiversity conservation, and diversity metrics like species richness and evenness are often used to assess environmental impacts on biodiversity. However, such studies mainly consider overall gain and loss, ignoring species replacement in community succession. This paper combines paleolimnology and network science to propose a heterogeneity index (H) to measure community successions by linking long-term changes in community structure with environmental stress. Eight lakes of different types in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River Basin (MLYB) were selected, and we focused on diatom communities to reconstruct their ecological trajectories after significant anthropogenic impact. The combined results suggested that human impacts have caused eutrophication in each lake since the 1950s, but led to different degrees of impact on the diatom communities. In hypereutrophic lakes, diatom assemblages shifted to high-nutrient tolerance and the proportions of epiphytic-benthic species decreased, while in mildly eutrophic lakes, a switch to mild-nutrient tolerant assemblages occurred in planktonic and epiphytic-benthic species with no change in epiphytic-benthic proportions. The H of diatom communities declined in hypereutrophic lakes, but changed little in mildly eutrophic lakes after the 1950s. Meanwhile, no regular changes in diversity indicators such as richness, evenness and the Jaccard-index occurred with lake eutrophication. The ordered species turnover in nutrient-enriched diatom communities may account for the discrepancies in H and the above indices, such as ordered epiphytic-benthic species being replaced by higher nutrient-tolerant and planktonic species with no necessarily attendant reduction in species richness. By quantifying the alteration of species associations without being influenced by species diversity, the H index effectively reveals the succession of diatom communities, and can therefore serve as a complementary indicator of biodiversity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Early Cretaceous Jehol Biota of northeastern China has become famous over the last two decades as a source of feathered avialan and non-avialan theropods, preserved alongside an array of other fossil vertebrates, invertebrates, and plants. Still more recently, a rich assemblage referred to in this paper as the Daohugou Biota has begun to emerge from Jurassic strata in the same region. Like their counterparts from the Jehol Biota, Daohugou Biota vertebrate specimens are typically preserved in fine-grained lacustrine beds and often retain feathers and other soft-tissue features. At present, 30 vertebrate taxa (five salamanders, one anuran, two lizards, 13 pterosaurs, five dinosaurs, and four mammals) are known from the Daohugou Biota, which was first recognized at the Daohugou locality in Inner Mongolia. The presence of the salamanderChunerpeton tianyiensis, proposed in this paper as an index fossil for the Daohugou Biota, links the Daohugou locality to five other fossil-producing areas in the provinces of Hebei and Liaoning. The strata containing the Daohugou Biota are close to the Middle–Upper Jurassic boundary and belong at least partly to the regionally widespread Tiaojishan Formation. In general, the vertebrate fauna of the Daohugou Biota is strikingly different from that of the Jehol Biota, although paravian dinosaurs, anurognathid pterosaurs, and salamanders with cryptobranchid and hynobiid affinities occur in both. Nevertheless, the Daohugou Biota and the Jehol Biota are two successive Lagerstätte assemblages that collectively offer a taphonomically consistent window into the Mesozoic life of northeast Asia over a significant span of geologic time. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Abstract: That the multi-source remote sensing information integrates knowledge-based geospatial constraints to develop efficient and practical Land cover classification algorithm has become one of the most important developing directions in the field of remote sensing ground object classification. Remote sensing classification is a strictly incompatible problem, but the spectra distribution of remote sensing data has compatible attributes especially in mountainous regions, and such contradiction is one of the main reasons leading to uncertainties in remote sensing classification. In this paper, the remote sensing spectra feature compatible information is transformed into the probability of the association degree firstly, and then the matter-element theory is introduced to establish models to achieve the integrated classification of multi-source data to fuse knowledge-based geographical constrained condition probability. Taking the grassland–wetland fragile ecosystem in Ruoergai plateau of China as a case study, this paper selected the multi-source data including images of Landsat TM and CBERS, ASTER-GDEM and MODIS-NDVI to construct a comprehensive classifier, in which the relationship between topography and land cover, and the prior knowledge on vegetation growth difference were taken as constraints to support the decision-making. The classification accuracy was evaluated by a field investigation and existing land cover map. The test result shows that, the overall accuracy (89.89%) and Kappa coefficient (0.8870) are better than those derived by the Maximum Likelihood method. It indicates that the proposed classification method is not subject to the dimensionality and form of data sources, and it can integrate the data source information to improve the classification accuracy, so that it is very useful to apply multi-source data and prior knowledge to land cover classification in mountainous regions. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Models of marine ecosystem dynamics play an important role in revealing the evolution mechanisms of marine ecosystems and in forecasting their future changes. Most traditional ecological dynamics models are established based on basic physical and biological laws, and have obvious dynamic characteristics and ecological significance. However, they are not flexible enough for the variability of environment conditions and ecological processes found in offshore marine areas, where it is often difficult to obtain parameters for the model, and the precision of the model is often low. In this paper, a new modeling method is introduced, which aims to establish an evolution model of marine ecosystems by coupling statistics with differential dynamics. Firstly, we outline the basic concept and method of inverse modeling of marine ecosystems. Then we set up a statistical dynamics model of marine ecosystems evolution according to annual ecological observation data from Jiaozhou Bay. This was done under the forcing conditions of sea surface temperature and surface irradiance and considering the state variables of phytoplankton, zooplankton and nutrients. This model is dynamic, makes the best of field observation data, and the average predicted precision can reach 90% or higher. A simpler model can be easily obtained through eliminating the terms with smaller contributions according to the weight coefficients of model differential items. The method proposed in this paper avoids the difficulties of obtaining and optimizing parameters, which exist in traditional research, and it provides a new path for research of marine ecological dynamics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Modeling land use/cover scenario changes and its potential impacts on structure and functions of ecosystem in typical regions are helpful to understanding the interactive mechanism between land use/cover system and ecosystem. Based on the analysis of the existing land use/cover simulation and forecast models, a land use/cover scenario dynamics model by the integration of System Dynamics (SD) model, Back Propagation Neural Network (BPNN) and Cellular Automata (CA) model is developed with land use/cover scenario changes in northern China in the next 30 years and simulated in this paper. The model is to simulate the land use/cover scenario demands by using a SD model at first, and then allocating the land use scenario patterns at the local scale with the considerations of land use/cover suitability, inheritance ability and neighborhood effect by using BPNN-CA model to satisfy the balance between land use/cover scenario demands and supplies. It integrates the advantages of SD, BPNN and CA. Macro-driving factors and the micro-spatial pattern are also fully taken into account. The BPNN simplifies the identification of the factors' weights used in CA model and improves the reliability of the simulation results. The simulation accuracy of the model developed in this paper was found to be about 74%. It suggests that the model has the ability to reflect the complexity of land use/cover system at different scales to some extent and it is a useful tool for assessing the potential impacts of land use system on ecosystem. The simulated results also indicate that the urban land, water area and forest will increase significantly, and farmland and unable land will decrease gradually. Obvious land use/cover changes will take place in the farming-pastoral zone and the southeast area of northern China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For most of its history, China has supported a growing population through food systems which have been mutually inclusive of people and their locality. This trajectory has required adequate ecosystem maintenance or humanised reformulation and a high degree of recyclable nutrient flow. The 'tipping point' in habitat sustainability has come with the size and demographic structure of China's population to one that is ageing, with modernisation of its infrastructure and increased expectations of better livelihoods, standards of living and health. In order to meet these expectations, China has embarked on rapid urbanisation for upwards of 300 million people over the next 15-20 years and to do so taking account of the environmental limitations. The process will radically change rural as well as urban China and the systems which connect them. Chief among these will be ecosystems in number and type along with the food and health systems integral to them. To minimise ecological damage and optimise the benefits to people and place, describing, monitoring and managing the process will be paramount. The present paper is a situational analysis of health as it may be ecologically favoured or disordered (Ecosystem Health Disorders) and of the food systems on which the environment and health depend. An effort is made to enumerate the current situation in China in a way that might enable the optimisation of humanised ecosystems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Early Cretaceous Jehol Biota in northern China is a terrestrial lagerstätte that contains exceptionally-preserved fossils, including birds, dinosaurs, pterosaurs, mammals, insects, and flowering plants. The biota underwent three developmental phases, with relatively limited biodiversity in an early phase that rapidly diversified in a middle phase; however, the relationship between this biological radiation and climate remains uncertain. In this paper, we study fossils from the early-to-middle phases of the Jehol Biota preserved in the Lower Cretaceous (middle Valanginian-lower Barremian) Dabeigou and Dadianzi formations of Hebei Province to ascertain climatic impact on biotic evolution. The occurrence of a cool to warm climate turnover during the deposition of these strata is inferred based on a synthesis of geochemical and paleontological evidence. Palaeogeographic distribution of the middle phase of the biota is wider and positioned more southerly than that of the early phase, possibly indicating that the biota in the early and middle phases lived in boreal and temperate climate realms, respectively. Biotic diversity shows an increasing trend from the early phase to the middle phase of the Jehol Biota, closely coinciding with the cool to warm turnover of the climate. The body sizes of some taxa in the middle phase were significantly smaller than those in the early phase, which is also interpreted as a climatic effect. This study represents the first attempt to correlate the response of terrestrial evolution of the Jehol Biota to climate change, with a focus on Early Cretaceous paleotemperatures. • The Lower Cretaceous of northern Hebei record early-middle stages of Jehol Biota. • Climate change from cool to warm during early development of Jehol Biota. • Warming climate enabled the diversification of the Jehol Biota. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Situated at the easternmost area of the Late Mesozoic Jehol Biota, China, abundant fossils, including invertebrates, vertebrates and plants, were collected from the Early Cretaceous Yingzuilazi Formation of the Baishan Basin, southeastern Jilin. The faunal remains from this formation distinctly belong to the Early Cretaceous Lycoptera-Ephemeropsis-Eosestheria assemblage of the Jehol Biota. Based on the gross leaf morphology and epidermal structures, two new species and one indeterminate species of genus Solenites (Czekanowskiales), S. baishanensis sp. nov., S. gracilis sp. nov. and S. sp. are described in this paper. This is the first fossil plant of Czekanowskiales reported from this new fossil locality of the easternmost area of the Late Mesozoic Jehol Biota, China. The new discovery contributes to improve our knowledge for understanding of leaf morphology, epidermal characters and diversity of this genus during the Early Cretaceous time, and extends geologic and geographic distribution of Solenites in northern China and Eurasia. Along with consideration of associated plant and faunal assemblages and sedimentology, we suggest that the regional climate was warm and moderately humid with seasonal temperature and precipitation variations in warm-temperate zone during the Early Cretaceous. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Diversity-manipulation experiments suggest a positive effect of biodiversity on ecosystem properties (EPs), but variable relationships between species richness and EPs have been reported in natural communities. An explanation for this discrepancy is that observed richness-EPs relationships in natural communities change with environment and species functional identities. But how the relationships change along broad-scale climatic gradients has rarely been examined. In this paper, we sampled 848 plots of 20 × 30 m2 from boreal to tropical forests across China. We examined plot biomass with respect to environmental factors, tree species richness and functional group identity (FGI, i.e. evergreen vs deciduous, and coniferous vs broadleaf). Variation partitioning was used to evaluate the relative effects of the three classes of factors. We found that, most of the 'effects' (percentage of variation explained) of richness and FGI on forest biomass were shared with environmental factors, but species richness and FGI still revealed significant effects in addition to environment for plots across China. Richness and FGI explained biomass mainly through their shared effects instead of independent effects, suggesting that the positive biodiversity effect is closely associated with a sampling effect. The relative effects of richness, FGI and environment varied latitudinally: the independent effects of environment and richness decreased from boreal to subtropical forests, whereas the total effect of FGI increased. We also found that the slope of richness-biomass relationship decreased monotonically from boreal to subtropical forests, possibly because of decreasing complementarity and increasing competition with increasing productivity. Our results suggest that while species richness does have significant effects on forest biomass it is less important than environmental gradients and other biotic factors in shaping large-scale biomass patterns. We suggest that understanding how and why the diversity-EPs relationships change along climatic gradient would be helpful for a better understanding of real biodiversity effects in natural communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The average biodiversity maintenance function in China is growing slowly, and regional degradation and improvement coexist. • China's ecological network community has increased, the structure is more stable, and the connectivity is stronger. • Integrate ecological space network and complex network theory, and divide ecological network community. • The higher the importance of the source in the network, the higher the biodiversity maintenance function. • Adjusting the ecological network topology can improve biodiversity maintenance function. Enhancing and protecting biodiversity is a prerequisite for achieving "harmony between human beings and nature". With the disturbance of human activities, the landscape pattern is constantly changing, changing the flow of species, information, and energy within the landscape, which in turn has a significant impact on biodiversity. Therefore, based on the InVEST model, this paper obtained the spatial distribution of biodiversity maintenance function and established a Chinese biodiversity conservation empowerment network through GIS spatial analysis. Based on the complex network theory, the dynamic evolution characteristics of the ecological spatial network structure were analyzed, and the relationship between its topological structure and the conservation of terrestrial biodiversity was revealed. The results show that: biodiversity maintenance function is high in south, southwest, and northeast China and low in the west, and ecological corridors also show a dense distribution in the east and sparse in the west. Over the past 20 years, the average biodiversity maintenance function has grown slowly, and the ecological community of the network has increased, the structure is more stable, and the connectivity is stronger. The weight degree, betweenness centrality, PageRank, and eigenvector centrality were significantly correlated with biodiversity maintenance function, indicating that ecological network structure plays a huge role in maintaining biodiversity. By focusing on building significant correlation sources, and constructing corridors to adjust network connections, the integrity and connectivity of important habitats will be gradually restored, so that ecological land biodiversity function can exert greater ecological benefits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

New fossil-bearing horizons at the Gezidong and Jiaxikou localities, eastern Inner Mongolia, referred to as the Moqi fossil bed, yield a diverse fossil assemblage coined herein as "Moqi Fauna". The Moqi Fauna provides important insights into the evolution of some vertebrate clades, such as frogs and salamanders, and their Early Cretaceous diversification. In this paper, we report an improved chronology of the Moqi fossil bed based on SIMS and high-precision CA-ID-IRMS U-Pb zircon analyses of three tuff samples from horizons that are interstratified with the fossil-bearing layer at two localities. The SIMS U-Pb dating method applied on zircons from three samples gave dates of 117.8 ± 0.9/1.5 Ma, 117.7 ± 1.0/1.5 Ma, and 118.3 ± 1.2/1.7 Ma, respectively. Two high-precision CA-ID-IRMS U-Pb weighted mean 206Pb/238U ages of, 119.20 ± 0.38/0.38/0.72 Ma and 118.67 ± 0.13/0.14/0.28 Ma were also obtained. These findings indicate the age of the Moqi Fauna is ca. 119.20 Ma to 118.67 Ma. Comparison of the Moqi Fauna with the well-known Jehol Biota, as well as the Fuxin Biota of a slightly younger age, suggests that the Moqi Fauna was a distinct fauna which shows a potential link with the Jehol Biota. • We report the exceptional "Moqi Fauna" in eastern Inner Mongolia, China. • The "Moqi Fauna" is characterized by new and diverse fossil assemblages. • Mesozoic frog and salamander preserved together. • The Moqi fossil-bearing bed is precisely dated to 119.20–118.67 Ma. • Our study allows to better understand the vertebrate evolution and Early Cretaceous terrestrial ecosystem. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Soil water is the key abiotic limiting factor in desert areas and hydrological processes determine the vegetation composition, patterns and processes in desert regions. The hydrological processes can be altered by vegetation succession. In this paper, we review the major advances in ecohydrological research and their potential impact on plant-water relations in revegetated desert communities. The major advances in ecohydrological research over the past 50 years in desert areas were analyzed using a case study that investigated the long-term ecosystem effects of sand-binding vegetation in the Tengger Desert. Key challenges and opportunities for ecohydrology research in the future are also discussed in the context of the major scientific issues affecting sand binding vegetation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Effective flood management measures incorporate the flood mitigation functions of natural ecosystems, but the exact functions and effects of forests, grasslands and other ecosystems in mitigating floods are not clearly understood. In this paper, a flood mitigation assessment model was established based on the Soil Conservation Service (SCS) method, and the function and potential capacity of ecosystems for mitigating flooding in the Upper Yangtze River Basin (UYRB) were assessed. The monetary value of flood mitigation service was calculated by formulating an exponential function with respect to the amount of storm and flood damage. The results showed that ecosystems in the UYRB reduced flooding by a total of 42.8 billion cubic meters. Statistical equations developed for the amount of storm and flood damage gave an average of 6.479 billion RMB Yuan as the value of ecosystem flood mitigation in the UYRB. Despite their small cost, ecosystems have the potential to reduce flood damage by more than half, an indication of the important role of ecological systems in flood management. This approach can be used to identify high-value areas for ecological protection, and also to provide the governments at various levels with important information for decision-making related to integrated flood management. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Summary: Alpine meadow soil is an important ecosystem component of the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau. However, the alpine meadow soil is undergoing serious degradation mainly due to global climate change, overgrazing, human activities and rodents. In this paper, spatial sequencing was chosen over time succession sequencing to study the changes of soil hydraulic properties under different degrees of alpine meadow degradation. Soil saturated hydraulic conductivity (Ks) and Gardner α both at the surface and at 40–50cm depth were investigated in the field using tension infiltrometers. Soil physical and chemical properties, together with the root index at 0–10cm and 40–50cm soil layer depths were also analyzed. Pearson correlations were adopted to study the relationships among the investigated factors and principal component analysis was performed to identify the dominant factor. Results show that with increasing degree of degradation, soil sand content increased while soil Ks and Gardner α as well as soil clay content, soil porosity decreased in the 0–10cm soil layers, and organic matter and root gravimetric density decreased in both the 0–10cm and 40–50cm soil layers. However, soil moisture showed no significant changes with increasing degradation. With decreasing pressure head, soil unsaturated hydraulic conductivity reduced more slowly under degraded conditions than non-degraded conditions. Soil Ks and Gardner α were significantly correlated (P =0.01) with bulk density, soil porosity, soil organic matter and root gravimetric density. Among these, soil porosity is the dominant factor explaining about 90% of the variability in total infiltration flow. Under non-degraded conditions, the infiltration flow principally depended on the presence of macropores. With increasing degree of degradation, soil macropores quickly changed to mesopores or micropores. The proportion of total infiltration flow through macropores and mesopores significantly decreased with the most substantial decrease observed for the macropores in the 0–10cm soil layer. The substantial decrease of macropores caused a cut in soil moisture and hydraulic conductivity. This study improves the understanding and prediction of alpine meadow soil and ecosystem changes and provides guidelines for improving water flow modeling under the background of global climate change over the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau and similar regions. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Irrespective of which side is taken in the densification-sprawl debate, insights into the relationship between urban green space coverage and urbanization have been recognized as essential for guiding sustainable urban development. However, knowledge of the relationships between socio-economic variables of urbanization and long-term green space change is still limited. In this paper, using simple regression, hierarchical partitioning and multi-regression, the temporal trend in green space coverage and its relationship with urbanization were investigated using data from 286 cities between 1989 and 2009, covering all provinces in mainland China with the exception of Tibet. We found that: [1] average green space coverage of cities investigated increased steadily from 17.0% in 1989 to 37.3% in 2009; [2] cities with higher recent green space coverage also had relatively higher green space coverage historically; [3] cities in the same region exhibited similar long-term trends in green space coverage; [4] eight of the nine variables characterizing urbanization showed a significant positive linear relationship with green space coverage, with ‘per capita GDP’ having the highest independent contribution (24.2%); [5] among the climatic and geographic factors investigated, only mean elevation showed a significant effect; and [6] using the seven largest contributing individual factors, a linear model to predict variance in green space coverage was constructed. Here, we demonstrated that green space coverage in built-up areas tended to reflect the effects of urbanization rather than those of climatic or geographic factors. Quantification of the urbanization effects and the characteristics of green space development in China may provide a valuable reference for research into the processes of urban sprawl and its relationship with green space change. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

China's seas cover nearly 5 million square kilometers extending from the tropical to the temperate climate zones and bordering on 32,000 km of coastline, including islands. Comprehensive systematic study of the marine biodiversity within this region began in the early 1950s with the establishment of the Qingdao Marine Biological Laboratory of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Since that time scientists have carried out intensive multidisciplinary research on marine life in the China seas and have recorded 22,629 species belonging to 46 phyla. The marine flora and fauna of the China seas are characterized by high biodiversity, including tropical and subtropical elements of the Indo-West Pacific warm-water fauna in the South and East China seas, and temperate elements of North Pacific temperate fauna mainly in the Yellow Sea. The southern South China Sea fauna is characterized by typical tropical elements paralleled with the Philippine-New Guinea-Indonesia Coral triangle typi- cal tropical faunal center. This paper summarizes advanc- es in studies of marine biodiversity in China's seas and discusses current research mainly on characteristics and changes in marine biodiversity, including the monitoring, assessment, and conservation of endangered species and particularly the strengthening of effective management. Studies of (1) a tidal flat in a semi-enclosed embayment, (2) the impact of global climate change on a cold-water ecosystem, (3) coral reefs of Hainan Island and Xisha- Nansha atolls, (4) mangrove forests of the South China Sea, (5) a threatened seagrass field, and (6) an example of stock enhancement practices of the Chinese shrimp fishery are briefly introduced. Besides the overexploitation of living resources (more than 12.4 million tons yielded in 2007), the major threat to the biodiversity of the China seas is environmental deterioration (pollution, coastal construction), particularly in the brackish waters of estuarine environments, which are characterized by high productivity and represent spawning and nursery areas for several economically important species. In the long term, climate change is also a major threat. Finally, challenges in marine biodiversity studies are briefly discussed along with suggestions to strengthen the field. Since 2004, China has participated in the Census of Marine Life, through which advances in the study of zooplankton and zoobenthos biodiversity were finally summarized. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Maximal light use efficiency (LUE) is an important ecological index of a vegetation essential attribute, and a key parameter of the LUE-based model for estimating large-scale vegetation productivity by remote sensing technology. However, although currently used in different models there still exists extensive controversy. This paper takes the Zoige Plateau in China as a case area to develop a new approach for estimating the maximal LUEs for different vegetation. Based on an existing land cover map and MODIS NDVI product, the linear unmixing method with a moving window was adopted to estimate the time-series NDVI for different end members in a MODIS NDVI pixel; then Particle Swarm Optimizer (PSO) was applied to search for the optimization of LUE retrievals through the CASA (Carnegie-Ames-Stanford Approach) model combined with time-series NDVI and ground measurements. The derived maximal LUEs present significant differences among various vegetation types. These are 0.669 gC·MJ-1, 0.450 gC·MJ-1 and 0.126 gC·MJ-1 for the xerophilous grasslands with high, moderate and low vegetation fraction respectively, 0.192 gC·MJ-1 for the hygrophilous grasslands, and 0.125 gC·MJ-1 for the helobious grasslands. The field validation shows that the estimated net primary productivity (NPP) by the derived maximal LUE is closely related to the ground references, with R2 of 0.8698 and root-mean-square error (RMSE) of 59.37 gC·m-2·a-1. This indicates that the default set in the CASA model is not suitable for NPP estimation for the regional mountain area. The derived maximal LUEs can significantly improve the capability of NPP mapping, and open up the perspective for long-term monitoring of vegetation ecological health and ecosystem productivity by combining the LUE-based model with remote sensing observations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most of the world's terrestrial biome types can be found in China. To systematically investigate species composition and structure of China's forest communities, we launched a long-term project consisting forest vegetation surveys across China's mountains in the mid 1990s. Over the study period, we have conducted vegetation surveys for 65 mountains and collected vegetation data from about 1500 forest plots, using consistent sampling protocols. In this paper we first introduce the aims, protocols, and major research themes of the project, and then describe the major characteristics of forest communities and their geographic patterns and climatic controls. As latitude increased, diameter at breast height (DBH) and height of trees increased, while individual density of trees and woody species richness decreased. Total basal area (TBA) of trees and species richness of herbs did not vary with latitude. Contemporary climate seems to drive these patterns: temperature was the leading factor for DBH, precipitation was most important for tree height and individual density, actual evapotranspiration (a surrogate of productivity) determined woody (trees and shrubs) species richness, and rainfall was the major controller of the herb species richness. The species-abundance relationship showed that species dominance (measured by the number of individuals per species) declined significantly from boreal forests to evergreen broadleaf forests from north to south. Our results are in line with the idea that productivity drives woody species richness. Similarly, we find that biomass (measured as TBA) is invariant along the environmental gradients. However, individual density varies dramatically, in contrast to the assumptions underlying the metabolic theory of ecology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China is a large country by area. In situ monitoring of the environment cannot meet the demand of the society. For large areas, remote sensing is the only viable technology for environmental monitoring of the entire area. Although satellite observation capabilities as well as remotely sensed data acquired on board of satellites from both within and outside China are widely available, research is rare that targets the entire territory of China for environmental monitoring. In this paper, the process of environmental change has been categorized into changes in driving forces, environmental change, materials transport and transformation, concentration and abundance change, exposure and infection change of human and ecosystems, and impacts. The potential in monitoring changes in these various aspects is assessed. The progress of environmental change monitoring over the entire territory of China is reviewed. It is suggested that at the methodological level, remote sensing should not only be applied to observation and experiments as well as understanding the change mechanism, but also be coupled with environmental simulation and forecasting so as to support environmental policy making. At the application level, remote sensing should be used beyond its traditional application fields to include species diversity, biological invasion, public health, air and water quality monitoring. Finally, at the technical level, systematic research should be devoted to the improvement of operational and automatic use of remotely sensed data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Considering the traditional indicator of Green GDP and EDP, which ignored the ecological content when used to assess the regional sustainable development level, we proposed a new indicator, “EcoDP”, which consists of five sub-indicators: eco-service domestic product, eco-disaster domestic product, eco-construction domestic product, eco-threat domestic product, and eco-protection cost input, to distinguish the traditional EDP; we also suggest that the “EcoDP” should rather be divided into two main types: the “EcoDP value-stocked” and the “EcoDP value-added”. An analysis is carried out of China''s “EcoDP” change from 1999 to 2008, providing the following figures for the past 10 years: eco-service domestic product rose by 0.11 trillion yuan; eco-disaster domestic product increased by ¥1.03 trillion; eco-construction domestic product dropped by ¥9.8 billion; eco-threat domestic product rose by ¥114.4 billion; eco-protection cost input grew by ¥431.1 billion; and then we discussed the reasons for this change in China''s “EcoDP” from the perspectives of ecosystem, environment, resources and energies. Finally, based on various uncertainties regarding the research methodology adopted, the paper considers how to conduct quantified research and assessment for regional sustainable development in a comprehensive way in the future, in terms of GDP, EDP and social domestic product, like HDI. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Summary: Healthy phytoplankton communities are the basis of healthy water ecosystems, and form the foundation of many freshwater food webs. Globally many freshwater ecosystems are degraded because of intensive human activities, so water ecosystem restoration is a burning issue worldwide. Selection of key regions for phytoplankton-related restoration is crucial for an effective aquatic eco-restoration. This paper presents a practical method for identification of key regions for phytoplankton-related restoration, using random forests (RFs) method to cluster sites based on dominance, biodiversity, water chemistry and ecological niche. We sampled phytoplankton for species richness and relative abundance and water quality in the Huai River basin (HRB), China to determine the phytoplankton communities’ composition and structure and characterize of their ecological niches. A wider mean niche breadth of a species usually leads to a greater overlap with the niche of other species. Using these data and water quality indices, we identified the key regions for phytoplankton-related river restoration activities. Results indicate that our method for recognition of key regions is effective and practical and its application to the HRB identified the Northern Plain area as the key region for restoration. This area is severely polluted and contributes significantly to the HRB phytoplankton communities. Phytoplankton in this region is highly adaptable to environmental change and therefore will be relatively unharmed by environmental instability induced by restoration measures. During restoration, indices of water temperature, total phosphorus and chemical oxygen demand can be altered with little negative influence on phytoplankton communities, but measures that increase ammonia–nitrogen concentration would be highly detrimental. These results will provide valuable information for policy makers and stakeholders in water ecosystem restoration and sustainable basin management in the HRB. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Soil fauna are considered to be an important determinant of the litter decomposition in terrestrial ecosystems. However, the contributions of soil macrofauna and mesofauna to litter decomposition in semi-arid environments are not well-recognized. In this paper, litterbags with different mesh sizes (4.7 mm, 2 mm and 0.01 mm) were employed to examine the intraspecific differences in the decomposition of Stipa baicalensis, Achnatherum avinoides, Lespedeza davurica and Agropyron cristatum. In addition, the effects of soil macrofauna and mesofauna on litter decomposition were determined in Songnen sandy land. The results of this study showed that Prostigmata, Psocidae and Oribatida were dominant fauna in the litterbags. Significant intraspecific differences were found in litter decomposition rates, and the process of litter decomposition can be separated into two apparent stages. Ac. avinoides exhibited the highest contribution rate to litter decomposition, followed by Ag. cristatum, L. davurica and S. baicalensis. Contribution rates of macrofauna and mesofauna to litter decomposition were different. The rate of litter decomposition was positively correlated with the group density of fauna. Our results suggested that both macrofauna and mesofauna could accelerate litter decomposition and, consequently, nutrient cycling in semi-arid ecosystems, although their functional roles were different in litter decomposition. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Ecological indicator system (EIS) is widely used in ecosystem monitoring, assessment and management, building a bridge between scientists, environmental managers, and the general public. This paper explores a conceptual model for ecological indicator selection, and a quantitative selection model is formulated based on the conceptual model. The quantitative selection model is a typical zero-one type integer programming problem, and a binary-code genetic algorithm is proposed for solving it. Then the quantitative selection model and its solving method are applied to the Xiamen''s coastal ecosystem health framework which comprises 4 levels of ecosystem structure. In this case, the purpose is to reduce the indicator set to minimize overall management costs, and 19 indicators are discarded from the 54 candidate concrete indicators by our method. The selection modeling and its solving method are demonstrated to be a scientific and effective way for ecological indicator application. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The paper highlights the findings of a study from selected ecosystems in Indonesia, China and Japan. The study sought to trace changes to productive resources of ecosystems over a period of 50years; and trace the dependence of well-being of local populations on the ecosystems for the same time period. Data was collected from land-use maps, records and participatory rapid/rural appraisal (PRA) surveys in multistakeholder forums. To illustrate the changes, an indicator-based assessment framework was developed that integrates data from biophysical and socio-economic parameters. We observed that the approach (1) provides a better representation of the preferences of different stakeholders of ecosystem services, (2) fosters validation of data between the different stakeholders and (3) enables a communication and planning process among the stakeholders to sustainably utilize and manage their ecosystems. The use of spatial maps validates the relevance and utility of diachronic observations of communities and other stakeholders directly dependent on ecosystems. At the same time, they can be used to strengthen local planning processes for the development of services in the ecosystem. Such research thereby also acts as a catalyst to a social process of coordinated action to address local issues of global relevance. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: The complicated nature of regional development requires a more integrated approach to reflect its systematic picture. Multi-scale integrated analysis of societal metabolism (MSIASM) is such an approach as it integrates economic, social and ecological dimension. In this paper, we employ such an approach to evaluate regional societal and ecosystem metabolism in China. We set up a series of indicators to present different development perspectives and employ a complete decomposition model to further identify key factors for regional sustainable development. Our research outcomes indicate that both west and north China rely on natural resource for their development while east and south China have more balanced sector structure. We also found that urban areas, especially those large cities, have already reached the level of those developed countries. Thus, how to reduce the gap between urban and rural contexts will be the next challenge of the Chinese government. From temporal point of view, although in recent years China gained great achievement for economic development, there is a lack of attention on improving people’s life quality and social service. This requires a more balanced development strategy so that different regions can better utilize their resources and support each other and a more balanced sector structure so that economic development will not be always the main focus of regional government and more attention on improving social welfare will be paid. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

With an increasing population and rapid development of the economy and society of the Yellow River Basin region, the Yellow River is at crisis point. The discrepancy between supply and demand of water resources is a key issue. In 2000-2006, the mean annual discharge of the Yellow River entering the delta was 13.2 billion m3, a reduction of 18.6 billion m3 compared with the 1980s, and 9 billion m3 less than in the 1990s. The water requirements of various sectors are increasing. Large amounts of water essential to maintain the health of the delta ecosystem have been diverted for other users. The lower river channel is shrinking and the threat of flooding is becoming severe. Moreover, water pollution is increasing to a serious level; the river mouth ecosystem is subject to degradation. Due to overall decreased flow into the delta, and almost no flow into the delta for much of the year except in wet periods, biodiversity is threatened and there has been degradation of the ecological environment. In view of the water scarcity and variation in water supply, particularly in the context of climate change, measures need to be taken to realise sustainable water use in the Yellow River Delta region. In view of the lack of a complete index system for sustainable utilisation of regional water resources in China, this paper examines the major countermeasures for sustainable water use in the region. A rational adjustment mechanism for water prices is needed. Adjustment of agricultural infrastructure and water saving need to be directed by water prices, and thus the reasonable exploitation of groundwater must also be directed by water prices. Participation of the public is to be encouraged, with the development of a water user association that will become involved in formulating water rights, water allocation and water prices. Decision-making, management and supervision of this association will be done in a democratic way to promote the social management of water saving. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: Reliability of traditional methodologies is often challenged in determination of instream ecological flow (IEF) for a regulated river due to its non-natural condition. This paper deals with an IEF determination method for regulated rivers called the Adapted Ecological Hydraulic Radius Approach (AEHRA). It considers information of both instream ecosystem and river course, while it does not require any flow regime. Beside monthly IEF, it outputs monthly Instream Ecological Water-level (IEW) as well. The latter can greatly facilitate dam operation. Application of this method to the Huai River which is completely regulated by dams suggest: (1) AEHRA is especially predictive for rivers with limited ecological and hydrological data; (2) it can reflect the seasonal variation of IEF and IEW; (3) errors of AEHRA introduced by using a geometric shape generalized cross-section in an un-gauged site are generally acceptable; (4) comparison of the IEF values estimated by AEHRA with those by Tennant approach, Wetted Perimeter method and R2CROSS method showed fairly good agreement in terms of practical capability of the AEHRA. This method will be of great help for regionally sustainable water management in data-scarce regulated rivers [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Emergy evaluation provided global performance indicators that were used to assess the impact of waste exchanges on the sustainability of a sulfuric acid production system (SAPS) and a titanium dioxide production system (TDPS) in Pan-zhi-hua City, China. Impact of emissions was quantified in terms of emergy and integrated into the classic emergy-based indicators. Results show that waste exchanges improve the sustainability of the two systems, although the SAPS benefits more from the waste exchanges than the TDPS from an economic perspective however, the impact of emissions reduces their sustainability to some degree. This study creates awareness and brings new insight to the gains achieved with resource recovery from waste in the interrelated industrial systems, which is derived from the mutualism relationship existing in natural ecosystems. Finally, this paper puts forward some corresponding suggestions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Fluctuations in atmospheric CO2 density can arise from static pressure fluctuations but their effect on the long-term eddy covariance (EC) CO2 flux measurement is poorly known. In this paper, we report the results of a 1-year direct measurement of the static pressure fluctuations and the velocity–pressure covariance over a mixed forest in Northeast China. The results show that the pressure–vertical velocity covariance was primarily controlled by friction velocity and air stability. Without the pressure correction, the open-path EC measurement of the nighttime ecosystem respiration was biased low and that of the daytime photosynthetic CO2 uptake was biased high. Over the 1-year measurement period, the cumulative pressure correction was 40gCm−2, which was about 20% of the annual net ecosystem production of this forest. Using the friction velocity data found in the literature, we estimated the magnitudes of the pressure correction for the major ecosystem types in the long-term global EC network (FluxNet). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Wetlands, with their many values and important functions, are precious resources. They have, however, undergone great changes during economic development and population growth. Relying on recent advances in remote sensing and geographic information system (GIS) techniques, this paper probes changes in wetland landscapes on Yinchuan Plain during 1978-2006. A series of remote sensing images was used to identify wetland landscape types. Landscape pattern indices, such as patch number, patch density, landscape shape, and Shannon's diversity, evenness, and contagion indices were calculated with GIS and landscape analysis software. Changes in wetland landscape patterns on Yinchuan Plain were analyzed. The analysis show that the total area of wetlands on Yinchuan Plain decreased from 391,540,239 m2 in 1978 to 267,979,957 m2 in 2006, a significant change over 28 years. The area of rivers and lakes has shrunk, and the area of paddies has increased consistently, with increasing wetland fragmentation and heterogeneity. The number of patches, patch density, and landscape shape index shows that wetland landscape patterns have undergone great changes. The landscape diversity, landscape evenness, and contagion indices indicate that wetland landscapes have become less heterogeneous. We discuss the causes of these changes and the sustainable development of wetland ecosystems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Under a scenario of global climate change, the water conservation function of Beijing's forest ecosystems has attracted considerable public attention. In this paper, the term of water conservation is described as a comprehensive regulation of forests on water resources through various hydrological processes, and grouped into three services, i.e., rainfall interception, soil water storage and fresh water provision. On the basis of Beijing's forest resource survey data and mathematical simulations, the function and the economic value of water conservation was estimated. The result showed that, the forest ecosystems of Beijing could intercept approximately 1.43 billion cubic meters of rainfall and 277.82 million cubic meters of soil water under ideal conditions, and supply 286.67 million cubic meters of fresh water, their economic values were estimated to be about 2.77 billion RMB(Chinese Currency, 8.28RMB=US$1), 2.15 billion RMB, and 315.33 million RMB, respectively. The total economic value of water conservation provided by Beijing's forests was 5.23 billion RMB, and the economic benefit per hectare was equal to 5704 RMB. Furthermore, the spatial variation of water conservation functions and the monetary values of the main forest ecosystems in different locations in Beijing were analyzed, and the effects of water conservation provided by the forest ecosystem on the development of society and economy in Beijing were discussed. This work contributes to the realization and preservation of forest resources in Beijing. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The relationship between species diversity and ecotope diversity has long been debated. But these debates seem meaningless because most of them were based on different definitions. In this paper, diversity has two components: richness based on the total number and evenness based on the relative abundance. Species diversity is distinguished into individual-counting diversity and biomass-based diversity. Ecotope diversity is divided into individual ecotope-counting diversity and ecotope-area based diversity. Under this definition, we make a comprehensive investigation into Dongzhi tableland of Loess Plateau by cooperating with local technicians. We find that individual-counting diversity is significantly correlated with biomass-based diversity in grassland ecosystems; individual ecotope-counting diversity and ecotope-area based diversity have a significant correlation. Therefore, it is unnecessary to divide species diversity into individual-counting diversity and biomass-based diversity in grassland ecosystems and to distinguish ecotope diversity into individual ecotope-counting and ecotope-area based diversity for the issues that have no special requirement for accuracy. But the analyses of the investigation data demonstrate that species diversity has no significant correlation with ecotope diversity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This paper presents a multilayered ecosystem modelling approach that combines the simulation of the biogeochemistry of a coastal ecosystem with the simulation of the main forcing functions, such as catchment loading and aquaculture activities. This approach was developed as a tool for sustainable management of coastal ecosystems. A key feature is to simulate management scenarios that account for changes in multiple uses and enable assessment of cumulative impacts of coastal activities. The model was applied to a coastal zone in China with large aquaculture production and multiple catchment uses, and where management efforts to improve water quality are under way. Development scenarios designed in conjunction with local managers and aquaculture producers include the reduction of fish cages and treatment of wastewater. Despite the reduction in nutrient loading simulated in three different scenarios, inorganic nutrient concentrations in the bay were predicted to exceed the thresholds for poor quality defined by Chinese seawater quality legislation. For all scenarios there is still a Moderate High to High nutrient loading from the catchment, so further reductions might be enacted, together with additional decreases in fish cage culture. The model predicts that overall, shellfish production decreases by 10%–28% using any of these development scenarios, principally because shellfish growth is being sustained by the substances to be reduced for improvement of water quality. The model outcomes indicate that this may be counteracted by zoning of shellfish aquaculture at the ecosystem level in order to optimize trade-offs between productivity and environmental effects. The present case study exemplifies the value of multilayered ecosystem modelling as a tool for Integrated Coastal Zone Management and for the adoption of ecosystem approaches for marine resource management. This modelling approach can be applied worldwide, and may be particularly useful for the application of coastal management regulation, for instance in the implementation of the European Marine Strategy Framework Directive. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: The downward solar or shortwave radiation (SWD) and atmospheric longwave radiation (LWD) play essential roles in controlling alpine environment and ecosystem. Meanwhile, utilization of solar energy has a growing demand by local residents, due to high energy cost in high altitude regions. However, it is always costly for acquiring the radiation data and there are few studies on the radiation modeling in these regions. This paper presented the major characteristics of SWD and LWD over the Tibetan Plateau (TP), which were measured at 11 stations built in the region. The results showed that LWD received by TP is much lower than that of its surrounding areas and their monthly-mean differences can be up to 100Wm−2. On the contrary, SWD over TP is significantly higher than that over its surrounding areas, due to low extinction rate of airmass, water vapor, and aerosol occurred in TP. The recorded maximum value (∼0.9) of daily-mean transmittances much exceeds the upper bound (∼0.75) implied in most of the Angström–Prescott models; therefore, these models may under-estimate SWD over TP. One set of surface data-based estimate by a non-Angström–Prescott model and two sets of satellite estimates were also evaluated against the measurements. It is found that the surface data-based estimate, though not calibrated locally, shows a good agreement with the measurements and has an advantage of producing less root-mean-square errors and higher correlation coefficients than the satellite estimates. Under this condition, it is suggested to combine both the surface data-based estimate together with the satellite estimates in order to improve the accuracy of the SWD and LWD data. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This paper describes the development of a land use model coupling ecosystem processes. For a given land use pattern in a region, a built-in regional ecosystem model (TESim) simulates leaf physiology of plants, carbon and nitrogen dynamics, and hydrological processes including runoff generation and run-on re-absorption, as well as runoff-induced soil erosion and carbon and nitrogen loss from ecosystems. The simulation results for a certain period from 1976 to 1999 were then used to support land use decisions and to assess the impacts of land use changes on environment. In the coupling model, the land use type for a land unit was determined by optimization of a weighted suitability derived from expert knowledge about the ecosystem state and site conditions. The model was applied to the temperate crop-pasture band in northern China (CCPB) to analyze the interactions between land use and major ecosystem processes and functions and to indicate the added value of the feedbacks by comparing simulations with and without the coupling and feedbacks between land use module and ecosystem processes. The results indicated that the current land use in CCPB is neither economical nor ecologically judicious. The scenario with feedbacks increased NPP by 46.78gCm−2 a−1, or 32.23% of the scenario without feedbacks, also decreased soil erosion by 0.65kgm−2 a−1, or 23.13%. Without altering the regional land use structure (proportions of each land use type). The system developed in this study potentially benefits both land managers and researchers. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Midlatitude regions experienced frequent droughts during the twentieth century, but their impacts on terrestrial carbon balance are unclear. This paper presents a century-scale study of drought effects on the carbon balance of terrestrial ecosystems in China. The authors first characterized the severe extended droughts over the period 1901–2002 using the Palmer drought severity index and then examined how these droughts affected the terrestrial carbon dynamics using tree-ring width chronologies and a process-based biogeochemistry model, the Terrestrial Ecosystem Model (TEM). It is found that China suffered from a series of severe extended droughts during the twentieth century. The major drought periods included 1920–30, 1939–47, 1956–58, 1960–63, 1965–68, 1978–80, and 1999–2002. Most droughts generally reduced net primary productivity (NPP) and net ecosystem productivity (NEP) in large parts of drought-affected areas. Moreover, some of the droughts substantially reduced the countrywide annual NPP and NEP. Out of the seven droughts, three (1920–30, 1965–68, and 1978–80) caused the countrywide terrestrial ecosystems to switch from a carbon sink to a source, and one (1960–63) substantially reduced the magnitude of the countrywide terrestrial carbon sink. Strong decreases in NPP were mainly responsible for the anomalies in annual NEP during these drought periods. Changes in heterotrophic respiration happened in the same direction, but mostly with smaller magnitude. The results show that severe extended droughts had significant effects on terrestrial carbon cycling in China, although future studies should consider other important processes such as drought-induced mortality and regrowth, land-use change, disturbances (e.g., fire), human management (e.g., fertilization and irrigation), and environmental pollution (e.g., ozone pollution, nitrogen deposition). These drought effects are of particular importance in light of projected widespread summer drying in midlatitude regions during the twenty-first century. Future droughts could lead to a reduced terrestrial carbon sink or even a source and exert a positive feedback to the global climate system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Harmful algal blooms (HABs) have drawn great attention in coastal areas worldwide in the past decades because of their multiple effects on marine ecosystems as well as public health. This study utilized geographic information system (GIS) techniques to analyze the primary data on HABs, as well as shellfish toxins data, in the East China Sea from 2000 to 2006. The frequency of HABs was mapped by kernel density estimation, and the relative risk posed by HABs was assessed based on their physical–chemical characteristics. In addition, the spatial patterns and the trend of HAB events were examined by nearest neighbor analysis and time series analysis, respectively. The results revealed that HAB events not only had an increasing trend and significant seasonality, but also were clustered in space and time. HAB events displayed a higher frequency and a higher risk in Zhejiang coastal waters, particularly in the Zhoushan Archipelago, the largest marine fishery in China. Shellfish toxins were detected in areas with high HAB risk, but were not correlated with the risk. This paper provides a novel method to assess the relative risk caused by HABs and some useful information for HAB monitoring and management and aquaculture development. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]