Search

In order to investigate the effects of brassinolide (BR) on the ecological stoichiometric characteristics and internal stability of plants in slope ecological protection under different drought conditions, the biomass, proline content, nutrient content, and internal stability of tall fescue (Festuca arundinacea) in three stress periods were analyzed by weighing water control method, with three drought degrees (75% ± 5%), mild drought (55% ± 5%) and severe drought (35% ± 5%) and four BR concentrations (0 mg/L, 0.05 mg/L, 0.2 mg/L and 0.5 mg/L). The results showed that drought stress resulted in a decrease in plant biomass and nutrient content, and there were differences in carbon, nitrogen and phosphorus contents and their stoichiometric ratios in different organs. Spraying suitable concentration of BR could alleviate plant nutrient loss and promote nutrient accumulation of the tall fescue. Under normal water spraying conditions 0.2 mg/L, under mild and severe drought conditions with spraying of 0.5 mg/L BR, it is most suitable for the nutrient accumulation in tall fescue. The tall fescue showed high sensitivity to exogenous BR input, and the internal stability of the underground part of the tall fescue increased clearly. BR is propitious to the synthesis of proline and enhances the drought resistance of plants. According to stoichiometric characteristics, BR can improve the nitrogen and phosphorus utilization efficiency of tall fescue to a certain extent, and the results of the nitrogen and phosphorus ratio show that nitrogen is the main factor limiting plant growth in a vegetation concrete ecological restoration system, which can supplement nitrogen to accelerate the process of vegetation restoration. The application of BR can improve the biomass and stress resistance of tall fescue, adjust the nutrient distribution strategy and stoichiometric stability, and alleviate the adverse effects of drought on plants. This study provides new ideas and methods for ecological restoration and vegetation reconstruction in arid areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Arithmetic Optimization Algorithm (AOA) is a meta-heuristic algorithm inspired by mathematical operators, which may stagnate in the face of complex optimization issues. Therefore, the convergence and accuracy are reduced. In this paper, an AOA variant called ASFAOA is proposed by integrating a double-opposite learning mechanism, an adaptive spiral search strategy, an offset distribution estimation strategy, and a modified cosine acceleration function formula into the original AOA, aiming to improve the local exploitation and global exploration capability of the original AOA. In the proposed ASFAOA, a dual-opposite learning strategy is utilized to enhance population diversity by searching the problem space a lot better. The spiral search strategy of the tuna swarm optimization is introduced into the addition and subtraction strategy of AOA to enhance the AOA's ability to jump out of the local optimum. An offset distribution estimation strategy is employed to effectively utilize the dominant population information for guiding the correct individual evolution. In addition, an adaptive cosine acceleration function is proposed to perform a better balance between the exploitation and exploration capabilities of the AOA. To demonstrate the superiority of the proposed ASFAOA, two experiments are conducted using existing state-of-the-art algorithms. First, The CEC 2017 benchmark function was applied with the aim of evaluating the performance of ASFAOA on the test function through mean analysis, convergence analysis, stability analysis, Wilcoxon signed rank test, and Friedman's test. The proposed ASFAOA is then utilized to solve the wireless sensor coverage problem and its performance is illustrated by two sets of coverage problems with different dimensions. The results and discussion show that ASFAOA outperforms the original AOA and other comparison algorithms. Therefore, ASFAOA is considered as a useful technique for practical optimization problems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Against the backdrop of China's growing environmental concerns, investing in green technology innovation is a crucial solution to achieve the goal of "carbon peak and carbon neutrality". Combining the perspectives of signaling theory and corporate governance theory, we use a sample of Chinese-listed companies from 2008 to 2020 to investigate the influence of analysts' green coverage (AGC) on corporate green innovation (CGI) and the moderating effect of corporate environmental information disclosure (CEID) based on a textual analysis approach. The results show that AGC can significantly promote the quantity and quality of CGI, and CEID has a positive moderating effect on the process. Moreover, the mechanism analysis reveals that enhancing investors' value recognition, improving corporate reputation capital, alleviating corporate financing constraints, reducing management agency costs, and curbing managerial myopia are the influence mechanisms of AGC on CGI. Additionally, the positive effect of AGC is more significant for firms located in regions with a favorable institutional environment, firms belonging to heavily polluting industries, and firms that have not adopted continuous innovation strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on vegetation-soil nutrient monitoring data under different precipitation conditions, this study investigated the impact of precipitation changes on the ecological restoration process of disturbed slopes. Precipitation change, to a certain extent, changed the carbon (C), nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) content and the stoichiometric ratio of the soil–plant system. With the increase of the weekly precipitation from 10 to 20 mm, the C content of Cynodon and Indigofera Amblyantha Craib on each slope gradually increased, increased by 8.69% and 4.28%, respectively, compared with the initial recovery period, and the N/P of Cynodon increased from 3.81 to 4.94, and the N limit gradually decreased, while the limit of P increased continuously. The efficiency of the coordinated utilization of N and P of the Indigofera Amblyantha Craib increased, which had a certain adaptability to changes in precipitation. The C/N and C/P in the soil first increased and then decreased, and reached the peak at the slope of 15 mm precipitation, while the N/P fluctuated around 0.35 overall. N was an important element restricting the growth of grass, while P was an important influencing element limiting the growth of shrubs. This also showed that soil C, N and P had a good promoting effect on plant growth, and the self-regulating nutrient utilization strategies of different growth forms of plants under different precipitation conditions differed. There was a coupling effect in the contents of C, N, P and their stoichiometric ratio in the soil–plant system, and stoichiometry and elastic ecological interactions jointly controlled the supply and demand of elements in the plants, but there was no consistent temporal pattern of nutrient ecological stoichiometric ratio in the plant–soil system during the recovery process, thus requiring further research and evaluation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]