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Livelihood is a complex system that includes environmental, economic, social, and institutional dimensions, driving the evolution of the relationship between individuals and geographical environment. Further research on how people value and envision their livelihoods may help to better develop plans and incentives aimed at protecting and restoring ecosystem services. Therefore, it is necessary to understand the current livelihoods status of local households, to identify underlying factors that affect their current and future livelihood strategy, thereby providing policy references for grassland optimization and the sustainable development of pastorists’ livelihoods. In this study, researchers collected data by surveying 427 households from the Hulunbuir grasslands of China. We find that the pastoral livelihood strategies currently are dominated by pastoral husbandry (pure pastoral husbandry or dominant pastoral husbandry) and supplemented by concurrent household occupations (dominant non-pastoral husbandry and non-pastoral husbandry); the households' future livelihood strategy is mainly to expand pastoral husbandry. Our analysis shows again, livelihood asset possession has a significant influence on pastoral families' current and future choices of livelihood strategies. In particular, the ownership of social assets, geographical advantage, and 'production assets', which consist of natural, physical, and financial assets, have significant influences on pastoral households' current livelihood strategy but non-significant impacts on their future livelihood strategy. Human assets and informational assets significantly influence both current and future livelihood strategies of pastoral households. We emphasize that livelihood assets can be the entry point for policies aiming to linking sustainable livelihoods with sustainable grassland use and conservation, particularly at a regional level.

Accurately identifying the functional orientation of the different components of a circular agricultural (CA) system is crucial for improving the ecological efficiency of the system. However, the functional orientation still needs more in-depth quantitative analysis. This study serves as a feasible way of solving this problem. An energy flow model has been developed based on the Odum Energy System Language, which is a method based on mathematics, energy flows, cybernetics and hierarchical relationship and can effectively modelling the agriculture resources recycling and environmental impact. The case study of the CA system of Fuqing Xingyuan Company has been conducted, quantitatively analyzing the functional orientation differences between different components in the CA system. The results showed that: (1) The dragon fruit planting system benefited from recyclable resources, but did not contribute recyclable resources, and was positioned as a “beneficiary system”. If the planting amount of the dragon fruit increasing by 10% (Scenario 1), the resources allocation would be unbalanced, and the total economic output of the CA system would reduce by 0.17% annually; otherwise, it would increase by 0.29% (Scenario 2); (2) The pig breeding system drove the overall operation of the system and provided recyclable resources for other components, and was position as “drive system”. If the breeding amount increases by 10% (Scenario 3), the pig breeding system would increase the recyclable resource input of the CA system, and the total economic output of the CA system would rise and fluctuate, increasing by 0.20% annually. Otherwise, the average annual reduction would be 0.59% (Scenario 4). The changing trend of the economic output under different scenarios supported the results of functional orientation analysis. It provides an effective way to identify the functional orientation of different components in a CA system based on the Energy System Language.