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Throughout his over 60-year career, professor Xu Zhonglin demonstrated through words and actions that fostering virtue is a teacher's duty, educating is a teacher's foundation, practicing what one preaches is a teacher's way, ideals and beliefs are the basis of a teacher's self-cultivation, morality is the path to a teacher's success, solid knowledge is a teacher's root, and love is a teacher's enduring virtue. On the other hand, through diligence and exploration, he gained valuable insights into teaching wisdom, such as the integration of being "a teacher of books" and "a teacher of human beings", the mutual enhancement of research and teaching, and the balance between "self-improvement" and "helping others". These qualities and wisdom collectively constitute Professor Xu's unique spirit as an educator, showcasing the demeanor of "a Great Master" of the times.

With the intensification of global climate change, inland river basins in arid desert regions are facing serious challenges in water supply and ecological and environmental protection. A water ecological security assessment is important as a key management tool in the context of inland river basins situated in arid desert areas. This study evaluated the water ecological security of the Hotan River Basin based on a combination of the Ecology–Produce–Life Space perspective and the Drive–Pressure–Status–Influence–Respond (DPSIR) model. The entropy value method and the composite index method were employed for this purpose, and a regression analysis was used to establish a prediction model to forecast the future water ecological security status. The results show that from 2013 to 2020, the water ecological security status of the Hotan River Basin exhibited a fluctuating upward trend, shifting from an average to a good status. The pressure layer has the greatest impact on water ecological security, while the ecological space within the Ecology–Produce–Life Space is increasing in the overall share year by year. In the future, the water ecological safety condition of the Hotan River Basin is expected to improve and remain in good condition. Taking the Hotan River Basin as an example, the results of this study, combining the Ecology–Produce–Life Space perspectives and the DPSIR model, provide in-depth theoretical and practical value for the evaluation and prediction of water ecological security in inland river basins in arid desert areas, provide a scientific basis and feasible suggestions for relevant decision-making, and emphasize the importance of ecological spatial protection and restoration for the sustainable development of human society and ecosystems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The restoration of alpine grasslands has garnered significant attention across various sectors. Historically, natural restoration has been the primary approach for grassland recovery, characterized by its prolonged duration. To expedite the recovery of degraded grasslands, it is essential to identify the limiting factors of restoration, enabling efficient and rapid recovery. Appropriate nitrogen (N) addition levels have been considered a potential strategy to enhance the recovery of grassland ecosystems and augment their ecological benefits. However, the effectiveness of N addition in alpine grassland restoration remains debated. This study investigated the impact of five N addition levels (CK: control [0 g/m2]; LN: low N [5 g/m2]; MN: medium N [10 g/m2]; HN: high N [15 g/m2]; SN: severe N [20 g/m2]) and two experimental approaches (N addition once per year [NPY] and three times per year [NTY] at the same dosages) on plant and soil properties and the maximum restoration capacity of alpine meadows. Our findings reveal three key insights: The level of N addition was the primary factor influencing aboveground plant biomass and coverage. Plant diversity decreased under the NTY regime and increased with NPY in the Bayinbruck grassland. N addition significantly altered soil properties, including pH, salinity, soil organic carbon (SOC), soil‐available phosphorus (AP), and soil total phosphorus (TP). Notably, soil TP, total nitrogen (TN), and AP substantially impacted plant community structure and diversity. Based on structural equation model (SEM) and analysis of variance (ANOVA), optimal grassland restoration was achieved with the HN (15 g/m2) treatment under NPY and the MN and HN (10 and 15 g/m2) treatments under NTY. Overall, our study offers crucial insights into the conservation, management, and restoration of grassland ecosystems on the Bayinbruck Plateau. It underscores the significance of N addition effects on plant communities, vegetation restoration, and soil properties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Ili River Basin, a crucial transboundary river in the arid region of Central Asia, plays a significant role in the region's ecology and water resources. However, current methods for monitoring glacier area changes in this region face challenges in automation and accuracy due to the complex terrain and climatic conditions. This study aims to evaluate the effectiveness of the Google Earth Engine (GEE) platform for monitoring glacier area changes in the Ili River Basin from 1992 to 2020, with a focus on improving data accuracy and processing efficiency. Utilizing the Landsat data series, we employed the random forest (RF) classification algorithm within the GEE platform to extract glacier areas, optimizing a multidimensional feature set using the Jeffries–Matusita (JM) distance method, and applied visual interpretation for data refinement. Our results demonstrated that the GEE platform, combined with the RF algorithm, provided high accuracy in glacier monitoring, achieving an overall accuracy of 89% and a kappa coefficient of 0.85. During the study period, the glacier area in the Ili River Basin decreased by 184.76 km2, with an average annual retreat rate of 6.84 km2, most notably between 3800 and 4400 m in elevation. The analysis revealed that temperature changes had a more pronounced impact on glacier dynamics than precipitation. This approach significantly enhances image utilization efficiency and data processing speed, offering a reliable tool for monitoring glacier dynamics. Future research should focus on integrating additional environmental variables and extending the temporal scope to further refine glacier dynamics modeling and predictions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nowadays, many institutions have built information systems to support core businesses, and remote management, centralized management, and integrated dynamic management have become the most concerned issues for people. This article is based on the Restful representational state transfer data interface to build an integrated digital management platform micro application. RestFul enables secure data interaction between the user and server ends. Load the system in this article onto 15 different computers, with a data level disaster recovery implementation recovery point objective of no more than 5 minutes, and an recovery time objective business recovery time of no more than 4 hours. This article helps to improve the security of data transmission. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a distinct species in the Tianshan Mountains (TS) of Central Asia (CA), Picea schrenkiana plays a significant role in water purification, soil and water conservation, and climate regulation. In the context of climate change, rapidly and accurately obtaining its spatial distribution has critical decision-making significance for maintaining ecological security in the arid area of CA and the sustainable development of the "Silk Road Economic Belt". However, conventional methods are extremely challenging to accomplish the high-resolution mapping of Picea schrenkiana in the TS, which is characterized by a wide range (9.97 × 105 km2) and complex terrain. The approach of geo-big data and cloud computing provides new opportunities to address this issue. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to propose an automatic extraction procedure for the spatial distribution of Picea schrenkiana based on Google Earth Engine and the Jeffries–Matusita (JM) distance, which considered three aspects: sample points, remote-sensing images, and classification features. The results showed that (1) after removing abnormal samples and selecting the summer image, the producer accuracy (PA) of Picea schrenkiana was improved by 2.95% and 0.24%–2.10%, respectively. (2) Both the separation obtained by the JM distance and the analysis results of eight schemes showed that spectral features and texture features played a key role in the mapping of Picea schrenkiana. (3) The JM distance can seize the classification features that are most conducive to the mapping of Picea schrenkiana, and effectively improve the classification accuracy. The PA and user accuracy of Picea schrenkiana were 96.74% and 96.96%, respectively. The overall accuracy was 91.93%, while the Kappa coefficient was 0.89. (4) The results show that Picea schrenkiana is concentrated in the middle TS and scattered in the remaining areas. In total, 85.7%, 66.4%, and 85.9% of Picea schrenkiana were distributed in the range of 1500–2700 m, 20–40°, and on shady slope and semi-shady slope, respectively. The automatic procedure adopted in this study provides a basis for the rapid and accurate mapping of the spatial distribution of coniferous forests in the complex terrain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Arid regions are considered to be among the most ecologically fragile and highly sensitive to environmental change globally, and land use and land cover conditions in the region directly influence large-scale ecosystem processes. Currently, thanks to diverse remote sensing platforms, geographers have developed an array of land cover products. However, there are differences between these products due to variations in spatio-temporal resolutions. In this context, assessing the accuracy and consistency of different land cover products is crucial for rationalizing the selection of land cover products to study global or regional environmental changes. In this study, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region (XUAR) is taken as the study area, and the consistency and performance (type area deviation, spatial consistency, accuracy assessment, and other indexes) of the five land cover products (GlobeLand30, FROM_GLC30, CLCD, GLC_FCS30, and ESRI) were compared and analyzed. The results of the study show that (1) the GlobeLand30 product has the highest overall accuracy in the study area, with an overall accuracy of 84.06%, followed by ESA with 75.57%, while CLCD has the lowest overall accuracy of 70.05%. (2) The consistency between GlobeLand30 and CLCD (area correlation coefficient of 0.99) was higher than that among the other products. (3) Among the five products, the highest consistency was found for water bodies and permanent snow and ice, followed by bare land. In contrast, the consistency of these five products for grassland and forest was relatively low. (4) The full-consistency area accounts for 49.01% of the total study area. They were mainly distributed in areas with relatively homogeneous land cover types, such as the north and south of the Tianshan Mountains, which are dominated by bare land and cropland. In contrast, areas of inconsistency make up only 0.03% and are mostly found in heterogeneous areas, like the transitional zones with mixed land cover types in the Altai Mountains and Tianshan Mountains, or in areas with complex terrain. In terms of meeting practical user needs, GlobeLand30 offers the best comprehensive performance. GLC_FCS30 is more suitable for studies related to forests, while FROM_GLC30 and ESRI demonstrate greater advantages in identifying permanent ice and snow, whereas the performance of CLCD is generally average. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Interception is one of the most underestimated processes in hydrological cycle in arid and semiarid regions. In Qilian Mountains of northwestern arid and semiarid China, the Qinghai spruce (Picea crassifolia) forest plays an important role in the hydrological cycle of the inland Heihe River basin. The historical disturbance of Qinghai spruce forest has resulted in various ecological problems. In order to realize the sustainable development of Heihe River basin, the Chinese government implemented restoration practices for Qinghai spruce in the past three decades. In this study, we estimated the rainfall interception in the actual and potential distribution of Qinghai spruce forest. Some of the important findings include: (1) The interception ratio of rainfall events ranged from 11-51% with a mean value of 27.02%; (2) Totally, 147 Mt of rainfall is intercepted by canopy of actual Qinghai spruce forest, in the projected potential distribution of the forest, totally 407 Mt of rainfall will be intercepted.

Predicting trends in land use/cover change (LUCC) and assessing future ecological security (ES) can help effectively balance regional ecological conservation and economic development. In this study, a land use simulation model was used to predict the spatial-temporal variation in land use in Kashgar in 2030 under three scenarios (inertial development, agricultural land protection, and forest and rangeland conservation). Subsequently, by combining the pressure–state–response model and predicted land use, the ES of the Kashgar region in 2000, 2010, and 2020 were evaluated. We found that (1) only agricultural land and built-up land in the Kashgar region increased from 2000–2020 by 4174.79 and 434.44 km2, respectively. (2) The area of the region belonging to a generally safe level or above decreased from 38.36% in 2000 to 36.89% in 2010 and then increased to 37.71% in 2020. (3) In 2030, the ES status under the three scenarios will be improved, among which the agricultural land protection scenario corresponds to the best ES status. This research is valuable for deeply understanding the interaction mechanism between LUCC and ES in typical artificial oases in arid areas of the Kashgar region and sustaining relatively stable internal structures and socioeconomic activities in the arid oasis of the Kashgar region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]