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Dynamics of plant communities during forest succession have been received great attention in the past decades, yet information about soil microbial communities that are involved in carbon cycling remains limited. Here we investigated soil microbial community composition and carbohydrate degradation potential using metagenomic analysis and examined their influencing factors in three successional subtropical forests in southern China. Results showed that the abundances of soil bacteria and fungi increased (p ≤ 0.05 for both) with forest succession in relation to both soil and litter characteristics, whereas the bacterial diversity did not change (p > 0.05) and the fungal diversity of Shannon-Wiener index even decreased (p ≤ 0.05). The abundances of microbial carbohydrate degradation functional genes of cellulase, hemicellulase, and pectinase also increased with forest succession (p ≤ 0.05 for all). However, the chitinase gene abundance did not change with forest succession (p > 0.05) and the amylase gene abundance decreased firstly in middlesuccession forest and then increased in late-succession forest. Further analysis indicated that changes of functional gene abundance in cellulase, hemicellulase, and pectinase were primarily affected by soil organic carbon, soil total nitrogen, and soil moisture, whereas the variation of amylase gene abundance was well explained by soil phosphorus and litterfall. Overall, we created a metagenome profile of soil microbes in subtropical forest succession and fostered our understanding of microbially-mediated soil carbon cycling. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Goji berry (Lycium barbarum L.) is a famous edible and medicinal herb worldwide with considerable consumption. The recent cultivation of goji berries in the Daodi region was seriously reduced due to increased production costs and the influence of policy on preventing nongrain use of arable land in China. Consequently, production of Daodi goji berry was insufficient to meet market demands for high-quality medicinal materials. Searching for regions similar to the Daodi region was necessary. Methods: The MaxEnt model was used to predicted the current and future potential regions suitable for goji berry in China based on the environmental characteristics of the Daodi region (including Zhongning County of Zhongwei prefecture-level city, and its surroundings), and the ArcGIS software was used to analyze the changes in its suitable region. Results: The results showed that when the parameters were FC = LQHP and RM = 2.1, the MaxEnt model was optimal, and the AUC and TSS values were greater than 0.90. The mean temperature and precipitation of the coldest quarter were the most critical variables shaping the distribution of Daodi goji berries. Under current climate conditions, the suitable habitats of the Daodi goji berry were 45,973.88 km², accounting for 0.48% of China's land area, which were concentrated in the central and western Ningxia Province (22,589.42 km²), and the central region of Gansu Province (18,787.07 km²) bordering western Ningxia. Under future climate scenarios, the suitable area was higher than that under current climate conditions and reached the maximum under RCP 6.0 (91,256.42 km²) in the 2050s and RCP 8.5 (82,459.17 km²) in the 2070s. The expansion regions weremainly distributed in the northeast of the current suitable ranges, and the distributional centroids were mainly shifted to the northeast. The moderately and highly suitable overlapping habitats were mainly distributed in Baiyin (7,241.75 km²), Zhongwei (6,757.81 km²), and Wuzhong (5, 236.87 km²) prefecture-level cities. Discussion: In this stduy, MaxEnt and ArcGIS were applied to predict and analyze the suitable habitats of Daodi goji berry in China under climate change. Our results indicate that climate warming is conducive to cultivating Daodi goji berry and will not cause a shift in the Daodi region. The goji berry produced in Baiyin could be used to satisfy the demand for high-quality medicinal materials. This study addresses the insufficient supply and guides the cultivation of Daodi goji berry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the face of economic globalization and strained resources, the development of green economies is inevitable. The construction of green cities is an important aspect of green economic development and its connotations. Accelerating the construction of green cities is a growing trend. The construction of a green city is a complex integrated project and requires a comprehensive evaluation index system and a scientific evaluation model. In this study that fully implement the plan for promoting political, economic, social, cultural, and ecological progress. The analytic process and evaluation methods, including the frequency statistics method, theoretical analysis, and expert consultation, were used to construct the evaluation system and the green city multi-level fuzzy comprehensive evaluation model. Taking the coastal city of Shanghai in East China as an example, this paper evaluates the degree of low-carbon green development in Shanghai, carries out empirical research, and promotes the low-carbon green development of coastal cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]