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Background: A homegarden is a conventional small-scale agricultural ecosystem dominated predominantly by humans. Homegarden plants, which are plants with specific functionalities that are either cultivated or consciously preserved within the homegarden, are the most critical elements of the homegarden and are capable of providing a multitude of products and services. Recognized as one of China's biodiversity hotspots, the Wuling mountain area has long been inhabited by multiple ethnic groups, each of which has accumulated a wealth of traditional knowledge. This study focuses on the Tujia ethnic communities in Laifeng County, situated in the hinterland of the Wuling mountain area, with the primary objective of collecting, documenting, and organizing local homegarden plants, their functions, and the associated traditional knowledge, and exploring the factors influencing their composition and diversity. Methods: From May 2023 to August 2024, field surveys were conducted in Laifeng County, Enshi Tujia and Miao Autonomous Prefecture, Hubei Province, China. Semi-structured interviews and participatory observation were used to gather information on homegarden plants with informed consent. To analyze and evaluate homegarden plants, we employed the relative frequency of citation (RFC) and Jaccard index (J) for quantitative analysis. Additionally, the factors influencing the composition of homegarden plants were investigated using redundancy analysis (RDA). Results: This study documented a total of 414 species of homegarden plants from 114 families. These plants are primarily sourced from market purchases (158), spontaneous species (107), wild introductions (103), neighborhood sharing (59), and self-preservation (36). Homegarden plants serve multiple functions, including ornamental (201), medicinal (189), edible (165), traded (95), timber (34), forage (28), and other functions (11). There are 24 homegarden plants with an RFC greater than 0.5, indicating their high importance, including Allium fistulosum, Raphanus sativus, and Brassica rapa var. chinensis. The Jaccard index results suggest the highest degree of similarity between the homegarden plants in Geleche Town and Dahe Town. The RDA results established that knowledge of herbal medicine and homegarden area are two significant factors impacting the composition and diversity of homegarden plants, with the average age of the household resident population also exerting an influence. Conclusions: This study reveals the composition, source diversity, and functional diversity of homegarden plants within the Laifeng Tujia ethnic community, along with the influencing factors. These homegarden plants play an integral role in sustaining the balance of the homegarden ecosystem and supporting the daily lives of local residents. The management of homegarden plants by the Laifeng Tujia ethnic community carries traditional agricultural knowledge and wisdom. Emphasis should be placed on bolstering the understanding, protection, and transmission of traditional knowledge and culture related to homegardens, which play a vital role in safeguarding local agricultural biodiversity and fostering sustainable development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper described how university students from Macau took social responsibility in China through Service-Learning project. It was an introductory experience for the student participants and for the children in the mountain area as well. This study aimed at raising children's interest in learning and their desire of continuing study. Results were reported in four themes: (1) increasing personal competence of teamwork spirits, leadership and service skills; (2) students' perception towards poverty issue and education in China rural and mountain areas; (3) having commitment to the next service; (4) realizing that Service-Learning must be a mutual process. This paper also provides an overview of how a living-learning community dedicated itself to community service to educate residents holistically.

This paper presents the result of a taxonomic study of the genus Tribasodites Jeannel and related genera (Staphylinidae: Pselaphinae: Batrisitae) from Nanling Mountain Area, with 55 species placed in 10 genera being recognized. Forty-one species are described as new, with illustrations of the habitus and diagnostic characters for reliable identifications: Anama angulata sp. nov., Anama horridula sp. nov., Anama reticulata sp. nov., Araneibatrus breviceps sp. nov., Araneibatrus gigas sp. nov., Araneibatrus leigong sp. nov., Araneibatrus maoermontis sp. nov., Batrisodes amphion sp. nov., Batrisodes breviventris sp. nov., Batrisodes capreolus sp. nov., Batrisodes latilobus sp. nov., Batrisodes microceps sp. nov., Batrisodes shun sp. nov., Batrisodes streptoaedeagus sp. nov., Batrisodes titanius sp. nov., Batrisodes tribasoditiformis sp. nov., Coryphomodes jiangxiensis sp. nov., Coryphomodes parvipunctatus sp. nov., Coryphomodes simplex sp. nov., Hypochraeus complanatus sp. nov., Hypochraeus robustus sp. nov., Intestinarius guangxiensis sp. nov., Intestinarius paralongiceps sp. nov., Tribasodites barbipes sp. nov., Tribasodites cavipes sp. nov., Tribasodites clavatus sp. nov., Tribasodites corniceps sp. nov., Tribasodites fortunatus sp. nov., Tribasodites furca sp. nov., Tribasodites jiulianmontis sp. nov., Tribasodites jiuwanmontis sp. nov., Tribasodites loki sp. nov., Tribasodites longipes sp. nov., Tribasodites mangshanensis sp. nov., Tribasodites paraspinatus sp. nov., Tribasodites pengi sp. nov., Tribasodites ruyuanensis sp. nov., Tribasodites spinatus sp. nov., Tribasodites turgipes sp. nov., Tribasodites xinningensis sp. nov., and Tribasodites yangi sp. nov. Tribasodites chinensis (Yin, Zhao & Li, 2010) comb. nov. is transferred from Tribasodes. Anama Newton & Chandler and Hypochraeus Raffray are newly recorded from China. New provincial records and additional collecting data are provided for Batrisodes bamian Yin, Shen & Li, Batrisodes grossus Jiang & Yin, Dendrolasiophilus wenhsini Yin & Li, Intestinarius guangdongensis Yin & Li, Intestinarius longiceps Yin & Li, Tribasodites chinensis, and Tribasodites hubeiensis Yin, Nomura & Li. Keys for identification of the genera and species are presented. A checklist of Batrisini from Nanling Mountain Area is provided, for a total of 64 species.

Prior to this study, no species of the tribe Pselaphini (Pselaphinae: Pselaphitae) have been known from southern China. Here we report the discovery of the genus Pselaphogenius Reitter, and describe three new representatives from Nanling Mountain Area, namely, P. buccalis sp. nov., P. huapingensis sp. nov., and P. magnus sp. nov. All taxa are diagnosed and compared to similar congeners; and images of the habitus and major diagnostic characters are provided. A map showing the distribution of the Chinese species of Pselaphogenius is given.

Objective: Understanding urban-rural differences in the risk of aggregation of adolescents' health-risk behaviors in the Wuling Mountain Area., Methods: From March to May 2023, 7901 adolescents from junior to junior high school and senior high school grades in 32 middle schools in 8 counties(districts) in the Wuling Mountain Area were selected as survey respondents using the multi-stage stratified random cluster sampling method, with the age of the survey respondents being(14.82±1.50) years old. There were 4047 male students(51.22%) and 3854 female students(48.78%), 5126(64.88%) in junior high school and 2775(35.12%) in senior high school.2513(31.81%) in rural schools and 5388(68.19%) in urban schools. The Questionnaire on Health Risky Behaviors of Youth in Wuling Mountain Area was used to investigate 9 health risky behaviors of youth, such as partial feeding, smoking, and drinking alcohol. The χ~2 test was used to test the difference between urban and rural adolescents' risky health behaviors and their multivariate aggregation incidence rates, and to calculate the relative risk(RR) and the actual expected ratio(O/E)., Results: The incidence of bivariate to quintivariate cluster of adolescent health-risk behaviors was lower in all rural schools than in urban schools(χ~2 were 60.73, 34.97, 16.89, and 9.14, P<0.05). Rural school adolescents had the highest RR value for alcohol consumption behavior(18.02), while urban school adolescents had the highest RR value for insomnia behavior(15.05). In the bivariate cluster model, the O/E values for "smoking+alcohol consumption" were highest in both rural(8.18) and urban(6.14) school adolescents. In the trivariate cluster model, the O/E values for "smoking+alcohol consumption+fighting" were highest in both rural(28.41) and urban(18.15) school adolescents. In the quadrivariate cluster model, the O/E values for "smoking+alcohol consumption+insomnia+experiencing school bullying" were highest in rural school adolescents(95.10), while the O/E values for "smoking+alcohol consumption+fighting+experiencing school bullying" were highest in urban school adolescents(42.97). In the quintivariate cluster model, the O/E values for "smoking+alcohol consumption+fighting+insomnia+experiencing school bullying" were highest in both rural(309.57) and urban(129.28) school adolescents., Conclusion: Adolescents in urban schools in the Wuling Mountain Area are more prone to clustering harmful health behaviors compared to those in rural schools, and there are differences in the clustering risks of harmful health behaviors and their diverse clustering patterns between urban and rural areas.

Groundwater, as an essential resource, holds significant importance for human production and livelihoods. With the deterioration of the water environment, the issue of groundwater quality has become an urgent international concern. This study focused on the Fenghuang Mountain Area (FMA) and collected a total of 41 sets of samples including pore groundwater (PGW), fissure groundwater (FGW), karst groundwater (KGW), and river water (RW). Hydrochemical analysis methods were employed to identify the hydrochemical characteristics and controlling factors. The entropy-weighted water quality index (EWQI) and health risk assessment model were utilized to assess the groundwater quality and nitrate health risk, respectively. The results indicated that the dominant anion and cation in both groundwater and surface water in the FMA were HCO 3 - and Ca 2+ , respectively, with the main hydrochemical type being HCO 3 concentration closely related to human activities. The water quality of FGW was relatively good, with Class I and Class II water accounting for the highest proportion, reaching 84.62%. The high-value area of EWQI in PGW was influenced by human activities. The impact of nitrate health risk on children was significantly greater than on adults, with FGW having the lowest health risk and PGW having the highest health risk. The research results can provide important guarantees for the rational development and utilization of water resources in the FMA and the sustainable development of the economy in Northeast China.3 - concentration closely related to human activities. The water quality of FGW was relatively good, with Class I and Class II water accounting for the highest proportion, reaching 84.62%. The high-value area of EWQI in PGW was influenced by human activities. The impact of nitrate health risk on children was significantly greater than on adults, with FGW having the lowest health risk and PGW having the highest health risk. The research results can provide important guarantees for the rational development and utilization of water resources in the FMA and the sustainable development of the economy in Northeast China., (© 2024. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature B.V.)

Copyright of Coal Geology & Exploration is the property of Xian Research Institute of China Coal Research Institute and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Anthropogenic reactive nitrogen (N) deposition has increased significantly since the industrial revolution. Northern China has become a global hotspot for N deposition. However, few studies have been conducted to quantify the historical changes of atmospheric N deposition fluxes and source contributions in Northern China. By investigating N contents and δ 15 N values of mosses at Mount Tai (Northern China) in 1984 and 2021, we reconstructed fluxes and source contributions of wet inorganic N deposition and evaluated their historical changes. Compared with 1984, moss N contents (from 1.7 ± 0.3% to 2.1 ± 0.4%) showed a significant increase in 2021, which was mainly attributed to a significant increase in nitrate N deposition fluxes at Mount Tai. Moss δ 15 N values (from -5.9 ± 0.9‰ to -5.2 ± 2.4‰) showed a slight increase from 1984 to 2021 at Mount Tai. The importance of combustion-related NH 3 (including vehicle exhaust, coal combustion, and biomass burning) in 2021 (51.2%) were higher than those in 1984 (43.9%), while the importance of volatilization NH 3 sources (including waste and fertilizers) in 2021 (48.8%) were lower than those in 1984 (56.1%). It was fossil-fuel NO x (from vehicle exhaust and coal combustion) (54.1%) rather than non-fossil fuel NO x (from biomass burning and microbial N cycles) (45.9%) dominated NO x emissions in both 1984 and 2021. Our results revealed significant contributions of combustion-related NH 3 and fossil-fuel NO x sources emissions to the elevation of N deposition at Mount Tai in Northern China, which are beneficial for mitigating N emissions and conducting ecological benefit assessments in Northern China., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Root-knot nematodes ( Meloidogyne spp.) are plant-parasitic nematodes that cause serious damage worldwide. There are many species of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) plants, but only a few have been reported to be infected by Meloidogyne species. From 2020 to 2022, a survey was conducted in the Qinling mountain area, which is the main production region of TCM plants in China. Obvious galling symptoms were observed on the root systems of 15 species of TCM plants. Females were collected from diverse diseased TCM plants and subsequently identified at morphological and molecular levels. Among the 20 diseased root samples collected, Meloidogyne hapla populations were identified in 12 samples (60%), and M. incognita populations were identified in eight samples (40%). Among the 15 species of diseased TCM plants, eight species, namely, Scutellaria baicalensis , Leonurus japonicus , Dioscorea zingiberensis , Cornus officinalis , Viola philippica , Achyranthes bidentata , Senecio scandens , and Plantago depressa , were reported to be infected by Meloidogyne species for the first time. The host status of five species of TCM plants for two M. hapla isolates and one M. incognita isolate from TCM plants in this study was then evaluated. Differences in TCM plants' response to nematode infection were apparent when susceptibility was evaluated by the egg counts per gram of fresh root and the reproduction factor of the nematodes. Among the five species of TCM plants tested, Salvia miltiorrhiza and Gynostemma pentaphyllum were the most susceptible, while S. baicalensis and V. philippica were not considered suitable hosts for M. hapla or M. incognita ., Competing Interests: The author(s) declare no conflict of interest.

The main goal of this study was to evaluate the performance of AnnAGNPS (Annualized AGricultural NonPoint Source) pollution model, in calculating runoff, sediment loading and nutrient loadings for Funiu Mountain area. Most of the model input parameters were sourced from Luanchuan Forest Ecology Station (LFES) in Funiu Mountain area. The data on 23 storms in 2018 was used to calibrate the model and the data on 33 storms in 2019 for validation. The whole evaluation consisted of determining the coefficient of determination (R²), Nash-Sutcliffe coefficient of efficiency (E), and the percentage volume error (VE). Results showed that the runoff volumes were underpredicted by 5.0% with R² of 0.93 (P<0.05) during calibration and underpredicted by 5.3% with R² of 0.90 (P < 0.05) during validation. But sediment loading was able to produce a moderate result. The model underpredicted the daily sediment loading by 15.1% with R² of 0.63 (P < 0.05) during calibration and 13.5% with R² of 0.66 (P < 0.05) during validation. Nitrogen loading was overpredicted by 20.3% with R² = 0.68 (P < 0.05), and phosphorus loading performance was slightly poor with R2 = 0.65 ( P < 0.05) during validation. In general, the model performed well in simulating runoff compared to sediment loading and nutrient loadings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the 20th century, the world is facing two major problems: the serious deterioration of the ecological environment and the accelerated decline of living quality of people residing in the urban environment. Urban development policies, ecological patterns, production and consumption modes have an important impact on global environmental changes that threaten the future living of mankind. The focus of urban space construction has also turned to the fields of ecological security, energy development, resource management and urban ecological virtuous circulation. Investigating urban spatial structure features from the perspective of urban metabolic system is important for ecological security and resource management. Shangluo urban space in Qinling area is used as the research object and an analysis system of urban spatial structure based on ecological network analysis is proposed in this study. First, an ecological network model of urban space was constructed from the research perspective of ecological network analysis and the system metabolic level was evaluated using metabolic scale, intensity, and efficiency. Second, the system structure of urban metabolic network and its functional relations were analyzed. On this basis, interactive relationships among different components in the metabolic system were explored via symbiosis index and symbiotic, competitive, predatory, and control relations. Meanwhile, the ecological network analysis method is used to construct an analysis system for urban spatial structure in the Qinling mountain area. Finally, the analysis system of urban spatial structure in the Qinling mountain area is applied to examine the urban spatial structure of Shangluo, Qinling Mountains, China. Results showed that resource utilization efficiency of Shangluo City presents a rising trend and the city is located in a strong structural center in the regional space. Predatory and control relations played a dominant role among ecological relations in the urban metabolic structure, and the urban space presented a clear uniaxially extended spatial structure. Sensitivity of internal environment was extremely evident, and the natural spatial structure was an important basis for urban space development in Shangluo. The urban spatial structure analysis system in this research is constructed with the three aspects of "metabolic level", "ecological relationship" and "compartment weight" of the spatial structure information, which solves the problem that the conventional spatial structure analysis system is difficult to quantify the ecological network information, and it provides a new idea to explain the internal component interaction mechanism and spatial structure composition of the urban system. The results of this study can provide not only useful reference for urban spatial structure analysis of underdeveloped ecological capital areas in China but also a basis for sustainable development planning of urban spaces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Although ultrasonography (US) has been widely used in the diagnosis of human diseases to monitor the progress of cystic echinococcosis (CE) control, the screening method for hepatic CE in sheep flocks requires adjustment. In this study, we used a US scanner to screen sheep flocks and evaluated the efficacy of dosing dogs once a year with praziquantel for 7 years from 2014 to 2021., Methods: All sheep in the three flocks were screened using an ultrasound scanner in 2014 and compared with the prevalence of infection in 2021 in Bayinbuluke, Xinjiang, China. Sheep age was determined using incisor teeth. Cyst activity and calcification were determined using US images. The dogs were dewormed with praziquantel once a year to control echinococcosis in the community., Results: Three flocks had 968 sheep in 2014, with 13.22%, 22.62%, 18.7%, 27.27%, 11.88%, and 6.3% of sheep aged 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and ≥ 6 years old, respectively. US scanning revealed that the overall CE prevalence was 38.43% (372/968), with active cysts and calcified cysts present in 9.40% (91/968) and 29.02% (281/968) of the sheep, respectively. For the young sheep aged 1 and 2 years, the prevalence of active and calcified cysts was: 1.56% and 0.91%, and 10.94% and 18.72%, respectively. Approximately 15.15% and 16.52% of the 4- and 5-year-old sheep, respectively, harbored active cysts. There was no significant difference in the infection rates of sheep between 2014 and 2021 (P > 0.05)., Conclusions: US is a practical tool for the field screening of CE in sheep flocks. One-third of the sheep population in the flocks was 1-2 years old, and these sheep played a very limited role in CE transmission, as most of the cysts were calcified. Old sheep, especially culled aged sheep, play a key role in the transmission of CE. Dosing dogs once a year did not affect echinococcosis control., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

Landslides are a common natural disaster, having severe socio-economic effects and posing immense threat to safety, such as loss of life at a global scale. Modeling and predicting the possibility of landslides are important in order to monitor and prevent their negative consequences. In this study, landslides are the primary research object. Further, the frequency ratio (FR) method was applied to the random forest (RF), support vector machine (SVM), and decision tree (DT) regression algorithms for landslide sensitivity assessment. It was also applied to landslide risk assessment mapping in the Longmen Mountain area. Therefore, taking into account the positive and negative sample balance, 7774 historical landslide points and 7774 non-landslide points were selected and divided them into training sets and test sets. The influence factors were selected and analyzed through multicollinearity analysis and the FR method. To improve the performance of the model and the accuracy of the findings, the individual environmental factors are normalized. Subsequently, the LSI (landslide susceptibility index), was obtained by calculating the frequency ratio. Following this, the RF, SVM, and DT were used to construct the model. The trained model calculates the landslide probability of each cell in the study area and generates the resultant susceptibility map. The receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve and R 2 of this region were calculated to evaluate the model's performance. The results indicate that RF obtained the highest predictive performance (area under the curve (AUC) = 0.82) in landslide risk prediction, followed by SVM (AUC = 0.8) and DT (AUC = 0.69). The results of this study serve as a predictive map for landslide susceptibility areas and provide critical support for the security of lives and property for the human and socio-economic development in the Longmen Mountain region. In addition, the experiment results reveal that the machine learning model based on the FR method can improve the accuracy and performance of methods in studies related to landslide susceptibility. The method is equally applicable to research in other fields., (© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

Clarifying the impact of livelihood interventions on the livelihood resilience of farmers in undeveloped mountain areas can not only optimize interventions, but also provide experiential support for global poverty alleviation. To analyze the impact of multiple livelihood interventions on livelihood resilience, we constructed an analytical framework and analyzed the enjoyment of livelihood interventions and the heterogeneity of livelihood resilience among out-of-poverty farmers in the Longnan mountain areas, China. Then, we studied the impact of intervention intensity on livelihood resilience through the multiple linear regression model. The results revealed that: 1) the livelihood interventions enjoyed by out-of-poverty farmer in mountain areas were multiple. The proportion of farmers enjoyed diversified livelihood interventions was in descending order of high mountain areas, semi-mountain area and Chuanba valley areas. 2) The overall livelihood resilience of farmers in Longnan mountain areas was generally low, with an average of 0.299. There were significant differences in the livelihood resilience of farmers across different geographic areas in the study area and types of interventions. 3) The effects of industry interventions, employment interventions and education interventions were significant. The endogenous power of farmers not only had a significant positive effect on livelihood resilience, but also positively moderated the impact of the intensity of interventions on livelihood resilience. In addition, the household dependency ratio and the average altitude of the village area had a significant negative impact on their livelihood resilience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The interrelationship between tourism urbanization (TU) and the ecological environment is extremely complex. Some studies have analyzed the interaction between them but ignored the ecosystem services. Therefore, exploring the coupling coordination relationship between TU and ecosystem services value (ESV) is significant. In this research, we established a coupling coordination degree (CCD) model between TU and ESV and used exploratory spatial data analysis (ESDA), spatial variogram model, and obstacle degree model to evaluate the evolution characteristics of CCD and its obstacle factors in the Wuling Mountain area of Hunan Province (WMAHP). The results are as follows: (1) the comprehensive TU level shows an upward trend, and TU levels in the west are generally higher than in the east. The total ESV shows a fluctuating upward trend, and the average ESV is relatively low in the west and southeast. (2) The comprehensive CCD shows an increasing trend, and the coupling coordination relationship has changed from uncoordinated to coordinated in most counties. Spatially, the global spatial autocorrelation and spatial variation degree of CCD are insignificant. Wulingyuan and Yongding are uplift areas, and a subsidence area is in the southeast. It is worth noting that the problem of TU lag generally exists. (3) For the whole area, TU and economy are always the primary obstacle factors in the system and category layer, respectively, but the obstacle degree of the population has gradually increased. At the county level, TU restricts the CCD improvement in most counties, and the proportion of counties where the economy is the primary obstacle in the criterion layer exceeds 60%. Policymakers need to formulate targeted promotion strategies based on the coupling coordination and relative development level between TU and ESV for different counties. This paper provides valuable references for achieving coordinated development between TU and ESV in ecologically fragile areas worldwide., (© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

As one of the most representative forms of groundwater, mineral water provides a critical understanding of regional hydrogeochemical features and rock weathering processes. However, current studies have mostly focused on the quality of mineral water and have rarely addressed the weathering process during its formation. Therefore, a multi-tracer approach combines chemical parameters, major ions, selected trace elements, and 87 Sr/ 86 Sr ratios for mineral water samples in Changbai Mountain during 2020-2021. First, we determined the hydrogeochemical characteristics of different types of mineral water. Secondly, the water-rock interaction processes governing the water mineralization were described to fix the hydrogeochemical background. Thirdly, the chemical weathering rate was calculated. The total dissolved load generated by rock weathering was around 6.76 tons/km 2 /year in the mineral water catchment area; 44.6% and 36.9% of the dissolved load were derived from silicate and carbonate weathering, respectively. The trace carbonates also played an important role in the overall rock weathering. Finally, after fully considering various influencing factors, we concluded that lithological characteristics and the soil environment rich in organic acids were the most important factors affecting rock weathering in the Changbai Mountain area. Overall, this study highlights the mineral water's role in the fluxes of CO 2 in local area and reveals possible influence of the unique ecological and geological environment on rock weathering in Changbai Mountain. It can provide a reference for the subsequent assessment of environmental stability for basalt areas and the possibility of sustainable water resources development., (© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

Copyright of Bulletin of Soil & Water Conservation is the property of Bulletin of Soil & Water Conservation Editorial Office and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

A significant characteristic of the strata in the Yimeng Mountain area is the dual earth-rock structure. Soil thickness directly affects the habitat conditions and is closely related to the survival rate of vegetation. This study aims to reveal the spatial distribution characteristics and influencing factors of the soil thickness in a typical watershed in the Yimeng mountain area. In April 2019, 1816 soil thickness measurements were collected in the Yimeng Mountain area. The differences in the soil thickness, spatial distribution characteristics, and influencing factors of the different land use types were analysed using multivariate statistics and geostatistics. The results revealed the following conclusions. (1) There are significant differences in the soil thicknesses of the different land use types, i.e., farmland (42.63 cm) > forest land (39.26 cm) > grassland (20.35 cm). (2) The optimal semi-variogram model of soil thickness is an exponential model (R2 = 0.914). The ST in the study area has a medium spatial correlation. The high value areas of Populous simonii Carr. and slope farmland and the low value areas of Robinia pseudoacacia L. and grasslands exhibit spatial clustering. (3) The soil thickness varies significantly with land preparation measures, slope direction, and slope position. The high soil thickness values are mainly concentrated on the terrace preparation measures, the half shady slope, and the lower slope. These results provide a scientific basis for improving the survival rate of near-natural vegetation restoration in the Yimeng Mountain area in the earth-rocky mountainous areas of northern China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Non-homogeneous soil's high gravel content (also known as the "soil-rock dual structure") may render it more prone to erosion and the significant development of gullies. In order to reveal the morphological characteristics and erosion rate of gullies in "soil-rock dual structure" areas, this study focused on the Shagou Reservoir basin in the Yimeng mountain area as the study area. Based on a complete digital orthophoto map (DOM, 0.03 m) and a digital elevation model (DEM, 0.03 m) acquired by an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), the researchers calculated the length (L), top width (TW), depth (D), area (A) and volume (V) of 19 gullies and built and optimized the volume estimation model. The DOM and the DEM were used to modify the morphological parameters of 43 gullies extracted from high-resolution remote sensing (RS) stereopair images (Worldview, 0.5 m), and the development and evolution of gully erosion were evaluated in large scale. The results showed that: (1) after correction, the average relative errors of parameters L, TW, D and A computed from the UAV data and the high-resolution RS stereopair image data fell below 0.005%; (2) the mean of TW/D was 5.20, i.e., the lateral erosion development of gullies far outweighed the downcutting erosion. The retrogressive erosion, lateral erosion and downcutting erosion rates of gullies were 0.01~0.83 m/a (averaged at 0.23 m/a), 0.01~0.68 m/a (averaged at 0.25 m/a) and 0.01~0.19 m/a (averaged at 0.09 m/a), respectively, between 2014 and 2021; (3) the volume-area (V-A) model for gullies is the optimal one (p < 0.01, R2 = 0.944).A total of 90.7% of the gully volume was growing at an erosion rate of 0.42~399.39 m³/a and the total erosion rate of the gullies was 3181.56 m3/a from 2014 to 2021. These research findings can serve as a basis for the quantitative modeling of gully erosion in water-eroded locations with a large-dimension "soil-rock dual structure". [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using the Wuling Mountain area as a case study, the authors discuss the significance as well as five problems of developing information technology for vocational education in contiguous destitute areas. Recommendations are provided at the end of the article. [Translated by Michelle LeSourd.]

Analyzing cultivated land input behavior (CLIB) at the scale of rural households links with cultivated land-use efficiency (CLUE), this study examined the Yimeng Mountain area in northern China, supported by field survey data from 737 rural households. This research systematically analyzed the characteristics of CLIB of different types of rural households, measured the CLUE of different types of rural households by using a data envelopment analysis (DEA) model, and explored the influence of CLIB on CLUE based on the Tobit regression model. The results show (1) significant differences in the characteristics of the CLIB of different types of rural households in the Yimeng Mountain area. Among them, the highest land, labor, and capital inputs were I part-time rural households ( I PTRH ), followed by full-time rural households ( FTRH ). In contrast, II part-time rural households ( II PTRH ) and non-agricultural rural households ( NARH ) had higher levels of non-agricultural employment; however, their input levels gradually declined. (2) The CLUE of the sample rural households was generally low and had considerable potential for improvement. Regarding the types of rural households, as the degree of part-time employment increased, the CLUE showed an inverted U-shaped trend of first increased and then decreased, namely, I PTRH > FTRH > II PTRH > NARH . This finding indicates that appropriate part-time employment could help to promote investment in agricultural production and improve the CLUE. (3) The CLIB of rural households had significant effects on CLUE; the literacy of the agricultural labor force, yield-increasing input per unit area, per capita household income, share of agricultural income, operation scale of cultivated land, effective irrigation rate of cultivated land, and soil and water conservation rate of cultivated land had positive effects on improving CLUE. Even so, there was still significant heterogeneity in the degree of influence of different rural household types. The study concluded with some policy recommendations from the perspective of different rural household types to provide references for optimizing farming inputs and improving CLUE.

Soil conservation (SC) plays an important role in maintaining regional land productivity and sustainable development. Ecological engineering (EE) is being implemented in different countries to effectively alleviate the damage to the ecological environment and effectively protect soil and food security. It is important to determine whether or not the SC capacity becomes stronger after the implementation of EE and whether or not EE has a notable impact on SC in different altitude zones. The exploration of the influencing mechanism and identification of the dominate influencing factors in different geographical regions needs to be improved. In this study, the soil conservation services (SCSs) from 1980 to 2020 in the Taihang Mountain area was assessed using the integrated valuation of ecosystem services and trade-offs (InVEST) model, and the spatial and temporal distributions and influencing factors were explored. The results showed the following: (1) the average SCSs exhibited an increasing trend from 1980 to 2020 on the whole, and the rate of increase reached 50.53% during the 41-year period. The rate of increase of the SCSs varied in the different EE implementation regions, and it was significantly higher than that of the entire study area. (2) The spatial distribution of the SCSs was highly heterogeneous, and the high SCS value areas were coincident with the high-altitude areas where forest and grassland occupied a large proportion. The low value areas were mainly located in the hilly zone or some of the basin regions where the proportion of construction land was relatively high. (3) The distribution pattern of the SCSs was the result of multiple factors. The EE intensity had the strongest explanatory power for the SCSs in the hilly zone, explaining 34.63%. The slope was the most critical factor affecting the SCSs in the mid-mountain and sub-alpine zones. The slope and normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) had the greatest interactions with the other factors in the three altitude zones, especially in the high-altitude regions. The quantitative analysis of the SCSs and the influences of EE and natural factors on the SCSs revealed the heterogeneity in the mountainous areas. These results also provide a scientific basis for the reasonable implementation of EE and sustainable management of SCSs in the Taihang Mountain area.

Highlights • We propose a 2D-to-3D strategy for invasive plants mapping in mountain area, using UAV-derived 2D digital ortho map (DOM) and 3D mesh model. • The texture features overcome the shortcomings of RGB-only image, and helps to better distinguish invasive vegetation. • A 3D mesh model could better visualize the final results, and show the distribution of invasive plants in the mountains. Abstract Invasive plants constitute one of the major causes of biodiversity loss, and its monitoring plays an important role in the management of coastal ecological systems. This study aimed to apply high precision 3D mesh-model and digital orthophoto map (DOM) derived from unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) multi view images to monitor the invasive plants over coastal mountain region in Shenzhen, China. To overcome the limitations of RGB images, the Gray-level Co-occurrence Matrix (GLCM) features of images were analyzed and combined with spectral features to obtain the 2-dimentional distribution of invasive plants first, using an object-based image analysis technique. A fine analysis was then introduced to obtain a more accurate 3-dimentional distribution of invasive plant by combining 2-dimentional distribution of invasive plant and 3D mesh model. the results have shown that: (1) Although the UAV RGB image has limited spectral information, the low-altitude makes the spatial resolution very high, which can effectively enhance the effectiveness of the texture in mapping invasive plants, and finally achieved an overall accuracy of 93.25%. (2) The use of 3D mesh model, on the one hand, could significantly alleviate the impact of undulatory terrain over mountain area and improve the classification result; on the other hand, it could better visualize the final results, helping us more intuitively understanding the distribution of invasive plants. This study demonstrated the great potential of UAV-derived 3D mesh model in accurate natural resource management over mountain areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Understanding the extent to which demographic changes may affect the prospects of sustainable development is a priority for both academics and policy makers. Accordingly, we attempted to explore the population growth limit of the Xihaigu Mountain area in China. To analyze the optimum population at the county level, the relationship curve between population size and environmental quality was fitted using panel data (2009-2018). The sustainable population size of each county was determined by integrating the population carrying capacity of land resources and optimum population. The results show that the relationship between regional population size and environmental quality conforms to an inverted N-shaped curve. To maintain sustainable development, the population size of Tongxin, Xiji, and Haiyuan should be in the range of 320,800-379,800, 315,800-416,900, and 333,500-416,900, respectively. The current population size of other counties should be maintained, and their surplus construction lands are acceptable to be used for environmentally friendly industries rather than population expansion. We demonstrated a practical approach to calculate a dynamic range of population size under the dual constraints of resource and environment, which overcomes the shortcoming of only considering the maximum carrying capacity to a limited extent. We also identified the population boundary in a "steady-state economy" and quantified planetary boundaries of population in Xihaigu Mountain area using a dynamic sustainable population size. The findings provide decision-making references for the local government.

The linkage mechanisms and optimization strategies between land use transition and eco-environmental effects that occur in the production-living-ecological space of karst mountain areas remain under-explored in the current literature. Based on county data collected in Longlin Multinational Autonomous County of Guangxi, which is located in the rocky desertification area of Yunnan, Guangxi, and Guizhou, this study contributes a county-level analysis on land use transition and eco-environmental effects by addressing two research questions: (1) Which factors of land use transition are related to the eco-environmental effects of production-living-ecological space? (2) What are the key land allocation mechanisms behind the interventions of local rocky desertification regulation policies? We conducted two sets of analyses to answer these two questions: quantitative analyses of the spatial and temporal evolution between land use transition, rocky desertification, and its eco-environmental effects, and qualitative analyses of policy interventions on production-living-ecological land development and rocky desertification management. The findings show that the occurrence of rocky desertification accompanied by unreasonable land use structure transition and its important factor is caused by ecological land being restricted by production-living land. Specifically, urbanization strategies coordinating ecological and socio-economic effects is significant to karst mountain areas. Moreover, the orderly increase of woodland slows down rocky desertification. Policies of "returning farmland to forest" and "afforestation of wasteland" have significantly reduced rocky desertification that can be applied to other geographical situations.

Health status and income level are both important factors in reducing poverty and accomplishing sustainable development in deep poverty areas of China. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to provide policy support for the sustainable poverty alleviation of farmers by analyzing the net effect of health risk on Farmers' income poverty and its impact mechanism. Based on the data of more than 199,000 farmers, this study uses the Difference in Difference (DID) model to empirically analyze the effect of health-risk on farmers' income poverty. The empirical findings obtained from DID model show that health risk has a significant and positive impact on income poverty, where the impact of disability is higher. Furthermore, the mechanism shows that the impact of health risks on income poverty is mainly influenced by farmers' off-farm working choices and time. The heterogeneity analysis shows that the health risk significantly impacts non-vulnerable farmers' poverty. With outdated healthcare facilities in poverty-stricken areas, people are more likely to fall into income poverty. Therefore, the study concludes that establishing an effective long-term mechanism of health risk prevention is essential to improving the endogenous development power of poor farmers and decreasing income poverty.

Using typical counties in the Yimeng Mountain area of northern China as an example, this paper analyzed the household and agricultural input characteristics of different types of peasant households using survey data from 262 farm households. The target minimization of the total absolute deviations (MOTAD) model was applied to determine the optimal combinations in the allocation of agricultural input factors and production for different types of at-risk peasant households to obtain the ideal agricultural income. The relevant results are twofold. (1) The agricultural input behaviors of different types of peasant households vary significantly. The highest levels of agricultural land, labor, and yield-increasing and labor-saving inputs included I part-time peasant households ( I PTPH ), followed by full-time peasant households ( FTPH ), while the input levels of II part-time peasant households ( II PTPH ) and non-agricultural peasant households ( NAPH ) with higher levels of non-agricultural employment gradually decreased. In general, an increase in peasant households' part-time employment revealed an inverted U-shaped trend in the agricultural input level, with a trajectory of I PTPH > FTPH > II PTPH > NAPH . (2) The current agricultural inputs and production combinations of different types of peasant households have room for improvement. It is necessary to adjust agricultural inputs and optimize production combinations to obtain target incomes. Overall, all types of peasant households must streamline labor inputs and increase capital inputs, except for I PTPH , for which capital inputs should be reduced. Following optimization, economic crops gradually replace grain crops, and the optimal agricultural incomes of peasant households will be improved. The study results provide practical policy insights for reducing agricultural production risks and improving agricultural production incomes.

To assess the variations of soil quality among land use types and with altitude in the rocky mountain area of northern Hebei Province is critical for preventing further human-induced degradation of land and vegetation, and for formulating a strategic plan on vegetation restoration after the Beijing Winter Olympics. Taking Betula platyphylla natural forest, Larix gmelinii plantation, natural grassland and abandoned cropland as research objects, 13 soil physicochemical indices ( e.g ., soil bulk density, porosity and soil nutrient content) were measured to compare soil quality among land use types. The results showed that soil quality presented the trend as B. platyphylla natural forest > natural grassland > L. gmelinii plantation > abandoned cropland. B. platyphylla natural forest had the best soil quality due to high total nitrogen (3.24 ±1.42 g·kg -1 ) and phosphorus (0.59±0.10 g·kg -1 ) contents, suggesting that long-term soil nutrient accumulation played an important role in preventing soil degradation. Soil quality in natural grassland was lower than that in B. platyphylla natural forest, due to topographic factors and coarse soil fraction. Soil physical properties in L. gmelinii plantation had been substantially improved after 40 years restoration, as indicated by significant reductions in soil gravel fraction, while soil nutrient contents changed little. The low soil quality in abandoned cropland was attributable to low vegetation coverage and intense human activities in the low-altitude area. Driven by soil total nitrogen, soil quality under the four land use types increased with altitude, and peaked at about 1700 m. We suggested that enclosure and ecological restoration measures should be strengthened in ecologically-fragile, low-altitude areas, taking sustainable development into consideration for high-density stands and promoting plantations to adapt to environmental change.

Elucidating the mechanism of soil erosion caused by extreme rainstorms could improve agroecosystems' resilience to the extreme climate. However, less attention has been paid to the regional difference of soil erosion during extreme rainstorms through multiple field investigations. Using six field surveys of extreme rainstorms, soil erosion and its driving mechanism were investigated on farmland in the Loess area and the Rocky mountain area. Conclusions are as follows: (1) Farmland was severely eroded in comparison with abandoned land and forest–grass land. The erosion modulus of farmland in the Loess area (51 606.51 t/km2) was greater than that in the Rocky mountain area (2582.75 t/km2). (2) In both the Loess area and the Rocky mountain area, the main erosion types on sloped cropland and terraced land were rills/gullies and embankment failure, respectively. Terracing is an appropriate measure that can effectively control farmland erosion in rainstorm events. (3) Concentrated flow is a major driver of soil erosion, with nearly all rills/gullies occurring in the flow paths. Drainage measures can prevent the formation of concentrated flow, weakening rills/gullies erosion in farmland. (4) Building bio‐embankment, planting high‐coverage crops, and implementing local protection measures could reduce the farmland erosion influenced by extremely heavy rainfall. Combining drainage and agronomic measures is the common strategy to combat extreme rainstorm events for reducing farmland erosion in the two regions. These results can be applied to improve the ability of agricultural systems to cope with extreme rainstorms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Southern Taihang Mountain area is an important part of the key ecological regions along the Yellow River in China. Understanding the climate change trend in this area is of significance for the maintenance of ecological security and the planning and decision-making of major ecological projects in the Yellow River Basin. Taking Jiyuan City in southern Taihang Mountain area as the research area, we analyzed the climate change trend in Jiyuan based on the meteorological data from 1980 to 2019. The results showed that climate in Jiyuan tended to be warmer and wetter during the study period. The change rates of temperature and precipitation were 0.48 ℃·(10 a) -1 and 14.21 mm·(10 a) -1 , respectively. The rise of temperature in spring and summer was higher than that in autumn and winter. Climate was warmer and drier in spring, while warmer and wetter in the other three seasons. Potential evapotranspiration and aridity index showed increasing and decreasing trends, with the average value of 748 mm and 1.36, respectively. The first and last days ≥10 ℃ were about 3 days in advance and 1 day in delay every 10 years. The change rate of effective accumulated temperature ≥10 ℃, duration days ≥10 ℃ and high temperature days were 116.57 ℃·(10 a) -1 , 4 d·(10 a) -1 , and 5 d·(10 a) -1 , respectively. The 1990s was the driest decade in Jiyuan during the study period, with strongest increases of temperature. Half of the years showed the characteristics of semi-arid climate in that decade. From 2010 to 2019, the trend of climate warming and wetting in Jiyuan had accelerated significantly, which was the warmest and wettest decade. In recent 10 years, duration days ≥10 ℃ and the effective accumulated temperature increased by about 28 days and 389.36 ℃, respectively. The frequency and intensity of high temperature weather also increased significantly in this decade.

The Hubi copper (cobalt) ore district, one of the largest typical examples of the sediment-hosted stratiform type in the Zhongtiao Mountain area, is located on the southern margin of the Trans-North China Orogen within the North China Craton (NCC) and has a copper reserve of 0.79 Mt. Mineralization is mainly hosted by the Zhongtiao Group, a sequence of metasedimentary rocks deposited from ~2168 Ma to ~2059 Ma. Subsequently, a collisional orogeny (Trans-North China Orogen) occurred at ~1.85 Ga. The absolute age of mineralization has not been well constrained due to the lack of suitable minerals for dating. Rutile and monazite are common accessory minerals and are intergrown with Cu mineralization in Cu-bearing veins in the Hubi-type copper (cobalt) deposits. This study presents the first new LA-ICP-MS U-Pb ages of hydrothermal rutile and monazite for the Tongmugou and Laobaotan copper (cobalt) deposits in the ore district, which yield lower intercept rutile U-Pb ages of 1815 ± 30 Ma (Mean Squared Weighted Deviation, MSWD = 5.0) and 1858 ± 27 Ma (MSWD = 5.2) for Tongmugou and 1876 ± 30 Ma (MSWD = 5.9) for Laobaotan. Monazite crystals separated from Cu-bearing carbonate veins within the orebody of Tongmugou yield a weighted mean 207Pb/206Pb age of 1856 ± 14 Ma (MSWD = 1.9), which is close to that of rutile within error. Mineralogical observations and geochemical characteristics suggest that both monazite and rutile crystallized in the hydrothermal fluid system and are closely related to Cu sulfide mineralization. Therefore, their nearly identical U-Pb isotope age of ca. 1850 Ma directly reflects the timing of metamorphic hydrothermal Cu mineralization. This age is indistinguishable from that of metamorphism during the collisional orogeny (Trans-North China Orogen) that led to the final amalgamation of the Eastern and Western Blocks. According to previous studies, the primary sedimentary mineralization of the Hubi-type copper (cobalt) deposits was synchronous with the deposition of the Zhongtiao Group. From the perspective of mineralization age, both the Congolese–Zambian Copperbelt and the Hubi copper (cobalt) ore district experienced early preorogenic sedimentary diagenetic mineralization and late metamorphic hydrothermal mineralization related to orogenesis, and the Hubi-type copper (cobalt) deposits may also be some of the oldest sediment-hosted stratiform-type deposits in the world. Moreover, this metamorphic hydrothermal Cu mineralization spread throughout the Zhongtiao Mountain area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rocky desertification control project in karst areas exacerbates the transfer of landscape types, changes the ecosystem structure and function, and has a significant impact on ecological assets. How to analyze the relationship between landscape type shifts and the spatial and temporal evolution of ecological assets is one of the key questions that need to be addressed to achieve the goal of overall improvement in ecosystem quality and sustainable regional economic development. This study takes Qixingguan District, Bijie City, Guizhou Province-a typical karst plateau mountainous area-as the research object, and analyzes the spatial and temporal evolution characteristics of landscape type shifts and ecological assets triggered by rock desertification management from 1995-2018, based on the equivalence factor method, combined with the contribution rate, spatial autocorrelation, and sensitivity research methods. The results showed that arable land, grassland, and woodland were the main landscape types in the study area. The value of ecological assets showed a trend of increasing and then decreasing, with an overall increase of 87.70 × 10 6 yuan. The distribution pattern of ecological asset value from southwest to northeast is "high-low-high". There is a significant positive correlation in the spatial distribution of the overall ecological assets, with similar aggregation between neighboring units. The expansion of forest land was the main factor for the rapid increase of assets from 1995 to 2010, with a contribution of 98.12%; the conversion of arable land and grassland to construction land was the main factor for the decrease of assets from 2010 to 2018, with a percentage of 81.06%, where the value of each type of service was mainly composed of five items, such as soil formation and conservation, biodiversity conservation and gas regulation, water conservation, and climate regulation. This study shows that spatial and temporal evolution assessment of ecological assets is an important manifestation of the effectiveness of rocky desertification control, which can provide decision support to resource managers and users for regional ecological environment construction.

The supply sources of a water resource in arid area can be determined through analysis of the hydrochemical and stable isotopic characteristics of runoff in an alpine glacier river basin. Using mathematical statistical analyses, Piper diagrams, and Gibbs diagrams, this study analyzed the spatiotemporal variations of the hydrochemistry and the stable hydrogen and oxygen isotopes of the Kashi River in Ili (Xinjiang, China) to investigate their characteristics and environmental importance. Runoff samples were collected in the mountainous area of the Kashi River from December 2017 to November 2018. Results showed that the runoff water type of the Kashi River is Ca 2+ -HCO 3 - and the spring water type is Ca 2+ -HCO 3 - -SO 4 2- . The main factors controlling the hydrochemical composition of runoff were rock weathering. Under the influence of supply sources and water conservancy facilities, the hydrochemistry and stable isotopic characteristics of the runoff showed evident spatiotemporal variation. The hydrochemical and stable isotopic values of runoff in winter and spring were lower and more consistent in comparison with those in summer and autumn. The characteristics of the spatial variations of hydrochemical and stable isotopic values in runoff differed with elevation. The supply sources in the Kashi River in different seasons were determined by analyzing the temporal variation characteristics of the hydrochemistry and stable isotopes of runoff., (© 2021. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature B.V.)

The medium-sized Daping gold deposit is located in the middle Xuefeng Mountain area of Southern China with gold ores hosted in sericite phyllite, sericitolite, and mylonite. The auriferous quartz-carbonate-sulfide veins and adjacent alteration rocks are structurally controlled within the NE (northeast) shear zone with NE, NNE (north-east-east), and NW (northwest) trending at high inclination angles. The petrogeochemistry analysis results show that the gold ores are characterized by high content values of SiO2, S, and As and low content values of Al2O3 and Na2O and display strong enrichment of LREE with δEu values ranging from 0.54 to 0.75. Four stages of mineralization/alteration were identified: the first stage has mineral assemblages of quartz+pyrite+arsenopyrite±carbonate minerals, the second stage has mineral assemblages of quartz+polymetallic sulfide minerals (pyrite, arsenopyrite, chalcocite, galena, chalcopyrite, tetrahedrite)±chlorite±carbonate minerals, the third stage has mineral assemblages of quartz and carbonate minerals, and the supergene stage is characterized by limonite±patina which were formed by the oxidation of metal sulfides. Among them, the first stage and the second stage are the main gold mineralization stages. The ore-forming fluid inclusions in quartz are mainly composed of liquid phase (H2O) and gas phase (H2O and CO2), and based on the microthermometric analysis, the first metallogenic stage and second metallogenic stage yielded average homogenization temperature of 184.5 and 255.8°C and average salinity of 7.64 wt.% NaCl eqv. and 11.35 wt.% NaCl eqv., respectively. Thus, the ore-forming fluids belong to H2O-CO2-NaCl, medium-low temperature, and medium-low salinity fluid. The δ D H 2 O and δ 18 O H 2 O values of auriferous quartz are from -51‰ to 62‰ and from -1.44‰ to 5.42‰, respectively, indicating that the ore-forming fluids may belong to mixing fluids of the magmatic fluid and meteoric hydrothermal fluid. The values of δ34S of metal sulfides range from -0.94‰ to 1.98‰ (-0.131‰ in average), implying that sulfur may source from the concealed granite and/or basement metamorphic strata. The Daping gold deposit formed in the Indosinian period under the tectonic environment of compression between the Cathaysian plate and Yangtze plate and may belong to orogenic gold deposits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Slope cropland erosion is the most serious land degradation problem in plateau mountainous areas. A great threat has been posed to regional food security and sustainability of agriculture. Particularly, the Wenshan Prefecture of Yunnan Province is characterized by serious soil erosion in China. Taking the Wenshan Prefecture as an example, this study aims to quantitatively evaluate the soil erosion of the farmland and spatial features using multi-source remote sensing data, such as the Third National Land Survey, Water Conservancy Sampling Survey, and the Wide Field of View (WFV) imaging system of GaoFen-6 (GF-6) satellite. Firstly, the non-cultivated land was masked in the GF-6 image with the Third National Land Survey data. The sampling units were also used as the sample set. Secondly, object-oriented multi-scale segmentation was performed on the GF-6 image, where the Jeffries-Matusita distance was adopted to determine the preferred feature set of spectral, texture and shape. Thirdly, Random Forest (RF) algorithm was employed to quickly and automatically extract the terraces. The fine rasterization of the E factor was realized to combine the engineering measures in the sampling units. Finally, the Chinese Soil Loss Equation (CSLE) model was utilized to conduct a fine quantitative assessment of soil erosion in the mountainous arable land. A spatial autocorrelation analysis was also carried out on the soil erosion features and influence factors in the GeoDa software in order to reveal the spatial distribution pattern. The results indicated that: 1) The distribution of arable land in the Wenshan Prefecture was bounded by the Guangnan, Xichou, and Maguan, indicating a descending pattern from the west to the east. There was about 6 252.85 km2 of slope cropland in the study area, accounting for 79.27% of the total arable land. The cultivated land was 3 929.57 km² with the soil and water conservation engineering measures, accounting for 49.79% of the total arable land area. 2) Soil erosion modulus of the cultivated land ranged from 0 to 118 540.97 t/(km²·a) with an average erosion modulus of 5 180.72 t/(km²·a). About 69.99% of the total cultivated land was suffering from serious erosion. The total annual amount of soil loss from the cultivated land was 40.815 million tons, 20.60% of which was eroded from the land with the soil conservative measures. By contrast, the soil loss from the cultivated land without any soil conservative measures was 32.407 million tons, accounting for 79.40% of the total. There was also a significant difference in the response of erosion to the slope and elevation, particularly with the vertical zonal characteristics. The area and intensity of soil erosion increased first and then decreased, as the elevation and slope increased. The high incidence areas of erosion were found between the elevation zones of 1 000-1 400 m and 1 400-1 800 m, accounting for 27.23% and 50.54% respectively. The steep slope cropland (>20°) erosion also contributed 75.30% of the total erosion. 3) The spatial distribution of cropland erosion demonstrated outstanding aggregation characteristics and strong spatial correlations with the R and LS factors, respectively. Specifically, the Maguan, Malipo, Xichou, and Funing in the south of Wenshan were the high-value centers of erosion, and, the low-value centers were found in the Wenshan, Yanshan, Qiubei, and Guangnan in the central and western regions. The fine quantitative assessment of soil erosion was achieved to automatically extract the soil erosion factors on the regional scale for the spatial autocorrelation analysis. The finding can provide a strong reference to accurately allocate the regional soil and water conservation resources, as well as the ecological environment construction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As hotspots of biocultural diversity (BCD), mountain areas contain the richest ecosystems with cultural characteristics. However, in the context of cultural homogenization and ecological decline, some high-value mountain areas are still not adequately protected, and some protected areas (PAs) even suffer from an imbalance between natural and cultural protection. To improve the coverage and conservation effectiveness of PAs in mountain areas, we propose a BCD evaluation approach to identify conservation gaps and prioritization, taking the Taishan Mountain Area (TMA) as a study case: first, we used four biodiversity factors (topographic diversity, geological diversity, ecosystem services, bird species distribution) and four cultural diversity factors (cultural landscape, intangible cultural heritage, traditional production modes, population and economy) to evaluate the BCD values; second, we generated a map of BCD hotspots and graded them into three levels; and finally, we compared the evaluation result with the PAs' layout in the TMA and determined the conservation gap and prioritization. We find that 43.92% of the high BCD areas and 84.39% of the medium BCD areas within the mountain area are inadequately protected, and 10.79% of the low BCD areas may be overprotected, classifying the above conservation gaps as three priority levels of conservation. Our study indicates that the current PAs in mountain areas are insufficiently protected and urgently need to be expanded; (2) by analyzing the coupling relationship between biodiversity and cultural diversity, it is found that only 23.90% of the relationships between the two were coordinated or above in the TMA; (3) we propose the optimization strategies of four typical conservation gaps in the TMA; (4) we finally develop an integrated conservation model of biological and cultural values for different PA categories in mountain areas based on a gap analysis. Optimizing mountain conservation and management based on the BCD evaluation results is conducive to promoting the sustainable development of human beings and nature while guaranteeing the unbiased allocation of conservation resources in mountain areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The ecological restoration (ER) project significantly affects the water retention function in the Taihang Mountain area. However, a comprehensive understanding of the water retention effects in different ER project areas still needs to be improved. In this study, we employed the integrated valuation of ecosystem services and trade‐offs (InVEST) model to evaluate the differences in water retention among different ER project areas. Additionally, we used the structural equation model to explore the influence of various factors on water retention. The results showed the following: (1) The total amount of water retention in the Taihang Mountain area increased yearly from 2000 to 2020, with an 85.25% increase in 21 years. The water retention function showed a trend of transferring to a higher level. (2) The forest land restoration project showed the highest average water retention capacity, followed by the grassland restoration project, which together provided 61.12% of the water retention capacity in the ER areas. Forest land restoration project was found to have the most potential in improving water retention, while grassland restoration was more efficient. The water retention capacity of a 21‐year‐old artificial forest could only reach 70.92% of the natural forest. Cropland restoration mode increased the water retention by 22.85% compared with non‐ecological engineering areas. (3) The enhancement of water retention function in the study area resulted from multiple factors, among which precipitation and root depth were the most critical variables. (4) According to the structural equation model, the impact of natural factors on water retention accounted for 74.33%, and ecological engineering had a greater impact on water retention in the hilly zone. The ER project significantly increased water retention capacity. The results provide scientific support for improving water retention function and optimizing ER projects in semi‐arid areas of China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mountain areas in China account for 69% of the total land area; however, it is still an urgent that we grasp the special ecological structure of mountain areas and maximize the resource advantages of mountain areas under the principle of maintaining a certain ecological level. In this paper, Landsat 5, Landsat 8 and Sentinel-2A images were used as data sources to monitor and analyze land development and ecological change in Gui 'an in 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019 and 2021, so as to explore ecological maintenance mechanisms. Firstly, random forest classification based on multi-source remote sensing data was used to classify land, and the five phases of land-use change were assessed using quantitative analysis, in order to analyze the mountain region's land-use-change characteristics at different stages of development. The results show that Gui 'an has the "two-stage", rapid-development, rapid-recovery mode. Each stage includes a development-and-expansion period and a construction-and-protection period. In the construction period, ecological recovery construction will be emphasized, and the change intensity and rate of the second stage are lower than that of the first stage. Secondly, using a remote sensing ecological index, vegetation coverage, and a landscape index, an ecological evaluation model of the study area was constructed to analyze changes in the ecological environment and its protection in the process of land development. The ecological maintenance status of the five stages was quantitatively monitored using the analysis methods of difference change and coefficient of variation. The results showed that in the first stage of land development and expansion, the landscape pattern and ecological quality fluctuated greatly, and the proportion of ecological quality of an excellent grade decreased by 28.46%. However, in the second stage, the change slowed down and remained unchanged, and gradually moved to the middle and upper level. The results show that there is a close relationship between ecological maintenance and the land development mode, and new mountain towns can maintain ecological quality and achieve sustainable development through a reasonable land development mode. At the end of this paper, the factors affecting the ecological maintenance capacity of Gui 'an are discussed, providing effective reference material and development models for the development of mountainous areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China has considered tourism development as an important policy for reducing rural poverty. However, various governances of tourism development have affected local livelihood in different ways. Here, we assessed local livelihood under the community-based (CBT) and lease-to-operate tourism (LOT) governances in two tourism villages; the Jade and Phoenix valleys located in the World Heritage mountain area of Huangshan. We used the sustainable livelihood approach to assess the local household livelihood assets and institutional arrangements that exist in this area with respect to tourism development. Five capital assets were analyzed according to 15 indicators. Values for natural, physical, human, social, and financial capitals were generally higher for CBT. Overall value for livelihood assets was 0.89 under the CBT compared to 0.51 under the LOT indicating that CBT contributed more to livelihood improvement in the rural area. Therefore, the CBT should be promoted as a policy for poverty alleviation in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ecosystem restoration has been widely concerned with the damage and degradation of ecosystems worldwide. Scientific and reasonable formulations of ecological restoration zoning is the basis for the formulation of an ecological restoration plan. In this study, a restoration zoning index system was proposed to comprehensively consider the ecological problems of ecosystems. The linear weighted function method was used to construct the ecological restoration index (ERI) as an important index of zoning. The research showed that: (1) the ecological restoration zones of the Qilian Mountains can be divided into eight basins, namely the headwaters of the Datong River Basin, the Danghe-Dahaerteng River Basin, the northern confluence area of the Qinghai Lake, the upper Shule River to middle Heihe River, the Oasis Agricultural Area in the northern foothills of the Qilian Mountain, the Huangshui Basin Valley, Aksay (corridor region of the western Hexi Basin), and the northeastern Tsaidam Basin; (2) the restoration index of the eight ecological restoration zones of the Qilian Mountains was between 0.34-0.8, with an average of 0.61 (the smaller the index, the more prominent the comprehensive ecological problem representing the regional mountains, rivers, forests, cultivated lands, lakes, and grasslands, and thus the greater the need to implement comprehensive ecological protection and restoration projects); and (3) the ecological problems of different ecological zones are frequently numerous, and often show the phenomenon of multiple overlapping ecological problems in the same zone.

Rapid urbanization has led to a significant expansion of urban space, causing ecological problems such as fragmentation, declining landscape connectivity, and decreasing biodiversity. There is an urgent need to mitigate the conflict between urban expansion and ecological environmental protection by constructing ecological networks to help promote sustainable regional development. This study selected the Funiu Mountain area as the study area. Morphological spatial pattern analysis, the minimal cumulative resistance model, and network index evaluation were used to construct an ecological network in the study area and conduct a comparative analysis with local nature reserves. The results showed: (1) nine ecological source sites were identified, concentrated in the central and northern regions, which had a high spatial overlap with local nature reserves; (2) 34 ecological corridors were extracted, which could effectively connect all ecological source sites as well as most nature reserves; (3) 32 ecological nodes were identified, of which 20 strategic points were scattered along ecological corridors, and 12 artificial environment points were scattered in low-lying areas around nature reserves; (4) the ecological network showed a structure of central concentration and peripheral dispersion. The structural evaluation of the network indicated that it had strong integrity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The outdoor events of the 2022 Winter Olympics and Paralympics will be held in the mountain areas of Beijing–Zhangjiakou, North China, where there is a complete reliance on artificial snow production owing to the dry and cold weather conditions. To assess how favorable the meteorological conditions are to snowmaking at the mountain venues, we reconstructed the daily wet-bulb temperature by adopting the thin-plate smoothing spline function method, and then we assessed the potential number of snowmaking days at eight weather stations (928–2098 m MSL) from October to the next April (i.e., the ski season) during the period 1978–2017. Results showed that artificial snow production would have been possible on 121 (±14) to 171 (±12) days on average at the stations with the increases of altitude, and the number of days decreased at rates of 4.3–5.1 days decade−1 across four decades of the study period. The cause of the decrease was the warming trend, which affected the number of days in low-altitude sites simultaneously, but the reduction was delayed with increased elevation. At monthly scale, the number of snowmaking days was robust in wintertime but reduced in other months of the ski season, particularly in March in more recent subperiods at high-altitude stations, which was determined by the increase in high values of daily mean wet-bulb temperature. Further improvements in assessing snowmaking conditions require detailed microclimatic studies to reduce the uncertainties caused by meteorological conditions as well as combination with model-based methods to determine potential future changes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, the forest landscape in the Beijing mountain area is assessed using the Integrated Valuation of Ecosystem Services and Tradeoffs model. The results showed the natural forests have higher functional capital than the planted forests and different species contribute to different ecological functions. Specifically, Larix gmelinii forests have the highest water resources and soil conservation function which are about 334.14 m 3  hm -2  year -1 and 115.92 t hm -2  year -1 ; Betula allegansis forests have the highest carbon storage and biodiversity function which are about 128.46 t hm -2  year -1 and 0.76. Besides soil, water is conserved more within coniferous forests than within broadleaf forests. Carbon sequestration and the functional capacity for biodiversity within a unit area of coniferous forests are much smaller than those within a unit area of a broadleaf forest. Previous studies highlight the forest management strategies will influence the ecosystem functions while in the current studies we also found the species option during the afforestation is equally important and protecting of the natural forests is more important than afforestation for maintaining the ecological functional capitals.

Hourly blackbody temperature data from the warm seasons (May–September) of 2009–18 were used to detect mesoscale convective systems (MCSs) generated in the southwest mountain area (elevation ≥ 500 m) of China. A total of 3059 MCSs were grouped into four categories (C1, C2, C3, and C4) according to their generation positions using K-means clustering. Major characteristics of the four types of MCSs and their synoptic environmental conditions were investigated. The MCSs had a peak in July and a minimum in May, and usually lasted from 3 to 21 h. The C1 MCSs generated in the northeast of the Tibetan Plateau developed faster, were largest, and had a longer lifespan. The C2 and C4 MCSs had greater intensity and were initiated in the southeast of the Tibetan Plateau and the west of the Yungui Plateau, and near the Wuling and Xuefeng Mountains, respectively. The C3 MCSs initiated in the Qinling, Ta-pa, and Wushan Mountains were smallest. The C1 and C2 MCSs contributed more than 30% to total precipitation, which was more than the C3 and C4 MCSs (<25%), and the contribution rate of MCSs to short-duration heavy rainfall affected by local MCSs was over 60%. Composite synoptic circulations of the four types of MCSs showed several factors, including the locations and intensities of cyclones in the Bay of Bengal and high pressure in the Indochina Peninsula in the low-to-middle troposphere, and vortexes or southwesterly winds in the low-level troposphere, regulate the location and intensity of convection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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The Jianshanying landslide in Guizhou province, China, is a typical mining-induced landslide with its complex formation in karst mountainous area. However, the spatiotemporal deformation characteristics and failure mechanism are still unknown. In this paper, the surface deformation time series from 2017 to 2020 is firstly estimated by combining multi-temporal synthetic aperture radar (SAR) interferometry and improved offset-tracking methods to overcome the difficulties caused by the large gradient surface deformation and surface material changes. Then, the spatiotemporal characteristics of Jianshanying landslide is analyzed in terms of line-of-sight (LOS) deformation with stacking InSAR method and two-dimensional (2D) deformation with improved SAR offset-tracking method. And the different deformation features between sliding body and surrounding areas are uncovered. Accordingly, we point out the "three-section" surface deformation model. We further analyze the deformation time series by considering the joint effects of rainfall and underground mining. Finally, we conceptualize the landslide failure mode for the Jianshanying landslide, which can be extended to the similar landslide in karst mountainous areas of southwestern China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the development of mountain areas, more wind-sensitive infrastructures are constructed. In the design of these infrastructures, the wind loading cannot be accurately obtained from the code based on the flat area. Hence, it is of great importance to study the mountain wind characteristics. In this study, the wind field measurement was initiated in a mountain area of western China. After the examination of the measured data, two typical wind events including the thunderstorm wind and thermally developed wind are highlighted. To extract and separate these wind events, an automatic classification method is proposed. The thunderstorm wind is analyzed in order to capture the rapid variation of its maximum wind speed, mean temperature and mean humidity through the boxplot method while the analysis of thermally developed winds relies on the correlation between the mean wind speed and mean temperature. Since the thunderstorm wind is relatively more important for wind engineering, its wind characteristic is focused hereafter and analyzed in detail based on the ultrasonic anemometer data. The characteristics of the thermally developed wind and other wind will be the matter of further studies and investigations. Results show that the characteristics of the thunderstorm wind measured in the mountainous area have no significant difference in comparison with those in the flat area. Due to the limited data, the above results deserve further investigations when more measurements become available. • Field measurement was conducted to study intense wind characteristics in mountain. • Thunderstorm and thermally developed winds (TW, TDW) are spotted in mountain. • TW and TDW are separated out by the proposed automatic classification method. • Transient characteristics of TW in mountain area are well discussed. • Characteristics of TW in mountain area are found to be similar to those in flat area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, the temporal and spatial characteristics of extreme climate from 1961 to 2017 were analyzed using daily precipitation and temperature data from 24 meteorological stations in the Qilian Mountain area, northwestern China. The results showed that warming accelerated considerably after 1985, particularly during the 1990s. The warming trend then increased after 2000 and further increased after 2010. The Qilian Mountains and the Hexi and Qaidam Inland River Basins greatly affected the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation (AMO), Northern Tropical Atlantic Index (NTA), Caribbean sea-level surface temperature (SST) Index (CAR), South China Sea Summer Monsoon Index (SCSSMI), and South American Summer Monsoon Index (SAMSMI). The circulation index on the extreme temperature warm index was stronger than that of the extreme temperature cold index. There were greater increases in all extreme indexes in the central part of the Qilian Mountain area, and the region of increase decreased from inside to outside. The interannual change in the warming index of extreme temperature was similar to that of the cold index of extreme temperature. TX10, TN10, ice days (ID), and frost days (FD) showed significant negative correlations with altitude, whereas TXN and TNN showed significant positive correlations with altitude. Changes in TX10, TN10, TXN, TNN, ID, FD, and diurnal temperature range were most noticeable in high-altitude areas (> 2500 m), whereas changes in TN90, TX90, TXX, TNX, and growing season length were most noticeable in low altitude areas (< 2500 m). The Qilian Mountain area and the Hexi and Qaidam Inland River Basins were greatly affected by the AMO, NTA, CAR, SCSSMI, and SAMSMI; however, they were only slightly affected by the Nino4, Northern Atlantic Oscillation, North Pacific model, Southern Oscillation Index, Arctic Oscillation, and Multiple ENSO Index. The effect of the circulation index of Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation, Tropical Northern Atlantic Index, Tropical Southern Atlantic Index, North Tropical Atlantic SST Index, and CAR on the extreme temperature warm index was stronger than that of the extreme temperature cold index. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Principal component analysis was selected to define the weight value in the calculation of the evaluation model. Software SPSS was used to process raw data by calculation of correlated matrix in the index layer, and in the partial objective layer, the raw data was processed by the calculation of covariance matrix with software MATLAB. At last, the ecological carrying capacity and ecological stress of shallow mountain area in Beijing were calculated, which provided a method to evaluate sustainable development of shallow mountain area in Beijing. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Based on research about structures of ecological system and carrying capacity of shallow mountain area, evaluation index system of ecological carrying capacity of shallow mountain area had been formed, as well as the relative principle about how to choose index layer and sub-index layer in index system, and then built the evaluation index system for ecological carrying capacity and ecological stress, and constructed the evaluation model for ecological carrying capacity of shallow mountain area, which provide reference for sustainable development of shallow mountain area in Beijing. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]