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To understand implementation of a nationwide sloping farmland soil erosion comprehensive control project during China's 12th Five-Year Plan we used data collection and expert consultation. We selected 24 indexes across three aspects including project management, engineering construction and implementation benefit and used AHP-grey correlation analysis methods. We found that the scores for engineering construction were greater than 0.65 in most of the provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities. These scores are high and scores for project management and implementation benefit are between 0.45-0.65; however, overall scores are low. The comprehensive evaluation results are normally distributed. The composite scores for Sichuan, Yunnan and Guizhou are 0.71, 0.68 and 0.68 respectively, indicating that the implementation effects are good. The scores for Jilin and Liaoning are 0.38 and 0.42 respectively, indicating that the implementation effects need improvement. Scores for other provinces are between 0.45-0.65 and the effects are medium. The evaluation results show certain zonal rules spatially and the implementation effect in karst regions of Southwest China is the highest, followed by the purple soil region in Southwest China, Loess Plateau region of Northwest China, earth-rock mountain region of North China and red soil hilly region of South China. The implementation effect in the black soil region of Northeast China suggests that improvement is needed in this region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China's rural development policy with a focus on state-led individual land tenure has yet to address the pressing challenges of rural poverty and natural resource deterioration in semi-arid regions. Incongruent with local ecological, social and political conditions, the current land tenure system has failed to offer peasant incentives in following government policies. Rather, it has contributed to rising social and political tensions. This case study is based on a poverty-stricken county that is experiencing the aggravation of soil aridity and natural disasters in North China. It examines the linkages between land tenure, poverty and natural resource governance. It emphasizes how the local peasantry perceives these issues and struggles for livelihoods. It argues that the appropriateness of a land tenure system can only be achieved if the fragmented nature of the individual tenure can be redressed through innovative institutional designs. It contributes to a critical understanding of China's agrarian reform by articulating the need for land tenure diversity that serves the overall goal of sustainable land use and management and shapes sound state-peasant relations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a study to determine the water sources in alpine ecosystem on the east Qinghai-Tibet plateau, China using stable isotopes. The result suggests that a major part of precipitation in alpine meadow was derived from secondarily evaporated water. It states that the precipitation on the east Qinghai-Tibet plateau was controlled by local water circulation in alpine ecosystems and the monsoon.

Mycoplasma capricolum subsp. capripneumoniae is the causative agent of contagious caprine pleuropneumonia, a devastating disease of goats listed by the World Organization for Animal Health. Here we report the first complete genome sequence of this organism (strain M1601, a clinically isolated strain from China). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]