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Aiming at providing theoretical basis for effective protection of biodiversity, the study presents a cascade method which combines both qualitative and quantitative methods, incorporates basic data with RS(remote sense) technology, and ranks the ecosystems according to its ability of biodiversity sustainability in Hebei Province. The results indicate that the most important areas for protection in Hebei Province are forest and meadow ecosystems in some highlands around Xiaowutai Mountain, Wuling Mountain, North Hebei, Taihang Mountain and East Hebei; grass ecosystems in part of plateau area and North Hebei; and some scattered wetlands in the plain and inshore areas. This method is suitable for undertaking large-scale investigations especially when the data are not adequate or unevenly distributed spatially.

Based on field runoff plots observation and sample analysis, the effect of slope gradient on soil organic carbon loss was studied under natural rainfall conditions in loess hilly region. The results showed that with slope gradient increasing (from 10° to 30°), the changing trend of soil erosion intensity (A) was A 20°>A 30°>A 15°>A 10°>A 25°, suggesting that slope gradient between 20° and 25° was a critical degree ranger to exist. Soil organic carbon loss was mainly influenced by soil erosion intensity, appearing the same trend as did soil erosion intensity with increasing slope gradient. Soil erosion results in organic carbon enrichment in sediment. Average enrichment ratios of five runoff plots varied from 2.27 to 3.74, and decreased with increasing erosion intensity and slope gradient. The decrease of surface runoff and soil erosion is the key to reduce soil organic carbon loss.

The objective of the study reported here was to determine whether LANDSAT TM images could be used to quantify changes in land-use and ecosystem services in Yuanmou County. The sizes of six land use/land cover (LUCC) categories were estimated in Yuanmou County according to the LANDSAT TM images in the summer of 1986 and 2005. Coefficients published by Xie Gaodi and co-workers in 2003 were used to value changes in ecosystem services delivered by each land use/land cover category, and the ecosystem services sensitivity analysis was conducted to determine the effect of manipulating these coefficients on the estimated values. The important results are summarized as followings. ➀ The estimated size of cultivated land, pasture land, water area and unused land decreased by 6.39%, 1.35%, 2.25% and 10.67% respectively between 1986 and 2005. By contrast, the estimated size of forest land and construction land increased by about 2.23% and 71.15% respectively between 1986 and 2005. ➁ The total ecosystem services value (EVS) of the study area increased from 2 142 132 609.46 yuan to 2 146 416 621.00 yuan, with the net increase of 4 284 011.54 yuan during the 20-year time period. ➂ The coefficient sensitivity (CS) of the study are less than unity in all cases (CS < 1). This indicates that the total ecosystem values estimated for the study area are relatively inelastic with respect to the ecosystem service coefficients. While this implies that our estimates are robust and the coefficient is reasonable, highly under or over valued coefficients can substantially affect the veracity of estimated changes in ecosystem service values overtime even when the CS are less than unity (CS < 1).

137Cs nuclear tracing technique was used to estimate rates of soil redistribution on a sloping field with traditional erosion control measures located near Shangqiao Village, Neijiang City, in the Sichuan Hilly Basin of China. The downslope changes of137Cs inventory and its corresponding soil erosion rates in the sloping field show a rolling trend and have two peak values in two inflexions of the sloping field, these result reflects that the changes of microphysiognomy play a key role on the spatial soil redistribution of the sloping field.