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Enhancing the sustainability of the non-timber forest products industry has dual significance for both the management of local forest resources and socio-economic development. This paper adopts a systems theory perspective to construct an analytical model for the sustainable development of non-timber forest products, based on a "social-economic-natural" framework. By analyzing case studies of non-timber forest products industry sustainability from four underdeveloped counties in China, the paper derives the following main conclusions and insights: The sustainability of non-timber forest products development models is influenced by factors such as resource endowments and institutional environments and includes both single and composite models. Underdeveloped regions can achieve considerable sustainability in the development of non-timber forest products, but this requires a rational allocation of six key elements—policy, model, stakeholders, natural resources, funding, and technology—to stimulate industry growth. To promote the sustainable development of this industry, optimization should be pursued across five aspects: "policy leadership and top-level design to guide industry development", "selection of appropriate development models based on local natural endowments and socio-economic foundations", "large enterprise-driven mechanisms to form multi-stakeholder interest connections", "focus on product technology research and development, and establishment of technical training mechanisms", and "market-driven funding to develop product sales markets". [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ecological products refer to the natural elements crucial for sustaining life support systems, ecological regulation functions, and environmental comfort. These products encompass clean air, water, pollution-free soil, lush forests, and maintaining favorable climates. In this study, we assessed the spatial distribution of ecosystem service functions in the Jizhou District of Tianjin using the suitability evaluation method, InVEST model calculations, and ArcGIS spatial visualization analysis. This study operates within the framework of "ecological industry selection", involving suitability evaluations for ecological product development, and formulates industrial development planning and control strategies. To construct the evaluation index system for exploiting and utilizing ecological products in the Jizhou District, three key aspects were considered: ecosystem services, land use, and limiting factors. Leveraging the district's resource endowments, this study conducted a quantitative analysis of the spatial distribution pattern of ecological product exploitation potential. The findings revealed a regional aggregation characteristic in the development potential of ecological products. The appropriate direction for developing eco-agriculture, eco-industry, eco-health, and eco-compensation products in the Jizhou district is influenced by the spatial distribution of ecosystem service functions. Building upon the analysis, specific types of ecological products suitable for development in the Jizhou District were further identified. By evaluating the suitability of ecological product development and utilization and verifying the results through industrial model division, the mechanism for comprehending the value of ecological products was realized. This study contributes to the realization of the "two mountains" ideology, wherein the transformation of green water and green mountains into assets of economic value is emphasized, thus fostering sustainable development practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research highlights: Ecological policies must balance ecosystem protection by promoting the sustainable livelihoods of farmers living in or near protected areas; however, the intrinsic motivations of farmers to adopt green production behaviors (GPBs) are poorly understood. Background and objectives: We explored how ecological policies affect the GPBs of farmers in agroforestry. Materials and methods: We conducted questionnaires of farmers in 11 counties of Sichuan Province, China, with abundant protected areas and large-scale agroforestry, after which a structural equation model of farmers' ecological awareness, policy perception, and GPBs was constructed. Results: (1) Ecological policies can stimulate farmers' GPBs by improving their ecological awareness, creating positive subjective norms, and inducing the "herd effect". Increases in protection intensity and scope amplify the pressures on farmers to maintain more than long-term policy consistency. (2) Green production is more time-consuming, laborious, expensive, and difficult to learn compared with traditional production methods, which have somewhat limited GPBs adoption. (3) In the rural "acquaintance society", information and communication from others have a substantial impact on farmers' perceptions, attitudes, and behaviors; thus, positive subjective norms from formal and informal channels could promote GPB adoption. Conclusions: Future policies should prioritize environmental education over environmental publicity by helping farmers understand the long-term relationship between ecological protection and economic development, teaching individual environmental responsibility, enhancing positive feedback to farmers who adopt GPBs, actively exploring mechanisms for realizing the value of ecological products, and improving farmers' management skills and learning ability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Continuous long-term measurements of carbon fluxes have been obtained by improved technology at the ecosystem scale and under natural conditions. Nevertheless, these are still point measurements with limited geographic coverage Quantitative extrapolations and scaling-up of tower station measurements are now urgently needed for carbon cycle research. This paper attempts to solve this problem by combining the technologies of CO2 flux measurements, mathematic modeling, Geographic Information System (GIS) and Remote Sensing (RS). It is well known that the light-response function allows partitioning net ecosystem exchange (NEE) into gross primary production (GPP) and total ecosystem respiration (Re). The GPP and Re can be estimated from continuous CO2 flux measurements using non-linear identification of the non-rectangular hyperbolic model of ecosystem-scale, light response curves. Patterns of the relationships of GPP and Re with the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), and other factors, indicate possibilities to establish multivariate functions, allowing scaling-up of local fluxes to larger areas with GIS technology, temporal NDVI inversed from RS images, and other tools. Our study is based on continuous CO2 flux data, which were measured at the Haibei Alpine Meadow Ecosystem Research Station (Haibei Research Station) on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, the Chinese Academy of Science. Using the above methods, we achieved good flux-NDVI relationships at the site and applied these relationships in the scaling-up of site-specific CO2 flux measurements to regional levels. Consequently the annual spatial and temporal variation of CO2 flux was obtained for this plateau and eco-region. Characterizing spatial and temporal dynamics of CO2 flux will facilitate investigations of the carbon source or sink status of grassland ecosystems on the plateau. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Arid Zone Research / Ganhanqu Yanjiu is the property of Arid Zone Research 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.)

Copyright of Mountain Research (10082786) is the property of Mountain Research 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.)

Copyright of Arid Zone Research / Ganhanqu Yanjiu is the property of Arid Zone Research 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.)

To achieve the restoration of ecological functions in the open-pit mining area of 123 Daogou, Yaozhou District, Tongchuan City, based on the investigation, evaluation, and analysis of the regional ecological and geological environmental problems of the mine, the concept of mountains, rivers, forests, fields, lakes, and grasses as a living community was implemented, which breaks through the traditional single restoration and management model of the mine. 3S ecological geological survey technology, systematic design concept, advanced ecological restoration technology, and integrated management were adopted, and the management of abandoned mines with ecological restoration, industrial development, and farmland development to catty out comprehensive management was combined. A total of 4.25 km² of ecological restoration area has been completed, and more than 530 000 m² of newly added land were linked to the increase and decrease indicators. The aerospace scientific research industry has been successfully introduced to the site, which has improved the ecological environment of the mining area, promoted the transformation and upgrading of regional industries, and gradually realized the organic unity of economic, ecological, and social benefits. The key factors in the implementation of the project were considered and summarized, to provide a reference for the ecological restoration of similar regional mines. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aiming at the ecological environment of an abandoned copper-sulfur mine in Shaoguan, the advanced technology system of "in-situ microbial matrix improvement + microbial agents + direct vegetation" is adopted to improve soil remediation and solve environmental problems with ecological ideas. It has been proved that the "in situ microbial matrix improvement + direct vegetation" soil remediation technology has a significant effect on acid soil and heavy metal pollution. 10 months after restoration, the average pH of the mine soil pollution area is increased from 2.60 to 7.08, and the average value of NAG-pH is increased from 2.62 before recovery to 4.63,the potential of soil acid production changed from high acid production to low acid production, and the acid production situation has been improved. The available states of soil Pb, Zn, Cu, and Cd decreased by 49%, 45.8%, 67.5%, and 58.6% respectively, which significantly reduced the dissolution of soil Pb, Zn, Cu, Cd, and other heavy metal elements, and effectively controlled soil heavy metal pollution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Accounting for the gains and losses of ecological assets holds scientific significance in sustaining human well-being. Based on related research on ecological assets, we established a county-scale ecological asset accounting technology system by analyzing the temporal and spatial variations of county-level ecological assets in China from 1990 to 2018 and clarified the factors which caused the gains and losses of ecological assets. On these bases, optimization and promotion pathways were proposed. The results show that the number of counties dominated by farmland and forest ecological resources accounted for about 45% and 37% of the total counties, respectively. From 1990 to 2018, the quality of county-level ecological stock assets showed an increasing trend, while the water conservation volume decreased in nearly 70% of the counties. The number of counties with the gains (47%) and losses (37%) of ecological flow assets demonstrated spatial patterns which showed the same segmentation characteristics as the "Hu Huanyong Line", that is, the counties in the vastness of northwest China experienced significant gains, while decreases were widespread in eastern and southern China. The change of ecological assets in more than 70% of the counties was driven by climate change and human activities. The average degree of impact of human activities driving the ecological asset gains in counties was about 80%, while that of climate change causing the ecological asset losses was about 60%. According to various ecological resource types, gain and loss status, and its driving factors, counties in China can be classified into five types: climate change mitigation, climate change adaptation, ecological resources restoration, ecological resources protection, and ecological resources management. Our results indicate that differentiated optimization and promotion pathways can be adopted to achieve desired ecological asset gains. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of Liaoning Technical University (Natural Science Edition) / Liaoning Gongcheng Jishu Daxue Xuebao (Ziran Kexue Ban) is the property of Journal of Liaoning Technical University (Natural Science) Editorial Department 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.)

According to the research results of ecosystem classification system, using model evaluation and spatial superposition analysis, combined with ecological security in Kunming, based on the study of ecosystem service and function evaluation at home and abroad, the important ecosystem and its distribution in Kunming were identified synthetically, and the vacant area of ecosystem protection system in Kunming was put forward after comparing with the protected areas. The results show that broad-leaved forest and shrub and grass ecosystem value rank in the top two, followed by coniferous forest, water, arable land, marshes, garden and meadow is the last. In the evaluation of ecosystem function importance, the area of extremely important and highly important area is 4 069.5 km², accounting for 19.37% of the land area. By the comprehensive evaluation, the important ecosystem of Kunming is semi-humid evergreen broad-leaved forest, moist evergreen broad-leaved forest of Zhongshan, cold-temperate mountain evergreen oak forest, cold warm coniferous forest, dry grassy shrub grass, alpine meadow, warm limestone thickets, lakes and reservoirs, rivers, paludification meadows, mainly distributed in the north and southwest of Kunming. The recognition of the important ecosystem objectively reflects the distribution of important ecosystem of Kunming, better characterizes the decisiveness and value of ecosystem services for regional ecological security, clearly reflects the key points and vacancies of the ecosystem protection of Kunming, which has important significance to maintain the biodiversity, protection ecological security, sustainable development of Kunming. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: Finding an inexpensive and effective clean energy electrocatalyst is highly important for the new generation of photovoltaic devices. Herein, we report a facile and universal in situ co‐precipitation strategy to load three novel tantalum‐based compounds (NiTa2O6, MnTa2O6, and AlTaO4) on honeycomb‐like bio‐based carbon (HBC) frameworks. The HBC framework with unique honeycomb‐like network structure serves as a support material in nanohybrids that can provide rich surface active sites and rapid electron transport channels for triiodide reduction reaction. The adoption of widely available and abundant biomass‐derived carbon into tantalum‐based compounds markedly boosts electrocatalytic properties of nanohybrids and exhibits robust corrosion resistance because nanohybrids adequately utilize the synergistic effects of different components. The photovoltaic devices fabricated with NiTa2O6/HBC, MnTa2O6/HBC, and AlTaO4/HBC counter electrode catalysts demonstrate the brilliant power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 7.09%, 7.39%, and 7.86%, respectively, outperforming the Pt‐based cells (6.80%). This work offers a strategy for the further rational design of efficient, inexpensive, and durable electrocatalysts for advanced energy technology applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study was conducted to investigate the effects of Clostridium butyricum and Lactobacillus plantarum on growth performance, immune function and volatile fatty acid (VFA) level of caecal digesta in broilers. One hundred and forty broilers were assigned to five groups (CON: basal diet; CB: basal diet+ C. butyricum; MLP: basal diet+ L. plantarum; MIX: basal diet+ C. butyricum + L. plantarum; ANT: basal diet + Aureomycin). The results showed that, birds in CB group had greater serum IgM level than that in control group at day 21 (P < .05). Birds in MIX group had greater serum IgM and IgA levels than those in MLP group at day 42 (P > .05). The current results indicated that dietary supplementation of C. butyricum increased serum immunoglobulin level and VFA level of caecal digesta in broilers, but a combination of supplementations with C. butyricum and L. plantarum had no significant effect on growth performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Canadian Journal of Animal Science is the property of Canadian Science Publishing 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.)

Desertification is one of the most serious environment problems in the world. Three methods commonly used in desertification control are engineering, chemical and biological sand fixation. Aiming at available water conservation in desertification ecological restoration, the clay-based modified materials were prepared by clay and sodium dodecyl benzene sulphonate (LAS) composite. LAS (2, 4, 6 and 8 g) was individually dissolved into 15 g distilled water while strong stirring for 10 minutes. Then, 3 g bentonite was slowly added into the solutions under strong stirring. The slurry was sprinkled onto sand with a relative humidity of 40%. The samples were regarded as L1, L2, L3 and L4, respectively according to the different contents of LAS (2, 4, 6 and 8 g), and the original clay L was as control group. The water retention property was studied in simulated desertification climate and the materials were analyzed and characterized by scanning electron microscope (SEM), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), X-Ray diffraction (XRD) and thermal gravity analysis (TGA). The materials were placed at 30 cm blow the 500 W ultraviolet (UV) carbon arc lamp to test the resistance to aging. The results showed that the water content of the control group fell sharply to zero just in 3 days. The falling rates of the water content for all the modified materials slowed down, and the water retention property was improved with increasing LAS content. L4 had the best performance for moisture content of 3.2% on the tenth day. It was because the clay particles had been cemented into large particles by LAS and the hydrophobic ends of LAS were connected to form a hydrophobic network that can inhibit water evaporation. As such, samples with high LAS content had better water retention ability. The aging results showed that the compression strength were all higher than 4.25 MPa. Samples with high LAS content had higher strength and the compression strength of L4 was 6.35 MPa. The compression strength and mass lost was small after aging and highest in samples with high LAS content. After 300 hours aging, the lost of L4 was highest with the strength loss rate of 8.7% and mass loss of 1.7%. It was because the photolysis rate of LAS in solid-state was very low and its decomposition temperature was above 450?. So the materials had good performance of resistance to aging. The SEM images showed that the original clay particles were small and loosely arranged. There were abundant channels of different pore size to transport water. The clay particles in the modified materials were cemented by LAS so that some water conducting channels were cut off. At the same time, the interaction of hydrophobic ends of LAS made more clay pores changing from hydrophilic to hydrophobic state. Then it was more difficult for water to rise and so the water retention property was enhanced. The FTIR figure showed that the infrared absorption characteristic peaks of original clay also existed in the modified clay, which indicated that the phase composition of clay did not change. The XRD figure showed that d001 interlamellar crystal spacing was 1.40643 nm for original clay, and 1.42420 nm for the modified clay. And there was almost no change in the interlamellar crystal spacing, which indicated that the modification didn't change the layered microstructure. The TG and DSC curves showed that the original clay kept losing water over temperature and most of the free water and interlayer adsorbed water escaped at and below 200?. By comparison, there was almost no moisture loss of modified clay below 200?. It was because the interaction between hydrophilic ends of LAS and the free water and adsorbed water made the water more stable. Grass-planting experiment showed that reasonable mass ratio of LAS and clay was 2:1. The materials not only had good water retention property but also maintained sound air permeability so the germination rate of grass seed significantly increased from 8% to 43%. After that, more LAS would block a part of the clay pores, which would influence the air permeability and thereby decrease the germination rate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]