Search

Quantifying carbon neutrality and its spatial range on the Loess Plateau of China is crucial for effective carbon planning. By utilizing advanced systems like the (Intelligent Urban Ecosystem Management System, IUEMS) and satellite data, we estimated carbon sequestration and emissions. Spatial carbon neutrality was determined, projecting distributions using the (Patch-generating Land Use Simulation Model, PLUS). Results show increasing carbon sequestration from 2000 to 2020, particularly in central and western regions. Topographical factors like altitude and slopes significantly influence sequestration. Carbon emissions are low overall, concentrated in urban areas on the northern slope, with an initial increase followed by a decline. The carbon neutrality service range from 2000 to 2050 spans 174-262.63 km, gradually expanding in space, albeit slightly decreasing after 2030. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Enclosure age induces technical difficulties related to establishing recovery measures for degraded rangeland biomass. The long-term and continuous enclosure of a degraded rangeland may provide strong theoretical support for this practice. In this study, enclosure measures were established to monitor the plant communities in the long-term grazing rangelands of Xilamuren in the Inner Mongolian Plateau, China, for 11 years. This study found that the number of species decreased in the enclosure rangeland every year, especially the number of perennial forbs. Grazing reduced the interannual fluctuation in the plant community biomass, and enclosure increased the biomass of perennial bunchgrasses and perennial rhizomatous grasses. In the enclosure treatment, community biomass began to decrease in 2014 (an extreme drought year), and there was no significant difference in biomass between the enclosure and grazing treatments in the 11th year. Our results indicate that grazing maintains grassland species and reduces the interannual fluctuations of biomass, and enclosure increases the risks of plant communities coping with extreme drought climates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The interlayer π-π interaction between finite-size models of graphene sheets was investigated by using a density functional theory method, augmented with an empirical R-6 term for the description of long-range dispersive interaction; these were calibrated by studying the π-π interaction between various benzene dimer configurations and comparing the results with previous calculations. For stacked bilayers (dimers) and multilayers of polyaromatic hydrocarbons, which serve as molecular models of graphene sheets, we found that binding energies and energy gaps are strongly dependent on their sizes, while the stacking order and the number of stacked layers have a minor influence. The remarkably broad variation of the energy gap, ranging from 1.0 to 2.5 eV, due mainly to variation of the model size, suggests the potential of broadband luminescence in the visible range for carbon-based nanomaterials that have π-π interacting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Irrigated artificial grasslands can help in achieving a large amount of forage in the Inner Mongolia typical steppe areas of China. However, developing irrigated artificial grasslands requires the consumption of water resources, and also affects the hydrological cycle. In this study, mapping evapotranspiration at high resolution with internalized calibration (METRIC) model has been used to estimate regional evapotranspiration during the crop growth season (from May to September) in irrigated artificial grasslands in 2011. The results were verified based on the data obtained from eight monitoring points of irrigated silage maize farms using water balance method, with a mean relative error value of 13.8%. The average evapotranspiration for irrigated artificial grasslands during the crop growth season is 611.42 mm. To further analyze the consumption of local water resources, concept of groundwater consumption (GW) is proposed. The GW value for irrigated artificial grasslands during the crop growth season was estimated to be 457.96 mm; the GW values at each of these farms, including Woyuan cow, Maodeng, Baiyinxile, Hezhongmumin, exceeded 400 mm. The results show that these areas, which exhibit high water consumption face difficulties in water resource management, particularly when there is no external water supply. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]