Ecological-Based Mining:A Coal-Water-Thermal Collaborative Paradigm in Ecologically Fragile Areas in Western China

A substantial reduction in groundwater level,exacerbated by coal mining activities,is intensifying water scarcity in western China’s ecologically fragile coal mining areas.China’s national strategic goal of achieving a carbon peak and carbon neutrality has made eco-friendly mining that prioritizes the protection and efficient use of water resources essential.Based on the resource characteristics of mine water and heat hazards,an intensive coal-water-thermal collaborative co-mining paradigm for the duration of the mining process is proposed.An integrated system for the production,supply,and storage of mining companion resources is achieved through technologies such as roof water inrush prevention and control,hydrothermal quality improvement,and deep-injection geological storage.An active preventive and control system achieved by adjusting the mining technology and a passive system centered on multiobjective drainage and grouting treatment are suggested,in accordance with the original geological characteristics and dynamic process of water inrush.By implementing advanced multi-objective drainage,specifically designed to address the“skylight-type”water inrush mode in the Yulin mining area of Shaanxi Province,a substantial reduction of 50%in water drillings and inflow was achieved,leading to stabilized water conditions that effectively ensure subsequent safe coal mining.An integrated-energy complementary model that incorporates the clean production concept of heat utilization is also proposed.The findings indicate a potential saving of 8419 t of standard coal by using water and air heat as an alternative heating source for the Xiaojihan coalmine,resulting in an impressive energy conservation of 50.2%and a notable 24.2%reduction in carbon emissions.The ultra-deep sustained water injection of 100 m^(3)·h^(-1)in a single well would not rupture the formation or cause water leakage,and 7.87×10^(5)t of mine water could be effectively stored in the Liujiagou Formation,presenting a viable method for mine-water management in the Ordos Basin and providing insights for green and low-carbon mining.

Ecological problems and ecological restoration zoning of the Aral Sea

The Aral Sea was the fourth largest lake in the world but it has shrunk dramatically as a result of irrational human activities, triggering the "Aral Sea ecological crisis". The ecological problems of the Aral Sea have attracted widespread attention, and the alleviation of the Aral Sea ecological crisis has reached a consensus among the five Central Asian countries(Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Turkmenistan). In the past decades, many ecological management measures have been implemented for the ecological restoration of the Aral Sea. However, due to the lack of regional planning and zoning, the results are not ideal. In this study, we mapped the ecological zoning of the Aral Sea from the perspective of ecological restoration based on soil type, soil salinity, surface water, groundwater table, Normalized Difference Vegetation Index(NDVI), land cover, and aerosol optical depth(AOD) data. Soil salinization and salt dust are the most prominent ecological problems in the Aral Sea. We divided the Aral Sea into 7 first-level ecological restoration subregions(North Aral Sea catchment area in the downstream of the Syr Darya River(Subregion Ⅰ);artificial flood overflow area in the downstream of the Aral Sea(Subregion Ⅱ);physical/chemical remediation area of the salt dust source area in the eastern part of the South Aral Sea(Subregion Ⅲ);physical/chemical remediation area of severe salinization in the central part of the South Aral Sea(Subregion Ⅳ);existing water surface and potential restoration area of the South Aral Sea(Subregion Ⅴ);Aral Sea vegetation natural recovery area(Subregion Ⅵ);and vegetation planting area with slight salinization in the South Aral Sea(Subregion Ⅶ)) and 14 second-level ecological restoration subregions according to the ecological zoning principles. Implementable measures are proposed for each ecological restoration subregion. For Subregion Ⅰ and Subregion Ⅱ with lower elevations, artificial flooding should be carried out to restore the surface of the Aral Sea. Subregion Ⅲ and Subregion Ⅳ have severe salinization, making it difficult for vegetation to grow. In these subregions, it is recommended to cover and pave the areas with green biomatrix coverings and environmentally sustainable bonding materials. In Subregion Ⅴ located in the central and western parts of the South Aral Sea, surface water recharge should be increased to ensure that this subregion can maintain normal water levels. In Subregion Ⅵ and Subregion Ⅶ where natural conditions are suitable for vegetation growth, measures such as afforestation and buffer zones should be implemented to protect vegetation. This study could provide a reference basis for future comprehensive ecological management and restoration of the Aral Sea.

No effect of invasive tree species on aboveground biomass increments of oaks and pines in temperate forests

Prunus serotina and Robinia pseudoacacia are the most widespread invasive trees in Central Europe.In addition,according to climate models,decreased growth of many economically and ecologically important native trees will likely be observed in the future.We aimed to assess the impact of these two neophytes,which differ in the biomass range and nitrogen-fixing abilities observed in Central European conditions,on the relative aboveground biomass increments of native oaks Qucrcus robur and Q.petraea and Scots pine Pinus sylvestris.We aimed to increase our understanding of the relationship between facilitation and competition between woody alien species and overstory native trees.We established 72 circular plots(0.05 ha)in two different forest habitat types and stands varying in age in western Poland.We chose plots with different abundances of the studied neophytes to determine how effects scaled along the quantitative invasion gradient.Furthermore,we collected growth cores of the studied native species,and we calculated aboveground biomass increments at the tree and stand levels.Then,we used generalized linear mixed-effects models to assess the impact of invasive species abundances on relative aboveground biomass increments of native tree species.We did not find a biologically or statistically significant impact of invasive R.pseudoacacia or P.serotina on the relative aboveground,biomass increments of native oaks and pines along the quantitative gradient of invader biomass or on the proportion of total stand biomass accounted for by invaders.The neophytes did not act as native tree growth stimulators but also did not compete with them for resources,which would escalate the negative impact of climate change on pines and oaks.The neophytes should not significantly modify the carbon sequestration capacity of the native species.Our work combines elements of the per capita effect of invasion with research on mixed forest management.

Stepwise Ecological Restoration:A framework for improving restoration outcomes

Ecosystem degradation is one of the critical constraints for the sustainable development of our planet.However,recovering an ecosystem to a pre-impairment condition is often not practical.The International Restoration Standards provide the first framework for practical guidance on what constitutes the process of ecological repair and how this repair process can be influenced to improve net ecological benefits.In these Standards,Restorative Continuum is highlighted and it recognises that many do not,yet there is still value in aspiring to improvements to the highest extent possible,with some sites potentially being able to be improved in a stepwise manner.Here we elaborate on these Standards by providing a cross-ecosystem theoretical framework of Stepwise Ecological Restoration(STERE)for promoting higher environmental benefits.STERE allows the selection of suitable restorative modes by considering the degree of degradation while encouraging a transition to a higher state.These models include environmental remediation for completely modified and degraded ecosystems,ecological rehabilitation for highly modified and degraded ecosystems,and ecological restoration for degraded native ecosystems.STERE requires selecting tailored restorative modes,setting clear restorative targets and reference ecosystems,applying a systematic-thinking approach,and implementing a continuous monitoring program at all process stages to achieve a resilient trajectory.STERE allows adaptive management in the context of climate change,and when the evidence is available,to“adapt to the future”to ensure climate resilience.The STERE framework could assist in initiating and implementing restoration projects worldwide,especially in developing countries.

Mangrove wetlands distribution status identification, changing trend analyzation and carbon storage assessment of China

This research investigates the ecological importance,changes,and status of mangrove wetlands along China’s coastline.Visual interpretation,geological surveys,and ISO clustering unsupervised classification methods are employed to interpret mangrove distribution from remote sensing images from 2021,utilizing ArcGIS software platform.Furthermore,the carbon storage capacity of mangrove wetlands is quantified using the carbon storage module of InVEST model.Results show that the mangrove wetlands in China covered an area of 278.85 km2 in 2021,predominantly distributed in Hainan,Guangxi,Guangdong,Fujian,Zhejiang,Taiwan,Hong Kong,and Macao.The total carbon storage is assessed at 2.11×10^(6) t,with specific regional data provided.Trends since the 1950s reveal periods of increase,decrease,sharp decrease,and slight-steady increases in mangrove areas in China.An important finding is the predominant replacement of natural coastlines adjacent to mangrove wetlands by artificial ones,highlighting the need for creating suitable spaces for mangrove restoration.This study is poised to guide future mangroverelated investigations and conservation strategies.

Prevalence of vegetation browning in China’s drylands under climate change

Vegetation greening has long been acknowledged,but recent studies have pointed out that vegetation greening is possibly stalled or even reversed.However,detailed analyses about greening reversal or increased browning of vegetation remain scarce.In this study,we utilized the normalized difference vegetation index(NDVI)as an indicator of vegetation to investigate the trends of vegetation greening and browning(monotonic,interruption,and reversal)through the breaks for the additive season and trend(BFAST)method across China’s drylands from 1982 to 2022.It also reveals the impacts of ecological restoration programs(ERPs)and climate change on these vegetation trends.We find that the vegetation displays an obvious pattern of east-greening and west-browning in China’s drylands.Greening trends mainly exhibits monotonic greening(29.8%)and greening with setback(36.8%),whereas browning shows a greening to browning reversal(19.2%).The increase rate of greening to browning reversal is 0.0342/yr,which is apparently greater than that of greening with setback,0.0078/yr.This research highlights that,under the background of widespread vegetation greening,vegetation browning is pro-gressively increasing due to the effects of climate change.Furthermore,the ERPs have significantly increased vegetation coverage,with the increase rate in 2000-2022 being twice as much as that of 1982-1999 in reveg-etation regions.Vegetation browning in southwestern Qingzang Plateau is primarily driven by adverse climatic factors and anthropogenic disturbances,which offset the efforts of ERPs.

The coordinated evolution of ecological environment,public service,and tourism economy along the Silk Road Economic Belt,using the Dual-Carbon Targets

Carbon peak and carbon neutrality(dual-carbon)are important targets for the international response to climate change.The Silk Road Economic Belt is a strategic resource region and is important for future ecological environment and tourism development.Based on the“dual-carbon”targets,the Single index quantification,Multiple index synthesis,and Poly-criteria integration evaluation model were used in this study to measure the coordinated development index of the ecological environment,public service,and tourism economy along the Silk Road Economic Belt and to analyze its spatial and temporal evolution.Further,it explores the dynamic evolution and development trend of the three systems using the Kernel Density and Grey Markov Prediction Model.The results show that the coordinated development index along this region needs to be improved during the study period.Furthermore,the coordinated development index of the Southwest region is relatively higher than that of the Northwest region.From the development trend of the three systems,all of them develop in a stable manner;however,the tourism economy system is easily affected by external disturbances.The coordinated development index of the three systems changes dynamically and tends to be in a good state of coordination.There is a certain spatial and temporal heterogeneity.The gravity center of the coordinated development index has been in the Southwest region.During the forecast period,the coordinated development index along this region will improve significantly,while insufficient and unbalanced development will continue.

Assessment on eco-environmental quality of the Yellow River Basin by considering desertification index

Desertification has had a significant impact on the ecological environment of the Yellow River Basin(YRB)in China.However,previous studies on the evaluation of the ecological environment quality(EEQ)in the YRB have paid limited attention to the indicator of desertification.It is of great significance to incorporate the desertification index into the spatiotemporal assessment of the EEQ in the YRB in order to protect the ecological environment in the region.In this study,based on multi-source remote sensing data from 91 cities in the YRB,this article proposes a desertification remote sensing ecological index(DRSEI)model,which builds upon the traditional Remote Sensing Ecological Index(RSEI)model,to analyze the spatiotemporal changes in the EEQ in the YRB from 2001 to 2021.Furthermore,using the geographic detector(GD),and geographically and temporally weighted regression(GTWR)model,the study assesses the impact of human and natural factors on the EEQ in the YRB.The research findings indicate that:(1)Compared to the traditional RSEI,the improved DRSEI shows a decreasing trend in the evaluation results of the EEQ.Among the 24 cities,the change in DRSEI exceeds 0.05 compared to RSEI,accounting for 26.37%of the YRB.The remaining 67 cities have changes within a range of less than 0.05,accounting for 73.63%of the YRB.(2)The results of the GD for individual and interactive effects reveal that rainfall and elevation have significant individual and interactive effects on the EEQ.Furthermore,after the interaction with natural factors,the explanatory power of human factors gradually increases over time.The spatial heterogeneity results of GTWR demonstrate that rainfall has a strong direct positive impact on the EEQ,accounting for 98.90%of the influence,while temperature exhibits a more pronounced direct inhibitory effect,accounting for 76.92%of the influence.Human activities have a strong negative impact on the EEQ and a weak positive impact.

Ecological environmental quality evaluation and driving factor analysis of the Lijiang River Basin,based on Google Earth Engine

For regional ecological management,it is important to evaluate the quality of ecosystems and analyze the underlying causes of ecological changes.Using the Google Earth Engine(GEE)platform,the remote sensing ecological index(RSEI)was calculated for the Lijiang River Basin in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region for 1991,2001,2011,and 2021.Spatial autocorrelation analysis was employed to investigate spatiotemporal variations in the ecological environmental quality of the Lijiang River Basin.Furthermore,geographic detectors were used to quantitatively analyze influencing factors and their interaction effects on ecological environmental quality.The results verified that:1)From 1991 to 2021,the ecological environmental quality of the Lijiang River Basin demonstrated significant improvement.The area with good and excellent ecological environmental quality in proportion increased by 19.69%(3406.57 km^(2)),while the area with fair and poor ecological environmental quality in proportion decreased by 10.76%(1860.36 km^(2)).2)Spatially,the ecological environmental quality of the Lijiang River Basin exhibited a pattern of low quality in the central region and high quality in the periphery.Specifically,poor ecological environmental quality characterized the Guilin urban area,Pingle County,and Lingchuan County.3)From 1991 to 2021,a significant positive spatial correlation was observed in ecological environmental quality of the Lijiang River Basin.Areas with high-high agglomeration were predominantly forests and grasslands,indicating good ecological environmental quality,whereas areas with low-low agglomeration were dominated by cultivated land and construction land,indicating poor ecological environmental quality.4)Annual average precipitation and temperature exerted the most significant influence on the ecological environmental quality of the basin,and their interactions with other factors had the great influence.This study aimed to enhance understanding of the evolution of the ecological environment in the Lijiang River Basin of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region and provide scientific guidance for decision-making and management related to ecology in the region.

Plant community on a volcano mountaintop reveals unique high-altitude vegetation in southeastern Brazil

Mountains exhibit a high degree of endemism and diversity,however,quantifying their biodiversity can be challenging.Similar to islands,species isolation in mountainous regions results in comparable patterns of evolution and extinction,rendering their biodiversity unique and highly susceptible to anthropogenic threats.The topographic relief in mountains plays a crucial role in creating habitat complexity,which in turn contribute to high plant diversity.Here,we investigated plant diversity in the volcano mountaintop vegetation on the Poços de Caldas Plateau,a region situated in the ecotone between the Atlantic Forest and Cerrado,characterized by natural radiation and significant anthropogenic intervention.We employed an automated approach through the filtering of georeferenced and non-georeferenced data to obtain a list of plant species in the region.Additionally,we statistically investigated the similarity among different high-altitude vegetations belonging to the campos de altitude from the Atlantic Forest and campos rupestres from the Cerrado.The plateau exhibits high plant diversity,including 1,659 specific and infraspecific taxa,especially belonging to Asteraceae and Poaceae.Our analyses suggest that geographical distance is a strong predictor of dissimilarity and that the Poços de Caldas Plateau is more floristically related to the campos rupestres,despite being associated with campos de altitude.The region possesses a unique set of biodiversity,indicating that it may be a distinct formation.Additionally,we hypothesize that Pleistocene events likely influenced the conformation of the current floristic composition in the region through species interchange between the Cerrado and Atlantic Forest.Our study also highlights the few taxa assessed for conservation status and anthropogenic threats that this habitat is facing.

Feeding ecology and interactions with mammal hosts in a symbiotic genus of birds(Buphagus spp.)in Namibia

As the sole obligate symbiotic birds in Africa,oxpeckers offer a unique model for studying symbiotic relationships.Due to the multitrophic level they occupy and the context dependent foraging behavior they exhibit,the type of symbiotic relationship can be variable.In addition to providing a cleaning service to the host by removing ticks,oxpeckers frequently feed on blood,mucus,and saliva,inflicting potential damage on the host.Here,we used DNA metabarcoding on faecal samples to analyze the taxonomic composition of the trophic interactions of the Yellow-billed Oxpecker(Buphagus africanus)and Red-billed Oxpecker(B.erythrorhynchus)in northeastern Namibia.In contrast to conventional methods,DNA metabarcoding allows for a detailed identification of dietary resources encompassing both mammal hosts and consumed arthropods within the same samples.With this information,we examined differences in the diet composition between oxpecker species and localities,as well as the co-occurrence between host and arthropod species.Our findings revealed that oxpeckers predominantly source their diet from mammals,ticks,and flies;however,ticks and flies rarely co-occur in the diet of an individual.We observed variability among individuals in their feeding ecology,which is strongly correlated with locality and,to a lesser extent,with the mammal host.We noted a high degree of mobility between hosts within relatively short periods,with 32%of the samples showing traces of at least two mammal hosts.This study illustrates the dynamic foraging behavior of these specialized symbiotic birds,shedding light on their potential role in pest control services and disease transmission.

Effects of Enclosure on Grassland Ecological and Economic Benefits in Northern China

Grasslands in northern China serve the country as both an ecological barrier and a livestock production base.There,installing enclosures has been becoming the major grassland restoration measure adopted by many local governments.However,the effects of restoration on both ecological and production benefits of grassland remain unclear for implemented grassland restoration policies.Therefore,a representative rangeland in northern China,the Maodeng pasture in Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region was selected as the study area,and remote sensing monitoring analyses were carried out to quantify the ecological benefits and economic benefits from 2015 to 2021.The results showed that:1) in terms of ecological benefits,the grassland area with a grassland coverage rate of more than 60% accounts for 32.3% of the regional area,and 86.4% of its grassland grew significantly better than the same period in2015,showing a significant improvement in grassland growth.Using the average amount of carbon per unit area as the ecological benefit evaluation index,it increased by 27.1% to 32.48Tg C/yr from 2015 to 2021.2) In terms of economic benefits,both theoretical grass production and livestock carrying capacity increased from 2015 to 2021.Compared to 2015,the theoretical grass production in 2021 increased by 24.8% to 71 900 t.The livestock carrying capacity reached 52 100 sheep units in 2021,nearly 11 000 sheep units more than that in 2015.During the study period,multiple economic indicators(on a per capita basis of permanent residents) for the pastoral area of Xilinhot City to which the Maodeng pasture belongs,have grown steadily.Per capita total income rose from 29 630 yuan(RMB) in2015 to 62 859 yuan(RMB) in 2021.Relying on grassland resources to develop the pastoral ecology also broadens the potential economic development space.Overall,the establishment of the reserve and the experiment of implanting an enclosure policy have had a significant and positive impact on Maodeng pasture’s development from both an ecological and economic perspective.With the support of scientific evidence,enclosure policy can be extended to more than 110 000 km~2 of grasslands in northern China with similar precipitation and temperature conditions,enhancing the productive and ecological potential of grasslands.The above research results will contribute to the scientific formulation of grassland pasture quality improvement plans in northern China.

Navigating the Challenges of Emerging Contaminants to Protect Human and Ecological Health

Emerging contaminants are defined as chemicals that are not currently(or have only recently been)regulated and about which there are concerns regarding their impact on human or ecological health.Such contaminants are widely detected in air,water,soil,sediment,and biotic environments.It is against this backdrop of urgency that we have curated this special issue titled“Emerging Contaminants Control:Science and Technology,”with the goal of uniting the latest scientific insights and pioneering strategies to address this global concern.This special issue embarks on a comprehensive examination of the emerging contaminants dilemma,covering aspects such as risk assessment,remediation technologies,environmental surveying,and the broader implications for policy.Through a collection of articles,we probe deep into the core of this issue,showcasing studies that range from appraising environmental risks to forging new methods for treatment and scrutinizing the occurrence of contaminants across different environmental settings.

A bibliometric analysis using machine learning to track paradigm shifts and analytical advances in forest ecology and forestry journal publications from 2010 to 2022

Forest habitats are critical for biodiversity,ecosystem services,human livelihoods,and well-being.Capacity to conduct theoretical and applied forest ecology research addressing direct(e.g.,deforestation)and indirect(e.g.,climate change)anthropogenic pressures has benefited considerably from new field-and statistical-techniques.We used machine learning and bibliometric structural topic modelling to identify 20 latent topics comprising four principal fields from a corpus of 16,952 forest ecology/forestry articles published in eight ecology and five forestry journals between 2010 and 2022.Articles published per year increased from 820 in 2010 to 2,354 in 2021,shifting toward more applied topics.Publications from China and some countries in North America and Europe dominated,with relatively fewer articles from some countries in West and Central Africa and West Asia,despite globally important forest resources.Most study sites were in some countries in North America,Central Asia,and South America,and Australia.Articles utilizing R statistical software predominated,increasing from 29.5%in 2010 to 71.4%in 2022.The most frequently used packages included lme4,vegan,nlme,MuMIn,ggplot2,car,MASS,mgcv,multcomp and raster.R was more often used in forest ecology than applied forestry articles.R software offers advantages in script and workflow-sharing compared to other statistical packages.Our findings demonstrate that the disciplines of forest ecology/forestry are expanding both in number and scope,aided by more sophisticated statistical tools,to tackle the challenges of redressing forest habitat loss and the socio-economic impacts of deforestation.

Utilization of recycled solid waste as ecological reclamation materials based on plant growth experiments and soil quality analysis

During the highway construction,a large number of spoil areas will be generated while a large amount of waste slag and soil could not be rationally utilized.Besides,the vegetation recovery is slow in the spoil areas due to the soil depletion.Aiming at recycling the solid waste,the sieved engineering waste slag with local red clay and corn straw biochar was supplied to solve the problem of insufficient nutrients in engineering waste slag and soil.In addition,planting experiments of alfalfa(Medicago sativa L.)and Amorpha fruticosa L.combined with physical and chemical experiments were carried out to prove the feasibility of the novel improved substrate for the reclamation of spoil areas.The results show that the substrate's improvement effect is mainly affected by the soil to slag ratio and the biochar content.The improvement effect of soil matrix in highway spoil area decreases with the increase of the waste slag content,especially when the soil-slag ratio is less than 3,and the promotion of plants is limited.On the contrary,the improvement effect is proportional to the biochar content(3%-8%).But it is noted that the Cu and Pb in the soil will exceed the clean limit corresponding to the Nemero soil pollution index level when the biochar content is 8%.Therefore,it is recommended that the soil-slag ratio should be≥3,and the biochar content should reach 3%-5%.This research provides experimental basis and technical support for utilizing solid waste resources in the reclamation of highway spoil areas.

Changing regularity of plant and insect community characteristics due to pest outbreaks in Larix principis- rupprechtii plantations

Research has indicated that simple forest eco-system composition,structure and diversity have uncompli-cated community relationships and insufficient pest control capabilities.To investigate changing characteristics of plant and insect communities in under pest outbreaks in Larix principis-rupprechtii plantations,the research areas were defined as mature(48–50 years)and young(24–29 years)infested stands along with healthy stands.The results show a reduction in the complexity and diversity of plant communi-ties and herbaceous plant guilds(polycultures of beneficial plants)and the complexity and dominance of insect com-munities,especially natural insect enemies.The results also show the relative simplicity of the main factors of commu-nity change and development that represent the characteris-tics of pest outbreaks in L.principis-rupprechtii plantations.The complexity and diversity of plant communities,particu-larly herbaceous plant guilds play a fundamental role in the regulation and development in forest ecosystems.

Landscape ecological risk assessment and its driving factors in the Weihe River basin,China

Weihe River basin is of great significance to analyze the changes of land use pattern and landscape ecological risk and to improve the ecological basis of regional development.Based on land use data of the Weihe River basin in 2000,2010,and 2020,with the support of Aeronautical Reconnaissance Coverage Geographic Information System(ArcGIS),GeoDa,and other technologies,this study analyzed the spatial-temporal characteristics and driving factors of land use pattern and landscape ecological risk.Results showed that land use structure of the Weihe River basin has changed significantly,with the decrease of cropland and the increase of forest land and construction land.In the past 20 a,cropland has decreased by 7347.70 km2,and cropland was mainly converted into forest land,grassland,and construction land.The fragmentation and dispersion of ecological landscape pattern in the Weihe River basin were improved,and land use pattern became more concentrated.Meanwhile,landscape ecological risk of the Weihe River basin has been improved.Severe landscape ecological risk area decreased by 19,177.87 km2,high landscape ecological risk area decreased by 3904.35 km2,and moderate and low landscape ecological risk areas continued to increase.It is worth noting that landscape ecological risks in the upper reaches of the Weihe River basin are still relatively serious,especially in the contiguous areas of high ecological risk,such as Tianshui,Pingliang,Dingxi areas and some areas of Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region.Landscape ecological risk showed obvious spatial dependence,and high ecological risk area was concentrated.Among the driving factors,population density,precipitation,normalized difference vegetation index(NDVI),and their interactions are the most important factors affecting the landscape ecological risk of the Weihe River basin.The findings significantly contribute to our understanding of the ecological dynamics in the Weihe River basin,providing crucial insights for sustainable management in the region.

Ecological network analysis reveals complex responses of tree species life stage interactions to stand variables

Tree interactions are essential for the structure,dynamics,and function of forest ecosystems,but variations in the architecture of life-stage interaction networks(LSINs)across forests is unclear.Here,we constructed 16 LSINs in the mountainous forests of northwest Hebei,China based on crown overlap from four mixed forests with two dominant tree species.Our results show that LSINs decrease the complexity of stand densities and basal areas due to the interaction cluster differentiation.In addition,we found that mature trees and saplings play different roles,the first acting as“hub”life stages with high connectivity and the second,as“bridges”controlling information flow with high centrality.Across the forests,life stages with higher importance showed better parameter stability within LSINs.These results reveal that the structure of tree interactions among life stages is highly related to stand variables.Our efforts contribute to the understanding of LSIN complexity and provide a basis for further research on tree interactions in complex forest communities.

Tree mycorrhizal associations determine how biodiversity,large trees,and environmental factors drive aboveground carbon stock in temperate forests

Biodiversity,large trees,and environmental conditions such as climate and soil have important effects on forest carbon stocks.However,recent studies in temperate forests suggest that the relative importance of these factors depends on tree mycorrhizal associations,whereby large-tree effects may be driven by ectomycorrhizal(EM)trees,diversity effects may be driven by arbuscular mycorrhizal(AM)trees,and environment effects may depend on differential climate and soil preferences of AM and EM trees.To test this hypothesis,we used forest-inventory data consisting of over 80,000 trees from 631 temperate-forest plots(30 m×30 m)across Northeast China to examine how biodiversity(species diversity and ecological uniqueness),large trees(top 1%of tree diameters),and environmental factors(climate and soil nutrients)differently regulate aboveground carbon stocks of AM trees,EM trees,and AM and EM trees combined(i.e.total aboveground carbon stock).We found that large trees had a positive effect on both AM and EM tree carbon stocks.However,biodiversity and environmental factors had opposite effects on AM vs.EM tree carbon stocks.Specifically,the two components of biodiversity had positive effects on AM tree carbon stocks,but negative effects on EM tree carbon stocks.Environmental heterogeneity(mean annual temperature and soil nutrients)also exhibited contrasting effects on AM and EM tree carbon stocks.Consequently,for the total carbon stock,the positive large-tree effect far surpasses the diversity and environment effect.This is mainly because when integrating AM and EM tree carbon stock into total carbon stock,the opposite diversity-effect(also environment-effect)on AM vs.EM tree carbon stock counteracts each other while the consistent positive large-tree effect on AM and EM tree carbon stock is amplified.In summary,this study emphasized a mycorrhizal viewpoint to better understand the determinants of overarching aboveground carbon profile across regional forests.

Evolution mechanism and treatment timing of penetrating fissures

The Inner Mongolia mining area in western China are characterized by the development of numerous penetrating fissures,resulting in severe land damage.It is significant to reveal the underlying evolution mechanism and identify treatment timing for restoring the ecological environment.The Guanbanwusu mining subsidence area in Inner Mongolia,China was selected as the research case for this study.The evolution mechanism of different penetrating fissures was revealed by field measurement,physical simulation and theoretical analysis.The treatment timing prediction model for the mining subsidence area was established based on the enhanced Weibull time function.The results show that the ground fissures are mainly step-type and collapse-type fissures.The breaking form of overlying strata determines their vertical opening and horizontal dislocation.The high mining intensity in the western mining area results in a shortened period of dynamic fissure expansion and reduced closure degree.The damage extent of the overlying strata exhibits zoning characteristics both vertically and horizontally.The relative standard deviation of the prediction model is only 3.7%.Concurrently,the prediction model is employed to determine the optimal timing for treatment in the study area,estimated to be 259 days.Subsequently,once this threshold is reached,the study area undergoes treatment and restoration of its e cological environment.This study addresses the knowledge gap in this field by highlighting the interconnectedness between rock strata structure and evolution mechanism of penetrating fissures,thereby providing a method for determining the treatment timing in mining subsidence areas.