Tradeoffs and synergies between ecosystem services : A comparison of the karst and non-karst area

Under the influence of various natural and human factors, the relationship between the ecosystem services provided for human beings by a karst ecosystem is becoming increasingly complex, profoundly limiting the effective and sustainable development of the social economy and ecosystem protection in karst areas. Taking Guizhou, China as an example, which includes both karst(including five different landforms) and non-karst area, the study explored and compared the tradeoff and synergy between ecosystem services in both terrain types. The results showed higher change rates of water yield and soil retention in karst areas than those in non-karst areas, with only small differences in the carbon storage and crop production change. The ecosystem service relationships in the karst area from 1995 to 2005 were consistent with the relationships in the non-karst area. However, differences were observed in most of these relationships from 2005 to 2015. The relationships between ecosystem services in different karst landforms from 1995 to 2005 remained the same, but there are differences found in the relationships of ecosystem services from 2005 to 2015. The trade-off and synergistic relationships between ecosystem services in the different landforms were closely related to the changes of climate and land use, particularly related to rainfall, rainfall erosivity, farmland, and forestland.

Dry Breeding and Dry Planting Techniques for Indica Hybrid Rice in Karst Mountain Areas of Gejiu City

Based on the arable land situation in Gejiu City,upland dry planting of indica hybrid rice is being expanded in Karst mountain areas with a rainfall of over 1400 mm and an altitude of 1100-1600 m to develop grain production.This paper gives a specific description of hybrid rice upland dry seedling technology,upland transplanting technology,fertilization technology,field management,weed prevention and control technology,and disease and pest control.

Spatiotemporal Evolution of Ecological Quality in Typical Karst Ecologically Fragile Areas Based on Remote Sensing Ecological Indexes

Fast and effective remote sensing monitoring is an important means for analyzing the spatio-temporal changes in ecological quality in fragile karst regions.This study focuses on Guanling Autonomous County,a national-level demonstration county for comprehensive desertification control.Based on Landsat TM/OLI remote sensing image data from 2005,2010,2015,and 2020,remote sensing ecological indices were used to analyze the spatio-temporal changes in ecological quality in Guanling Autonomous County from 2005 to 2020.The results show that:①the variance contribution rates of the first principal component for the four periods were 66.31%,71.59%,63.18%,and 75.24%,indicating that PC1 integrated most of the characteristics of the four indices,making the RSEI suitable for evaluating ecological quality in karst mountain areas;②the remote sensing ecological index grades have been increasing year by year,with an overall trend of improving ecological quality.The area of higher-grade ecological quality has increased spatially,while fragmented patches have gradually decreased,becoming more concentrated in the low-altitude areas in the northwest and east,and there is a trend of expansion towards higher-altitude areas;③the ecological environment quality in most areas has improved,with the improvement in RSEI spatio-temporal variation becoming more noticeable with increasing slope.Areas of higher-grade quality appeared in 2010,and the range of higher-grade quality expanded with increasing slope.

Spatio-temporal Evolution and Optimization of Landscape Ecological Risk in Karst Mountainous Areas

[Objective]The ecological vulnerability and landscape ecological risk of karst mountainous areas have increased as a result of enhanced disturbance of natural resources by human activities.This paper aimed to explore the characteristics of ecological risk evolution under different landscape patterns in the region,with a view to providing reference for land classification protection,sustainable use of resources and regional ecological risk optimization in karst mountainous areas.[Method]Taking Huangping County,a typical karst mountainous area,as an example,eight evaluation factors of natural and landscape patterns were selected to construct a landscape ecological risk evaluation model,to quantitatively explore the spatio-temporal evolution of landscape ecological risk and the trend of risk level transfer in the study area from^(2)010-2018,and to reveal the complex relationship between ecological risk and topography in karst mountainous areas.[Result]①From 2010 to 2018,land use types changed to different degrees,with the most amount of woodland transferred out(1627.37 hm^(2))and the most amount of construction land transferred in(1303.93 hm^(2));a total of 3552.31 hm^(2) of land was transferred,with a change ratio of 2.13%,and there was a significant conversion between construction land,arable land,and woodland.②From 2010 to 2018,the landscape ecological risk in the study area changed significantly,and the landscape ecological risk index decreased from 0.3441 to 0.1733,showing an upward and then downward trend;the landscape ecological risk of the whole region was dominated by low-risk and lower-risk zones,and the ecological risk level generally shifted from a high level to a low level,and the ecological environment was improved.③There was a negative correlation between ecological risk and topographic position,and high-risk zones were mainly distributed among low topographic zones;with the change of time,the advantage of risk level for the selection of topography was gradually weakened,and the influence of anthropogenic factors on the ecological risk of the landscape was becoming more and more prominent.[Conclusion]This paper can provide theoretical basis for land use optimization and ecological protection in karst mountainous areas.

Analysis on the Characteristics and Laws of Tunnel Hydraulic Inrush in Karst Area

As highways are extended to deep mountains,high altitudes,and special geological conditions,tunnel construction becomes more and more challenging,especially the construction of tunnels in karst areas.Due to the particularity of the regional geological structure,karst is well developed in the southwest of our country,especially at areas where the problem of tunnel water inrush in karst areas is more prominent.To further ensure the safe construction and operation of tunnels,the characteristics of tunnels in karst areas is analyzed in this article.

Spatiotemporal Interaction Between Rural Settlements and Cultivated Land in Karst Mountainous Area,China

Settlements and cultivated land are important production and living spaces in promoting rural revitalization.However,few studies have explored the relationship between rural settlements and cultivated land from spatiotemporal interaction perspective.This paper analyzed the spatiotemporal conversion and the interactive mechanism between rural settlements and cultivated land in a karst mountainous area(Qixingguan District of Guizhou Province)with fragile ecological environment in China during 2009–2018.The results showed that the expansion of rural settlements and the loss of cultivated land coexisted in Qixingguan District.Only 2.68%of the new cultivated land was reclaimed from rural settlements,whereas 85.45%of the new rural settlements occupied cultivated land.Six spatial expansion modes of rural settlements when occupying cultivated land were identified.Among these six modes,the area of the edge-expansion&along traffic roads(EA)mode accounted for 52.75%.The occupation by rural settlements made the cultivated land landscape more fragmented.The area ratio index of cultivated land to rural settlements(ARICR)of Qixingguan District averaged 18.75in 2009 and 17.21 in 2018,respectively.The ARICR reduced in all township administrative regions.Cultivated land with suitable slope condition for farming or without rocky desertification was more likely to be occupied by rural settlements.The probability of cultivated land occupied by rural settlements increased with the decrease of the distance to traffic roads,towns,and old rural settlements.The better the economic and social development of the township administrative regions,the more the ARICR decreased,while the richer the agricultural resources and the better the rural development of the township administrative regions,the less the ARICR decreased.The optimal reconstruction path of rural settlements,the comprehensive conservation path of cultivated land and the urban-rural integration development path in karst mountainous area were proposed.The findings would contribute to our understanding of the spatiotemporal interaction between rural settlements and cultivated land,and would provide a theoretical basis for promoting the coordinated development of rural man-land relationship and rural revitalization in karst areas.

Abandoned land identification in karst mountain area based on time series SAR characteristics at geo-parcels scale

Mapping abandoned land is very important for accurate agricultural management.However,in karst mountainous areas,continuous high-resolution optical images are difficult to obtain in rainy weather,and the land is fragmented,which poses a great challenge for remote sensing monitoring of agriculture activities.In this study,a new method for identifying abandoned land is proposed:firstly,a few Google Earth images are used to transform arable land into accurate vectorized geo-parcels;secondly,a time-series data set was constructed using Sentinel-1A Alpha parameters for 2020 on each farmland geoparcel;thirdly,the semi-variation function(SVF)was used to analyze the spatial-temporal characteristics,then identify abandoned land.The results show:(1)On the basis of accurate spatial information and boundary of farmland land,the SAR time-series dataset reflects the structure and time-series response.abandoned land with an accuracy of 80.25%.The problem of remote sensing monitoring in rainy regions and complex surface areas is well-resolved.(2)The spatial heterogeneity of abandoned land is more obvious than that of cultivated land within geoparcels.The step size for significant changes in the SVF of abandoned land is shorter than that of cultivated land.(3)The SVF time sequence curve presented a strong peak feature when farmland was abandoned.This reveals that the internal spatial structure of abandoned land is more disordered and complex.It showed that time-series variations of spatial structure within cultivated land have broader applications in remote sensing monitoring of agriculture in complex imaging environments.

Trade-offs and Synergies of Ecosystem Services in Karst Area of China Driven by Grain-for-Green Program

As an important means regulating the relationship between human and natural ecosystem,ecological restoration program plays a key role in restoring ecosystem functions.The Grain-for-Green Program(GFGP,One of the world’s most ambitious ecosystem conservation set-aside programs aims to transfer farmland on steep slopes to forestland or grassland to increase vegetation coverage)has been widely implemented from 1999 to 2015 and exerted significant influence on land use and ecosystem services(ESs).In this study,three ecological models(In VEST,RUSLE,and CASA)were used to accurately calculate the three key types of ESs,water yield(WY),soil conservation(SC),and net primary production(NPP)in Karst area of southwestern China from 1982 to 2015.The impact of GFGP on ESs and trade-offs was analyzed.It provides practical guidance in carrying out ecological regulation in Karst area of China under global climate change.Results showed that ESs and trade-offs had changed dramatically driven by GFGP.In detail,temporally,SC and NPP exhibited an increasing trend,while WY exhibited a decreasing trend.Spatially,SC basically decreased from west to east;NPP basically increased from north to south;WY basically increased from west to east;NPP and SC,SC and WY developed in the direction of trade-offs driven by the GFGP,while NPP and WY developed in the direction of synergy.Therefore,future ecosystem management and restoration policy-making should consider trade-offs of ESs so as to achieve sustainable provision of ESs.

Groundwater resources in karst area in Southern China and sustainable utilization pattern

Occurrence conditions of groundwater in southern karst area are complicated. The water-bearing media in the karst have multiplicity, and the groundwater is hosted in holes, gaps, seams, pipes and caves. The karst water shows heterogeneity where fast and slow flow coexist, and the Darcy and non-Darcy flow coexist, and the liquid flow, the gas flow and solid flow coexist. The evaluation and investigation indicates that the mineable resource of karst groundwater is about 53.44 billion m^3/y, and the current exploitation quantity is merely 6.565 billion m^3/year. The exploitation and utilization potential is gigantic. In the region there are altogether 2 763 karst subterranean rivers with a total length of 12 687 km. The dry season runoff volume equals to 47 billion m^3/year. At present the exploitation is only 10%. Four effective utilization models of karst groundwater resources have been put forward.(1) The karst hills-depression zone formed the surface-underground united reservoir. By digging tunnels, water diversion irrigation and generating electricity, the ecological economy is developed.(2) In the deep-cut peak cluster depression area, by using the high-part Epikarst spring and constructing the regulation and storage water tank, the stereo ecological agriculture is developed.(3) In the karst peak forest plain and hilly-gully area, the pump-type underground regulating reservoir is constructed and the water-saving ecological agriculture is strengthened.(4) In the fault basin region with the surrounding groundwater runoff belting beam backwater, the water resources are jointly controlled to develop a fruit crop base within the basin.

Pool Sizes and Turnover of Soil Organic Carbon of Farmland Soil in Karst Area of Guilin

The three-pool and first-order model separates the mineralizable organic carbon into active,slow,and passive carbon pools.This paper used the model and decomposition curves of the soil organic carbon to fit the active pool and its decomposition rate,slow pool and its decomposition rate.The results showed that the size of the active pool from different profiles accounted for 2.09%-3.08% of the total soil organic carbon and the mean residue time was 3.57-17.21 days.And the size of the slow pool accounted for 3.19%-43.55% and the mean residue time was 1.12-4.94 years.Acid hydrolysis（6M HCl） was used to fractionate the passive organic carbon,which accounted for 50.83%-94.44% of the total soil organic carbon.

Integrating multisource RS data and GIS techniques to assist the evaluation of resource-environment carrying capacity in karst mountainous area

The karst mountainous area is an ecologically fragile region with prominent humanland contradictions.The resource-environment carrying capacity(RECC)of this region needs to be further clarified.The development of remote sensing(RS)and geographic information system(GIS)provides data sources and processing platform for RECC monitoring.This study analyzed and established the evaluation index system of RECC by considering particularity in the karst mountainous area of Southwest China;processed multisource RS data(Sentinel-2,Aster-DEM and Landsat-8)to extract the spatial distributions of nine key indexes by GIS techniques(information classification,overlay analysis and raster calculation);proposed the methods of index integration and fuzzy comprehensive evaluation of the RECC by GIS;and took a typical area,Guangnan County in Yunnan Province of China,as an experimental area to explore the effectiveness of the indexes and methods.The results showed that:(1)The important indexes affecting the RECC of karst mountainous area are water resources,tourism resources,position resources,geographical environment and soil erosion environment.(2)Data on cultivated land,construction land,minerals,transportation,water conservancy,ecosystem services,topography,soil erosion and rocky desertification can be obtained from RS data.GIS techniques integrate the information into the RECC results.The data extraction and processing methods are feasible on evaluating RECC.(3)The RECC of Guangnan County was in the mid-carrying level in 2018.The midcarrying and low-carrying levels were the main types,accounting for more than 80.00%of the total study area.The areas with high carrying capacity were mainly distributed in the northern regions of the northwest-southeast line of the county,and other areas have a low carrying capacity comparatively.The coordination between regional resource-environment status and socioeconomic development is the key to improve RECC.This study explores the evaluation index system of RECC in karst mountainous area and the application of multisource RS data and GIS techniques in the comprehensive evaluation.The methods can be applied in related fields to provide suggestions for data/information extraction and integration,and sustainable development.

Comparative study of the stoichiometric characteristics of karst and non-karst forests in Guizhou, China

Carbon (C), nitrogen (N), and phosphorous (P) levels and their stoichiometry in plant components (leaves, branch trunks, roots) of trees in a karst forest and non-karst forest are compared. The results show that the C contents, C:N and C:P ratios of dominant species in the karst forest were lower than those in the non-karst forest, but the N and P and the N:P ratio were higher;C:N:P ratios in plant organs of trees in the karst forest were in the order of trunks>roots>branches>leaves. However, C:N:P ratio in the non-karst forest trees were trunks>branches>roots>leaves. Moreover, ratio of C:N:P in trunks was highest and lowest in leaves in both forests. In non-karst forest trees, N:P was in the order of leaves> roots>branches>trunks. There were no significant differences in the ratio of N:P in different plant components of trees in the karst forest. However, in karst and non-karst forest trees, the ratio of N:P in leaves was highest;positive correlations between N and P contents, and N and N:P ratios were observed in both karst and non-karst forests (p<0.001). Negative correlations between P and N:P ratios (p<0.05) were observed in karst forest trees, while positive correlations were observed in non-karst forest trees.

Remote Sensing Image Classification Based on Decision Tree in the Karst Rocky Desertification Areas: A Case Study of Kaizuo Township

Karst rocky desertification is a phenomenon of land degradation as a result of affection by the interaction of natural and human factors.In the past,in the rocky desertification areas,supervised classification and unsupervised classification are often used to classify the remote sensing image.But they only use pixel brightness characteristics to classify it.So the classification accuracy is low and can not meet the needs of practical application.Decision tree classification is a new technology for remote sensing image classification.In this study,we select the rocky desertification areas Kaizuo Township as a case study,use the ASTER image data,DEM and lithology data,by extracting the normalized difference vegetation index,ratio vegetation index,terrain slope and other data to establish classification rules to build decision trees.In the ENVI software support,we access the classification images.By calculating the classification accuracy and kappa coefficient,we find that better classification results can be obtained,desertification information can be extracted automatically and if more remote sensing image bands used,higher resolution DEM employed and less errors data reduced during processing,classification accuracy can be improve further.

Study on Ecological Footprints and Sustainable Development in Karst Area——Taking Anshun as an example

[ Objective] The aim was to study the ecological footprint and sustainable development in Karst Area. [ Method] By dint of statistical da- ta of Anshun City in 2008, the ecological footprint of Anshun City was calculated. The sustainable development of ecological system in Anshun City was analyzed from the angle of balance of supply and demand. [ Result] The per capita ecological capacity was 0.447 8 hm2/cap in 2008, per capi- ta ecological footprint was 2.309 0 hm2/cap, and ecological surplus of deficit was 1.861 2 hm2/cap. It meant the EF of the present region in terms of human activities had already exceeded the benchmark of system ecological carrying capacity. The supply of natural resources can＇t fully meet people＇s needs, and land use was unsustainable. The sustainable development of Karst area can be realized through changing people＇s production and life consumption model, building resources-saving social productive consumption system, depending scientific and technological development, improving production technology, using new technology, improving resources utilization effect and developing recycle economy. [Condusion] The study provided theoretical basis for sustainable development in Karst area.

Spatio-temporal Dynamic Simulation of Urban Land Use in Karst Areas Based on CLUE-S Model——A Case Study of Dahua Yao Nationality Autonomous County in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region

This article uses TM images in 1999 and 2006 in Dahua County,selects the driving factors having great impact on urban land use change,and conducts data processing using GIS software.It then uses CLUE-S model to simulate land use change pattern in 2006,and uses land use map in 2006 to test the simulation results.The results show that the simulation achieves good effect,indicating that we can use CLUE-S model to simulate the future urban land use change in karst areas,to provide scientific decision-making support for sustainable development of land use.

Soil Erosion and Its Basic Characteristics at Karst Rocky-desertified Land Consolidation Area: A Case Study at Muzhe Village of Xichou County in Southeast Yunnan, China

Xichou County of Wenshan Zhuang and Miao Autonomous Prefecture in southeast Yunnan is one of the karst mountainous areas in southwest China showing typical rock desertification. During this study, we set up three soil erosion contrast test spots at Muzhe Village, Benggu Township, Xichou County, which was the birthplace of the Xichou rock-desertified land consolidation mode. The three spots included the terrace land spot (already consolidated land), sloping land spot (unconsolidated sloping land under rock desertification), and standard runoff spot (bare land spot). In 2007, a whole-year complete observation was conducted during the rainy season and "rainfall-erosion" data were obtained for 32 times. Our analysis showed that during the entire observation period, the number of the rainfalls that led to soil erosion accounted for 34.04% of the number of all rainfalls and the amount of the rainfalls that led to soil erosion accounted for 84.17% of the total amount of all rainfalls. The average erosive rainfall standard in the three test spots was 11.0 mm, slightly higher than the 10 mm standard that has been adopted all over China, but lower than the 12.7 mm standard of the US and the 13.0 mm standard of Japan. According to single-factor analysis, the soil loss in the sloping land spot (L2) and that in the bare land spot (L3) are correlated to certain extent to many other factors, including the single precipitation (P), rainfall intensity during the maximum ten minutes (I10), rainfall intensity during the maximum 20 minutes (I20), rainfall intensity during the maximum 30 minutes (I30), rainfall intensity during the maximum 40 minutes (I40), and rainfall intensity during the maximum 60 minutes (I60). Among these factors, they are of the highest relativity with I60. According to double-factor analysis, both L2 and L3 are of good relativity with P and I60. According to multi-factor analysis, L2 and L3 are also of good relativity with seven rainfall indexes, namely, P, Ia (average rainfall intensity), I10, I20, I30, I40, and I60, with their related coefficient R reaching 0.906 and 0.914, respectively. The annual soil losses in the three test spots are widely different: 1030.70 t/km2·a in the terrace land spot, which indicates a low-level erosion; 12913.22 t/km2·a in the sloping land spot (unconsolidated spot), some 12.5 times than that in the terrace land spot, which indicates an ultra-high-level erosion; and 19511.67 t/km2·a in the bare land spot, some 18.9 times than that in terrace land spot, indicating an acute erosion. These figures fully show that the Xichou rock-desertified land consolidation mode plays a significant role in soil conservation.

Stable carbon isotopic composition of soil organic matter in the karst areas of Southwest China

This study dealt with the distribution characteristics of soil organic carbon (SOC) and the variation of stable carbon isotopic composition (δ13C values) with depth in six soil profiles, including two soil types and three vegetation forms in the karst areas of Southwest China. The δ13C values of plant-dominant species, leaf litter and soils were measured using the sealed-tube high-temperature combustion method. Soil organic carbon contents of the limestone soil profiles are all above 11.4 g/kg, with the highest value of 71.1 g/kg in the surface soil. However, the contents vary between 2.9 g/kg and 46.0 g/kg in three yellow soil profiles. The difference between the maximum and minimum δ13C values of soil organic matter (SOM) changes from 2.2‰ to 2.9‰ for the three yellow soil profiles. But it changes from 0.8‰ to 1.6‰ for the limestone soil profiles. The contrast research indicated that there existed significant difference in vertical patterns of organic carbon and δ13C values of SOM between yellow soil and limestone soil. This difference may reflect site-specific factors, such as soil type, vegetation form, soil pH value, and clay content, etc., which control the contents of different organic components comprising SOM and soil carbon turnover rates in the profiles. The vertical variation patterns of stable carbon isotope in SOM have a distinct regional character in the karst areas.

ECOLOGICAL SECURITY EVALUATION OF SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURAL DEVELOPMENT IN KARST MOUNTAINOUS AREA—A Case Study of Du'an Yao Autonomous County in Guangxi

Ecological security is the main task and applied field of present geography, resources and environment sciences and ecology. Ecological security evaluation will efficiently promote ecological security and environmental construction in regional land use. In this thesis, the authors put forward the index system of ecological security evaluation in karst mountainous area on three aspects, the pressure of resources and eco-environment, the quality of resources and eco-environment, and the ability of environmental protection and ecological improvement. Using the evaluation method with single index, based on the case study ofDu'an Yao Autonomous County of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, the system of synthetic regionalization of ecological agricultural economy was formed, which includes three regions, south region with basic security and synthetic agricultural development, east region with critical security and agriculture, forestry, animal husbandry balanced development, mid-west and south region with ecological insecurity and compounded agriculture and forestry management. Meanwhile, for these regions, the countermeasures of sustainable agricultural development were pointed out, which provide the basis and example for ecological regulation and control of sustainable agricultural development in counties ofkarst mountainous area.

Land cover change in different altitudes of Guizhou-Guangxi karst mountain area, China： patterns and drivers

Topography, especially altitude, will influence the way, process and characteristics of land cover changes in mountainous area, simultaneously, the vertical difference of land cover changes will affect soil quality and regional ecological environment. Therefore, the gradient relationship analysis between land cover changes and altitude is very important for regional sustainability. This study investigated land cover dynamics based on land cover data from a typical mountainous area in the Guizhou-Guangxi karst mountain area, China, in 2000 and 2010, then explored the relationship between altitude and land cover change and analyzed different drivers of land cover change at different altitudes. Our findings are as follows. 1) From 2000 to 2010, the total area of land cover transition was 7167.04 km^2 or 2.8% of the region. The increasing area of build-up land(926.23 km^2) was larger than that of forest(859.38 km^2), suggesting that the urban construction speed was higher than that of reforestation. 2) Intensity of land cover transition in northwestern Guizhou-Guangxi karst mountain area was much larger than that of southeast part and their transition trend was also significantly different, which was consistent with regional population and economy. 3) Human activity was the most dramatic at altitudes between 0–500 m. For 500–1000 m, grassland mainly converted to forest and build-up land. Area of land cover transition was the greatest between 1000–1500 m, while above 1500 m, the transition of grassland was the most obvious. 4) The drivers of land cover change varied. Land cover change was positively correlated with gross domestic product and population density but was inversely related to relief amplitude. There were correlations between land cover change and distance to roads and rivers, and their correlations varied with altitude. By revealing patterns and causes of land cover changes in different altitudes, we hope to understand the vertical dependence of land cover changes, so as to improve land productivity and protect land ecological environment scientifically.

Chemical characteristics of rainwater in karst rural areas,Guizhou Province, Southwest China

The chemical composition of rainwater has been studied in a karst rural area from September 2012 to August 2013 in Guizhou Province,Southwest China.The results indicated that the VWM value of p H was 5.4,varied from 4.6 to 6.9.Ca^(2+)and NH_4^+were the major cations,and SO_4^(2-)was the dominant anion.Neutralization factors show that the acid was mainly neutralized by Ca^(2+),NH_4^+and Mg^(2+).Investigations of correlation coefficients and enrichment factors revealed that Ca^(2+)and Mg^(2+)were mainly crust origins,and NH_4^+was from agriculture and livestock manure.SO_4^(2-)and NO_3^-were mainly from anthropogenic sources.