Hydrochemical characteristics of surface water in Hengduan mountain region of Eastern Tibet and its response to human activities:A case study of Duoqu Basin,Jinsha River

The analysis of hydrochemical characteristics and influencing factors of surface river on plateau is helpful to study water hydrological cycle and environmental evolution,which can scientifically guide rational development and utilization of water resources and planning of ecological environment protection.With the expansion and diversification of human activities,the quality of surface rivers will be more directly affected.Therefore,it is of great significance to pay attention to the hydrochemical characteristics of plateau surface rivers and the influence of human activities on their circulation and evolution.In this study,surface water in the Duoqu basin of Jinsha River located in Hengduan mountain region of Eastern Tibet was selected as the representative case.Twenty-three groups of surface water samples were collected to analyze the hydrochemical characteristics and ion sources based on correlation analysis,piper trigram,gibbs model,hydrogen and oxygen isotopic techniques.The results suggest the following:(1)The pH showed slight alkalinity with the value ranged from 7.25 to 8.62.Ca^(2+),Mg^(2+)and HCO_(3)^(–)were the main cations and anions.HCO_(3)^(-)Ca and HCO_(3)^(-)Ca·Mg were the primary hydrochemical types for the surface water of Duoqu River.The correlation analysis showed that TDS had the most significant correlation with Ca^(2+),Mg^(2+)and HCO_(3)^(–).Analysis on hydrogen and oxygen isotopes indicated that the surface rivers were mainly recharged by atmospheric precipitation and glacial melt water in this study area.(2)The surface water had a certain reverse cation alternating adsorption,and surface water ions were mainly derived from rock weathering,mainly controlled by weathering and dissolution of carbonates,and secondly by silicates and sodium rocks.(3)The influence of human activities was weak,while the development of cinnabar minerals had a certain impact on the hydrochemistry characteristics,which was the main factor for causing the increase of SO_(4)^(2–).The densely populated county towns and temples with frequent incense burning activities may cause some anomalies of surface water quality.At present,the Duoqu River watershed had gone through a certain influence of mineral exploitation,so the hydrological cycle and river eco-environment at watershed scale will still bound to be change.The results could provide basic support for better understanding water balance evolution as well as the ecological protection of Duoqu River watershed.

Influencing Factors and Prediction of Risk of Returning to Ecological Poverty in Liupan Mountain Region,China

China has resolved its overall regional poverty in 2020 by attaining moderate societal prosperity.The country has entered a new development stage designed to achieve its second centenary goal.However,ecological fragility and risk susceptibility have increased the risk of returning to ecological poverty.In this paper,the Liupan Mountain Region of China was used as a case study,and the counties were used as the scale to reveal the spatiotempora differentiation and influcing factors of the risk of returning to poverty in study area.The indicator data for returning to ecological poverty from 2011-2020 were collected and summarized in three dimensions:ecological,economic and social.The autoregressive integrated moving average model(ARIMA)time series and exponential smoothing method(ES)were used to predict the multidimensional indicators of returning to ecological poverty for 61 counties(districts)in the Liupan Mountain Region for 2021-2030.The back propagation neural network(BPNN)and geographic information system(GIS)were used to generate the spatial distribution and time variation for the index of the risk of returning to ecological poverty(RREP index).The results show that 1)ecological factors were the main factors in the risk of returning to ecological poverty in Liupan Mountain Region.2)The RREP index for the 61 counties(districts)exhibited a downward trend from 2021-2030.The RREP index declined more in medium-and high-risk areas than in low-risk areas.From 2021 to 2025,the RREP index exhibited a slight downward trend.From 2026 to2030,the RREP index was expected to decline faster,especially from 2029-2030.3)Based on the RREP index,it can be roughly divided into three types,namely,the high-risk areas,the medium-risk areas,and the low-risk areas.The natural resource conditions in lowrisk areas of returning to ecological poverty,were better than those in medium-and high-risk areas.

Constructing a Core Collection for Maize (Zea mays L.) Landrace from Wuling Mountain Region in China

Based on the genetic clustering from 42 microsatellite （SSR） markers with a combination of their geographic origin and germplasm characteristics, 124 maize landraces from Wuling Mountain region in China were used for constructing a core collection. Four evaluating parameters for maize landrace core collection, including mean difference percentage （MD）, variance difference percentage （VD）, coincidence rate of range （CR）, and variable rate of coefficient of variation （VR）, were assessed With 20 quantitative traits. It was shown that genetic relationships among landraces in Wuling Mountain region had the tendency to associate with their geographic origins. The 124 landraces were clustered into 18 subgroups when the coefficient of genetic similarity （GS） is 0.28. Eighteen landraces, each of which was from one subgroup, were applied to construct the core collection with a sampling percentage of 15%. Comparison of the initial and core collection indicated that there existed no significant differences in most quantitative traits. An average of 6.3 and 6.5 alleles were detected in the initial and core collection, respectively. Mean polymorphism information content in the core collection （0.75） was higher than that in the initial one （0.72）. MD was lesser than 20% and CR was more than 80%. The results showed that the sampling strategy would be feasible for constructing the core collection that well represents the genetic diversity of the initial one.

Characteristics of soil seed bank in plantation forest in the rocky mountain region of Beijing, China

We investigated characteristics （scales and composition） of soil seed banks at eight study sites in the rocky mountain region of Beijing by seed identification and germination monitoring. We also surveyed the vegetation communities at the eight study sites to explore the role of soil seed banks in vegetation restoration. The storage capacity of soil seed banks at the eight sites ranked from 766.26 to 2461.92 seeds·m？2. A total of 23 plant species were found in soil seed banks, of which 63–80% of seeds were herbs in various soil layers and 60% of seeds were located in the soil layer at 0–5 cm depth. Biodiversity indices indicated clear differences in species diversity of soil seed banks among different plant communities. The species composition of aboveground vegetation showed low similarity with that based on soil seed banks. In the aboveground plant community, the afforestation tree species showed high importance values. The plant species originating from soil seed banks represented natural regeneration, which also showed relatively high importance values. This study suggests that in the rocky mountain region of Beijing the soil seed banks played a key role in the transformation from pure plantation forest to near-natural forest, promoting natural ecological processes, and the role of the seed banks in vegetation restoration was important to the improvement of ecological restoration methods.

Response of Artificial Grassland Carbon Stock to Management in Mountain Region of Southern Ningxia, China

Grassland is a major carbon sink in the terrestrial ecosystem. The dynamics of grassland carbon stock profoundly influence the global carbon cycle. In the published literatures so far, however, there are limited studies on the long-term dynamics and influential factors of grassland carbon stock, including soil organic carbon. In this study, spatial-temporal substitution method was applied to explore the characteristics of Medicago sativa L. （alfalfa） grassland biomass carbon and soil organic carbon density （SOCD） in a loess hilly region with different growing years and management patterns. The results demonstrated that alfalfa was the mono-dominant community during the cutting period （viz. 0-10 year）. Community succession began after the abandonment of alfalfa grassland and then the important value of alfalfa in the community declined. The artificial alfalfa community abandoned for 30 years was replaced by the S. bungeana community. Accordingly, the biomass carbon density of the clipped alfalfa showed a significant increase over the time during 0-10 year. During 0-30 year, the SOCD from 0-100 cm of the soil layer of all 5 management patterns increased over time with a range between 5.300 ± 0.981 kg/m2 and 12.578 ± 0.863 kg/m2. The sloping croplands had the lowest SOCD at 5.300 ± 0.981 kg/m2 which was quite different from the abandoned grasslands growing for 30 years which exhibited the highest SOCD with 12.578 ± 0.863 kg/m2. The ecosystem carbon density of the grassland clipped for 2 years increased 0.1 kg/m2 compared with the sloping cropland, while that of the grassland clipped for 10 years substantially increased to 10.30 ± 1.26 kg/m2. Moreover, the ecosystem carbon density for abandoned grassland became 12.62± 0.50 kg/m2 at 30 years. The carbon density of the grassland undisturbed for l0 years was similar to that of the sloping cropland and the grassland clipped for 2 years. Different management patterns imposed great different effects on the accumulation of biomass carbon on artificial grasslands, whereas the ecosystem carbon density of the grassland showed a slight increase from the clipping to abandonment of grassland in general.

Green Tourism in Mountain Regions-Reducing Vulnerability and Promoting People and Place Centric Development in the Himalayas

In recent years, mountain regions are attracting great attention to Indian tourists in general and foreign tourists in particular. The potential mountain resources for promoting green tourism are enormous in the form of natural and cultural heritage such as biosphere reserves, flora and fauna, lakes and rivers and traditional rural resources. In order to utilise tourism industry market, uncontrolled numbers of tourists and related haphazard infrastructural facilities in the vulnerable mountain regions pose serious environmental implications. The ecological pressures are threatening land, water and wild life resources through direct and indirect environmental impacts together with generation of solid and liquid wastes, so green tourism is emerging as an important task in order to develop new relationship between communities, government agencies and private sectors. The strategy focuses on ecological understanding, environmental protection and ecodevelopment. The major attributes of the green tourism include environmental conservation and education and distribution of income to local people based on strong partnership. Various knowledge systems go a long way for achieving the goals of the green tourism, which creates awareness about the value of environmental resources. Mountains have ecological, recreational, educational and scientific values, which need to be utilised in sustainable way. Various tourist activities and facilities need to be diversified in order to achieve multiple benefits including scientific field excursion, recreation in natural and cultural areas, community festivals and sport tourisms. Green tourism considers tourism development as an integral part of a national and regional development. The paper discusses the social, economic and environmental dimensions of the green tourism with particular reference to village tourism development programme taking empirical evidences from the Himalaya. Such programme also minimises biophysical and human vulnerability and risks in mountain regions. The environmental consciousness campaign and introduction of code through multi- purpose Tourist Resource Centres are gaining currency in above context.

Social transformations of cultural heritage: from benefaction to sponsoring: Evidence from mountain regions in Greece

The concept of benefaction,as shaped in the pre-industrial society,has been altered and replaced by the modern term of sponsoring.The verbal transformation emerges from a deep cultural shift.Focusing on the dipole of benefactionsponsoring,we examine the cultural transition from the traditional communities of long duration to the modern societies of consumption,taking the Greek mountainous regions as an example.We investigate the cultural shift that generates the metastasis from the communities of benefaction to the modern brandplaces that consume their own cultural heritage,mainly,at the altar of the tourism industry.Modern society has adopted the concept of sponsoring,for the grace of which,culture has to prove evidence of economic value,in order to survive.In the extremely competitive frame of the free-market economy,mountain regions appear vulnerable.The selling and buying of their culture are tempting and attractive under a constantly shrinking welfare-state and narrowing development opportunities.It depends on local and national society to rediscover and regenerate those social mechanisms able to create culture or let the modern consumption-oriented forces prevail.However,authentic principles of benefaction may form an alternative perspective for social reorganization.

Surface area processing in GIS for different mountain regions

Surface area is a fundamental parameter derived from terrain analysis in geographical information systems （GIS） for modeling the real world. Therefore, an evaluation of the techniques implemented by GIS models is important in order to obtain reliable area measurements. The study compares two raster-based methods with a TIN-based （triangulated irregular network） method for surface area approximation using a digital elevation model （DEM） with 25 m × 25 m resolution in six mountain regions of Shandong Province, China. Raster-based method I calculates surface-area grids from DEMs directly. Eight 3-dimensional triangles connecting the center point of each cell with the center points of the eight surrounding cells are generated and then the areas of the portions of each triangle that lay within the cell boundary are calculated and summed. Raster-based method Ⅱ produces the surface area of each cell directly from the pixel size and the slope value for the pixel. The results demonstrate that the surface areas calculated by rasterbased method I are equal to those of the TIN-based method. The results of raster-based method Ⅱ are the lowest but the difference in areas between the two raster-based methods decreases with the decrease in terrain complexity. Compared to the method with TINs, raster-based method II can do better because it has some advantages, such as neighborhood analysis, more consistent output and faster processing speed. The results also demonstrate that the difference between surface and horizontal areas should be considered if more than 30% of the area of a region has slopes steeper than 18.2 degrees.

Land degradation in the subtropical hilly andmountain regions of South China

Land degradation, caused by water erosion. closely related to inherent vulnerabilities of itseco-environment in South China. Spatial variation of land degradation from top to foot of a slope wasmainly induced by differentiation of surface materials and their erodibility, nutrient and moisture dueto downslope variation of land erosion. It was showed by comparing maps of land degradationbetween the 1950s and the 1980s that changes of land degradation varied from one area to anotherbecause of differences of human activities, including land reclamation and vegetation depletion.

Land use optimization for sustainable development of mountain regions of western Serbia

This study analyses the possibilities for optimal land use structure in mountainous areas of rural Serbia, which is faced with problems such as unfavorable terrain characteristics and inadequate land use patterns causing economic underdevelopment and increasing population migration. In the case of a small privately owned farm in Western Serbia, optimal land use pattern is determined using the linear programming model. The objective function-cost-effectiveness or soil erosion reduction, as well as constraints, are formulated using the benefit-cost ratio(BCR) for a 15-year production period and soil losses data calculated using the Universal Soil Loss Equation(USLE). The best results are achieved using the scenario with the aim to minimize soil erosion, considering the BCR in the constraints. This scenario is proposed since it was registered that the benefit for landowners would increase by five times, while the losses of land would decline about 80%. The sensitivity analysis of investments is performed to check whether the price variation affects the cost-effectiveness of proposed land use. Results show that market changes(nine cases are considered) do not lead to significant changes in land use allocation. Proposed land use pattern improves the environmental condition, strengthens the rural economy and thus offers the greatest potential for sustainable development of mountainous rural areas.

Soil respiration under three different land use types in a tropical mountain region of China

Soil respiration (SR) Wis one of the largest contributors of terrestrial CO_2 to the atmosphere.Environmental as well as physicochemical parameters influence SR and thus, different land use practices impact the emissions of soil CO_2. In this study, we measured SR, bi-monthly, over a one-year period in a terrace tea plantation, a forest tea plantation and a secondary forest, in a subtropical mountain area in Xishuangbanna, China. Along with the measurement of SR rates, soil characteristics for each of the land use systems were investigated. Soil respiration rates in the different land use systems did not differ significantly during the dry season, ranging from2.7±0.2 μmol m^(-2) s^(-1) to 2.8±0.2 μmol m^(-2) s^(-1). During the wet season, however, SR rates were significantly larger in the terrace tea plantation(5.4±0.5 μmol m^(-2)s^(-1)) and secondary forest(4.9±0.4 μmol m^(-2)s^(-1)) than in the forest tea plantation(3.7±0.2 μmol m^(-2) s^(-1)).This resulted in significantly larger annual soil CO_2 emissions from the terrace tea and secondary forest,than from the forest tea plantation. It is likely that these differences in the SR rates are due to the 0.5times lower soil organic carbon concentrations in thetop mineral soil in the forest tea plantation, compared to the terrace tea plantation and secondary forest.Furthermore, we suggest that the lower sensitivity to temperature variation in the forest tea soil is a result of the lower soil organic carbon concentrations. The higher SR rates in the terrace tea plantation were partly due to weeding events, which caused CO_2 emission peaks that contributed almost 10% to the annual CO_2 flux. Our findings suggest that moving away from heavily managed tea plantations towards low-input forest tea can reduce the soil CO_2 emissions from these systems. However, our study is a casestudy and further investigations and upscaling are necessary to show if these findings hold true at a landscape level.

Nature Reserve and Ecotourism Development in China’s Wuzhishan Mountain Region

As the protected areas of land and coastal environment, nature reserves are designed to address how to reconcile the conservation of biodiversity, the quest for economic and social development and the maintenance of cultural values. This paper establishes a framework for nature reserve development that seeks to incorporate ecotourism into its strategies. The overall purpose was to identify the information needs required for a comprehensive nature reserve that incorporates ecotourism related values. It also illustrates the utility of this framework in the context of the Wuzhishan Mountain Region of China. A literature review, the first phase of a visionary strategy and a subsequent gap analysis for available management information were undertaken in order to achieve this paper＇s purpose. Finally, recommendations axe pre-sented for integrating ecotourism into nature reserve development in the Wuzhishan Mountain Region.

The Major Challenges and Strategies for the Development of Green Economy in China's Mountain Regions Based on the Theory of Comparative Advantage

Based on the theory of comparative advantage,this paper analyzes the major challenges facing the development of green economy in China's mountain regions. The results show that in the development of green economy,the mountain regions have factor endowment and development conditions with comparative advantage,but they are also facing more challenges. In the future,the mountain regions need to make favorable development measures based on their own comparative advantages from the following four aspects: at the top design level,it is necessary to ensure green development through institutional innovation; at the regional level,it is necessary to lead green development through the differentiation strategy; at the industrial level,it is necessary to support green development through transformation and innovation; at the social level,it is necessary to focus on protecting vulnerable groups and give full play to the role of women to promote sharing of green development achievements.

Strengthening Children's Education in Mountain Regions

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Migration drivers in mountain regions in the context of climate change:A case study in Shangnan County of China

Climate change has become widely accepted as a challenge that humans will face in the not-too-distant future.Mountain ecosystems and their inhabitants are among the most vulnerable to climate change.This paper seeks to explain migration drivers in specific mountain regions in the context of climate change based on Foresight's conceptual framework.A climate change sensitive field named Shangnan County in southern Shaanxi Province is chosen as the case study area to investigate local migration drivers.A series of qualitative research methods is employed in the case study including participant observation,semi-structured interviews,and focus group discussions.The evidence of survey suggests that migration decisions are not only shaped by macro factors in aspects of environmental,economics,demographic,social,politics and psychological,but also influenced by placed-related barriers and facilitating mechanisms and personal characteristics.

Rapid Shrinking of Glaciers in the Middle Qilian Mountain Region of Northwest China during the Last ～50 Years

During the past five decades, fluctuations of glaciers were reconstructed from historical documents, aerial photographs, and remote sensing data. From 1956 to 2003, 910 glaciers investigated had reduced in area by 21.7% of the 1956 value, with a mean reduction for the individual glacier of 0.10 km2. The relative area reductions of small glaciers were usually higher than those of large ones, which exhibited larger absolute loss, indicating that the small glaciers were more sensitive to climate change than large ones. Over the past -50 years, glacier area decreased by 29.6% in the Heihe （黑河） River basin and 18.7% in the Beidahe （北大河） River basin, which were the two regions investigated in the Middle Qilian （祁连） Mountain region. Compared with other areas of the Qilian Mountain region, the most dramatic glacier shrinkage had occurred in the Middle Qilian Mountain region, mainly resuiting from rapid rising temperatures. Regional differences in glacier area changes are related to local climate conditions, the relative proportion of glaciers in different size classes, and other factors.

Effectiveness of farmland transfer in alleviating farmland abandonment in mountain regions

Farmland abandonment is a type of land use change in the mountain region,and this change is under rapid development. Whether farmland transfer can prevent this process and promote the effective allocation of land resources or not is a question worth studying and discussion. With the help of the previous research findings,the objective of this paper was to find out the role of farmland transfer on preventing farmland abandonment,by using the methods of multiple view with two factors,and single factor correlation analysis. The results showed that:(1) At village level,a significant negative correlation between farmland transfer and farmland abandonment existed in the study site,with R2 = 0.7584. This correlation of farmland with high grade farming conditions presented more outstandingly. The fitted curve for the farmland at Level I had the largest R2 at 0.288,while that for the farmland at Level IV had the smallest R2 at 0.103. Which indicated that farmland transfer could prevent the abandonment of farmland with high grade farming conditions?(2) At plot level,the abandonment rate of farmland with high grade farming conditions was significantly lower than that of farmland with poor grade farming conditions. It was the lowest at 10.49% for the farmland with Level I farming conditions,whereas the farmland with Level I farming conditions was 26.21%. Abandoned farmland was mainly contributed by farmland with Level IV farming conditions in the study site.(3) At village level,the role of farming conditions on farmland abandonment was insignificant. The univariate correlation analysis revealed that the abandonment ratio was negatively correlated with the proportions of farmland at Levels I and II and their accumulated proportion; however,their R2 were small at 0.194,0.258,and 0.275,respectively. The abandonment of farmland with high farming conditions still existed. The abandonment ratios of farmland at Levels I and II were high at 9.96% and 10.60%,respectively. This presented that farmland transfer on behalf of the land rental market was still not developed.(4) However,the village possessed the high rate of farmland transfer,and its rate of farmland abandonment with high grade farming conditions was all lower. When the transfer ratios of farmland were over 20%,the abandonment ratios of farmland at Levels I and II were 6.47% and 6.92%,respectively. Farmland abandonment was still controlled by the improvement of land rental market. And the functions of land rental market optimizing the utilization of farmland resources have been presented to a certain degree.(5) To further improve the marketing degree of land rental,the probability of farmland abandonment could be reduced. Especially,their function to farmland with high grade farming conditions was very obvious,and could avoid the waste of farmland resources with high grade farming conditions.

Effect of land use and land cover change on soil erosion and the spatio-temporal variation in Liupan Mountain Region,southern Ningxia,China

The Liupan Mountains are located in the southern Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region of China,that forms an important divide between landforms and biogeographic regions.The populated part of the Liupan Mountain Region has suffered tremendous ecological damage over time due to population pressure,excessive demand and inappropriate use of agricultural land resources.To present the relationship between land use/cover change and spatio-temporal variation of soil erosion,data sets of land use between the late 1980s and 2000 were obtained from Landsat Thematic Mapper(TM)imagery,and spatial models were used to characterize landscape and soil erosion conditions.Also,soil erosion in response to land use and land cover change were quantified and analyzed using data from geographical information systems and remote sensing.Soil erosion by water was the dominant mode of soil loss,while soil erosion by wind was only present on a relatively small area.The degree of soil erosion was classified into five severity classes:slight,light,moderate,severe,and very severe.Soil erosion in the Liupan Mountain Region increased between the late 1980s and 2000,both in terms of acreage and severity.Moderate,severe,and very severe eroded areas accounted for 54.86%of the total land area.The lightly eroded area decreased,while the moderately eroded area increased by 368817 ha(22%)followed by severe erosion with 146552 ha(8.8%),and very severe erosion by 97067.6 ha(5.8%).Soil loss on sloping cropland increased with slope gradients.About 90%of the cropland was located on slopes less than 15°.Most of the increase in soil erosion on cropland was due to conversion of steep slopes to cropland and degradation of grassland and increased activities.Soil erosion was severe on grassland with a moderate or low grass cover and on dry land.Human activities,cultivation on steep slopes,and overgrazing of pastures were the main reasons for the increase in erosion severity.

Multi-scale analysis of trade-off/synergistic effects of forest ecosystem services in the Funiu Mountain Region,China

The trade-offs and synergies of forest ecosystem service are important research topics for several disciplines.The multi-scale analysis of service trade-offs and synergies assists in the implementation of more effective forest resource management.Based on multi-source data including forest distribution,topography,NDVI,meteorology and soil conditions,key forest ecosystem services,including total forest volume,carbon storage,water yield,soil retention and habitat quality were mapped and evaluated for the Funiu Mountain Region through integrated deployment of the CASA model,the InVEST3.2 model and the ArcGIS10.2 software.The characteristics of trade-offs and synergies among different ecosystem services were then mapped and considered across multiple spatial scales(i.e.,by region,north and south slopes,vertical belt)using the spatial overlay analysis method.The main results are as follows:(1)Mean forest volume is 49.26 m^(3)/ha,carbon density is 156.94 t/ha,water yield depth is 494.46 mm,the unit amount of soil retention is 955.4 t/ha,and the habitat quality index is 0.79.(2)The area of forests with good synergy is 28.79%,and the area of forests with poor synergy is 10.15%,while about 61.06%of forests show severe trade-offs and weak trade-offs.The overall benefits of forest ecosystem services in the study area are still low.In the future,bad synergy and severe trade-off areas should be the focus of forest resource management and efficiency regulation.(3)Synergy between ecosystem services is better for forest on south slope than that on north slope.Deciduous broad-leaved forest belt at moderate elevations on south slope in the mountains(SIII)has the highest synergies,while that at low elevations on north slope(NI)exhibits the lowest synergy levels.

Attribution analysis for water yield service based on the geographical detector method:A case study of the Hengduan Mountain region

Ecosystem services,which include water yield services,have been incorporated into decision processes of regional land use planning and sustainable development.Spatial pattern characteristics and identification of factors that influence water yield are the basis for decision making.However,there are limited studies on the driving mechanisms that affect the spatial heterogeneity of ecosystem services.In this study,we used the Hengduan Mountain region in southwest China,with obvious spatial heterogeneity,as the research site.The water yield module in the InVEST software was used to simulate the spatial distribution of water yield.Also,quantitative attribution analysis was conducted for various geomorphological and climatic zones in the Hengduan Mountain region by using the geographical detector method.Influencing factors,such as climate,topography,soil,vegetation type,and land use type and pattern,were taken into consideration for this analysis.Four key findings were obtained.First,water yield spatial heterogeneity is influenced most by climate-related factors,where precipitation and evapotranspiration are the dominant factors.Second,the relative importance of each impact factor to the water yield heterogeneity differs significantly by geomorphological and climatic zones.In flat areas,the influence of evapotranspiration is higher than that of precipitation.As relief increases,the importance of precipitation increases and eventually,it becomes the most influential factor.Evapotranspiration is the most influential factor in a plateau climate zone,while in the mid-subtropical zone,precipitation is the main controlling factor.Third,land use type is also an important driving force in flat areas.Thus,more attention should be paid to urbanization and land use planning,which involves land use changes,to mitigate the impact on water yield spatial pattern.The fourth finding was that a risk detector showed that Primarosol and Anthropogenic soil areas,shrub areas,and areas with slope<5°and 250-350 should be recognized as water yield important zones,while the corresponding elevation values are different among different geomorphological and climatic zones.Therefore,the spatial heterogeneity and influencing factors in different zones should be fully con-sidered while planning the maintenance and protection of water yield services in the Hengduan Mountain region.