Elevation and Land Use Types Have Significant Impacts on Spatial Variability of Soil Organic Matter Content in Hani Terraced Field of Yuanyang County,China

Soil organic matter （SOM） content is one of the most important indicators of the sustainability of soil. To maintain sustainable soil utilization and management in fragile Hani terraced field, it is meaningful to investigate the effects of topography and land use type on SOM content. Descriptive statistics and geostatistics were used to analyze the data and the kriging method was applied to map the spatial patterns of SOM content. The results showed that the mean SOM content was 32.76 g/kg, with a variation coefficient of 40%. The SOM content was affected by elevation and land use type. As the increase of elevation, the SOM content in Hani terraced field also increased obviously. The SOM content in tea garden, which is almost at high elevation, was the highest in all six land use types, and the SOM content decreased in a following sequence： tea garden 〉 paddy field 〉 corn field 〉 banana garden 〉 cassava field 〉 sugarcane field. In addition, at the same elevation, the paddy field had the highest SOM content compared with other land use types. All these results demonstrate that paddy field is the most efficient and suitable land use type for SOM conservation at high, middle or low elevations in the fragile Hani terraced field. In order to protect soil quality and maintain the sustainable agricultural development, it is necessary to maintain or even to enlarge the area of paddy field in Yuanyang county, Yunnan Province, China.

Exploitation Countermeasures of Farming Culture Tourism in the Dabie Mountains: Thinking on the Investigation of Hani Terrace Tourism Development in Yunan Province

Farming culture is the main part of Chinese outstanding traditional culture and also the important spiritual and cultural resources to construct the core values of the Chinese nation. In the new era, fully exploring and making full use of farming culture resources has important practical significance for the protection, inheritance and innovation of Chinese excellent traditional culture. The rapid development and successful brand shaping of Hani terrace tourism could provide experience for the exploration and utilization of farming culture tourism resources in other areas of China. Based on the analysis of development process of Hani terrace tourism as well as the successful experience of other regions for reference, ideas of developing farming culture tourism in the Dabie Mountains were proposed.

Vertical characteristics of the Hani terrace paddyfield ecosystem in Yunnan,China

The Hani terrace paddyfield in Yunnan Province,China is categorized as a‘constructed wetland’under the Lamsar Convention classification.The Hani terrace paddyfield ranges from an altitude of 144 to 2000 m above sea level(ASL)in the southern slopes of the Ailao Mountains,angling down at a range of 15°to 75°.In this study,we investigated the ecosystem of the terrace paddyfields in the Mengpin and Quanfuzhuang administrative villages located at the center of the cultural heritage conservation district in the Hani terrace paddy-field.The Hani terrace paddyfield ecosystem structure is"forest-village-terrace paddyfield-river"in the order of descending altitude.Soil and water samples were sequen-tially taken from forests,villages and the terrace paddy-fields to be able to study the vertical characteristics of Hani’s terrace paddyfields.PO_(4)-P and NH_(3)-N in water were measured to test for water contamination.Seven soil nutrient factors were tested,including organic material(OM),char and nitrogen ratio(C/N),pH,total nitrogen(TN),total phosphorus(TP),available phosphorus(AP),and available potassium(AK).Soil quality was also eval-uated using the characteristics of the soil nutrient factors.Vertical changes in the landscape,wetland types,wetland plants,hydrology and soil nutrients were characterized.Results showed that:(1)Hani’s terrace paddyfield can be divided into five types of wetlands;the rice varieties and cultivation patterns vary in each type of wetland.(2)Hani’s terrace paddyfield has a great capacity for water conservation and a strong ability to purify contaminants.The impoundage of Hani’s terrace paddyfield is about 5050 m^(3)/hm^(2).Contaminants in the terrace paddyfield soils decrease exponentially with the decline in altitude.(3)Comparison of soil quality in five different land use types indicates decreasing soil quality from forest to terrace land to terrace paddyfield to water source.Except for headwater soil,single factors such as OM,TN and TP,and the comprehensive soil quality in individual sampling zones tend to increase with altitude elevation.Comprehensive soil quality in the Quanfuzhuang sampling zone is better than in the Mengpin sampling zone.Finally,a comparison of Hani’s terrace paddyfield with plain paddyfields and natural wetlands highlighted the vertical characteristics of Hani’s terrace paddyfield.

Honghe Hani Rice Terraces

On the south banks of the Honghe River in the mountainous terrain of south Yunnan, the Honghe Hani Rice Terraces cascade down the towering slopes of the Ailao Mountain. Carved out of dense forest over the past 1,300 years by Hani people since they settled here, the irrigated terraces support paddy fields surveying narrow valleys. In some places, there are as many as 3,000 terraces between thelower edges of the forest and the valley floor.

Drainage of paddy terraces impacts structures and soil properties in the globally important agricultural heritage of Hani Paddy Terraces,China

Marginalization and abandonment of paddy terraces are widespread,but their effects on the sustainability of subsequent agricultural production are still unknown.Hani Paddy Terraces,included in Globally Important Agriculture Heritage Systems,are threatened by paddy fields drainage.Here,changes in terrace structure,the productivity of topsoil(0-20 cm),and soil water holding capacity at 0-70 cm depth were determined in a case study of Hani Paddy Terraces in Amengkong River Basin in Yuanyang County in Southwestern China,which had been converted into dryland terraces for 2-14 years.Our results showed that:(1)The degree of terrace structures degradation exhibited a U-shaped curve with increasing time since draining,with those drained for 5-9 years having the best structure;(2)Soil productivity index decreased first and then increased with time after conversion;(3)Maximum water holding capacity at 0-70 cm soil depth dramatically decreased after conversion and such trend became increasingly obvious with increasing time since conversion.Our study revealed that drainage of paddy terraces along with associated changes in crop and field management led to an increase in soil productivity,but degradation of terrace structures and a decrease in water holding capacity will inhibit restoration to paddy terraces.These findings enhance the understanding of the biophysical changes due to marginalization in paddy terraces.

A bi-scale assessing framework for aesthetic ecosystem services of villages in a world heritage site

The relative spatial scale relationship of observers and ecosystem and their aesthetic dynamic interaction process are fundamental to evaluation and optimization of aesthetic ecosystem service(AES).A comprehensive and efficient framework for the assessment of AES is lack in the integration of scale relationship and dynamic process.This study took 9 villages in 4 different developmental stages(traditional,folk,rapidly changed,newly built)in Honghe Hani Rice Terraces,a world heritage site,as the research object.From two scales,viewing from inside and outside,the bi-scale assessing framework was established,which includes the three components of interaction process,connection area(as precondition of interaction),quality(as result of interaction),and influencing factors of quality(elements’characteristics of villages).Among them,the connection areas were evaluated with visual and traffic accessibility along the route.The quality and influencing factors were evaluated through participatory preferences methods by expert group.The influencing factors include 9 characteristics,such as,space size,architecture layout,vegetation species richness,color diversity.The results suggested that villages with high AES quality and low accessibility need to be optimized,and the key influencing factors are space size,architecture layout,color harmony and surrounding sanitation.Therefore,the bi-scale assessing framework can provide important references for decision making and visual protection regulations on the villages.