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.

Spatial and temporal patterns of the sensitivity of radial growth response by Picea schrenkiana to regional climate change in the Tianshan Mountains

Climate change significantly impacts forest ecosystems in arid and semi-arid regions.However,spatiotemporal patterns of climate-sensitive changes in individual tree growth under increased climate warming and precipitation in north-west China is unclear.The dendrochronological method was used to study climate response sensitivity of radial growth of Picea schrenkiana from 158 trees at six sites during 1990-2020.The results show that climate warming and increased precipitation significantly promoted the growth of trees.The response to temperature first increased,then decreased.However,the response to increased precipitation and the self-calibrating Palmer Drought Severity Index(scPDSI)increased significantly.In most areas of the Tianshan Mountains,the proportion of trees under increased precipitation and scPDSI positive response was relatively high.Over time,small-diameter trees were strongly affected by drought stress.It is predicted that under continuous warming and increased precipitation,trees in most areas of the Tianshan Mountains,especially those with small diameters,will be more affected by precipitation.

Bird species composition and conservation challenges in the Gaoligong Mountains, one of the most diverse bird areas in the world

The Gaoligong Mountains(GLGM),located in southwestern China,extend north to south along the western border of the Hengduan Mountains,spanning approximately 600 km.In this study,we consolidated findings from 17 bird surveys conducted in the GLGM between 2010 and 2022.We found that the GLGM harbors tremendous bird diversity,with a total of 796 documented bird species in the region.Nearly a quarter(23.0%)of these species are listed as state key protected species or as Chinese and global threatened species.Analysis of species richness at the county level showed a decreasing trend with increasing latitude,with the greatest diversity in Yingjiang(661 species).Observations indicated that the GLGM belongs to the Oriental realm,primarily composed of bird species from southern and southwestern China.The GLGM plays an important role in avian conservation by sheltering exceptional bird diversity,providing corridors and flyways for bird migration and dispersal,and mitigating the effects of climate change.In response to the conservation needs of birds and other wildlife,the Chinese government has established numerous protected areas within the GLGM.Despite these efforts,avian conservation still faces considerable challenges in the GLGM due to limitations in the protected area network,transboundary nature of the regions,and existing gaps in monitoring and research.

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.

Phylogenetic pattern of alpine plants along latitude and longitude in Hengduan Mountains Region

To detect the horizontal pattern of phylogenetic structure shown by alpine plants, we measured phylogenetic structure using net related index(NRI) and net nearest taxon index(NTI), and analyzed the phylogenetic structure patterns of alpine plants along longitude, latitude and environmental gradients in the Hengduan Mountains Region(HDMR). Our results show that: 1) the phylogenetic structure tended to cluster with increasing latitude and longitude; 2) for NRI, latitude was closer related than longitude,while for NTI, longitude was closer related than latitude, though they both not significantly relate to NTI.The phylogenetic structure tended towards overdispersion in the southern HDMR, with good climate conditions of higher mean annual temperature and more mean annual precipitation. In contrast, with harsh climate conditions of lower mean annual temperature and less mean annual precipitation, the increasing environmental stress led to phylogenetic clustering in the northern HDMR. The results highlighted that in the alpine region of HDMR, environmental filters and geographical isolation had a great effect on the latitudinal and longitudinal alpine species distribution, respectively.

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.

Scattered Rural Settlements and Development of Mountainous Regions in Western Sichuan,China

Making rural settlements of Mountainous Regions in Western Sichuan as the study objects and using symbolic statistical methods, then combining the case study of Daofu County, the paper analyzes the negative impact of the scattered rural settlements on infrastructure construction, farmers＇ income increase and mountain ecological reconstruction in mountainous regions of western Sichuan. The results indicate that economic density is positively related to both rural settlements density （R^2=0.73） and rural population density （R^2=0.77）, and it is the same for relationship between towns density and rural settlements density （R^2=0.88） and between towns density and economic density （R^2=0.71）, and the scattered distribution pattern of the rural settlements and shortage of economic centers is a major factor to the lagged socioeconomic development. On the eco-economic zoning to Daofu County, the paper indicates the spatial distribution model and the industrial development model of the rural settlements need to be changed, and rural population should be concentrated in larger rural settlements with development of off-farm industries while infrastructure construction is to reinforced.

Measurement of respiration amount of white birch（Betula platyphylla）population in the mountainous region of Beijing

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Forest disturbances and the attribution derived from yearly Landsat time series over 1990–2020 in the Hengduan Mountains Region of Southwest China

Background:Natural forests in the Hengduan Mountains Region(HDMR)have pivotal ecological functions and provide diverse ecosystem services.Capturing long-term forest disturbance and drivers at a regional scale is crucial for sustainable forest management and biodiversity conservation.Methods:We used 30-m resolution Landsat time series images and the LandTrendr algorithm on the Google Earth Engine cloud platform to map forest disturbances at an annual time scale between 1990 and 2020 and attributed causal agents of forest disturbance,including fire,logging,road construction and insects,using disturbance properties and spectral and topographic variables in the random forest model.Results:The conventional and area-adjusted overall accuracies(OAs)of the forest disturbance map were 92.3% and 97.70%±0.06%,respectively,and the OA of mapping disturbance agents was 85.80%.The estimated disturbed forest area totalled 3313.13 km^(2)(approximately 2.31% of the total forest area in 1990)from 1990 to 2020,with considerable interannual fluctuations and significant regional differences.The predominant disturbance agent was fire,which comprised approximately 83.33% of the forest area disturbance,followed by logging(12.2%),insects(2.4%)and road construction(2.0%).Massive forest disturbances occurred mainly before 2000,and the post-2000 annual disturbance area significantly dropped by 55% compared with the pre-2000 value.Conclusions:This study provided spatially explicit and retrospective information on annual forest disturbance and associated agents in the HDMR.The findings suggest that China’s logging bans in natural forests combined with other forest sustainability programmes have effectively curbed forest disturbances in the HDMR,which has implications for enhancing future forest management and biodiversity conservation.

Role of blowing snow in snow processes in Qilian Mountainous region

Blowing snow is an important part of snow hydrologic processes in mountainous region, however the related researches were rare for the Qilian mountainous region where blowing snow is frequent. Using the observation dataset in 2008 snow season in Binggou wa- tershed in Qilian mountainous region, we systematically studied the energy and mass processes of blowing snow by field observation and model simulation. The results include the analysis of snow observation, the occurrence probability of blowing snow, blowing snow transport and blowing snow sublimation. It was found that blowing snow was obvious in high altitude region （4,146 m）, the snow redislribution phenomena was remarkable. In Yakou station in the study region, blowing snow was easily occurred in midwinter and early spring when no snowmelt, the blowing snow transport was dominated in this period; when snowmelt beginning, the occur- rence probability of blowing snow decreased heavily because of the increasing air temperature, melt, and refrozen phenomena. The blowing snow sublimation accounted for 41.5% of total snow sublimation at Yakou station in 2008 snow season.

Spatial distribution of mountainous regions and classifications of economic development in China

China is a mountainous country with a great diversity of landform and geomorphology.This diversity underlines the need for regionalization and classification.This study defines the mountain terrains and regions with three criteria-elevation,relative height,and slope,and examines the extent of mountainous regions by using county as the basic administrative unit.According to the three parameters of economic base,resident income and development potential,we classified the economic development level in mountainous regions of China.The findings reveal that the extent of the mountainous region accounts for 74.9% of the China's Mainland's total area.The economic development of mountainous regions in China is classified into 4 main types and 23 subtypes.

Impact of land expropriation on farmers’ livelihoods in the mountainous and hilly regions of Sichuan, China

Research on the sustainable livelihoods of rural households is of great significance to mitigating rural poverty and reasonable land expropriation policy helps to realize better livelihoods and sustainable development.Scholars have conducted considerable research on the relationships between land expropriation and farmers'livelihoods.However,few quantitative studies have used the characteristics of villages as control variables to systematically analyze the impact of land expropriation on farmers'livelihood capital and strategy in the mountainous and hilly regions of China.This study uses the Partial Least Squares-Structural Equation Model(PLS-SEM)to systematically explain the impact of land expropriation on farmers'livelihoods in mountainous and hilly regions of Sichuan in 2013,with the characteristics of the village including income,accessibility and terrain as control variables.The analysis uses both representative sample data of 240 rural households and spatial data calculated using a 30 m Digital Elevation Model(DEM)by Geographic Information System(GIS).Results are as follows:(1)The land expropriation characteristicsare negatively affected by village accessibility.Villages with worse accessibility tend to have fewer land parcels and less land area expropriated.Additionally,land that is expropriated from inaccessible villages tends to receive less compensation.(2)Natural capital is negatively affected by number and area of land expropriation.Natural capital is not only directly affected by village accessibility,but also indirectly affected by village accessibility through the mediating effect of the number and area of land parcels expropriated.(3)Physical capital is positively affected by compensation for land expropriation,and negatively affected by village accessibility through compensation for land expropriation.The worse a village's accessibility/location is,the less compensation it will receive for land expropriation,resulting in lower physical capital.(4)Financial capital is negatively affected by village accessibility indirectly through compensation for land expropriation.The better the village'saccessibility is,the greateris its compensation for land expropriation and,hence,the greater is its financial capital.(5)Social capital is directly and negatively affected by the number and area of land parcels expropriated,and is indirectly and positively affected by village accessibility through the number and area of land parcels expropriated.This study enhances our understanding of the characteristics of land expropriation and rural households'livelihood as well as the impact of land expropriation on rural households'livelihood.These findings provide reference for the formulation of proper policies related to land expropriation and the improvement of rural households'livelihoods in the mountainous and hilly regions of China.

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.

Study on Dominant Expression of Regional Culture of the Qinling Mountains in Local Residential Buildings

Regional culture of the Qinling Mountains shows distinct features since it was born in the local outstanding ecological environment, study on local architecture is significant for the dominant expression of regional culture, protection of local environment, and echoing with the theme of ecological civilization construction. This paper, on the basis of the mutual infl uence and evolution of regional culture and style of local residential buildings, explored the reasons for the weakening of local architectural style, and specified the signifi cance of promoting local style of the living environment. By studying the infl uence of local natural environment and humanistic environment on architectural style along the northern foot of the Qinling Mountains, the paper explored the expression of regional culture in residential buildings, with Xian Garden(Xi'an Yuanzi) as an example, and aimed at giving useful help to the dominant expression of regional culture in modern residential buildings.

Retrieval of forest canopy height in a mountainous region with ICESat-2 ATLAS

Forest canopy height is one of the important forest parameters for accurately assessing forest biomass or carbon sequestration. ICESat-2 ATLAS provides the potential for retrieval of forest canopy height at global or regional scale, but the current canopy height product (ATL08) has coarse resolution and high uncertainty compared to airborne LiDAR-derived canopy height (hereafter ALCH) in mountainous regions, and is not ready for such applications as biomass modeling at finer scale. The objective of this research was to explore the approach to accurately retrieve canopy height from ATLAS data by incorporating an airborne-derived digital terrain model(DTM) and a data-filtering strategy. By linking ATLAS ATL03 with ATL08 products, the geospatial locations,types, and (absolute) heights of photons were obtained, and canopy heights at different lengths (from 20 to 200 m at 20-m intervals) of segments along a track were computed with the aid of airborne LiDAR DTM. Based on the relationship between the numbers of canopy photons within the segments and accuracy of ATLAS mean canopy height compared to ALCH, a filtering method for excluding a certain portion of unreliable segments was proposed.This method was further applied to different ATLAS ground tracks for retrieval of canopy heights and the results were evaluated using corresponding ALCH. The results show that the incorporation of high-precision DTM and ATLAS products can considerably improve the retrieval accuracy of forest canopy height in mountainous regions.Using the proposed filtering approach, the correlation coefficients (r) between ATLAS canopy height and corresponding ALCH were 0.61–0.91, 0.65–0.92, 0.68–0.94 for segment lengths of 20, 60, and 100 m, respectively;RMSE were 1.90–4.35, 1.55–3.63, and 1.34–3.23 m for the same segment lengths. The results indicate the necessity of using high-precision DTM and using the proposed filtering method to retrieve accurate canopy height from ICESat-2 ATLAS in mountainous regions with dense forest cover and complex terrain conditions.

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.

Drought fluctuations based on dendrochronology since 1786 for the Lenglongling Mountains at the northwestern fringe of the East Asian summer monsoon region

The Lenglongling Mountains （LLM） located in northeastern part of the Tibet Plateau, belong to a marginal area of the East Asian summer monsoon （EASM） and are sensitive to monsoon dynamics. Two tree-ring width chronologies developed from six sites of Picea crassifolia in the LLM were employed to study the regional drought variability. Correlation and temporal correlation analyses showed that relationships between the two chronologies and self-calibrated Palmer Drought Severity Index （sc_PDSI） were significant and stable across time, demonstrating the strength of sc_PDSI in modeling drought conditions in this region. Based on the relationships, the mean sc_PDSI was reconstructed for the period from 1786 to 2013. Dry conditions prevailed during 1817-1819, 1829-1831, 1928-1931 and 1999-2001. Relatively wet periods were identified for 1792-1795 and 1954-1956. Spatial correlations with other fourteen precipitation/drought reconstructed series in previous studies revealed that in arid regions of Northwest China, long-term variability of moisture conditions was synchronous before the 1950s at a decadal scale （1791-1954）. In northwestern margin of the EASM, most of all selected reconstructions had better consistency in low-frequency variation, especially during dry periods, indicating similar regional moisture variations and analogous modes of climate forcing on tree growth in the region.

Research on Water Resources Conservation of Mountain River Based on the Concept of Region Partition

Presently concepts and methods related to water resources conservation of mountain rivers are seriously insufficient,and its level is far from being adaptable to the development of a harmonious society.As mountain ecosystems play a key role in water resources conservation of mountain rivers,and the characteristics of mountain ecosystems and hydrologic features of mountain river follow strong temporal and spatial distribution,partition theory can be applied to the water resources conservation of mountain river.This theory observes the following partition principles:regional relativity,spatial continuity,integralcounty,meeting management needs,hierarchical principle,and comparability principle.And it lays equal emphasis on both water resources conservation and environmental protection,on both water quality conservation and water quantity protection,on the combination of water features,water cycle and water pollution.In the partition methods,index method and map superposition method will be applied in region partition.The example of region partition of water resources conservation in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River shows that the partition theory is practicable in water resources conservation of mountain rivers,and it provides a platform for future study in water resources conservation.

Land development suitability analysis for transport planning evaluation and optimization in mountainous ecological region

Transportation planning is a critical component for creating an orderly,intensive,and sustainable pattern of land development.By comprehensively considering the potential and suitability of transport construction,a comprehensive method combining resources and environmental carrying capacity(RECC)and land development suitability(LDS)was developed by using techniques of GIS,analytic hierarchy process(AHP)and threedimensional magic cube.Taking Aba prefecture in Sichuan Province of Southwest China as a case study,LDS for transportation was analyzed from three aspects,including overall planning layout,different transport modes,and transportation projects.The results showed that the transport planning scales of most counties in Aba were suitable,and the order of LDS of different transport modes was railway>highway=superhighway>tourism track,which already included 42 new transportation projects.We found that two counties(Maoxian County and Jiuzhaigou County)should improve the ecological protection level of transportation,in which the railway network construction should be encouraged,and some transportation projects with low LDS should be postponed or constructed harmlessly.We suggest the combination of RECC and LDS for transportation could enhance the territorial space optimization and sustainable transport construction.