Do Forest Landscape Pattern Planning and Optimization Play a Role in Enhancing Soil Conservation Services in Mountain Areas of Western China?

The relationship between landscape patterns and soil conservation,as well as the need for nature-based soil erosion control and landscape pattern optimization,have increasingly gained attention in the scientific and political community in the past decade.With the implementation of a series of afforestation/reforestation projects in the western China,the optimization and management of forest landscape patterns will become more important for soil conservation.In this study,the Bailongjiang Watershed(BLJW),in the western China,was used as a case study to explore the relationship between the forest landscape pattern and soil conservation services using mathematical and spatial statistics methods.A spatially-explicit model called the sediment delivery ratio(SDR)model of the Integrated Valuation of Ecosystem Services and Tradeoffs(InVEST)was used to assess the soil conservation service in each sub-basin of BLJW in 1990,2002,and 2014,and landscape indices were used to describe changes in forest landscape patterns in each sub-basin.Nine forest landscape indices,including the percentage of landscape(PLAND),largest patch index(LPI),edge density(ED),landscape shape index(LSI),mean patch shape(SHAPEMN),patch cohesion index(COHESION),landscape division index(DIVISION),splitting index(SPLIT)and aggregation index(AI),were significantly correlated to the soil conservation service.PLAND,AI,LSI and SPLIT of forestland were determined to be the more important landscape indicators.The results also indicated that soil conservation was substantially scale-dependent.The results demonstrated that landscape type diversity greatly affected watershed soil conservation and can be used for forest landscape restoration and management.Furthermore,spatial statistics analysis indicated that the Spatial Lag Model(SLM)was superior to the Ordinary Least Squares(OLS)for soil conservation regressions in 1990 and 2014,while OLS was more appropriate for the regression in 2002.These findings will be useful for enhancing soil conservation and for optimizing mountainous forest landscape patterns for afforestation/reforestation and regional development.Future planning and implementation of ecological restoration should focus more on strategic spatial planning and integrated landscape management with full consideration of future climate,water availability/consumption,hydrological regime,topography,and watershed features,especially on afforestation and revegetation projects in western mountainous China,where the socio-ecological system is fragile and poor.

Integrated landscape approaches to building resilience and multifunctionality in the Kailash Sacred Landscape,China

Climate warming-induced rangeland degradation in arid and semiarid steppe imposes substantial threats to the livelihoods of people.But this dilemma can be solved by combining all sectors of agriculture,animal husbandry and tourism through their complementarity,i.e.by adopting integrated landscape ecosystem-based approaches.A number of experiences and lessons have been achieved in a specific sector for its successful development,but not in the multiple social,economic,and ecological systems.In this study,we use the perspective of integrated ecosystem management to strengthen crop-livestock integration and innovative livelihoods,and propose a multifunctional Kailash Landscape to activate the inter-linkage among agriculture,animal husbandry,and heritage pilgrimage/tourism in order to achieve multiple functions of the socio-ecological system.A case study of Kailash Sacred Landscape Conservation and Development Initiative in China was quantitatively and qualitatively analyzed by land use and land cover change and their consequences on multiple ecosystem services.Integrated landscape management was found to be effective in building resilience of socio-ecosystems by reducing the vulnerability of traditional agriculture in terms of improving crop production and animal husbandry.A multifunctional landscape is expected to be integrated and build a resilient sector complementarity including farming,pastorism,environmental and socioeconomic function.The analyses show that integrated landscape approaches provide an effective perspective for sustainable socio-economic development in this sacred landscape.The findings highlight the importance of landscape-scale ecosystem-based adaptation to environment change.

Monitoring River Restoration Efforts: Do Invasive Alien Plants Endanger the Success? A Case Study of the Traisen River

River restoration activities are challenging for the native vegetation and the colonization process. The development of invasive alien plant species (IAS) as well as the development of the pioneer vegetation cover and seed bank were observed in one year prior to construction of a new river bed and within the first two years after construction, along the downstream section of the river Traisen in Austria. One year after completion of the new river channel, the occurrence of IAS above ground decreased while the occurrence of target species increased. Furthermore, no seeds of IAS were detected in the new river bed as a result of proper management of soil movement. Despite the positive impact on the abundance of IAS, the restoration project of the river Traisen shows that the fact that such a restoration activity is a disturbance event must be taken into consideration already during the planning process. Supporting the competitiveness of native plant species is an important tool for reducing the danger of establishment of invasive alien species.

Habitat restoration is the greatest challenge for population recovery of Hainan gibbons(Nomascus hainanus)

Hainan gibbons are among the world’s most critically endangered primates,with a remaining population of only 35 individuals distributed across 5 social groups in the Bawangling Branch of the Hainan Tropical Rainforest National Park,China.Habitat conversion and forest fragmentation over the past 40 years have reduced their geographical distribution by 95%.In the absence of a quantitative assessment of the availability of remaining suitable habitat,it is unclear whether this species can survive to the end of this century.We used behavioral observations,ArcGIS,remote sensing,stereo optical imagery,and MaxEnt modeling to identify patterns of Hainan gibbon range use and compare changes in the distribution of suitable forest types and areas of forest fragmentation over the past 20 years(2000–2020).The results indicate that the combined range of the 5 extant Hainan gibbon groups totaled 14.89 km2.The home range of the smallest group(Group E,3 individuals)was 1.51 km2,which likely represents the minimum home range size for this species.The remaining area of highly suitable and moderately suitable habitat totals 26.9 km2.However,habitat connectivity across the gibbon range is very low(less than 0.5),limiting the ability of Hainan gibbons to move between forest patches.The results of this study indicate that the availability of suitable habitat in Bawangling is insufficient to allow for future Hainan gibbon population growth.Therefore,immediate action must be taken to restore,reforest,and establish ecological corridors to reconnect areas of suitable habitat for these critically endangered gibbons.