Beyond Biochar-Soil, Plant and Environment: Research Progress and Future Prospects

Since industrial revolution, the atmospheric CO2 concentration has kept a continuous increase by more than 2.2 ppm yr^-1, and approaches to almost 400 ppm at present （Jouzel 2012）. China has become the largest country of greenhouse gas emission （GHG）, and confronts with great challenge to mitigate GHG.

Research progress and prospect of interaction between rock engineering and geo-environments

In recent years, a large number of geotechnical engineering projectshave been completed or under construction in China, such asthe Three Gorges Dam Project, Expressway Network Plan, South-to-North Water Diversion Project, West-to-East Gas Pipeline Project,etc. （Wang, 2003; Li, 2010; Huang, 2011; She and Lin, 2014）. Theconstruction of large-scale geotechnical engineering not onlybrings huge economic benefits, but also causes large interferenceto the lithosphere and hydrosphere that we rely on for survival（Wang et al., 2005）. This paper focuses on the interaction mechanismof rock engineering and geo-environments in the fields of urbanunderground space utilization, natural gas hydrate exploitationand high-level radioactive waste disposal.

Recent research progress and prospects in tourism geography of China

Based on a large number of domestic literature reviews with related research abroad, academic standards and issues awareness have been intensified in domestic tourism geography, disciplinary consciousness and innovation enhancement. Hence, some valuable achievements have been made in the areas of tourism resources, tourism regional system, the spatial structure of tourism, tourism flow, ecotourism, tourism industry, tourism planning and tourism impacts, which strengthened the traditional advantages of research, expanded new areas of research and made research trends diverse. Meanwhile, with innovation of research methods, tourism geography in China is getting more and more internationally-oriented and reflecting Chinese characteristics. Research trends of China＇s tourism geography are prospected： 1） Catering to national strategic needs, persisting problem-oriented, strengthening the metatheoretical research, and building Chinese ＂localization＂ of theory of tourism geography and method system. 2） Introducing and assimilating foreign theories and research methods, while focusing on explaining new tourism phenomena and problems in the domestic socio-economic background. 3） Concerning about the new regional spatial processes of demographic process, social process, and spatial process in new tourism trend. 4） Exploring interactive process and mechanism of man-land relationship and new models to develop territorial space under the tourism impacts. 5） Exploring important research issues of tourism geography in global, national, regional and local scales, from the point of view of spatial differentiation, scale transformation, interaction of man and nature, creating tourism geography interpretation system based on ＂process-structure-mechanism＂ of China. 6） Building theoretical system actively, while strengthening application-oriented research, and focusing on tourism poverty alleviation, tourism and heritage protection, national parks＇ construction and other hot issues. Faced with econometrics research boom, we should return to rational thinking, using big data scientifically, while paying attention to the important role of qualitative evaluation in future research.

Global understanding of farmland abandonment： A review and prospects

Since the 1950s, noteworthy farmland abandonment has been occurring in many developed countries and some developing countries. This global land use phenomenon has fundamentally altered extensive rural landscapes. A review of global farmland abandonment under the headings of ＂land use change - driving mechanisms - impacts and consequences - policy responses＂ found the following： （1） Farmland abandonment has occurred primarily in developed countries in Europe and North America, but the extent of abandonment has varied significantly. （2） Changing socio-economic factors were the primary driving forces for the farmland abandonment. And land marginalization was the fundamental cause, which was due to the drastic increase of farming opportunity cost, while the direct factor for abandonment was the shrink of agricultural labor forces. （3） Whether to abandon, to what extent and its spatial distributions were finally dependent on integrated effect from the physical conditions, laborer attributes, farming and regional socio-economic conditions at the village, household and parcel scales. With the exception of Eastern Europe, farmland abandonment was more likely to occur in mountainous and hilly areas, due to their unfavorable farming conditions. （4） A study of farmland abandonment should focus on its ecological and environmental effects, while which is more positive or more negative are still in dispute. （5） Increasing agricultural subsidies will be conductive to slowing the rate of farmland abandonment, but this is not the only measure that needs to be implemented. Due to China＇s rapid urbanization, there is a high probability that the rate of abandonment will increase in the near future. However, very little research has focused on this rapid land-use trend in China, and, as a result, there is an inadequate understanding of the dynamic mechanisms and consequences of this phenomenon. This paper concludes by suggesting some future directions for further research in China. These directions include monitoring regional and national abandonment dynamics, analyzing trends, assessing the risks and socio-economic effects of farmland abandonment, and informing policy making.