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[Display omitted] • Translating broad and feasible global priorities into clear space implementation plans at the national level is necessary. • Various benefits can be coordinated simultaneously by combining multiple vulnerability features in prioritization. • The 52.04% region is prioritized in all four scenarios, yielding multiple benefits when protected. • Include more conservation features beyond species diversity to avoid relying solely on it as the criterion. • Grasslands and croplands should be allowed to complement forests in collaborative management measures. To meet the ambitious goals of the post-2020 global biodiversity framework, China's spatial implementation plan, which will delineate which areas will be protected, requires clarity at the national level. Prioritizing biodiversity alone, especially when a single species' richness is emphasized, may lead to inadequate conservation strategies, thus making it challenging to meet the requirements of collaborative governance. Here, we provide a spatial conservation prioritization method integrating species, carbon, climate, and anthropogenic vulnerability features. As such, we identified land to prioritize in conservation efforts by constructing different conservation scenarios with different combinations of vulnerability features using Chinese terrestrial ecosystems as an example. We also analyzed the differences in the benefits of different conservation scenarios. The results showed spatial variability in the distribution of land prioritized by the various protection scenarios. The conservation scenario that combined all features best harmonized the benefits and thus avoided an imbalance in conservation caused by an undue focus on one feature. The scenarios covered 73.54% of biodiversity hotspots, 63.17% of vulnerable carbon hotspots, and 80.21% of climate hotspots. We also found that forests had a strong presence in the various configurations of prioritized land, and usually exceeded 50% of the prioritized area. Secondly, cropland accounted for a prominent proportion of prioritized land at approximately 29.72%, and ranked second only to forests. In addition, when accounting for carbon vulnerability as well, the proportion of grasslands in the prioritized land increased by about 3.35 times. This study offers valuable and citable information that may be used to support biodiversity conservation initiatives in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • Significant stress reduction correlates with higher biodiversity. • Peri-urban and nature conservation area show faster, greater stress reduction than urban park. • Nature conservation area reduce negative affect but lower positive affect. • Psychological threshold for biodiversity benefits noted, absent in physiological responses. • Genetic preference for biodiversity may remain unaltered by learned experiences. Biodiversity is the essential foundation of ecosystem stability and significantly influences human health. However, the specific impacts of broadly varied biodiversity levels across diverse greenspaces on mental well-being remain unclear. In this randomized controlled trial, immersive virtual reality (VR) auditory-visual simulations, emulating real biodiversity scenarios, were employed to investigate the effect of diverse biodiversity levels on stress and affect. After an induced stress phase, participants (N = 90) were randomly assigned to a ten-minute immersion in one of three settings: urban park, peri -urban park, or nature conservation area. Physiological responses were measured via skin conductance level (SCL) and significant skin conductance responses (nSCR), while psychological responses were evaluated using Positive Affect and Negative Affect Scale (PANAS). Additionally, the Perceived Restorativeness Scale (PRS) was employed to evaluate restoration potential. Repeated measures analysis of variance revealed that immersion in the peri -urban park and nature conservation area was associated with a significantly faster and more substantial decrease in SCL compared to the urban park. nSCR in the nature conservation area remained significantly lower than in the urban park. While immersion in all three natural environments significantly diminished negative affect, the nature conservation scenario was associated with a substantial decline in positive affect and received the lowest rating on the subjective restorativeness. A psychological benefit threshold related to biodiversity was observed, in contrast to the absence of a corresponding physiological threshold. This disparity suggests that an innate genetic affinity for high biodiversity may persists, unaffected by acquired experiences. Our study underscores the stress recovery benefits of high-value ecological environments, thereby fostering an avenue for further investigations into human-ecological health interconnections. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• We spatially mapped comprehensive human pressure (HP) of China for 2000–2020. • We evaluated HP changes within 1687 nature reserves across four administrative levels. • Low HPs were observed in nature reserves with strict protection levels. • Better management of protected areas is needed in eastern and northeastern China. Protected areas (PAs) are crucial for supporting biodiversity and ecosystem services, but human pressure increasing within PAs, which remain poorly understood, will undermine this. Here, we used the human modification model to map the comprehensive human pressure for China and analyze its changes in nature reserves (NRs, the primary category of PAs in China) during 2000–2020. We found that human pressure within NRs showed decreasing trends with fluctuations, far lower than the whole country. But in eastern and northeastern China, human pressure within NRs has been increasing since 2000. NRs in China can be classified into the national, provincial, prefectural, and county levels, and an individual NR can be further classified into strictly protected core zones, buffer zones allowing limited human use, and experimental zones that examine different land uses. The stricter the management level of the NRs, the lower the human pressure. Our results show substantial progress in China's NRs management, but existing conservation actions are not enough for conservation targets. Strictly conservation areas must be expanded to promote conservation planning and complimented by multi-coordinated regional policy for biodiversity conservation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]