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The general requirements of China's rural revitalization strategy are industrial prosperity, ecological livability and rich life. However, the traditional livestock breeding model has struggled to balance the dual requirements of production development and ecological protection, and it is urgent to inject new impetus and explore new development paths. At present, e-commerce has become a bridge between pastoral areas and cities, herdsmen and consumers. E-commerce participation is not only an important starting point for herdsmen to increase the added value and profit space of livestock products, but also an effective way to change the original breeding behavior based on the premise of destroying grassland. Therefore, this paper presents an in-depth study on the issue of e-commerce enabling grassland ecological restoration, aiming to provide more scientific and effective guidance for e-commerce to be used to achieve a win–win situation in economy and ecology. Therefore, based on the data of 271 herdsmen in pastoral areas of Inner Mongolia, we used the OLS model and the two-stage least squares (2SLS) method to identify the direct impact of herdsmen's e-commerce participation on grassland utilization pressure. The empirical results show that e-commerce participation can significantly decrease the grassland utilization pressure. The conclusion was still valid after alleviating endogeneity and conducting a robustness test. The results of a mechanism analysis suggest that the reduction effect of e-commerce participation on grassland utilization pressure is mainly due to price incentive, reputation incentive and place identity. Subjective norms can strengthen the inhibitory effect of e-commerce participation on grassland utilization pressure. Furthermore, a heterogeneity analysis demonstrates that e-commerce participation has a better, decreased impact on the grassland utilization pressure on the banners of China's rural e-commerce demonstration county program. Under a counterfactual assumption, if herdsmen who can participate in e-commerce choose not to do this, their grassland utilization pressure will increase. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To evaluate the detection performance of ozone lidars, the first comprehensive vertical ozone observation experiment in China was conducted at the Xilinhot National Climate Observatory in Inner Mongolia from August to December 2023. The ozone profiles and concentrations of four ozone lidars were systematically compared and assessed with ozone radiosonde measurements and ozone analyzer observations both at ground-based stations and on an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle. The results show that the relative deviations of four ozone lidars are less than 20% compared with ozone radiosonde measurements at a height between 150 and 400 m. Ozone lidars have better behavior between 400 m and 2000 m than the lower altitude, with the deviation within 10% and the correlation coefficient around 0.8. However, relative deviations of lidars increased with altitude above 2000 m. The surface ozone concentrations observed using ozone lidars agreed well with the ground-based ozone analyzer, especially during periods with ozone concentrations higher than 40 µg·m−3. The correlation coefficients for most models of ozone lidar are higher than 0.53. A further investigation of the influence of precipitation events on ozone lidar measurement has been conducted, which revealed that thick cloud layers, low cloud base, and an intensive precipitation event with large raindrop particles can result in high anomalies and reduce the inversion accuracy of the ozone lidar. During the experiment, four ozone lidars were assessed quantitatively according to the comprehensive performance, which could help to improve inversion algorithms and the system design of this promising technique. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The joint probability density function of wind speed and wind direction serves as the mathematical basis for directional wind energy assessment. In this study, a nonparametric joint probability estimation system for wind velocity and direction based on copulas is proposed and empirically investigated in Inner Mongolia, China. Optimal bandwidth algorithms and transformation techniques are used to determine the nonparametric copula method. Various parameter copula models and models without considering dependency relationships are introduced and compared with this approach. The results indicate a significant advantage of employing the nonparametric copula model for fitting joint probability distributions of both wind speed and wind direction, as well as conducting correlation analyses. By utilizing the proposed KDE-COP-CV model, it becomes possible to accurately and reliably analyze how wind power density fluctuates in relation to wind direction. This study reveals the researched region possesses abundant wind resources, with the highest wind power density being highly dependent on wind direction at maximum speeds. Wind resources in selected regions of Inner Mongolia are predominantly concentrated in the northwest and west directions. These findings can contribute to improving the accuracy of micro-siting for wind farms, as well as optimizing the design and capacity of wind turbine generators. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Precise water management is essential for the efficient development of irrigated agricultural crops in the Hetao Irrigation Area of Inner Mongolia. Given the severe water scarcity in the region and the significant use of intercropping as a cropping method, the development of rational irrigation scheduling is crucial. The objective of this work was to combine the ISAREG model with wheat–sunflower intercropping crops in order to enhance the effectiveness of irrigation scheduling in intercropping systems. This was achieved by changing and verifying crucial parameters for simulating irrigation patterns in intercropping. We conducted an assessment of nine irrigation schedules for a wheat–sunflower intercropping system in order to provide a range of irrigation scenarios that effectively fulfill the water requirements of the system. In light of this, we suggested implementing restrictions on the dates and volumes of irrigation based on the demand for agricultural irrigation. This approach aimed to establish irrigation schedules that are highly efficient and tailored to the specific crops in the area. As a result, we achieved a water use efficiency rate of 100%, saved 28.78% of water resources, optimized crop irrigation schedules, and enhanced crop economics by 6.7%. This study presents a novel and efficient method to optimize agricultural irrigation schedules, boost agricultural water use efficiency, and maximize crop yields in order to promote sustainable agricultural development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus (PRRSV) is a pathogen that causes severe abortions in sows and high piglet mortality, resulting in huge economic losses to the pig industry worldwide. The emerging and novel PRRSV isolates are clinically and biologically important, as there are likely recombination and pathogenic differences among PRRSV genomes. Furthermore, the NADC34-like strain has become a major epidemic strain in some parts of China, but the characterization and pathogenicity of the latest strain in Inner Mongolia have not been reported in detail. In this study, an NADC34-like strain (CHNMGKL1-2304) from Tongliao City, Inner Mongolia was successfully isolated and characterized, and confirmed the pathogenicity in pigs. The phylogenetic tree showed that this strain belonged to sublineage 1.5 and had high homology with the strain JS2021NADC34. There is no recombination between CHNMGKL1-2304 and any other domestic strains. Animal experiments show that the CHNMGKL1-2304 strain is moderately virulent to piglets, which show persistent fever, weight loss and high morbidity but no mortality. The presence of PRRSV nucleic acids was detected in both blood, tissues, nasal and fecal swabs. In addition, obvious pathological changes and positive signals were observed in lung, lymph node, liver and spleen tissues when subjected to hematoxylin–eosin (HE) staining and immunohistochemistry (IHC). This report can provide a basis for epidemiological investigations and subsequent studies of PRRSV. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Resource curse and environmental regulation are the key bottlenecks that hinder the sustainable development of the resource industry. A reasonable assessment of the decoupling relationship between resource supply, environment regulation and resource industry transformation is helpful to promote the decision-making of industrial restructuring in post-development regions. Taking Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region of China as the research object, panel data related to resources, environment and industry from 2010 to 2021 are selected to evaluate the spatial and temporal evolution of regional resource supply security, environmental regulatory pressure and resource industry transformation efficiency, measure the decoupling index among the factors, and use geographic detector technology to identify the constraints affecting factor decoupling. The results show the following: (1) the resource curse effect of Inner Mongolia is not significant, and some resource industries have prominent advantages; (2) the security of resource supply and the transformation efficiency of the resource industry show overall upward trend, the pressure of environmental regulation is basically balanced, and the development level of factors in resource-endowed regions and central cities is relatively high; (3) the spatial and temporal evolution of the decoupling relationship between resource supply, environmental regulation and resource industry transformation is uncertain, and the resilience of regional economic and social governance is poor; (4) resource endowment and resource industry advantages are the key that restricts the decoupling of factors, and the cumulative effect of ecological governance is likely to lead to the randomness of the decoupling of environmental regulation and resource industry transformation. In addition, this study suggests that the post-development areas should pay attention to the classification of resource industry relief, trans-regional economic and social collaborative governance and special resources exploitation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A new genus and new species of the euthemistid, Kidaneuthemis ningchengensis gen. et sp. nov., is described from the Middle Jurassic of Inner Mongolia, China. It can be assigned to the Euthemistidae by the several long intercalary veins between RP1 and IR1, IR1 and RP2, as well as between RP2 and IR2 and between IR2 and RP3/4. Kidaneuthemis ningchengensis gen. et sp. nov. distinguishes from the other two genera of this family by the presence of not less than eight intercalary veins between MP and wing margin; about three rows of cells in the distal part between MA and MP; the base of IR2 is two cells distal to that of RP3/4. In addition, a revision of the family Euthemistidae has been proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Grasshopper disasters threaten grassland animal husbandry, and overgrazing is widely recognized as one of the main causes of locust infestation in grassland regions. However, the impact of overgrazing on grasshopper disasters remains unclear. To address this knowledge gap, this study interviewed 541 households living in locust-prone areas in Inner Mongolia, China. The generalized Poisson model and OLS regression examined the relationship between herders' production behavior and locust disasters. The results showed that 42% of the herders had suffered from locusts more than three times over the past 15 years, with an average of 49 ha of grassland damaged per household. In addition, with the increase in grazing rates, the scale of locust disasters decreased before it increased. The results also showed that operating grassland areas and feeding forage reduced locust disasters significantly, while renting grassland areas and grazing rates worked oppositely. These results suggest that grazing intensity can make a significant difference in the occurrence of locust disasters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During 14–16 March 2021, a large-scale dust storm event occurred in the northern region of China, and it was considered the most intense event in the past decade. This study employs observation data for PM2.5 and PM10 from the air quality monitoring station, the HYSPLIT model, ground-based polarized Lidar networks, AGRI payload data from Fengyun satellites and CALIPSO satellite Lidar data to jointly explore and scrutinize the three-dimensional spatial and temporal characteristics of aerosol transport. Firstly, by integrating meteorological data for PM2.5 and PM10, the air quality is assessed across six stations within the Lidar network during the dust storm. Secondly, employing a backward trajectory tracking model, the study elucidates sources of dust at the Lidar network sites. Thirdly, deploying a newly devised portable infrared 1064 nm Lidar and a pulsed 532 nm Lidar, a ground-based Lidar observation network is established for vertical probing of transboundary dust transport within the observed region. Finally, by incorporating cloud imagery from Fengyun satellites and CALIPSO satellite Lidar data, this study revealed the classification of dust and the height distribution of dust layers at pertinent sites within the Lidar observation network. The findings affirm that the eastward movement and southward compression of the intensifying Mongolian cyclone led to severe dust storm weather in western and southern Mongolia, as well as Inner Mongolia, further transporting dust into northern, northwestern, and northeastern parts of China. This dust event wielded a substantial impact on a broad expanse in northern China, manifesting in localized dust storms in Inner Mongolia, Beijing, Gansu, and surrounding areas. In essence, the dust emanated from the deserts in Mongolia and northwest China, encompassing both deserts and the Gobi region. The amalgamation of ground-based and spaceborne Lidar observations conclusively establishes that the distribution height of dust in the source region ranged from 3 to 5 km. Influenced by high-pressure systems, the protracted transport of dust over extensive distances prompted a gradual reduction in its distribution height owing to sedimentation. The comprehensive analysis of pertinent research data and information collectively affirms the precision and efficacy of the three-dimensional aerosol monitoring conducted by the ground-based Lidar network within the region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Aolunhua Mo deposit is a typical porphyry deposit, which is located in the middle southern section of the Da Hinggan Range metallogenic belt. Here, we report LA-ICP-MS zircon U-Pb age data from the Mo-associated granitoid, together with the element geochemistry of the zircons, discussing the source material of the ore-forming rock of the deposit. The zircon data constrain the crystallization age of the granite porphyry as 135.0 ± 1.0 Ma, correlating it with the widespread Yanshanian intermediate–felsic magmatic activity. The Th/U ratio of the zircon is greater than 0.1, with a significant positive Ce anomaly (Ce* = 1.72–188.71) and a negative Eu anomaly (Eu* = 0.05–0.57). The zircons show depleted LREE and enriched HREE patterns, as well as low La and Pr contents, suggesting crystallization from crust-derived magmas. Based on the geology of the ore deposit and the age data, in combination with the regional geodynamic evolution, we infer that the Aolunhua Mo deposit was formed near the peak stage of Sn poly-metallic metallogenesis in the Da Hinggan Range region at around 140 Ma, associated with a tectonic setting, characterized by the transition from compression to extension. Based on a comparison with the newly found Mo deposits along the banks of the Xilamulun River, we propose that the Tianshan–Linxi is an important Mo-metallogenic belt. It also suggests an increased likelihood for the occurrence of Mo along the north bank of the Xilamulun River. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Northern China faces water scarcity, restricting water usage in place across Inner Mongolia's western region. The integrated irrigation and fertilization model for sugar beet is undergoing rapid development and application in production. However, there is a concerning trend in production where the frequency of irrigation and fertilization is being increased blindly, resulting in the wastage of valuable water and fertilizer resources. Limiting water and fertilizer usage is an effective approach to improve sugar beet production efficiency. Sugar beets are a significant sugar crop in China. A split-plot design was employed to examine the impact of reducing water and fertilizer use on sucrose metabolism in sugar beet root. Our study was performed at the Ulanqab Institute of Agricultural and Forestry Sciences in Inner Mongolia from 2022 to 2023. Three levels of fertilization and irrigation were utilized. We investigated the interactions between irrigation and fertilization on sucrose accumulation in sugar beet root. We examined key enzyme activities involved in sucrose metabolism alongside their gene expression levels. The findings suggested that reducing irrigation by 15%, fertilization by 10%, or both irrigation by 15% and fertilization by 10%, increased sucrose concentrations of sugar beets compared to the control group administered conventional water and fertilizer. Over the two-year period, the average sucrose concentration increased by 0.45, 0.57, and 0.65 degrees, respectively, under each treatment. Subsequent research verified that appropriately reducing water and fertilizer can regulate the expression of enzyme genes, thus influencing enzyme activity. Moreover, due to the higher efficiency of enzyme synthesis compared to decomposition, it contributed to an increase in net enzyme activity. These findings suggest that an appropriate reduction of water and fertilizer can improve sucrose synthesis rates and increase the sucrose concentration in sugar beets, providing a theoretical basis for environmentally friendly generation and enhanced efficiency in sugar beet growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Diplodia tip blight, caused by Diplodia sapinea (=Sphaeropsis sapinea), are widely distributed in Honghuaerji, Inner Mongolia, China, causing severe damage on natural Mongolian pine (Pinus sylvestris var. mongolica). D. sapinea is an endophyte that becomes pathogenic under conditions of drought, hail damage, or temperature-associated stress. The role of the endophytic community inhabiting different pine tissues in the expression of disease is still unknown. In this study, the diversity and community structure of endophytic fungi among asymptomatic and symptomatic Mongolian pine were detected using culture-based isolation and high-throughput sequencing (HTS), and the potential antagonistic endophytes against D. sapinea were also screened. The results indicated that 198 and 235 strains of endophytic fungi were isolated from different tissues of symptomatic and asymptomatic Mongolian pine, respectively. D. sapinea was the most common endophyte isolated from the current-year needles and shoots of symptomatic trees, and Diplodia was also the most common in the HTS data. There were no significant differences in the endophytic fungal species richness among asymptomatic and symptomatic trees, but there were differences observed within specific sampled tissues. The ANOSIM analysis confirmed that the endophytic fungi community structure significantly differed between sampling tissues among symptomatic and asymptomatic Mongolian pine. Furthermore, the antagonism study revealed Penicillium fructuariae-cellae with the ability to inhibit the growth of D. sapinea in vitro, and the potential performance of this fungus, acting as biological control agent, was evaluated under greenhouse. Our findings can pave the way to a better understanding of the interactions between D. sapinea, other endophytic fungi and their hosts, and provide helpful information for more efficient disease management strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lithium (Li) is an important strategic metal mineral resource, irreplaceable in the fields of modern industry, new energy technology, nuclear fusion, and energy storage devices. Li is an important supplement to traditional strategic metal mineral resources and has become an important avenue of mineral resource exploration. Therefore, there is an urgent need to establish a cooperative exploration model of coal and Li deposits to lay a theoretical foundation from the perspective of technical optimization and economic rationality. This study is based on the distribution characteristics of the Haerwusu coal–Li deposit, and the effectiveness of the response to exploration techniques, the economical and effective exploration techniques, the reasonable exploration engineering design, and resource estimation parameters is investigated. Therefore, the cooperative exploration model of the coal–Li deposit is established. The high-Li areas in the surface of the Haerwusu Li deposit is distributed near the B1 anticline or in the middle area between the X1 syncline and the B1 anticline, and the vertical distribution of Li content is irregular. The exploration techniques, exploration engineering design, and resource estimation are reviewed and optimized. According to the geological, geochemical, and geophysical conditions, a reasonable cooperative exploration model for coal–Li deposits is established from the two aspects of the coordination of multi-mineral exploration and the coordination of various exploration technologies. The determination of the coal–Li deposit cooperative exploration model has important practical significance for improving the resource security system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China boasts a vast expanse of mountainous terrain, characterized by intricate geological conditions and structural features, resulting in frequent geological disasters. Among these, landslides, as prototypical geological hazards, pose significant threats to both lives and property. Consequently, conducting a comprehensive landslide inventory in mountainous regions is imperative for current research. This study concentrates on the Yinshan Mountains, an ancient fault-block mountain range spanning east–west in the central Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, extending from Langshan Mountains in the west to Damaqun Mountains in the east, with the narrow sense Xiao–Yin Mountains District in between. Employing multi-temporal high-resolution remote sensing images from Google Earth, this study conducted visual interpretation, identifying 10,968 landslides in the Yinshan area, encompassing a total area of 308.94 km2. The largest landslide occupies 2.95 km2, while the smallest covers 84.47 m2. Specifically, the Langshan area comprises 331 landslides with a total area of 11.96 km2, the narrow sense Xiao–Yin Mountains include 3393 landslides covering 64.13 km2, and the Manhan Mountains, Damaqun Mountains, and adjacent areas account for 7244 landslides over a total area of 232.85 km2. This research not only contributes to global landslide cataloging initiatives but also serves as a robust foundation for future geohazard prevention and management efforts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We investigated the effects of variety, planting density, and irrigation amount on grain yield, water-use efficiency (WUE), and evapotranspiration (ETc). The trial was conducted in Tong Liao, Inner Mongolia, from 2021 to 2022, with compact variety Dika159 (DK159) and conventional variety Zhengdan958 (ZD958) as the test materials. The planting density was set to 6.0 × 104 plants/ha (D1, local farmer planting density) and 9.0 × 104 plants/ha (D2), with five irrigation levels: 450 mm (W450, irrigation amount used by local farmers, CK); 360 mm (W360); 270 mm (W270); 180 mm (W180); and 90 mm (W90). The results indicate that the yield and WUE of variety DK159 increased by 7.48% and 5.00%, compared to ZD958, respectively. Increasing planting density enhanced yield by 13.32–15.57% in maize yield and 9.55–11.47% in WUE. Maize yield exhibited a trend of increasing linearly with the irrigation amount before reaching a plateau, reaching a maximum (16.62–17.39 t/ha) and high WUE (2.45–2.49 kg/m3) with DK159-D2-W270. The highest water consumption intensity occurred during the silking stage to the milk stage for different densities and varieties. The results indicate that selecting compact varieties, increasing planting density, and optimizing irrigation amount through integrated drip irrigation and water fertilizer can effectively improve maize yield and WUE. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Payments for Ecosystem Services (PES) program is an innovative approach that provides economic incentives directly to natural resource exploiters in order to shape their behavior. Although the implementation of PES programs and the context in which these programs are implemented are often different across space, the spatial heterogeneities in the impacts of PES programs are often neglected in studies. In this study, we demonstrate the spatial and temporal dynamics of the Normalized Differential Vegetation Index (NDVI) in the grassland where China's Grassland Ecological Compensation Program (GECP) has been implemented, and we evaluate the impacts of the GECP on the NDVI. We found that most of the grassland in the GECP area showed small changes in NDVI between 2000 and 2010. On average, the GECP only had a marginal positive effect on the NDVI of grassland. Although the magnitude of impacts of the GECP was relatively small in most places where the program is implemented, we detected substantial heterogeneities in the impacts of the GECP on the NDVI. The impact of the GECP on the NDVI differed substantially, particularly between Inner Mongolia, Sichuan, and other provinces. Our findings suggest that there can be substantial heterogeneities in the impacts of PES programs across space, which can be leveraged to promote the efficacy of the GECP and many other PES programs around the world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Near-surface PM2.5 estimates remain a global scientific research challenge due to their effect on human fitness and atmospheric environmental quality. However, practical near-surface PM2.5 estimates are impeded by the incomplete monitoring data. In this study, we propose the trigonometric polynomial fitting (TPF) method to estimate near-surface PM2.5 concentrations in south-central China during 2015. We employ 10-fold cross-validation (CV) to assess the reliability of TPF in estimating practical PM2.5 values. When compared to alternative methods such as the orthogonal polynomial fitting (OBF) method based on Chebyshev basis functions, Kriging interpolation, and radial basis function (RBF) interpolation, our results show that utilizing TPF31, with a maximum order of 3 in the x direction and a maximum order of 1 in the y direction, leads to superior efficiency through error minimization. TPF31 reduces MAE and RMSE by 1.93%, 24%, 6.96% and 3.6%, 23.07%, 10.43%, respectively, compared to the other three methods. In addition, the TPF31 method effectively reconstructs the spatial distribution of PM2.5 concentrations in the unevenly distributed observation stations of Inner Mongolia and the marginal regions of the study area. The reconstructed spatial distribution is remarkably smooth. Despite the non-uniform distribution of observation stations and the presence of missing data, the TPF31 method demonstrates exceptional effectiveness in accurately capturing the inherent physical attributes of spatial distribution. The theoretical and experimental results emphasize that the TPF method holds significant potential for accurately reconstructing the spatial distribution of PM2.5 in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Soil salinization affects more than 25% of land globally. Subsurface pipe drainage is known for its effectiveness in improving saline–alkali land. The red clay layer (RCL) hinders soil improvement in the Hetao Irrigation District of Inner Mongolia, China. The soil water and salt migration rules at different buried depths and RCL were studied based on the field subsurface pipe drainage test and simulation using the DRAINMOD-S model (Version 6.1). The following implications can be drawn from the results: (1) Although the RCL affected the accuracy of the model, the calibrated statistical results met the application requirements, and the DRAINMOD-S model can be used to analyze subsurface pipe drainage under different distribution conditions of the RCL. (2) The RCL can reduce the drainage efficiency of the subsurface pipe, specifically when the distribution is shallow. (3) The soil desalting rate increased with an increase in the buried depth of the subsurface pipe. The desalination effect of shallow soil was better than that of deep soil. The RCL reduced the drainage and salt removal efficiency of the subsurface pipe. Burying the subsurface pipe as far above the RCL as possible should be considered. Thus, it is feasible to apply the DRAINMOD-S model to relevant studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]