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The crop-livestock integration model is the main path for the sustainable development of agriculture and animal husbandry in China, and farmers' participation behavior is critical to the formation of this model. So this paper based on a field survey data of 615 farmers in 10 pilot counties of Crop-Livestock Integration (CLI) in the dairy industry in the east, middle, and west of Inner Mongolia, the relationship among transaction costs, farmers' decision-making of participating in the CLI model, and income effects was analyzed using the Endogenous Switching Regression (ESR) model in this paper. The results show that under the current market environment, the proportion of farmers participating in the CLI model is 37.56% of the farmer surveyed. The high costs of information searching, negotiation, and execution are the critical factors to inhibit farmers from participating in the CLI model. The results of the counterfactual test of the ESR model show that the effect of the CLI model on the income of participated farmers is not noticeable, while the effect is more significant on the income of non-participating farmers. Moreover, there is no obvious heterogeneity in the effects of the farmer level and "farmers-to-farm" level CLI models on farmers' income. Based on these conclusions, this paper proposes that the government should actively promote the establishment of the information-sharing platform and training mechanism about the CLI model, reduce farmers' costs in information searching and negotiation, optimize the incentive policy of the CLI model, incorporate the farmers planting forage into the subsidy scope of the CLI model, improve the economic benefits of farmers participating in the CLI model, and stimulate the enthusiasm of farmers participating in the CLI model, so as to effectively promote the realization of the CLI model in the animal husbandry industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In pastoral society, the reproduction of livestock is directly related to the survival and prosperity of herders. The key to domestic animal reproduction lies in the cognitive bond between mother livestock and their young. Herdsmen use various tools and techniques to help develop this cognitive bond. These human mediation tools have various characteristics such as 'restorative' or 'destructive'. The lamb bag, a widely used tool in pastoral society, has both 'restorative' and 'destructive' natures. Based on ethnographic data collected in Inner Mongolia, China, this paper first introduces the production method of lamb bags, then describes their structure, function and the multi-dimensional relationships generated during the application process, and finally discusses the cultural implications of 'restorative' and 'destructive' human mediation in pastoral culture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lifespan of fine roots plays important roles in regulating carbon (C) cycling in terrestrial ecosystems. Determination of root lifespan and elucidation of its regulatory mechanism in different plant communities are essential for accurate prediction of C cycling from ecosystem to regional scales. Temperate steppes in Inner Mongolia grasslands have three major types, i.e., Stipa krylovii, Stipa grandis and Stipa breviflora grasslands. There have been no studies to compare the root dynamics among the three types of grasslands. In the present study, we determined root lifespan of the three grasslands using the rhizotron. We found that root lifespan differed substantially among the three types of grasslands within the temperate steppes of Inner Mongolia, such that root lifespan of Stipa breviflora > Stipa grandis > Stipa krylovii grasslands. Root lifespan across the three types of grasslands in the Inner Mongolian temperate steppes displayed a similar temporal pattern, i.e. lifespan of the roots produced in spring and autumn was shortest and longest, respectively, whereas lifespan of summer-produced roots was between that of roots produced in spring and autumn. The spatial and temporal differences in root lifespan across the three types of grasslands were mainly determined by contents of soluble sugars in roots of the dominant species. The differences in root lifespan across the major types of grasslands and different seasons highlight the necessity to take into account these differences in the prediction of C cycling within grassland ecosystem by the simulating model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Forest fires are a type of disaster with both human and natural factors; they differ from other forest disasters, in that they can cause significant damage not only to the ecological environments but also to the economy and society in many irreversible ways. While the risk factor of forest fires has been large, systematic studies on economic losses caused by forest fires have been lacking in recent years, and there is also a lack of analysis on forest fire economic losses in both spatial and temporal dimensions. Therefore, based on the forest fire data from 2006 to 2018, this paper establishes a forest fire economic loss evaluation system to calculate the economic losses in China and analyzes the spatial distribution characteristics and change trends of the forest fire economic losses in each province through thermal mapping. The results show the following. (1) The economic loss from forest fires in China is generally characterized by a fluctuating decline, but anomalous values due to human factors may occur. (2) The spatial heterogeneity of economic loss in China's provinces is limited by many factors, such as the differences in resource endowments, showing the characteristics of "low in the eastern and western regions and high in the central region". (3) Forest fires in China cause the most serious losses to forest ecological benefits. (4) Forest resources and fires are not independent of each other between regions, and areas with similar economic losses related to forest fires are often found in blocks. (5) Although the overall economic losses caused by forest fires in China are fluctuating and decreasing, some provinces are showing signs of increasing economic losses, most notably in Inner Mongolia. Therefore, this paper suggests targeted recommendations based on forest fires in different regions and with reference to the changing trends of economic loss caused by forest fires. For low-loss areas, we can further reduce the economic loss per unit area while ensuring that the losses do not increase any further. For high-loss areas, the main focus should be to find the weak points in the adaptation to forest fires. The right way to permanently reduce the damage caused by forest fires is to improve the adaptive and symbiotic capacity of the ecosystems and residential communities in relation to fires in a targeted manner and to improve the capacity for quick economic recovery after a fire. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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]

Platypalpus Macquart is reported in Inner Mongolia, China for the first time. Four new species are found: P. flavipilosus sp. nov., P. longus sp. nov., P. shengi sp. nov. and P. shuimogouanus sp. nov. This paper provides a description of the four species and a key to the genus in Inner Mongolia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As important green energy, wind power and photovoltaic power have great development prospects. The suitability evaluation of wind and solar power plants is a popular research field, which is related to the sustainable and healthy development of wind and solar power generation. In this paper, based on multiple dimensions such as land types, climatic conditions, topographic features and policy environment, we selected 10 indicators and combined (analytical hierarchy process) AHP method to build a suitability assessment model for evaluating the suitability of solar and wind power in Inner Mongolia, China. The findings revealed that, Inner Mongolia has a great potential to generate wind and solar electricity, for wind power, the category of 'excellent' regions covers 83855 km2 and represents 7.10% of the total surface area; for solar power, 7.66% (nearly 90420 km2) are classified as 'excellent'. The suitability of both solar and wind energy in the western region is considered to have the most suitable development region, parts of Alxa League and Bayannur City have great potential for combined wind and solar power generation. The research results could provide important technical and data support for capacity evaluation and power station location decision. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a raw material for clean energy supply for the new generation, the soybean is conducive to the realization of global energy transition and sustainable development in the context of "carbon neutrality". However, global warming has been affecting soybean yields in recent years. How to clarify the correlation between meteorological factors and soybean yields, so as to ensure the security of soybean growth and development and the stability of renewable energy development, is a key concern of the government and academia. Based on the data of temperature, precipitation, sunshine duration and active accumulated temperature during the soybean growing season in Hulunbuir, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region from 1951 to 2019, and soybean yield data of the city from 1985 to 2019, this paper adopted statistical methods such as the Trend Analysis Method, the Rescaled Range Analysis Method and so on to analyze the trends of yield changes, characteristics of abrupt changes and periodic patterns of climate factors and soybean yields in Hulunbuir. A Pearson Correlation Analysis and a Grey Relation Analysis were used to explore the correlation between climatic factors and soybean yields, followed by a comprehensive impact model of the combined effect of temperature and precipitation on soybean yields established by the Method of Integral Regression. The results showed that temperature and active accumulated temperature are the dominant factors affecting soybean yields in Hulunbuir, while the decrease in precipitation is unfavorable to the improvement of soybean yields. Meanwhile, temperature and precipitation have different effects on the growth and development of the soybean at different stages. The conclusion of this paper is of great practical significance for Hulunbuir to promote the sustainable development of clean energy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Among the methods used to describe soil-available water in terms of yield, field water capacity and permanent wilting coefficient were considered as the upper and lower boundaries, respectively, for normal plant growth. This study investigated the soil properties and groundwater resources of the Hailiutu pasture in Inner Mongolia, China. Soil water characteristics and hydraulic conductivity function curves of the pasture soil were measured based on filter paper method. Experimental results showed that air-entry and residual value were determined to be 34.6% and 13.1%, corresponding to the field water capacity and permanent wilting coefficient, respectively, and the available water capacity was 218.0 mm. The downward velocity of the soil wetting front in the silt is 3.0 mm/h. Site investigation revealed that the pasture was a natural capillary barrier, and its critical suction could optimize the upper boundary of irrigation. Considering the limited underground water resources, shallow water level, and the transpiration of Caragana Korshinskii in the pasture, an available drip irrigation method was designed. The spacing between drip irrigation pipes is 60 cm, the spacing between drip holes is 60 cm, the drip irrigation volume per hole is 475.2~838.8 mL/d, the drip irrigation time is 110~200 min at each night. Each hectare pasture exhausts 13.5~22.5 m3 water each day. Field tests showed that the proposed method is feasible and can be used for irrigation in dryland pastures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There are a large number of tunnels built in permafrost regions every year in China. When investigating the road tunnels that have been in operation in cold regions, it was found that most of these tunnels have various freezing damages. Therefore, in the design, construction, operation, and maintenance of tunnels in cold regions, there are still many technical problems that need to be solved urgently. Among them, the problems of heat preservation, anti-freezing, and anti-drainage are the key technical problems to determine whether the tunnels in cold regions are affected by freezing damage. The project was based on the completed highway tunnels in Inner Mongolia. Given a series of special problems faced by the construction and management of tunnels in cold regions, a large number of reference documents were consulted. This paper designed thermal insulation, antifreeze, and anti-drainage technology for tunnels in the cold area of Jinpen Bay. The research in this paper can effectively reduce the probability of the occurrence of tunnel freezing damage, ensure the safety of the long-term operation of the tunnel lining structure, and greatly reduce maintenance costs, which have good economic and social benefits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The net primary productivity (NPP) of vegetation is an important indicator reflecting the vegetation dynamics and carbon sequestration capacity in a region. In recent years, China has implemented policies to carry out ecological protection. To understand the changes in the distribution of vegetation NPP in China and the influence of climate factors, the Carnegie–Ames–Stanford approach (CASA) model was used to estimate the NPP from 2001 to 2020. In this paper, several sets of measurement datasets and products were collected to evaluate the effectiveness of the model and suggestions were provided for the modification of the CASA model based on the evaluation results. In addition to the correlation analysis, this paper presents a statistical method for analyzing the quantitative effects in individual climatic factors on NPP changes in large regions. The comparison found that the model has a better estimation effect on grassland and needleleaf forest. The estimation error for the evergreen needleleaf forest (ENF) and deciduous broadleaf forest (DBF) decreases with the warming of the climatic zone, while the evergreen broadleaf forest (EBF) and deciduous needleleaf forest (DNF) do the opposite. The changes in total CASA NPP were consistent with the trends of other products, showing a dynamic increasing trend. In terms of the degree of correlation between the NPP changes and climatic factors, the NPP changes were significantly correlated with temperature in about 10.39% of the vegetation cover area and with precipitation in about 26.92% of the vegetation cover area. It was found that the NPP variation had a negative response to the temperature variation in Inner Mongolia grasslands, while it had a positive but small effect (±10 g C) in the Qinghai–Tibet Plateau grasslands. Precipitation had a facilitative effect on the grassland NPP variation, while an increase in the annual precipitation of more than 200 mm had an inhibitory effect in arid and semi-arid regions. This study can provide data and methodological reference for the ecological assessment of large-scale regional and climate anomalous environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Prospecting for and exploiting buried mineral deposits is currently challenging. Given their high precision and resolution, reflection seismic methods might be useful in such applications involving deep mineral deposits. However, there are few open seismic datasets available from mineral deposit exploration, especially in hardrock environments. The world‐class Caosiyao porphyry Molybdenum deposit (1.76 Mt) in the Jining area of Inner Mongolia, China, is largely covered by loess layers, which poses challenges to its exploration. Seismic reflection surveys were conducted to help delineate the deep granite porphyry intrusions and associated orebodies. This paper presents the raw seismic reflection dataset from three profiles on the Caosiyao deposit area, which can be used as a standard dataset for reflection seismic processing in shallow coverage and hardrock areas. Situated at the juxtaposition of the Khondalite Belt and the Trans‐North China Orogen in the northern North China Craton, the Jining region hosts considerable known porphyry Mo deposits. As such, this open dataset can assist in research on deep geological structures and hence increase prospecting efficiency in geologically similar areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a study of the late Cenozoic Chifeng basalts (CBs) of NE China, including their olivine He isotopic compositions, whole‐rock major‐ and trace‐element contents, and whole‐rock Sr–Nd–Hf–Pb–Mo isotopic compositions, with the aim of constraining their mantle source. Results show that the basalts have high MgO, low CaO contents, and high FeOT/MnO values, which indicate that their mantle lithology was most likely pyroxenite. The CBs also exhibit ocean‐island‐basalt‐like trace‐element patterns (e.g., enrichment in light rare earth elements and high‐field‐strength elements) and have depleted Sr–Nd–Hf and relatively radiogenic Pb isotopic compositions, requiring both depleted and enriched components in their mantle. The low olivine He (3He/4He = 0.8–5.5 Ra) and whole‐rock Mo (δ98/95Mo = −0.71‰ to −0.18‰) isotopic values of the CBs, together with geophysical evidence, indicate that the rocks were derived from a depleted MORB mantle (DMM) enriched by recycled oceanic crust that was sourced from the mantle transition zone (MTZ). During the late Cenozoic, ascending wet mantle plumes triggered by dehydration of a stagnant Pacific oceanic slab are inferred to have transported preexisting recycled Pacific oceanic crust from the MTZ into the overlying asthenosphere mantle. The upwelling Pacific oceanic crust reacted with asthenospheric mantle peridotite (i.e., DMM) to produce mantle pyroxenite, whose partial melting at shallow depths generated the CBs. Considering the low δ98/95Mo values of both the CBs and coeval potassic basalts from NE China, we speculate that there may be a low δ98/95Mo reservoir in the MTZ beneath NE China. Key Points: The Chifeng basalts (CBs) exhibit relatively low 3He/4He ratios ranging from 0.8 to 5.5 RaThe mantle source end‐members of CBs were the depleted mid‐ocean‐ridge basalt mantle and recycled oceanic crustA low δ98/95Mo reservoir is inferred in the mantle transition zone beneath NE China [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Studying surface geochemical anomalies is important for detecting the presence of mineral deposits. However, distinguishing inconspicuous geochemical anomalies is a challenge for geochemists. This paper studies geochemical quantitative prediction for Pb–Zn metallic mineral deposits by identifying inconspicuous surface geochemical anomalies mainly associated with the Permian and Jurassic strata in the middle-southern Da Hinggan Mountains metallogenic belt. Some new methods are employed to highlight weak surface geochemical anomalies. The weak surface geochemical anomalies of Pb and Zn are effectively highlighted by the average contrast values of Pb–Zn–Ag–Cd. The similarity coefficient with the large typical discovered deposits is used to identify new Pb–Zn mineralized anomalies and delineate new prospecting target areas. The denudation degree of mineral deposit is determined by the ratio of (W × Sn)/(As × Sb). The analogy method and areal productivity method are employed for resource prediction. Thirty-six prediction areas with Pb–Zn resources of 307.73 million tons are delineated. Five prediction areas are verified, and some new mineral deposits are proven by drilling. The verification results show that the predicted resources are very reasonable and credible. This paper is a successful case of quantitative prediction assessment of mineral resource potential, which can be used as a reference for future prospecting activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Simple Summary: In recent years, the shortage of cow stocks and the reduction of cow breeders in China have caused a shortage of cattle resources and a high price of calves, which has become a bottleneck restricting the further development of China's beef cattle industry. At present, there are few studies on the decision-making behavior of cow breeding in China. In order to explore the factors that affect the decision-making behavior on cow breeding by beef cattle farmers, this paper uses field survey data to make an empirical analysis through the Logit ISM model. The results show that the age of the breeder, the breeding year, the planting area of forage, market expectations, the loan amount, the breeding method policy publicity and policy subsidies are significant factors affecting the decision-making behavior of beef cattle farmers on cow breeding. The beef cattle industry is an important part of herbivorous animal husbandry and an important industry to enrich the dietary structure of residents and promote the income of farmers and herdsmen. The cow is an important foundation to support the healthy development of the beef cattle industry, which is related to the stability of cattle sources and the sustainable development of the industry. However, in recent years, the shortage of cows in our country has led to the shortage of cattle resources and the high price of calves, which has restricted the further development of our beef cattle industry. In order to explore the factors that affect the decision-making behavior behind cow breeding and to find the right policy to mobilize the enthusiasm for cow breeding, based on the field survey of five provinces (cities and regions), including Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region and Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, this paper conducts an empirical analysis through the Logit ISM model. The results show that market expectation is the surface factor that directly affects the decision-making behavior of cow breeding. The influencing factors of the middle layer are policy propaganda, policy subsidies, breeding years, and feeding methods. The deep root factors are the age of the breeder, the amount of loan, and whether to plant feed crops. Based on this, this paper proposes that we should actively promote the importance of cow breeding, strengthen policy support for cow breeding, formulate scientific and reasonable subsidy policies for cows, innovate financial support methods to solve the problem of fund shortage of farmers, and develop forage resources and reduce the breeding cost of cows. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Metal migration and precipitation in hydrothermal fluids are important topics in economic geology. The Hongling polymetallic deposit comprises one of the most important parts of the Huanggangliang–Ganzhuermiao polymetallic metallogenic belt, which is in eastern Inner Mongolia. Except for lead–zinc skarn, minor cassiterite in the skarn and disseminated W–Sn mineralization in granitic rocks have also been found. The dominant Sn–W mineralization is in the northern part of the deposit, occurring as disseminated wolframite and cassiterite in aplite hosted in Mesozoic granite porphyry. The aplite together with pegmatite K-feldspar–quartz comprises vein dikes hosted in the granite porphyry, providing evidence for the transition from melt to fluid. The veins, dikes, and Sn–W mineralization in the aplite provide an opportunity to investigate fluid exsolution and the mechanics of metal precipitation. Based on field observations, the micrographic and scanning electron microscopy/energy dispersive spectroscopy (SEM/EDS) results of the vein dikes, chronology, and the whole-rock geochemistry of the host rock, together with the fluid inclusion results, this paper discusses the characteristics of the causative magma, the mechanics of fluid exsolution and W–Sn precipitation. Our results show that the causative magma is of highly fractionated A-type granite affinity and has an intrusive age of late Mesozoic (133.3 ± 0.86 Ma). The magmatic evolution during shallow emplacement led to immiscibility between highly volatile, high-silica, and W- and Sn-enriched melts from the parent magma, followed by fluid exsolution from the water-rich melt. The alkaline-rich fluid exsolution led to a change in the redox state of the magma and the chilling of the melt. Fluid boiling occurred soon after the fluid exsolution and was accompanied by the degassing of CO2. The boiling and escape of CO2 from the fluid led to changes in fluid redox and W and Sn precipitation; thus, the W and Sn mineralization are mostly hosted in causative intrusions or peripheral wall rocks, which can be used as indicators for Sn–W exploration in the area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highwall mining is a method that involves using a continuous highwall miner system (CHM) to extract coal from the remaining coal seams, which has proven to be an effective and safe method for extracting coal after open-pit mining. However, application cases globally have shown that the feasibility of highwall mining in open-pit coal mines is subject to geological conditions, mining techniques, and other factors. If application conditions are not suitable, equipment may be trapped under collapsed coal–rock masses and unable to be retrieved, resulting in severe safety issues for slope stability. To meet the real-world demand for extracting the remaining coal in open-pit coal mines in China, it is urgent to conduct a feasibility evaluation of highwall mining in these areas. This paper establishes a mathematical evaluation framework for assessing the feasibility of highwall mining by summarizing a large number of engineering application cases globally and analyzing various technical characteristics such as geological deposit conditions, mining techniques, and technical equipment. The analytic hierarchy process (AHP), fuzzy comprehensive evaluation (FCE) and variable weight theory (VWT) are utilized in conjunction to form this framework, which includes four secondary indicators: geological deposit factors, mining technique factors, safety impact factors, and economic evaluation factors, and 20 tertiary sub-indicators, along with their corresponding characteristic values. The feasibility sub-set is divided into four categories: infeasible, basically feasible, relatively feasible, and highly feasible, and the values of the sub-indicators strictly follow and represent these four levels of feasibility. Weight vectors for the sub-indicators are obtained through a judgment matrix established within the mathematical evaluation framework. The fuzzy relationship matrix of the sub-indicators is constructed using fuzzy mathematical membership functions, and the final feasibility evaluation is determined through two-level comprehensive evaluation. The accuracy of the model is verified using the characteristic parameters of open-pit coal mines under two different conditions (JZT coal mine in Inner Mongolia, China, and GC coal mine in Australia). The results demonstrate that the maximum evaluation membership degree for the JZT mine is 0.7113, belonging to the "highly feasible" level, while the GC mine is 0.3304, belonging to the "basically feasible" level, which aligns well with real-world usage, proving that the evaluation model can effectively reveal the performance and membership degree of each indicator in different application cases. By quantitatively characterizing the feasibility level of highwall mining technology under different application conditions, this evaluation model can provide scientific guidance for coal mining enterprises to introduce CHM for highwall mining operation in open-pit coal mines. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mudstone, as a typical soft rock with wide distribution, has been endangering the slopes containing mudstone by its water-sensitivity of swelling and weakening strength when encountering water. To comprehensively understand the water-sensitivity of mudstone and reveal its influence on slope stability, we took the working slope containing water-sensitive mudstone of Shengli No.1 open-pit coal mine in Xilinhot, Inner Mongolia, China, as an example. Mudstone samples taken from the working slope were remodeled and saturated, and then triaxial tested to obtain the effective cohesion and effective internal friction angle. The filter paper method was used to obtain the soil–water characteristic curve of unsaturated mudstone. The pore structure of mudstone samples with different water contents were analyzed using the mercury intrusion porosimetry tests combined with the fractal dimension. The total pore content of the mudstone sample with lower water content is greater than that of the mudstone sample with higher water content. The mesopores are more in the mudstone sample with lower water content, while the small pores are more in the mudstone sample with higher water content. The variation of water content will change the complexity of mudstone pore structure. The higher the water content, the simpler the mudstone pore structure and the smoother the pore surface. Numerical calculations were conducted on the stability of the working slope under different rainfall conditions. The effective saturation on the mudstone layer surface changed and the plastic strain all occurred on the mudstone steps under different rainfall conditions. The key to preventing landslide of the slope containing water-sensitive mudstone in Shengli No.1 open-pit coal mine is to control the deformation and sliding of the mudstone layer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to deal with the threat of forest fire to the original forest resources, improve the efficiency of firefighting, and better protect the forest ecological resources in the original forest area. In this paper, the ant colony algorithm is used as the search algorithm for the firefighting path, and the Qiqian Forestry Bureau in the northern primitive forest region of the Great Xing'an Range in Inner Mongolia is taken as the research object to select road entry points with different linear distances from the fire poin. By adjusting the pheromone volatility coefficient, the improved ant colony algorithm can better deal with the off-road firefighting path planning in forest environment. The simulation results show that using the road entry point with linear distance of 24.5 km as the starting point for the path planning of off-road firefighting in the northern the Great Xing'an Range can effectively shorten the path and minimize the loss caused by forest fire. At the same time, it verifies the effectiveness and rationality of the path planning of the improved ant colony algorithm under such environmental conditions. The optimization scheme meets the needs of forest fire fighting in the original forest area, and can play a guiding role in design of the forest fire path planning in the original forest area in the northern Great Xing'an Range of Inner Mongolia and a reference for fire path planning in other forest areas in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Simple Summary: In this paper, two new genera with two new species of Dermaptera are described from the Middle Jurassic Jiulongshan Formation of Daohugou, Inner Mongolia, China. The discovery of these two new species enriches the comparatively meagre fossil record of Dermaptera, particularly from the Middle Jurassic. The description of Applanatiforceps angustus is another brick laid in the foundation of protodiplatyid diversity, and the new genus Ekpagloderma gracilentum highlights the diversity of cercal forms among Aglyptodermatinae and the remarkable homogeneity of the general morphology of groups within this clade. Two new genera and species of Dermaptera are described from the Middle Jurassic Jiulongshan Formation of Daohugou, Inner Mongolia, China: Applanatiforceps angustus gen. et sp. nov. in the archidermapteran family Protodiplatyidae, and Ekpagloderma gracilentum gen et sp. nov. in the eodermapteran family Semenoviolidae. Applanatiforceps shares the typical characters of the extinct suborder Archidermaptera (e.g., pentamerous meta tarsi, filiform and multimerous cerci) and externalized ovipositor. The family identity of the Protodiplatyidae can be further distinguished by comparing this new genus with other genera of the Protodiplatyidae. As a result of its large compound eyes, tegmina without venation, body sparsely setose, legs rather short and slender, and shape of the veinless tegmina, Ekpagloderma is classified in the subfamily Aglyptodermatinae. Ekpagloderma not only has the typical features of the Aglyptodermatinae, but also exhibits a more primitive slender segmented cerci, which is different from all other genera of Eodermaptera. In fact, the diversity of Eodermaptera as known today indicates some of the challenges in understanding the suborder and whether or not it is monophyletic as historically construed, or if the separation of Turanodermaptera is justified. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China's state-owned forest farms are the basic sectors of forestry production, and their carbon cycle functions, such as timber processing and forest carbon sequestration, are of great significance to the national emission reduction strategy. By three-stage DEA and Tobit models, this paper measures the carbon sequestration output efficiency of 3706 state-owned forest farms involved in China's National Forestry and Grassland Administration's 2008–2018 survey. We figure out how the mechanism on the carbon sequestration impacts output efficiency of these forest farms and analyze the temporal trends and spatial distributions of their outputs in various regions. Our results indicate that the overall output efficiency of state-owned forest farms in China is relatively low compared with the international advanced level and show that distinctive north-south regional differences exist. Specifically, the carbon storage of the state-owned forest farms in Northeast China and Inner Mongolia occupies more than half of the carbon storage of total amounts, but their output efficiency is unsatisfactory. Conversely, the forest farms in Southwest China have a medium amount of carbon storage and the highest output efficiency. After improving the external environments of these farms, the efficiency value in each province appears as a significant increment. Moreover, the effects of afforestation, timber harvests, the under-forest economy, and other operating behaviors exhibit regional heterogeneity to some extent. Therefore, this paper advocates reforming the current forest cultivation strategy that emphasizes afforestation and neglects management, and relevant government departments are supposed to adjust operations according to local conditions to promote sustainable forest management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the problem of how to effectively smooth the short-term tie-line power fluctuations for grid-connected industrial microgrids (IMGs) from demand side. A wide-area closed-loop control architecture is proposed by directly and continuously modulating load power consumption, e.g., the aluminum electrolysis load. To optimally design the load smoothing controllers, an output regulation approach combined with LQ optimal control is developed. In particular, dominant frequencies of wind power fluctuations are analyzed and incorporated into the exogenous system that models time-varying disturbances. Simulations are conducted for a real industrial microgrid in the Inner Mongolia, China, to validate the practical feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed smoothing control strategy. It is demonstrated that the demand side control based on output regulation is able to achieve not only zero steady error in rejecting the time-varying wind power disturbance but also guarantee the satisfactory dynamic performance of modulated loads for the grid-connected IMG. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Simple Summary: Osmylopsychopidae, an extinct family of Neuroptera, is closely related to the extant Psychopsidae. The sporadic records of this family and limited preservation of fossil specimens have hindered the understanding of the evolution of Osmylopsychopidae. In this paper, one new genus with four new species of Osmylopsychopidae are described from the Middle Jurassic Jiulongshan Formation of northeastern China. These newly discovered osmylopsychopids with a forewing length of ca. 10 mm (implying small body size), clearly distinguished from the traditional sense of Osmylopsychopidae, suggest that Osmylopsychopidae possibly underwent a significant diversification during the Mesozoic. One new genus with four new species sharing the similar character of a forewing length of ca. 10 mm, namely, Minipsychops spasulus gen. et sp. nov., Minipsychops polychotomus sp. nov., Minipsychops densus sp. nov., and Minipsychops unicus sp. nov., are described from the Middle Jurassic Jiulongshan Formation of Daohugou, Inner Mongolia in China. These new insects can be attributed to Osmylopsychopidae for their distinctive configuration of costal space and the venations of RP1 and Cu. Compared with the typically medium to large body sizes of known osmylopsychopids, these new Middle Jurassic taxa of a particularly miniaturized lineage not only enrich the species diversity of Osmylopsychopidae, but also enhance our understanding of the historical evolution of these poorly known lacewings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, recent research on terrestrial ecosystem predictability using the conditional nonlinear optimal parameter perturbation (CNOP-P) method is summarized. The main findings include the impacts of uncertainties in climate change on uncertainties in simulated terrestrial ecosystems, the identification of key physical parameters that lead to large uncertainties in terrestrial ecosystem modeling and prediction, and the evaluation of the simulation ability and prediction skill of terrestrial ecosystems by reducing key physical parameter errors. The study areas included the Inner Mongolia region, north–south transect of eastern China, and Qinghai–Tibet Plateau region. The periods of the studies were from 1961 to 1970 for the impacts of uncertainties in climate change on uncertainties in simulated terrestrial ecosystems, and from 1951 to 2000 for the identification of the most sensitive combinations of physical parameters. Climatic Research Unit (CRU) data were employed. The numerical results indicate the important role of nonlinear changes in climate variability due to the occurrences of extreme events characterized by CNOP-P in the abrupt grassland ecosystem equilibrium state and formation of carbon sinks in China. Second, the most sensitive combinations of physical parameters to the uncertainties in simulations and predictions of terrestrial ecosystems identified by the CNOP-P method were more sensitive than those obtained by traditional methods (e.g., one-at-a-time (OAT) and stochastic methods). Furthermore, the improvement extent of the simulation ability and prediction skill of terrestrial ecosystems by reducing the errors of the sensitive physical parameter combinations identified by the CNOP-P method was higher than that by the traditional methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Interferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR) is an integrated navigation technique that can be used for aircraft positioning and attitude retrieval, regardless of weather conditions. The key aspect of the entire system is interference fringe matching, which has not been extensively researched in existing literature. To address this gap, this paper proposes a terrain-feature-based interference fringe-matching algorithm. The proposed algorithm first extracts mountain line features from the interference fringes and identifies mountain branch points as key points for feature matching. A threshold is set to eliminate false detections of mountain branch points caused by phase mutation. Matching is then carried out by combining the mountain line features and curvature design feature descriptors of the area around a branch point. The proposed algorithm is verified using interference fringe data obtained from an actual flight experiment in Inner Mongolia, China, compared to a reference interference fringe dataset with errors. The results show that, under the condition of position error, the proposed algorithm yields 72 matching inliers with a precision of 0.103, a recall of 0.128, and an F1-Score of 0.144. Compared to traditional algorithms, our proposed algorithm significantly improves the problem of mismatch and opens up new possibilities for downstream interference fringe matching navigation technology. Furthermore, the proposed algorithm provides a new approach for remote sensing image matching using terrain features. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the centralization of wind power development, power-prediction technology based on wind power clusters has become an important means to reduce the volatility of wind power, so a large-scale power-prediction method of wind power clusters is proposed considering the prediction stability. Firstly, the fluctuating features of wind farms are constructed by acquiring statistical features to further build a divided model of wind power clusters using fuzzy clustering algorithm. Then the spatiotemporal features of the data of wind power are obtained using a spatiotemporal attention network to train the prediction model of wind power clusters in a large scale. Finally, the stability of predictive performance of wind power is analyzed using the comprehensive index evaluation system. The results show that the RMSE of wind power prediction is lower than 0.079 at large-scale wind farms based on the prediction method of wind power proposed in this paper using experience based on the data of 159 wind farms in the Nei Monggol Autonomous Region in China and the extreme error is better than 25% for the total capacity of wind farms, which indicates high stability and accuracy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Unregulated livestock breeding and grazing can degrade grasslands and damage the ecological environment. The combination of remote sensing and artificial intelligence techniques is a more convenient and powerful means to acquire livestock information in a large area than traditional manual ground investigation. As a mainstream remote sensing platform, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) can obtain high-resolution optical images to detect grazing livestock in grassland. However, grazing livestock objects in UAV images usually occupy very few pixels and tend to gather together, which makes them difficult to detect and count automatically. This paper proposes the GLDM (grazing livestock detection model), a lightweight and high-accuracy deep-learning model, for detecting grazing livestock in UAV images. The enhanced CSPDarknet (ECSP) and weighted aggregate feature re-extraction pyramid modules (WAFR) are constructed to improve the performance based on the YOLOX-nano network scheme. The dataset of different grazing livestock (12,901 instances) for deep learning was made from UAV images in the Hadatu Pasture of Hulunbuir, Inner Mongolia, China. The results show that the proposed method achieves a higher comprehensive detection precision than mainstream object detection models and has an advantage in model size. The m A P of the proposed method is 86.47%, with the model parameter 5.7 M. The average recall and average precision can be above 85% at the same time. The counting accuracy of grazing livestock in the testing dataset, when converted to a unified sheep unit, reached 99%. The scale applicability of the model is also discussed, and the GLDM could perform well with the image resolution varying from 2.5 to 10 cm. The proposed method, the GLDM, was better for detecting grassland grazing livestock in UAV images, combining remote sensing, AI, and grassland ecological applications with broad application prospects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Groundwater is a primary freshwater resource for human consumption and an essential source for industry and agriculture. Therefore, understanding its spatial and temporal trends and drivers is crucial for governments to take appropriate measures to manage water resources. This paper uses Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) satellite data and the Global Land Data Assimilation System (GLDAS) to derive groundwater storage anomalies (GWSAs) and to analyze the spatial and temporal trends of GWSA in different regions of China (Xinjiang, Tibet, Inner Mongolia, North China Plain, South China, and Northeast China). It used groundwater-level observation data to verify the accuracy of GWSA estimates and analyzed the drivers of regional GWSA changes. The results showed that: (1) GWSA in South China increased at a rate of 4.79 mm/a from 2003 to 2016, and GWSA in other regions in China showed a decreasing trend. Among them, the decline rates of GWSA in Xinjiang, Tibet, Inner Mongolia, North China Plain, and Northeast China were −6.24 mm/a, −3.33 mm/a, −3.17 mm/a, −7.35 mm/a, and −0.75 mm/a, respectively. (2) The accuracy of the annual-scale GWSA estimates was improved after deducting gravity losses due to raw coal quality, and the correlation coefficient between GWSA and groundwater levels monitored by observation wells increased. (3) In Xinjiang, the annual water consumed by raw coal mining, industrial, and agricultural activities had a greater impact on GWSA than rainfall and temperature, so these human activities might be the main drivers of the continued GWSA decline in Xinjiang. Water consumption by raw coal mining and industry might be the main drivers of the continued decline in GWSA in Inner Mongolia and the North China Plain. The increase in groundwater storage in South China was mainly due to the recharge of rainfall. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Grasshoppers can greatly interfere with agriculture and husbandry, and they will breed and grow rapidly in suitable habitats. Therefore, it is necessary to extract the distribution of the grasshopper potential habitat (GPH), analyze the spatial-temporal characteristics of the GPH, and detect the different effects of key environmental factors in the meadow and typical steppe. To achieve the goal, this study took the two steppe types of Xilingol (the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region of China) as the research object and coupled them with the MaxEnt and multisource remote sensing data to establish a model. First, the environmental factors, including meteorological, vegetation, topographic, and soil factors, that affect the developmental stages of grasshoppers were obtained. Secondly, the GPH associated with meadow and typical steppes from 2018 to 2022 were extracted based on the MaxEnt model. Then, the spatial-temporal characteristics of the GPHs were analyzed. Finally, the effects of the habitat factors in two steppe types were explored. The results demonstrated that the most suitable and moderately suitable areas were distributed mainly in the southern part of the meadow steppe and the eastern and southern parts of the typical steppe. Additionally, most areas in the town of Gaorihan, Honggeergaole, Jirengaole, as well as the border of Wulanhalage and Haoretugaole became more suitable for grasshoppers from 2018 to 2022. This paper also found that the soil temperature in the egg stage, the vegetation type, the soil type, and the precipitation amount in the nymph stage were significant factors both in the meadow and typical steppes. The slope and precipitation in the egg stage played more important roles in the typical steppe, whereas the aspect had a greater contribution to the meadow steppe. These findings can provide a methodical guide for grasshopper control and management and for further ensuring the security of agriculture and husbandry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, field spectroradiometer and aboveground biomass (AGB) data were acquired at the harvest stage at two sites in semiarid grasslands in Inner Mongolia, China. Four forms of commonly used vegetation indices (VIs) using all possible combinations of narrow-band first derivative (FDR) and raw reflectance (RR) were calculated, and the best FDR-VIs and RR-VIs were chosen by a linear regression analysis against AGB. The stepwise multiple linear regression (SMLR) models using the optimal FDR-VIs, RR-VIs, and both FDR-VIs and RR-VIs as input variables were developed for estimating the AGB. Results demonstrated that the estimation performance using the best FDR-VIs were comparable with the best RR-VIs, while the accuracy has been further improved by combining the best FDR-VIs and RR-VIs (maximum decrease in RMSE of 44% and minimum RMAE of 4.7%). The approach was found to be an important step for more accurate and effective grassland AGB estimation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Desertification is one of the main obstacles to global sustainable development. Monitoring, evaluating and mastering its driving factors are very important for the prevention and control of desertification. As one of the largest deserts in China, the development of desertification in Otindag Sandy Land (OSL) resulted in the reduction in land productivity and serious ecological/environmental consequences. Although many ecological restoration projects have been carried out, the vegetation restoration of OSL and the impact mechanism of climate and human activities on desertification remain unclear. Methods: Taking OSL as the research area, this paper constructs the desertification index by using the remote sensing images and meteorological and socio-economic data, between 1986 and 2016, and analyzes the spatio-temporal evolution process and driving factors of desertification by using trend analysis and spearman rank correlation. Results: The results showed that: (1) Desertification in the OSL has fluctuated greatly during the past 30 years. Desertification recovered between 1986 and 1990, expanded and increased between 1990 and 2000, reduced between 2000 and 2004, developed rapidly between 2004 and 2007, and recovered again between 2007 and 2016; (2) The desertification of OSL is dominated by a non-significant change trend, accounting for 73.27%. In the significant change trend, the area of desertification rising trend is 20.32%, which is mainly located in the north and east, and the area of declining trend is 6.41%, which is mainly located in the southwest; (3) Desertification is the result of the superposition of climate and human activities. Climate change is the main influencing factor, followed by human activities, and the superposition effects of the two are spatio-temporal differences. Conclusions: These results shed light on the development of desertification in OSL and the relative importance and complex interrelationship between human activities and climate in regulating the process of desertification. Based on this, we suggest continuing to implement the ecological restoration policy and avoid the destruction of vegetation by large-scale animal husbandry in order to improve the situation of desertification. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aeromagnetic gradient data have higher horizontal resolution on shallow sources, a magnetic anomaly that can better reflect the features of deeper sources. Therefore, we used a joint survey of aeromagnetic and gradient data to obtain the distribution of sources with different depths. In this paper, we propose an intersection constraint weighting (ICW) method based on aeromagnetic and gradient data for original and gradient anomalies with inconsistent high-low variation characteristics. The ICW method can effectively improve the resolution of inversion results and can more accurately obtain the distribution of magnetic bodies via cross-gradient by gradually adding a gradient component and applying a normalized property weighting function. Our theoretical model tests indicate that the distribution of the recovered magnetic susceptibility model of the ICW method was similar to that of the true model. In addition, the anomaly containing noise with different signal-to-noise ratios verified that the ICW method had a stronger anti-noise ability than other methods. We also inverted real data in the Zhurihe area of the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region in northern China. The inversion result showed that the main trend of high magnetic bodies was in the northeast direction, that the shallowest depth of high magnetic bodies was 100 m, and that the greatest depth was 960 m. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Simple Summary: Grasshoppers are among the most dangerous agricultural pests of China. However, the monitoring, prediction and control of grasshoppers are complex and difficult. Therefore, it is crucial to detect the key factors affecting the spatial distribution of grasshopper occurrence, understand the role of the environmental factors in grasshopper occurrence, and study whether different laws exist between different grass types. Here we conduct a species–environmental matching model integrated by Maxent model and remote sensing data to identify the spatial distribution of grasshopper occurrence in Inner Mongolia of China, analyze the related environmental variables and detect the most relevant environmental factors for grasshopper occurrence both in typical steppe and meadow steppe. Grasshoppers mainly threaten natural grassland vegetation and crops. Therefore, it is of great significance to understand the relationship between environmental factors and grasshopper occurrence. This paper studies the spatial distribution and key factors of grasshopper occurrence in two grass types by integrating a machine learning model (Maxent) and remote sensing data within the major grasshopper occurrence areas of Inner Mongolia, China. The modelling results demonstrate that the typical steppe has larger suitable area and more proportion for grasshopper living than meadow steppe. The soil type, above biomass, altitude and temperature mainly determine the grasshopper occurrence in typical steppe and meadow steppe. However, the contribution of these factors in the two grass types is significantly different. In addition, related vegetation and meteorological factors affect the different growing stages of grasshoppers between the two grass types. This study clearly defines the different effects of key environmental factors (meteorology, vegetation, soil and topography) for grasshopper occurrence in typical steppe and meadow steppe. It also provides a methodology to guide early warning and precautions for grasshopper pest prevention. The findings of this study will be helpful for future management measures, to ensure grass ecological environment security and the sustainable development of grassland. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Plant carbon (C) input via litter decomposition is essential for forming soil organic C (SOC). Previous studies have investigated the fate of litter C through one-time litter addition, while litter input could be recurrent, e.g., gradual litter input from above-ground plant material in diverse ecosystems. This paper investigates how litter input's frequency (single vs. repeated) and amount (low vs. high) affect the SOC formation and the associated microbial community composition and activity in a controlled microcosm experiment. After incubating the 13C-labeled litter (Stipa krilovii) for 80 days with the fresh field soil collected from a semi-arid steppe in Inner Mongolia, China, we measured newly formed SOC, microbial biomass C (MBC), and microbial phospholipid fatty acid (PLFA) indicated by 13C-labeling. The repeated litter addition resulted in 19.92% greater and 12.45% more efficient SOC formation than the single addition. Repeated litter addition also increased C use efficiency (CUE, + 76.71%), indicating more substrate C allocated for microbial growth than respiration. It also enhanced the fungi to bacteria ratio by 47.40% (based on 13C-PLFA) and maintained relatively stable microbial assimilation of litter C (based on 13C-MBC). These findings were consistent regardless of litter amounts. Our results indicate that the uninterrupted litter input to the soil in natural ecosystems benefits SOC formation and highlights soil fungi's critical role in promoting SOC formation. This study suggests that incorporating plant C input frequency into SOC dynamic models may improve the predictions of C cycling. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The 16 years of normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) and precipitation data are used to analyze the time‐lag effects of the growing‐season NDVI response to precipitation at regional scales. This study focuses on the arid and semi‐arid Hulunbuir grassland dominated by perennials in northeast China. The multi‐month time‐lag effects are examined using simple statistical approaches, which can detect the two distinct time‐lags for four subregions with four major land‐cover types. A "positive" time‐lag effect of the growing‐season NDVI response to precipitation is observed at 1‐month (May in the current year) time‐lag and 13‐month (May in the previous year) time‐lag while a "negative" time‐lag effect is observed at 9‐month (September in the previous year) time‐lag. In addition, the prediction results of NDVI based on precipitation indicate that the NDVI prediction model considered the lagged monthly precipitation has good performance. Therefore, revealing the time‐lag effects is very important for accurately predicting the growing‐season NDVI and evaluating the vegetation dynamics. Recommendations for Resource Managers: The multi‐month time‐lag effects of the growing‐season NDVI to precipitation in arid and semi‐arid grasslands in northeastern China is analyzed in this paper. We can detect the two distinct time‐lags for four subregions with four major land‐cover types. The following implications could be realized based on the observations: The "positive" 1‐month (May in the current year) and 13‐month (May in the previous year) time‐lag memory of the growing‐season NDVI response to precipitation can be found.The "negative" 9‐month time‐lag memory of the growing‐season NDVI response to precipitation associated with September (late growing‐season) meteorological condition can be detected. This "negative" effect does not support the green up of the growing‐season in the next year. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Distribution centers are quite important for logistics. In order to save costs, reduce energy consumption and deal with increasingly uncertain demand, it is necessary for distribution centers to select the location strategically. In this paper, a two-stage model based on an improved clustering algorithm and the center-of-gravity method is proposed to deal with the multi-facility location problem arising from a real-world case. First, a distance function used in clustering is redefined to include both the spatial indicator and the socio-economic indicator. Then, an improved clustering algorithm is used to determine the optimal number of distribution centers needed and the coverage of each center. Third, the center-of-gravity method is used to determine the final location of each center. Finally, the improved method is compared with the traditional clustering method by testing data from 12 cities in Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region in China. The comparison result proves the proposed method's effectiveness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Coal is one of the fundamental fossil energy supporting the world's economy. The synergistic development between efficient coal mining and ecological environment protection is the inevitable requirement for the preservation of global harmony. As the world's largest coal producer, China has conducted a strategic shift from east to west in terms of the exploitation of its energy resources, posing a serious threat to the fragile ecological environment of the western region. In particular, the surface subsidence caused by coal mining is the root of the ecological deteriotation and the destruction of ground structures. However, it is difficult to reveal the law of large-scale surface subsidence in western mining areas merely by conventional measurement methods such as leveling, on account of the high intensity of coal seam mining, the weakness of the lithology of overlying rock and the large thickness of wind-blown sand strata. In view of this, small baseline subset interferometric synthetic aperture radar (SBAS-InSAR) technology was used in this study to obtain the time series of surface vertical displacement during the whole mining process of the 2401 working face in the Yingpanhao coal mine, Inner Mongolia. Based on the deformation data, the dynamic evolution characteristics of surface subsidence under high intensity mining in the western mining area were analyzed exhaustively. It was found that the surface subsidence is characterized by an extensive coverage range (48.52 km2) with minimal ground settlement (250 mm) in the study area. Meanwhile, the boundary shape of the subsidence basin followed a "circular-parallelogram-trapezoid" changeable process and the coverage area of the basin experienced three stages: a linear increasing period, a temporary stagnation period, and a re-expansion period. Furthermore, there existed an abnormal uplift phenomenon on the east side of the open-off cut in the 2401 working face. Combined with the structure of overlying strata, this paper carried out a preliminary analysis on the reasons of the abovementioned phenomenon. The research results are of vital realistic significance for ground buildings and ecological environmental protection in the aeolian sand mining area in Western China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective Global warming has resulted in change in precipitation across many regions around the world. In this paper, we analyze the stable isotopes in precipitation in Ordos of Inner Mongolia, and then used them to track the origin of the water vapor in the irrigation areas proximal to the Yellow River in the region. Method Rainfalls were sampled from June to September in 2020, and stable hydrogen and oxygen isotopes in them were measured. Their correlation with factors including air temperature and daily precipitation was analyzed, from which we established the downline equations. The origin of the water vapor was tracked based on the variation of deuterium surplus value; reliability of the results was determined by the HYSPLIT air mass trajectory model Result The isotopes in the sampled precipitation during the experimental period was significantly lower than that in other months, showing their significant correlation with rainfall with p=0.01. The downline equation was D=7.1318O-1.67, affected by evaporation greatly. Water vapor in June was affected by both the westerly belt and the polar air mass, accompanied by water vapor coming from the southeast coastal region. The water vapor in July and August was similar, coming from northwestern China. Water vapor in September was affected by the water vapor in the westerly belt, the polar air mass and local evapotranspiration.Conclusion Precipitation is the main factor determining its isotope content and origin. The HYSPLIT simulation and dynamic-change analysis of the deuterium surplus value showed that the water vapor in the westerly zone is the origin of the water vapor seen in the studied area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents scientific analyses of the wall paintings in Wudang Lamasery, which is located in the Baotou area of Inner Mongolia, China. Raman spectroscopy was used to analyze the pigments of the mural of the Lam rim Hall. The results show that vermilion, red lead, chrome yellow, emerald green and synthetic ultramarine were used. The existence of synthetic pigments provides a clue for the date the mural was painted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we selected Xilingol League in Inner Mongolia, China, as the research area, based on the land-use data of five Landsat remote sensing images taken between 1980 and 2015. Then, we calculated the complex network eigenvalues, such as the average shortest path, betweenness centrality, and degree, to identify the key land-use types, stability, and ecological environment change regularity from the perspective of the land-use system. Finally, we used the Canonical Correspondence Analysis (CCA) method to explore the main driving forces behind changes in the land-use system, to provide scientific support for the study of changing trends in land-use, and regional grassland ecological management. The findings are shown below. First, in the last 35 years, grasslands have always been the major type of change in land-use transfer matrices. Grasslands play a controlling role in the whole land-use system. Second, grassland and cultivated land are the major "transfer out" type of land in the Xilingol area, while construction land and water area belong to the major "transfer in" type of land. Third, the average shortest path values of four transition matrix networks were all less than 1.5, indicating that the land-use system becomes less stable, but the average shortest path values of these four networks present an increasing trend, leading to a more stable development of the land-use system. However, on the whole, it shows an upward trend, and the land-use system is moving in a stable direction. Fourth, the average annual rainfall, population, topographic factors, GDP, and distance from settlements play a prominent role in determining the spatial distribution of change in land-use in Xilingol. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Coal bump, a common dynamic disaster in mining of deep coal resources, its assessing and predicting is an important component in safety management. This paper presents a model to assess and predict coal bump risk based on multiparameter indices. A new energy accumulation index S was proposed by considering acoustic emission and electromagnetic emission signal characteristics in mine shocks. Combined with indices E (energy of microseisms) and N (frequency of microseisms) of microseismic monitoring, a static and dynamic coal bump risk assessment and prediction model was established. We studied coal bump events that occurred during extraction in 311305 working face of Bayangale coal mine in Inner Mongolia, China. We obtained the acoustic emission and electromagnetic emission signal distribution and change law, using principal component analysis method and density ellipse to establish the index S. A typical precursory of coal bumps is that AE and EME strength has obvious fluctuation period of 3-4 days, index S showing an obvious decreasing trend, while the time-series curve of the microseismic energy is relatively stable, and the vibration frequency curve has a significant upward trend. After predict the potential coal bump risk and its area of occurrence, large diameter drilling (Φ150 mm) on-site was used to relief pressure concertation in coal seam and roof. The results demonstrate that this model based on multiparameter indices is capable of quantitatively prewarning rock burst risk. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Converting wind energy into ammonia (WtA) has been recognized as a promising pathway to produce “green” ammonia compared with traditional coal-based technologies. As the key part of WtA, Power-to-Ammonia (PtA) has great potential to facilitate the usage of wind generation. This paper proposes a co-planning approach for regional wind resources-based ammonia industry and the electric network (EN). To this end, PtA is first modeled as a flexible power load of power systems with spatial and temporal constraints on hydrogen supply chains (HSC). Then a novel co-planning model of WtA and EN is established to optimize the WtA configuration and the EN expansion. An alternating direction method of multipliers (ADMM) based algorithm is introduced to effectively solve this model. Real data of Inner Mongolia Province in China is adopted to verify the effectiveness and significance of the proposed approach. It is shown that the siting and operation flexibility of PtA with HSC can reduce the expansion burden of EN. The co-planning of WtA and EN can significantly enhance wind power utilization and reduce total investment costs. Furthermore, feasibility analysis on WtA in comparison with coal-to-ammonia (CtA) and ultra-high voltage transmission (UHV) provides helpful guidelines for the realization of WtA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Kubuqi Desert is the seventh-largest desert in China. Under the leadership of the central, autonomous region and local governments, the ecological situation has undergone historic changes. In this paper, we select Hangjin Banner and Dalate Banner, which have the most widely distributed deserts and use 347 households as the research perspective to construct the evaluation index system of the government's ecological environment governance effect. The entropy method is used to evaluate the governance effect, and the ordinary least squares and quantile regression are used to compare the evaluation differences of different publics. The research found the following. (1) The public believes that the government's ecological governance measures have achieved good results in the third-level index analysis. The ecological environment in the desert area has been significantly improved; that is, the survival rate of trees has increased, the area of vegetation coverage and vegetation types have increased, and the frequency of sandstorms has decreased. However, the intensity of sandstorms and the flow of water sources did not change significantly. The various types of public income have increased significantly compared to before the governance. The public takes the ecological priority as the concept and actively participates in the government's governance implementation, which means that the ecological awareness and behavior are higher. (2) Among the second-level index, the weights and scores in descending order are public economic characteristics: 45.53% and 0.4840, public ecological behavior: 25.62% and 0.1682, public ecological effect perception: 18.35% and 0.1240, and public ecological awareness: 10.51% and 0.0291. The comprehensive evaluation result is 0.8054, which is in the first grade, and the effect is excellent. (3) The public comprehensive evaluation results of the two regions are similar. Hangjin Banner is 0.8209 and Dalate Banner is 0.8557, both in the first grade. The effect is excellent. (4) In the OLS regression results, gender has a significant positive impact on evaluating the government's ecological environment governance effect. Age, ethnicity, and occupation have a significant negative impact. As the quintile increases, the influence of gender, age, and ethnicity first increases and then decreases. The maximum regression coefficient of gender at the 50% quantile is 0.714, which has a significant positive effect. Age has a significant negative impact at each quantile. The regression coefficient of ethnicity at the 50% quantile is the highest -0.357, which has a significant negative impact. Occupation only has a significant negative impact at the low quintile. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There are few studies on the management methods of large-scale goaf groups per the specific surrounding rock mass conditions of each goaf. This paper evaluates comprehensively the stability of the multistage large-scale goaf group in a Pb-Zn mine in Inner Mongolia, China, via the modified Mathews stability diagram technique. The volume of each goaf to be backfilled was quantitatively analyzed in the combination of theoretical analysis and three-dimensional laser scanning technology. The corresponding mechanical characteristics of the filling were determined by laboratory testing while formulating the treatment scheme of the large goaf group using the backfill method. The applicability of the treatment scheme using the backfill was verified by the combination of the numerical results of the distribution of the surrounding rock failure zone and the monitored data of the surface subsidence. The research results and treatment scheme using the backfill can provide a reference for similar conditions of mines worldwide. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tamusu mudstone, located in Inner Mongolia, is being recognized to be the potential host formation in deep HLW disposal across China. This paper describes diverse laboratory experiments performed using the fractured Tamusu mudstone, with concern to the study of the combined mechanical and thermal effects on its hydraulic properties, as well as its self-sealing effect. A single rough fracture is generated down the sample diameter direction before the sample's installation. Considering a heating-cooling cycle, the evolution of the samples' hydraulic properties under different stress conditions has been monitored. The hydraulic conductivity is proved to be not only related to the temperature-induced water viscosity and density variation but also the change of stress state. At the same thermal conditions, the increase of confining pressure (or deviatoric stress) may weaken the flow capacity of the fractures and thus reduce the permeability. The non-coincidence for the curve of permeability versus temperature at the heating and cooling stage indicates that the permeability alterations in the fractures are irreversible. Fracture zone changes were observed by X-ray computer tomography (CT) before and after the tests. The self-sealing behavior, which may be beneficial from high confining pressure, was detected for fractured Tamusu mudstone. Morphologies of fracture surfaces were detected by the 3D scanning technique, which shows that the fracture surface roughness, due to the alteration of asperity contacts and void spaces under high stress, may take an important part of the responsibility to the change of permeability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cone‐producing gymnosperms are important elements of the Mesozoic floras. Studying their cone organizations can potentially help us understand the evolutionary trends of seed plants through time and the origin of angiosperms. In this paper, we present a new and an undetermined species of Ixostrobus Raciborski, a fossil genus representing male cones of the Czekanowskiales from the Middle Jurassic Daohugou locality in Inner Mongolia, China. The holotype specimen of the new species was studied using the neutron tomography (NT) technique. The cone shows higher neutron attenuation than the surrounding matrix. To detect the different organic compounds, a volume rendering of tomographic reconstruction with false colour spectrum of relative neutron attenuation is presented. The highest concentration of organic material is in the axis and some parts of the sacs, the rest of the cone has lower concentration, and the surrounding matrix has the lowest concentration. It seems that the remnant organic materials are regularly differentiated in different parts of the cone probably because of the preservation and different taphonomic process of different type of cells. In addition to revealing more detailed morphological features of the cone by NT reconstruction, the application of NT is potentially important for detecting remnant organic materials preserved in fossil plants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Socio-economic development is undergoing changes in China, such as the recently proposed carbon peak and carbon neutral targets, new infrastructure development strategy and the Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Meanwhile, the new-round marketization reform of the electricity industry has been ongoing in China since 2015. Therefore, it is urgent to evaluate the risk of electric power grid investment in China under new socio-economic development situation, which can help the investors manage risk and reduce risk loss. In this paper, a hybrid novel multi-criteria decision making (MCDM) method combining the latest group MCDM method, namely, Bayesian best–worst method (BBWM) and improved matter-element extension model (IMEEM) is proposed for risk evaluation of electric power grid investment in China under new socio-economic development situation. The BBWM is used for the weights' determination of electric power grid investment risk criteria, and the IMEEM is employed to rank risk grade of electric power grid investment. The risk evaluation index system of electric power grid investment is built, including economic, social, environmental, technical and marketable risks. The risk of electric power grid investment under new socio-economic development situation in Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region of China is empirically evaluated by using the proposed MCDM method, and the results indicate that it belongs to "Medium" grade, but closer to "High" grade. The main contributions of this paper include: (1) it proposes a hybrid novel MCDM method combining the BBWM and IMEEM for risk evaluation of electric power grid investment; and (2) it provides a new view for risk evaluation of electric power grid investment including economic, social, environmental, technical and marketable risks. The proposed hybrid novel MCDM method for the risk evaluation of electric power grid investment is effective and practical. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Underground mining in coal mining areas will induce large-scale, large-gradient surface deformation, threatening the safety of people's lives and property in nearby areas. Due to mining-related subsidence is characterized by fast displacement and high nonlinearity, monitoring this process by using traditional and single interferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR) technology is very challenging, and it cannot accurately and quantitatively calculate the deformation of the mining area. In this paper, we proposed a new method that combines both multitemporal consecutive D-InSAR and offset tracking technology to construct a complete deformation field of the coal mining area. Taking into account the accuracy of multitemporal consecutive D-InSAR in calculating small deformation areas and the ability of offset tracking to measure large deformation areas, we utilized their respective advantages to extract the surface influence range and applied an adaptive spatial filtering method to integrate their respective results for inversion of the deformation field. 12 ascending high-resolution TerraSAR-X images (2 m) from September 3, 2018, to October 26, 2019, and 39 descending Sentinel-1 TOPS SAR images from August 5, 2018, to November 4, 2019, in the Ordos Coalfield located at Inner Mongolia, China, were utilized to obtain the whole subsidence field of the working faces F6211 and F6207 during the 454-day mining period. The GPS monitoring station located in the direction of the mining surface is used to verify the accuracy of the above method; at the same time, to a certain extent, the difference between the unmanned aerial vehicle's DSM data acquired after coal mining and the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (STRM) DEM can qualitatively verify the accuracy of the results. Our results show that the results of TerraSAR are basically consistent with the deformation trend of GPS data, and that of Sentinel-1 have large errors compared with GPS. The maximum central subsidence reaches ~12 m in the working face F6211 and ~4 m in the working face F6207. In the working face F6207, the good agreement between GPS and TerraSAR results indicated that the method above using high-resolution SAR data could be reliable for monitoring the large deformation area in the mining field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the current situation of frequent forest fires, the study of forest burned area mapping is important. However, there is still room for improvement in the accuracy of existing forest burning area mapping methods. Therefore, in this paper, an unsupervised method based on fire index enhancement and GRNN (General Regression Neural Network) is proposed for automated forest burned area mapping from single-date post-fire remote sensing imagery. The proposed method first uses adaptive spatial context information to enhance the generated fire index to improve its ability to indicate the burned areas. Then the uncertainty analysis is performed on the enhanced fire index to extract reliable burned samples and non-burned samples for subsequent classifier training. Finally, the improved GRNN model considering the spatial correlation of pixels is used as a classifier to binarize the enhanced fire index to generate the final burned area map. Based on two commonly used fire indexes, NBR (Normalized Burn Ratio) and BAI (Burned Area Index), this paper conducts burned area mapping experiments on a post-fire image of a forest area in Inner Mongolia, China to test the effectiveness of the proposed method, and two commonly used threshold methods (Otsu and Kmeans clustering) are also used to conduct burned area mapping based on threshold segmentation of fire index for comparison experiments. The experimental results prove the effectiveness and superiority of the proposed method. The proposed method is unsupervised and automated, so it has high application value and potential under the current situation of frequent forest fires. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• This paper analyzes whether the financial support for grassland ecological protection and restoration has improved the vegetation coverage of grassland. • There is a nonlinear relationship between financial support for ecological restoration and grassland vegetation coverage. • Different fiscal expenditure structure has a heterogeneous response. • The degree of fiscal decentralization has a significant positive regulatory effect on the ecological benefits. Grassland ecological restoration is an important cornerstone to maintain the sustainable development of grassland ecosystem. One of the goals of financial support for grassland ecological protection and restoration is whether the ecological benefits of grassland are fully realized, and grassland vegetation coverage is the main index to measure the ecological benefits. This paper aims to analyze whether the financial support for grassland ecological protection and restoration has improved the vegetation coverage of grassland. and then verify whether there is room for improvement in the fiscal effect of grassland ecological protection and restoration? Based on the panel data of 54 animal husbandry and semi-agricultural and semi-animal husbandry counties in Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region of China, this paper adopts a bidirectional fixed effect model and cross-fixed effect model to introduce natural factors affecting grassland vegetation coverage into the model and systematically examines the financial effects of ecological benefits of financial support for grassland ecological protection and restoration. The main findings are as follows: (1) there is a nonlinear relationship between financial support for grassland ecological protection and restoration and grassland vegetation coverage when natural factors are taken into account in the model. (2) different fiscal expenditure structure has a heterogeneous response to the impact of grassland ecological protection and restoration on ecological benefits. (3) the degree of fiscal decentralization and the relative performance of the government have a significant positive moderating effect on the ecological benefits of fiscal support for grassland ecological protection and restoration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]