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Exploring the impact factors associated with biodiversity and the relationship between them has always been a concerned issue in recent years. However, the previous research mostly focus on theoretical layer. Accordingly, the relationship between landscape pattern and biodiversity is to be analyzed in this research. The landscape pattern determines the function and ecological process of the landscape, and affects the species flow, information flow and energy flow in the landscape. Land use patterns has inevitably left an impact on the landscape pattern. Landscape pattern determines the function and ecological process of landscape and thus plays a significant role in biodiversity. East Dongting Lake National Nature Reserve is taken as the research object of the paper, and the remote sensing image data of three different time periods are collected, including 2000, 2010 and 2020. With an interpretation of the vegetation landscape pattern changes inside the protected area to collect and analyze the vegetation coverage. By comparing landscape patterns and the dynamic changes of land use in different periods of time, the correlation between landscape pattern characteristics and regional biodiversity is to be analyzed. Research shows: (1) From 2000 to 2020, the vegetation coverage of East Dongting Lake increased, but the landscape shape, scale, diversity and uniformity index decreased to varying degrees. (2) At the class level of landscape type, the relationship between landscape index and biodiversity is different. A complex relationship between farmland landscape and biodiversity. There is a significant positive correlation between the index of grassland landscape type and the index of regional biodiversity. (3) The correlation analysis results at the landscape level show that the landscape characteristic index is positively correlated with the regional biodiversity index. The grassland landscape in the area is the main habitat of biological species. At the same time, as the main grain producing area, the impact of farmland landscape cannot be ignored. This study has certain theoretical guiding significance for the protection and management of biodiversity in the region in terms of maintaining landscape pattern in particular the grassland landscape area and increasing vegetation coverage in the process of land use., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Wild desert grasslands are characterized by diverse habitats, uneven plant distribution, similarities among plant class, and the presence of plant shadows. However, the existing models for detecting plant species in desert grasslands exhibit low precision, require a large number of parameters, and incur high computational cost, rendering them unsuitable for deployment in plant recognition scenarios within these environments. To address these challenges, this paper proposes a lightweight and fast plant species detection system, termed YOLOv8s-KDT, tailored for complex desert grassland environments. Firstly, the model introduces a dynamic convolutional KernelWarehouse method to reduce the dimensionality of convolutional kernels and increase their number, thus achieving a better balance between parameter efficiency and representation ability. Secondly, the model incorporates triplet attention into its feature extraction network, effectively capturing the relationship between channel and spatial position and enhancing the model's feature extraction capabilities. Finally, the introduction of a dynamic detection head tackles the issue related to target detection head and attention non-uniformity, thus improving the representation of the target detection head while reducing computational cost. The experimental results demonstrate that the upgraded YOLOv8s-KDT model can rapidly and effectively identify desert grassland plants. Compared to the original model, FLOPs decreased by 50.8%, accuracy improved by 4.5%, and mAP increased by 5.6%. Currently, the YOLOv8s-KDT model is deployed in the mobile plant identification APP of Ningxia desert grassland and the fixed-point ecological information observation platform. It facilitates the investigation of desert grassland vegetation distribution across the entire Ningxia region as well as long-term observation and tracking of plant ecological information in specific areas, such as Dashuikeng, Huangji Field, and Hongsibu in Ningxia.

With the increase of operation cycle in long-distance water conveyance project, the problem of silt or algae residue deposition in river channels is becoming more and more prominent, especially in the vicinity of some uncommonly used bifurcation and outflow gates along the water conveyance project. When the deposition reaches certain thickness, it will not only affect the water quality of local water bodies, but also seriously affect the normal operation of these bifurcation and outflow gates. In order to alleviate this problem, the prevention and control of algae residue deposition in long-distance water conveyance project is mainly explored from two perspectives: (1) the scouring effect on the bottom of the side channel is compared by studying different diversion ratios of the side channel; (2) The arc guide wing wall is built near the junction of the main channel and side channel. The simulation is conducted at 6 different included angles including -10°, -5°, 0°, 5°, 10° and 15°, and for non-guide wing wall. The incoming flow is simulated at 280 m 3 /s of general flow and 320 m 3 /s of design flow. A total of 14 groups of experiments are carried out for numerical simulation. It can be concluded that, when the incoming flow is held constant, a higher diversion ratio results in a more effective scouring of the bottom sediment in the side channel; when the included angles of the guide wing wall are -10°, -5°, 0° and 5°, it has a significant effect on the prevention and control of algae deposition near the junction; when the included angles of the guide wing wall are 10° and 15°, it cannot play a role in prevention and control and also hinders the normal operation of the river channel., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

The ecological niche gradient is an important determinant of microbial community structure. In this paper, we studied variation in rhizosphere bacterial diversity and community composition along an ecological niche gradient. We used the high-throughput sequencing of 16S rRNA genes to study changes in the rhizosphere soil microbial communities of six grass and four shrub species during the secondary succession of abandoned farmland on the Loess Plateau of China. A structural equation model (SEM) was employed to disentangle the relative contribution of ecological niche and soil properties to bacterial diversity and community composition. Proteobacteria, Acidobacteria, and Actinobacteria were the dominant phyla of rhizosphere bacteria in all samples. During the dynamics of the plant niche from low to high, bacterial community composition transitioned from Actinobacteria + Acidobacteria to Proteobacteria + Bacteroidetes higher abundance. Moreover, the bacterial diversity and species richness changed with an increasing niche gradient, showing a clear differentiation in the rhizosphere bacterial community of grassland and shrubland. Further, diversity and species richness decreased from the middle niche of B. ischaemum to the poles, indicating that the succession process had not yet reached the climax community stage. Community assembly analysis suggested that the stochastic process gradually strengthened along the increasing ecological niche gradient, especially the drift effect. Furthermore, SEM analysis showed that the ecological niche had significant negative effects on soil properties and bacterial richness, while the effects on bacterial diversity and the stochastic processes of community assembly were weakened and insignificant. Altogether, our findings suggest that the complex interaction of the ecological niche with bacterial diversity and composition was determined by soil properties. Further, bacterial diversity was not necessarily higher with increasing ecological niche gradients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urban spontaneous plants, that are not intentionally propagated by humans and do not belong to the remnants of the natural habitats, not only occur in green spaces but are also distributed in diverse microhabitats in impervious surface areas. Impervious surface coverage is commonly used in studies on spontaneous plant diversity patterns in human-dominated landscapes; however, the role of habitat diversity (i.e., land-use diversity) has been overlooked. Here, we surveyed spontaneous plant composition and land uses (12 types) in 321 0.25 ha sampling sites on the Chongming District islands, Shanghai, to determine the role of land-use diversity in explaining species richness. We examined the linear relationships between species richness and land-use diversity, and quantified the importance of impervious surface coverage and land-use diversity using the random forest (RF) method. All these analyses were conducted for spatial scales from 0.25 to 5 ha in 0.25 ha increments. We found an overall positive relationship between species richness and land-use diversity, and the RF model predicted approximately 50% of the species richness variation at the smallest spatial scale. However, the positive relationship weakened with spatial scale increase, and a rapid decline in explanatory power occurred for all predictor variables in the RF model. Besides impervious surface coverage, both the vegetated and non-vegetated land-use diversity contributed substantially to the prediction of species richness at finer spatial scales. The findings clarify how land-use diversity, both in green spaces and impervious surface areas, affect urban spontaneous plant richness and should be considered in urban biodiversity conservation strategies at the neighborhood scale., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2022 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Reconstructing diet can offer an improved understanding toward the origin and evolution of modern humans. However, the diet of early modern humans in East Asia is poorly understood. Starch analysis of dental calculus is harmless to precious fossil hominins and provides the most direct evidence of plant food sources in early modern human dietary records. In this paper, we examined the starch grains in dental calculus from Fuyan Cave hominins in Daoxian (South China), which were the earliest modern humans in East Asia. Our results reveal the earliest direct evidence of a hominin diet made of acorns, roots, tubers, grass seeds, and other yet-unidentified plants in marine isotope stage 5 between 120 and 80 ka. Our study also provides the earliest evidence that acorns may have played an important role in subsistence strategies. There may have been a long-lasting tradition of using these plants during the Late Pleistocene in China. Plant foods would have been a plentiful source of carbohydrates that greatly increased energy availability to human tissues with high glucose demands. Our study provides the earliest direct consumption of carbohydrates-rich plant resources from modern humans in China for the first time. In addition, it also helps elucidate the evolutionary advantages of early modern humans in the late Middle and early Upper Pleistocene. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Due to the complex geographical situation in China, in this paper, the area of land desertification is 98.5% of the total land desertification area in China. Based on the measured data of GIS and remote sensing images, we will discuss the spatial and temporal distribution characteristics of land desertification in China by calculating standardized precipitation evapotranspiration index (SPEI) and normalized vegetation index and establishing the CA model. The results show the following. (1) The trend of desertification in China has decreased as a whole, and the percentage of nondesertification has increased from 36.91% in 1991 to 44.46% in 2020, an increase of 7.55%. Extremely severe desertification increased from 21.72% to 24.25%, an increase of 2.53%. (2) The drought situation in the study area gradually improved, and the change trend of SPEI decreased by 74%. (3) In recent ten years (2011–2020), the vegetation grew well gradually, and it was in the best state in 2018. The NDVI index value increased by 5.9% compared with the average value in this decade. (4) The model designed by us works very well, and the results of simulating and testing the Three Rivers Source region are very little different from the actual situation, which meets our research requirements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Genus Rubia fell into about 70 species distributed widely around the world, a total of 36 species and 2 varieties were reported from China. The extracts and phytochemicals of Rubia plants had drawn considerable attention due to their potent bioactivities. As the two major ingredients from these plants, pentacyclic triterpenes and cyclopeptides were becoming a hot topic over the past twenty years for their remarkable anticancer, antioxidant and other effects. This paper compiled all 65 terpenes and 44 cyclopeptides with their distributions, physiological activities and melting points (or optical rotations) as reported in 85 references; besides, structure-activity relationships of these derivatives were briefly discussed. The information involved in this paper was expected to be meaningful for the further studies of the Genus Rubia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous literature has examined the relationship between the amount of green space and perceived safety in urban areas, but little is known about the effect of street-view neighborhood greenery on perceived neighborhood safety. Using a deep learning approach, we derived greenery from a massive set of street view images in central Guangzhou. We further tested the relationships and mechanisms between street-view greenery and fear of crime in the neighborhood. Results demonstrated that a higher level of neighborhood street-view greenery was associated with a lower fear of crime, and its relationship was mediated by perceived physical incivilities. While increasing street greenery of the micro-environment may reduce fear of crime, this paper also suggests that social factors should be considered when designing ameliorative programs.

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Vegetation mapping is of considerable significance to both geoscience and mountain ecology, and the improved resolution of remote sensing images makes it possible to map vegetation at a finer scale. While the automatic classification of vegetation has gradually become a research hotspot, real-time and rapid collection of samples has become a bottleneck. How to achieve fine-scale classification and automatic sample selection at the same time needs further study. Stratified sampling based on appropriate prior knowledge is an effective sampling method for geospatial objects. Therefore, based on the idea of stratified sampling, this paper used the following three steps to realize the automatic selection of representative samples and classification of fine-scale mountain vegetation: 1) using Mountain Altitudinal Belt (MAB) distribution information to stratify the study area into multiple vegetation belts; 2) selecting and correcting samples through iterative clustering at each belt automatically; 3) using RF (Random Forest) classifier with strong robustness to achieve automatic classification. The average sample accuracy of nine vegetation formations was 0.933, and the total accuracy of the classification result was 92.2%, with the kappa coefficient of 0.910. The results showed that this method could automatically select high-quality samples and obtain a high-accuracy vegetation map. Compared with the traditional vegetation mapping method, this method greatly improved the efficiency, which is of great significance for the fine-scale mountain vegetation mapping in large-scale areas., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Smelting activities have been shown to increase the likelihood of environmental heavy metal accumulation and bioaccumulation potential within relative proximity to smelter sites. This investigation focused specifically on cadmium (Cd), copper (Cu), lead (Pb) and zinc (Zn) accumulation in 43 wild plant species and corresponding soils near a Pb smelting contaminated area. Soils in the study area had elevated Cd, Cu, Pb and Zn concentrations, with pollution indices ranked as Cd > Pb > Cu > Zn. Aboveground plant heavy metal concentrations ranked Pb > Zn > Cd > Cu, with plants having greater bioconcentration factor (BCF) values for Cd than for Pb, Cu and Zn. Plant Cd BCF averaged 1.42, while Pb, Cu and Zn averaged 0.128, 0.256 and 0.560, respectively. The greatest Cd BCF value was 5.40 for Dendranthema indicum; Cd accumulation for this species has not been reported previously. The greatest shoot Cd concentration (66.5 mg kg -1 ) was found in Viola verecunda. Significant correlations existed between plant shoot Cd and Pb concentrations and soil total and DTPA-extractable Cd and Pb. Plant species with greater heavy metal accumulation could potentially be used for phytoextraction in the study area, while those having less accumulation potentially being used to reduce heavy metal flow into the food chain, reducing the health risks associated with elevated heavy metal soil contamination., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2020 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Growing and densifying cities set a challenge for preserving and enhancing green spaces to cool urban spaces. Green roofs, involving the planting of vegetation on rooftops, are regarded as an alternative approach to enhancing urban greenery and urban cooling. For better cooling performances, it is essential to reasonably configure green roofs, especially in real and complex neighborhoods. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to investigate the impact of morphological characteristics of green roofs on pedestrian cooling in real and complex neighborhoods. In specific, based on an ENVI-met model, we studied the effect of greening layout, coverage ratio, vegetation height, and building height on pedestrian air temperature reduction in the tropical city of Hangzhou, China. Results indicate green roofs could generate moderate effects on pedestrian air temperature reduction (around 0.10⁻0.30 °C), while achieving a cooling performance of 0.82 °C. Green roofs in upwind zones were able to generate the most favorable cooling performance, while green roofs in downwind zones made slight differences to pedestrian thermal environments. Green roofs with a low coverage ratio were not useful for lowering pedestrian temperature, and a greening coverage ratio of 25⁻75% in upwind zones was cost-effective in real neighborhoods. Locations that were horizontally close to green roofs enjoyed better cooling performances. Increasing vegetation height could strengthen cooling effects of green roofs, while an increase in building height weakened the cooling performance. Nevertheless, higher building height could enhance pedestrian cooling performances because of building shading effects. In addition, because of wind effects and building shading, building height limits for the cooling performance of green roofs could be higher than 60 m., Competing Interests: The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Hangzhou, the capital of Zhejiang province has suffered serious ground subsidence during the past several decades, due to long term over-exploration of groundwater. In this paper, the time series InSAR technique using high resolution SAR images is investigated for the generation of subsidence maps over Hangzhou region. 29 TerraSAR-X images acquired from May 2012 to Sep 2015 are used. The results show that serious subsidence has mainly taken place in suburban area, including Yuhang district, Xiaoshan district and Binjiang district. 4 subsidence centers are discovered, namely Tangqi town in Yuhang with an average subsiding velocity of -29.6 mm/year, Xintang (-30.7 mm/year) in Xiaoshan, Zhujiaqiao town (-25.6mm/year) in Xiaoshan, and Miaohouwang town (- 30.1mm/year) in Binjiang. The urban area is stable and ground rebound even take place in some places. The results are compared with 19 levelling measurements. The RMS error between them is 2.9 mm/year, which demonstrates that the high resolution TerraSAR-X images has good accuracy for subsidence monitoring in the southeast of China, covered by dense vegetation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Appropriate Site Specific Weed Management (SSWM) is crucial to ensure the crop yields. Within SSWM of large-scale area, remote sensing is a key technology to provide accurate weed distribution information. Compared with satellite and piloted aircraft remote sensing, unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) is capable of capturing high spatial resolution imagery, which will provide more detailed information for weed mapping. The objective of this paper is to generate an accurate weed cover map based on UAV imagery. The UAV RGB imagery was collected in 2017 October over the rice field located in South China. The Fully Convolutional Network (FCN) method was proposed for weed mapping of the collected imagery. Transfer learning was used to improve generalization capability, and skip architecture was applied to increase the prediction accuracy. After that, the performance of FCN architecture was compared with Patch_based CNN algorithm and Pixel_based CNN method. Experimental results showed that our FCN method outperformed others, both in terms of accuracy and efficiency. The overall accuracy of the FCN approach was up to 0.935 and the accuracy for weed recognition was 0.883, which means that this algorithm is capable of generating accurate weed cover maps for the evaluated UAV imagery.

Maintaining crop outputs to feed its large population with limited resources while simultaneously mitigating carbon emissions are great challenges for China. Improving the efficiency of resource use in crop production is important in reducing carbon emissions. This paper constructs a methodological framework combining emergy-based indicator accounting and a nonseparable undesirable output slack-based measurement (SBM) data envelopment analysis (DEA) model. This framework is used to explore the efficiency of inputs and outputs and the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reduction potential for crop production systems, using Zhejiang province, China, as a case study. It is found that an emergy synthesis and a nonseparable undesirable output SBM-DEA framework is compatible with the case study. Crop production in Zhejiang province has relied heavily on an increase in agrochemical inputs to maintain agricultural output. Energy and chemical fertilizer use are determined as the province’s major carbon emissions sources. Although carbon emissions per unit of monetary output has decreased sharply, the carbon emissions per unit emergy output has increased, demonstrating a high carbon intensity reality. The DEA highlighted the differences in crop production efficiency, resource factor redundancy and carbon mitigation potential in the different prefectures of the province. To conclude this research, policies to support low carbon agriculture development, including subsidizing low carbon agriculture technology development and expansion and the cancellation of subsidies to high carbon production factors, such as chemical fertilizer production and sales, are discussed to conclude the research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Conservation of biodiversity is primary important of today's critically vulnerable environment. Efficient conservation can be possible only with the long-term participation and understanding of the communities. Ritual beliefs of the indigenous people are one of the important tools to understand the local communities and aid the nature conservation. In this paper, we documented contemporary ritual practices and ritual plant uses among the Naxi people and discussed the importance of traditional knowledge on ritual practice in the conservation of plants in the mountains presenting a case study of the Dongba culture. Methods: This study was carried out from July in 2013 to July in 2014. To document and analyze the present state of the ritual plant used by the Naxi people we conducted an ethnobotanical survey. We interviewed local people including Dongba priests using the semi-structured questionnaire. During the field study, we participated in the local religious activities to witness the use of different plants in ritual activities of the Naxi people. We interviewed twenty-two key informants and eleven of them were male. All the specimens of documented species were collected and deposited at the herbarium of Kunming Institute of Botany. Results: The survey results revealed the Naxi people possessed sound knowledge of the traditional ritual plants and great diversity of plants used in many of Naxi rituals and festivals. From the survey, we documented 32 ritual plant species belonging to 24 genera of 17 families used in various ritual activities. The ritual plants were grouped into two categories, namely those burned as incense, and those used for decoration. The incense plants like Olea europaea subsp. cuspidata and Pistacia weinmanniifolia were probably promising natural aromatic resource. Plants of genus Quercus were the most frequently used species. The places for ritual activities were diverse, such as the incense burners inside and outside the house and sacred trees at the Baishuitai. Local people except the young generation had an abundant of traditional knowledge. Conclusions: Our study shows the live ritual activities and the beliefs of the residents are keeping the plant diversity and the entire forest preserved as sacred mountains. Our study emphasizes traditional belief and an alternative view of conservation that is not led mainly by governmental policies, as local practices and ritual plants uses play as constant reminders to the Naxi on nature conservation. However, further research is recommended for in-depth understanding the role of traditional belief in biodiversity conservation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, correlations between vegetation dynamics (represented by the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI)) and hydro-climatological factors were systematically studied in Lake Baiyangdian during the period from April 1998 to July 2008. Six hydro-climatological variables including lake volume, water level, air temperature, precipitation, evaporation, and sunshine duration were used, as well as extracted NDVI series data representing vegetation dynamics. Mann-Kendall tests were used to detect trends in NDVI and hydro-climatological variation, and a Bayesian information criterion method was used to detect their abrupt changes. A redundancy analysis (RDA) was used to determine the major hydro-climatological factors contributing to NDVI variation at monthly, seasonal, and yearly scales. The results were as follows: (1) the trend analysis revealed that only sunshine duration significantly increased over the study period, with an inter-annual increase of 3.6 h/year (p < 0.01), whereas inter-annual NDVI trends were negligible; (2) the abrupt change detection showed that a major hydro-climatological change occurred in 2004, when abrupt changes occurred in lake volume, water level, and sunlight duration; and (3) the RDA showed that evaporation and temperature were highly correlated with monthly changes in NDVI. At larger time scales, however, water level and lake volume gradually became more important than evaporation and precipitation in terms of their influence on NDVI. These results suggest that water availability is the most important factor in vegetation restoration. In this paper, we recommend a practical strategy for lake ecosystem restoration that takes into account changes in NDVI.

Global management of wetlands to suppress greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, facilitate carbon (C) sequestration, and reduce atmospheric CO2 concentrations while simultaneously promoting agricultural gains is paramount. However, studies that relate variability in CO2 and CH4 emissions at large spatial scales are limited. We investigated three-year emissions of soil CO2 and CH4 from the primary wetland types of the Liaohe Delta, China, by focusing on a total wetland area of 3287 km2. One percent is Suaeda salsa, 24% is Phragmites australis, and 75% is rice. While S. salsa wetlands are under somewhat natural tidal influence, P. australis and rice are managed hydrologically for paper and food, respectively. Total C emissions from CO2 and CH4 from these wetland soils were 2.9 Tg C/year, ranging from 2.5 to 3.3 Tg C/year depending on the year assessed. Primary emissions were from CO2 (~98%). Photosynthetic uptake of CO2 would mitigate most of the soil CO2 emissions, but CH4 emissions would persist. Overall, CH4 fluxes were high when soil temperatures were >18°C and pore water salinity <18 PSU. CH4 emissions from rice habitat alone in the Liaohe Delta represent 0.2% of CH4 carbon emissions globally from rice. With such a large area and interannual sensitivity in soil GHG fluxes, management practices in the Delta and similar wetlands around the world have the potential not only to influence local C budgeting, but also to influence global biogeochemical cycling. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Afforestation is a mitigation option to reduce the increased atmospheric carbon dioxide levels as well as the predicted high possibility of climate change. In this paper, vegetation survey data, statistical database, National Forest Resource Inventory database, and allometric equations were used to estimate carbon density (carbon mass per hectare) and carbon storage, and identify the size and spatial distribution of forest carbon sinks in plantation ecosystems in sand source areas of north Beijing, China. From 2001 to the end of 2010, the forest areas increased more than 2.3 million ha, and total carbon storage in forest ecosystems was 173.02 Tg C, of which 82.80 percent was contained in soil in the top 0-100 cm layer. Younger forests have a large potential for enhancing carbon sequestration in terrestrial ecosystems than older ones. Regarding future afforestation efforts, it will be more effective to increase forest area and vegetation carbon density through selection of appropriate tree species and stand structure according to local climate and soil conditions, and application of proper forest management including land-shaping, artificial tending and fencing plantations. It would be also important to protect the organic carbon in surface soils during forest management.

Five new synonyms in Chinese Epimedium are designated in the present paper. Epimedium chlorandrum is treated as a synonym of E. acuminatum; Epimedium rhizomatosum as a synonym of E. membranaceum; Epimedium brachyrrhizum as a synonym of E. leptorrhizum; Epimedium dewuense as a synonym of E. dolichostemon; and Epimedium sagittatum var. oblongifoliolatum as a synonym of E. borealiguizhouense. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Remotely-sensed vegetation indices, which indicate the density and photosynthetic capacity of vegetation, have been widely used to monitor vegetation dynamics over broad areas. In this paper, we reviewed satellite-based studies on vegetation cover changes, biomass and productivity variations, phenological dynamics, desertification, and grassland degradation in China that occurred over the past 2-3 decades. Our review shows that the satellite-derived index (Normalized Difference Vegetation Index, NDVI) during growing season and the vegetation net primary productivity in major terrestrial ecosystems (for example forests, grasslands, shrubs, and croplands) have significantly increased, while the number of fresh lakes and vegetation coverage in urban regions have experienced a substantial decline. The start of the growing season continually advanced in China's temperate regions until the 1990s, with a large spatial heterogeneity. We also found that the coverage of sparsely-vegetated areas declined, and the NDVI per unit in vegetated areas increased in arid and semi-arid regions because of increased vegetation activity in grassland and oasis areas. However, these results depend strongly not only on the periods chosen for investigation, but also on factors such as data sources, changes in detection methods, and geospatial heterogeneity. Therefore, we should be cautious when applying remote sensing techniques to monitor vegetation structures, functions, and changes., (© 2012 Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences.)

Based on SPOT-VGT images and meteorological data, this paper applied an integrated method to investigate the vegetation dynamic and its response to climate factors during 1998-2008 in Northeast China Transect, one of 15 ecological transects listed in the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme. The main findings are as follows: (1) The NDVI time series presented nonlinear patterns that vary with timescales. The series fluctuated greatly at the smallest timescale (20 days), showing no salient trend, whereas a trend manifested itself more and more with the increase of time scale and finally stabilized at the 320-day scale. Little difference was found between vegetation types about the NDVI periodicity, as they occurred on either a 280-day or a 290-day cycle. (2) NDVI exhibited a significant correlation with temperature, precipitation, and sunshine hours. Overall, the correlation between NDVI and temperature was the highest, followed by precipitation, sunshine hours, and relative humidity. For different vegetation types, the correlations between NDVI and climate variables diversified, increasing from desert steppe to typical steppe, meadow steppe, and forest. (3) The periodicity of temperature and precipitation occurred in either a 280-day or 290-day cycle, which was approximately coincident with that of NDVI. This further supported the significant relationship between NDVI and these two climate factors. (4) At all the time scales under examination, NDVI and temperature and precipitation are significantly, positively correlated, especially at the 160-day scale, which can be regarded as the most suitable time scale for investigating the responses of vegetation dynamics to climate factors at most stations.

Urbanization involves the replacement of vegetated surfaces with impervious built surfaces, and it often results in an increase in the rate and volume of rainwater surface runoff. Urban green spaces play a positive role in rainwater-runoff reduction. However, few studies have explored the benefits of rainwater-runoff reduction by urban green spaces. Based on inventory data of urban green spaces in Beijing, the paper evaluated the economic benefits of rainwater-runoff reduction by urban green spaces, using the rainwater-runoff-coefficient method as well as the economic valuation methods. The results showed that, 2494 cubic meters of potential runoff was reduced per hectare of green area and a total volume of 154 million cubic meters rainwater was stored in these urban green spaces, which almost corresponds to the annual water needs of the urban ecological landscape in Beijing. The total economic benefit was 1.34 billion RMB in 2009 (RMB: Chinese currency, US$1=RMB6.83), which is equivalent to three-quarters of the maintenance cost of Beijing's green spaces; the value of rainwater-runoff reduction was 21.77 thousand RMB per hectare. In addition, the benefits in different districts and counties were ranked in the same order as urban green areas, and the average benefits per hectare of green space showed different trends, which may be related to the impervious surface index in different regions. This research will contribute to an understanding of the role that Beijing's green spaces play in rainwater regulation and in the creation and scientific management of urban green spaces., (Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Subalpine meadows in the Dongling Mountains (located at E115º26'-115º40', N40º00'-40º05') of Beijing, China are important for tourism and the provision of ecosystem services. However, because of poor management serious degradation has occurred on these subalpine meadows. The aim of this paper is to present a quantitative analysis of effects of tourism disturbance and topography on the status and diversity of montane meadow communities and to provide direction for improved management. Sixty quadrats of 2 × 2 m(2) along 10 transects were set up to collect data on site characteristics and vegetation status. The relationships between community composition and structure, species diversity, and tourism disturbance and topographic variables were analyzed by multivariate methods (TWINSPAN and CCA). The results showed that eight meadow communities were identified by TWINSPAN. Most of them were seriously degraded. The first CCA axis identified an elevation and tourism disturbance intensity gradient, which illustrated that tourism disturbance and elevation were most important factors influencing meadow types, composition and structure. Some resistant species and response species to tourism disturbance were identified and can be used as indicator species of tourism disturbance. Species richness, heterogeneity and evenness were closely related to tourism disturbance and elevation. It is concluded that tourism disturbance must be controlled to enable grassland rehabilitation to occur in the meadows. Measures of effective management of the meadows were discussed.

Overgrazing has been the primary cause of grassland degradation in the semi-arid grasslands of the agro-pastoral transition zone in northern China. However, there has been little evidence regarding grazing intensity impacts on vegetation change and soil C and N dynamics in this region. This paper reports the effects of four grazing intensities namely un-grazed (UG), lightly grazed (LG), moderately grazed (MG) and heavily grazed (HG) on vegetation characteristics and soil properties of grasslands in the Guyuan county in the agro-pastoral transition region, Hebei province, northern China. Our study showed that the vegetation height, canopy cover, plant species abundance and aboveground biomass decreased significantly with increased grazing intensity. Similarly, soil organic carbon (SOC) and total nitrogen (STN) in the 0–50 cm were highest under UG (13.3 kg C m−2 and 1.69 kg N m−2) and lowest under HG (9.8 kg C m−2 and 1.22 kg N m−2). Soil available nitrogen (SAN) was significantly lower under HG (644 kg N hm−2) than under other treatments (725–731 kg N hm−2) in the 0–50 cm. Our results indicate that the pasture management of “take half-leave half” has potential benefits for primary production and livestock grazing in this region. However, grazing exclusion was perhaps the most effective choice for restoring degraded grasslands in this region. Therefore, flexible rangeland management should be adopted in this region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Biomass partitioning is important for illustrating terrestrial ecosystem carbon flux. West, Brown and Enquist (WBE) model predicts that an optimal 3/4 allometric scaling of leaf mass and total biomass of individual plants will be applied in diverse communities. However, amount of scientific evidence suggests an involvement of some biological and environmental factors in interpreting the variation of scaling exponent observed in empirical studies. In this paper, biomass information of 1175 forested communities in China was collected and categorized into groups in terms of leaf form and function, as well as their locations to test whether the allocation pattern was conserved or variable with internal and/or environmental variations. Model Type II regression protocol was adopted to perform all the regressions. The results empirically showed that the slopes varied significantly across diverse forested biomes, between conifer and broadleaved forests, and between evergreen and deciduous forests. Based on the results, leaf form and function and their relations to environments play a significant role in the modification of the WBE model to explore more accurate laws in nature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The observed warming trend in the Qaidam area, an arid basin surrounded by high mountains, has caused land surface dynamics that are detectable using remotely sensed data. In this paper, we detected land-cover changes in the Qaidam Area between 1990 and 2003 in attempt to depict its spatial variability. The land-cover changes were categorized into two trends: degradation and amelioration, and their spatial patterns were examined. Then we estimated the correlation coefficients between growing-season NDVI and several climatic factors with the consideration of duration and lagging effects. The results show that the inter-annual NDVI variations are positively correlated with May to July precipitations, but not significantly correlated with sunshine duration. We observed no obvious trend in precipitation or sunshine duration from 1990 to 2003. Thus, the authors suggest that their slight fluctuations may not be responsible to the decade-scaled land-cover changes. However, our results indicate a good positive relationship between the NDVI trend and climate warming in the ameliorated areas, but a negative one in the degraded areas. By statistical analyses, we found that degradations mainly occurred at the oasis boundaries and at lower elevations in the non-oasis regions where effective soil moisture might have been reduced by the warming-caused increase in evapotranspiration. At higher elevations where thermal condition acts as a major limiting factor, ameliorations were unequivocally detected, which is attributable to the direct facilitation by temperature increases. We suggest that the impacts of the observed climate warming on vegetation are spatially heterogeneous, depending on the combinations of thermal condition and moisture availability.

Folk names of plants are the roots of traditional plant biodiversity knowledge. This paper mainly records and analyses the wild plant folk names of the Mongolians in the Ejina desert area based on a field survey for collection and identification of voucher specimens. The results show that a total of 121 folk names of local plants have correspondence with 93 scientific species which belong to 26 families and 70 genera. The correspondence between plants' Mongol folk names and scientific species may be classified as one to one correspondence, multitude to one correspondence and one to multitude correspondence. The Ejina Mongolian plant folk names were formed on the basis of observations and an understanding of the wild plants growing in their desert environment. The high correspondence between folk names and scientific names shows the scientific meaning of folk botanical nomenclature and classification. It is very useful to take an inventory of biodiversity, especially among the rapid rural appraisal (RRA) in studying biodiversity at the community level.

Increased water-dependent development and utilization have led to significant environmental and hydrological degradation of the Tarim River in western China and its dependent ecosystems. Between the 1950s and 1970s, 350 km of the lower reaches were drained and between 1960 and 1980 the water-table fell from between -2 and -3 m to between -8 and -10 m. Subsequently, riparian ecosystems were seriously degraded. In 2000, the Chinese government launched a program to restore the lower reaches of the river. Four environmental flows of 1034 x 10(6) m(3) were released from 2000 to 2002. This paper interprets and discusses the ecological significance of changes following the releases and identifies the relationship between water-table dynamics and vegetation responses. Short-term objectives for river restoration are proposed with possible monitoring parameters suggested.

Background and Aims: A central goal of biogeography and ecology is to uncover and understand distributional patterns of organisms. China has long been a focus of attention because of its rich biota, especially with respect to plants. Using 290 floras from across China, this paper quantitatively characterizes the composition of floristic elements at multiple scales (i.e. national, provincial and local), and explores the extent to which climatic and geographical factors associated with each flora can jointly and independently explain the variation in floristic elements in local floras., Methods: A study was made of 261 local floras, 28 province-level floras and one national-level flora across China. Genera of seed plants in each flora were assigned to 14 floristic elements according to their worldwide geographical distributions. The composition of floristic elements was related to climatic and geographical factors., Key Results and Conclusions: Variations in percentages of cosmopolitan, tropical and temperate genera among local floras tend to be greater at higher latitudes than at lower latitudes. Latitude is strongly correlated with the proportions of 13 of the 14 floristic elements. Correlations of the proportions of floristic elements with longitude are much weaker than those with latitude. Climate represented by the first principal component of a principal component analysis was strongly correlated with the proportions of floristic elements in local floras (|r| = 0.75 +/- 0.18). Geographical coordinates independently explained about four times as much variation in floristic elements as did climate. Further research is necessary to examine the roles of water-energy dynamics, geology, soils, biotic interactions, and historical factors such as land connections between continents in the past and at present in creating observed floristic patterns.

Cyanide is a high-volume production chemical and the most commonly used leaching reagent for gold and silver extraction. Its environmental behavior and fate is of significant concern because it is a highly toxic compound. Vascular plants possess an enzyme system that detoxifies cyanide by converting it to the amino acid asparagine. This paper presents an investigation of the potential of Chinese vegetation to degrade cyanide. Detached leaves (1.5 g fresh weight) from 28 species of 23 families were kept in glass vessel with 100 ml of aqueous solution spiked with potassium cyanide at 23.5 degrees C for 28 h. Cyanide concentrations ranged from 0.83 to 1.0 CN mg l(-1). The disappearance of cyanide from the aqueous solution was analyzed spectrophotometrically. The fastest cyanide removal was by Chinese elder, Sambucus chinensis, with a removal capacity of 8.8 mg CN kg(-1) h(-1), followed by upright hedge-parsley (Torilis japonica) with a value of 7.5 mg CN kg(-1) h(-1). The lowest removal capacity had the snow-pine tree (Credrus deodara (Roxb.) Loud). Results from this investigation indicated that a wide range of plant species is able to efficiently metabolize cyanide. Therefore, cyanide elimination with plants seems to be a feasible option for cleaning soils and water contaminated by cyanide from gold and silver mines or from other sources.

In recent decades, various kinds of remote sensing-based drought indexes have been proposed and widely used in the field of drought monitoring. However, the drought-related software and platform development lag behind the theoretical research. The current drought monitoring systems focus mainly on information management and publishing, and cannot implement professional drought monitoring or parameter inversion modelling, especially the models based on multi-dimensional feature space. In view of the above problems, this paper aims at fixing this gap with a component-based system named RSDMS to facilitate the application of drought monitoring by remote sensing. The system is designed and developed based on Component Object Model (COM) to ensure the flexibility and extendibility of modules. RSDMS realizes general image-related functions such as data management, image display, spatial reference management, image processing and analysis, and further provides drought monitoring and evaluation functions based on internal and external models. Finally, China’s Ningxia region is selected as the study area to validate the performance of RSDMS. The experimental results show that RSDMS provide an efficient and scalable support to agricultural drought monitoring. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In a context of climate change, precipitation patterns show substantial disturbances and the occurrence of precipitation anomalies has tended to increase in the Huang-Huai-Hai River Basin. These anomalies are likely influencing vegetation dynamics and ecosystem stability. This paper aims to have a comprehensive understanding of vegetation growth response towards the precipitation pattern in the Huang-Huai-Hai River Basin. The study used NDVI (Normalized Difference Vegetation Index) data and mapped precipitation datasets from 1982 to 2011. NDVI and precipitation show a similar spatial distribution: they decrease from the southeast coast to the northwest inland. Regions with sparse vegetation are mainly distributed in arid and semi-arid areas or densely-populated areas. Vegetation coverage and the regular precipitation pattern show a positive correlation (61.6% of the whole region), while the correlation between vegetation coverage and precipitation anomalies is negative (62.7% for rainless days and 60.3% for rainstorm days). The clustering result shows that abundant vegetation is mainly situated in high precipitation or low anomaly areas. On the contrary, the degraded regions are mainly distributed in low precipitation or high anomaly areas. However, some special regions, mainly located in the Three North Shelterbelt Program region, the Tibetan Plateau, and other regions along the rivers, present improved vegetation cover when precipitation decreases or extreme events occur. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A rare type of pneumonia later on referred to as COVID-19 was reported in China in December 2019. Investigations revealed that this disease is caused by a coronavirus previously identified as SARS-CoV-2, and since then, it has become a global pandemic with new strains emerging rapidly as a result of genetic mutations. Various therapeutic options are being explored in order to eradicate this pandemic even though approved vaccine candidates are being currently rolled out globally. Most medicinal plant extracts have astonishing properties, and they can therefore be used in the biosynthesis of effective antiviral nanoparticles. In this systematic review, we aimed to highlight the specific attributes that make Azadirachta indica (neem plant) a suitable candidate for the biosynthesis of anti-SARS-CoV-2 nanoparticles. A systematic investigation was therefore carried out in PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, and AJOL databases with the keywords "Nanoparticles," "Biosynthesis," "Antivirals," "SARS-CoV-2," and "Azadirachta indica." 1216 articles were retrieved by the 21st of February 2022, but we screened studies that reported data on biomedical and antimicrobial assessment of Azadirachta indica extracts. We also screened studies that were reporting nanoparticles possessing antiviral properties against SARS-C0V-2, narrowing our results to 98 reports. Herein, the SARS-CoV-2 viral structure is briefly discussed with nanoparticles of biomedical importance in the design of SARS-CoV-2 antivirals. Most importantly, we focused on the biomedical and antiviral properties of Azadirachta indica extracts that could be of importance in the design of potential anti-SARS-CoV-2 nanoformulations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The Wuliang Mountains of the Jingdong region is a settlement area of the Yi community located in south-western Yunnan Province in China. Due to its unique geographical location, this area harbours abundant medicinal plant resources. The medicinal plants used by the local people have a long history and play an important role in their daily life. During the long-term mixed lifestyle, the knowledge of traditional medicinal plants in different communities has been assimilated to some extent. Therefore, this paper is based on ethnobotanical investigations to document traditional medicinal plants used by local people and discuss the differences between the Yi and Han communities in the study area. Methods: Data on traditional medicinal plants were collected from September 2016 to August 2017 in the Yi autonomous county of Jingdong. Seven townships and 16 villages were selected for the field investigations. Information was obtained through key informant interviews. A total of 44 key informants were interviewed, and all of them were herbalists or herbal sellers. Results: In this study, a total of 302 traditional medicinal plant species belonging to 117 families and 252 genera were investigated and documented, most of which were obtained from herbalists. Although family Asteraceae was the most prevalent, with 27 species, the most commonly utilized species were members of family Papaveraceae, Dactylicapnos scandens (D. Don) Hutch., which is used as an antipyretic drug. Herbs comprised half of the total number of species, and the whole plant is the most frequently utilized plant part. The plants were used to treat more than 93 human diseases, with antipyretic drugs being the most common form of herbal medicine. The traditional medicinal plants used in the study area possess a high ratio of being documented in the literature. According to the analysis, the Chinese Pharmacopoeia recorded 76 species and the Resources of Traditional Chinese Medicine recorded 233 species of traditional medicinal plants. By evaluating the endangered status of the traditional medicinal plants in the study area, we found good conservation status of the cited medicinal plants. Regarding the similarity between the communities, there were significant differences between the Yi and Han communities, as indicated by the Jaccard similarity index (0.232). Conclusions: Medicinal plants are the embodiment of wisdom from our ancestors and play a significant role in treating various human disorders. As one of the birthplaces of Yi medicine, the study area possesses a high species diversity of traditional medicinal plants used by local people. With the rapid development of modern medicine, however, the inheritance of this valuable culture is facing enormous threats even though its potential value has not yet been fully explored. Therefore, some effective protection measures should be taken, and some modern techniques should be implemented to prove the safety and improve the scientific acceptance of the traditional medicinal plants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Vegetation habitat suitability (HS) and mountainous settlements are continuously varying, and display spatial heterogeneity in their spatial arrangement at multiple scales substantially. This paper focuses on spatial characteristics of vegetation HS and mountainous settlement and their quantitative relationships in the upstream of Min River, southwest of China. Based on the spatially distributed maps of vegetation HS types and different nationality mountainous settlements, we first described spatial differentiation and cluster of vegetation HS from global and local standpoints through lacunarity analysis and Multilevel Bayesian model. Then, we depicted the effects of nationality attribute on the spatially distributed characteristics of mountainous settlements. Finally, we revealed the relationships between the geometrical features of mountainous settlements and vegetation HS. The detailed results were as following: 1) The vegetation habitats are classified into four types based on the vegetation HS indexes, the largest spatially heterogeneities of comprehensive, unsuitable and worst unsuitable vegetation HS types occurred in Wenchuan county, but the largest spatially heterogeneities of suitable and sub-suitable vegetation HS categories appeared in Songpan county. The largest spatially clusters of comprehensive, suitable and sub-suitable vegetation HS categories were in Wenchuan, Songpan and Lixian counties, respectively. This suggested that their spatial clusters were low and spatial heterogeneity were high. However, the largest spatially clusters of unsuitable and worst unsuitable vegetation HS types were in Maoxian county. 2) The largest spatially cluster occurred in the Han nationality mountainous settlements revealed their closure characteristics in mountainous regions. Meanwhile, the spatial cluster of all mountainous settlements across watershed approximated to Tibetan nationality mountainous settlement, indicating that the spatial heterogeneity and layout characteristics of Tibetan nationality mountainous settlement could reflect the spatial differentiation of all settlements across watershed. 3) The average values of vegetation HS indexes for Tibetan-Qiang-Hui-Han nationality mountainous settlements were 2.8157, 2.6217, 2.5291 and 2.6441. It meant that the spatial distribution of mountainous settlements perfectly match with spatial pattern of vegetation habitat. Moreover, the sensitivities of geometrical feature characteristics for all mountainous settlements to vegetation HS were similar to Qiang nationality mountainous settlement. The quantitative results obtained from analysis on spatial characteristics of vegetation HS and mountainous settlements, and their interactive relationships could provide effective data supports for ecological construction of vegetation habitat and spatial reconstruction of mountainous settlements. [Display omitted] • We proposed framework for studying spatial characteristics of vegetation habitat suitability (HS) and mountainous settlement. • The spatial differentiation and cluster of vegetation HS were analyzed from global and local standpoints. • We revealed how the national attributes affected on the spatially distributed characteristics of mountainous settlements. • The vegetation HS affected on the geometrical features for mountainous settlement through Multilevel Bayesian analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Black-boned sheep is a precious genetic resource with black quality traits cultivated by the Pumi people in Tongdian Town, Lanping County, Nujiang Lisu Autonomous Prefecture, Northwest Yunnan, China. It has been included in the "National Breed List of Livestock and Poultry Genetic Resources." The local communities have a deep understanding of black-boned sheep. The traditional knowledge of black-boned sheep is essential to their conservation and sustainable development. In spite of this, there was no information on traditional knowledge associated with black-boned sheep so far. The aim of this study wasaimed to document traditional knowledge and culture, to elucidate information about forage plants, and to investigate the conservation strategy of black-boned sheep. Method: Four field surveys were conducted from July 2019 to May 2021. A total of seven villages and the Pumi Culture Museum in Lanping County are being investigated. A semi-structured interview method was used to interview 67 key informants. During the investigation, we also participated in the grazing activities of black-boned sheep, observed the appearance characteristics and the herd structure of the black-boned sheep, and demonstrated traditional knowledge regarding black-boned sheep, including grazing methods, forage plants, and related customs and habits. Results: We assumed that a majority of people in the current study sites were able to could distinguish black-boned sheep from their relatives by their black bones, blue-green gums, and blue-purple anus. The local people manage their black-boned sheep based on the number of sheep by sex, age, and role in a flock in the different breeding environments. Different grazing strategies have been adopted in different seasons. Through ethnobotanical investigations, 91 species of forage plants in 30 families were identified, including herbaceous, shrubs, lianas, and trees. Among all the plant species consumed by the black-boned sheep, Rosaceae species make up the greatest number, with 16, followed by Asteraceae, with 9, and 8 species of Fabaceae and Poaceae. Considering the abundance of forage plants and the preference for black-boned sheep, Prinsepia utilis and the plants of Rubus, Berberis, and Yushania occupy dominant positions. Plants used for foraging are divided into two categories: wild and cultivated. Due to the lack of forage plants in fall and winter, the local people mainly cultivate crops to feed their black-boned sheep. In addition, the black-boned sheep is an influential cultural species in the local community and plays a prominent role in the cultural identity of the Pumi people. Conclusion: Sheep play an essential role in the inheritance of the spiritual culture and material culture of the Pumi ethnic group. The formation of the black-boned sheep is inseparable from the worship of sheep by the Pumi people. With a long-term grazing process, the locals have developed a variety of traditional knowledge related to black-boned sheep. This is the experience that locals have accumulated when managing forests and grasslands. Therefore, both the government and individuals should learn from the local people when it comes to protecting black-boned sheep. No one knows black-boned sheep better than them. The foremost evidence of this is the rich traditional knowledge of breeding black-boned sheep presented by key informants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• A stochastic shock model is proposed to investigate seed banks persistence. • The lower bound of the probability of seed bank persistence under stochastic shocks is presented. • The seed bank persistence of artificial sand-binding vegetation was investigated. Seed bank persistence plays a significant role in maintaining the sustainability of artificial vegetation in desert regions. However, the periods of droughts after each rainfall event form a series of stochastic shocks and result in depletion of the seed bank. Understanding seed bank persistence under stochastic shocks is a crucial prerequisite to evaluation of the sustainability of artificial vegetation under ongoing drought, but few studies have addressed the response of soil seed bank persistence to frequent stochastic shocks in deserts. In this paper, a stochastic shock model describing the input–output process of the seed bank is proposed based on modern risk theory to explore seed bank persistence of artificial vegetation in desert regions. The existence condition of the seed bank and the lower bound of the probability of seed bank persistence under stochastic shock after a long time were theoretically determined. As a verification of the theoretical model, seed bank persistence of artificial sand-binding vegetation on the southeastern margin of the Tengger Desert in China was investigated based on field observation and experimental and empirical data. The numerical results reveal that the seed bank of artificial sand-binding vegetation will always exist under stochastic shocks with a probability greater than 95%, suggesting that in the long-term succession process the current artificial sand-binding vegetation will likely maintain the development trend toward the adjacent natural vegetation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Identifying patterns and drivers of plant community assembly has long been a central issue in ecology. Many studies have explored the above questions using a trait‐based approach; however, there are still unknowns around how patterns of plant functional traits vary with environmental gradients. In this study, the responses of individual and multivariate trait dispersions of 134 species to soil resource availability were examined based on correlational analysis and torus‐translation tests across four spatial scales in a subtropical forest, China. Results indicated that different degrees of soil resource availability had different effects on trait dispersions. Specifically, limited resource (available phosphorus) showed negative relationships with trait dispersions, non‐limited resource (available potassium) showed positive relationships with trait dispersions, and saturated resource (available nitrogen) had no effect on trait dispersions. Moreover, compared with the stem (wood density) and architectural trait (maximum height), we found that leaf functional traits can well reflect the response of plants to nutrient gradients. Lastly, the spatial scale only affected the magnitude but not the direction of the correlations between trait dispersions and environmental gradients. Overall, the results highlight the importance of soil resource availability and spatial scale in understanding how plant functional traits respond to environmental gradients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Trichoderma spp. are widely distributed in natural habitats and have been evaluated as a potential biocontrol agent (BCA) for disease control and plant growth promotion. In this study, 1308 Trichoderma strains were obtained from the plant rhizosphere soil, above-ground plants, and decaying wood from natural habitats in China. Among them, 49 Trichoderma strains showed a good inhibitory effect, especially against Botrytis cinerea, Fusarium oxysporum, and Colletotrichum gloeosporioides with inhibition rate above 85% in the dual culture test. Among these 49 strains, the 13 strains with broad-spectrum inhibitory effects also significantly promoted the seed germination of five crops (rice, cucumber, tomato, melon, and pakchoi) and root growth of four crop seedlings (watermelon, tomato, eggplant, and chili). Furthermore, these strains showed effective colonization in the rhizosphere and root of cucumber. Trichoderma strains SC012 and NX043 showed the highest chitinase and β-1,3-glucanase activity among all strains. Based on the morphological characterization and phylogenetic analysis of the nuclear ribosomal internal transcribed spacer (ITS) and translation elongation factor 1 (tef1), twelve Trichoderma strains were identified as Trichoderma asperellum and one as Trichoderma afroharzianum. This study suggests that the 13 Trichoderma strains are promising BCAs and could be developed as biofertilizers and biological pesticides for agricultural applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Pisha Sandstone area is located in an adjacent region close to Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, Shaanxi and Shanxi province of northwestern China, which covers an area of more than 11,000km2. Pisha Sandstone is a kind of loosely bonded sandstone formed during the tertiary period. It is very hard when it is dry but becomes loose when wet. Due to the nature of that, this area of northwestern China is plagued with a high erosion rate (over 20,000tkm−2 yr−1) as well as poor vegetation. In order to reforest gullies and to control erosion in this area, the seabuckthorn flexible dam that is actually a new biological measure focused on by many people was successfully used to reduce the erosion rate of the area. This paper aims at the identification and/or determination of the major impact factors which essentially influence the sediment retention effects of the seabuckthorn flexible dam. Firstly, the sediment retention effects of the single seabuckthorn flexible dam were simulated using one-dimensional sediment-flow model in this study. Then, based on the computational results, two major impact factors, i.e. roughness and dam length of the seabuckthorn flexible dam, were found. Finally, according to the sediment retention effects under various roughness and dam lengths condition, a series of the suitable length ranges of the seabuckthorn flexible dam were given in corresponding to a series of the seabuckthorn flexible dam''s roughness. The results show that the seabuckthorn flexible dam can strikingly and effectively reduce sediment loss from the gully. An emphasis is placed on widely spreading and planting of the seabuckthorn flexible dam in the Pisha Sandstone area in the future to prevent soil and water loss and to achieve at least good ecological status. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: The studies on the rhizobia isolated from root nodules of broad beans in Panzhihua will lay foundations for improving the output of broad beans in Panzhihua. This paper mainly studied the physiological-biochemical characteristics of the rhizobium and the morphology of root nodules and bacteroid. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Acacia mangium has been planted in large areas of southern China ever since its introduction into China in 1979. This article reports on A. mangium biomass accumulation over a period of 15 years in a plantation in southern China. The biomass of A. mangium increased from the first to the seventh year, after which the growth slowed down. Eleven-year-old A. mangium can facilitate the conversion of degraded lands into mixed native species forests. This paper also points out that N and P deficiencies may be an inhibitive factor to biomass growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Chinese hickory (Carya cathayensis Sarg.) is an economically and ecologically important nut plant in China. Dieback and basal stem necrosis have been observed in the plants since 2016, and its recent spread has significantly affected plant growth and nut production. Therefore, a survey was conducted to evaluate the disease incidence at five sites in Linan County, China. The highest incidence was recorded at the Tuankou site at up to 11.39% in 2019. The oomycete, Phytophthora cinnamomi, was isolated from symptomatic plant tissue and plantation soil using baiting and selective media-based detection methods and identified. Artificial infection with the representative P. cinnamomi ST402 isolate produced vertically elongated discolorations in the outer xylem and necrotic symptoms in C. cathayensis seedlings in a greenhouse trial. Molecular detections based on loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP) specific to P. cinnamomi ST402 were conducted. Result indicated that LAMP detection showed a high coherence level with the baiting assays for P. cinnamomi detection in the field. This study provides the evidence of existence of high-pathogenic P. cinnamomi in the C. cathayensis plantation soil in China and the insights into a convenient tool developed for conducting field monitoring of this aggressive pathogen. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Global warming has brought many negative impacts on terrestrial ecosystems, which makes the vulnerability of ecosystems one of the hot issues in current ecological research. Here, we proposed an assessment method based on the IPCC definition of vulnerability. The exposure to future climate was characterized using a moisture index (MI) that integrates the effects of temperature and precipitation. Vegetation stability, defined as the proportion of intact natural vegetation that remains unchanged under changing climate, was used together with vegetation productivity trend to represent the sensitivity and adaptability of ecosystems. Using this method, we evaluated the vulnerability of ecosystems in Southwestern China under two future representative concentration pathways (RCP 4.5 and RCP 8.5) with MC2 dynamic global vegetation model. Results: (1) Future (2017–2100) climate change will leave 7.4% (under RCP 4.5) and 57.4% of (under RCP 8.5) of areas under high or very high vulnerable climate exposure; (2) in terms of vegetation stability, nearly 45% of the study area will show high or very high vulnerability under both RCPs. Beside the impacts of human disturbance on natural vegetation coverage (vegetation intactness), climate change will cause obvious latitudinal movements in vegetation distribution, but the direction of movements under two RCPs were opposite due to the difference in water availability; (3) vegetation productivity in most areas will generally increase and remain a low vulnerability in the future; (4) an assessment based on the above three aspects together indicated that future climate change will generally have an adverse impact on all ecosystems in Southwestern China, with non-vulnerable areas account for only about 3% of the study area under both RCPs. However, compared with RCP 4.5, the areas with mid- and high-vulnerability under RCP 8.5 scenario increased by 13% and 16%, respectively. Conclusion: Analyses of future climate exposure and projected vegetation distribution indicate widespread vulnerability of ecosystems in Southwestern China, while vegetation productivity in most areas will show an increasing trend to the end of twenty-first century. Based on new climate indicators and improved vulnerability assessment rules, our method provides an extra option for a more comprehensive evaluation of ecosystem vulnerability, and should be further tested at larger spatial scales in order to provide references for regional, or even global, ecosystem conservation works. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Leaves of the medicinal plant Ampelopsis grossedentata, which is commonly known as vine tea, are used widely in the traditional Chinese beverage in southwest China. The leaves contain a large amount of dihydromyricetin, a compound with various biological activities. However, the transcript profiles involved in its biosynthetic pathway in this plant are unknown. Results: We conducted a transcriptome analysis of both young and old leaves of the vine tea plant using Illumina sequencing. Of the transcriptome datasets, a total of 52.47 million and 47.25 million clean reads were obtained from young and old leaves, respectively. Among 471,658 transcripts and 177,422 genes generated, 7768 differentially expressed genes were identified in leaves at these two stages of development. The phenylpropanoid biosynthetic pathway of vine tea was investigated according to the transcriptome profiling analysis. Most of the genes encoding phenylpropanoid biosynthesis enzymes were identified and found to be differentially expressed in different tissues and leaf stages of vine tea and also greatly contributed to the biosynthesis of dihydromyricetin in vine tea. Conclusions: To the best of our knowledge, this is the first formal study to explore the transcriptome of A. grossedentata. The study provides an insight into the expression patterns and differential distribution of genes related to dihydromyricetin biosynthesis in vine tea. The information may pave the way to metabolically engineering plants with higher flavonoid content. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Zongzi, a common Chinese rice-pudding and one of the most symbolic foods in traditional Chinese festivals, is integral to both Chinese traditional culture and daily meals. Traditionally, the leaves of different plant species have been used to wrap zongzi. The variety of zongzi leaves (ZLs) can contribute to the zongzi-based cultural diversity. Given the cultural and dietary significance of zongzi, the ethnobotanical surveys were carried out, aiming to investigate the diversity of plant species and associated traditional botanical knowledge of ZLs, which could attract particular attention for their further studies. Method: Both literature studies and field surveys were conducted in the study. The field investigations were carried out from May 2006 to June 2018 throughout China. Ethnobotanical information about ZLs was obtained by direct observation, semi-structured interviews, and key informant interviews. Results: In total, ZLs from 57 plant species were identified and recorded, belonging to 38 genera and 18 families. Several folk legends have been formed to explain the origin of using plant leaves to pack zongzi. Over time, Chinese people have developed diverse traditional botanical knowledge surrounding ZLs, especially regarding the zongzi flavor, antiseptic functions, and medicinal values. Based on the literature review, some species of ZLs such as the leaves of Corchorus capsularis and Vernicia fordii may even pose a potential threat to human health. Presently, in some regions of China, the traditional ZLs, such as Cocos nucifera, Tilia tuan, and Zizania latifolia, are being substituted by commercialized ZLs such as Phragmites australis and Indocalamus tessellatus. Conclusion: A variety of traditional ZLs have been discovered in China. Although diverse traditional knowledge exists in China surrounding the usage of ZLs, some species may have the potential of threatening human health. Therefore, further explorations are necessary to comprehensively evaluate traditional ZLs, the results of which could help to conserve the cultural diversity of zongzi, to guarantee food safety, and to encourage the uses of plant leaves in food, medicine, and environmental management, for our human health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Straw retention is an effective method to conserve soil water content and improve soil carbon stocks. However, how soil carbon dynamics respond to different straw retention practices remains unclear. In this study, we investigated soil respiration and soil carbon sequestration at depths of 0–100 cm. We conducted a two-year field experiment with three crop rotation treatments and three straw retention treatments in northwest China. The straw retention treatments included no straw retention (NS), retention of half the straw (HS), and retention of the total amount of straw (TS). The crop rotations treatments included winter wheat plus summer soybean (WS), winter wheat plus summer maize (WM), and winter wheat plus summer fallow (WF). Mean soil respiration rates under WS, WM, and WF treatments were 5.14, 6.53, and 5.49 μmol·m-2·s-1; and 5.67, 5.47, and 6.03 μmol·m-2·s-1 under TS, HS, and NS treatments. The mean soil water content were 15.50%, 15.57%, and 15.74% under WS, WM, and WF rotations, and 15.81%, 15.41%, and 15.50% under TS, HS, and NS treatments. The soil organic carbon (SOC) concentration was higher with increased straw retention, and lower at deeper soil depths. Mean SOC concentrations under different rotations and straw treatments of TS, HS, and NS, respectively were as follows: WS: 6.91, 6.63, 6.39 g/kg; WM: 6.90, 6.72, 6.57 g/kg; and WF: 6.49, 6.52, 6.37 g/kg. Soil temperature was the main determinant of soil respiration rates. We conclude that WS rotation resulted in lower soil respiration, WM rotation resulted in a higher soil carbon sequestration potential, and WF rotation resulted in higher soil water content. However, continued, long-term monitoring is needed to confirm the effect of rotations and straw retention on soil respiration and carbon sequestration in dryland cropping systems in northern China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dendrobium, an important medicinal plant, is a source of widely used herbal medicine to nourish the stomach and treat throat inflammation. The present study is aimed at distinguishing and evaluating three major Dendrobium species by comparing physiochemical characteristics and understanding differences between different growth years in the Ta-pieh Mountains. Polysaccharides and total alkaloids of Dendrobium were determined, and the amino acids and trace elements were determined by UPLC (Ultra High-Performance Liquid Chromatography) and ICP-MS (Inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry). It can be seen from the results that the polysaccharide content of these three kinds of Dendrobium in different growth years ranges from 249.31 mg·g-1 to 547.66 mg·g-1, and the highest content is in the 3-year-old Dendrobium huoshanense. The total alkaloid content ranges from 0.21 mg·g-1 to 0.54 mg·g-1, and the highest content is also the 3-year-old Dendrobium huoshanense. We determined the amino acid content of these three Dendrobium in different growth years, and we can see that each of the three kinds of Dendrobium contain seven kinds of amino acids required by the human body. We conducted a safety evaluation of the essential trace elements of Dendrobium, and the results showed that the dosage of 12g·d-1 Dendrobium prescribed in China Pharmacopoeia is in accordance with the recommended daily intake of trace elements recommended by the Food and Drug Administration of the United States, and will not cause trace element poisoning. Linear discriminant analysis was carried out on the basis of amino acids and trace elements and confirmed the applicability of multi-elemental analysis for identifying different Dendrobium species. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]