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To improve the compilation quality of references, work in well with articles search and periodicals evaluation, and promote international academic exchange, the Chinese Journal of Applied Ecology shall adjust its principles of reference recording in scientific papers based on the GB/T7714 -2005. From 2008, the references in scientific papers to be submitted are requested to record by the Citation-Sequence. In this paper, some examples were presented, and the issues needed to be paid more attention to by the authors were put forward.

This paper discussed the relationship between language, ecology, and culture, and claimed that the study of linguistic communication as pragmatics should not be confined to the traditional context, but should focus on a broader ecological environment. It analyzed the context of practical communication from the perspective of language ecology beginning with the discussion of the ecological crisis in communication and found that language, like plants and animals in nature, needed the support of the external environment with certain "soil fertility". This paper classified ecological context into two types: internal ecological context (psychological-cognitive context) and external ecological context (natural environment and social environment). Based on this classification, the ecological context of pragmatics was further divided into environment-friendly context, addressee-friendly context, and speaker-friendly ecological context. This paper was an exploratory analysis of language ecology in pragmatics, aiming at helping communicative participants find their ecological niche and adopt appropriate strategies to maintain the ecological balance in pragmatic communication.

Guilin is a typical representative of karst landform in South China. Because of its unique geographical landform and hydrological environment, Lijiang River Basin has received a certain degree of attention in field of ecology and sustainable development. Explore and visualize the hotspots and frontiers of Guilin Lijiang River Basin Ecology and Sustainable Development (GLRBESD) by using bibliometrics, CiteSpace, and VOSviewer. Results showed that number of published papers was in a fluctuating upward trend from 1992 to 2022 and from 2011 to 2022, respectively. Work of scholars in this field has been continuously strengthened and deepened, and overall scientific research results show an increasing trend. Research objects and topics are mainly aimed at the water resources, climate, and environment of GLRB Landscape ecology and SDG index construction. Research of GLRBESD-published documents has the characteristics of multi-disciplinary and interdisciplinary integration. High-frequency keywords in research field focus on ecotourism, ecological restoration, and sustainable development, mainly based on the research of ecotourism development. Impact of environmental factor changes and human activities on land use change in different periods is an important research topic. Core research field of GLRBESD on macro-scale can be divided into ESV and function, ecological compensation and ecotourism, ecological environment and ecological restoration, ecological network and ecological risk assessment, and sustainable development. This research provides systematic scientific research basis for enhancing sustainable development ability and ecosystem functions and services of World Natural Heritage Site., (© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

After the implementation of "double reduction" policy, parental education anxiety becomes a hit subject in the society. Aimed to figure out formation logic and countermeasures of it, this paper adopts literature survey method, through numerous researches, discovers that on the one hand, the policy has comprehensively standardized cram schooling market, optimized the homework design and relieved students' burden, which renders the overall educational ecology sustainable. But on the other hand, affected by multiple factors, such as the weakening function of family education, the imbalance between the supply and demand of educational resources, single selection criterion and unpredictable educational deviation, parents' educational anxiety keeps swelling, bearing several features like the heterogeneity of anxiety, classification of anxious crowds, different stages of anxiety and intergenerational mobility. Therefore, only by synchronous implementation of multiple measures, reconstructing education ecological system, standardizing the policy and continuing to strengthen faculty force, can we relieve parental education anxiety and give a push to the genuine implementation of "double reduction" policy.

Teacher resilience is regarded as a professional attribute that enables school teachers to cope with adversities in their work life in order to sustain continuous professional development. This paper aims to investigate the development of resilience among novice teachers in a primary school in rural China from a social ecological perspective. It attempts to trace the developmental paths of resilience among Chinese teachers working in an economically deprived area, and to elucidate their trials and tribulations as interactions with different social ecosystems affect the growth of their resilience. The paper's findings suggest that novice teachers working in rural education in China have to deal with context-specific adversities that are shaped by educational tradition and school reform. Accordingly, the resilience development of novice teachers follows three discernible pathways, which lead to different capabilities. In the process, the interplay of multifaceted situational factors and the interaction among different ecosystems yield a range of cumulative influences on their resilience development.

At present, the number of watershed eco-compensations in China is increasing. And the area covered by a single project is also increasing. Under the current model, governments are the primary source of funding. It is difficult to meet the growing funding gap of subsidies. Researches on watershed eco-compensation need to reform and explore a new model for it, expand the fund source of watershed eco-compensation expense, and establish a sustainable "hematopoietic" model. This paper clarifies the concept of watershed eco-compensation and then compares the design principles of eco-compensation projects, definitions of stakeholders, analysis, and summary of watershed eco-compensation models in different regions. It can be found that the model in which the government dominates is still the mainstream. However, the considerable cost of this model will be a heavy burden for governments. Therefore, it becomes an important option to involve more stakeholders in these projects, and governments should transfer part of the lead to dilute costs. How to reduce the expenditures of governments in watershed eco-compensation projects under the premise of maintaining normal operation of the projects has become an important exploration direction concerning watershed eco-compensation in China, which requires transforming from "blood transfusion" to "hematopoiesis.", (© 2022. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

The concept of low carbon education is one solution to provide knowledge to students related to low carbon behavior. The purpose of this paper is providing an extensive bibliometric literature review on 'low carbon education'. Articles found by Publishing or Perish (PoP) software with the Google Scholar database. There were 55 out of 97 articles found from Google Scholar data base ranging from 2014 to 2019 analyzed in this study. The chosen references were then managed using a referencing manager software namely Zotero. After managing the database, this study classified and visualized it using VOSviewer software. Overall, this review provides an appropriate reference point for further research on 'low carbon education'.

Slogan has a sound mass base in China for thousands of years, functioning as guidelines for civic practice. Even today, Chinese slogans are often employed by the government to promote policies and socio-cultural values. This paper, adopting an ecolinguistic approach, explores the development of Chinese slogans during the four economic stages since the foundation of PRC (People's Republic of China) to find out how slogans influence the relationship between men, and man and the ecosystem. It is discovered that Chinese slogans in the recent decades have experienced great changes in terms of discourse type, the beneficial degree of discourse and the ecosophy they carry. They changed gradually from destructive discourse to harmonious discourse and they reflect the transition of Chinese ecological philosophy--from 'anthropocentrism', 'growthism', and 'classism' to 'harmonism'. It is hoped that this study can shed light on the eco-discourse analysis to policy language and will bring insight into its future creation.

Ecological sustainability can be considered the primary goal of higher education development, as it provides an ontological way to think about what it means for higher education's long-term development. Given the widespread concern of ecological sustainability, it's urgent to interpret and deconstruct ecological sustainability in Chinese higher education from indigenous and original perspectives. By drawing on the wisdom from Chinese ancient education philosophy which provides unique enlightenment for ecological sustainability, this paper discusses the harmonization of ecological sustainability and higher education development. In the light of the connotation of contemporary ecological sustainability and the new development of Chinese higher education, the paper also constructs a dynamic model of ecologically sustainable development in Chinese higher education. The aim is to initiate more philosophical dialogues between ancient and modern education, and to provide a new way of conceptualizing Chinese ancient education philosophy in the postmodern times.

In 2001, China's moral education curriculum reform called for a "returning to life" as a radical shift from its previous empty sermonic pedagogy, hoping to cultivate its twenty-first century children into ethical humans. Accordingly, a notion of "human ecology" appeared in the post-2001 textbook design, which became "co-being with" in the latest 2016 textbook redesign. This paper picks up this "co-being with" as a philosophical, ethical, and ecological notion and scrutinizes its relevance to the discursive construction of China's moral child in two steps. First, it draws upon Heidegger's thinking and the Chinese Daoist ecological understanding to explicate the philosophical significance of this "co-being with" for moral education. Second, it unpacks the discursive embodiments of this ethical-ecological "co-being" with in connection with the construction of moral subjects in the post-2001 and 2016 textbooks. Through rigorous textual analysis, this paper finds that the post-2001 textbook discourses embody an instrumental trope and a subject vs object binary style of reasoning, which possibly makes egoistic rather than ethical children. The 2016 textbook discourses, especially those on the theme of "co-being with," however, constrain the above instrumentality and envision cultivating ethical children. This paper argues this theorized "co-being with" provides some implications for moral education in China and the world, meanwhile raising some pedagogical challenges as well.

Graduation thesis is an indispensible procedure for each undergraduate, which is crucial for successful graduation, employment, further study and even further development. However, due to most undergraduates' ignorance of academic writing and the deficiency of current thesis writing course, thesis writing ability can hardly be enhanced and improved, accordingly, few good graduation theses can be produced among undergraduates. As a newly-launched major in recent a few years, translation major (BTI education, i.e. Bachelor of Translation and Interpretation) is also faced up with this problem. Eco-Translatology, a new theory combining ecology and translation studies, holds translation as adaptation and selection, which can also provide important enlightenment for thesis writing of translation majors. This paper, based on Eco-Translatology and current thesis writing course deficiency, aims to explore constructive strategies on how to give effective and efficient thesis writing course in hope of greatly improving thesis writing.

Purpose: This paper aims to focus on corporate social responsibility in relation to economic policy uncertainty in mergers and acquisitions (M&A). The following questions are addressed: How does policy uncertainty impact corporate M&A? Does social responsibility play a mediating role in this process? How does policy uncertainty affect corporate M&A through social responsibility? Design/methodology/approach: This paper selects the major M&A events in China as the research object, and uses the Probit model to analyze the impact of policy uncertainty on M&A behavior and the business performance after the event, and further analyzes the internal mechanisms that cause these phenomena. Findings: This paper shows that the higher the policy uncertainty, the lower the probability of a successful M&A, and the worse the business performance of the business after the event. Originality/value: This paper provides useful reference for the study of M&A and social responsibility in different policy environments. At the same time, it provides direct empirical evidence to enhance the success rate of M&A. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The business environment is a critical element in promoting high-quality urban economic development. To evaluate the quality of the business environment in Chinese cities, we first build a business environment evaluation system in this paper. Then using the entropy weight, Dagum Gini coefficient, β-convergence model, and Markov chain method, we evaluate and analyze the development level, spatial differences, and dynamic development patterns of the business environments in 278 cities in China from 2003 to 2019. Our findings reveal that the overall business environment level in Chinese cities is not high. There are significant differences in business environment levels between megacities, large cities, and small–medium-sized cities, and within-group differences and between-group differences are the main reasons for the differences in business environment levels. However, the contribution rate of within-group differences shows a downward trend, while the contribution rate of between-group differences shows an upward trend. In addition, the business environment levels in Chinese cities have spatial correlation, and the national and three major city groups' business environment levels exhibit strong absolute and conditional β-convergence processes. Finally, the business environment levels in Chinese cities demonstrate path dependence, which is typified by low mobility and makes achieving upward mobility challenging. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Somatic symptoms and related factors in patients with chronic heart failure have been extensively researched. However, more insight into the complex interconnections among these constructs is needed, as most studies focus on them independently from each other. Aims: The aim of this study is to gain a comprehensive understanding of how somatic symptoms and related factors are interconnected among patients with chronic heart failure. Methods: A total of 379 patients were enrolled. Network analysis was used to explore the interconnections among the somatic symptoms and related risk factors. Results: The four core symptoms of chronic heart failure were daytime dyspnea, dyspnea when lying down, fatigue and difficulty sleeping. Within the network, the edge weights of depression–anxiety, subjective social support–objective social support, and subjective social support–social support availability were more significant than others. Among physiological, psychological and environmental factors, the edge weights of NYHA–dyspnea, depression–difficulty sleeping, and social support availability–dyspnea when lying down were more significant than others. Depression and anxiety had the highest centrality, indicating stronger and closer connections with other nodes. Conclusions: Psychological and environmental factors stood out in the network, suggesting the potential value of interventions targeting these factors to improve overall health. Summary statement: What is already known about this topic? Limited studies have explored core somatic symptoms in patients with chronic heart failure using network analysis.There is a lack of a holistic perspective when studying symptoms in patients with chronic heart failure and their association with various factors. What this paper adds? This study identifies daytime dyspnea, dyspnea when lying down, fatigue and difficulty sleeping as the four core symptoms of chronic heart failure.Targeting these core symptoms in treatments and management can potentially lead to improvements in patients' overall health.The network analysis highlights the importance of psychological and environmental factors, suggesting that interventions targeting these factors may contribute to overall health improvement. The implications of this paper: It provides evidence of core symptoms of chronic heart failure.It provides evidence of the complex interconnections among symptoms and related factors in chronic heart failure.It provides implications for future interventions and strategies in managing chronic heart failure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The continuous expansion of modern cities not only leads to ecological degradation but also seriously threatens regional ecological security and sustainable development. The construction of ecological security patterns (ESPs) has emerged as a significant approach to alleviate or even solve the conflict between regional development and ecological protection. The Chengdu-Chongqing Economic Circle (CCEC) represents the core area of regional economic development strategy in western China, characterized by rapid economic growth from 2000 to 2020. This study integrates assessments of ecosystem services importance, eco-environmental sensitivity and landscape connectivity; uses circuit theory and hydrological analysis to establish a research framework for the spatiotemporal evolution of regional ESP; and develops an optimized ESP combined with the Major Function Oriented Zone. The results indicate that urban expansion significantly impacted the ESP of the CCEC between 2000 and 2020. The fragmentation and merging of ecological sources occurred simultaneously, the number of patches reduced by 28.13% from 64 to 46. The early ecological security network was compromised, leading to the disappearance or elongation of some ecological corridors. The number of ecological corridors decreased by 36.03% from 136 to 87; the total length was reduced by 29.92% from 7500.57 km to 5256.28 km. Urgent optimization of the ESP is needed, reducing the number of key ecological protection areas by 50% from 106 to 53 while increasing priority restoration areas by 13.51% from 37 to 42. The study also reveals the insufficiency of the current Major Function Oriented Zone in protecting linear corridors, necessitating focused attention on the protection and restoration of ecological sources and surrounding corridors in important development zones. Additionally, a spatial optimization strategy of "one shelter, two cores, and three regions" is proposed to enhance regional ecosystem stability and connectivity. The aim was to strike a balance between ecological protection and food security by recommending an ecological corridor width range of 30∼100 m. These research findings offer scientific guidance for ecological space protection and restoration in the CCEC, contributing to the enhancement of both scientific and rational ecological planning in rapidly urbanizing areas., 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.)

Combatting land damage has become a global priority, and China has adopted a series of ecological engineering measures, especially in the agro-pastoral area with fragile ecological environment. The effectiveness of ecological engineering construction (EEC), from a comprehensive recognition encompassing its quality, quantity, and function, has remained largely unknown. To this end, Zhangbei County, a typical agro-pastoral ecotone of northern China, was chosen as our focal area. After summarizing the timelines, aims and results of the EEC during various periods in Zhangbei, the linear spectral mixture analysis was employed to process Landsat 5 TM images in 2000 and 2010, as well as Landsat 8 OLI images in 2020. Then, a comprehensive evaluation framework of EEC was established from the perspective of "quantity-quality-function", and the ecological effectiveness of EEC was evaluated from 2000 to 2020 in Zhangbei. Results revealed that EEC played a critical role in enhancing quantity, quality and function, in spite of that, there were still numerous regions showing varying degrees of degradation in terms of these aspects. Then, by extending the three-dimensional cube as the theoretical basis for the zoning management of EEC, we merged four zones according to the space matching relationship among quantity, quality and function of EEC, namely, Ecological conservation area, Ecological improvement area, Ecological restoration area and Ecological remodeling zone. More targeted ecological measures were required for specific matching relationship among quantity, quality and function of EEC. This study is expected to present an empirical case for assessing the ecological effectiveness of EEC in areas or countries with similar restoration demand and support regional management., 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.)

A fast developing industry worldwide, tourism demands a monumental extent of resources, and at times devastates and condemns the very own environments that are fundamental to the economic survival of organizations and the sustainability of travel destinations. The purpose of the study is to link three established scientific themes on survival and sustainability to empirical results in the field of economic decision and behavior. The discussion of this link may also represent the originality value of the paper. Departing from the results of a series of decision games obtained under a quasi-experimental design, behavioral patterns were analyzed and extrapolated to explore the terminal effects of competition trends on the survival and economic viability of organizations and travel destinations in restricted environments. The findings show that the identified competition tendency neutralized an important share of the economic potential offered by the decision game, with significant negative effects on the economic efficiency. If persistent, the competition tendency is expected to produce long term effects on the sustainability and economic survival of organizations and travel destinations in restricted environments.

The article examines two forms of public pedagogies in a rural region of Southwest China-tourism and ethnic songs-to illustrate their contested roles in transforming local relations with natural and built environment. While tourism development daily alters the village landscape by spatial intervention, demolition, and construction, the "landscaping" is both a visual and conceptual device that produces a pleasurable environment as the "other" and signifies what is tourable and what is to be seen. On the other hand, the echoes of the environment and human-nature relations are central elements in ethnic songs that have been sung for centuries as a major music genre to transmit ancestral, historical, and cultural understandings. Indigenous worldviews and ecological awareness are expressed in songs through imitation of nature and worship of various nonhuman forms of life. The paper argues that a nascent environmentalism and ecological significance of the ethnic songs are increasingly oriented towards instrumental development rationality, while at the same time revived and choreographed in staged tourism performances. Both tourism and ethnic songs offer powerful forms of public pedagogies through which to rethink how incommensurable discourses generate new environmental crises by drastically altering not only the vernacular landscape but also local cosmological beliefs. The short-lived developmental zest and the longstanding local ecological consciousness play out complex dynamics in "teaching" the locals and the tourists about the changing environment of rural ethnic China, and the ambiguities and tensions that exist within the notion of sustainable development.

This paper develops the notion of learning as valuing to support reform in Chinese schools as they transition from teaching as transmission to teaching as fostering creative inquiry in efforts to move China to become an eco-civilization. The notion of learning as valuing here is developed from the concept of value in the work of Alfred North Whitehead. While the government of China is formally and officially moving toward becoming an eco-civilization, it is also engaged in transforming its schools from being examination centered with their focus on transmission teaching to advancing versions of "creative inquiry" that provide richer educational experiences for its learners. In his process cosmology, however, Whitehead proposes that experience is constituted through the ongoing, emergent valuation of the self-creation of human life. Learning as valuing is presented here as cognitive and non-cognitive selectivity through which learners apprehend selected potential into their lives.

Building a carbon ecological security (CES) framework helps to scientifically evaluate and manage the regional carbon cycle and eco-environment and support regional ecological security patterns. This paper adopted the pressure-state-response-immune (PSRI) model and the carbon balance index method to evaluate the ecological quality and carbon balance pressure. Then, based on the decoupling model and the improved four-quadrant model, the CES framework was constructed to evaluate the changing trend of the CES of Xuzhou City from 2005 to 2020. The results showed that the carbon balance pressure of Xuzhou City showed a pattern of "low-high-low" from east to west, and most areas tended to have a carbon balance and surplus in 2020. The ecological quality showed an overall upward trend during the study period. Protection and restoration drove the response and immune index growth from 2010 to 2020. In the Thirteenth Five-Year Plan stage, the nine districts of Xuzhou City were in a stable decoupling state, and the overall decoupling process was ideal. The CES of districts showed individual differences in the general upward trend. The carbon balance pressure of Gulou and Quanshan Districts was the main factor restricting the districts' CES. Therefore, based on the empirical results, this research proposes relevant suggestions to enhance carbon ecological security to achieve regional green and low-carbon development., (© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

Smart cities improve services for businesses, among many other benefits. A comprehensive understanding and effective utilization of these advantages is crucial for promoting business development. Using panel data from Chinese listed companies (2010–2020), this study employs a multi-stage DiD model to investigate the impact of smart cities on corporate earnings management. The findings indicate that the smart city pilot policy has significantly reduced corporate earnings management. Further analysis suggests that smart cities primarily reduce earnings management by improving firms' external information environments. Additionally, the results show that the policy impact of smart cities is more significant in regions with lower regulatory intensity or higher marketization levels, compared to regions with higher regulatory intensity or lower marketization levels. Similarly, firms in less concentrated markets or those more closely related to smart city development tend to experience greater reductions in earnings management due to smart city construction, unlike firms in more concentrated markets or those less involved. Finally, this paper offers several brief suggestions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The topic of health has gained importance in today's society in the context of a healthy China. The success of community environmental design is intimately correlated with everyone's physical and mental health since it is the setting for people's daily lives. At present, although the facilities and equipment of the community environment in our country are improving day by day, the important role of color psychology in the community environment has been neglected. Color has always been a part of human life and a very important component of the community environment. When it comes to the design of communal environments, the color design of various areas will have variable degrees of influence on the psychological space and perspective of individuals. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to investigate the application value of color psychology in the design of community health environments using color psychology as a scientific foundation. Additionally, the paper attempts to use color psychology as a scientific basis to study the thinking of health issues in the community environment. In addition, the results of the questionnaire survey are used to perform analysis and discussion in order to investigate the regular characteristics of the various research objects, as well as their preferences and psychological needs for color. This is done with the goal of providing empirical support for the improvement of the community environment and the health of the people living in it. In the end, the results of the questionnaire survey are compiled with four different design concepts. These design principles include functionality, naturalness, beauty, and safety. And the design intention and optimization strategy from the three directions the overall building, planting, and paving in the community healthy environment are then presented. This is done in order to create a colorful and comfortable healthy environment for the community life of people and to support the development of people's physical and mental health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Starting from the skill characteristics of ski tourism, this paper discusses the impact of consumer skill on travel decisions, and the moderating effect of the ski resort's comprehensive leisure environment (including the ski resort sports environment and the regional cultural tourism environment), in order to both understand their impacts on the travel distance characteristics of skiers and attempt to provide necessary research support for the development of China's ski industry and the construction of destinations. Based on the data from multi-period visitor surveys, this paper constructs the consumption skill-travel radius decision-making influence model under the moderating effect of the ski resort comprehensive leisure environment. The results show three main characteristics. (1) The travel radius obviously differs among skiers with different skill levels. The skill level of skiers has a significant positive effect on the larger travel radius, and a significant negative effect on the smaller travel radius. That is, skiers with a higher skill level are more inclined to undertake long-distance skiing travel, while skiers with a lower skill level are more inclined to undertake short-distance skiing travel. (2) The comprehensive leisure environment has a significant moderating effect on the skiers' travel radius, with a significant positive impact on enlarging the travel radius, while the influences on high-skill and low-skill skiers are significantly higher than on middle-skill skiers. (3) In the comprehensive leisure environment, there are differences in the moderating effect of the ski resort sports environment and the regional cultural tourism environment on the skiers travel radius, and the positive moderating effect of the ski resort sports environment on the high-skill skiers' travel radius is more obvious. While the regional cultural tourism environment has a more obvious positive moderating effect on the travel radius of non-skiers and junior skiers, it is more conducive to promoting domestic travel. In general, the skier skill level in China was generally lower, and the ski resort comprehensive leisure environment optimization is conducive to overcoming the limitation of the travel radius caused by the disadvantageous skill level of consumers. However, to promote the development of China's ski industry in the long run, it is necessary to focus on improving the consumer's ski skill level, but prevent the risk of losing high-skill consumers overseas. In the course of improving the level of domestic ski sports facilities, we should also focus on the domestic leisure cultural tourism environment to better enhance the attractiveness of domestic ski destinations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Global urbanization has not only promoted social and economic development, but also contributed to seriously ecological challenges. As a type of sustainable landscape patterns, ecological security pattern is considered as an effective spatial pathway to simultaneously conserve ecological security and maintain social-economic development. However, the fragmentation issue of ecological sources of ecological security pattern has not been effectively addressed, although many case studies have been conducted to identify ecological security pattern. In this study, we used spatial conservation prioritization to identify the ecological security pattern of the city belt along the Yellow River in Ningxia, China. Ecological sources were selected using Zonation model while ecological corridors and key ecological nodes were identified with circuit model. The results showed that the ecological security pattern was composed of 97 ecological sources, 226 ecological corridors, 267 pinch points and 22 barriers, covering a total area of 7713.1 km 2 and accounting for 34% of the study area. Ecological sources were concentrated in the Helan Mountain, Xiang Mountain and along the Yellow River. Besides, ecological corridors were dense in the southern and eastern part of the study area. Both indicated that the Yellow River and Helan Mountain were the conservation hotspots. Landscape connectivity of ecological sources identified through Zonation-based spatial conservation prioritization was better than that with the scoring approach based on ecosystem service importance. Particularly, in the Zonation approach the landscape connectivity increased with 44% while the average patch area increased with 28% when comparing with the scoring approach. The spatial conservation prioritization approach proposed in this study provides a new effective tool to construct ecological security pattern, which is conducive to the synergic enhancement of landscape connectivity and ecosystem services conservation., 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 © 2023 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

More than 40 years of urbanization in China has brought rapid economic growth, but the uneven development of region and how to achieve common prosperity through urbanization remain a serious concern. This paper analyzes the effect of the urbanization mode of population aggregation in central cities on common prosperity in China. Using panel data of 283 cities from 2004 to 2019, the study constructs a common prosperity index based on the coupling coordination degree of economy, ecology, and society. The Spatial Durbin Model is used to analyze the influence of population aggregation in central cities on common prosperity and the moderating effect of financial self-sufficiency rate. The results show that population aggregation in central cities has a positive effect on common prosperity. There is also a spatial spillover effect, but the impact exhibits an inverted U-shaped characteristic. Moreover, the fiscal self-sufficiency rate has a negative moderating impact on the effect of population aggregation on common prosperity in the early stage, but a positive moderating impact in the later period. This paper concludes by suggesting that the government should promote urbanization, control the size of large cities, accelerate the reform of household registration, and pay attention to the coordinated development of economy, society, and ecology to promote the realization of common prosperity., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist., (Copyright: © 2023 Chen et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.)

Climate change is an important issue for cities today and in the future. At present, China has a large population and complex climate conditions, and cities are also vulnerable to the adverse effects of climate change (Tian, Environ Sustain Dev 6: 153-155 2020). Three-dimensional greening can not only improve the green space system of a city but also have a far-reaching impact on the ecology, image, and economic benefits of a city. Therefore, the study of urban three-dimensional greening is an effective means to deal with climate change strategies. By exploring the influence of traditional greening and three-dimensional greening on Local Climate in Beilin District of Xi'an, Shaanxi Province, the mechanism of three-dimensional greening on urban ecological environment was discussed, and the ecological theory, urban three-dimensional greening theory, and urban local climate zone (LCZ) were referred to. Based on the methods of national climate monitoring, ENVI-met simulation, and field independent measurement, this paper selected a research sample site in the east section of Jianshe Road, Beilin District, Xi'an City, Shaanxi Province, China, and applied ENVI-met software to simulate the thermal stress relationship among building exterior surfaces, plants, and air in the street; quantified the overall ecology of the area; and used measuring instruments. The influence of different types of greening in the base on the site temperature, humidity, CO2 (carbon dioxide) concentration, wind speed, and other climate factors data was, respectively, measured and analyzed. The grid analysis was used to compare the traditional greening and three-dimensional greening, then the numerical differences of each impact factor were sorted out, and the effect of three-dimensional greening on the improvement of urban ecological environment was discussed by analyzing the climate factors with greater impact. The results show that (1) three-dimensional greening plus traditional greening is the most beneficial mode; (2) in the same environment, according to the parameter of 1.5 m from the ground in the model environment, it can be seen that the temperature of the space treated with three-dimensional greening of buildings is reduced by 3.5–3.6 ℃ compared with the control group, the relative humidity is different by 7–8%, the CO2 concentration is reduced by about 5%, and the spatial wind speed is relatively small. (3) When the urban green coverage rate is more than 40%, the improvement of temperature is more obvious, if it reaches 50%, the cool phenomenon in summer can be fundamentally changed. From the perspective of human perception, the PMV index increased by 0.27 on average. This paper discusses and analyzes the three-dimensional greening of urban streets in Beilin District, Xi'an City, Shaanxi Province, China, and studies its influence on urban ecology to different degrees. The conclusions are as follows: Different types of greening have different degrees of influence on urban climate. Meanwhile, the experimental results of this paper show that in cities like Xi'an, Shaanxi Province, China, where summer is hot, adding three-dimensional greening to traditional street greening can significantly improve the environmental microclimate, which is an effective means to cope with climate change, improve the site environment, and stabilize the urban ecosystem. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The outbreak of coronavirus disease in 2019 has become a serious threat to human health. Whether meteorological conditions could influence the transmission and virulence of COVID-19 remains controversial. In this study, we systematically reviewed the impact of temperature and humidity on the replication, morbidity, and mortality of COVID-19. We also discussed the main factors underlying the inconsistency across studies. Pubmed, Web of Science, Embase, and Scopus were used to identify papers published up to 7 December 2020. We initially identified 3515 papers, and 28 articles met the inclusion criteria after screening. Most studies showed high temperature and high humidity can partly reduce the reproduction, morbidity, and mortality of COVID-19. But the rest papers failed to identify a significant association. The discrepant results may be related to the difference in the climate context, study design, exposure assessment, policy intervention, socioeconomic status, and public health service. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

People's health is a necessary condition for the country's prosperity. Under the background of the COVID-19 pandemic and frequent natural disasters, exploring the spatial and temporal distribution, regional differences and convergence of China's provincial public health level is of great significance to promoting the coordinated development of China's regional public health and achieving the strategic goal of a "healthy China". Based on China's provincial panel data from 2009 to 2020, this paper constructs an evaluation index system for China's public health level from five dimensions: the popularization of a healthy life, optimization of health services, improvement of health insurance, construction of a healthy environment, and development of a health industry. In this paper, the entropy method, Dagum Gini coefficient, Kernel density function and spatial econometric model are used to analyze the spatiotemporal distribution, regional differences, dynamic evolution and convergence of China's public health level since the new medical reform. The study found that, first, China's public health level is generally low, structural contradictions are prominent and the construction of a healthy environment has become a shortcoming hindering the improvement of China's public health level since the new medical reform. The public health level of the four major regions showed a spatial distribution pattern of "high in the eastern, low in the northeastern, central and western" areas. Second, the overall Gini coefficient of China's public health level showed a "V-shaped" trend of first decreasing and then rising, but the overall decrease was greater than the increase, among which the regional difference was the main source of regional differences in China's public health level, but its contribution rate showed a downward trend. Third, except for the basic maintenance of a healthy environment, the Kernel density curves of China's public health level and its sub-dimensions have shifted to the right to a certain extent, and there is no polarization phenomenon. Finally, the level of public health in China has a significant spatial correlation. Except for the northeast region, the growth rate of low-level public health provinces in China and the other three major regions is higher than that of high-level public health provinces, showing a certain convergence trend. In addition, the impact of economic development, financial pressure, and urbanization on the convergence of public health levels in the four major regions is significantly heterogeneous. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the continuous promotion of China's electricity market reform, the introduction of competition in the power generation market provides a new research direction for the generation expansion planning (GEP) problem, which is of great significance in the promotion of the optimization of the power energy structure. In the context of marketization, the electricity price expectation during the planning period is a key factor of GEP for independent power generation groups. There is some literature showing that the electricity price expectation in the planning period can be estimated according to certain laws of market supply and demand, while it seems to us that a future Pay as Bid (PAB) mechanism is better to determine the electricity price expectation. In this paper, to explore the impact of these two different electricity price formation mechanisms on the evolution of the generation market, a multi-agent framework is first established to describe the interaction process among the generation market agents; then, a GEP model for independent power generation groups is developed in the market competition environment, and four representative scenarios are finally designed for detailed comparative studies. Based on these case studies, the conclusion can be summarized as: (1) the PAB bidding mechanism has a lower electricity price and higher market installed capacity almost all the time during the whole planning period for all four scenarios; (2) it is more important that PAB can reduce the impact of parameter uncertainty in the laws of market supply and demand, which can obtain more reliable and reasonable results regarding the long-term evolution of the generation market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates whether pollution-intensive industries develop faster in a time of economic downturn. Using firm-level panel data from 2005 to 2013, we find supporting empirical results in an analysis of China's manufacturing industries in the 2008 economic crisis. We find that pollution-intensive firms tended to produce more compared with non-pollution-intensive firms in the 2008 economic crisis, with the pre-crisis period as a baseline. We further find that this effect is more pronounced in areas with higher export dependence and a smaller proportion of production from pollution-intensive industries. The relatively faster production expansion in pollution-intensive industries is more evident for state-owned enterprises. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

"Culture Currents" presents the books, essays, poetry, performances, music, websites, and other cultural media influencing educational leaders. "Culture Currents" is a snapshot, a peek behind the scenes. It reveals what people are reading or seeing that may not be normally mentioned or cited in their academic work. Two leaders in education were contacted and asked to answer questions about books, essays or poetry as well as performances, music, websites or other media they have read and encountered that have inspired them, influenced their thinking or impacted them. This article presents Connelly's response to the "Culture Currents" invitation. He states that the request by "Culture Currents" led to a cycle of reading and reflection that brought him back to well-trodden ground in a new comparative context and reminded him that there is even more reading, thinking, and writing to do than people had imagined when undertaking the cross-cultural work. He expects that if one were to do a study of what was in the minds of the "Culture Currents" editors and, hence, in the minds of their authors, it would be that the personal and the professional are mostly separate domains. The author presents an account of his own landscape of the personal and the professional and its relationship to reading.

In environmentalist discourse, there is often an assumption that certain non-industrial peoples, usually called "traditional" or "indigenous" live in more "harmonious" relations with nature. The general argument is that instead of treating these communities as "backward" or "uncivilized," the modern world has much to learn from them in terms of living with the environment. Helena Norberg-Hodge's "Ancient Futures" is an influential book that has defined the ecological culture of Tibetan Buddhist peoples. In this essay, "Ancient Futures" is juxtaposed in the light of a critical framework called Agrarian Environments presented in a collection of essays edited by Agrawal and Sivaramakrishnan (2000).

China is a key player on the global stage, and nearly 300 million Chinese youth stand to be affected by rapid social and ecological transformations. Programs that promote developmental assets in Chinese youth could increase their resilience in the face of contemporary stressors and enhance their capacity to contribute to China's development. In this paper we describe a unique, service-learning approach to youth development, the Jane Goodall Institute's Roots & Shoots program (R&S), as it is implemented in China. Through qualitative and quantitative methods we explore perceptions of program impact on the personal and social development of Chinese youth. Cultural, sociopolitical, and environmental issues related to program practices, outcomes and viability are highlighted. Results suggest that R&S mobilized Chinese youth to work for the benefit of their environment, their communities, and themselves. (Contains 1 figure and 5 tables.)

Purpose: This paper explores the vocational training of construction workers in Guangdong Province of China and identifies its position in the global political-economic spectrum of skill formation. Design/methodology/approach: The paper reviews construction vocational education and training (VET) of major political economies to develop a theoretical framework that guides an in-depth case study of Guangdong. Document analysis, field trip observations, meetings and semi-structured interviews were combined to explore the political-economic environment, political stakeholders and quality assurance mechanisms of industrial training in Guangdong's construction sector. The findings were compared with construction VET of other economies reported in the literature. Findings: Construction training in Guangdong is deeply rooted in the local history and culture, under strong dominance of the state, while continually evolves to respond to the fluid market and therefore can be conceptualised as "market-in-state". The political stakeholders are embedded within the state to ensure that skills policies are implemented in-line with industry policies. The differences between the training of Guangdong and its foreign counterparts are attributed to their divergent political-economic models. Research limitations/implications: As the case study was undertaken only with Guangdong, the generalisability of its findings can be improved through future research within a broader context of multiple provinces of China through both qualitative and quantitative research approaches. Practical implications: Plausible foreign VET approaches are likely adaptable to the Chinese context only when conducive political-economic environment could be enabled. The findings are useful for developing countries to learn from the VET experience of industrialised economies. Construction workers' training in Guangdong can be improved by strengthening labour regulation at lower subcontracting levels and ensuring the presence of industrial associations and unions for collective training supervision. Originality/value: The paper contributes to the field of construction engineering and management with a theoretical framework that guides empirical studies on the influence of the political-economic environment upon the ways political stakeholders develop and participate in construction VET. The exploration based on this framework revealed the position of the vocational training of construction workers in Guangdong in the global political-economic spectrum of skill formation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Western China is vast, expansive, sparsely populated, and economically underdeveloped, but it plays an important role in economic and social development in China. While the west is a crucial base of power resources, it is also rich in fauna and flora resources and the major habitat for China's many rare wildlife species. Therefore, protecting its ecological environment is vitally significant not only to the west itself, but also to social and economic development of the whole country. However, because of the fragility of the ecological environment of the west, plus improper human activities in the long past, the ecological environment of western China has been seriously damaged. This article describes the following 10 issues regarding damages to western China's ecological environment: (1) Crisis of Water Resources; (2) River Dry-Up; (3) Lake Shrinkage; (4) Retreating Glacier and Rising Snowline; (5) Aggravation of Marsh Closure for Farming and Damages Caused Thereby; (6) Serious River and Lake Pollution and Deteriorating Water Quality; (7) Degradation of Ecological Function of Forests; (8) Degradation of Grassland; (9) Land Desertification; and (10) Drastic Reduction in the Number of Wildlife Animals and Plants, and Threat of Extinction for Certain Species. The author offers several suggestions to address these issues.

The risk quotient (RQ) related to Estrone (E1), 17β–E2 (E2), Estriol (E3) and 17α-ethynylestradiol (EE2) in sediment of water resources in China was calculated using Monte Carlo Simulation (MCS) method. Fifty-four papers with 64 data-reports included in our study. The rank order of steroid hormones in sediment based on log-normal distribution in MCS was E1 (3.75 ng/g dw) > E3 (1.53 ng/g dw) > EE2 (1.38 ng/g dw) > E2 (1.17 ng/g dw). According to results, concentration of steroid hormones including E1, E2 and E3 in sediment of Erhai lake, northern Taihu lake and Dianchi river was higher than other locations. The rank order of steroid hormones based on percentage high risk (RQ > 1) was EE2 (87.00%) > E1 (70.00%) > E2 (62.99%) > E3 (11.11%). Hence, contamination control plans for steroid hormones in sediment of water resources in China should be conducted continuously. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Green innovation cooperation (GIC) has become an important measure for sustainable development of enterprises. Based on the knowledge-based theory, knowledge interaction is a necessary mode of GIC. Exploring the influencing factors of knowledge interaction in green innovation cooperation is an important aspect to improve the performance of GIC. From the perspective of ecological theory, taking ecological relations as the lens, this paper further analyzes the differences of different ecological relations (competitive relationship, mutualism relationship, commensalism relationship, and parasitism relationship) affecting knowledge interaction in GIC. The results show that there are significant differences between different ecological relationships and knowledge interaction in GIC. Mutualism and commensalism contribute to knowledge interaction, while competition and parasitism may lead to the weakening of knowledge interaction and even the breaking of knowledge connection. In addition, the willingness to cooperate in green innovation is conducive to the knowledge interaction of GIC. Therefore, the paper proposes that green innovation partners should be selected based on ecological relationship. This paper reveals the theoretical connection between ecological relationship and knowledge interaction, provides valuable insights for promoting knowledge interaction in GIC, and expands the influencing factors of knowledge interaction., (© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

The cultivation of professional talents in leisure sports in China started late and has a weak foundation. Compared with developed countries in leisure sports, there is still a big gap in terms of curriculum setting and training direction. Urban residents have differences in the choice of leisure sports, leisure purpose, and understanding of leisure concepts due to factors such as age, gender, education, and occupation. This research mainly discusses the training mode of leisure sports talents under the background of rural revitalization strategy. Combined with the research on the leisure sports industry and high-quality development, this paper clarifies the connotation of the high-quality development of the leisure sports industry and puts forward countermeasures and suggestions to promote the high-quality development of the leisure sports industry. Over time, leisure has become an important symbol of social development and an important field closely related to the quality of life of each person. As a part of rural space, rural sports space is the main material carrier and foundation of rural residents' leisure sports activities. This paper mainly makes an in-depth investigation and research from two aspects: the status quo of rural leisure sports activities and the talent demand of some leisure sports venues. It makes specific classification standards for the types and specifications of leisure sports professionals required by leisure sports venues. This provides a scientific basis for the cultivation of leisure sports professionals. First, the article analyzes the research background and puts forward the research significance. It analyzes the research status of scholars on the leisure sports industry, high-quality development, and high-quality development of the leisure sports industry. Secondly, this paper clarifies the research content, research methods, and technical route of the research basis for the high-quality development of the leisure sports industry. It conducts conceptual discussions on the leisure sports industry and high-quality development. It adopts the grounded theory to construct a model of factors influencing the high-quality development of the leisure sports industry. It also analyzes its action mechanism from three aspects: the core industry system layer, the industry supporting factors, and the external environment system layer. During the survey, 84.4% of them believed that professionals in leisure sports should have a bachelor's degree. The quality of rural sports space directly affects the breadth, depth, enthusiasm, and effectiveness of residents' participation in leisure sports activities. This research is helpful to deepen the urban and rural sports governance and optimize the management system. It is necessary to investigate and analyze the supply quality of rural leisure sports space and propose countermeasures for the integration and layout of rural leisure sports space. The ultimate goal is to build a leisure sports space optimization development model that meets the leisure sports needs of rural residents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Soil food webs are extremely complex as they contain diverse organisms. Feeding preference, also known as prey selection, is an important determinant of soil community compositions. However, the feeding preferences of nematodes are commonly ignored in ecology research. In this paper, the population dynamics and feeding preferences of three bacterial-feeding nematodes (i.e., Caenorhabditis elegans, Protorhabditis spp., and Acrobeloides spp.) for eight bacterial prey species were evaluated. Protorhabditis and Acrobeloides were isolated from a paddy soil in subtropical China. C. elegans, the most common model system for biological research, was used as a control in this study, and it was revealed that C. elegans could feed on all the eight bacteria strains. Protorhabditis could only survive when fed E. coli and Bacillus thuringiensis. Acrobeloides could only survive when fed E. coli and B. aryabhattai. During 10 days of culture, C. elegans populations reached the maximum in 5–7 days, and most C. elegans populations exceeded 10,000 individuals. The two Protorhabditis populations on E. coli and Bacillus thuringiensis included less than 800 individuals during 10 days of culture. Acrobeloides population on B. aryabhattai reached the maximum (7799 individuals) on day 8, while on E. coli was its population included less than 500 individuals. These results indicate that different nematode species indeed have distinct feeding preferences. In addition, the population dynamics of the two soil nematodes isolated from soil could not fully match with their inferred life-history strategies (i.e., cp values, and a 1-5 colonizer-p-ersister series that range from r-strategists to K-strategists). Our findings highlights the existing deficiencies in the understanding of the feeding behavior and the life-history strategies of soil nematodes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ceramics play an important role in human daily life and production practice. Pottery sculpture technique is the core of ceramic making. However, the production process of traditional ceramics is accompanied by high pollution, which has a great impact on human health and the ecological environment. Rapid development of industrialization has exacerbated this consequence. As the "Pottery Capital of Southern China", Foshan has been involved in environmental crises while relying on the ceramic industry to develop. Since the 21st century, Foshan has gradually successfully driven to upgrade the city from industrial to culture-led by carrying out positive innovations in Shiwan pottery sculpture technique. Therefore, based on the theoretical perspective of cultural ecology, this paper selects Shiwan pottery sculpture technique as the object, uses Python (Octopus Collector) to obtain data, and applies grounded theory to generate the ecological evolution model. This study discussed how the Shiwan pottery sculpture technique promotes the harmonious coexistence of human beings, industries, and cities in the new cultural ecological environment of the 21st century by exploring and clarifying the interaction and function of different elements in different stages of evolution. Finally, this study not only makes up for the current lack of research on Shiwan's cultural ecology, but also provides meaningful reference for environmental reform in other industrialized cities.

Food consumption is increasingly impacting environmental sustainability. Building on the latest data of China Statistical Yearbook 2015-2020, this study quantified the dietary ecological footprint per capita (EFP), including animal-based and plant-based EFP, across seven provinces (representing seven regions) and between urban and rural areas of China. We further analyzed the possible correlated factors with the EFP and the strength of these correlations. The results showed that the EFP in southern areas was generally higher than that in northern areas, and the EFP in urban areas was higher than that in rural areas. The EFP was significantly correlated with per capita disposable income (PCDI), food consumption (FC) quantity, urban/rural status, southern/northern areas, and provinces. Moreover, we found geographical locations (i.e., southern/northern areas and provinces) contributed more to the total and animal-based EFP than economic conditions (i.e., urban/rural status and PCDI). Although pork price dramatically influenced the dietary patterns, it did not affect the total or animal-based EFP. These findings provide novel insights for understanding the mechanisms of the relationship between food consumption and environmental sustainability in China. The conclusions are helpful in predicting the future environmental impacts of diets in other countries with similar national conditions., 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 B.V. All rights reserved.)

The rapid development of urban informatization is an important way for cities to achieve a higher pattern, but the accompanying information security problem become a major challenge restricting the efficiency of urban development. Therefore, effective identification and assessment of information security risks has become a key factor to improve the efficiency of urban development. In this paper, an information security risk assessment method based on fuzzy theory and neural network technology is proposed to help identify and solve the information security problem in the development of urban informatization. Combined with the theory of information ecology, this method establishes an improved fuzzy neural network model from four aspects by using fuzzy theory, neural network model and DEMATEL method, and then constructs the information security risk assessment system of smart city. According to this method, this paper analyzed 25 smart cities in China, and provided suggestions and guidance for information security control in the process of urban informatization construction.

How to effectively solve traffic congestion and transportation pollution in urban development is a main research emphasis for transportation management agencies. A carbon emissions tax can affect travelers’ generalized costs and will lead to changes in passenger demand, mode choice and traffic flow equilibrium in road networks, which are of significance in green travel and low-carbon transportation management. This paper first established a mesoscopic model to calculate the carbon emissions tax and determined the value of this charge in China, which was based on road traffic flow, vehicle speed, and carbon emissions. Referring to existing research results to calibrate the value of time, this paper modified the traveler’s generalized cost function, including the carbon emissions tax, fuel surcharge and travel time cost, which can be used in the travel impedance model with the consideration of the carbon emissions tax. Then, a method for analyzing urban road network traffic flow distribution was put forward, and a joint traffic distribution model was established, which considered the relationship between private cars and taxis. Finally, this paper took the city of Panjin as an example to analyze the road traffic carbon emissions tax’s impact. The results illustrated that the carbon emissions tax has a positive effect on road network flow equilibrium and carbon emission reduction. This paper will have good reference value and practical significance for the calculation and implementation of urban traffic carbon emissions taxes in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Monitoring the ecological environment quality is an important task that is often connected to achieving sustainable development. Timely and accurate monitoring can provide a scientific basis for regional land use planning and environmental protection. Based on the Google Earth Engine platform coupled with the greenness, humidity, heat, and dryness identified in remote sensing imagery, this paper constructed a remote sensing ecological index (RSEI) covering northern Anhui and quantitatively analyzed the characteristics of the spatiotemporal changes in the ecological environment quality from 2001 to 2020. Geodetector software was used to explore the mechanism driving the characteristics of spatial differentiation in the ecological environment quality. The main conclusions were as follows. First, the ecological environment quality in northern Anhui declined rapidly from 2001 to 2005, but the rate of decline slowed from 2005 to 2020 and a trend of improvement gradually emerged. The ecological environment quality of Huainan from 2001 to 2020 was better and more stable compared with other regional cities. Bengbu and Suzhou showed a trend of initially declining and then improving. Huaibei, Fuyang, and Bozhou demonstrated a trend of a fluctuating decline over time. Second, vegetation coverage was the main influencing factor of the RSEI, while rainfall was a secondary factor in northern Anhui from 2001 to 2020. Finally, interactions were observed between the factors, and the explanatory power of these factors increased significantly after the interaction. The most apparent interaction was between vegetation coverage and rainfall (q = 0.404). In addition, we found that vegetation abundance had a positive impact on ecological environment quality, while population density and urbanization had negative impacts, and the ecological environment quality of wetlands was the highest. Our research will provide a theoretical basis for environmental protection and support the high-quality development of northern Anhui., (© 2022. The Author(s).)

Ecological security assessment can effectively reflect the ecological status of a region and reveal its level of sustainable development. In this paper, an ecological security-oriented evaluation system was constructed, and the ecological security level of the Dongjiangyuan region from 2000 to 2020 was evaluated based on catastrophe theory and GIS. The results were as follows: (1) As shown in the land use and cover maps, by 2020, the forestland area had decreased the most, and the artificial surface area had increased the most. (2) The ecological security index of the Dongjiangyuan region showed a low trend in the artificial surface area and its surrounding areas. The quite low values of the ecological security index in 2000 and 2010 were improved in 2020 due to the increase in ecological services capacity. The increased vegetation cover from 2000 to 2020 promoted the improved ecological service capacity. (3) The rapid urbanization process in the Dongjiangyuan region resulted in a lower ecological sensitivity index value. Notably, the ecological sensitivity index of the study area had a slightly decreasing trend. (4) The spatial autocorrelation showed that the proportion of hot and cold spots from 2000 to 2020 decreased by 2.96% and 6.91%, respectively. This study can provide a scientific basis and decision-making guidance for ecological management in the Dongjiangyuan region in the future., (© 2022. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.)

In recent years, a changing global climate and the continuous expansion of the intensity and scope of human activities have led to regional differentiation in the surface landscape. This has caused numerous ecological risks under multiple pressure sources, gradually becoming an important factor restricting the sustainable development of economic and social health. With the continuous development of the social economy, land use and associated ecological risks will inevitably change. According to the forest transformation theory and the environmental Kuznets curve, we put forward the theoretical framework of ecological risk transformation of land-use change and took Zhangjiachuan County (China) as an example to verify it. Therefore, on the basis of Landsat satellite data, this paper used landscape structures to calculate an ecological risk index, and evaluated the ecological risk of land-use changes through pattern index analyses. The results show that, from 2000 to 2020, the ecological risk index of land-use change in Zhangjiachuan County exhibited an increasing and then decreasing trend, showing an overall "inverted U-shaped" trend of change consistent with the transformation theoretical framework of ecological risks of land use change. Secondly, in terms of patterns, the ecological risk of land-use change in Zhangjiachuan County showed a distribution feature of high in the west and low in the east. In 2000, high-risk areas were mainly concentrated in the central and northern areas, while low-risk areas were mainly concentrated in the eastern areas. From 2000 to 2015, the medium-risk areas expanded to the west and midwest, and the geographic centers of the risk areas were slightly offset. From 2015 to 2020, the overall pattern of ecological risk areas was basically the same as that of the previous stage, but the medium-risk areas were slightly reduced. In terms of quantity, from 2000 to 2015, the areas of the lowest risk level and low risk level decreased, while the areas of medium risk level, high risk level, and the highest risk level increased; from 2015 to 2020, the areas of the lowest risk level and low risk level increased, and the areas of medium risk level, high risk level, and highest risk level decreased. Lastly, the spatial aggregation of ecological risks in Zhangjiachuan County weakened slightly from 2000 to 2005, gradually increased from 2005 to 2015, and then slightly weakened from 2015 to 2020.