Identification and characteristic analysis of semi-natural habitats in China's economically developed areas: New insights to inform cultivated land system ecological conservation

IntroductionThe adaptive management strategy of the cultivated land use system is crucial for achieving sustainable development, particularly when viewed from the perspective of perceptual behavior. This study integrated farmers’ behavior, perceptions, and willingness into the resilience evaluation index system of the cultivated land use system.MethodsBy resilience calculation method of cultivated land use system and linear regression method, it also explored the effect of farmer differentiation on the resilience of cultivated land use systems under the influence of socioeconomic systems, thereby providing a scientific reference for the adaptive management of cultivated land use systems.ResultsThe key findings are as follows: First, in general, the production resilience of the peasant household cultivated land use system was low, with significant resilience differentiation of resource elements and stratification of ecological and scale structures. However, the total resilience remained relatively stable. Second, farmers’ cultivated land use systems exhibit uneven resilience, with a lack of production and ecological protection, indicating low efficiency and weak functioning of the cultivated land use system. Third, farmers’ differentiation into non-agricultural employment is high, with low dependence on land. The resilience of the cultivated land use system varies significantly among different types of farmers, with imbalance and production deficiency being the main types of resilience in the farmland use system. Fourth, the economic differentiation of farmers and the differentiation of cultivated land use negatively affected the resilience of the cultivated land use system; the more pronounced the differentiation, the lower the resilience.DiscussionBased on these findings, the primary management strategies to enhance the resilience and adaptability of the cultivated land use system include improving the production resilience of the system, increasing the enthusiasm of different types of farmers to invest in the resource elements of the cultivated land use system, promoting the transformation of ecological protection consciousness and behavior among various types of farmers, and improving the willingness for cultivated land transfer.

Agrarian property regimes interact with relevant property stakeholders’ behaviors and benefits, playing a vital role in national and regional cultivated land use. In China, state and collective agrarian property regimes are the two main forms of cultivated land use. To help fully realize the multi-objectives of cultivated land use benefits provided by agrarian property regimes, our study investigated the relationship between agrarian property regimes and cultivated land use. This paper describes the role of a cultivated land use system in facilitating the relationship between agrarian property regimes and cultivated land use from a geographical perspective. Understanding the cultivated land use system is the foundation for comparatively analyzing differences in the cultivated land use benefits in two adjacent areas, a state-owned regime and a collective regime, in the city of Fujin, China, through a comprehensive evaluation. We found the following results: (1) The arrangement of agrarian property rights directly reflects capital, material and technology inputs by motivating agricultural labors to obtain different economic benefits; (2) The state agrarian property regime reflects top-down agricultural management while the collective agrarian property regime reflects bottom-up agricultural management in China. The different agricultural managements influence planting structure and land use planning, resulting in different ecological benefits; (3) Labor division and social insurance are the main drivers of different social benefits from the two regimes. Examining cultivated land use benefits provides a new comparative perspective for studying agrarian property regimes. The results show that cultivated land use benefits from collective and state agrarian property regimes are different. These findings clarify that, incentivized by the different types of agrarian property ownerships represented by collectively and state-owned regimes, local governments and organizations aim to achieve the multi-objective cultivated land use benefit goal of Chinese agricultural development, including economic, ecological and social benefits. With China’s goal of conducting moderate agricultural reform in its agrarian property regime, verification of rural collective land rights is an effective form of asset management in collective areas in China, while deepening land tenure and usufruct is an important priority in state-owned regimes. Furthermore, to make full use of agricultural resources, it is necessary to have a close collaboration between the collective agrarian property regime and the state agrarian property regime.

The increasing scarcity of cultivated land resources necessitates the continuous change in cultivated land functions. Cultivated land has gradually changed from being used for a single function to multiple functions. The use of cultivated land for multiple functions has become an important way to achieve the sustainable use, management, and protection of cultivated land. In this, the development of different functions of cultivated land must be coordinated. Thus, clarifying the evolution trend of the use of cultivated land for various functions, calculating the coupling and coordination degrees of these multiple functions, and identifying the driving factors in these uses play important roles in realizing the orderly development of cultivated land multifunctionality. This paper defined multifunctioning cultivated land as containing a production function, a social function, and an ecological function. Based on the socioeconomic panel data and geospatial data of Heilongjiang, Jilin, and Liaoning, which are the major grain-producing areas of northeast China, in the years 2005, 2010, 2015, and 2020 we calculated the multiple function coupling coordination degree of cultivated land using the Coupling Coordination Degree Model and identified the driving forces in the evolution of the spatial-temporal pattern of cultivated land multifunctionality using Geodetector. The results show that from 2005 to 2020, there were significant regional differences in terms of the production, social, and ecological functions of cultivated land in the research areas. The multifunctional coupling coordination degree of cultivated land in the study areas was gradually improved. The spatial-temporal evolution of the multifunctional coupling coordination degree of cultivated land was found to mainly be influenced by the level of agricultural development, such as the level of per capita disposable income and the rate of effective irrigation of cultivated land. The government should attempt to guarantee the comparative benefits of agricultural production to increase the income level of farmers; increase investment in agricultural infrastructure construction to improve the level of agriculture development; and implement a strict farmland protection policy to achieve the continuous improvement of the productivity of cultivated land, realize the ordered development of coupling, and improve the coordination of the use of cultivated land for multiple functions. The results of this study are applicable not only to northeast China but also to other major grain-producing areas that are under pressure to protect their cultivated land and achieve the suitable use of cultivated land.

Taking the emergy requirements of the five input indexes as the foundation, this paper analyzes the total temporal and spatial changes in cultivated land use intensity in the Poyang Lake Eco-economic Zone from 2000 to 2010. The results are obtained as follows: (1) Over a period of 10 years, the cultivated land use intensity has increased exponentially in the Poyang Lake Eco-economic Zone; agricultural machinery intensity has been the largest proportion of the total inputs, comprising more than 99.50% and increasing year by year, which indicates that agricultural mechanization is a basic trend in agricultural development in the Poyang Lake Eco-economic Zone. (2) The total number of counties belonging to the moderate- and low- intensity cultivated land use categories is the largest, while the number of counties belonging to the high-intensity cultivated land use and extensive cultivated land use categories is the smallest. (3) This zone can be divided into five areas: an eastern area of high-intensity cultivated land use, a central and eastern area of low-intensity cultivated land use, a central area of low-intensity cultivated land use, a southern area of moderate-intensity cultivated land use, and a northern area of moderate-intensity cultivated land use. (4) The counties which had a coordinated development between cultivated land use intensity and their socio-economic development level increase year by year, and the socio-economic development level had increasingly obvious effects on the cultivated land use intensity. Finally, this paper presents suggestions for the development of cultivated land use intensity in the Poyang Lake Eco-economic Zone, especially for different levels of intensity among counties.

Effectively managing and mitigating “human–wildlife conflict” (HWC) by adjusting the use of cultivated land to realise the coexistence of humans and wildlife plays an important role in protecting biodiversity, ensuring food security, improving cultivated land use efficiency, and improving the livelihoods of community residents in nature reserves. Based on the “harmful experience–expectation change–behavioural adjustment” theoretical analysis framework and survey data on 1008 farmers in China’s Giant Panda National Park, this paper uses a binary logit model and a mediating utility model to analyse the effect of HWC experience on the cultivated land use of farmers and the action mechanisms. The results show the following: (1) HWC experience increases the probability that farmers’ cultivated land use behaviour will be adjusted, which will not only increase the probability that farmers’ planting structure of cultivated land will be adjusted but also increase the probability that farmers will abandon cultivated land. (2) Farmers in the national park have a higher probability of adjusting their cultivated land use behaviour after experiencing HWCs than those outside the national park. Farmers in the national park mainly prefer to adjust the planting structure, while farmers outside the park are more inclined to abandon cultivated land. (3) Low-income farmers are more likely to adjust their cultivated land use behaviour after experiencing HWCs than high-income farmers. The low-income group mainly tends to adjust the planting structure of cultivated land, while the high-income group is more inclined to directly abandon cultivated land. (4) The farmers in the group with a high degree of dependence on cultivated land for their livelihood have a higher probability of adjusting their cultivated land use behaviour after experiencing HWC than those in the low-dependency group, and they tend to adjust the planting structure. (5) HWC experience mainly improves farmers’ adjustment of cultivated land use behaviour by improving their awareness of future risks of HWC. In other words, “HWC” will change the behavioural decision-making of farmers and the differences in constraints, such as different regions and different income levels, will lead to differences in “HWC” affecting farmers’ behaviours. The conclusions of this paper not only help in understanding the adjustment mechanism of farmers’ cultivated land use behaviour in the context of HWCs but also provide a decision-making reference for actively changing cultivated land use methods to address HWCs.

Formation mechanisms and general characteristics of cultivated land use patterns in the Chaohu Lake Basin, China

In recent decades, human activities have significantly influenced land use/land cover. Identifying pattern changes in regional land use/land cover and their drivers is crucial for land use planning and management decision making. This study aims to (1) describe land use/land cover changes that have taken place in Nigeria in the study period of 10 years (2000–2010), (2) determine the factors that drive those changes with emphasis on transition to cultivated land use and (3) examine the spatiotemporal intensity of land use. The study utilized the GlobeLand30 land cover datasets produced by the National Geomatics Center of China. We used the spatial calculating analysis model to analyse land use/land cover change, logistic regression to model drivers of cultivated land expansion and land use intensity comprehensive index model to examine the intensity of land use. Our results revealed that (1) conversions to cultivated land dominate the land use/land cover change processes and expansion was largely at the detriment of the grassland, shrubland and forests; (2) biophysical, socio-economic and proximity factors are significant determinants of transition to cultivated land use. Population density is negatively related to cultivated land expansion, which suggests labour scarcity in the agricultural sector that can consequently result into low productivity and (3) significant discrepancies exist in the intensity of land use between the southern and northern regions of the country. Policy measures aimed at improving agricultural productivity remain one of the best ways to reduce pressure on increasingly scarce land resource and conserve natural ecosystems in Nigeria.

The study of cultivated land use models is an important means to improve the benefit of cultivated land use and promote the sustainable use of cultivated land. The rational optimization of regional cultivated land use models based on the consideration of regional background conditions and development goals can provide a scientific basis for ensuring the sustainable use of cultivated land. This study constructed a three-dimensional research framework of "natural quality-utilization intensity-spatial layout" of cultivated land utilization pattern. Taking the county as a unit, the natural quality, spatial distribution and utilization intensity of cultivated land in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau were evaluated, and the types of cultivated land utilization models were determined. Based on the ecological protection and the regulation and control of agriculture and animal husbandry in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, the optimization direction of cultivated land use patterns was discussed. The results show that the cultivated land use pattern divided by the “NUS” three-dimensional model can accurately reflect the characteristics of cultivated land use in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. The existing cultivated land use pattern in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau is basically consistent with its ecological protection and development direction zoning, but the problems of unreasonable expansion and excessive use intensity of cultivated land exist in the ecotone between some development areas and restricted areas. Therefore, the utilization and optimization of cultivated land in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau should be based on the premise of protecting ecological security and striving to solve the contradiction between agricultural development and ecological protection to realize the sustainable utilization of cultivated land.

The carbon emissions and agricultural nonpoint source pollution constraints were incorporated into the input–output index system, and the epsilon-based measure (EBM) super efficiency model and global Malmquist–Luenberger (GML) index were used to measure the cultivated land use efficiency and changes in the total factor productivity (TFP) of cultivated land use in the main grain-producing areas in China from 1993–2016. The results indicate that: (1) from 1993 to 2016, the cultivated land use efficiency in the main grain-producing areas in China showed a tendency to fluctuate and increase, with obvious stage characteristics; however, the overall level was not high. (2) There is a significant difference in the cultivated land use efficiency under the constraints of carbon emissions and nonpoint source pollution in the main grain-producing areas in the different provinces, and low-efficiency provinces have higher input redundancy and undesired output redundancy than high-efficiency provinces. It can be observed that input redundancy and undesired output redundancy have a significant negative effect on cultivated land use efficiency. (3) The TFP of cultivated land use under the constraints of carbon emissions and nonpoint source pollution in China’s main grain-producing areas is estimated by the GML index. The results show that the TFP of cultivated land use in the main provinces in the main grain-producing regions is greater than 1, indicating that the productivity levels of all the provinces in China’s main grain-producing areas are increasing. From the perspective of the power sources in each province, global pure technological change (GPTC) and global scale technological change (GSTC) are the main driving forces for the TFP of cultivated land use, while global pure efficiency change (GPEC) and global scale efficiency change (GSEC) are the bottlenecks for increasing the TFP of cultivated land use.

A typical phenomenon of cultivated land use in China's economically developed areas: Anti-intensification in Jiangsu Province

Cultivated land is a vital strategic resource to ensure human survival and development. It is pertinent to introduce the environmental constraint index into the study of cultivated land use efficiency and promote the coordinated development of environmental and economic benefits. Based on the construction of the evaluation index system of cultivated land use efficiency, including carbon emission as the undesired output, this paper used the super efficiency MinDS model to measure the cultivated land use efficiency of China by using the data from 2009 to 2019. The results show the following. (1) During 2009-2019, the overall use efficiency of cultivated land in China showed a tendency to fluctuate and increase, ranging from 0.871 to 0.948, indicating high use efficiency. Eleven provinces had an average land use efficiency of more than 1. (2) Among the input-output indicators, the carbon emission indicator showed the largest average percentage of improvement at 15.21%, followed by the pesticide index and agricultural machinery index, and the smallest average improvement was the irrigation indicator at 3.55%. (3) There were apparent differences in the average relaxation and improvement proportion of input-output indicators of cultivated land use in the provinces. (4) China's cultivated land use efficiency has absolute σ-convergence, absolute β-convergence and conditional β-convergence, which means that the difference in cultivated land use efficiency between provinces has a tendency to decrease, and that China's cultivated land use efficiency will stabilize. This paper provides a clear direction for the promotion and improvement of cultivated land use efficiency in China.

Evaluating the sustainable intensification of cultivated land use based on emergy analysis

Is digitalization conducive to promoting carbon reduction in cultivated land use while empowering high-quality socio-economic development and intelligent territorial spatial planning? Derived from China’s provincial panel data from the period 2011 to 2019, in this paper, we employ a fixed-effect model to study the impact of the digital economy on carbon emissions from cultivated land use and apply an intermediary-effect model to estimate the impact that the structure of the digital economy has on carbon emissions from cultivated land use. The results indicate the following: (1) The expansion of the digital economy can significantly decrease the carbon emissions caused by cultivated land use. This conclusion is still valid after considering endogenous issues and conducting a series of robustness tests. (2) Green technical renovation has played a significant intermediary role in the effect the digital economy has on the amount of carbon emissions from cultivated land use. (3) Digital economy development has significantly promoted innovation in green technology by increasing the size of green invention patent applications and authorizations, thus effectively curbing carbon emissions from cultivated land use and achieving the carbon emission reduction effect of the digital economy. However, some suggestions are put forward, including speeding up the deep integration of digital technology and cultivated land use planning, strengthening the application of green technical renovation achievements in the agricultural field, and enhancing the government’s function in the institutional guarantee of the growth of the digital economy.

Cultivated land protection and rational use in China

Research on the cultivated land use system resilience under a safe and just space framework.