Ecology In China Research Articles

Marxist Ecology in China

Since the 1980s, Chinese writers and thinkers have been engaging with Marxist ecology, constructing a theoretical system that starts with interpretation of Marx and Engels themselves. Chen Yiwen takes stock of how this framework progressed toward an overarching theory of ecological civilization, generating new questions to be answered at every stage of development.

Application and prospect of landscape ecology in territorial spatial planning.

Territorial spatial planning could achieve the integration of various plans, resulting in a unified "multi-plan integration" map. Such planning emphasizes the efficient use of territorial spatial patterns and structures to ensure functional perfection, and serves as the spatial framework for building a modern socialist country, particularly in the areas of ecological security and ecological civilization. The past few decades have seen rapid advances in the development of landscape ecology in China. The core concept of "pattern-process-function" has gained significant progress and been widely applied in the initial phase of territorial spatial planning at various levels. We outlined the advancements in the territorial spatial planning system and the core research theories and technologies in landscape ecology. We discussed the progress and shortcomings of key theories and methods of landscape ecology in practical applications of territorial spatial planning, such as ecological security patterns, pattern and process, and scale effects. We proposed the future application of landscape ecology theories and technologies in territorial spatial planning, including overall ecological effects, scale effects, and regional ecological network optimization. Future developments in landscape ecology, especially research on the "human-place-ecology" coupling based on the latest Big Data and AI technology for sustainable development, will provide robust theoretical and methodological supports for the scientific formulation of territorial spatial planning in China.

Impact of sustainable energy, fossil fuels and green finance on ecosystem: Evidence from China

The adoption of sustainable energy has increased as a substitute for petroleum derivatives due to growing concerns about environmental degradation caused by pollution and non-renewable energy sources. This study aims to investigate the impact of sustainable energy, green finance, and fossil fuels on the ecology of China. Instead of using traditional intermediaries like CO2 and EF, we employed the ecosystem habitat index to evaluate the conservation of terrestrial ecosystems. This index measures the extent of habitat destruction, deterioration, and fragmentation. The research demonstrated that implementing ecological power and green finance in China has enhanced the country's ability to safeguard and enhance its ecosystem in the short and long term. Furthermore, the findings suggest that using non-renewable energy sources in China has heightened the risk to biodiversity and the ecosystem. The analysis indicates that prioritizing green funding and renewable energy sources is crucial for policymakers, legislators, and investors to safeguard and enhance ecosystem diversity.

Recent research progress of soil nematode ecology in China.

Soil nematodes are a crucial component of belowground ecosystems. Soil nematode ecology, the studies of community distribution, structural composition, ecological functions, and interaction mechanisms with environment, has always been a hot spot in soil biology research. We systematically elaborated soil nematodes' high diversity and various diet, their advantages as bioindicator and model organisms, and their roles in biological control, ecological functions and soil health. Then, we reviewed the research progress of soil nematode ecology in China, including molecular biology identification methods, responses to global changes, food web structure and function, aboveground and belowground diversity relationship, and large-scale diversity pattern. We put forward the development trend of soil nematology, focusing on the high-throughput sequencing technology in nematode identification and quantification, the necessity of establishing a universal analysis platform to promote soil nematode research, and the importance of strengthening large-scale soil nematode survey.

A Study on the Spatial Change of Production–Living–Ecology in China in the Past Two Decades Based on Intensity Analysis in the Context of Arable Land Protection and Sustainable Development

During the period of rapid social and economic development spanning four decades of reform and opening up, China has witnessed significant transformations in its patterns of production, living, and ecology. Notably, there has been a noticeable escalation in the conflict between the spatial requirements for agricultural production and those for residential and ecological purposes. In order to address this issue, the government has enacted a set of measures aimed at safeguarding arable land. This study utilizes land use data from 2000, 2010, and 2020 to establish a spatial dataset representing China’s production–living–ecological space (PLES). The intensity analysis approach is employed to examine the features of changes in China’s PLES over the previous two decades. The findings of this study indicate that agricultural production space is mostly concentrated in the northeastern region and the plains of the Yangtze and Yellow River Basins. This distribution pattern has undergone a notable transformation characterized by a period of decline followed by subsequent growth. Simultaneously, the ecological space is primarily dispersed in the northwestern region and the Tibetan Plateau. South of the Hu Huanyong Line, there is a greater proportion of rural living area, urban living space, and industrial production space. Between the years 2000 and 2020, there was an observed increase in the intensity of PLES. This rising trend was primarily characterized by quantitative changes and exchange changes within each type of space. In contrast, between 2010 and 2020, there was a notable increase in the frequency and intensity of spatial transitions, particularly in relation to agricultural production space. Nevertheless, the transition to agricultural production space mostly entails ecological implications, characterized by a decline in cultivation quality but an improvement in environmental advantages. The policy of protecting arable land has a significant influence on the dynamics of the production, living, and ecological domains. To achieve the objective of maintaining the “trinity” of arable land quantity, quality, and ecology, it is imperative for the government to establish a comprehensive system for spatial category conversion. This will ensure the coordinated development of PLES. This study elucidates the constituents of intensity analysis and its analytical concepts, which can be employed to identify alterations in spatial patterns in different areas. It offers scholarly references for the subsequent execution of policies aimed at safeguarding arable land and the development of sustainable land management strategies. Consequently, this study holds substantial importance for advancing economic and social development and fostering sustainable growth.

Research on the Performance Evaluation of Agricultural Non-point Source Pollution Prevention and Control in Anhui Province

Agricultural and rural pollution control is a key and difficult issue in the revitalization of rural ecology in China, and agricultural non-point source pollution, as the main source of pollution, is of the utmost importance. Building a performance audit system for agricultural non-point source pollution prevention and control is beneficial for measuring the degree of agricultural non-point source pollution prevention and control, identifying constraints, and is of great significance for agricultural non-point source pollution prevention and control. This article selects Anhui Province as the research object, and based on the PSR model of environmental resource management, constructs an agricultural non-point source pollution performance evaluation system. On the basis of this evaluation system, the entropy weight TOPSIS method is used to empirically investigate the agricultural non-point source pollution prevention and control data in Anhui Province from 2017 to 2021, and corresponding suggestions are proposed based on the specific analysis results.

Ecological impact assessment of green virtual water flow in inter-provincial crop commutation within China

Green water is crucial for to regional ecological sustainability. Currently, there is a lack of research on the impact of crop green water communication on the regional ecology in China. The ecological impact index (EII) and integrated ecological water supply (IES) were proposed to comprehensively evaluate the regional ecological impact of the green virtual water flow (GVWF) of crops. Based on the principle of trade cost minimization, this study simulated the inter-provincial crop commutation within China during 2010–2019 by assigning weights to production, demand, and transportation costs, and analyzed the impact of crop communication on regional ecology. The results showed that multi-year average GVWF among provinces was 216.45 Gm3, accounting for 33.7 % of the total green water footprint of crops. The ecological impact of GVWF varies among provinces and years. The EII values in Beijing, Shanghai, and Jiangsu were all >100, whereas it was <1 in Yunnan and Xizang. Regional management policies for water resources, ecology, and economic development should be formulated taking into account the IES and EII jointly. It is recommended to increase the export of green virtual water of crops and expand the ecological area while ensuring the utilization rate of green water in regions with higher EII values, such as Guangxi and Yunnan. In the future, it is important for district managers to prioritize the quality of ecological development and protect ecological areas from erosion while pursuing urban development. This study innovatively evaluated the ecological impact of crop communication in different regions, which has guiding significance for the trade management in the ecologically water-deficient areas.

Has building innovative provinces reduce environmental pollution?--evidence from a quasi-natural experiment in China

The implementation of innovative provinces as a pivotal pilot measure to promote the in‐depth advancement of ecology in China is a critical undertaking. An accurate assessment of the environmental effects of these innovative provinces is necessary to obtain a comprehensive understanding of the impact of pilot policies and facilitate the promotion of future policies with precision. In this study, the difference‐in‐differences method and the mediation model are employed to analyze the effect and mechanism of the pilot policies for innovative provinces on regional environmental pollution in 30 provinces in China from 2008-2020. The results demonstrate that the innovation provincial policies have resulted in an average reduction of 14.6% in environmental pollution annually in the pilot areas. This conclusion is still valid after robustness tests are eliminated. Furthermore, the mediation effect model provides evidence that the innovation provinces pilot policy reduces environmental pollution through technological innovation and industrial structure upgrading. Additionally, the heterogeneity analysis finds that innovation provinces pilot policy have led to a reduction of 17.4% in environmental pollution in coastal regions and a reduction of 11.7% in inland regions annually. Overall, this research contributes to the existing literature by underscoring the importance of innovation‐driven development for environmental governance and effectively promoting the construction of a resource‐saving and environment‐friendly society.

Study on the coupling coordination and pattern evolution of green investment and ecological development: Based on spatial econometric model and China’s provincial panel data

The study determines the coupling degree of green investment and green ecology in China using kernel density estimation, spatial autocorrelation analysis, and standard deviation ellipse model to empirically evaluate the data of 30 Chinese provinces from 2005 to 2019. Moreover, the study investigates the temporal evolution trend, spatial clustering characteristics, and spatial evolution trend of coupling degree. Although the coupling coordination value of green investment and green ecology gradually increased, it is generally at a low coordination stage. At the same time, regional disparities narrowed with the most significant variability in the eastern region. Moreover, results found that the aggregation effect of the coupling and coordination of green investment and green ecology is more significant, and the high-value aggregation area extended from the lower reaches of the Yangtze River to the midstream region, while the western region is dominated by low-value aggregation. Similarly, the degree of synergy between green investment and green ecology is increased; however, the fragmentation trend is inevitable. At the same time, the center of gravity of coupling coordination shifted to the western regions, and the spatial pattern gradually weakened in the “northeast-southwest” direction. The findings of the study stress that local governments of China should improve the green investment system for green ecological development in the surrounding areas of the Yangtze River Economic Belt. Moreover, it is required to focus on the Northeast revitalization and Western development strategies to promote the synergistic development of green investment and green ecology.

城市生态学自然模拟实验研究进展

PDF HTML阅读 XML下载 导出引用 引用提醒 城市生态学自然模拟实验研究进展 DOI: 10.5846/stxb202111033092 作者: 作者单位: 作者简介: 通讯作者: 中图分类号: 基金项目: 国家生态网络平台专题服务（能力建设）项目 Research progress of natural manipulative experiment in urban ecology Author: Affiliation: Fund Project: 摘要 | 图/表 | 访问统计 | 参考文献 | 相似文献 | 引证文献 | 资源附件 | 文章评论 摘要:自然模拟实验，通过适当控制影响因素研究自然状态下生态系统变化，已经越来越受到生态学家的欢迎。新兴的快速发展的城市生态学越来越多的采用自然模拟实验方法。研究从城市生态学的实验设计方法（如人工梯度、自然梯度和城市建设实验）、环境因子（如空气污染、热岛、灯光和地表硬化）生态效应和生态系统（如社区、绿地、绿化屋顶和集水区）响应等方面，分析了国内外大量城市生态学自然模拟实验的研究案例，并总结了城市生态学自然模拟实验的特点，指出了城市生态学模拟实验应该考虑的主要问题，并提出未来主要发展方向：（1）多种环境因子复合影响模拟实验研究，（2）生态系统结构和功能响应模拟实验研究，（3）近自然的长期模拟实验研究，（4）大范围的联网模拟实验研究和（5）面向城市生态恢复和建设的模拟实验研究。希望研究能够为推进我国城市生态学的实验研究起到抛砖引玉作用。 Abstract:The natural manipulative experiment, by controlling influencing factors appropriately to study changes in the ecosystem under natural conditions, has become more and more popular with ecologists. This article, which focused on the experimental design methods of urban ecology (such as artificial gradients, natural gradients and urban construction experiments), environmental factors (such as air pollution, heat islands, nightlight and surface hardening) and the response of urban ecosystems (such as communities, green spaces, green roofs and watersheds), reviewed a great number of cases using natural manipulative experiments in urban ecology at home and abroad. It also summarized the characteristics of the natural manipulative experiment of urban ecology, pointed out that the main problems which should be considered in the urban ecology manipulative experiment, and proposed the main development direction in the future:(1) Manipulative experiments on the compound impact of multiple environmental factors; (2) Manipulative experiments on the response of the ecosystem structure and function; (3) Long-term near-natural manipulative experiments; (4) Large-scale network of manipulative experiments; (5) Manipulative experiments on the urban ecological restoration and construction. We hope that this review can play a role in advancing the experimental research of urban ecology in China. 参考文献 相似文献 引证文献

Sung Shu Chien: the founder of modern Chinese botany.

Abstract Sung Shu Chien (钱崇澍, 1883–1965) (Fig. 1) was a famous botanist and educator in China, one of the founders of Chinese plant taxonomy, plant physiology, geobotany, and floristics. He devoted his whole life to scientific research and education, and was a founder of modern Chinese botany. Sung Shu Chien pioneered several research fields in modern Chinese botany. In 1916, he published the first literature in Latin on the naming and classification of plants. In the following year, he published the earliest thesis on the application of modern scientific methods of plant physiology in China. He wrote the first paper in the area of plant ecology and geobotany in China. He was a pioneer in the systematic study of the families Orchidaceae, Urticaceae, Fabaceae, and Ranunculaceae in China. From 1959 to 1965, he was the chief editor of “Flora of China” and was responsible for the section on Urticaceae (Yu, 1983). Sung Shu Chien initiated the research of plant taxonomy, plant physiology and plant ecology in China, and laid a solid foundation for the extensive research of vegetation, plant zoning and plant specialties in China (Chien et al., 1956). By skillfully combining research and education, he cultivated Chinese scientific and technological talents in botany.

Long-Distance Transport of Puccinia striiformis f. sp. tritici by Upper Airflow on the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau Disrupts the Balance of Agricultural Ecology in Central China.

Long-distance dispersal of plant pathogens in the air can establish diseases in other areas and lead to an increased risk of large-scale epidemics. Wheat stripe rust, caused by Puccinia striiformis f. sp. tritici (Pst), is one of the most destructive diseases of wheat in China. Hubei is an important overwintering region for Pst in China, and this overwintering region is a determinant of stripe rust severity in eastern China. In 2017, stripe rust disease caused a pandemic in the Hubei region and resulted in great yield losses of wheat. To explain the disease pandemic, a total of 595 single-lesion samples of stripe rust were collected in spring, including 204 in five provinces in 2017 and 391 in four provinces in 2018, and genotyped with 13 simple sequence repeat makers. The samples were classified into 12 subpopulations based on the locations and year of collection. Genetic diversity was determined for the collection and each subpopulation. Differentiation and gene flow were determined between subpopulations. STRUCTURE analyses and discriminant analysis of principal components were conducted, and the results were used to infer the relationships between subpopulations. Our study revealed a new route of Pst transmission from the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau to the Hubei region. The Pst inoculum of northwestern Hubei came from Gansu in the northwest, whereas the inoculum in southern Hubei came from the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau via upper airflow. After the initial inocula infected wheat plants and multiplied in northern and southern Hubei, urediniospores produced in these regions further spread together along the middle reach of Hanshui Valley and made exchanges there. The finding of the new transmission route of Pst is important for improving integrated stripe rust disease management, which should have a profound impact on the balance of agricultural ecology in China.

Impacts of linear transport infrastructure on terrestrial vertebrate species and conservation in China

Two strategic documents issued by the Chinese Central Government projected that, by the mid-21st century, the linear transport infrastructure (LTI) network of China will rank at the forefront of ecological and sustainable transport networks globally. With this goal, it is urgent to summarize existing research, benchmark international research levels, and propose development directions and strategies for terrestrial vertebrate species protection around LTI in China. In this study, we searched for peer-reviewed papers before 2020 in both Chinese and international databases. A total of 170 academic articles were collected. Most focused on roads, but some focused on railways, of which the Qinghai-Tibet Railway occupied half. The most researched taxa were mammals, including the Tibetan antelope (Pantholops hodgsonii), Siberian tiger (Panthera tigris), and Asian elephant (Elephas maximus), the number of bird research papers was less than half that of mammal research papers, and fewer amphibian and reptile studies. The impact of LTI on wildlife was classified to habitat effects, roadkill, behavioral influences, and barrier effects. Wildlife preservation efforts included wildlife and habitat surveys, route selection, subgrade and pavement design, and the design and monitoring of wildlife crossing structures. Studies were concentrated in five zoogeographical regions, i.e., the Qinghai-Tibet, South China, Central China, Northeast China, and Southwest China regions. Conservation suggestions, knowledge gaps, and future research directions for China were identified through comparisons with the state of international research. These focal priorities will help guide the development of road ecology in China. Multi-disciplinary, cross-departmental, and national level research is necessary. Based on this review, a national data integration platform should be established and efforts to cooperate with international research teams to mitigate the adverse effects of LTI should be made.

Rural Ecological Problems in China from 2013 to 2022: A Review of Research Hotspots, Geographical Distribution, and Countermeasures

Due to the changes in land use types and industrial agglomeration brought by the long-term rapid urbanization, the ecology of China’s rural areas has been greatly impacted. The health of residents and other living beings living in rural areas has been affected. In recent years, the ecology of the rural environment has been paid attention to. This study performed a bibliometric analysis of 167 papers on the Web of Science from 2013 to 2022. It shows that policy management and environmental science were two main research fields in solving the ecological and environmental crisis in China’s rural areas. Additionally, it was found that the study areas often spanned administrative districts, and the research was mainly based on the integrity of the overall ecosystem. The cases studied were mainly distributed in the following three types of areas: continuous river basins and lake basins; economically developed regions; and less developed areas with relatively fragile ecosystems. Ecological elements such as water, soil, air, and vegetation were all included in the study aims. Finally, from the perspective of institutional reform, comprehensive approaches to solving China’s rural ecological environmental problems in the current research were identified, including the revision of laws and regulations, economic means, technological innovation, and public participation.

Ecologization of industrial production in Сhina: theory and practice

Modern technologies of industrial production, the methods of management used and the exploita-tion of natural resources clearly affect not only economic development, but also the socio-ecological conditions of citizens' life. The study attempts to study the theoretical approaches and practice of greening industrial production in China, which has direct borders and close economic ties with Russia. The study examined economic and regulatory approaches to assessing environ-mentally friendly production, studied the impact of industrial emissions on the ecology of China's border regions, and identified the level of environmental investments. As a result of the study, on the basis of the information obtained, directions for the development of methodological tools and economic mechanisms for stimulating the greening of industrial production were formed.

基于文献计量分析的中国乡村生态学研究综述

PDF HTML阅读 XML下载 导出引用 引用提醒 基于文献计量分析的中国乡村生态学研究综述 DOI: 10.5846/stxb202112283698 作者: 作者单位: 作者简介: 通讯作者: 中图分类号: 基金项目: 浙江省哲学社会科学规划交叉学科重点支持课题项目（22JCXK07Z） Research progress and prospects of rural ecology in China based on bibliometric and visualization analysis Author: Affiliation: Fund Project: 摘要 | 图/表 | 访问统计 | 参考文献 | 相似文献 | 引证文献 | 资源附件 | 文章评论 摘要:我国已全面建成了小康社会，新发展阶段对乡村生态环境保护治理提出更高要求，乡村生态振兴既要提升生态环境质量，又要促进农民农村共同富裕的实现。在时代发展需求中，乡村生态学的研究成果不断丰富，概念内涵不断扩展，有必要对过去20年中国乡村生态学研究进行梳理和总结，为美丽乡村建设、自然资源保护、乡村可持续发展提供理论依据。对中国乡村生态学研究进行文献计量和可视化分析，通过绘制可视化知识图谱，梳理了20年以来中国乡村生态学研究的发展脉络，提出人类感知与社会需求的层级递进是推动乡村生态学研究发展的一个主要驱动力；针对乡村生态热点，提出4个方面的研究趋势，即乡村生态环境精细化治理与预警、乡村建设中的生态环境政策和制度、乡村景观规划与乡村生态文化建设和农村生产生活消费绿色化发展与可持续性；最后，围绕需求层级理论和乡村生态系统服务，构建了乡村生态学学科边界框架，强调在多学科交叉的基础上，针对乡村生态研究的多层次多尺度的特征，重点开展乡村生态系统中社会、经济、生态多要素对乡村生态系统的综合作用及其之间相互影响关系的研究。 Abstract:China has completed the building of a moderately prosperous society in all respects. The new stage of development puts forward higher requirements for rural ecological and environmental protection and governance, and rural ecological revitalization should not only improve the quality of the ecological environment, but also promote the common prosperity of farmers and rural areas. In the needs of the development of the times, the research results of rural ecology are constantly rich and the concept connotation is constantly expanding. It is necessary to sort out and summarize the research of Chinese rural ecology in the past 20 years to provide a theoretical basis for the construction of beautiful countryside, the protection of natural resources and the sustainable rural development. This paper presented a bibliometric and visual analysis of rural ecology studies in China. By mapping the visual knowledge map, combing out the development of rural ecology research in China over the past 20 years, the rural ecology study was divided into three stages:the first phase was in 2001-2006, rural ecological research favored the structure, process and function of farmland or rural ecosystem, and the targeted rural ecological tourism; the second phase was in 2006-2013, the rural ecological research tended to be comprehensive, it was reflected in the village planning, sustainable development and ecological civilization; the third phase was in 2013-2020, rural ecology paid attention to rural landscape construction, beautiful rural construction and rural revitalization, this stage was not only a period of comprehensive and systematic study of rural ecology, also was a stage of rural ecological construction growth from quantity to the improvement of rural ecological quality. We emphasized that the increasing demand for the rural ecological-living environment drove the continuous development of rural ecology, and proposed that human perception and social needs were the main driving forces to promote the development of rural ecological research. Aiming at the rural ecological hot spots, we introduced the research trends in four aspects, including the fine management and early warning of the rural ecological environment, the ecological environment policies and systems in the rural construction, the rural landscape planning and the rural ecological culture construction, and the green development and sustainability of the rural production and living consumption. Finally, focusing on the demand hierarchy theory and rural ecosystem services, the research constructed the basic framework of rural ecology research of "demand-ecosystem service-well-being" and "element-settlement-landscape" mode, and emphasized that on the basis of interdisciplinary research and according to the multi-level and multi-scale characteristics of rural ecology research, the further research should be focused on the social, economic study on the comprehensive effect of ecological multi factors on rural ecosystem and their interactions. 参考文献 相似文献 引证文献

Spatial and Temporal Evolution of Dairy Farming Coordination between Economy and Ecology in China

This paper focuses on the theme of the sustainable dairy industry and explores the coordination between the economy and ecology in dairy farming. Specifically, we constructed a composite dairy economy and ecology (DEE) system to evaluate the status of dairy farming. Based on the panel data of the nine primary milk producing provinces in China from 2003 to 2018, we estimated DEE changes with the coupling coordination degree model from perception of time. We then applied spatial autocorrelation model to analyze spatial heterogeneity. The results show that: (1) Seven of the nine provinces had experienced the three-stage process of economic lag–ecological lag–economic lag. Only Xinjiang and Ningxia have experienced the first two stages and are currently going through the economic lag status. (2) The coupling degree of DEE increased rapidly and has fluctuated around 0.5 since 2009. Furthermore, the degree of coordination of DEE went up continuously, and there was obvious regional differentiation. (3) Reduction of large-scale dairy farms is conducive to coordination between the dairy economy and ecology. (4) The positive spatial spillover effect on the coordination of DEE was not temporally steady. Our findings provide relevant evidence for improving the relationship between the economy and ecology for the sustainability of the dairy industry.

Development and correlations of the industrial ecology in China’s Loess Plateau: A study based on the coupling coordination model and spatial network effect

Industrial ecology (IE) was defined as a dynamic evolution process characterized by the coupling coordination relationship between ecological efficiency and industrial efficiency. This paper used data envelopment analysis and technique for order preference by similarity to ideal solution method to explore the spatiotemporal evolution of ecological efficiency and industrial efficiency in China’s loess plateau region (LPR) from 2006 to 2017. Based on the definition, LPR’s IE development and spatial correlations were studied separately using coupling evaluation model and social network analysis. Findings include: Although eco-efficiency and industrial efficiency were mutually promoted, and both have improved during the study period, LPR’s human-earth relation was still facing uncertainties. There were significant disparities in industrial efficiency, ecological efficiency, and IE levels among cities. The evolutionary patterns of cities were classified as coordinated development mode and professional development mode. The IE interactive network was characterized by “scale-free” and “small world,” where provincial capitals and big cities functioned as growth poles and intermediaries. The correlations of IE brought challenges as well as favorable conditions for setting up a cross-regional coordination mechanism. This paper provided a new perspective to understand IE and a “quantity and structure” driven development idea for policymakers.

Making Ecology Developmental: China’s Environmental Sciences and Green Modernization in Global Context

Although the science of ecology is often understood in antimodernizing terms, this article shows how ecology in China has become a means to articulate green modernization and sustainable development. As scholars predominantly focus on the policy rhetoric surrounding China’s national modernization and sustainable development program called “ecological civilization building,” the origins of how ecology came to take on developmental meanings remain obscure. This article highlights moments of global exchange and knowledge production by Chinese Marxists, earth systems scientists, and economists that produced eco-developmental logics. These logics define an interventionist role for the state, frame urbanization as moral progress, and refashion the role of the peasantry from the revolutionary vanguard to a backward social force impeding modernization. Ecological sciences in China, therefore, lay an epistemological foundation for legitimizing state-led technocratic practices of socioenvironmental engineering and naturalizing social inequalities between “urban” and “rural” people. In highlighting Chinese scientists’ agency in producing knowledge, this article counters diffusionist accounts of science as singular systematically organized branches of knowledge that emanate from the West. Instead, I demonstrate how ecology is contingent on the historical and political conditions through which it takes on meaning. In the context of China, ecology has become integral to environmental governance, state formation, and uneven relations of power.

Emergy ecological model for sponge cities: A case study of China

Sponge cities have been recognized as the major measures to deal with urban drainage and waterlogging and restore urban water ecology in China. However, the existing evaluation indices could not calculate ecological benefits of the whole sponge city system. The objective of this study is to develop an emergy ecological model for evaluating the ecological benefits and sustainability of the urban stormwater system with a sponge city case in Xiamen, China. To achieve this objective, this study adopts the emergy analysis method and proposed the emergy flow diagrams of grey and green water networks. The results confirmed that the green water network was more sustainable. Additionally, this study selected the Wastewater Reuse Rate and Rainwater Utilization Rate as the variables to optimize the green water network. The analysis results showed that the optimized green water network received significantly better Emergy Index of Sustainable Development (0.82), by setting Volume Capture Ratio of annual rainfall, Wastewater Reuse Rate and Rainwater Utilization Rate at 75%, 40% and 50%, respectively. The case study verified that the proposed emergy model can be used as a generic model to quantitatively evaluate the ecological benefits of sponge cities, and the construction of sponge cities could promote water circulation and improve the sustainability of the system.