Ecology In China Research Articles

Challenges and prospects for applied ecology in China

This Special Profile of the Journal of Applied Ecology on challenges and prospects for applied ecology in China and its neighbours is timed to coincide with the Annual Meeting of the Society for Conservation Biology (SCB) in Beijing in June 2009. It is notable that this meeting of the largest society of conservation scientists in the world, with a largely USA-based membership and mission, is being held in China. This is testament both to the growing international recognition of the importance of fully involving China if we are to make progress on many of the pressing environmental problems that beset the world, and to the growing openness to international scientific collaboration within China itself. China is important not just as a country that is home to substantial biodiversity, but because its position in the world economy means that its actions will strongly influence global environmental trends. In this Special Profile, we bring you two contrasting standard papers, which were submitted to the journal in the usual way, as well as a set of four Forum articles which we commissioned from leading experts on Chinese applied ecology. Chosen to cover a range of issues and taxonomic groups, these short contributions reflect on trends that the authors have witnessed in

Highlights and perspectives of soil biology and ecology research in China

As seen for the publications in several distinguished soil related journals, soil biology and ecology is booming in China in recent years. This review highlights the major findings of the soil biology and ecology projects conducted in China during the past two decades. Special attention is paid on the responses of soil biota to environmental change, and the roles of soil functional groups in C transformation, nutrient cycling and pollution remediation. We also point out the future challenges facing the Chinese soil biologists and soil ecologists. In the future, more systematic studies rather than scattered case studies are needed, more controlled field experiments rather than short-term laboratory studies should be encouraged. Besides, we need to focus more on the linkage between aboveground and belowground organisms, the interactions between different groups of soil food web, and the coupling of observation with modeling. It is essential to employ the state-of-the-art technology in research of soil biology and ecology because to answer the emerging scientific questions relies heavily on the development of new technology. Our ultimate goals are to push forward the research on soil biology and ecology in China and to encourage the interaction and collaboration between the international community and research groups in China.

Traveling theory, or, transforming theory: Metamorphosis of postcolonialism in China

Since the end of the 1980s, when the term “postcolonial” first landed mainland China, postcolonialism or postcolonial theory has been vigorously traveling in China for nearly twenty years. From 1995 to 1999, postcolonial criticism prospered and aroused several consequential issues such as the problem of “aphasia” of Chinese literary theories and its reconstruction, “Postism” and its conservatism, cultural self-colonization phenomena, “the third world culture,” nationalism and the so-called “Chineseness” and so on. The articles and books published during the period witness the highest achievement of postcolonial criticism in China. But the hasty traveling of postcolonialism in China has elicited or exposed many serious problems in the circles of literary criticism and literary theories. Unhealthy academic ecology in China combined with the misappropriation of the Western source texts, provoking heated debates over nationalism, “Chineseness,” “aphasia” and intellectual responsibility. Through analyzing these complicated issues, the author intends to present his own understanding of the traveling and metamorphosis of postcolonial theories in the Chinese context, and to offer his critical reflections on the problem of how to borrow theories from abroad.

The progress and perspectives of landscape ecology in China

After 20 years of research and application, landscape ecology in China has gained many achievements and established a concrete foundation for further development. The major progress of landscape ecology in China was in the fields of land-use structure and ecological processes, landscape pattern and dynamics analysis, theoretical and methodological development, and landscape ecological applications. Past researches emphasized particularly the theories and applications, while the methodological study accounted for a comparatively small part; urban and suburban landscapes, regional and catchment scale landscapes, cold and arid zone landscapes, forest landscapes, agricultural landscapes and wetland landscapes were the main research subjects. Major problems with past researches include the following. 1) There was unbalanced attention on conceptual/theoretical analysis, monitoring, methodological development and applications. 2) Landscape metrics were widely used, whereas the ecological implications were not fully addressed. 3) The researches on the relationship between landscape pattern and ecological processes and scaling were largely preliminary. 4) The risk, uncertainty and accuracy of the data processing were seldom mentioned. 5) The original methodological innovation was scant. To solve these problems effectively and promote landscape ecology in China to full development at a whole new stage of the twenty-first century, the following four closely interrelated and complementary tasks should be addressed: 1) establishing appropriate strategies for the development of landscape ecology; 2) enhancing experiment-based and long-term research; 3) improving landscape planning, design, conservation and management; 4) initiating and advancing the development of unified landscape ecology with Chinese characteristics.

Forest landscape ecology and its applications in China

Landscape ecology is playing an increasingly important role in resources management and landuse planning in recent decades and attracting much attention from resource managers and scientists in China as well as in the world. Reviews of landscape ecology development in China have been well documented, whereas forest landscape ecology and its applications receive relatively fewer reviews. In this paper, we first present a brief review of the historical development and current advances of landscape ecology in China and then introduce the applications of landscape ecology to forest park designs, urban greenspace planning, ecological restoration, biodiversity conservation and forest eco-hydrology. Finally, the problems with the application of forest landscape ecology in China, such as inadequate synthesis and integration, lack of basic research on patterns and processes, basic data shortage and model usage problem are discussed on the basis of which we suggest a future direction of forest landscape ecology in China.

Changes of Resource Use Patterns and State Policies since 1978: A Political Ecology of the Rural Beijing City, China

The purpose of this study is to illustrate the changing relationship between resource use patterns and state policies in the rural area of Beijing City from the viewpoint of political ecology in China's rapid economic growth. Since the reforms initiated in 1978, local government such as at village and township levels have enlarged the decision making power of agricultural production in accordance with the measures suited to local conditions in Beijing City. Policies of state and local government have lead to diversified resource use patterns on farmland in Beijing City. Local peasants also adapted to changing state policies by modifying the use pattern of regional resources. Relations between the state policies and the natural environment of Beijing City differ from other rural cases. The change of state policies has not damaged local natural environment, it has been somehow improved in the past twenty years. Thus different agricultural production policies were applied to each agricultural region, differentiating the crop production patterns.

Historical survey and the cultivation of a new culture regarding the ecology in China's Western Provinces

SUMMARY The Chinese leadership in recent years has clearly indicated that priority will be given to the development of the western provinces. In view of its under-developed economy, the relative poor education of the population and the extensive mode of development, environmental pollution and ecological damage in western China are more serious than in the east. In China's industrialization process in the modern era, the blind imitation of the initial stage of industrialization in the advanced countries and the total rejection of traditional Chinese cultural values have been particularly striking. Hence, the western provinces should adopt a mode of sustainable development based on establishment of an ecological culture. Environmentalists in China would like to concentrate on reforming the modes of production and the people's lifestyles through changing their views and values. They perceive this as the major commitment for building an ecological culture and promoting sustainable development. But large-scale and concentrated damage to the environment are very often the result of neglect and mistakes by government authorities and corporations. Pessimists worry that this millennium will signal the terminal stage for natural values; but there may be an alternative: a millennium of coordinated development, respecting the environment and based on adoption of a new ecological culture.

Industrial Ecology in China, Part II Education

Industrial Ecology in China, Part II Education

Industrial Ecology in China, Part 1

Industrial Ecology in China, Part 1

Development and application of the statistical ecology in China

The statistical ecology develops rapidly with the advancement of analyzing technology and method. This paper made a review about statistical ecology in China in following aspects: data collection, spatial and time patterns analysis, species-abundance and species-area relations, population dynamic, species affinity, community similarity and community cluster analysis, and community ordination.

Urban Ecology in China

In this paper, we used land use/cover ecosystem service value estimation model and ecological economic coordination degree model to analyze the changes of the ecosystem service value by the land use/cover changes during 1985, 1990, 1996, 2000, 2005 and 2011 in Yanqi Basin, Xin-jiang. Then we evaluated the ecology-economy harmony and the regional differences. The results showed that during 1985-2011, there was an increasing trend in the areas of waters, wetland, sand, cultivated land and construction land in Yanqi Basin. In contrast, that of the saline-alkali land, grassland and woodland areas exhibited a decreasing trend. The ecosystem service value in Yanqi Basin during this period presented an increasing trend, among which the waters and cultivated land contributed most to the total value of ecosystem services, while the grassland and the woodland had obviously declined contribution to the total value of ecosystem services. The research showed that the development of ecological economy in the study area was at a low conflict and low coordination level. So, taking reasonable and effective use of the regional waters and soil resources is the key element to maintain the ecosystem service function and sustainable and harmonious development of economy in Yanqi Basin.

The risks of nuclear power: A second opinion

China has the largest population and the longest urban development history in the world, with primitive cities first occurring along the Yellow River in northern China more than 4000 years ago. After a long period of stagnation during recent centuries, urbanization has revived again in China since the economic reform in 1978. Strongly influenced by national land use policy and the history of urbanization after 1949, China's urban ecology has gone through three development periods: the emergent period (1983–1989), the early growth period (1990–1999), and the rapid development period (2000–present). In this paper, we first provide a historical review of urbanization and urban ecology in China; based on this retrospective analysis, we further identify the main characteristics of, and missing links in, China's urban ecological research; and finally we suggest future research directions. The amount and scope of research in urban ecology and environment conducted in China since the 1980s are impressive. Not only did Chinese scholars import Western ideas to develop urban ecological science, but also they have promoted a holistic, use-inspired, transdisciplinary philosophy for studying and managing urban systems – which has unique Chinese characteristics. After more than 5000 years of being predominantly agrarian, China is now urban, and will become only more urban in the future. This continued fast urbanization makes China a living laboratory for studying urbanization, and China's urban ecology seems poised to make strides in the coming decades.