Forest Economics Research Articles

Genome-wide identification of BAM (β-amylase) gene family in jujube (Ziziphus jujuba Mill.) and expression in response to abiotic stress

BackgroundElevated temperature and drought stress have substantial impacts on fruit quality, especially in terms of sugar metabolism and content. β-Amylase (BAM) plays a critical role in regulating jujube fruit sugar levels and abiotic stress response. Nevertheless, little is known about the regulatory functions of the BAM genes in jujube fruit.ResultsNine jujube BAM genes were identified, clustered into four groups, and characterized to elucidate their structure, function, and distribution. Multiple sequence alignment and gene structure analysis showed that all ZjBAM genes contain Glu-186 and Glu-380 residues and are highly conserved. Phylogenetic and synteny analysis further indicated that the ZjBAM gene family is evolutionarily conserved and formed collinear pairs with the BAM genes of peach, apple, poplar, Arabidopsis thaliana, and cucumber. A single tandem gene pair was found within the ZjBAM gene family and is indicative of putative gene duplication events. We also explored the physicochemical properties, conserved motifs, and chromosomal and subcellular localization of ZjBAM genes as well as the interaction networks and 3D structures of ZjBAM proteins. A promoter cis-acting element analysis suggested that ZjBAM promoters comprise elements related to growth, development, phytohormones, and stress response. Furthermore, a metabolic pathways annotation analysis showed that ZjBAMs are significantly upregulated in the starch and sucrose metabolism, thereby controlling starch-maltose interconversion and hydrolyzing starch to maltose. Transcriptome and qRT-PCR analyses revealed that ZjBAMs respond positively to elevated temperature and drought stress. Specifically, ZjBAM1, ZjBAM2, ZjBAM5, and ZjBAM6 are significantly upregulated in response to severe drought. Bimolecular fluorescence complementation analysis demonstrated ZjBAM1-ZjAMY3, ZjBAM8-ZjDPE1, and ZjBAM7-ZjDPE1 protein interactions that were mainly present in the plasma membrane and nucleus.ConclusionThe jujube BAM gene family exhibits high evolutionary conservation. The various expression patterns of ZjBAM gene family members indicate that they play key roles in jujube growth, development, and abiotic stress response. Additionally, ZjBAMs interact with α-amylase and glucanotransferase. Collectively, the present study provides novel insights into the structure, evolution, and functions of the jujube BAM gene family, thus laying a foundation for further exploration of ZjBAM functional mechanisms in response to elevated temperature and drought stress, while opening up avenues for the development of economic forests in arid areas.

Sample Farmers Analysis of Factors Influencing Production of Economic Forest Products

This paper focuses on the scale efficiency of dried fruit economic forestry production in Shandong Province. Based on the analysis of the basic characteristics of the production of economic forest products by the sample farmers, the main factors influencing the production of economic forest products by the sample farmers were further analyzed using the optimal scale regression method. Factor analysis is a statistical method that uses a few factors to describe the association between many indicators or factors, reflecting most of the information of the original data with fewer factors. It provides some suggestions for farmers’ production activities and government decision making.

Research on the Economic Development Path of Changbai Mountain Forest Mushroom Based on SWOT-AHP Analysis

Based on the questionnaire survey and interview at the site of 2021 China (Changbai) Forest Economy and Ganoderma Industry High-Quality Development Conference, this research used SWOT-AHP analysis method to sort out 15 indicators from four systems, such as strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of the development of Changbai Mountain forest mushroom, and analyzed the path selection for the development of Changbai Mountain forest mushroom economy. The results show that the strategic path for the development of the undergrowth mushroom economy in Changbai Mountain region is in the polar coordinates of: . It indicates that the economic development strength of the forest mushroom in the region is dominant, and it is appropriate to adopt the S-O development strategy to actively integrate internal development advantages and external market opportunities, and finally, specific suggestions are made for the realization of this path.

Cost-effectiveness and optimization of the forest types investment structure of the Grain for Green Project: a case study of Shaanxi Province, China

ABSTRACT The new round of the Grain for Green Project (GGP) has unified the subsidy standards for economic and ecological forests. However, due to the difference between the afforestation density effect and management effect, the project’s ecological effect is different. Uniform payment standards may decouple afforestation investment from its ecological benefits, consequently affecting the cost-effectiveness of investment. This study combines a geographic information system and remote sensing technology to explore the optimal forest types investment structure of the GGP from the cost-effectiveness perspective. We used dynamic panel models to estimate the number of lag periods for species investment and an individual fixed-effects model to estimate the optimal structure of species investment. The conclusions are as follows: The lag period of the effect of ecological forest investment on the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) is shorter than that of economic forest investment. When the proportion of ecological forest investment is 53%−62%, the unit investment in afforestation leads to the largest NDVI. This study promotes the process of vegetation restoration effects from phenomenological analysis to mechanism analysis and incorporates forest types characteristics and natural meteorological factors into the afforestation investment efficiency evaluation system, providing a theoretical basis for GGP optimization.

Forest-based land reform partnerships in rural development and the sustenance of timber markets. Learning from two South African cases

In South Africa, although implementation of government and forestry industry's embraced forest-based land reform partnership governance models, rural development and community beneficiaries' access to timber or wood products markets independently remain a challenge. This study assessed the perception of community beneficiaries on the sales and leaseback and community managed enterprise forest-based land reform public-private partnership (FBLR PPP) models on the provision of wood product end-use alternative. Two communities (Amabomvini and Cata) were purposefully selected for the study, in which 140 and 175 household beneficiaries were randomly sampled, respectively. Focus group discussions were also conducted with key informants from both communities' registered legal entities. The chi-square results showed a significant (p ≤ 0.001) relationship between the household beneficiaries' responses regarding the recommendation of pulp and paper and fuelwood as preferred wood products end-use alternatives from both communities. Binary logistic regression analysis revealed that household beneficiaries who are not educated are significantly less likely to influence wood usage for building material (p ≤ 0.038) and sawn timber (p ≤ 0.033) compared to those who are educated, respectively. Most household beneficiaries in Amabomvini recommended pulp and paper (63.6%), while those from Cata community (84.6%) recommended fuelwood. Additionally, the study shows that the provision of wood product market for the community-managed enterprises would be vital for the sustainability of their forest-based business. Furthermore, prioritizing access roads could assist in construction of new or nested markets for timber products trade and improving their well-being and socioeconomic status. This would ensure that community beneficiaries value the economic role forest, forest products and the significance of strengthening community governance structures in an endeavour to reduce conflicts amongst beneficiaries. Most importantly, government support towards strengthening of community beneficiaries' institutional arrangement or governance of the legal entities is critical to create an enabling environment for the community beneficiaries.

Calcium Regulates Growth and Nutrient Absorption in Poplar Seedlings.

As a crucial element for plants, calcium (Ca) is involved in photosynthesis and nutrient absorption, and affects the growth of plants. Poplar is an important economic forest and shelter forest species in China. However, the optimum calcium concentration for its growth is still unclear. Herein, we investigated the growth, biomass, photosynthetic pigments, photosynthetic parameters and products, chlorophyll fluorescence parameters, water use efficiency (iWUE), and antioxidant enzyme activity of “Liao Hu NO.1” poplar (P. simonii × P. euphratica) seedlings at 0, 2.5, 5, 10, and 20 mmol·L−1 concentrations of Ca2+, and further studied the absorption, distribution, and utilization of nutrient elements (C, N, P, K, and Ca) in plants. We found that with increasing calcium gradient, plant height and diameter; root, stem, leaf, and total biomasses; net photosynthetic rate (Pn); stomatal conductance (Gs); intercellular carbon dioxide (Ci) level; transpiration rate (Tr); Fv/Fm ratio; Fv/F0 ratio; chlorophyll-a; chlorophyll-b; soluble sugar and starch content; superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase (CAT), and peroxidase (POD) levels; and long-term water use efficiency (iWUE) of poplar seedlings first increased and then decreased. These parameters attained maximum values when the calcium concentration was 5 mmol·L−1, which was significantly different from the other treatments (P < 0.05). Moreover, a suitable Ca2+ level promoted the absorption of C, N, P, K, and Ca by various organs of poplar seedlings. The absorption of C, N, P, and K increased first and then decreased with the increased calcium concentration, but the optimum calcium concentrations for the absorption of different elements by different organs were different, and the calcium concentration in leaves, stems, and roots increased gradually. Furthermore, the increase in exogenous calcium content led to a decreasing trend in the C/N ratio in different organs of poplar seedlings. C/P and N/P ratios showed different results in different parts, and only the N/P ratio in leaves showed a significant positive correlation with Ca2+ concentration. In conclusion, the results of this study indicate that 5 mmol·L−1 concentration of Ca2+ is the optimal level, as it increased growth by enhancing photosynthesis, stress resistance, and nutrient absorption.

Effects of different management measures on soil conservation and the influence of environmental conditions: a case study involving UAV remote sensing on the Loess Plateau

AbstractTo curb further deterioration due to soil erosion, the Chinese government has successively implemented a series of ecological improvement projects across the Loess Plateau (LP). This study used unmanned aerial vehicle remote sensing combined with the revised universal soil loss equation to quantitatively evaluate the soil conservation rate (SR) under 10 management measures and further incorporated the topographic slope into the analysis to describe the impacts of terrain changes. The results showed that the average SR of plots under artificial management measures was 61.24 ± 0.004% (P &lt; 0.01), whereas that under non‐artificial measures was 47.90 ± 0.007% (P &lt; 0.01), which showed that human activities on the LP beneficially improved the SR. In addition, benefiting from the Grain to Green Project, cultivated fields, and economic forests exist only in areas with gentle slopes, and both these areas experience almost no threat of soil loss. A terraced structure exerts an obvious effect on extremely steep slopes (&gt;40°), and a greater slope is associated with a more evident effect. However, the risk of structural failure also increases. In addition, due to restricted water conditions, the effects of existing soil and water conservation measures that use tree planting as the main method have the characteristics of horizontal and vertical zonation differentiation. Valley bottom and semi‐humid areas are more profitable, and other areas are more suitable for planting drought‐tolerant shrubs. In addition to guiding the deployment of future soil and water conservation measures, this study can provide a theoretical basis for adjusting the existing low‐efficiency measures.

Comparative Analysis of the Morphological, Physiological, Proteomic, and Metabolic Mechanisms of the "Biloxi" Blueberry Response to Shade Stress.

Blueberry is an important small berry crop in economic forests. In hot summers, the top tip of blueberry often burns and withers due to water loss. Therefore, this study subjected blueberry to shading treatment in the summer to study the effects of different shading treatments on the growth, morphology, physiology and protein levels of the plant. The results showed that the 50% shading (T1) treatment yielded the highest average increases in plant height, crown width, and ground diameter of blueberry. Under the 80% shading (T2) treatment, the cells of the leaves dissolved, the morphology was incomplete, the vascular bundles disappeared, and no supporting skeleton was detected. As demonstrated by physiological and biochemical data and the proteome expression levels, the T1 shading treatment was beneficial to the growth of blueberry and significantly enriched the photosynthetic pathway and flavonoid biosynthesis. An analysis of the interaction network of differentially expressed proteins indicated that trans-cinnamate 4-monooxygenase (C4H, CYP73A), naringenin 3-dioxygenase (F3H) and bifunctional dihydroflavonol 4-reductase/flavanone 4-reductase (DFR) exhibited high connectivity and mutual regulation. In short, 50% shading can improve the growth index of blueberry and lead to an enrichment of flavonoid biosynthesis. This study provides a scientific basis for the breeding and summer protection of blueberry seedlings.

The heterogeneous effect of forest tenure security on forestry management efficiency of farmers for different forest management types

PurposeAfter the Collective Forest Tenure Reform (CFTR) in China, the enthusiasm of farmers for forestry management is stimulated. However, the forest tenure security varies among farmers, making the research conclusions of its impact on forestry management efficiency inconsistent. Based on the survey data of 1,627 households from the collective forest regions in 6 provinces of China in 2017, this paper not only discusses the differences of farmers' forestry management efficiency after the reform, but also further explores the heterogeneous impact of forest tenure security on forestry management efficiency in combination with different forest management types.Design/methodology/approachThis study employed the stochastic frontier production function model to measure the forestry management efficiency of farmers. Then, Tobit models were used to discuss the influencing factors of farmers' forestry management efficiency.FindingsThe results demonstrate that the improvement of farmers' forest tenure security can effectively improve forestry management efficiency, but the effect is affected by forest management types. For farmers who manage economic forests and non-timber forests, safe tenure promotes the forestry management efficiency; while for those who manage ecological public welfare forests, tenure security plays an opposite role.Originality/valueTherefore, satisfying farmers' differentiated demands for forest tenure according to forest management types to improve forest tenure security and further refining supporting policies of collective forestry reform is of great significance to improve the efficiency of farmers' forestry management in collective forest regions.

Two Manifestations of Market Premium in the Capitalization of Carbon Forest Estates

In this study, the effect of capitalization premium in forest estate markets on forest management and climate change mitigation economics is investigated. It is shown that proportional goodwill in capitalization induces linear scaling of the financial return, without any contribution to sound management practices. However, there is a financial discontinuity, as harvesting deteriorates goodwill. Such deterioration might be partially avoided by entering the real estate market. Conversely, a capitalization premium set on bare land as a tangible asset would increase timber storage and carbon sequestration. Observations indicate that the proportional goodwill is closer to reality within the Nordic Region, resulting in continuity problems.

Financial Analysis of the Use of Land: Agriculture or Woodlot

Agriculture is the main driver of deforestation. In other to reduce deforestation, a viable alternative livelihood strategy, aside from agriculture, must be in place to provide a sustainable income for investors. Managing forests for sustainable production (the forest economy) has been suggested as an alternative for sustainable land use practice. In the current study, we undertook a comparative analysis of woodlots and agriculture. The profitability of agriculture and woodlot production in Ghana was compared using a profitability model. We looked at profitability in terms of Net Present Value (NPV) and the Benefit-Cost Ratio (BCR) of three regions in Ghana, namely, Ashanti, Bono-East, and Western Regions. We found that woodlot producers with contractual relationships with the Forest Commission and other forestry companies produce the highest Net Present Value (NPV) and Benefit-Cost Ratio (BCR). However, this profitability is marginally higher than that of agriculture, which gives a fixed yearly return. This means woodlot production may not be a panacea to reducing agriculture in Ghana.

Effects of economic fruit forest planting on the stability of red soil aggregates in the subtropical hilly area

The stability of aggregates is of great significance to evaluate water and soil environment in regions plan-ting economic fruit forest. We explored the effects of economic fruit forest types on the structure and stability of soil aggregates in the 0-50 cm soil layer from 5-year-old Amygdalus persica, Pyrus sorotina, Citrus reticulata, Camellia oleifera and Actinidia chinensis forests in the hilly area in northern Hunan. The content, distribution characteristics and stability indices of soil aggregates from each economic fruit forest were quantitatively analyzed by the Shavinov method. The results showed that most soil aggregates were mechanically stable, with a minimum content of 92.3%. After wet sieving, the size of water-stable aggregates in the soil from Camellia oleifera forest was mainly &gt;2 mm, accounting for 55.9% of the total aggregates. The 0.25-2 mm aggregates were the dominant particles in the A. persica, P. sorotina, C. reticulata and A. chinensis forest soils, with contributions higher than 43.6%. The mean weight diameter (MWD) and the geometric mean diameter (GMD) of soil aggregates for the five economic fruit forest types ranged from 1.10 to 3.19 mm and 0.61 to 2.28 mm, respectively. Furthermore, the percentages of soil aggregate destruction (PAD) and fractal dimension (D) were in the range of 2.9%-37.3% and 2.30-2.68, respectively. With the increases of soil depth, the stability of soil aggregates from A. persica, C. oleifera and A. chinensis forest soils became worse; MWD and GMD decreased by 1.7%-57.7% and 4.5%-65.8%, respectively; PAD and D increased by 0.4%-17.3% and 1.6%-11.1%, respectively. The effects of economic fruit forest types on the stability of soil aggregates decreased with increasing soil depth. Based on the stability indices, aggregate stability from five economic fruit forests followed the order of C. oleifera &gt; A. chinensis &gt; P. sorotina &gt; C. reticulata &gt; A. persica. The type of economic fruit forest improved the stability of soil structure mainly by affecting the content of large-size aggregates. In terms of improving the distribution and stability of soil aggregates, it was suggested that C. oleifera should be given the top priority as the economic fruit forest in the subtropical hilly area, followed by A. chinensis. Whereas A. persica planting might reduce the degree of soil agglomeration, thus, the protective measures of soil loss should be considered during planting. Our results could provide theoretical basis and application guidance for the development, utilization, and ecological management of economic fruit forests in subtropical hilly areas.

Safeguarding against Harm in a Climate-Smart Forest Economy: Definitions, Challenges, and Solutions

Sustainably managed forests and forest products have a well-documented potential to deliver significant climate change mitigation benefits via sequestration, storage, and substitution (the 3Ss) when they are sourced sustainably and substituted for traditional resource-intensive materials. Moving beyond product-specific considerations, a climate-smart forest economy (CSFE) aims to bolster the 3Ss and catalyze broader systemic change to address the climate crisis. In their most successful cases, forest value chain interventions that lead to CSFEs will link secondary and tertiary sectors for greater waste reduction, substitution, innovation, and overall cascading climate benefits. However, interventions that contribute to CSFEs, from small to large scale, will inevitably impact environments and communities, both directly and indirectly. While positive impacts can be thought of as co-benefits and should be encouraged, negative impacts are considered negative externalities, and these should be avoided or minimized wherever possible by safeguarding against harm. The failure to minimize negative externalities will have implications for equity, project longevity, and climate benefits. This paper provides preliminary results of mixed methods research with an aim of identifying and building consensus on the definitions, challenges, and solutions relevant to the assessment, planning, and implementation of CSFE safeguards. While broad and novel CSFE safeguards application faces diverse challenges, this paper explores practical solutions to advance and set a foundation for future dialogue, analysis, and application.

Der ‚lange Atem‘ der bäuerlichen Empörung

The Persistence of Peasant Outrage. Conflicts over Forest Use, Poaching and Fraternity Revolts in the Zillertal from the 16th to the End of the 18th Century When I tried to follow the traces of Salzburg poachers in the 18th century more than twenty years ago, I was not aware of how deeply rooted their social protest was in earlier, less spectacular but much more widespread forest conflicts between peasants and the archepiscopal state. Of course, these were different conflicts fought by different opponents, but they aimed at the same goal: to resist increasing restrictions from a bureaucratic state whose existence brought the peasants no benefits. The inhabitants of this extreme mountain region wanted to remain autonomous in their traditional economical and social practices and resisted the introduction of a forest economy by a state that was unable and unwilling to support and compromise with them. Thus, the remote forests, whose economic use was in many ways legally unclear, became the centre of social conflict. The article reconstructs two protest traditions – that of illegal forest use and that of poaching – in a micro-historical analysis of the situation in the Zillertal. It argues that the intermingling of these traditions ultimately created an Alpine protest culture in the minds and memories of the peasantry that was stable and persistent enough to undermine the episcopal state during the Napoleonic wars.

Der ‚lange Atem‘ der bäuerlichen Empörung

The Persistence of Peasant Outrage. Conflicts over Forest Use, Poaching and Fraternity Revolts in the Zillertal from the 16th to the End of the 18th Century When I tried to follow the traces of Salzburg poachers in the 18th century more than twenty years ago, I was not aware of how deeply rooted their social protest was in earlier, less spectacular but much more widespread forest conflicts between peasants and the archepiscopal state. Of course, these were different conflicts fought by different opponents, but they aimed at the same goal: to resist increasing restrictions from a bureaucratic state whose existence brought the peasants no benefits. The inhabitants of this extreme mountain region wanted to remain autonomous in their traditional economical and social practices and resisted the introduction of a forest economy by a state that was unable and unwilling to support and compromise with them. Thus, the remote forests, whose economic use was in many ways legally unclear, became the centre of social conflict. The article reconstructs two protest traditions – that of illegal forest use and that of poaching – in a micro-historical analysis of the situation in the Zillertal. It argues that the intermingling of these traditions ultimately created an Alpine protest culture in the minds and memories of the peasantry that was stable and persistent enough to undermine the episcopal state during the Napoleonic wars.

Change in Doctoral Dissertation Topics in Forest Resources from US Universities Over Four Decades

Abstract Changes in forest resources expertise from 1978 to 2017, as measured by annual number of doctoral dissertations published on twenty topics, were examined. Using the ProQuest Dissertations and Theses Global database, titles and abstracts from 11,530 dissertations produced by fifty-six universities in the United States were selected. Automated content analysis and latent Dirichlet allocation were used to identify the optimal number of topic groupings among 7,742 dissertations that met selection criteria. Substantial differences were found in the pattern of publication among the twenty topics over time. The number of dissertations related to forest growth and silviculture; tree seedling propagation, physiology, and regeneration; and forest soil nutrients, ecology, and management declined over the past two decades. Dissertations related to forest wildlife management, including terrestrial wildlife ecology and management; wildlife food and nutrition; and fish ecology and management also declined during the same period. The number of dissertations in the fields of forest policy, politics, and social science; forest modeling, biometrics, and statistics; wood science; forest vegetation ecology; and avian ecology increased during the four decades. Dissertations published in the fields of forest economics, and forest entomology and pathology, remained relatively stable. Study Implications: We found decreasing production of doctoral dissertations focused on applied forest and wildlife management topics in recent decades. Declining doctoral-level expertise in applied fields after the early 2000s suggest that there may be reduced capacity to address practical problems facing both forest and wildlife managers. This decline also suggests that finding university instructors qualified to teach more applied forest and wildlife courses may have been more difficult over the past decade and possibly into the future. Our analysis indicated that the increased number of dissertations in adjacent sciences supporting forest resources has substantially increased capacity in these areas.

Spatial Patterns and Drivers of Soil Chemical Properties in Typical Hickory Plantations

Soil nutrients play critical roles in regulating and improving the sustainable development of economic forests. Consequently, an elucidation of the spatial patterns and drivers of soil nutrients in these forests is fundamental to their management. For this study, we collected 314 composite soils at a 0–30 cm depth from a typical hickory plantation in Lin’an, Zhejiang Province, China. We determined the concentrations of macronutrients (i.e., soil organic carbon, available potassium, available phosphorus, available sulfur, and hydrolyzed nitrogen) and micronutrients (i.e., soil available boron, iron, manganese, zinc, and copper) of the soils. We employed random forest analysis to quantify the relative importance of factors affecting soil nutrients to predict the concentrations, which could then be extrapolated to the entire hickory region. Random forest models explained 43–80% of the variations in soil nutrient concentrations. The mean annual temperature, mean annual precipitation, and altitude were key predictors of soil macronutrient and micronutrient concentrations. Moreover, slope and parent material were important predictors of soil nutrients concentrations. Distinct spatial patterns of soil nutrient concentrations were driven by climate, parent material, and topography. Our study highlights the various environmental controls over soil macronutrient and micronutrient concentrations, which have significant implications for the management of soil nutrients in hickory plantations.

Divergent pattern of soil CO2, CH4 and N2O emissions in 18-year citrus orchard and Camellia oleifera plantations converted from natural shrub forests

A large number of natural shrub forests were converted to oil plants and orchards in the subtropical area of China for economic reasons, but the ecological consequences such as greenhouse gas (GHG) flux, remains unclear. The objectives were to explore how environmental factors, including seasonal and inter-annual variations, and management factors are affecting the GHG fluxes. The study was performed in 18-years-old plantations in a subtropical hilly region in south China. Methane (CH4), nitrous oxide (N2O), and carbon dioxide (CO2) fluxes were continuously measured using a manual static chamber technology at a citrus orchard and Camellia oleifera plantation. Results showed that fluxes of CH4, N2O, and CO2 fluxes were strongly affected by the two plantations, and CH4 uptake and CO2 emission rate at the C.oleifera plantation were higher than those in the citrus orchard site mainly due to the high soil temperature and soil organic carbon contents in C.oleifera systems. The citrus orchard had higher annual N2O emission than the C.oleifera plantation. One of the reasons was N fertilizers were applied to the orchard, as indicated by increase in NO3−-N content and the positive correlation between N2O emissions and soil NO3−-N. Overall, the global warming potential (GWP) was significantly higher in C.oleifera plantation than that in the citrus orchard (579.11 ± 17.06 vs. 418.13 ± 17.19 kg CO2eq ha−1 yr−1). The range of annual cumulative fluxes measured from the citrus orchard and C.oleifera ecosystems were – (78.88–92.42) g CH4–C ha−1 yr−1, 89.3–124.75 g N2O-N ha−1 yr−1, and 389.58–563.56 kg CO2-C ha−1 yr−1. The amount of GHG emitted in summer was 1.5–6.6 times higher than the sum of the other three seasons, indicating that CO2 may be emitted from soil in cool seasons when temperature continues to increase due to global warming. Notably, the continuous increase in the use of fertilizers in economic forests in subtropical hilly regions might increase N2O emissions, which may offset the net climate benefits of increasing carbon sequestration by plants.

Evaluating the Impact of Ecological Property Rights to Trigger Farmers’ Investment Behavior—An Example of Confluence Area of Heihe Reservoir, Shaanxi, China

Property rights of natural resources have been acting as a critical legislative tool for promoting sustainable resource utilization and conservation in various regions of the globe. However, incorporating ecological property rights into the natural resources property rights structure may significantly influence farmers’ behavior in forestry investment. It may also trigger forest protection, water conservation, and urban water security. The main aim of the research is to evaluate the impact of ecological property rights and farmers’ investment behavior in the economic forest. We have constructed an analytical framework of collective forest rights from two indicators of integrity and stability, by adopting the theory of property rights and ecological capital to fulfill the study’s aims. The empirical data has been comprised of the microdata of 708 farmers, collected from the confluence area of the Heihe Reservoir, Shaanxi, China. The study also conducted pilot ecological property rights transactions in the surveyed area. The study utilized the double-hurdle model to test the proposed framework empirically. The results show that forest land use rights, economic products, and eco-product income rights positively affect farmers’ forestry investment intensity, and disposal rights (forest land transfer rights) negatively affect farmers’ investment intensity. However, in terms of the integrity of property rights, only the right to profit from ecological products affects farmers’ forestry investment willingness, and other property rights are insignificant. The study also found that the lower the farmers’ forest land expropriation risk is expected, the greater the possibility of investment and the higher the input level. However, we traced that the farmers’ forest land adjustment has no significant impact on farmers’ willingness to invest. Obtaining the benefits of ecological products has been found as the primary motivation for forestry investment within the surveyed area. The completeness of ownership rights positively impacted farmers’ investment intensity. Farmers should realize the ecological value of water conservation forests through the market orientation of the benefit of ecological products. Therefore, the government should encourage farmers and arrange proper training to facilitate a smooth investment. A well-established afforestation program should also be carried out.

Distinct ecological habits and habitat responses to future climate change in three east and southeast Asian Sapindus species

Sapindus is an important biodiesel, biomedical, and multifunctional economic forest species in Asia; however, its germplasms have been persistently damaged or lost. Thus, it is imperative to conserve the diversity of Sapindus. This study aimed to reveal the potential habitat distribution patterns of Sapindus mukorossi, Sapindus delavayi, and Sapindus rarak in response to the current environment and future climate change. Furthermore, we aimed to identify hotspots of habitat degradation/expansion to facilitate climate change-adaptive biological conservation. Using current environmental data and future climate projections (2021–2100), we simulated the present and potential future habitats of Sapindus mukorossi, Sapindus delavayi, and Sapindus rarak using a maximum entropy (MaxEnt) model that was developed based on 2041 occurrence records. The model showed that precipitation may play an important role in framing the potential habitats of Sapindus. Notably, S. delavayi was more sensitive to minimum temperatures (−4 °C to 5.5 °C), soil moisture (82–132 mm), and elevation (1200–3200 m), whereas S. rarak was the most sensitive to isothermality (50–86) and soil moisture (54–126). Under the current environment, Sapindus mukorossi had the widest suitable habitat distribution (252.50 × 104 km2), followed by that of Sapindus rarak (215.62 × 104 km2) and Sapindus delavayi (90.86 × 104 km2). Under future climate change scenarios, the habitat distribution of Sapindus mukorossi was predicted to expand at higher latitudes and extensively contract at lower latitudes. Moreover, the projected suitable habitat distribution of S. delavayi showed inconspicuous expansion and contraction, whereas that S. rarak underwent conspicuous contraction and expansion. Moreover, there were distinct ecological habits among Sapindus mukorossi, Sapindus delavayi, and Sapindus rarak in the east and southeast Asia. Thus, it is recommended that the contraction areas should be preferentially subjected to germplasm collection and conservation. Based on these findings, we propose preserved areas as the base for future Sapindus mukorossi, Sapindus delavayi, and Sapindus rarak conservation, breeding, cultivation, and utilisation.