Land Area Research Articles

Continuous wildfires threaten public and ecosystem health under climate change across continents

Wildfires burn approximately 3%–4% of the global land area annually, resulting in massive emissions of greenhouse gases and air pollutants. Over the past two decades, there has been a declining trend in both global burned area and wildfire emissions. This trend is largely attributed to a decrease in wildfire activity in Africa, which accounts for a substantial portion of the total burned area and emissions. However, the northern high-latitude regions of Asia and North America have witnessed substantial interannual variability in wildfire activity, with several severe events occurring in recent years. Climate plays a pivotal role in influencing wildfire activity and has led to more wildfires in high-latitude regions. These wildfires pose significant threats to climate, ecosystems, and human health. Given recent changes in wildfire patterns and their impacts, it is critical to understand the contributors of wildfires, focus on deteriorating high-latitude areas, and address health risks in poorly managed areas to mitigate wildfire effects.

Coupling Study of Green Finance and High-Quality Economic Development

Based on panel data from 16 prefecture-level cities in Shandong Province from 2012 to 2021, a comprehensive evaluation system for the development of green finance and high-quality economic development in Shandong Province was constructed. The entropy weight method was used to calculate the comprehensive index of both. The research shows that, temporally, from 2012 to 2021, the coupling degree between green finance development and high-quality economic development in the prefecture-level cities of Shandong Province was mostly at a high or relatively high level, with the coordination degree increasing year by year. However, the overall level remained low, with most cities in a state of mild or near imbalance. Spatially, only coastal cities such as Qingdao, Dongying, Weihai, and Rizhao achieved basic coordination, with the coordination degree of coastal cities being higher than that of inland cities. Among them, coastal cities mainly exhibited high-high or high-low types, while inland areas mostly showed low-low types, failing to form a good linkage effect.

The Impact of Farmers’ E-Commerce Adoption on Land Transfer: Evidence from Ten Provinces across China

Rural e-commerce is rapidly expanding in rural China, profoundly affecting the agricultural and rural development of China. This paper focuses on the impact of farmers’ e-commerce adoption on land transfer, aiming to reveal the role of farmers’ e-commerce adoption in promoting rural transformation. Based on the 2020 Comprehensive Survey of Rural Revitalization in China conducted by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, this study employs the method of least squares and propensity score matching to evaluate the impact of farmers’ e-commerce adoption on land-transfer behaviors in China. The results indicate that farmers’ e-commerce adoption promotes farmers’ participation in land transfer, significantly facilitating farmers’ land transfer in and increasing the area of land acquired. Additionally, farmers’ e-commerce adoption also promotes the trend of standardization and contractualization in land transfer, significantly increasing the probability of farmers signing formal agreements, clarifying lease terms, and renting land to strangers when acquiring land. This study can provide some theoretical inputs for policies to promote the development of agricultural land markets in developing countries and for policy formulation to promote e-commerce development.

Greenhouse gas mitigation potential through clean energy for cement production in India

Abstract A preliminary approach has been made to assess the concentrated solar energy applications in cement production as well as greenhouse gas mitigation potential. The work starts with identification of processes that utilizes thermal energy in cement production. Then cluster of cement plants located at different locations of the country has been made. Also, the availability of solar radiation and wind speed at each plant location have been identified. Subsequently, the solar industrial process heating system have been developed for different locations in the country. Further, solar reactor output, number of heliostats, total land area and mirror surface have been estimated. All these estimations are done by considering three types of thermal losses in solar reactor i.e. 15, 30 and 45 percent respectively. Solar energy can provide a total of 738.11 PJ of thermal energy, which is needed to fulfil the process heating requirement of the calcination process for the manufacturing of cement in India. Solar industrial process heating system for cement production in India can reduce yearly CO2 emissions by 2457-7648 thousand tonnes.

Analysis of the Environmental Benefits and Driving Forces of the Development of the “Production–Living–Ecological Space” Pattern Based on the ERI-ESV Geodetector

Based on five periods of Landsat remote sensing data from 1980 to 2020, this study constructs a landscape ecological risk-ecosystem service value evaluation model and integrates it with a geodetector model to analyse the environmental benefits of the development of the “production–living–ecological space” pattern and its driving factors in the Xuzhou planning area. The results of the study are as follows: (1) Over the past 40 years, the expansion of living spaces has significantly encroached upon adjacent agricultural production areas and ecological spaces, such as forests and grasslands. Specifically, the areas of agricultural land, forests, and grassland have been diminished by 277.39 km2, 23.8 km2 and 12.93 km2, respectively; in contrast, urban and rural living spaces have increased by 238.62 km2 and 58.92 km2, alongside a rise in industrial production areas, water bodies, and other ecological spaces. (2) Throughout the 40-year period, both the landscape ecological risk (ERI) and ecosystem service value (ESV) in the study area have shown a decreasing trend. The proportion of high- and medium-high-risk areas of the ERI have decreased by 5.19% and 7.50%, respectively, while low, lower, and medium ecological risk areas have increased by 6.40%, 3.22% and 3.07%, respectively. In addition, low-ESV areas have increased by 14.22%, while the proportion of high- and medium-high-ESV areas have decreased by 1.16%. (3) There is a significant positive spatial correlation between the ERI and ESV. Regions with dense ecological spaces comprising forests, water bodies, and grasslands, particularly in the northeastern part of the Jiawang District and the southeastern part of the Tongshan District, demonstrate superior regional ecosystem service quality. The ERI and ESV are dominated by “high–high” and “low–high” aggregation. Conversely, in the southwestern part of the study area, the expansion of living space has led to the transformation of some agricultural land, forest land, and grassland into less risky construction land, resulting in a decline in the quality of regional ecosystem services. The local spatial correlation between the ERI and ESV changed from “high–high”, “low–low”, “low–high” agglomeration to “low–low” agglomeration. (4) Key factors influencing the spatial differentiation of the “production–living–ecological space” include the GDP, population density, soil type, and the distance to towns and roads. Among these, the interaction between population density and soil type has the most significant effect on the changes in the pattern of the “production–living–ecological space”.

The trade potential of grain crops in the countries along the Belt and Road: evidence from a stochastic frontier model

This study employs the stochastic frontier model (SFM) to analyze trade potential and efficiency in wheat and maize among Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) countries from 2002 to 2021, encompassing 45 countries for wheat trade and 55 for maize trade. The empirical findings reveal that economic development level, population growth, government efficiency, political stability, and regulatory quality are critical determinants of trade efficiency. Notably, World Trade Organization (WTO) membership exhibits a negative correlation with trade efficiency, potentially reflecting challenges in rule implementation and opportunity utilization among member states. In the context of maize trade, increased arable land area is inversely associated with efficiency, suggesting potential issues in managing large-scale agricultural regions or optimizing land use. The BRI’s impact on trade efficiency varies across countries, with Turkey and Hungary showing improved wheat trade efficiency, while Ethiopia and Georgia experienced declines. During the COVID-19 pandemic, effective disease management strategies and diversified trade mechanisms significantly influenced trade efficiency. Furthermore, the study reveals that larger economies do not necessarily outperform small and medium-sized economies in terms of trade potential. These findings contribute significantly to the literature on agricultural trade and offer valuable insights for policymakers, emphasizing the importance of enhancing government efficiency, political stability, and regulatory quality in the context of regional economic development initiatives such as the BRI. This research underscores the need for tailored approaches to trade policy and agricultural management, considering the unique characteristics and challenges faced by different economies along BRI.

Future change of humid heat extremes and population exposure in Turkey

AbstractGlobal climate projections show that humid heat extremes will expand toward the higher latitudes, making the midlatitudes hotspots for these extremes. Therefore, a thorough explanation of their regional characteristics becomes crucial, given that the changes in these extremes can potentially render a large proportion of the global population at risk. Here, we perform the first analysis of historical and projected changes in the intensity and frequency of humid heat extremes and quantify the population exposure to these extremes in Turkey, using long‐term simulations from the non‐hydrostatic mesoscale model of Consortium for Small‐scale Modeling (COSMO‐CLM) under the RCP8.5 emission scenario. We portray not only the nationwide changes in the humid heat extremes and population exposure but also their regional aspects by exploiting the K‐means clustering algorithm. Our results suggest significant future increases in the intensity and frequency of these extremes over a wide geographical area, which includes the surroundings of Adana, Antalya, Izmir, Sakarya, Ordu and Diyarbakir, most of which are coastal locations. Over most of these regions, severe humid heat stress is expected to last nearly a month every year, with almost 56% of the land area is projected to experience local historical upper tail heat stress conditions for at least an additional 10 consecutive hours. Further, we explicate a significant rise in the number of people exposed to severe humid heat stress, concentrated along most coastal regions, by as much as 1.6 million person‐days. More than 20% of Turkey's population may confront severe humid heat stress for at least 1 h, with that percentage falling to 4.15% for at least five consecutive hours, which indicates that people will not only endure more intense humid heat stress but also be exposed to these conditions consecutively over a period of many hours.

Deep learning-based gap filling for near real-time seamless daily global sea surface salinity using satellite observations

Sea surface salinity (SSS) provides crucial information about ocean environments, influencing global hydrological cycles, thermohaline circulation, and climate change. Although L-band passive microwave radiometers have provided satellite-based SSS data, there are gaps due to the limited daily coverage of the sensors. This study proposes a U-Net-based spatial gap-filling model for global SSS using Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) satellite data. The proposed model utilizes SSS swath data from the target and past days to generate daily global SSS maps with full coverage, incorporating only past temporal information. Additionally, bias-corrected data using gradient-boosted regression trees (GBRT) are employed to reduce inherent errors in the SMAP SSS data. We designed 24 schemes using data from the past 3, 5, and 7 days for both GBRT-corrected and original SMAP SSS data, with one to four times oversampling for low-salinity water, where the number of samples is significantly small. Validation results using masked-out pixels indicate that the gap-filling models with GBRT-corrected SSS data from the past 3 and 5 days and four times oversampling yielded the best performance, with root mean square errors (RMSEs) of 0.388 and 0.413 psu, respectively. Compared with the in situ Argo data for 2020, the RMSEs were 0.237 and 0.241 psu for the two models, respectively, significantly outperforming the SMAP Level 3 8-day SSS, which requires future data (RMSE of 0.456 psu). Notably, these models successfully filled gaps over coastal areas where low SSS (<30 psu) fluctuated due to freshwater discharge from inland areas. This study proposes an effective, novel gap-filling method for generating bias-corrected global daily SSS without delay, meeting operational needs. Moreover, the proposed gap-filling framework can be applied to other environmental swaths or even grid datasets.

ИЗУЧЕНИЕ МНОГОЛЕТНЕЙ ДИНАМИКИ ВНЕСЕНИЯ МИНЕРАЛЬНЫХ И ОРГАНИЧЕСКИХ УДОБРЕНИЙ В РЕСПУБЛИКЕ ХАКАСИЯ ЗА 1966–2022 гг.

The purpose of the study is to analyze the application of mineral and organic fertilizers for arable land in the conditions of the Republic of Khakassia for the period 1966–2022. The object of the study is the long-term dynamics of mineral and organic fertilizers. Calculations were performed in accordance with the methodology set out in the Order of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Ecology of the Russian Federation “On approval of methods for quantitative determination of greenhouse gas emissions and greenhouse gas removals” dated May 27, 2022. Data are provided on the introduction of carbon in fertilizers for the period from 1966 to 2022. The area of arable land decreased from 732.0 thousand hectares in 1966 to 559.6 thousand hectares in 2022. The historical minimum and maximum were observed, respectively, for the area of arable land in 2004 (407 thousand hectares) and 1962–1988. (732 thousand hectares), for organic and mineral fertilizers in 2004 (644.1 tons) and in 1989 (37,830.6 tons). In 2022, the total amount of fertilizers applied was 65.1 tons for organic fertilizers, 3,620.6 tons for mineral fertilizers. The range of carbon values in fertilizers was 91.5–25,743.6 tons. There was a decrease in the amount of carbon supplied with fertilizers (from 9002.2 to 1133.1 tons). In 2022, an analysis of the gross values of carbon input with plant residues was carried out. In 2022, 1,501.8 t C ∙ year–1 was added to the arable land with plant residues. Most of them were introduced with wheat. Methodological recommendations were compiled to improve analytical reporting on carbon in agrocenoses, including support for farms implementing measures to accumulate carbon in the soil. It is proposed to create a carbon balance module for agroecosystems in a carbon sequestration database. The proposed solutions will allow monitoring the carbon balance of agroecosystems in the Republic of Khakassia.

Mathematical-model Analysis of the Potential Exposure to Lead, Zinc and Iron Emissions from Consumption of Premium Motor Spirit in Nigeria

Environmental pollution has been on the increase due to emission from vehicles using fossil fuels. This research investigated the exposure of air, soil and water bodies to trace metal emissions: Pb, Zn and Fe, as a result of the consumption of premium motor spirit (PMS) in Nigeria. The exposure of air, soil, and water bodies to these emissions also lead to exposure of humans, food and animals to the emissions. This was done to estimate the emission rates, emission rate per capita, and emission rates per land areas (or land distribution). The results showed that: the annual emission rates ranged between 4.66 kg/y for Pb in 2012 in Jigawa State and 5.050∙103 kg/y for Fe in 2015 in Lagos State; the emission rates per capita ranged between 0.52∙10−6 kg/(y∙person) for Pb in 2012 in Kwara State and 2.33∙10−3 kg/(y∙person) and this was recorded in Lagos State in the year 2015; while the rate per land area ranged between 0.093∙10−3 kg/(y∙km2) for Pb in 2012 in Taraba State and 1.38 kg/(y∙km2) for Fe in 2015 in Lagos State. Results showed that residents of Lagos are at the highest risk of trace metal poisoning because they had the highest emission rates per capita, followed by Abuja, Osun, and Ogun. The states at the lowest risk are Yobe and Taraba, with Yobe as the lowest. It is recommended that regulations concerning the trace metal contents of fuels imported and distributed in Nigeria should be created and implemented to curb these risks.

Upscaling miscanthus production in the United Kingdom: The benefits, challenges, and trade‐offs

AbstractThe UK sixth carbon budget has recommended domestic biomass supply should increase to meet growing demand, planting a minimum of 30,000 hectares of perennial energy crops a year by 2035, with a view to establishing 700,000 hectares by 2050 to meet the requirements of the balanced net zero pathway. Miscanthus is a key biomass crop to scale up domestic biomass production in the United Kingdom. A cohesive land management strategy, based on robust evidence, will be required to ensure upscaling of miscanthus cultivation maximizes the environmental and economic benefits and minimizes undesirable consequences. This review examines research into available land areas, environmental impacts, barriers to uptake, and the challenges, benefits, and trade‐offs required to upscale miscanthus production on arable land and grassland in the United Kingdom. Expansion of perennial biomass crops has been considered best restricted to marginal land, less suited to food production. The review identifies a trade‐off between avoiding competition with food production and a risk of encroaching on areas containing high‐biodiversity or high‐carbon stocks, such as semi‐natural grasslands. If areas of land suitable for food production are needed to produce the biomass required for emission reduction, the review indicates there are multiple strategies for miscanthus to complement long‐term food security rather than compete with it. On arable land, a miscanthus rotation with a cycle length of 10–20 years can be employed as fallow period for fields experiencing yield decline, soil fatigue, or persistent weed problems. On improved grassland areas, miscanthus presents an option for diversification, flood mitigation, and water quality improvement. Strategies need to be developed to integrate miscanthus into farming systems in a way that is profitable, sensitive to local demand, climate, and geography, and complements rather than competes with food production by increasing overall farm profitability and resilience.

Seguimiento de los cambios en el uso del suelo y la cobertura del suelo utilizando tecnicas de teledeteccion y SIG en la Isla de Phu Quoc, Provincia de Kien Giang, Vietnam

The changes in land use and land cover (LULC) are among the primary drivers of global environmental changes in many developing countries. In this study, LULC changes were assessed on Phu Quoc Island, located in Kien Giang province, Vietnam, from 2001 to 2022. The study utilized remote sensing and Geographic Information System (GIS) technology using Landsat images for the years 2001, 2009, and 2022. Image classification for each year was conducted through supervised classification using a maximum likelihood classifier, with the main LULC classes being forests, bare land, agricultural areas, water bodies, and built-up areas. The accuracy of the classification was evaluated using the kappa coefficient, achieving values consistently above 0.8 for all three images. Over the 20-year period (2001-2022), the area of forest, agriculture, and water bodies decreased by 14.90 km2, 30.96 km2, and 0.64 km2, respectively. Meanwhile, the areas of bare land and built-up areas increased by 22.22 km2 and 24.28 km2, respectively. Additionally, this study employed the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) and the Normalized Difference Built-up Index (NDBI) to quickly assess LULC changes, obtaining results consistent with the supervised classification. The findings underscore the importance of closely monitoring LULC changes to facilitate effective natural resource management and maintain a sustainable environment.

Integrating Future Multi-Scenarios to Evaluate the Effectiveness of Ecological Restoration: A Case Study of the Yellow River Basin

Ecological restoration is an important strategy for mitigating environmental degradation, and the effectiveness evaluation of ecological restoration is of profound significance for the scientific implementation of restoration projects. This study improved the Patch-generating Land Use Simulation (PLUS) model. It was used to simulate the land use patterns under multi-scenarios such as natural development (ND), economic priority (EP), and ecological restoration (ER) in 2030. An evaluation framework covering ecological “Restoration–Monitoring–Effectiveness” (RME) was proposed. Based on 30 m high-resolution remote-sensing data from 2000 to 2020, the land use distribution, landscape pattern changes, and ecosystem services under different scenarios were evaluated and predicted in the Yellow River Basin of Sichuan to verify the effectiveness of the evaluation framework. The results showed the following: (1) Under the ER scenario, the transfer of land use types in 2020–2030 was mainly characterized by an increase in the area of wetlands and a decrease in the area of built-up land. (2) There were obvious differences in land use and landscape patterns under different scenarios. Compared with the ND and EP scenarios, the growth of the construction rate was suppressed in the ER scenario, and the coverage of grassland and wetlands increased significantly. (3) The mean values of ecosystem services in the ER scenario were higher than those in the ND and EP scenarios. These findings clearly indicate that the RME evaluation system can accurately evaluate the ecological restoration effects under multi-scenarios in the future, providing a new perspective for ecological restoration evaluation in other regions.

Assessing land-use changes and carbon storage: a case study of the Jialing River Basin, China

Land-use change is the main driver of carbon storage change in terrestrial ecosystems. Currently, domestic and international studies mainly focus on the impact of carbon storage changes on climate, while studies on the impact of land-use changes on carbon storage in complex terrestrial ecosystems are few. The Jialing River Basin (JRB), with a total area of ~ 160,000 km2, diverse topography, and elevation differences exceeding 5 km, is an ideal case for understanding the complex interactions between land-use change and carbon storage dynamics. Taking the JRB as our study area, we analyzed land-use changes from 2000 to 2020. Subsequently, we simulated land-use patterns for business-as-usual (BAU), cropland protection (CP), and ecological priority (EP) scenarios in 2035 using the PLUS model. Additionally, we assessed carbon storage using the InVEST model. This approach helps us to accurately understand the carbon change processes in regional complex terrestrial ecosystems and to formulate scientifically informed land-use policies. The results revealed the following: (1) Cropland was the most dominant land-use type (LUT) in the region, and it was the only LUT experiencing net reduction, with 92.22% of newly designated construction land originating from cropland. (2) In the JRB, total carbon storage steadily decreased after 2005, with significant spatial heterogeneity. This pattern was marked by higher carbon storage levels in the north and lower levels in the south, with a distinct demarcation line. The conversion of cropland to construction land is the main factor driving the reduction in carbon storage. (3) Compared with the BAU and EP scenarios, the CP scenario demonstrated a smaller reduction in cropland area, a smaller addition to construction land area, and a lower depletion in the JRB total carbon storage from 2020 to 2035. This study demonstrates the effectiveness of the PLUS and InVEST models in analyzing complex ecosystems and offers data support for quantitatively assessing regional ecosystem services. Strict adherence to the cropland replenishment task mandated by the Chinese government is crucial to increase cropland areas in the JRB and consequently enhance the carbon sequestration capacity of its ecosystem. Such efforts are vital for ensuring the food and ecological security of the JRB, particularly in the pursuit of the “dual-carbon” objective.

Inner Areas and Green Economy in Campania Region: The Carditello Royal Borbonic Site Case Study

In Italy, within the 'National Strategy on Inland Areas', 'belt areas', 'peripheral areas' and 'ultra-peripheral areas' have emerged and been recognised for the first time since 2013, as well as 'intermediate areas'. The area presented in the paper is atypical, although it presents some recurring characteristics in other intermediate areas close to Italian metropolitan areas. It is an area near of Naples, in the region of Campania, which gravitates around the Royal Bourbon Site of Carditello with a past of considerable historical interest and an unfortunate recent past, which has led it to be in a particularly disadvantaged condition. The paper deals with a topic with little reference literature, at least as far as the Italian reality is concerned; mixed areas, partly 'intermediate' and partly 'Belt'. After a careful Swot analysis, adapted to the territorial context of the area under consideration, focusing on its considerable potential, pointing out some problematic nodes and indicating ways to overcome them, seizing and creating some opportunities for possible sustainable development, the paper proposes a perspective scenario that aims at the sustainable enhancement of the area.

Assessment of Climate Adaptability in the Late-Maturing Citrus Industry in Sichuan Province

Sichuan Province is the largest inland area for late-maturing citrus fruit production in China, and its climate conditions are a primary consideration for the cultivation of late-maturing citrus fruits. Based on meteorological data from 2010 to 2020 for the 18 prefecture-level cities and autonomous prefectures in Sichuan Province that cultivate late-maturing citrus fruits, along with the traditional method of dividing the advantages of citrus and the calculation of comparative advantage using factor endowment coefficients, we identified the annual average temperature, annual accumulated temperature ≥ 10 °C, average temperatures in July and January, annual precipitation, and annual sunshine hours as input indicators. We selected the resource endowment coefficient as the output indicator and used the DEA–Malmquist index model to evaluate the climate adaptability of Sichuan’s late-maturing citrus fruit industry. The analysis results indicate that the overall climate conditions in Sichuan are suitable for the growth of late-maturing citrus fruits. However, extensive cultivation of similar varieties has led to a decline in resource endowment across different regions. The use of arable land for cultivating late-maturing citrus fruits has also reduced climate adaptability. Policies that contradict climate adaptability do not support sustainable development within Sichuan’s late-maturing citrus fruit industry.

Impacts of the global food system on terrestrial biodiversity from land use and climate change

The global food system is a key driver of land-use and climate change which in turn drive biodiversity change. Developing sustainable food systems is therefore critical to reversing biodiversity loss. We use the multi-regional input-output model EXIOBASE to estimate the biodiversity impacts embedded within the global food system in 2011. Using models that capture regional variation in the sensitivity of biodiversity both to land use and climate change, we calculate the land-driven and greenhouse gas-driven footprints of food using two metrics of biodiversity: local species richness and rarity-weighted species richness. We show that the footprint of land area underestimates biodiversity impact in more species-rich regions and that our metric of rarity-weighted richness places a greater emphasis on biodiversity costs in Central and South America. We find that methane emissions are responsible for 70% of the overall greenhouse gas-driven biodiversity footprint and that, in several regions, emissions from a single year’s food production are associated with global biodiversity loss equivalent to 2% or more of that region’s total land-driven biodiversity loss. The measures we present are relatively simple to calculate and could be incorporated into decision-making and environmental impact assessments by governments and businesses.

Biofabricated nanomaterials in sustainable agriculture: insights, challenges and prospects.

One ever-evolving and ever-demanding critical human endeavour is the provision of food security for the growing world population. It could be done by adopting sustainable agriculture through horizontal (expanding the aerable land area) and vertical (intensifying agriculture through sound technological approaches) interventions. Customised formulated nanomaterials have numerous advantages. With their specialised physicochemical properties, some nanoparticulised materials improve plant's natural development and stress tolerance and some other are good nanocarriers. Nanocarriers in agriculture often coat chemicals to form composites having utilities with crop productivity enhancement abilities, environmental management (like ecotoxicity reduction ability), and biomedicines (like the ability of controlled and targeted release of useful nanoscale drugs). The Ag, Fe, Zn, TiO2, ZnO, SiO2 and MgO nanoparticles often employed in advanced agriculture are covered here. Some nanoparticles used for various extended purposes in modern farming practices, including disease diagnostics and seed treatment are covered too. Thus, nanotechnology has revolutionised agrotechnology, which holds promises to transform agricultural (eco)system as a whole to ensure food security in future. Considering the available literature, the article further probes the emergent regulatory issues governing the synthesis and use of nanomaterials in the agriculture sector. If applied responsibly, nanomaterials could help improve soil health. The article provides an overview of the used nanomaterials in distribution of biomolecules, to aid in devising a safer and eco-friendly sustainable agriculture strategy. Through this, agri-systems depending on advanced farming practices might function more effectively and enhance agri-productivity to meet the food demand of the rising world population.

Quantifying the impacts of climate change and human activities on runoff and suspended sediment load in the Lhasa River Basin, Tibetan Plateau

AbstractQuantifying the attribution of climate change and human activities on runoff and suspended sediment load is crucial for formulating future watershed management measures, especially in the ecologically fragile alpine region, which is more susceptible to climate change and human activities. In this study, the temporal changes in runoff‐suspended sediment load and the potential impact factors (i.e., precipitation, potential evapotranspiration (PET), land use/land cover change (LULC) and reservoir operation) were investigated in the Lhasa River Basin (LRB) from 1956 to 2020. In addition, the contributions of those factors to the changes in runoff and suspended sediment load were quantitatively evaluated based on physically‐based Soil and Water Assessment Tools (SWAT). The results indicated that annual runoff and suspended sediment load showed an increasing but insignificant trend during 1956–2020, while annual precipitation and PET showed a significant increasing trend at a rate of 0.94 and 1.07 mm/yr, respectively. LULC mainly presented an increase in forestland area followed by a decrease in grassland and bare land area due to the implementation of ecological projects. Runoff and suspended sediment load changed abruptly at approximately 1995 and 2005 based on three abrupt change identification methods, thus, the study period was further divided into three substages: baseline period (P0, 1956–1994), dramatically increased period (P1, 1995–2004) and slightly decreased period (P2, 2005–2020). The attribution analysis showed that climate change was the dominant contributor to runoff and suspended sediment load increments during P1. LULC caused the decline in runoff and suspended sediment load in both P1 and P2, with their contribution increasing significantly from 0.40% and 4.73% in P1 to 50.24% and 51.79% in P2, respectively. Reservoir operation was the second key factor in runoff and suspended sediment load reduction in P2, contributing 42.07% and 43.72%, respectively. These findings provide the scientific foundation for reasonably allocating water resources and statistical support for the benefit evaluation of implementing ecological projects in the basin.

Study on the Influence of Temperature and Water Content on the Static Mechanical Properties of Sandstone

The area of permafrost worldwide accounts for approximately 20% to 25% of land area. In cold-climate regions of China, which are garnering international attention, the study of low-temperature and moisture effects on rock mass mechanical properties is of significant importance. China has a wide area of cold regions. This research can provide a foundation for China’s exploration activities in such extreme environments. This paper examines the mechanical behavior of rock specimens subjected to various low temperatures and water contents through uniaxial compression tests. The analysis encompasses failure modes, stress–strain relationships, uniaxial compressive strength (UCS), and elastic modulus (EM) of these specimens. Findings reveal that at lower temperatures, the rock specimens’ fracture patterns transition from compressive shear failure to cleavage failure, reflecting a shift from a plastic–elastic–plastic to a plastic–elastic response. Specifically, saturated rocks exhibit a 40.8% decrease in UCS and an 11.4% reduction in EM compared to their dry counterparts. Additionally, in cold conditions, an increased water content in rocks primarily leads to vertical cracking. Under such conditions, saturated rocks show a 52.3% decline in UCS and a 15.2% reduction in EM, relative to their dry state.