Jiuquan City Research Articles

Changes in the Range of Four Advantageous Grasshopper Habitats in the Hexi Corridor under Future Climate Conditions.

Angaracris rhodopa (Fischer et Walheim), Calliptamus abbreviatus (Ikonnikov), Myrmeleotettix palpalis (Zubowsky), and Oedaleus decorus asiaticus (Bey-Bienko) are the main grasshoppers that harm the natural grassland in the Hexi Corridor in Gansu, northwest China. In this study, the MaxEnt model was employed to identify the key environmental factors affecting the distribution of the four grasshoppers' habitats and to assess their distribution under current and future climate conditions. The aim was to provide a basis for grasshopper monitoring, prediction, and precise control. In this study, distribution of suitable habitats for A. rhodopa, C. abbreviates, M. palpalis, O. decorus asiaticus were predicted under current and future climatic scenarios using the Maxent model. The average AUC (area under the ROC curve) and TSS (true skill statistic) values of the four grasshoppers were greater than 0.9, and the simulation results were excellent and highly reliable. The mean annual precipitation was the main factor limiting the current range of suitable areas for these four species. Under the current climate, A. rhodopa, C. abbreviatus, and O. decorus asiaticus were mainly distributed in the central and eastern parts of the Hexi Corridor, and M. palpalis was distributed throughout the Hexi Corridor, with a suitable area of 1.29 × 104, 1.43 × 104, 1.44 × 104, and 2.12 × 104 km2, accounting for 13.7%, 15.2%, 15.3%, and 22.5% of the total area of the grasslands in the Hexi Corridor, respectively. The highly suitable areas of A. rhodopa, C. abbreviatus, and O. decorus asiaticus were mainly distributed in the eastern-central part of Zhangye City, the western part of Wuwei City, and the western and southern parts of Jinchang City, with areas of 0.20 × 104, 0.29 × 104, and 0.35 × 104 km2, accounting for 2.2%, 3%, and 3.7% of the grassland area, respectively. The high habitat of M. palpalis was mainly distributed in the southeast of Jiuquan City, the west, middle, and east of Zhangye City, the west of Wuwei City, and the west and south of Jinchang City, with an area of 0.32 × 104 km2, accounting for 3.4% of the grassland area. In the 2030s, the range of A. rhodopa, C. abbreviatus, and O. decorus asiaticus was predicted to increase; the range of M. palpalis will decrease. The results of this study could provide a theoretical basis for the precise monitoring and control of key areas of grasshoppers in the Hexi Corridor.

Spatial-Temporal Evolution and Prediction of Carbon Storage in Jiuquan City Ecosystem Based on PLUS-InVEST Model

Based on the background of carbon peaking and carbon neutrality goal strategies, it is important to explore the impact of land use change on carbon storage and the drivers of spatial variation in carbon storage in the Northwest Arid Zone, which is vital to improve the carbon sink increment of the regional ecosystem and promote the regional carbon breakeven. The arid region of northwest China is an extremely fragile natural ecology, and with the rapid advancement of new urbanization, the rate of land use change has accelerated significantly, which has a certain impact on the carbon storage and fixation capacity of ecosystems. The PLUS-InVEST model was used to simulate the spatial and temporal evolution characteristics of carbon storage under natural development, intensive development, water resource constraint, and ecological protection scenarios in Jiuquan City in 2035, and the parameter optimal geographic detector model was used to analyze the spatial divergence drivers of carbon storage. The results showed that:① the area of cultivated land, watershed, and construction land in Jiuquan City showed a significant increasing trend from 1990 to 2020, whereas the area of the remaining land use types showed a decreasing trend. ② The carbon storage in Jiuquan City increased from 7 722 808.1 t to 7 784 371 t from 1990 to 2020, and the conversion of grassland into unused land was the main cause of the loss of regional carbon storage, accounting for 85% of the total loss. ③ All four development scenarios in 2035 showed an increasing trend of carbon storage, among which the ecological protection scenario had the most significant increase, with an increment of 76 989.29 t. ④ The degree of land use, population density, GDP density, and NDVI were the main driving factors of the spatial variation in carbon storage in Jiuquan City, among which the degree of land use had the strongest explanatory power (q value of 0.849), and the interaction of natural and anthropogenic factors enhanced the explanatory power of each factor on the spatial variation in carbon storage. The results of the study can provide a scientific basis and decision basis for the integrated ecosystem management and territorial space optimization in Jiuquan City.

Ecological network optimization of Jiuquan City, Gansu, China based on complex network theory and circuit model

Building a scientific and reasonable ecological network is the key for optimizing the pattern of territorial development and protection, and is of great significance for ensuring regional ecological security and promoting the virtuous cycle of ecosystems. In previous studies, nodal attack method (destruction of ecological source area) was often used in the "robustness" evaluation of ecological networks. Actually, the ecological corridor is more fragile than the source area, and thus the nodal attack method is not reasonable. In this study, taking Jiuquan City as the research area, based on the circuit model to construct the ecological network, we carried out the topology optimization of ecological network by using three strategies (random edge increase, node degree and priority edge increase with low node intermedium number) in complex network theory. We compared and analyzed the "robustness" of ecological network before and after optimization by constructing edge attack strategy, and selected the best network optimization strategy. The results showed that 65 ecological source areas were identified in Jiuquan City, with a total area of 20275.15 km2, and that grassland accounted for 89.5% of the source area. We identified 179 ecological corridors with a total length of 6387.16 km, 158 ecological barrier points with a total area of 1385.5 km2. The unused land accounted for 92.2% of the total barrier points area. We identified 63 ecological pinch points, mainly concentrated in the source edge and corridor intersection. Among them, the spatial distribution of 11 barrier points and pinch points was consistent, which was the key area to be repaired in ecological network optimization. The three optimization strategies had significantly improved the stability of ecological network in Jiuquan City. The relative size of the maximum connected subgraph and the edge connected rate of the ecological network of the optimization strategy of adding edges according to degree were all the most stable under random attack mode and deliberate attack mode, which was the best optimization scheme for ecological network in Jiuquan City.

Inversion Model of Salt Content in Alfalfa-Covered Soil Based on a Combination of UAV Spectral and Texture Information

This study aimed to investigate how the combination of texture information and spectral index affects the accuracy of the soil salinity inversion model. Taking the Bianwan Farm in Jiuquan City, Gansu Province, China as the research area, the multi-spectral data and soil salinity data at 0–15 cm, 15–30 cm and 30–50 cm depths in the sampling area under alfalfa coverage were collected, and spectral reflectance and texture features were obtained from a multispectral image. Moreover, the red-edge band was introduced to improve the spectral index, and gray correlation analysis was utilized to screen sensitive features. Five types of alfalfa-covered soil salinity machine learning inversion models based on random forest (RF) and extreme learning machine (ELM) algorithms were constructed, using the salinity index (SIs), vegetation index (VIs), salinity index + vegetation index (SIs + VIs), vegetation index + texture feature (VIs + TFs), and vegetation index + texture index (VIs + TIs). The determination coefficient R2, root-mean-square error (RMSE) and mean absolute error (MAE) were used to evaluate each model’s performance. The results show that the VIs model is more accurate than the SIs and SIs +VIs models. Combining texture information with VIs improves the inversion accuracy, and the VIs + TIs model has the best inversion effect. From the perspective of inversion depth, the inversion effect for 0–15 cm soil salinity was significantly better than that for other depths, and was the best inversion depth under alfalfa cover. The average R2 of the RF model was 10% higher than that of the ELM. The RF algorithm has high inversion accuracy and stability and performs better than ELM. These findings can serve as a theoretical basis for the efficient inversion of soil salinity and management of saline–alkali lands.

A new species of the mite genus Sancassania (Acari: Acaridae) associated with alfalfa production losses in China

Gansu is a province in the northwest of China that is well known for its rich grassland types and important alfalfa planting base in China. Among the key limiting factors in alfalfa products and high quality are insect and mite pests, particularly those occurring on root and stem parts. Mite populations were collected on alfalfa roots from Jiuquan City located in the northwest part of Gansu Province. This study aimed to identify the principle mite species infesting alfalfa in Gansu Province, by molecular and morphological characterization. DNA from 20 specimens and morphological data from 45 specimens (15 adult females, 20 adult males [10 homeomorphic and 10 heteromorphic] and 10 deutonymphs were used to confirm the identity of the mite species. The species present is described here as a new species (Sancassania alfalfa Shang & Li, sp. nov.).

Multi-Scenario Simulation and Driving Force Analysis of Ecosystem Service Value in Arid Areas Based on PLUS Model: A Case Study of Jiuquan City, China

The arid region of northwest China is an extremely fragile area of natural ecology. With population growth and continuous expansion of urban scale, the ecosystem in the arid region is facing greater pressure. Scientific assessment and prediction of the value of ecosystem services in arid areas are necessary and of great significance for the sustainable development of regional ecological environments. In this paper, a parametric optimal geographic model is used to analyze the driving factors of ESV spatial dispersion in Jiuquan City as an example. The PLUS model is also used to simulate the spatial and temporal evolution of ESV in 2035 under the scenarios of natural development, urban development, water constraints and ecological conservation, based on the historical change pattern of land use and ecosystem service value (ESV). The results showed that from 1980 to 2020, the plowland, water and construction land area in Jiuquan City showed a significant increasing trend, while other land use types showed a decreasing trend. ESV has increased from CNY 139.394 billion to CNY 142.642 billion. The expansion of plowland and water area was the main reason for the increase in ESV. Elevation, temperature, and precipitation are the main driving factors of spatial differentiation of ESV in Jiuquan City. The interaction of natural and human factors enhances the explanatory power of each factor to the spatial differentiation of ESV. In 2035, the ESV in four development scenarios in Jiuquan City showed an upward trend, and the ESV of the ecological protection scenario was the highest, which was the best mode to realize a sustainable development in Jiuquan City in the future. This study can provide scientific basis and decision-making basis for Jiuquan City to formulate sustainable development strategy.

浅析盐碱农田土壤重金属污染评价及其来源——以甘肃省酒泉市银达镇为例

浅析盐碱农田土壤重金属污染评价及其来源——以甘肃省酒泉市银达镇为例

A robust optimization model for capacity configuration of PV/battery/hydrogen system considering multiple uncertainties

The capacity configuration optimization of photovoltaic (PV) hydrogen system with battery has been widely concerned, but many existing studies only take hydrogen as an energy storage mode of smooth power, rather than dedicated to hydrogen production to meet the needs of chemical plants for hydrogen, and it ignores the impact of the fluctuation of PV output and the uncertainty of hydrogen demand on the system capacity configuration optimization. For overcoming this disadvantage, a PV/battery/hydrogen system is proposed, which is specially used for hydrogen production, and for the sake of system economy, the excess power will be weighed whether to store it in the battery or sell it in the green certificate trading market, and a new trading model is formed. Moreover, a robust optimization model is established to deal with the impact of PV output, green power transaction price and hydrogen demand volatility on system capacity configuration. Finally, the characteristics of the model are tested by a real case of a chemical plant in Jiuquan City, Gansu Province. The results show that the capacity configuration scheme of the proposed model can effectively resist the demand uncertainty of hydrogen, the capacity of the electrolyzer and battery can still meet the needs of the chemical plant, even if the demand of the hydrogen increases by 40%.

Construction and application of decision support indicator system for new energy development in Hexi Corridor

Due to the lack of a scientific and objective index system for the development and utilization of new energy in China’s Hexi Corridor, there have been different opinions and views on the selection of new energy fields that need to be developed as a priority and the ranking of development, which is not conducive to scientific decision-making on new energy development. In response to this problem, this paper takes the current situation of new energy industry research in China’s Hexi Corridor as a starting point, uses economic returns, social recognition, environmental protection and unit investment ratio as evaluation indicators, takes solar thermal utilization, photovoltaic power generation, wind power generation and biomass power generation as development objects, establishes a new energy evaluation index system for the Hexi Corridor, and derives principles for the development of new energy in the Hexi Corridor through expert evaluation and analytic hierarchy process. This index system was also applied in the new energy development planning and decision-making study in Jiuquan City. The study showed that Jiuquan City should focus on developing wind power generation, followed by photovoltaic power generation and solar thermal utilization, and finally selectively develop biomass power generation. The results of the study are consistent with the actual situation in Jiuquan City, and can provide theoretical support for the development of the new energy industry in Jiuquan City.

Genetic variation of sequences of partial mitochondrial nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide dehydrogenase subunit 1 (pnad1) and pnad5 genes of Toxascaris leonina isolates from foxes and dogs in Jiuquan City of Gansu Province

To investigate the genetic variations of Toxascaris leonina isolates from different hosts in Jiuquan City, Gansu Province. The mitochondrial sequences of partial mitochondrial nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide dehydrogenase subunit 1 (pnad1) and pnad5 of eleven T. leonina isolates from domestic dogs, foxes and pet dogs in Jiuquan City, Gansu Province, were amplified using PCR, and the amplification product was sequenced. The genetic variations of pnad1 and pnad5 genes in T. leonina isolates were analyzed. The sequences of T. leonina pnad1 and pnad5 genes measured 530 bp and 550 bp in size, respectively. The nucleotide sequence homology was 99.4% to 100.0% for T. leonina pnad1 gene and 99.5% to 99.8% for T. leonina pnad5 gene, and the sequences of T. leonina pnad1 and pnad5 genes shared 99.2% to 99.9% and 99.1% to 99.9% with corresponding sequences of known T. leonina isolates. In addition, there were 19 and 24 polymorphic sites detected in the sequences of T. leonina pnad1 and pnad5 genes, with 10 and 9 haplotypes, haplotype diversity of 0.982 and 0.964 and nucleotide diversity of 0.039 4 and 0.034 2, respectively. Phylogenetic analysis based on pnad1 and pnad5 gene sequences showed that the eleven T. leonina isolates and known T. leonina isolates were clustered into the same branch with a random distribution, which were close to the branch where Toxocara canis was clustered, and far from the branch where other Ascaris species were clustered. There is a minor genetic variation in pnad1 and pnad5 genes of T. leonina isolates from different hosts in Jiuquan City, Gansu Province, and the pnad1 gene is more suitable as a molecular marker than pnad5 gene for analysis of genetic variations in T. leonina.

Multiple Models Used to Deconstruct the Characteristics of Atmospheric Particles in Arid Region of Northwest China

Northwest China has a desert, arid and semi-arid climate that makes outdoor air sampling challenging. The region is also affected by intense dust storms. Monitoring challenges from the harsh climate have limited supplies of the data needed to inform appropriate regulatory actions to address air pollution in the region. Here we combine a comprehensive set of state-of-the-art offline analytical approaches and multiple models to deconstruct the chemical nature and sources of particulate matter at arid city in northwestern China. We collected 972 samples in Jiuquan during the period March 2019 through January 2020. The annual levels of PM10 (73.7 μg/m3) exceeded the Chinese Ambient Air Quality Standard (CAAQS) Grade II of 70 μg/m3. The percentages of the sum of sulfate, nitrate and ammonium, inorganic elements, organic carbon and elemental carbon in PM10 mass ranged 6.8–15.8%, 9.9–12.2%, 9.0–27.7%, and 1.5–4.7%, respectively. Analyses of sources indicated that soil dust was a major contributor to PM10 levels in Jiuquan city accounting for 24.8–30.5%. Fugitive dust and coal combustion were the second and third largest contributors to PM10, respectively. Our results suggest that natural emissions can make air quality regulation futile. In this comprehensive particulate pollution analysis, we present the view that the sizeable regional particulate sources warrant national and regional mitigation strategies to ensure compliance with air quality requirements.

Short-term prediction of wind power based on BiLSTM–CNN–WGAN-GP

A short-term wind power prediction model based on BiLSTM–CNN–WGAN-GP (LCWGAN-GP) is proposed in this paper, aiming at the problems of instability and low prediction accuracy of short-term wind power prediction. Firstly, the original wind energy data are decomposed into subsequences of natural mode functions with different frequencies by using the variational mode decomposition (VMD) algorithm. The VMD algorithm relies on a decision support system for the decomposition of the data into natural mode functions. Once the decomposition is performed, the nonlinear and dynamic behavior are extracted from each natural mode function. Next, the BiLSTM network is chosen as the generation model of the generative adversarial network (WGAN-GP) to obtain the data distribution characteristics of wind power’s output. The convolutional neural network (CNN) is chosen as the discrimination model, and the semi-supervised regression layer is utilized to design the discrimination model to predict wind power. The minimum–maximum game is formed by the BiLSTM and CNN network models to improve the quality of sample generation and further improve the prediction accuracy. Finally, the actual data of a wind farm in Jiuquan City, Gansu Province, China is taken as an example to prove that the proposed method has superior performance compared with other prediction algorithms.

Research on Landscape Pattern Construction and Ecological Restoration of Jiuquan City Based on Ecological Security Evaluation

Jiuquan City is a typical ecologically fragile area in the arid areas of Northwest China, and unreasonable human activities directly affect the regional ecological security. Scientifically, it is necessary to construct an ecological landscape pattern on the basis of ecological security evaluation. This paper selected evaluation factors based on the perspective of “environmental base and human interference”, used spatial principal component analysis (SPCA) to comprehensively evaluate the regional landscape ecological security, and used the minimum cumulative resistance (MCR) model to construct the regional ecological security pattern. The results show that the overall ecological security level of the study area is low, and the area with a moderate safety level and below is 122,100 km2, accounting for 72.57% of the total area of the study area. The total area of the identified ecological source area is 6683 km2, the spatial distribution is extremely uneven, and it is extremely concentrated in the southern region; 32 ecological corridors with a total length of 3817.8 km are identified, of which corridor NO. 1–4 run through the Qilian Mountains, 11 oasis areas, and 14 nature reserves. The length of ecological corridors is 1376.1 km, accounting for 36.04% of the total. Forty-two ecological nodes are identified, and the central corridor area is more distributed; four ecological restoration zones are divided, including an ecological conservation zone, ecological improvement zone, ecological control zone, and ecological restoration zone, with areas of 34,380.3 km2, 61,884.4 km2, 21,134.4 km2, and 50,648.3 km2, respectively. Through the delineation of the urban ecological network pattern composed of source areas, corridors, and nodes, as well as the delineation of ecological restoration zones, the ecological security level of the study area will be effectively improved. Furthermore, a new method of ecological restoration zoning will be used, hoping to provide a useful reference for improving the quality of the ecological environment in arid areas and optimizing the spatial pattern of the land.

Study on sandstorm in the western section of Hexi Corridor of 2020

A diagnostic analysis of the dust storm weather occurring in the western part of the Hexi Corridor from 27-30 June 2020 was carried out using Jiuquan city’s live data, as well as ECMWF numerical forecasts, and the NCEP reanalysis information was used to draw a theta dust storm model based on the routing principle. The results show that: 1.In the early stage of sandstorm, there was no precipitation in Suzhou and Jinta counties in March and April, which resulted in dry surface and thickened soil layer. These factors created favorable conditions for the occurrence of dust weather. 2.Development of unstable trough eastward in front of the ridge of Mountain Ural at 500 hPa, The cold high pressure is continuously strengthened in the process of moving, which is the large-scale system leading to the sandstorm. Thermal depression in front of ground cold front is the main cause for the outbreak of the severe sandstorm. 3.The beginning and ending time of the sandstorm can be accurately predicted by the simulation chart of sandstorm forecast, which has a good indication significance for the sandstorm forecast in the Hexi area.

Justification of the need for forming a frame of mutually complimentary industrial innovation centers in the ultracontinental core of the Eurasian space

Growing disagreements between major actors of world politics and economy have aggravated the conflict between leading competing states and caused expansion of geopolitical and geo-economic rivalry. Living conditions of the population of territories located in the most vulnerable places of the Earth, including ultra-continental cores in the countries of the former “socialist camp” (USSR, China, Mongolia) are sharply deteriorating. Creation of a frame-type network model based on the new industrial innovation centers could contribute to the development of these areas. Such centers should pool and reasonably direct available resources to the most competitive and called-for economy sectors capable to provide the best performance of end-use products output. Along with already recognized subnational leaders, agglomerations of Barnaul, Irkutsk, the Tashkent-Shimkent and Rubtsovsk-Semey transboundary industrial hubs, Jiuquan city district of Gansu province are proposed as nodes for the future development of the study space. The prospects for the Rubtsovsk-Semey hub are demonstrated in more detail. Each core of macro-regional development should have its own polymodal specialization bound as to the world economy as to the interests of Eurasian central countries that enables to mutually complement and strengthen these territories. It is emphasized that the joint strategy of development will ensure a full-fledged economic breakthrough in the ultra-continental Eurasian space.

Evaluation and spatiotemporal characteristics of glacier service value in the Qilian Mountains

Glaciers provide essential resources and services for human well-being and so-cio-economic development in arid regions. It is of great significance for regional socio- eco-nomic sustainable development and environmental protection to conduct a glacier service value assessment and to analyze its spatiotemporal characteristics. Based on the first and second Chinese glacier inventories of the Qilian Mountains, a glacier service value evaluation system was established. Then the glacier service value and its spatiotemporal variation were assessed by combining the methods of unit area service price, value equivalent factor, and the glacier service value change index (GSCI). Three key results were obtained. (1) The total service value of glaciers in the Qilian Mountains for 2016 was 24.354 billion yuan. The main services provided were climate regulation and runoff regulation, which accounted for 60.58% and 33.14% of the total service value, respectively. Minor services were freshwater supply and hydropower, which accounted for 3.47% and 1.75% of the total value, respectively. The value of other types of services was about 0.259 billion yuan. (2) Among the various river systems in the Qilian Mountains, the Shule River basin had the highest glacier service value (7.771 billion yuan, 31.91%), followed by the Haltang River basin (4.321 billion yuan, 17.74%) and the Beida River basin (3.281 billion yuan, 13.47%). In terms of administrative divisions, the glacier service value of the Qilian Mountains in Qinghai Province was 1.138 billion yuan higher than that of Gansu Province at 11.608 billion yuan, of which the services in the Haixi Mongol and Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture and Jiuquan City were valued at 11.124 (45.68%) and 7.758 (31.86%) billion yuan, respectively. (3) During the period from 1956 to 2010, the service value of glaciers in the Qilian Mountains declined by 435 million yuan, with an acceleration in the decreasing trend from west to east.

Research on planting area and industrial development strategy of Tibetan medicine

Appropriate producing areas can guarantee the quality of Tibetan medicine, but research on the suitable ecological factors and suitable producing areas of Tibetan medicinal plants is scarce. This paper used the Geographic Information System for Global Medicinal Plants(GMPGIS) to analyze the ecological suitability of Tibetan medicinal plants nationwide. For the first time, the range of ecological factors and main soil types of Tibetan medicinal plants were extracted, such as the average annual temperature-19.4-24.2 ℃, annual average precipitation 17-4 088 mm, annual average sunshine 124.2-171.6 W·m~(-2). The main soil types were black calcareous soil, thin layer soil, chestnut soil and so on. Based on 337 sampling points, the largest ecological similarity area of Tibetan medicine across the country was obtained through ecological similarity analysis. In addition to Tibet and Qinghai provinces and Tibetan Autonomous Prefectures in Sichuan, Gansu, and Yunnan provinces, Jiuquan city and Linxia county in Gansu province, Panzhihua and Ya'an in Sichuan province, and Xinjiang, Inner Mongolia, and Shanxi provinces also had larger suitable cultivation areas. In addition, by analyzing the current situation of Tibetan medicine industry, the research pointed out that there were some problems such as unreasonable development and utilization of resources, lack of standards and norms, weak basic research and imperfect industrial system, and made corresponding countermeasures for sustainable development of resources, formulation of standards and specifications, promotion of medicine through science and technology, expansion of domestic and foreign markets, etc. This study provided the basis for guiding the rational layout of production bases, introduction and breeding of plant Tibetan medicine nationwide, laying the foundation for the scientific and standardized production of high-quality Tibetan medicine, clarifying the development direction of Tibetan medicine industry, and providing ideas for the development strategy of Tibetan medicine and other national medicine industry.

Y-chromosome evidence confirmed the Kerei-Abakh origin of Aksay Kazakhs.

Aksay Kazakhs are the easternmost branch of Kazakhs, residing in Jiuquan city, the forefront of the ancient Silk Road. However, the genetic diversity of Aksay Kazakhs and its relationships with other Kazakhs still lack attention. To clarify this issue, we analyzed the non-recombining portion of the Y-chromosome from 93 Aksay Kazakhs samples, using a high-resolution analysis of 106 biallelic markers and 17 STRs. The lowest haplogroup diversity (0.38) was observed in Aksay Kazakhs among all studied Kazakh populations. The social and cultural traditions of the Kazakhs shaped their current pattern of genetic variation. Aksay Kazakhs tended to migrate with clans and had limited paternal admixture with neighboring populations. Aksay Kazakhs had the highest frequency (80%) of haplogroup C2b1a3a1-F3796 (previous C3*-Star Cluster) among the investigated Eurasian steppe populations, which was now seen as the genetic marker of Kerei clan. Furthermore, NETWORK analysis indicated that Aksay Kazakhs originated from sub-clan Kerei-Abakh in Kazakhstan with DYS448 = 23. TMRCA estimates of three recent descent clusters detected in C2*-M217 (xM48) network, one of which incorporate nearly all of the C2b1a3a1-F3796 Aksay Kazakhs samples, gave the age range of 976-1405 YA for DC1, 1059-1314 YA for DC2, and 1139-1317 YA for DC3, respectively; this is coherent with the 7th to the 11th centuries Altaic-speaking pastoral nomadic population expansion.

Ecological environment assessment based on land use simulation: A case study in the Heihe River Basin

Ecological environment assessment can not only provide significant references for effective solutions to regional ecological problems, but also promote the benign interaction of socio–economic–ecological development. This study selected the Heihe River Basin (HRB) as the typical area to comprehensively evaluate the ecological environment from 2010 to 2030 based on the dynamics of land system (DLS) model, which is coupled with the biological abundance index (BAI), vegetation coverage index (VCI), water density index (WDI), land degradation index (LDI), and eco-environment quality index (EQI). The results indicate that the BAI and VCI will be high in the south and east, low in the north and west in general. Under the future baseline scenario, the changes of biological abundance, vegetation coverage, and deteriorating land in the midstream and downstream regions will may seriously hinder restoration of the ecological environment. In particular, the BAI in the midstream and downstream regions will decline more rapidly, with a rate of 10.30% and 18.59%, respectively. The water area will be scattered and less abundant overall, but the WDI in the midstream, that is up to 3.86 in 2030, will be higher than that in other regions. Results also show that the regions with high EQI are mainly located in the northeast and south region. It is predicted that the ecological fragile zones in the future will mainly distribute in the midstream and downstream regions, especially in Jiayuguan City and Jinta County. The EQI will drop by 44.28% and 11.40% during 2010–2030 without external conditions intervened. In addition, Qilian Mountain, Jiuquan City, Gaotai County, Linze County, and Shandan County will also have relatively strong recovery capacities under the influence of ecological policies. All above could provide the basis for the development of future watershed ecological environment management and protection planning.

Study on the Development and Layout Mode of Oasis Small Town Based on Farmers’ Willingness Survey: A Case Study of Zongzhai Town in China

The quality of urbanization development is closely related to the development and distribution mode in the process of urbanization development. Urbanization development and distribution mode determine the quality of regional urbanization strategy and planning, which will definitely affect the quality of urbanization development. Oasis city is a kind of widely distributed city with unique characteristics, and its development and layout mode will also affect the quality of its urbanization development. This study selects and analyzes Zongzhai Town of Jiuquan City, Gansu Province, China, which is the typical representative of oasis small town as the research object, and adopt the method of questionnaire survey and the method of the combination of qualitative and quantitative. This study is based on the investigation of farmers’ urbanization willingness and understanding, and combined with the problems of fragile ecological environment, weak economic foundation, difficult construction guidance, lack of infrastructure and backward management system, and the development trend of rural economy, population and urbanization, village and town construction and land use proposes in the development of the town. And this study puts forward a mode suitable for oasis towns of “four modernizations” of “Ecological construction of oasis environment, Modernization of agricultural industry development, New community construction of rural construction and Rural gardening of human settlement environment”. It can be used for reference to the urbanization development and layout mode of oasis cities.