Regional Ecological Environment Research Articles

Spatiotemporal variations of ecosystem services in the Aral Sea basin under different CMIP6 projections

The Aral Sea, located in Central Asia, has undergone significant reduction in surface area owing to the combined impacts of climate change and human activities. This reduction has led to a regional ecological crisis and profound repercussions on ecosystem services. Investigating the spatiotemporal variations and synergistic trade-offs of ESs in the Aral Sea basin is crucial for fostering the integrated development of the region’s socioeconomic ecology. This study utilizes the Future Land-Use Simulation and InVEST models to analyze future land-use scenarios, integrating CMIP6 projections to assess the quality of four key ecosystem services: water production, soil conservation, carbon storage, and habitat quality over two timeframes: the historical period (1995–2020) and the projected future (2021–2100). Employing Spearman correlation, the study explores the trade-offs and synergies among these ecosystem services. Findings reveal that the primary forms of land-use change in the Aral Sea basin are the reduction in water area (− 49.59%) and the rapid expansion of urban areas (+ 504.65%). Temporally, habitat quality exhibits a declining trend, while carbon storage shows an increasing trend, and water production and soil retention fluctuate initially decreasing and then increasing. Spatially, water production and carbon storage demonstrate an increasing trend from the northwest to the southeast. Habitat quality exhibits a higher spatial pattern in the southeast and south, contrasting with lower spatial patterns in the north and west. Low-level soil conservation is predominantly distributed in the northwest, while medium to low-level soil conservation is prevalent in the east of the basin. The trade-off and synergy analysis indicates that between 1995 and 2020, a trade-off relationship existed between carbon storage and habitat quality and water production, whereas synergies were observed between soil conservation and carbon storage, water production and habitat quality, and soil conservation. The correlation between water production and soil conservation emerges as the strongest, whereas the correlation between carbon storage and habitat quality appears to be the weakest. The dynamic spatiotemporal changes, trade-offs, and collaborative relationships of ESs constitute major aspects of ecosystem service research, holding substantial implications for the effective management of the regional ecological environment.

Spatiotemporal Distribution Characteristics and Influencing Factors of Freeze–Thaw Erosion in the Qinghai–Tibet Plateau

Freeze–thaw (FT) erosion intensity may exhibit a future increasing trend with climate warming, humidification, and permafrost degradation in the Qinghai–Tibet Plateau (QTP). The present study provides a reference for the prevention and control of FT erosion in the QTP, as well as for the protection and restoration of the regional ecological environment. FT erosion is the third major type of soil erosion after water and wind erosion. Although FT erosion is one of the major soil erosion types in cold regions, it has been studied relatively little in the past because of the complexity of several influencing factors and the involvement of shallow surface layers at certain depths. The QTP is an important ecological barrier area in China. However, this area is characterized by harsh climatic and fragile environmental conditions, as well as by frequent FT erosion events, making it necessary to conduct research on FT erosion. In this paper, a total of 11 meteorological, vegetation, topographic, geomorphological, and geological factors were selected and assigned analytic hierarchy process (AHP)-based weights to evaluate the FT erosion intensity in the QTP using a comprehensive evaluation index method. In addition, the single effects of the selected influencing factors on the FT erosion intensity were further evaluated in this study. According to the obtained results, the total FT erosion area covered 1.61 × 106 km2, accounting for 61.33% of the total area of the QTP. The moderate and strong FT erosion intensity classes covered 6.19 × 105 km2, accounting for 38.37% of the total FT erosion area in the QTP. The results revealed substantial variations in the spatial distribution of the FT erosion intensity in the QTP. Indeed, the moderate and strong erosion areas were mainly located in the high mountain areas and the hilly part of the Hoh Xil frozen soil region.

Land-Use Transitions Impact the Ecosystem Services Value in a Coastal Region by Coupling the Geo-Informatic Tupu and Benefit-Transfer Method: The Case of Ningde City, China

Exploring the mechanisms and processes of land-use transitions (LUTs) and their impact on ecosystem services can effectively elucidate the intricate interactions between human and natural systems, which is pivotal for advancing the sustainable development of regional economies and enhancing ecological environments. However, the existing literature lacks comprehensive analysis regarding the spatial and temporal evolution of LUTs, with insufficient integration of the “spatial pattern” and “time process”. Moreover, traditional assessments of the ecosystem services value (ESV) often overlook their negative costs. To address these gaps, this study first utilized the Google Earth Engine (GEE) cloud platform and employed the random forest algorithm to conduct supervised classification on Landsat remote-sensing images from the years 2000, 2010, and 2020 within the research area, thereby obtaining land-use data for three distinct periods. And then, we investigated the geographic features of LUTs and their ecological effects in the Ningde City of China from 2000 to 2020. The geo-informatic Tupu model and a newly revised method of benefit transfer were primarily employed for this purpose. The findings indicate the following: (1) Over the study period, the land-use structure of Ningde City predominantly comprised cultivated land and forest land, with continuous decreases in both types and a concurrent increase in built-up land. (2) Significant disparities exist in the spatial distribution of Tupu units, notably with “forest land → cultivated land” and “cultivated land → built-up land” as crucial units influencing ESV changes. (3) The ESV in Ningde City decreased from CNY 1105.54 × 108 to CNY 1020.47 × 108 over 2000–2020, while the ecosystem dis-services value exhibited an opposing trend, rising from CNY 12.68 × 108 to CNY 20.39 × 108. (4) The net ESV in Ningde City showed a decline over the same period, indicating a certain vulnerability in the city’s ecological system structure. This study aims to enhance our understanding of the influence of land-use patterns on ESV, offering valuable insights for regional ecological–environment management and land-use policy formulation, thereby fostering sustainable development in ecological, environmental, and socio-economic dimensions. Furthermore, the results serve as a reference for evaluating net ecosystem services value in other countries/regions.

Investigating the regional ecological environment stability and its feedback effect on interference using a novel vegetation resilience assessment model

Vegetation resilience is critical for understanding the dynamic feedback effect of regional ecological environment stability against interferences. Thus, based on quantify the interferences of climate dryness and vegetation water deficit affecting vegetation growth function, incorporate mechanical Hooke's law to develop a vegetation resilience assessment model by quantitatively expressing vegetation growth function maintenance ability, to reveal the ecological environment stability and its feedback effect on interferences in the study area. The essential discoveries of the study are as follows: (1) with the increase of precipitation and the improvement of afforestation on soil erosion, the interferences intensity of climate dryness and vegetation water deficit in the ecological environment decreased by 5.88 % and 4.92 % respectively, the regional vegetation growth function loss was improved, especially in the southern region; (2) the decrease of vegetation growth function loss promoted the vegetation resilience level fluctuated from class II to class IV, with the average annual vegetation resilience increased by 7.02 %, reflecting that the regional ecological environment stability increased from difficult to rapid recovery after disturbance, and the benefit was especially noticeable in the eastern and southern forested areas; (3) the contribution rates of climate dryness and vegetation water deficit to the variation of vegetation resilience caused by vegetation restoration were −1.38 % and 4.73 %, respectively, and the prominent positive feedback effect of increasing vegetation resilience with decreasing vegetation water deficit degree in forest restoration area, indicating that the vegetation water deficit greatly impacts ecological environment stability in the study area, and forest restoration constantly improves regional ecological environment stability more than grassland restoration. This research has crucial guiding implications for supporting the sustainable development of regional ecological environments.

A Long-Duration Glacier Change Analysis for the Urumqi River Valley, a Representative Region of Central Asia

The increasing global warming trend has resulted in the mass loss of most glaciers. The Urumqi Vally, located in the dry and cold zone of China, and its widely dispersed glaciers are significant to the regional ecological environment, oasis economic development, and industrial and agricultural production. This is representative of glaciers in Middle Asia and represents one of the world’s longest observed time series of glaciers, beginning in 1959. The Urumqi Headwater Glacier No. 1 (UHG-1) has a dominant presence in the World Glacier Monitoring Service (WGMS). This paper supplies a comprehensive analysis of past studies and future modeling of glacier changes in the Urumqi Valley. It has received insufficient attention in the past, and the mass balance of UHG-1 was used to verify that the geodetic results and the OGGM model simulation results are convincing. The main conclusions are: The area of 48.68 ± 4.59 km2 delineated by 150 glaciers in 1958 decreased to 21.61 ± 0.27 km2 delineated by 108 glaciers in 2022, with a reduction of 0.47 ± 0.04 km2·a−1 (0.96% a−1 in 1958–2022). The glacier mass balance by geodesy is −0.69 ± 0.11 m w.e.a−1 in 2000–2022, which is just deviating from the measured result (−0.66 m w.e.a−1), but the geodetic result in this paper can be enough to reflect the glacier changes (−0.65 ± 0.11 m w.e.a−1) of the URB in 2000–2022. The future loss rate of area and volume will undergo a rapid and then decelerating process, with the fastest and slowest inflection points occurring around 2035 and 2070, respectively. High temperatures and large precipitation in summer accelerate glacier loss, and the corresponding lag period of glacier change to climate is about 2–3 years.

Assessing the impact of agriculture, coal mining, and ecological restoration on water sustainability in the Mu Us Sandyland

Balancing water demand for socio–economic development and ecosystem stability presents a challenge for regional sustainable management, especially in drylands. Previous studies have indicated that large–scale ecological restoration projects (ERPs) lead to a decline in terrestrial water storage (TWS) in the Mu Us Sandyland (MUS). However, the effects of other human activities (e.g., cropland reclamation, coal mining) on water resources remain unclear, raising concerns regarding water crisis and human–natural system sustainability. Through the utilization of coal mine location data, we found that the impact of coal mass loss on the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) products cannot be ignored in MUS, especially in the coal–rich northeastern part. Combining these data with auxiliary datasets, we observed a significant (p < 0.05) decrease in TWS (−0.85 cm yr−1) and groundwater storage (GWS, −0.95 cm yr−1) in the MUS, with human activities accounting for 79.23 % of TWS and 90.45 % of GWS reductions, primarily due to increased agricultural and industrial water consumption. Agricultural water consumption increased 2.23 times from 2001 to 2020, attributed to enhanced water use intensity (62.6 %) and cropland expansion (37.4 %). Industrial water consumption in Shenmu, a representative coal county, experienced a 4.16–fold rise between 2001 and 2020. Despite these challenges, local governments have alleviated water stress, ensured food security, and increased household income by comprehensive management strategies, such as enhancing water–saving technology and enforcing stringent policies. Previous studies have overestimated the amount of water resources consumed by ERPs. However, ERPs has played a critical role in stabilizing the regional ecological environment and ensuring the region as a vital food and energy supplier. Our findings can guide for socio-economic development and water management policies in similar regions.

Analysis of Vegetation Environmental Stress and the Lag Effect in Countries along the “Six Economic Corridors”

Climate conditions have a significant impact on the growth of vegetation in terrestrial ecosystems, and the response of vegetation to climate shows different lag effects with the change in spatial pattern and category of the ecosystem. Exploring the interaction mechanism between climate and vegetation growth is helpful to promote the sustainable development of the regional ecological environment. Using normalized vegetation index (NDVI) and meteorological data, based on univariate linear regression and partial correlation analysis, this study explores the temporal and spatial pattern and change trend of vegetation cover in regions and node cities along the “six economic corridors”, and analyzes the environmental stress of vegetation growth and the lag effect of climate response. This study shows that there are great differences in the overall vegetation coverage along the “six economic corridors”. The vegetation coverage in Southeast Asia is the best and that in central and West Asia is the worst. The vegetation coverage in the study area shows an improvement trend, accounting for 39.6% of the total area. There are significant differences in the lag effect of vegetation response and the main climate factors affecting vegetation growth, which is related to the diversity of vegetation and climate characteristics. In this study, we selected regions along the “six economic corridors” that exhibit large latitude and altitude gradients, diverse climate types, and significant seasonal changes and spatial differences in climate conditions as our research areas. Additionally, we considered the impact of different regions and various types of vegetation on their response to climate change. This is of great significance for gaining a deeper understanding of the response mechanism of global climate change and vegetation ecology. Furthermore, our research can provide valuable information to support the ecological environment protection of different typical vegetation against extreme climates, ultimately contributing to the sustainable development of “the Belt and Road”.

Assessment on the Environmental Concern Level and Driving Mechanism of Beach Recreationists Based on the New Ecological Paradigm Scale

This study uses the new ecological paradigm (NEP) scale to measure the level of environmental concern among beach recreationists, innovatively constructs a model based on the measurement results to depict a group portrait, and analyzes the driving mechanism of beach recreation pro-environmental behavior. The level of environmental concern of beach tourists is 66.2%, which is slightly higher than the average level of Chinese urban residents, and is significantly correlated with age, occupation, education level, and income level. The newly constructed environmental behavior group portrait index indicates that the group that actively participates in recreational environmental behavior at Haichow Bay Beach includes college students, primary and secondary school students, retirees, and surrounding residents. Key factors in the generation of environmentally friendly behavior for beach enthusiasts include individual self-control constraints, regional ecological environment management, the improvement in environmental literacy, overcoming individualism, external environmental impacts, and environmental education.

The Spatiotemporal Variation Characteristics and Influencing Factors of Green Vegetation in China

Green vegetation is one of the main objects of ecological environment restoration and protection, objectively reflecting the quality of regional ecological environments. Studying its spatial distribution characteristics is of great significance to the formulation of ecological environment restoration policies. Based on data on urban green vegetation in China from 2000 to 2022, this study attempts to analyze the destruction and protection patterns of urban green vegetation in China from the perspectives of total changes in green vegetation contraction and growth and spatial evolution characteristics and trends, and it explores the driving factors affecting the change in green vegetation area. The results show the following: (1) Green vegetation growth and contraction occurred alternately in China from 2000 to 2022. Vegetation contraction showed a “point–line–plane” evolution pattern, forming a contraction stage of point-like aggregation, linear series, and planar spread. Vegetation growth has always presented a frontal pattern. (2) The growth and contraction of green vegetation in China showed a north–south differentiation phenomenon. The vegetation contraction phenomenon spread in the Central Plains urban agglomeration and its surrounding areas and showed an expanding trend. The growth trend is obviously moving northward, mainly concentrated in Inner Mongolia, Ningxia, Gansu, Xinjiang, and other northern provinces, which also coincides with the key ecological restoration policies in northern China in recent years. (3) City scale, economic level, population scale, agro-industrial structure, and water resources content have significant effects on the spatial distribution of green vegetation.

2019–2020年西安城市PM2.5、气体污染物及气象数据集

Air pollution in China has improved in recent years, but Central Shaanxi region continues to face great pressure and challenges in pollution control due to its unique geographical location and climatic conditions. The regional and complex air pollution, characterized by ozone (O3) and fine particulate matter (PM2.5), is becoming increasingly serious. More meticulous observation data are needed to clarify the causes of air pollution and provide scientific support for control policies. This dataset comprises the data on the concentrations of nitrogen oxides, sulfur dioxide, ozone and carbon monoxide in the atmosphere obtained by gas analyzer in Gaoxinzi Observation Site of the National Observation and Research Station of Regional Ecological Environment Change and Comprehensive Management in Guanzhong Plain. Weather stations collected data on temperature, humidity, air pressure, solar radiation, wind speed, wind direction and other meteorological parameters around the station. Offline PM2.5 filter membranes were measured and the mass concentrations were analyzed. The observation site is located in the urban area of Xi 'an, Shaanxi Province. The data covers the period from January 2019 to December 2020 with a resolution of 5 minutes for pollution gas data, one minute for meteorological data, and PM2.5 collected every 24 hours. Online instruments are calibrated monthly to ensure data quality, while the offline PM2.5 sampler is calibrated and maintained weekly to ensure its data quality. This dataset can provide fundamental data records for the atmospheric environment in Central Shaanxi Province and offer data support for further pollution evaluation, control, and treatment. Moreover, it can give researchers scientific insights into the processes, casual mechanisms, as well as prevention and control of atmospheric pollution in Central Shaanxi Province.

Hydrochemical Characteristics and Control Factors of Shallow Groundwater in Anqing Section of the Yangtze River Basin

Shallow groundwater is the main source of water for living and industrial and agricultural production in Anqing City, which is an important basic guarantee to maintain the sustainable development of the social economy and regional ecological environment. In order to further study the water chemical characteristics and controlling factors of shallow groundwater in Anqing City, 196 groups of shallow groundwater samples were collected. A Piper diagram graph, Gibbs chart, ion ratio, and mathematical statistics were comprehensively used to study the water chemical characteristics and controlling factors of groundwater in Anqing City, and the contribution of different sources to the water chemical components of groundwater was quantitatively evaluated. The results showed that the shallow groundwater in Anqing City was weakly alkaline, with pH values ranging from 5.84 to 8.38, with an average value of 7.21. The TDS ranged from 47 to 1 620 mg·L-1, with an average of 324.21 mg·L-1. HCO3- and Ca2+ were the main anions, and the water chemical type was HCO3-Ca type. The chemical components of groundwater were affected by rock weathering leaching, cation alternating adsorption, mineral dissolution and precipitation, and human activities. Ca2+, Mg2+, and HCO3- were mainly derived from the weathering dissolution of carbonate and silicate; Na+, Cl-, and SO42- were affected by industrial activities and domestic sewage discharge; and K+ and NO3- were affected by agricultural activities. The APCS-MLR receptor model analysis further revealed that the chemical components of groundwater were mainly geological factors, industrial factors, agricultural factors, and unknown sources, and their contribution rates were 45.35%, 14.19%, 25.38%, and 15.08%, respectively. Geological factors were important sources of hydrochemical components of shallow groundwater, and human activities aggravated the evolution of groundwater hydrochemistry.

Mechanochemical evolution of coal microscopic groups: A new pathway for mechanical forces acting on coal spontaneous combustion

Coal spontaneous combustion (CSC) remains a significant threat to regional ecological environments. As coal mining operations extend deeper into the earth, the increasingly complex mechanical force conditions in deep-seated mines escalate the potential risk of CSC. Mechanical forces such as ground stress and mechanical cutting are traditionally believed to be linked to CSC through the following pathway: mechanical forces act → mechanical energy is input → mechanical crushing and pulverization occur → coal–oxygen contact area increases → CSC accelerates. Noteworthily, these forces do more than just physically break coal; they also trigger a mechanochemical effect (MCE) that alters coal's microscopic chemistry. However, an independent evaluation of its influence on CSC was lacking. This study characterized coal's microscopic chemical group responses to the MCE. It was found that the MCE led to the degradation of aliphatic side chains while enhancing the polycondensation of aromatic ring structures, indicating a synergistic effect. Additionally, an increase in oxygen-containing functional groups, such as alkyl/aryl ethers, suggested enhanced interactions of the coal microscopic groups with oxygen due to mechanical forces. Based on these findings, an MCE-modified coal macromolecular model was developed and molecular quantum mechanical calculations were conducted. The results indicated that the MCE boosted coal macromolecule reactivity, thus facilitating easier activation. These conclusions were validated through modern thermal analysis tests. Finally, this study proposed a new pathway of mechanical forces acting on CSC: mechanical forces act → mechanical energy is input → the MCE occurs → evolutions of the microscopic groups within coal are induced → Activity of coal molecules is enhanced → CSC accelerates.

Projection of ecological water consumption under carbon emission in Chinese provinces

Under the background of “double carbon”, ecological water has become one of the significant resources to ensure the healthy and sustainable development of the regional ecological environment. And the ecological water consumption prediction is a prerequisite for optimizing water supply structures. Considering the impact of CO2 emissions on ecological water consumption, the FGM(1,1) model was firstly used to predict CO2 emissions considered as an impact factor in this paper. Then, an adjacent accumulative grey multivariate convolution model (AGMC(1,N)) was combined with the Average Weakening Buffer Operator (AWBO) to predict the annual ecological water consumption of 30 provinces (municipalities and autonomous regions) in China. The results show that the AGMC(1,N) model combined with the AWBO has better prediction effect. In addition, in the next decade, only six provinces in the northern region will have a decreasing trend in ecological water consumption. However, the other provinces are showing an upward trend. The ecological water consumption trends deviate from the CO2 emission trends in 12 provinces. The research results are beneficial for the formulation of the ecological water consumption policies and the achievement of the dual carbon goals.

Identifying the drivers of vegetation changes in Inner Mongolia based on residual analysis and Hasse diagram technique

AbstractExploring the effect of climate change and human activities on vegetation is a key requisite for the reconstruction of regional ecological environments. Therefore, based on long‐term vegetation GIMMS Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) data, climate data, and statistical data, the present study applied the Hasse diagram technique and combined the multivariate regression residual analysis to quantitatively analyze the impact of human activities and climate change on vegetation in Inner Mongolia from detailed human activities with some innovations. The results show that (1) NDVI shows an overall increasing trend over the last 39 years, with an abrupt change in 2000; moreover, vegetation growth was better before the abrupt change (PI: 1982–2000) than after it (PII: 2001–2020), with significant downward trends in Xilin Gol and Hulunbuir. (2) Human activities can promote as well as inhibit vegetation, and the promotion effect was larger during 1982–2000 than during 2001–2020, whereas the inhibition effect was larger during 2001–2020. In addition, during PI, vegetation in Inner Mongolia generally experienced promotion by human activities and climate change, while during PII, climate‐driven promotion had the strongest effect, followed by human‐driven inhibition mainly distributed in Xilin Gol. (3) The result of the Hasse diagram analysis shows that the dominant pathways of human activities affecting most of the cities were economic factors and urbanization during PI and economization during PII.

Ecological transformation is the key to improve ecosystem health for resource-exhausted cities: A case study in China based on future development scenarios

Numerous cities are currently grappling with the challenge of ecological transformation, especially those categorized as resource-exhausted cities. In these urban areas, land use change is a highly scrutinized issue, as different land use strategies can lead to varied outcomes, impacting the ecological environment in multiple dimensions. Assessing ecosystem health reflects the quality of the regional ecological environment and serves as a comprehensive indicator for evaluating the sustainability and stability of urban ecosystems. To this end, a multi-objective optimization model was constructed to predict land use changes under four future development scenarios (four ecological transformation modes), using Shizuishan City (China), a resource-exhausted city situated in an ecologically fragile area, as an example. The “vigor-organization-resilience” assessment framework was employed to evaluate the ecosystem health conditions in each scenario from three dimensions. The study results showed: (1) The ranking of the average ecological health levels in Shizuishan City for 2022 and different future development scenarios is as follows: Low-Carbon Economic Development Scenario (0.302) > Ecological-Economic Coordinated Development Scenario (0.291) > Baseline Scenario (0.290) > Economic Development Scenario (0.281) > 2022 (0.248). (2) Compared to 2022, the ecosystem health levels under the four ecological transformation modes had all improved, with improvement areas accounting for over 60 %, highlighting the urgent necessity of ecological transformation in Shizuishan City. Among them, the Low-Carbon Economic Development Scenario exhibited the largest improvement area, reaching 75.81 %. (3) Ecological system vitality was identified as the dominant dimension influencing the ecological health in this region. This study emphasized multi-objective development needs and provided an integrated ecosystem health assessment method for assessing the comprehensive ecological effects of future ecological transformation modes in resource-exhausted cities.

An analysis on the spatial heterogeneity characteristics of landscape ecological risk in Qilian Mountain National Park

As a key ecological function area and a priority area for biodiversity conservation in China, Qilian Mountain National Park is facing a severe test of its ecological environment, and the study of its landscape ecological risk is of great significance to the construction and high-quality development of the Qilian Mountain National Park. In this research, based on land use data from six periods (i.e., year in 1995, 2000, 2005, 2010, 2015, and 2020) in the Qilian Mountain National Park, we divided the ecological risk plots, calculated the landscape pattern, and constructed the landscape ecological risk index to deeply explore the temporal and spatial heterogeneity of landscape ecological risk in Qilian Mountain National Park by using ArcGIS, Fragstats and GeoDa. The results showed that: Grassland is the predominant land use type, the area covered by woodland and grassland have exhibited a significant increase since 1995. Landscape fragmentation and disturbance indices exhibit fluctuations across different years, but showed an overall decreasing trend, and landscape stability was improved in the study area. There were obvious differences in the disturbance indices of different landscape types, with grassland and bare land having the highest values. Ecological risk in the study area is heterogeneous, with an overall low ecological risk and a shift to a lower risk level, and a decreasing trend in ecological risk, which is positively correlated spatially and mainly manifested as a “low-low” aggregation. Global warming and unreasonable human activities have exacerbated the ecological degradation of Qilian Mountain National Park, but a series of ecological restoration strategies after the establishment of the national park have gradually improved the regional ecological environment.

Effects of precipitation changes on fractional vegetation cover in the Jinghe River basin from 1998 to 2019

Studying the spatiotemporal evolutionary characteristics of vegetation and the effect of precipitation changes is necessary for understanding the regional ecological environment. We used trend analysis, partial correlation analysis, significance tests, and residual trend analysis to analyze the spatiotemporal evolution characteristics and driving factors of fractional vegetation cover (FVC) in the Jinghe River Basin (JRB) from 1998 to 2019. The results showed that vegetation coverage in the JRB significantly improved from 1998 to 2019. FVC showed an increasing trend in 90.64% of the areas in the JRB, and the overall annual change in FVC was extremely significant (p ≤ 0.01). However, precipitation in the JRB showed an insignificant increasing trend; the annual distribution of precipitation developed in a uniform direction and the precipitation centroid tended to move backward. The area with a significant correlation between the FVC change and the precipitation concentration index accounted for the largest proportion (18.47%). Precipitation changes in the JRB generally favored vegetation recovery; however, the effect was limited and non-precipitation factors dominated the changes in FVC. Our study contributes to a more comprehensive understanding of the effects of changes in precipitation patterns on vegetation cover to facilitate regional ecological protection.

Competition or cooperation? Research on the spatial game relationship of regional carbon emission efficiency

The gradient differences of economic development and industrial structure differences in Jing-Jin-Ji Region are significant. The ability of Jing-Jin-Ji Region to pay for environmental protection is imbalanced. The above two situations make it difficult to achieve coordinated pollution reduction and carbon reduction governance. Accurately measuring carbon emission efficiency and thoroughly analyzing the cooperation and competition relationship of regional carbon emission reduction based on fully considering stakeholders are of great significance for the joint construction, prevention and control of regional ecological environment. The research is also of great significance for promoting high-quality economic development and ensuring effective protection of the regional ecological environment. This study combines game theory and DEA theory to measure the carbon emission efficiency of the Jing-Jin-Ji Region, and then uses spatial game theory to analyze the average degree of being attacked, anti-attack ability, strongest attacker, and optimal partner for the carbon emission efficiency of different DMUs. The study concluded that: 1) Xicheng District and Hedong District have higher carbon emission efficiency, while Mentougou District, Fengtai District, Changping District, Fangshan District, Shijingshan District, Pinggu District and Yanqing County have the lowest carbon emission efficiency. 2) From an analysis of the degree of being attacked, it can be observed that economically developed areas experience a higher average degree of being attacked compared to economically underdeveloped areas. In regions with lower economic development, the influence of the local government on reducing carbon emissions is not significant, whether acting independently or in collaboration. Regions with contrasting industrial structures could be ideal partners, and areas with higher carbon emission efficiency could collaborate with regions with lower carbon emission efficiency to achieve greater reduction potential.

Spatiotemporal Evolution and Quantitative Attribution Analysis of Vegetation NDVI in Greater Khingan Mountains Forest-Steppe Ecotone

It is of great significance to explore the dynamic variations in vegetation cover and to identify its driving factors for the restoration and sustainable development of the regional ecological environment. Based on MODIS NDVI data from 2000 to 2020 and contemporaneous meteorological, DEM, land use type, and other data, the spatiotemporal variation characteristics of vegetation in the Greater Khingan Mountains forest-steppe ecotone were deeply analyzed, and its future evolution pattern was predicted by using the methods of Sen+Mann-Kendall trend analysis and Hurst index. At the same time, the influence degree and mechanism of each detection factor and its interaction on vegetation spatial differentiation at the scale of the whole area and different physical geographic divisions were quantitatively revealed by introducing the GeoDetector model. The results showed that:① In terms of spatiotemporal variation, the spatiotemporal heterogeneity of NDVI in the Greater Khingan Mountains forest-steppe ecotone was obvious from 2000 to 2020. Temporally, NDVI fluctuated growth at a rate of 0.002 a-1 (P &lt; 0.05) and underwent an upward mutation in 2011. Spatially, NDVI showed a distribution pattern of "increasing from southwest to northeast," and the NDVI grade transfer was mainly "medium vegetation cover→medium-high vegetation cover" during the 21 years, and the area of vegetation improvement was much larger than that of degradation. ② In terms of trend prediction, the future variation trend of NDVI in the Greater Khingan Mountains forest-steppe ecotone was mainly continuous improvement, accounting for 37%, but was mostly weakly sustained. ③ In terms of driving mechanism, the wind speed, evaporation, and relative humidity had the most significant influence on the spatial differentiation of NDVI over the whole area. The influence of natural factors has been decreasing over the past 21 years, whereas the influence of human factors has been increasing, and the main driving factors of NDVI spatial differentiation were quite different in different vegetation, climate, soil, and geomorphic zones. The synergistic effect between each factor at different spatial scales all showed two-factor or non-linear enhancement relationships, which was significantly enhanced compared with the single-factor effect. This study contributes to clarifying the causes of ecological fragility in the forest-steppe ecotone in the northern cold region and provides scientific support for formulating differentiated protection and management plans for vegetation resources under different environmental conditions.

Evaluating the variation characteristics of ecological resilience along expressways in developing countries: the case of the Phnom Penh-Sihanoukville Expressway in Cambodia.

Expressway construction has caused a significant threat to the ecological environment in developing countries, and therefore the variation characteristics of ecological resilience along the expressway in developing countries are of major importance. This empirical study focuses on a typical area within a 2-km range of the Phnom Penh-Sihanoukville Expressway in Cambodia and uses remote sensing and geographic information systems (GIS) technology to analyze the variation characteristics of ecological resilience along the expressway. The results of the study reveal that due to the construction of expressways, the land use types transferred into or out of the land use types increase and furthermore the land use types show a trend of decreasing natural attributes and increasing human attributes. It is found that expressway construction has an observed effect on the transfer rate of the center of gravity of land use type, and the direction of the center of gravity shifts in the direction of expressway construction. The impact of construction on the ecological resilience of the western region with higher vegetation coverage was higher than that of the eastern region with higher urbanization. The research develops a theoretical evaluation model based on land use type of the variation characteristics of ecological resilience along the expressway, which can be used to enable the sustainability of expressway construction and maintain the regional ecological environment.