Coupling of crop and livestock production can reduce the agricultural GHG emission from smallholder farms.

Ensuring global food security and environmental sustainability is dependent upon the contribution of the world's hundred million smallholder farms, but the contributions of smallholder farms to global agricultural greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions have been understudied. We developed a localized agricultural life cycle assessment (LCA) database to calculate GHG emissions and made the first extensive assessment of the smallholder farms' GHG emission reduction potentials by coupling crop and livestock production (CCLP), a redesign of current practices toward sustainable agriculture in China. CCLP can reduce the GHG emission intensity by 17.67%, with its own feed and manure returning to the field as an essential path. Scenario analysis verified that greater GHG emission reduction (28.09%-41.32%) will be achieved by restructuring CCLP. Therefore, this mixed farming is a mode with broader benefits to provide sustainable agricultural practices for reducing GHG emissions fairly.

Untangling interactions and prioritizations among Sustainable Development Goals in the Asian Water Tower region.

Understanding the interactions among Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) is critical for prioritizing SDGs and accelerating the overall SDGs progress. However, SDG interactions and prioritizations at the regional scale have rarely been researched (e.g., Asia), and more importantly, their spatial differences and temporal variations remain elusive. Here, we focused on the Asian Water Tower region (16 countries), which represents major challenges for Asian and even global SDG progress, and we assessed the spatiotemporal variations in SDG interactions and prioritizations in the region from 2000 to 2020 based on correlation coefficients calculations and network analyses. We observed a striking spatial difference in the SDG interactions, which may be minimized by promoting balanced progress toward SDGs 1 (no poverty), 5 (gender equality), and 11 (sustainable cities and communities) across countries. The prioritization differences of the same SDG across countries ranged from 8 to 16 places. Temporally, the SDG trade-offs in the region have declined, implying a possible shift to synergies. However, such success has faced several obstacles, mainly climate change and a lack of partnerships. The prioritizations of SDGs 1 and 12 (responsible consumption and production) have shown the largest increase and decrease, respectively, over time. Overall, to accelerate the regional SDG progress, we highlight the importance of enhancing top prioritized SDGs 3 (good health and well-being), 4 (quality education), 6 (clean water and sanitation), 11, and 13 (climate actions). Related complex actions are also provided (e.g., across-scaled cooperation, interdisciplinary research, and sectoral transformation).

Threats of COVID-19 arouse public awareness of climate change risks.

Public climate change awareness is indispensable to dealing with climate change threats. Understanding whether and how the COVID-19 pandemic impacts on individuals' climate change risk perception would thus be critical to green economic recovery. We conducted a longitudinal survey study in China when the pandemic was at its height and when it was mitigated. The cross-lagged analysis confirmed our assumed "arousal" effect of perceived COVID-19 risks on climate change risk awareness. We further tested and verified the proposed "dual-pathway" mechanisms of affective generalization (i.e., negative affective states aroused by COVID-19 "spillover" to the assessment of climate change risk) and cognitive association (i.e., the outbreak of COVID-19 awakens people's recognition of the human-nature-climate issues) via multiple mediation analyses. Our results implied that climate policies could be integrated into pandemic control, and that the public should be more awakened to confront multiple crises with proper guidance.

Heterogeneous Effects of Skill Training on Rural Livelihoods around Four Biosphere Reserves in China.

The growing contradiction between protection and livelihood is a common challenge for most protected areas in developing countries. Skill training is an important way to increase household income and alleviate the dilemma between conservation and development. However, its effects on household income around protected areas have rarely been explored. This paper aims to evaluate the effect of skill training on the income of households around four Biosphere Reserves in China and explore its mechanism. Based on the information collected from 381 households through face-to-face interviews, this study adopted descriptive analysis and multiple regression to yield consistent results. The results showed that agricultural and off-farm skill training had no impact on the total household income. The results from the mechanism analysis found that participation in off-farm skill training had a significant and positive effect on the total income of the households outside protected areas and participation in agricultural training had a positive effect on agricultural income. The findings indicate that the local government and protected area administration should increase the publicity for skill training, enrich the types training, appropriately supply livelihood support projects that reconcile conservation and development, and strengthen the infrastructure development around protected areas to promote off-farm employment and the circulation and sale of agricultural products. However, the impacts of any associated intensification should be carefully monitored.

Effects of conservation measures on crop diversity and their implications for climate-resilient livelihoods: the case of Rupa Lake Watershed in Nepal.

Agrobiodiversity conservation is vital for achieving sustainability, but empirical studies on the effects of different practices or measures on crop diversity are rare. This study aims to estimate the effects of raising conservation awareness (RCA), building diversity blocks (BDB), and their combination on crop diversity among 240 randomly selected households surrounding the Rupa Lake Watershed in Nepal. Based on descriptive analysis and multiple regression models, the results indicate that the two single measures had no significant effect on the numbers of crop species and varieties grown by households in 2018. However, the combination of RCA and BDB had a significantly positive effect on the number of crop varieties, especially for grain and vegetable crops. Considering that these crops are essential in the daily lives of local people, the results indicate that a strategy that combines both awareness raising and on-farm conservation measures can generate higher crop diversity and better serve the climate-resilient livelihoods of people in mountainous areas.

Is mulch film itself the primary source of meso- and microplastics in the mulching cultivated soil? A preliminary field study with econometric methods.

There has been an increasing interest in the pollution caused by meso- and microplastics (MMPs) in terrestrial ecosystems. Mulch film was once considered to be the most important source of MMPs in the mulching cultivated soil. However, the academic community has not given sufficient scientific evidence. In this study, stratified random sampling method was used to selectively interview households in Hebei province, China (400 households, 20 villages, 5 counties). Finally, household characteristics and mulch film use behavior of 41 households were collected, and corresponding soil samples were sampled. The results showed that 1) the abundance of MMPs was 29.3 ± 33.1 items·kg-1 (DW) and the particle size of MMPs was 2.95 × 103±1.75 × 103 µm, and the proportion of MMPs derived from Polyethylene (PE) was only 18.8%; 2) the mass of MMPs was 2.90 ± 3.72 mg kg-1 (DW) and the proportion of PE MMPs was 43.75%, which has the highest mass percentage; 3) After controlling the endogenous and dummy variables, the use history of mulch film (HistMF) was found to be positively correlated to the abundance of MMPs and inversely correlated to the particle size, but nor with the mass of MMPs; 4) Regarding the heterogeneous characteristics of MMPs, including particle size, color, shape, and type, the findings found the absence of a significant correlation between HistMF and the abundance and mass of PE. In summary, mulch-derived MMPs are not the primary source of MMPs in the mulching cultivated soil in terms of abundance but probably be in terms of mass.

Gender-Related Beliefs, Norms, and the Link With Green Consumption.

Although extant literature provided abundant evidence that men and women are different in their environmental behaviors, there is a lack of integration of gender differences in green consumption and the underlying mechanism that associates with these disparities. Therefore, to solve this existing gap, the current paper reviewed existing literature on green consumption with threefold purposes. First, presenting an integrated view of gender-different green consumption patterns along with the relationship of gender-related beliefs and individuals' pro-environmental behavior based on existing evidence. Second, interpreting how gender differences are generated based on the value-belief-norm (VBN) theory, and the theory of social roles. Third, analyzing previous studies, providing implications for future research, and then proposing suggestions for marketing practitioners in the green products industry. Accordingly, this article compared men's and women's different behavior in green consumption and discussed how and why they behave differently. Generally, women show a more positive green consumption intention, consume less carbon, and purchase green products more frequently. Whereas men are doing better than women in terms of environmental knowledge, and in some regions, they express higher concerns about environmental problems. It interprets individual differences in green consumption based on VBN theory from a unique insight-gender. It also identified some barriers for both men and women to participate in green consumption, and then proposed several suggestions to improve the public willingness of engaging in green consumption.

Correction: More than just a mental stressor: psychological value of social distancing in COVID-19 mitigation through increased risk perception-a preliminary study in China.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1057/s41599-021-00774-1.].

More than just a mental stressor: psychological value of social distancing in COVID-19 mitigation through increased risk perception-a preliminary study in China.

Social distancing is an effective measure to prevent epidemic infections during a pandemic outbreak, but its psychological value in COVID-19 pandemic mitigation remained less detected. Our study fills this gap by conducting a nationwide survey in China between 12 and 25 February (2020), and a follow-up survey targeting the same participants between 25 and 28 March (2020). We have discovered that perceived increased time staying at home, a subjective agency for social distancing, positively predicts not only risk perception of COVID-19 epidemic at the outbreak and eased stage, but also predicts subjective controllability of COVID-19 epidemic at the eased stage. Given that risk perception indicates potential active engagement of preventative behavior and that subjective controllability associating with self-efficacy could promote individual health behavior, this study preliminarily justifies the value of social distancing from the angle of perceptual factors, adding to existing mounting evidence of its effect on physically controlling pandemic spread.

Reducing Carbon Footprint Inequality of Household Consumption in Rural Areas: Analysis from Five Representative Provinces in China.

Household consumption carbon footprint and inequality reductions are vital for a sustainable society, especially for rural areas. This study, focusing on rural China, one of the fastest growing economies with a massive population, explored the carbon footprint and inequality of household consumption using the latest micro household survey data of 2018 linked to environmental extended input--output analysis. The results show that in 2018 in rural China, the average household carbon footprint is 2.46 tons CO2-eq per capita, which is around one-third of China's average footprint, indicating the large potential for further growth. Housing (45.32%), transportation (20.45%), and food (19.62%) are the dominant contributors to the carbon footprint. Meanwhile, great inequality, with a Gini coefficient of 0.488, among rural households is observed, which is largely due to differences in type of house built or purchased (explaining 24.44% of the variation), heating (18.10%), car purchase (12.44%), and petrol consumption (12.44%). Provinces, average education, and nonfarm income are among the important factors influencing the inequality. In the process of urbanization and rural revitalization, there is a high possibility that the household carbon footprint continues to increase, maintaining high levels of inequality. The current energy transition toward less carbon-intensive fuels in rural China is likely to dampen the growth rates of carbon footprints and potentially decrease inequality. Carbon intensity decrease could significantly reduce carbon footprints, but increase inequality. More comprehensive measures to reduce carbon footprint and inequality are needed, including transitioning to clean energy, poverty alleviation, reduction of income inequality, and better health care coverage.

Determinants of smallholder farmers' choice on mulch film thickness in rural China.

Agricultural mulch film pollution has become a prevailing concern. Studies have shown that the thickness of mulch film is a key factor affecting mulch film recycling, but research about farmers' choice on mulch film thickness is lacking. Based on survey data from 2025 households in five Chinese provinces in 2018, the Heckman two-stage model was used to analyze the influencing factors of farmers' choice on mulch film thicknesses. Mulch film had been used by 21.98% of the sample households, and 41.47% of the used mulch film did not meet the national thickness standard. The econometric results showed that farmers' product cognition and market factors were the two most important factors, and there was a significant negative correlation with the choice of film thickness. In addition, the choice of mulch film with different thicknesses was affected by household characteristics, subjective norms, and farmland property rights. Strengthening and stabilizing farmland property rights is a long-term mechanism to promote farmers to choose thicker mulch film. In addition to strengthening the production and sale of substandard film supervision, farmers' choice of film thickness should be included in village regulations and other rural grass-roots governance systems, especially in the mechanism design between agricultural farmland protective subsidies and the prevention of mulch film pollution, rather than just considering the recycling itself.

Anthropomorphic Strategies Promote Wildlife Conservation through Empathy: The Moderation Role of the Public Epidemic Situation.

The global illegal wildlife trade directly threatens biodiversity and leads to disease outbreaks and epidemics. In order to avoid the loss of endangered species and ensure public health security, it is necessary to intervene in illegal wildlife trade and promote public awareness of the need for wildlife conservation. Anthropomorphism is a basic and common psychological process in humans that plays a crucial role in determining how a person interacts with other non-human agents. Previous research indicates that anthropomorphizing nature entities through metaphors could increase individual behavioral intention of wildlife conservation. However, relatively little is known about the mechanism by which anthropomorphism influences behavioral intention and whether social context affects the effect of anthropomorphism. This research investigated the impact of negative emotions associated with a pandemic situation on the effectiveness of anthropomorphic strategies for wildlife conservation across two experimental studies. Experiment 1 recruited 245 college students online and asked them to read a combination of texts and pictures as anthropomorphic materials. The results indicated that anthropomorphic materials could increase participants' empathy and decrease their wildlife product consumption intention. Experiment 2 recruited 140 college students online and they were required to read the same materials as experiment 1 after watching a video related to epidemics. The results showed that the effect of wildlife anthropomorphization vanished if participants' negative emotion was aroused by the video. The present research provides experimental evidence that anthropomorphic strategies would be useful for boosting public support for wildlife conservation. However, policymakers and conservation organizations must be careful about the negative effects of the pandemic context, as the negative emotions produced by it seems to weaken the effectiveness of anthropomorphic strategies.

Climate change vulnerability assessment for smallholder farmers in China: An extended framework.

Climate change brings uncertainty and challenges to achieving sustainable development goals. The dually vulnerable regions in terms of the environment and economy are facing substantial threats from climate change; particularly, smallholder farmers who heavily rely on natural ecosystems in these regions are being the most affected. Paying attention to the vulnerability assessment of these regions is conducive to precisely improving the ability of their people to cope with climate change. This study aimed to construct an extended framework of climate change vulnerability assessment at the household level by combining the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change vulnerability assessment framework with the sustainable livelihood framework. Four typical regions with different climatic and geographical conditions in China, including the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region (marked as AOHAN, representing the type of grassland, similarly hereinafter), Qinghai Province (HYMH, plateau), Yunnan Province (YLNL, mountain), and the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region (NNQZ, coastal zone), were selected to apply the framework. In total, 29 villages from these four regions were selected at random, and 360 face-to-face interviews were conducted in selected villages based on a pretested questionnaire. The results show that AOHAN had the greatest vulnerability, as well as the highest exposure level among the four regions, which was also the major source of differences in vulnerability. Further analysis shows that although the sensitivity and adaptive capacity showed relatively small differences, the sources of sensitivity and adaptation strategies were quite different among the four regions. In terms of sensitivity, YLNL had the highest level of sensitivity in housing, water, and livestock, and AOHAN assumed the highest sensitivity in land. The advantages and disadvantages in terms of adaptive capacity also varied widely among the four regions. More specifically, AOHAN had a balanced adaptive capacity; YLNL largely relied on the advantages in social and human capitals to compensate for the disadvantage in physical capital; and the strengths in physical and financial capitals are the main sources of adaptive capacities for NNQZ and HYMH, respectively. In general, the vulnerability assessment framework proposed in this study provides guidelines for vulnerability assessments at the household level in the face of climate change. In addition, heterogeneous measures to cope with the threats of climate change should be put forward precisely, based on the climatic, geographical and socioeconomic characteristics of each region.

Conditional cash transfers, uptake of maternal and child health services, and health outcomes in western rural China.

BACKGROUND: Empirical evidence suggests that the uptake of maternal and child health (MCH) services is still low in poor rural areas of China. There is concern that this low uptake may detrimentally affect child health outcomes. Previous studies have not yet identified the exact nature of the impact that a conditional cash transfer (CCT) has on the uptake of MCH services and, ultimately, on child health outcomes. The objective of this study is to examine the relationship between CCT, uptake of MCH services, and health outcomes among children in poor rural areas of western China. METHODS: We designated two different sets of villages and households that were used as comparisons against which outcomes of the treated households could be assessed. In 2014, we conducted a large-scale survey of 1522 households in 75 villages (including 25 treatment and 50 comparison) from nine nationally designated poverty counties in two provinces of China. In each village, 21 households were selected based on their eligibility status for the CCT program. Difference-in-difference analyses were used to assess the impact of CCT on outcomes in terms of both intention-to-treat (ITT) and average-treatment-effects-on-the-treated (ATT). RESULTS: Overall, the uptake of MCH services in the sample households were low, especially in terms of postpartum care visits, early breastfeeding, exclusive breastfeeding, and physical examination of the baby. The uptake of the seven types of MCH services in the CCT treatment villages were significantly higher than that in the comparison villages. The results from both the ITT and ATT analyses showed that the CCT program had a positive, although small, impact on the uptake of MCH services and the knowledge of mothers of MCH health issues. Nonetheless, the CCT program had no noticeable effect on child health outcomes. CONCLUSIONS: The CCT program generated modest improvements in the uptake of MCH services and mothers' knowledge of MCH services in poor rural areas of Western China. These improvements, however, did not translate into substantial improvements in child health outcomes for two potential reasons: poor CCT implementation and the low quality of rural health facilities.

The Impact of Social Support on the Health of the Rural Elderly in China.

With the dramatic trend of global aging, the physical and mental health of the rural elderly has attracted significant attention. Social support plays an important role in improving the health of the elderly. However, assessing the impact of social support on the physical and mental health of the elderly is challenging in rural China. This paper analyzes the impact of social support on the physical and mental health of the Chinese rural elderly based on data collected from households and village cadres. Probit, Oprobit, and ordinary least squares (OLS) are used to estimate these effects. The results show that 24.3% of the rural elderly are in bad physical health, and 32.9% of them are depressed. Physical and mental health is worse among the female elderly and among those who are in western provinces. Having pensions, taking care of grandchildren, and communicating with children by telephone are shown to significantly improve the mental health of the rural elderly. The government could promote the mental health of the rural elderly by improving public health services, increasing pensions, providing free mobile phones to elderly people in poverty, and advocating that the younger generation provide emotional support.

Factory employment exposure and human health: Evidence from rural China.

Quantitating the health effects of employment history in factories, especially polluting ones, is essential for understanding the benefits or losses of industrialization in rural areas. Using a traced subset of nationwide panel data from 2005 covering five provinces, 101 villages, and 2026 households (collected recently in 2016) and the econometric models, this study estimated the effect of factory employment history on workers' health. The results showed that: the absolute number of factory workers increased from 1998 to 2015, and the proportion of factory workers was 7.68% in 2015; the absolute number and the proportion of farmers decreased from 63.84% in 1998 to 29.06% in 2015. Given that all the respondents live in rural areas, the HlthPlace (the first place the individual went to for their last illness in 2015) was selected as the main dependent variable of interest, and Hlthexp (Healthcare expenditure per person at last illness in 2015) and self-reported health were used as auxiliary dependent variables. The findings revealed that, after controlling the characteristics of individual, household, hospital and area, a one year increase of factory employment history corresponded to a 0.035 level increase in the probability of people choosing high-level hospital (p < 0.01) and a 237.61 yuan increase in healthcare expenditure (p < 0.1). The results also showed the adverse effect of self-reported health on factory employment history (p < 0.01). In addition, the relationship between the farming history and health was evaluated, and the econometric results showed that compared with factory employment history, farming history had opposite impacts on health (p < 0.01). Finally, the robustness check showed that the empirical results were reliable and that the initial results were robust. Generally, this study revealed the effect of overall factory employment on health, which is a useful research supplement to the studies on the health effects of specific pollution exposure.

Synthesis of Sulfur-Selenium Doped Carbon Quantum Dots for Biological Imaging and Scavenging Reactive Oxygen Species.

The sulfur-selenium doped carbon quantum dots (S,Se-CQDs) were synthesized by one-step through hydrothermal method in this study, which have high fluorescence quantum yield (43%) and advanced ability to scavenge reactive oxygen species (ROS). They were characterized by transmission electron microscope (TEM), nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). The results showed that the clearance rate of free radical reached to 40% with 200 µg/mL of S,Se-CQDs. The antioxidant activity of S,Se-CQDs is related to -SH and Se-SH on carbon quantum dots. S,Se-CQDs were able to access to cells which is beneficial to enhance the removal efficiency to ROS. In the biocompatibility experiment, the cell survival rate exceeded 95%, there was little effect on hatching rate, survival rate and heart rate of zebrafish which demonstrated that S,Se-CQDs have an excellent biocompatibility. It prompts that S,Se-CQDs will has proud application prospects in the field of biomedicine.

Management principles for heavy metal contaminated farmland based on ecological risk-A case study in the pilot area of Hunan province, China.

A pilot project for farmland soil remediation was carried out in the Changsha-Zhuzhou-Xiangtan (CZX) area of Hunan province, China. However, the pilot project focused mainly on the risk of exposure to heavy metals on grain safety, and little attention was paid to the risk to ecosystem quality. The study selected three areas in counties of in the CZX, and focused on five high toxicity heavy metals-Cd (cadmium), Cr (chromium), Pb (lead), As (arsenic), Hg (mercury) to explore the potential ecological risks of the soil. Probabilistic ecological risk assessment (new method) and traditional methods were introduced to quantitatively evaluate the ecological risk. Two target criteria levels (LC/EC/IC50 and NOEC/LOEC) were employed. Through constructing species sensitivity distribution (SSD) models and joint probability curves (JPC), the predicted no effect concentrations (PNECs) derived from the SSD models were 0.21, 1.57, 3.05, 0.86 and 0.16 mg/kg for Cd, Cr, Pb, As and Hg, respectively. Compared with the ecological risk assessment results of the traditional methods, the new method reached a different conclusion, Cr showed the highest risk, at 84.3%, which signified that there was an 84.3% probability that 5% of the species with their NOEC/LOECs exceeded in County C. Despite differences among the risk assessment approaches, all methods indicated that County C was the most contaminated. The case study signifies that traditional methods underestimated the soil ecological risk of exposure to heavy metals and there should be a strong focus on farmland ecosystem security. At the same time, this study provided a scientific basis for goal-setting in species protection and prioritizing ecosystem protection as a management principle for heavy metal contaminated farmland from the perspective of ecological risk.

The More Educated, the Healthier: Evidence from Rural China.

Education, as an important aspect of human capital, not only affects the economic returns of an individual, but also affects non-economic returns. This paper uses data from the China Family Panel Studies (CFPS) in 2014 and explores the impact of education on the health status of rural residents by using the family fixed-effect model. We find that education can improve the self-reported health status and reduce the possibility of depression of rural residents. We also find that the effect of education on self-reported health status of rural young people more significant than that of middle-aged and old people, but the effect on depression score was weaker than that of middle-aged and old people. Compared with the high-income group, education improved the health of the lowest income group more significantly. Finally, we explore the mechanism of education affecting the health of rural residents from a multi-dimensional perspective.

Using daily text messages to improve adherence to infant micronutrient powder (MNP) packets in rural western China: A cluster-randomized controlled trial.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the effectiveness of daily text messages as a means to improve caregivers' adherence to infant micronutrient powder (MNP) in rural Shaanxi Province of China. METHODOLOGY: 638 infants aged 6-11 months in 234 villages were involved in a cluster-randomized controlled trial (RCT). All caregivers were given free infant MNP packets at baseline in April 2013 and the follow-up survey was in July 2013. We randomly assigned 318 infants in 117 villages to treatment group (receiving daily text message) and 320 infants in the other 117 villages as control group. RESULTS: On average, daily text messages increased the number of MNP packets fed (marginal effect = 4.63; 95% confidence interval (CI) = 0.16, 9.10). The text message is more likely to increase the consumption of MNP packets if the primary caregiver was the mother (marginal effect = 12.19; 95% CI = 0.69, 23.68). Receiving the text message appears to significantly increase the likelihood of full adherence when the primary caregiver can either check (odds ratio = 2.93; 95% CI = 1.34, 6.40) or knows how to send (odds ratio = 3.26; 95% CI = 1.53, 6.97) text messages. CONCLUSION: Daily text messages improved the consumption of infant MNP packets. However, the impact was not large enough to increase the probability of caregivers being fully adherent to the feeding instruction, which is to feed 5-7 packets per week as recommended. In addition, when the mother is the caregiver and when the caregiver can check or knows how to send text messages there is greater adherence by the primary caregivers. TRIAL REGISTRATION: http://www.isrctn.com/ISRCTN44149146.