The coupling effect of socio-economic and eco-environment and land use transformation in mountainous areas-a case of the Fengjie County in the Three Gorges Reservoir Area, China.

Revealing the general laws of land use transformation (LUT) under the coupling evolution of different socio-economic and eco-environment (SE-EE) in mountainous areas is of great significance for rational use of land resources, regional socio-economic development, and eco-environment protection. This paper constructs a research framework of LUT under the coupling evolution of SE-EE and takes Fengjie County as an example to conduct a case study. The results show (1) the socio-economic development level and eco-environment quality showed an overall growth trend from 2000 to 2020, showed the distribution pattern of high in the Yangtze River valley and low in the mountainous areas, and low in the Yangtze River valley and high in the mountainous areas respectively. (2) The coupling evolution of SE-EE showed five types: synchronous development of SE-EE, socio-economic development and ecological retarded, socio-economic retarded and ecological restoration, low socio-economic development level, and low eco-environment quality. (3) The transformation of land use quantity, structure, and function corresponded to the coupling evolution of SE-EE. Cultivated land was reduced when the socio-economic development level was relatively high, and the function changed from production to ecological and eco-economic. When the eco-environment quality was high, cultivated land was reduced, and the function changed from production to ecological. (4) The framework constructed in this paper is universal to the mountainous areas represented by the Three Gorges Reservoir Area (TGRA) and the plain areas where the LUT and SE-EE evolution are different from the mountainous areas.

Seawall-induced impacts on large river delta wetlands and blue carbon storage under sea level rise.

Coastal wetlands have been enclosed by thousands of kilometers of seawalls in China to obtain extra land for rapid socio-economic development in the coastal region. Although understanding seawall-induced impacts on delta wetlands and their ecosystem can provide valuable decision-making information to support coastal management, quantifying and measuring long-term, cumulative ecological impacts of harden seawall under sea level rise (SLR) remains a vital research gap. In this study, by combining the land-use transformation trajectory analysis, ecosystem services assessment, and the SLAMM (Sea Level Affecting Marshes Model), we have explored the seawall-induced effects on temporal-spatial dynamics of tidal wetlands and the Coastal Blue Carbon storage (CBCs) in the Yellow River Delta (YRD) under the SLR by 2050 and 2100. Our study revealed that the delta wetland area would have increased by 2327.87 km2 after seawall removal without regard for SLR while increasing by 3050 km2 in 2100 in both seawall scenarios under SLR. The effects of driving processes trajectory on the changes in CBCs indicated two-sided seawall-induced impacts on the delta wetlands in the YRD, i.e., functioning as a physical coastal defense to prevent coastal erosion (before 2050) while intensifying coastal squeeze effects and quickening the loss in delta wetlands and the CBCs by hindering their inland migration under SLR. For example, the gap of CBCs between the seawall-impacting and seawall-removal scenarios would have reached at 9.94 × 106 Mg by 2050 under the SLR, and the magnitude of the final decrease effect on CBCs induced by the seawall-impacting would be nearly 5 times higher than its gain after seawall-removal in the regressive succession, while the same magnitudes in the salinization process on both scenarios. Our study has provided valuable insights for shoreline management by mitigating seawall-induced impacts on the delta wetlands and their ecosystem services such as CBCs.

The Impact Mechanism and Spillover Effect of Digital Rural Construction on the Efficiency of Green Transformation for Cultivated Land Use in China.

Under the context of digital economy, agricultural production will be promoted by implementing the strategy of digital rural construction and giving full play to the role of digital factor productivity. This study systematically explains the mechanism of how digital rural construction affects the efficiency of green transformation for cultivated land use. The panel data of 30 provinces in China from 2011 to 2020 are analyzed through two-way fixed effect, spatial Dubin model and other methods, so as to better understand the impact of digital rural construction on the efficiency of green transformation for cultivated land use and its spillover effect. It is discovered in the study that digital rural construction is effective in enhancing the efficiency of green transformation for regional cultivated land use, and that this promoting effect stands multiple robustness tests. According to the heterogeneity analysis, the promoting effect of digital rural construction is more significant in the eastern region and among the samples with high green transformation efficiency of cultivated land use. In addition to improving the efficiency of green transformation for cultivated land use in the region, digital rural construction can also produce a positive spatial spillover effect to a significant extent. On this basis, the targeted policy recommendations are made in this paper. The first one is to improve the efficiency of green transformation for cultivated land use by accelerating the process of digital rural construction. The second one is to pay close attention to the differences in the process of digital rural construction. The third one is to better understand the "welfare sharing" characteristics of digital rural construction. The last one is to establish a mechanism of regional cooperation.

[Eco-environmental effects and spatiotemporal evolution characteristics of land use change: A case study of Hexi Corridor, Northwest China.] / åœŸåœ°åˆ©ç”¨å˜åŒ–çš„ç”Ÿæ€çŽ¯å¢ƒæ•ˆåº”åŠå ¶æ—¶ç©ºæ¼”å˜ç‰¹å¾­­ä»¥æ²³è¥¿èµ°å»Šä¸ºä¾‹.

Based on the land use data of Hexi Corridor region from 1980 to 2020, we calculated the ecological environment quality index and analyzed the spatial and temporal evolution characteristics, change frequency, patterns, circles of the long time series land use type changes and its ecological environment quality, using the spatial analysis method of ArcGIS. The results showed that unused land was the main land use type in the study area during 1980-2020. The area of construction land, forest land, grassland, and water changed more, and the transition among land use types was obvious. The trends of deterioration and improvement of ecological environment quality in the study area occurred simultaneously and offset each other under certain conditions. The ecological environment quality index evolved in a 'U' shape, first decreasing and then increasing, with little change in overall ecological environment quality fluctuations. The spatial clustering of ecological quality was obvious, which was higher in the southeast and lower in the northwest, without high frequency and large change. The ecological quality in the southeast quadrant of the study area was the worst, followed by the southwest and northwest quadrants, while the ecological quality in the northeast quadrant was the best. The area of the continuously decline zone in ecological environment quality type conversion was larger than that of the continuously rising zone, indicating that ecological environmental protection in the Hexi Corridor had been effective during the study period. The hot spots of ecological quality change were mainly distributed in the central and southwestern part of the Hexi Corridor, and the cold spots were mainly distributed in the northwestern part.

Research on Expansion Characteristics of Aquaculture Ponds and Variations in Ecosystem Service Value from the Perspective of Protecting Cultivated Lands: A Case Study of Liyang City, China.

In the context of global food insecurity, a large amount of cultivated land in China has been occupied by aquaculture ponds, leading to a series of variations in the ecological environment. The Chinese government pays close attention to the problem. In order to achieve sustainable development and ensure the safety of China's cultivated land, the paper uses Liyang City as an example to discuss the spatial characteristics of the expansion of aquaculture ponds through occupying cultivated lands and analyzes the variations in ecosystem service value and cultivated land function. The conclusions are as follows: (1) 2073.24 hectares of cultivated lands were occupied for expanding aquaculture ponds in Liyang from 2009 to 2019, and there was a small number of new aquaculture ponds in the ecological protection area, which shows that the aquaculture ponds in Liyang City are at the stage of disorderly expansion; (2) the total value of ecosystem services increased by 1.43%; supply and support services values decreased, but the increase in regulation and cultural services values was sufficient to more than compensate for the mentioned losses; and (3) the expansion of aquaculture ponds leads to a decrease in the carbon storage of cultivated land, which in turn has negative impacts such as an increase in atmospheric carbon concentration.

Land use transformation and eco-environmental effects based on production-living-ecological spatial synergy: evidence from Shaanxi Province, China.

The research on land use transformation has attracted more and more attention, and there are few research results on the eco-environmental effects of regional land use change from the perspective of land use function transformation. From the perspective of production-living-ecological land use function classification, this paper obtained land use change data of Shaanxi Province in 2000, 2010, and 2020, calculated the land use transfer matrix, ecological environment quality index, and ecological contribution rate of land use transformation, and quantitatively analyzed the temporal and spatial evolution of production-living-ecological spaces and the eco-environmental effects of land use structure transformation in Shaanxi Province. The results showed that the land use change in Shaanxi Province is mainly manifested in the continuous increase of ecological and living land area and the continuous decrease of production land area from 2000 to 2020. In the transformation of land use structure in Shaanxi Province, the biggest change in area is the mutual transformation between productive cultivated land and ecological grassland land. The occupation of ecological grassland land by other land types is an important factor leading to the decline of ecological environment quality. Overall, the ecological environment of Shaanxi Province has shown a trend of improvement in the past two decades. Quantitative research on the transformation characteristics of land use structure and its ecological environment effects in the past two decades is conducive to providing data support for the promotion of ecological civilization construction in Shaanxi Province.

Ecosystem service value effects of the Three Gorges Reservoir Area land use transformation under the perspective of "production-living-ecological" space.

In the context of rapid socio-economic development, eliciting "production-living-ecological" space (PLES) changes with corresponding ecosystem service benefits is critical for national land optimization and regional sustainability. Based on land use data obtained via remote sensing of 1980, 2000, 2018, and from a PLES perspective, we applied geo-information Tupu to depict land use transformations in the Three Gorges Reservoir Area (TGRA) from 1980 to 2018. The ecological/environmental effects of land use transformation were also explored based on the contribution value of ecosystem service. The results showed that both industrial production space and living space had increased from 1980 to 2018, while agricultural production space and ecological space displayed a decreasing trend. From the perspective of Tupu transformation, land use transformation pattern was relatively stable from 1980 to 2000, with the untransformed Tupu unit being dominant. However, with the complex land use transformation from 2000 to 2018, mutual transformation of agricultural production space and forest and grassland ecological space became dominant. Urbanization and industrialization were the main factors contributing to the decreased agricultural production space and ecological space. The ecosystem service value of TGRA initially decreased, then increased temporally, with greater change in the east than in the west. In the study period, ecological protection and restoration projects had positive effects on ecosystem service values, while rapid socio-economic development negatively impacted agricultural production space and ecological space. Combined with second ploughing, socio-economic development negatively impacted ecosystem ser-vice values.

Spatial-Temporal Responses of Ecosystem Services to Land Use Transformation Driven by Rapid Urbanization: A Case Study of Hubei Province, China.

Exploring the changes of ecosystem services value caused by land use transformation driven by urbanization is crucial for ensuring the safety of the regional ecological environment and for enhancing the value of ecosystem services. Based on the land use remote sensing data during the rapid urbanization development period of Hubei Province from 1995 to 2015, this study analyzed the characteristics of land use/land cover change and land use transformation. The spatial-temporal response characteristics and evolution of ecosystem services value (ESV) to land use transformation driven by urbanization were measured by equivalent factor method, spatial autocorrelation analysis, hot spot analysis and gravity model. We found that: (1) Driven by urbanization, the most significant feature of land use transformation in Hubei Province was the expansion of the built-up land and the significant reduction of cropland and forest, among which 90% of the new built-up land was converted from cropland and forest. (2) This land use transformation became the main source of ESV losses. Especially, the sharp increase of the built-up land from 2010 to 2015, occupying cropland and forest, resulted in ESV losses of nearly USD 320 million. The service capacity of climate regulation, soil conservation, gas regulation and food production undertaken by cropland and forest decreased. (3) The ecosystem services value in the study area showed spatial distribution characteristics of high in the west and low in the middle and east regions. The center of gravity of ESV shifted from northwest to southeast. Due to the sharp increase of the built-up land from 2010 to 2015, the center of gravity shift rebounded. This study can help policymakers better understand the trade-offs between land use transformation and ecosystem services driven by urbanization.

Multiple successional pathways in human-modified tropical landscapes: new insights from forest succession, forest fragmentation and landscape ecology research.

Old-growth tropical forests are being extensively deforested and fragmented worldwide. Yet forest recovery through succession has led to an expansion of secondary forests in human-modified tropical landscapes (HMTLs). Secondary forests thus emerge as a potential repository for tropical biodiversity, and also as a source of essential ecosystem functions and services in HMTLs. Such critical roles are controversial, however, as they depend on successional, landscape and socio-economic dynamics, which can vary widely within and across landscapes and regions. Understanding the main drivers of successional pathways of disturbed tropical forests is critically needed for improving management, conservation, and restoration strategies. Here, we combine emerging knowledge from tropical forest succession, forest fragmentation and landscape ecology research to identify the main driving forces shaping successional pathways at different spatial scales. We also explore causal connections between land-use dynamics and the level of predictability of successional pathways, and examine potential implications of such connections to determine the importance of secondary forests for biodiversity conservation in HMTLs. We show that secondary succession (SS) in tropical landscapes is a multifactorial phenomenon affected by a myriad of forces operating at multiple spatio-temporal scales. SS is relatively fast and more predictable in recently modified landscapes and where well-preserved biodiversity-rich native forests are still present in the landscape. Yet the increasing variation in landscape spatial configuration and matrix heterogeneity in landscapes with intermediate levels of disturbance increases the uncertainty of successional pathways. In landscapes that have suffered extensive and intensive human disturbances, however, succession can be slow or arrested, with impoverished assemblages and reduced potential to deliver ecosystem functions and services. We conclude that: (i) succession must be examined using more comprehensive explanatory models, providing information about the forces affecting not only the presence but also the persistence of species and ecological groups, particularly of those taxa expected to be extirpated from HMTLs; (ii) SS research should integrate new aspects from forest fragmentation and landscape ecology research to address accurately the potential of secondary forests to serve as biodiversity repositories; and (iii) secondary forest stands, as a dynamic component of HMTLs, must be incorporated as key elements of conservation planning; i.e. secondary forest stands must be actively managed (e.g. using assisted forest restoration) according to conservation goals at broad spatial scales.