Land Consolidation and Rehabilitation Center

ABSTRACT Based on vegetation maps of Inner Mongolia, SPOT‐VEGETATION normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) data, and temperature and precipitation data from 118 meteorological stations, this study analysed changes in NDVI, temperature and precipitation, and performed correlation analyses of NDVI, temperature and precipitation for eight different vegetation types during the growing seasons (April–October) of the period 1998–2007 in Inner Mongolia, China. We also investigated seasonal correlations and lag‐time effects, and our results indicated that for different vegetation types, NDVI changes during 1998–2007 showed great variation. NDVI correlated quite differently with temperature and precipitation, with obvious seasonal differences. Lag‐time effects also varied among vegetation types and seasons. On the whole, Inner Mongolia is becoming warmer, and drier for most regions, and ecological pressure in Inner Mongolia is increasing, and our focus on such issues is therefore important. Copyright © 2012 Royal Meteorological Society

Unplanned urban settlements exist worldwide. The geospatial information of these areas is critical for urban management and reconstruction planning but usually unavailable. Automatically characterizing individual buildings in the unplanned urban village using remote sensing imagery is very challenging due to complex landscapes and high-density settlements. The newly emerging deep learning method provides the potential to characterize individual buildings in a complex urban village. This study proposed an urban village mapping paradigm based on U-net deep learning architecture. The study area is located in Guangzhou City, China. The Worldview satellite image with eight pan-sharpened bands at a 0.5-m spatial resolution and building boundary vector file were used as research purposes. There are ten sites of the urban villages included in this scene of the Worldview image. The deep neural network model was trained and tested based on the selected six and four sites of the urban village, respectively. Models for building segmentation and classification were both trained and tested. The results indicated that the U-net model reached overall accuracy over 86% for building segmentation and over 83% for the classification. The F1-score ranged from 0.9 to 0.98 for the segmentation, and from 0.63 to 0.88 for the classification. The Interaction over Union reached over 90% for the segmentation and 86% for the classification. The superiority of the deep learning method has been demonstrated through comparison with Random Forest and object-based image analysis. This study fully showed the feasibility, efficiency, and potential of the deep learning in delineating individual buildings in the high-density urban village. More importantly, this study implied that through deep learning methods, mapping unplanned urban settlements could further characterize individual buildings with considerable accuracy.

Exploring the spatiotemporal variation in vegetation net primary productivity (NPP), analyzing the relationships between NPP and its influencing factors, and evaluating the vegetation carbon sink capacity are vital for ecological protection and restoration in Shaanxi Province, an area in China with a complex environment. In this study, the Mann-Kendall trend test, difference analysis, and variation stability analysis were used to analyze the spatiotemporal variation in NPP; partial correlation analysis and a land use change matrix were used to analyze the relationships between NPP and its influencing factors; and an estimation model of net ecosystem productivity (NEP) was used to evaluate the carbon sink capacity of vegetation based on the NPP product of the MOD17A3HGF dataset. The following results were obtained. (1) The average annual NPP in Shaanxi showed an increasing trend from 2000 to 2019, and its variation stability showed an increasing trend from the north to the south. (2) The average annual NPP in the south was higher than that in the north, but the increased amplitude of NPP was higher in the north and lower in the south. (3) The vegetation carbon sink capacity in Shaanxi showed an increasing trend from 2000 to 2019, and it was high in the south and low in the north. (4) NPP was more sensitive to precipitation than temperature in Shaanxi, and NPP showed a bimodal variation with elevation. The NPP changes caused by land use were related to the structural differences and the transfer between different land use types. This study provides a new perspective for the simultaneous study of spatiotemporal variation in NPP and carbon sink capacity under different natural conditions and the exploration of the factors influencing this variation. These findings are valuable for the scientific assessment of regional vegetation productivity and carbon sink capacity, as well as for the formulation of development strategies based on local realities. Our results indicate that the ecological environment in Shaanxi continuously improved in recent years, and further improvements to water resource conditions and ecological construction efforts are essential for improving the NPP and carbon sink capacity in Shaanxi.

Monitoring the impact of current Land Use/Land Cover (LULC) management practices on future Ecosystem Services (ESs) provisioning has been emphasized because of the effect of such practices on ecological sustainability. We sought to model and predict the impacts of future LULC changes on subsequent changes in Ecosystem Service Value (ESV) in fragile environments undergoing complex LULC changes, Su-Xi-Chang region. After mapping and classifying the LULC for the years 1990, 2000, and 2010 using GIS and remote sensing, a Cellular Automata (CA)–Markov model was employed to model future LULC changes for the year 2020. ESV was predicted using the projected LULC data and the modified ES coefficients adopted by Xie et al. (2003). The projected results of the changes in LULC reveal that construction land expanded extensively, mainly at the expense of farmland, wetland, and water bodies. The predicted results of the ESVs indicate that water bodies and farmland are the dominant LULC categories, accounting for 90% of the total ESV. Over the study period, ESVs were diminished by 7.3915 billion CNY, mostly because of the decrease in farmland, water bodies, and wetland. A reasonable land use plan should be developed with an emphasis on controlling construction land encroachment on farmland, wetlands, and water bodies. The rules of ecological protection should be followed in LULC management to preserve ecological resources.

China is undergoing rapid urbanization, enlarging the construction industry, greatly expanding built-up land, and generating substantial carbon emissions. We calculated both the direct and indirect carbon emissions from energy consumption (anthropogenic emissions) in the construction sector and analyzed built-up land expansion and carbon storage losses from the terrestrial ecosystem. According to our study, the total anthropogenic carbon emissions from the construction sector increased from 3,905×10(4) to 103,721.17×10(4) t from 1995 to 2010, representing 27.87%-34.31% of the total carbon emissions from energy consumption in China. Indirect carbon emissions from other industrial sectors induced by the construction sector represented approximately 97% of the total anthropogenic carbon emissions of the sector. These emissions were mainly concentrated in seven upstream industry sectors. Based on our assumptions, built-up land expansion caused 3704.84×10(4) t of carbon storage loss from vegetation between 1995 and 2010. Cropland was the main built-up land expansion type across all regions. The study shows great regional differences. Coastal regions showed dramatic built-up land expansion, greater carbon storage losses from vegetation, and greater anthropogenic carbon emissions. These regional differences were the most obvious in East China followed by Midsouth China. These regions are under pressure for strong carbon emissions reduction.

Vegetation plays an important role in improving and restoring fragile ecological environments. In the Antaibao opencast coal mine, located in a loess area, the eco-environment has been substantially disturbed by mining activities, and the relationship between the vegetation and environmental factors is not very clear. Therefore, it is crucial to understand the effects of soil and topographic factors on vegetation restoration to improve the fragile ecosystems of damaged land. An investigation of the soil, topography and vegetation in 50 reclamation sample plots in Shanxi Pingshuo Antaibao opencast coal mine dumps was performed. Statistical analyses in this study included one-way ANOVA and significance testing using SPSS 20.0, and multivariate techniques of detrended correspondence analysis (DCA) and redundancy analysis (RDA) using CANOCO 4.5. The RDA revealed the environmental factors that affected vegetation restoration. Various vegetation and soil variables were significantly correlated. The available K and rock content were good explanatory variables, and they were positively correlated with tree volume. The effects of the soil factors on vegetation restoration were higher than those of the topographic factors.

Soil microorganisms play a pivotal role in carbon mineralization and their diversity is crucial to the function of soil ecosystems. However, the effects of long-term fertilization on microbial-mediated carbon mineralization are poorly understood. To identify the relative roles of microbes in carbon mineralization of yellow paddies, we investigated the long-term fertilization effects on soil properties and microbial communities and their relationships with carbon mineralization. The treatments included: no fertilization (CK), chemical fertilizer (NPK), organic fertilizer (M), and constant organic-inorganic fertilizer (MNPK). NPK treatment significantly increased soil water content (WC), while M and MNPK treatments significantly increased the content of soil organic carbon (SOC), total nitrogen (TN), soil microbial biomass carbon (SMBC), soil microbial biomass nitrogen (SMBN), and WC. Strong increases in CO2 emissions, potential mineralized carbon, and turnover rate constant were observed in both organic-fertilizer treatments (M and MNPK), relative to the CK treatment. These changes in soil properties can be attributed to the variation in microbial communities. NPK treatment had no significant effect. Different fertilization treatments changed soil microbial community; SOC and SMBN were the most important contributors to the variance in microbial community composition. The variations in community composition did not significant influence carbon mineralization; however, carbon mineralization was significantly influenced by the abundance of several non-dominant bacteria. The results suggest that SOC, SMBN, and non-dominant bacteria (Gemmatimonadetes and Latescibacteria), have a close relationship to carbon mineralization, and should be preferentially considered in predicting carbon mineralization under long-term fertilization.

As an important means to cope with global climate change, ecological restoration projects have a huge impact on ecosystem carbon storage functions. Scientifically evaluating the response process and mechanism of basin ecosystem carbon storage functions in ecological restoration projects is beneficial to the improvement of regional ecosystems. Taking Shiyang River Basin (SRB) as an example, and based on the perspective of “carbon sink–carbon source” mutual transformation, the current study utilized the InVEST (Integrated Valuation of Ecosystem Services and Tradeoffs) model to analyze the spatio-temporal dynamics of carbon storage in SRB, quantified the effect of ecological restoration projects on the ecosystem carbon fixation capacity, and identified sensitive and vulnerable areas of carbon loss against the background of climate and land use/cover change (LUCC). The results show that the ecosystem carbon storage in SRB changed significantly before and after the ecological project implementation, with a decrease of 5.71 Tg in 1986–2000 and an increase of 14.11 Tg in 2000–2016. The proportion of carbon sink enhancement areas was only 7.46% in 1986–2000, which increased to 15.04% in 2000–2016, indicating that the ecological restoration effect of the watershed was obvious as a result of the ecological management. The contribution of LUCC brought about by the ecological restoration project to the increase in ecosystem carbon storage was as high as 103.71%, for which the increase in woodland and grassland was the key. However, in 2000–2016, low carbon optimization areas accounted for 4.17% and carbon emission control areas for 6.16% of the total area of SRB. The carbon fixation capacity of these areas declined, and carbon emissions were elevated, especially in carbon emission control areas. These were mainly distributed in the oasis–desert transition zone in the mid-lower reaches, which are sensitive and vulnerable areas for carbon loss. Therefore, in future ecological restoration and protection processes, these areas should be given more attention and protection.

Abstract Tillage treatments have an important effect on soil microstructure characteristics, water thermal properties and nutrients, but little is known in the newly reclaimed cultivated land. For the reason, a long-term field study was to evaluate the tillage effects on soil physicochemical properties and crop yield in newly reclaimed cultivated land via the macroscopic and microscopic analysis. Three tillage treatments were tested: continuous conventional moldboard plow tillage (CT), sub-soiling/moldboard-tillage/sub-soiling tillage (ST) and no-tillage/sub-soiling/no-tillage (NT). Under CT, the microstructure was dominated by weakly separated plates structure and showed highest bulk density (BD) (1.49 g cm −3 ) and lowest soil organic matter (SOM) (3.68 g kg −1 ). In addition, CT reduced the capacity of soil moisture retention and temperature maintenance, resulting in aggregate structure deterioration and fragility. Unlike CT, the soil was characterized by moderately separated granular structure and highly separated aggregate structure under conservation tillage practice of ST and NT. NT was associated with the highest soil moisture content (20.42%), highest quantity of macroaggregates (> 0.25 mm) by wet-sieving (34.07%), and highest SOM (6.48 g kg −1 ) in the surface layer. Besides, NT was better able to regulate soil temperature and improved the values of geometric mean diameter. Under NT and ST, a stable soil structure with compound aggregates and pores was formed, and the maize yield was increased by 12.9% and 14.9% compared with CT, up to 8512.6 kg ha −1 and 8740.9 kg ha −1 , respectively. These results demonstrated the positive effects of NT and ST on soil quality and crop yield in newly reclaimed cultivated land.

Abstract Soil erosion in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River in China is a major concern and the Central Government has initiated the Grain‐for‐Green Programme to convert farmland to forests and grassland to improve the environment. This paper analyses the relationship between land use and soil erosion in Zhongjiang, a typical agricultural county of Sichuan Province located in areas with severe soil erosion in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River. In our analysis, we use the ArcGIS spatial analysis module with detailed land‐use data as well as data on slope conditions and soil erosion. Our research shows that the most serious soil erosion is occurring on agricultural land with a slope of 10∼25 degrees. Both farmland and permanent crops are affected by soil erosion, with almost the same percentage of soil erosion for corresponding slope conditions. Farmland with soil erosion accounts for 86·2 per cent of the total eroded agricultural land. In the farmland with soil erosion, 22·5 per cent have a slope of < 5 degrees, 20·3 per cent have a slope of 5∼10 degrees, and 57·1 per cent have a slope of > 10 degrees. On gentle slopes with less than 5 degrees inclination, some 6 per cent of the farmland had strong (5000∼8000 t km −2 y −1 ) or very strong (8000∼15000 t km −2 y −1 ) erosion. However, on steep slopes of more than 25 degrees, strong or very strong erosion was reported for more than 42 per cent of the farmland. These numbers explain why the task of soil and water conservation should be focused on the prevention of soil erosion on farmland with steep or very steep slopes. A Feasibility Index is developed and integrated socio‐economic assessment on the feasibility of improving sloping farmland in 56 townships and towns is carried out. Finally, to ensure the success of the Grain‐for‐Green Programme, countermeasures to improve sloping farmland and control soil erosion are proposed according to the values of the Feasibility Index in the townships and towns. These include: (1) to terrace sloping farmland on a large scale and to convert farmland with a slope of over 25 degrees to forests or grassland; (2) to develop ecological agriculture combined with improving the sloping farmland and constructing prime farmland and to pay more attention to improving the technology for irrigation and cultivation techniques; and (3) to carry out soil conservation on steep‐sloping farmland using suggested techniques. In addition, improving ecosystems and the inhabited environment through yard and garden construction for households is also an effective way to prevent soil erosion. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Under the influence of global ecosystem changes, the coordinated development of all natural elements has become a top priority in maintaining ecological security. In this context, China has put forward the concept of “mountain, water, forest, field, lake and grass as a community of life”, with a systemic thinking and holistic concept to promote spatial protection and restoration of the national territory. This study uses the logical line of “Diagnosing the all-natural elements base - Guarding the natural security boundaries- Integrated conservation and restoration of natural elements” to comprehensively construct a spatial ecological security pattern in the typical karst area of Hechi, China. We extract ecological sources based on ecosystem service functions and ecological sensitivity. And then considering the effects of both habitat quality and anthropogenic activities to construct ecological resistance surface. The key ecological elements such as ecological corridors, pinch points and barriers are identified according to circuit theory, and the ecological conservation and restoration pattern of mountain, water, forest, field, lake and grass is optimized on the basis of the ecological security pattern, identifies priority areas for protection and restoration, delineates ecological control zones and proposes zoning strategies for ecological control. The study shows that there were 22 ecological sources in Hechi, covering an area of 4886.40 km2, accounting for 14.59% of the study area, mainly distributed in areas with higher habitat quality, such as the west and south; Using 7000 as the cumulative resistance threshold, 34 ecological corridors were identified with an area of 1873.19 km2, radiating in a spider web pattern across the whole area; 32 pinch points, mostly concentrated in the northeastern region, and identified barriers covering an area of 1,966.91 km2, which is the focus of future restoration. And constructed the ecological conservation and restoration pattern of “three axis, five belts, six zones and multiple cores”. The results of the study can provide scientific guidance for the protection of ecological security in the ecologically fragile areas of karst and the comprehensive restoration and management of regional ecosystems, which are of great significance for the sustainable development of global ecosystems.

concentrations in the atmosphere and alleviates climate change. Current predictions of terrestrial carbon sinks in the future have so far ignored the variation of forest carbon uptake with forest age. Here, we predict the role of China's current forest age in future carbon sink capacity by generating a high-resolution (30 m) forest age map in 2019 over China's landmass using satellite and forest inventory data and deriving forest growth curves using measurements of forest biomass and age in 3,121 plots. As China's forests currently have large proportions of young and middle-age stands, we project that China's forests will maintain high growth rates for about 15 years. However, as the forests grow older, their net primary productivity will decline by 5.0% ± 1.4% in 2050, 8.4% ± 1.6% in 2060, and 16.6% ± 2.8% in 2100, indicating weakened carbon sinks in the near future. The weakening of forest carbon sinks can be potentially mitigated by optimizing forest age structure through selective logging and implementing new or improved afforestation. This finding is important not only for the global carbon cycle and climate projections but also for developing forest management strategies to enhance land sinks by alleviating the age effect.

The implementation of the Beijing, Tianjin, and Hebei coordinated development strategy has seriously increased the influence of land use and urban traffic. Thus, understanding the coordination between urban land and transportation systems is important for the efficient and sustainable development of cities, especially in this rapidly urbanizing era. Urban–industrial land and highway networks are, respectively, primary types of urban land and transportation systems, and have significant impacts on social and economic development. However, limited studies have been conducted to examine the relationships between urban–industrial land and highway networks. Therefore, this paper aims to examine the coupling coordination relationship between urban–industrial land use efficiency, and the accessibility of the highway networks of cities. Specifically, in the context of the Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei (BTH) urban agglomeration, the coupling coordination between urban-industrial land use efficiency and accessibility of the highway traffic network was empirically analyzed. The results show that: (i) The differences in urban-industrial land use efficiency in the BTH region are significant. Capital cities in the BTH urban agglomeration have higher economic, social, and comprehensive efficiency, while in industrial cities, the use of urban–industrial land should prioritize ecological and environmental issues. (ii) Because of its good geographical location Beijing has the best accessibility, with an accessibility index of 1.416, while Qinhuangdao had the lowest accessibility index of 0.039. (iii) In most BTH cities, the urban-industrial comprehensive land use level has fallen behind the highway network development level. The results of this study can provide references for the coordinated development of the BTH urban agglomeration.

Land use is a crucial factor affecting ecosystem service value (ESV), and forecasting future land use changes and ESV response can guide urban planning and sustainable development decisions. However, the traditional Cellular Automata (CA) model supposes that each cell has only one land use type at each time step, neglects the mixed structure and proportional distribution of land use units, does not take into account its quantitative continuous dynamic change, and lacks the exploration of land use quantity structure and spatial pattern optimization. This study employed a novel mixed-cell cellular automata (MCCA) approach, coupled with the system dynamics (SD) model to predict the spatiotemporal pattern of land use under the natural increase scenario (NIS), economic development scenario (EDS) and ecological protection scenario (EPS) in Xi’an, China, in 2030. The equivalent coefficient method was utilized to investigate the heterogeneity distribution and sensitivity of ESV. The results demonstrated that SD-MCCA exhibited remarkable prediction accuracy and robustness. The main changes in land use in 2000–2015 were due to urban expansion, the conversion of arable land into construction land, and the conversion between grassland and arable land. The total ESV increased from 19554.36×106 CNY in 2000 to 19618.39×106 CNY under the EPS in 2030, and the contribution of climate regulation and hydrological regulation to ESV was the highest. Spatial heterogeneity of ESV revealed a certain regularity, and the high value region was chiefly concentrated in woodland and grassland with favorable ecological conditions. Land use variations under NIS and EPS improved ESV, while the ESV had a negative response to land use transformations under the EDS. This research provides a new way to identify the relationship between future land utilization scenarios and ESV, which is of great significance for the management of land resources and formulation of ecological compensation standards.

Historically, the cognition and management of cultivated land quality (CLQ) have been fragmented, leading to an inability to meet contemporary scenarios and requirements of China’s agricultural development and cultivated land protection. This study aimed to systematically recognize the concepts, elements, connotations, and dimensions of CLQ and build a new cultivated land quality evaluation (CQE) system. Initially, we deduced the concept of CLQ through the clear concept of “quality” in line with international standards. Next, we connected CLQ with the framework of farmland ecosystem service cascades and clarified the element structure of CLQ based on the structure of farmland ecosystems. Then, based on the multi-level human well-being that farmland ecosystems can provide, the connotations and dimensions of CLQ was determined. Using Wen County within Henan Province as a case study site, we constructed a CQE system for empirical analysis and comparative verification, showing that the new system was better than the existing one. This study helped to clarify the CLQ and provided a theoretical basis and technical reference for sustainable intensification (SI) and multi-directional protection and supervision of cultivated land.

Rapid acquisition of the spatial distribution of soil nutrients holds great implications for farmland soil productivity safety, food security and agricultural management. To this end, we collected 1297 soil samples and measured the content of soil total nitrogen (TN), soil available phosphorus (AP) and soil available potassium (AK) in Zengcheng, north of the Pearl River Delta, China. Hyperspectral remote sensing images (115 bands) of the Chinese Environmental 1A satellite were used as auxiliary variables and dimensionality reduction was performed using Pearson correlation analysis and principal component analysis. The TN, AP and AK of soil were predicted in the study area based on auxiliary variables after dimensionality reduction, along with stepwise linear regression (SLR), support vector machine (SVM), random forest (RF) and back-propagation neural network (BPNN) models; 324 independent points were used to verify the predictive performance. The BPNN model, which demonstrated the best predictive accuracy among all methods, combined ordinary kriging (OK) with mapping the spatial variations of soil nutrients. Results show that the BPNN model with double hidden layers had better predictive accuracy for soil TN (root mean square error (RMSE) = 0.409 mg kg−1, R2 = 44.24%), soil AP (RMSE = 40.808 mg kg−1, R2 = 42.91%) and soil AK (RMSE = 67.464 mg kg−1, R2 = 48.53%) compared with the SLR, SVM and RF models. The back propagation neural network-ordinary kriging (BPNNOK) model showed the best predictive results of soil TN (RMSE = 0.292 mg kg−1, R2 = 68.51%), soil AP (RMSE = 29.62 mg kg−1, R2 = 69.30%) and soil AK (RMSE = 49.67 mg kg−1 and R2 = 70.55%), indicating the best fitting ability between hyperspectral remote sensing bands and soil nutrients. According to the spatial mapping results of the BPNNOK model, concentrations of soil TN (north-central), soil AP (central and southwest) and soil AK (central and southeast) were respectively higher in the study area. The most important bands (464–517 nm) for soil TN (b10, b14, b20 and b21), soil AP (b3, b19 and b22) and soil AK (b4, b11, b12 and b25) exhibited the best response and sensitivity according to the SLR, SVM, RF and BPNN models. It was concluded that the application of hyperspectral images (visible-near-infrared data) with BPNNOK model was found to be an efficient method for mapping and monitoring soil nutrients at the regional scale.

The Shiyang River Basin is a typical arid watershed in Northwest China. Scientific understanding of the driving mechanism of runoff change is the basis of scientific utilization of water resources and regional sustainable development. In this study, runoff changes at different time scales were analyzed for the period 1960–2018, and the impacts of climate variability and human activities on runoff were investigated in the middle and lower reaches of the Shiyang River Basin (SRB). A combination of mutation analysis and human-designed analysis was adopted to divide the study period into the baseline period and the variation period. The Mann–Kendall test (M−K) and Double Mass Curve method (DMC) were used to detect abrupt changes and quantify the relative effects of climate change and human activities on runoff. The results reveal a significant declining trend in annual runoff on the whole in the middle and lower reaches of the SRB, and there was an obvious recovery trend after the implementation of the Comprehensive Treatment Program of the SRB (CTSRB) in 2007. Abrupt changes occurred in 1976, 1991 and 2007, which divided the study period into the baseline period (1960–1975), the Variation Ⅰ period (1976–1990), the Variation Ⅱ period (1991–2006) and the Variation III period (2007–2018). The contribution of human activities to runoff reduction was 88.72%, whereas the contribution of climate change to runoff reduction was only 11.28%. Furthermore, the contribution of human activities to runoff reduction in the Variation Ⅰ period, Variation Ⅱ period and Variation III period was 89.44%, 93.02% and 83.69%, respectively. Therefore, human activities played the most dominant role in the variation of runoff, followed by climate change and upstream runoff. Further analysis of the impact of human activities on runoff indicated that agricultural irrigation was the dominant factor of runoff reduction. This study can provide detailed information on water resources and a scientific basis for the development and utilization of water resources in the future.

Studying the spatial distribution pattern of soil organic carbon and its influencing factors is essential for understanding the carbon cycle in terrestrial ecosystems. Soil samples from four active layers of typical vegetation types (Populus, subalpine shrubs, Picea crassifolia Kom, and alpine meadow) in the upper reaches of Shiyang River basin in the Qilian Mountains were collected to determine the soil organic carbon content and physicochemical properties. The results show the following: (1) There are significant differences in the vertical distribution of Soil organic carbon in the watershed, and the Soil organic carbon content decreases significantly with increasing soil depth. (2) Mainly affected by biomass, the organic carbon content of different vegetation types in different soil layers is as follows: Alpine meadow > Picea crassifolia Kom > Populus > Subalpine shrub, and the soil organic carbon content increases with increasing altitude. Under different vegetation types, the Soil organic content is the highest in the 0-30 cm soil profile, and the maximum value often appears in the 0-10 cm layer, then gradually decreases downward. (3) When soil organic carbon is determined in different vegetation types in the study area, the change of hydrothermal factors has little effect on soil organic carbon content in the short term.

Cost-effective psychotherapeutic interventions can enhance pharmacotherapy and improve outcomes in major depression and schizophrenia, but they are rarely studied in bipolar disorder, despite its often unsatisfactory response to medication alone. Following a literature search, we compiled and evaluated research reports on psychotherapeutic interventions in bipolar disorder patients. We found 32 peer-reviewed reports involving 1052 patients-14 studies on group therapy, 13 on couples or family therapy, and five on individual psychotherapy-all supplementing standard pharmacotherapy. Methodological limitations were common in these investigations. Nevertheless, important gains were often seen, as determined by objective measures of increased clinical stability and reduced rehospitalization, as well as other functional and psychosocial benefits. The results should further encourage rising international interest in testing the clinical and cost-effectiveness of psychosocial interventions in these common, often severe and disabling disorders.

Abstract The Tibetan grassland ecosystems possess significant carbon sink potential and have room for improved carbon sequestration processes. There is a need to uncover more ambitious and coherent solutions (e.g., Nature-based Solutions) to increase carbon sequestration. Here, we investigated the rationale and urgency behind the implementation of Nature-based Solutions on sequestering carbon using literature review and meta-analysis. We also project the changes in terrestrial carbon sink of Tibetan Plateau grassland ecosystems using model simulations with different future emissions scenario. The results show that the Nature-based Solution projects are expected to increase the carbon sink of Tibetan Plateau grassland ecosystems by 15 to 21 tetragrams of carbon by 2060. We defined a conceptual framework of Nature-based Solutions that integrates initiatives for the restoration of degraded grasslands and carbon sequestration. Our framework consists of four stages: theory, identification, practice, and goal. Traditional Tibetan knowledge plays an important role in reframing the proposed Nature-based Solutions framework. We also apply this framework to optimize ecological restoration techniques and projects and to evaluate the annual changes in the carbon sink under different socioeconomic pathway scenarios.