The Bowen ratio (β) is used to quantify heat transfer from the land surface into the air, which is becoming a hot topic in research on the biogeophysical effects of land use and cover changes. The Three-River Headwaters (TRH), as a sensitive and fragile region, was selected as the study area. The β for 2001–2018 was estimated from the evapotranspiration product (ET_MOD16) of MODIS and the net radiation of the land surface through the albedo from GLASS. The ET_MOD16 data were evaluated against the observation data (ETOBS) at two alpine grassland flux towers obtained from ChinaFLUX. The interannual trend of the β was analyzed by multiple linear regression (MLR) and structure model (SEM) with the multiple factors of precipitation, temperature, humidity, albedo, and normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI, MOD09Q1). The results show that the ET_MOD16 values were significantly correlated with ET_OBS, with a correlation coefficient above 0.70 (P < 0.01) for the two sites. In 2001–2018, the regional mean β was 2.52 ± 0.77 for the whole grassland, and its spatial distribution gradually increased from the eastern to western region. The interannual β showed a downward trend with a slope of –0.025 and a multiple regression coefficient (R²) of 0.21 (P = 0.056). Most of the variability (51%) in the interannual β can be explained by the linear regression of the above multiple factors, and the temperature plays a dominant role for the whole region. The SEM analysis further shows that an increasing NDVI results in a decreasing albedo with a path coefficient of –0.57, because the albedo was negatively correlated with NDVI (R² = 0.52, P < 0.01), which indicates a negative and indirect effect on β from vegetation restoration. An obvious warming climate was found to prompt more evapotranspiration, and restoring vegetation makes the land surface receive more radiation, which both resulted in a decreasing trend in the annual β. This study revealed the biogeophysical mechanisms of vegetation restoration under a changing climate, and demonstrated the Bowen ratio can be applied as an indicator of climate-regulating functions in ecosystem assessments.

The continuous increase of livestock production in Inner Mongolia has caused severe degradation of the grassland ecosystems in recent years. Previous grazing experiments have shown a wide range of vegetation responses between the biome types on a global scale, but there is still a lack of sufficient studies to discern the relative responses of a given biome type. We conducted a meta-analysis of vegetation coverage (VC), plant density (PD), total biomass (TB), above-ground biomass (AGB), under-ground biomass (UGB) and Shannon–Weaver Index (SI) in different grassland types in Inner Mongolia obtained under conditions of different grazing intensities and durations. The results showed that grazing decreased VC, TB, AGB, UGB, and PD significantly. Compared to the global and national average values, the negative effects of grazing to steppe biomass in Inner Mongolia were higher than that on the global scale, while less pronounced than that in China. TB of the meadow steppe in Inner Mongolia increased by 40% under moderate grazing intensity and duration because of compensatory growth. SI of the desert and meadow steppe showed negative linear relationships with the grazing intensity in Inner Mongolia. The percentage changes in AGB, PD, and SI to grazing showed quadratic relationships with the mean annual temperature of the experimental year. With increasing mean annual precipitation, the negative effects of grazing on UGB and SI first decreased and then increased, with that of VC and grazing showing a cubic relationship.

Analysis of functional diversity, based on plant traits and community structure, provides a promising approach for exploration of the adaptive strategies of plants and the relationship between plant traits and ecosystem functioning. However, it is unclear how the number of plant traits included influences functional diversity, and whether or not there are quantitatively dependent traits. This information is fundamental to the correct use of functional diversity metrics. Here, we measured 34 traits of 366 plant species in nine forests from the tropical to boreal zones in China. These traits were used to calculate seven functional diversity metrics: functional richness (functional attribute diversity (FAD), modified FAD (MFAD), convex hull hypervolume (FRic)), functional evenness (FEve), and functional divergence (functional divergence (FDiv), functional dispersion (FDis), quadratic entropy (RaoQ)). Functional richness metrics increased with an increase in trait number, whereas the relationships between the trait divergence indexes (FDiv and FDis) and trait number were inconsistent. Four of the seven functional diversity indexes (FAD, MFAD, FRic, and RaoQ) were comparable with those in previous studies, showing predictable trends with a change in trait number. We verified our hypothesis that the number of traits strongly influences functional diversity. The relationships between these predictable functional diversity metrics and the number of traits facilitated the development of a standard protocol to enhance comparability across different studies. These findings can support integration of functional diversity index data from different studies at the site to the regional scale, and they focus attention on the influence of quantitative selection of traits on functional diversity analysis.

Carbon emissions caused by human activities are closely related to the process of urbanization, and urban land utilization, function vitality and traffic systems are three important factors that may influence the emission levels. For clarifying the space structure of a low-carbon eco-city, and combining the concept of “Combining Assessment with Construction” to track and contrast the construction of the low-carbon eco-city, this research selects quantifiable low-carbon eco-city spatial characteristics as indicators, and evaluates and analyzes the potential carbon emissions. Taking the Jinan Western New District as an example, diversity of construction land, travel carbon emission potential, and density and accessibility of adjacent road networks in the overall urban planning were measured. After the completion of the new urban area, the evaluation mainly reflected certain factors, such as the mixed degree of urban functions, the density of urban functions, the walking distance to bus stops and the density and number of bus stops. Dividing the levels and adding equal weights after index normalization, the carbon emission potential is evaluated at the two levels of the overall and fragmented areas. The results show that: (1) The low-carbon emission potential areas in the planning scheme basically reached the planned goals. (2) There is inconsistency between districts and indicators in the planning scheme. The diversity of construction land and the accessibility of the adjacent road network are relatively small; however, there is a large difference between the travel carbon emission potential and the road network accessibility. (3) Carbon emission potential after completion did not reach the planned expectation, and the low-carbon emission potential plots were concentrated in the Changqing Old City Area and Central Area of Dangjia Town Area. (4) The carbon emission indicators varied greatly in different areas, and there were serious imbalances in the density of public transportation lines and the mixed degree of urban functions.

A large proportion of the rural labor force in China will continue to transfer to non-agricultural sectors in the near future, which will inevitably lead to the transformation of the agricultural production mode and the structure of the farmers' livelihood. The Chinese government is making great efforts to govern agricultural nonpoint source pollution (ANSP), and farmers' environmental behavior is a key factor that must be considered in the formulation of agricultural environmental policies. Based on a set of micro survey data on farmers in the study area and econometric methods, this study investigates the impact of agricultural labor transfer on ANSP by considering the substitution effect of agricultural factors and the effect of agricultural economies of scale. The results show that the increase of the agricultural labor force will not be conducive to reducing ANSP, while the income increase brought by agricultural labor transfer will improve the input structure of agricultural factors and have a positive impact on ANSP reduction. Government departments should provide subsidies or incentive measures to help agricultural social service organizations to expand their coverage and increase the frequency of socialized agricultural services, in order to guide farmers in the use of environment-friendly agricultural technology to reduce the ANSP caused by agricultural factors at the source. Furthermore, it is necessary to facilitate the development of small-sized agricultural machinery suitable for small-area land cultivation.

The problem of land ecological security directly threatens the sustainable development of many regions, and exploring the spatio-temporal characteristics of land ecological security is helpful for analyzing the land ecological patterns between regions and over time. Based on the interpretation of remote sensing image data for Tianjin in 1980, 2000, 2010 and 2019, supported by software such as ArcGIS and GeoDa, the changes of land use in the study area are calculated by using the land use dynamic degree. Then, the land ecological security index and spatial autocorrelation analysis methods are used to study the spatial correlations and internal heterogeneity of land ecological security in each district in Tianjin. The results show that: (1) The land use of Tianjin has changed dramatically in the past 40 years: the building land has been expanding, while the farmland and barren have been shrinking continuously. (2) The overall level of land ecological security is in the high security area, and Jizhou District is the highest, while the Central areas and Binhai are low. (3) The spatial heterogeneity of land ecological security is not obvious, but the spatial agglomeration is strong.

Arid areas are widespread globally and support a third of the world's population's livelihoods. The increasing population, urbanization, land-use changes, and the climate significantly affect coupled natural and human systems and threaten environments and socio-ecological land systems. The degradation of drylands poses a severe and widespread threat to the lives of millions of people, especially in developing countries and in the global environment. This review assesses published literature on dryland socio-ecological systems to reveal current research trends and changes in research themes over time and introduces basic theories and advances in dryland socio-ecological system frameworks, resilience measurement, and regime shifts. Developing a more general but adaptable framework and a more practical strategy for long-term coordination and partnership and attaining specific insights into ecological services should receive more attention and be strengthened in future studies on drylands sustainability.

Natural environments contribute to people's perception, preference and health restoration. Many researchers have focused either on the positive effects of overall rural environments on stress recovery or concentrated on the perception and preference aspects of the rural landscape, but few have integrated perception, preference and stress recovery simultaneously. This paper developed a framework which includes 11 elements and 38 element components related to Linpan, China, and distributed it online as part of a survey. As a result, a total of 324 valid questionnaires were collected. The questionnaire included demographic details, perception and preference degree for Linpan, as well as self-estimations of stress recovery. Stepwise multiple linear regression was employed, and revealed 16 significant predictors for the perception, preference and stress recovery in rural environments. In terms of elements, atmosphere and imagery were the two elements that could be best perceived, while woodland, farmland, water, residence and road were the five most important elements for the preference. Moreover, seven elements were also identified as significant predictors for stress recovery. Among the element components, tranquility as well as road and water proximity were the two significant predictors for perception, while wide visibility as well as woodland and residence blending contributed significantly to stress recovery. The five element components of woodland interior, vegetable field, stream, courtyard space and branch road each had a significantly predictive ability for preference and stress recovery. These findings extend the understanding of the perception, preference and restorative properties of rural environments through the combination of elements and element components in Linpan of Western Sichuan, helping to improve the quality and characteristics of rural external and internal environments and create health-promoting environments.

China has a vast area of mountains that are of great research interest. Chongqing is a typical mountain city in China. In urban construction, a mountain is not only an important limiting condition for urban development, but also an important condition for shaping the urban form. The area from the Yangtze River to the eastern ridge line of Nan Mountain in Nanan District is strongly representative of mountain cities with a complex landform, fragile ecological environment and a long history and culture. In recent years, the construction and optimization of this area are increasingly closely related to the landscape environment. However, due to the special environments of mountain cities, altitude and landform conditions become the key influencing conditions for further development of the cities. Therefore, this paper takes this region as an example, focuses on remote sensing and field measurement data, combines government data with that from scholarly research, and conducts relevant exploration through GIS, ENVI and some chart processing software. At first, from the perspective of the landscape gradient and urban construction, the characteristics of the urban landscape gradient are sorted out, and the developmental status of each urban area is analyzed. Then, the coupling relationships between the landscape features of each gradient and each urban area are analyzed. Finally, based on the analysis results, three major optimization measures are proposed to maintain ecological harmony in the mountainous area, reconstruct the mountain characteristic culture, and create unique mountain aesthetics, all with the hope of providing some guidance for the future development of the study area and similar mountain cities.

The introduction of productive gardens on public building roofs is an active way to use urban idle space. It has ecological, economic, and social values and helps alleviate many urban problems caused by the rapid advancement of land urbanization. This paper takes the productive rooftop garden of an urban commercial complex as an example, and assesses its development status based on methods including ArcGIS, field research, and questionnaire interviews, combined with the overall aspects of the country and key case analysis. The results indicate several key aspects of the current status of such gardens in China. (1) As affected by natural and social factors, the current spatial distribution of productive rooftop gardens of commercial complexes in Chinese mainland is uneven, with 84.21% located in the southeast coast and the Sichuan region. (2) The operation and development of this type of productive landscape is in good shape. The number of rooftop gardens has continued to increase since 2013, and the scale is generally greater. Currently, the business model which combines nature education and parent-child amusement experience activities is the most stable. (3) Cases in good operating condition tend to have relatively related characteristics in layouts, traffic functions, landscape elements, and space design. (4) Questionnaire interviews show that citizens are highly willing to participate in rooftop productive landscapes, while operators still experience challenges in policies, funds, and planting knowledge in practice. This paper analyses the existing problems in the development status and strategy of the rooftop productive landscape. It proposes complementary optimization strategies to serve as a reference for the rooftop design of commercial complexes and the utilization of a significant amount of idle space on the roofs.

As an important foundation for promoting social progress and economic development, natural resources play an important role in the sustainable development of cities. However, the increasing demand of human beings for natural resources has led to various ecological environmental problems, such as excessive population density, serious environmental pollution, the continuous decline of total natural resources and per capita resources, all of which have hindered sustainable development. Therefore, the study of natural resources and sustainable development has become the focus of many current scholars. In this paper, CiteSpace is used as an analysis tool to analyze the literature on natural resources and sustainable development over the past 20 years. First of all, this paper deeply analyzes the research status of this field in terms of academic research trends, authors and research institutions, co-occurrence of keywords, etc., and on this basis, it then deeply analyzes its evolutionary path and research hot spots in the past 20 years through keyword emergence. Finally, according to the visualization of the analysis results, the future development trends of this research field are speculated: (1) Grasp the current research focus; (2) Improve the research accuracy; (3) Enrich the theoretical system of research; and (4) Establish an interdisciplinary research system.

To encourage the environmental responsibility of consumers and manufacturers for forest management, it is necessary to evaluate the environmental influences of forest products. Ecological footprint (EF) is an internationally recognized indicator for estimating the natural capital consumption and environmental influences of various forest products. In this study, we developed an accounting model for the EF evaluation of wood flooring, which is a tertiary forest product, by the method of transformation. Next, we used that model to evaluate the EF of three types of wood flooring in China according to their production data from 2000 to 2018. We collected the necessary data by visiting typical enterprises in China and referring to the relevant literature. According to our results, the average EFs of solid wood flooring, engineered solid wood flooring and laminate flooring between 2000 to 2018 were 3.13×10⁶, 1.05×10⁷ and 5.07×10⁶ gha, respectively. The total EFs of solid wood flooring, engineered solid wood flooring and laminate flooring from 2000 to 2018 were 5.95×10⁷, 1.99×10⁸ and 9.64×10⁷ gha, respectively. The coefficients of variation (CV) of the EFs for these three types of wood flooring were 0.45, 0.87 and 0.76, respectively. The average and total EFs of the engineered solid wood flooring were the largest among the three types of wood flooring. The per capita EF and unit EF for the engineered solid wood flooring were also the highest among the three types of wood flooring. The EFs showed an upward trend with irregular fluctuations from 2000 to 2018 for all three types of wood flooring. It is necessary to reduce the EF of the engineered solid wood flooring and use more environmentally friendly products, such as solid wood flooring, for environmental protection.