65% cover is the sustainable vegetation threshold on the Loess Plateau.

Global temperatures will continue to increase in the future. The ∼640,000-km Loess Plateau (LP) is a typical arid and semi-arid region in China. Similar regions cover ∼41% of the Earth, and its soils are some of the most severely eroded anywhere in the world.

Shortened duration and reduced area of frozen soil in the Northern Hemisphere.

The changes in near-surface soil freeze-thaw cycles (FTCs) are crucial to understanding the related hydrological and biological processes in terrestrial ecosystems under a changing climate. However, long-term dynamics of soil FTCs at the hemisphere scale and the underlying mechanisms are not well understood. In this study, the spatiotemporal patterns and main driving factors of soil FTCs across the Northern Hemisphere (NH) during 1979-2017 were analyzed using multisource data fusion and attribution approaches.

Optimizing Peri-URban Ecosystems (PURE) to re-couple urban-rural symbiosis.

Globally, rapid urbanization, along with economic development, is dramatically changing the balance of biogeochemical cycles, impacting upon ecosystem services and impinging on United Nation global sustainability goals (inter alia: sustainable cities and communities; responsible consumption and production; good health and well-being; clean water and sanitation, and; to protect and conserve life on land and below water). A key feature of the urban ecosystems is that nutrient stocks, carbon (C), nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P), are being enriched. Furthermore, urban ecosystems are highly engineered, biogeochemical cycling of nutrients within urban ecosystems is spatially segregated, and nutrients exported (e.

The potential influence of seasonal climate variables on the net primary production of forests in eastern China.

Knowledge of the effects of climate factors on net primary production (NPP) is pivotal to understanding ecosystem processes in the terrestrial carbon cycle. Our goal was to evaluate four different categories of effects (physical, climatic, NDVI, and all effects[global]) as predictors of forest NPP in eastern China. We developed regression models with data from 221 NPP in eastern China and identified the best model with each of the four categories of effects.

[Spatio-temporal variations of vegetation cover in northern Shaanxi Province under the background of ecological restoration].

Based on the 2000-2008 MODIS-NDVI images and using dimidiate pixel model, a dynamic evaluation was made on the vegetation coverage in northern Shaanxi Province, one of the ecologically fragile area in China, under the backgrounds of returning farmland to forestland and grassland and of the integrated management of soil and water loss. In 2000-2008, the vegetation coverage in the study area fluctuated within a year, being the highest in August and the lowest in March, and showed an increasing trend from the northwest to the southeast. The annual maximum vegetation coverage had a pronounced increase, but the area of medium and high coverage increased while that of low coverage decreased.

Effects of biodiversity and plant community composition on productivity in semiarid grasslands of Hulunbeir, Inner Mongolia, China.

Many recent studies have focused on the relationship between biodiversity and ecosystem functioning, such as investigations into the productivity of experimental plant communities. One of the central issues affecting the functioning of ecosystems is the diversity of resident species richness and the composition of the plant community. However, one challenge to experimental studies is that results from artificial ecosystems may have little value for predicting loss of diversity and function degradation in natural ecosystems.

[Profile distribution of sediment particle sizes at a check dam in a small watershed of Loess Plateau].

Sediment gyration sampling was conducted in June 2006 to analyze the profile distribution of sediment particle sizes at a check-dam built in 1954 in a typical small watershed of hilly and gully Loess plateau. There were at least 28 layers of sediment gyration at the check-dam, with the layer depth varied from 2 cm to 60 cm. In the sediment profile, silt (0.

[Influence of soil moisture, nitrogen and phosphorus contents on Bauhinia faberi seedlings growth characteristics in arid valley of Minjiang River].

To study the influence of resources thresholds on plant growth is a major theme in restoration ecology. Based on the simulation of the natural thresholds of soil moisture, nitrogen (N), and phosphorus (P) under drought condition in the arid valley of Mingjiang River, a full factorial experiment was designed to study the dynamics of Bauhinia faberi seedlings survival rate, growth, biomass production, and resources use efficiency across one growth season. High soil moisture (40% field water capacity), high soil P (24 mg P x kg(-1)), and low N (100 mg N x kg(-1)) increased the seedlings survival rate, and promoted the seedlings growth, biomass production, and water use efficiency.

[Vertical zonation of mountain landscape: a review].

Vertical gradient of mountain landscape is about 1000 times of its horizontal gradient, and hence, only using landscape pattern index is quite difficult to reflect the landscape regularity along vertical gradient. Mountain altitudinal belt is a kind of classic geographic models representing the vertical differentiation of landscape, being of significance in geographic and ecological researches. However, the discrete expression pattern and the inaccuracy of the borderlines of mountain vertical belts limit the roles of mountain vertical belt in accurately describing landscape pattern in regional scale and in explaining ecological processes.

[Effects of land use change on soil erosion intensity in small watershed of Loess Hilly Region: a quantitative evaluation with 137-Cesium tracer].

Based on the land use change data and by using 137Cs tracer technique, this paper studied the change process of soil erosion intensity in Yangjuangou watershed in Loess Hilly Region. Since the 1980's, the land use intensity in the watershed decreased gradually. In 1980-2006, the slope arable land decreased from 94.

[Effects of vegetation restoration on soil microbial biomass carbon and nitrogen in hilly areas of Loess Plateau].

Aimed to explore the effects of different vegetations and of the years of vegetation restoration on soil microbial biomass carbon and nitrogen, a comparative study was conducted, with the 5 year old Robinia pseudoacacia, Hippophae reamnoide and Prunus armeniaca plantations and the 5, 15 and 25 years old R. pseudoacacia plantation in the Yangjuangou catchment of Yanan City of Shaanxi Province, a typical hilly area of the Loess Plateau, as test objects. The results showed that among the three 5-year old plantations, H.

Assessing field vulnerability to phosphorus loss in Beijing agricultural area using Revised Field Phosphorus Ranking Scheme.

Guanting Reservoir, one of the drinking water supply sources of Beijing, suffers from water eutrophication. It is mainly supplied by Guishui River. Thus, to investigate the reasons of phosphorus (P) loss and improve the P management strategies in Guishui River watershed are important for the safety of drinking water in this region.

Sustainability evaluation of the Grain for Green Project: from local people's responses to ecological effectiveness in Wolong Nature Reserve.

This article examines the sustainability of the Grain for Green Project in the Wolong Nature Reserve. Pertinent data were collected through a questionnaire survey and a spatial analysis of reforested lands. The study results identified four critical issues that may influence the sustainability of the project in the study area.

[Effects of land use and management practice on farmland soil quality in Yanhuai basin of Beijing].

In April 2005, a total of 41 soil samples were collected from the sandy loam soil (Ustochrepts) under orchard, vegetable, corn (Zea maize L. ) and soybean (Glycine max L. ) in Yanhuai basin of Beijing, and their physical, chemical, and biological properties were analyzed.

Seasonal variation of nitrogen-concentration in the surface water and its relationship with land use in a catchment of northern China.

Surface waters can be contaminated by human activities in two ways: (1) by point sources, such as sewage treatment discharge and storm-water runoff; and (2) by non-point sources, such as runoff from urban and agricultural areas. With point-source pollution effectively controlled, non-point source pollution has become the most important environmental concern in the world. The formation of non-point source pollution is related to both the sources such as soil nutrient, the amount of fertilizer and pesticide applied, the amount of refuse, and the spatial complex combination of land uses within a heterogeneous landscape.

Effects of land-use pattern change on rainfall-runoff and runoff-sediment relations: a case study in Zichang watershed of the Loess Plateau of China.

The purpose of this article is to identify the effect of land-use pattern on rainfall-runoff and runoff-sediment relations in Zichang Watershed of the Loess Plateau. From 1986 to 1997, many farmlands changed into grassland or woodland, especially the farmland in steep slope positions or far away from the river. The change of land-use pattern altered the rainfall-runoff and runoff-sediment relationships, and led to higher slope of trend curves (STCs) of annual rainfall-runoff mass curve and runoff-sediment mass curve in 1990s than that in 1980s.

[Research on the relationship between water and eco-environment construction in Loess Hilly and Gully regions].

Water is an important factor for eco-environmental construction. Eco-environmental construction has a great impact on water. There is a circular correlation between eco-environmental construction and water.

The effects of land use and its patterns on soil properties in a small catchment of the Loess Plateau.

Due to relatively strong human activities in the hilly area of Loess Plateau, the natural vegetation has been destroyed, and landscape pattern based on agricultural land matrix was land use mosaic composing of shrub land, grassland, woodland and orchard. This pattern has an important effect on soil moisture and soil nutrients. The Danangou catchment, a typical small catchment, was selected to study the effects of land use and its patterns on soil moisture and nutrients in this paper.

Comparing the soil quality changes of different land uses determined by two quantitative methods.

Soil quality is one of the most important environmental factors in sustaining the global biosphere and developing sustainable agricultural practices. A study was initiated in Wolong Nature Reserve, Sichuan Province, China to elucidate the soil quality changes of natural secondary succession, forest planting and agricultural practices after deforestation in the humid mountainous region. The soil qualities of six land use types (natural forestland, grassland, shrub land, secondary forestland, cultivated land and reforested land) were compared using two quantitative methods: the integrated soil quality index (QI) and soil deterioration index (DI).