Spatio-Temporal Heterogeneity of Ecological Quality in a Typical Dryland of Northern China Driven by Climate Change and Human Activities.

With the intensification of climate change and anthropogenic impacts, the ecological environment in drylands faces serious challenges, underscoring the necessity for regionally adapted ecological quality evaluation. This study evaluates the suitability of the original Remote Sensing Ecological Index (oRSEI), modified RSEI (mRSEI), and adapted RSEI (aRSEI) in a typical dryland region of northern China. Spatio-temporal changes in ecological quality from 2000 to 2022 were analyzed using Theil-Sen median trend analysis, the Mann-Kendall test, and the Hurst exponent.

Response of Typical Shrubs Growth and Soil Nutrients to Graphene Addition in Impoverished Land of the Ulan Buh Desert.

Graphene can promote plant growth and improve soil conditions, but its effectiveness in enhancing infertile soils in arid regions remains unclear. This study selected three typical shrubs from the Ulan Buh Desert , , and as research subjects. Five graphene addition levels were set: 0 mg/L (C0), 25 mg/L (C1), 50 mg/L (C2), 100 mg/L (C3), and 200 mg/L (C4).

Genome-wide discovery of CBL genes in Bobr. and functional analysis of under drought and salt stress.

Calcineurin B-like (CBL) proteins are a class of important Ca receptors that play key roles in plant stress response. CBLs have been shown to participate in responses to abiotic stresses such as drought, salt, and cold in many plant species, including and rice. However, little is known about their potential functions in the desert halophyte .

Effects of grazing on the relationship between dominant shrubs and understory vegetation along sand dune stability gradient.

During the process of dune vegetation restoration, understanding how grazing disturbance affects the relationship between plant species is a critical issue in ecological studies. However, there is insufficient evidence on the changes in the interaction between dominant shrubs and understory vegetation under grazing behavior. We aimed to study how grazing and dune stabilization affects the relationship between Caragana microphylla and understory vegetation.

A Study of the Diversity Patterns of Desert Vegetation Communities in an Arid Zone of China.

The Gobi Desert ecosystem is currently experiencing the impacts of persistent climate warming and extreme weather. However, the relative influences of factors such as soil, climate, and spatial variables on the β-diversity of desert plants and their key components have not been systematically studied. In this research, the Dunhuang North Mountain and Mazong Mountain areas were selected as study areas, with a total of 79 plant community plots systematically established.

Attract and kill trees? No simple solution for Anoplophora glabripennis (Coleoptera: Cerambycidae) control.

Anoplophora glabripennis (Motschulsky), the Asian longhorned beetle, is a serious wood-boring pest of hardwood trees. There have been records that suggest Elaeagnus angustifolia L. (Elaeagnaceae) might be an "attract and kill" tree species for A.

Changes of forests with embankment dams along the Laizhou bay.

Background: Embankment dams were built south of the Laizhou bay in China for controlling storm surge disasters, but they are not enough to replace coastal forests in protecting the land. This study was designed to evaluate the effects of embankment dams on natural forests dominated by and test whether the dam-shrub system is a preferable updated defense.

Methods: Coastal forests on two typical flats, one before and one behind embankment dams, were investigated using quadrats and lines.

The Yellow River is the key corridor for to disperse from Asia inlands to east seashores.

Plants of the L. genus (Tamaricaceae) mainly occur in arid inlands of Asia, but a few species occur in the coastal areas of China, and the Yellow River may account for this. This study was conducted to elucidate whether and how the Yellow River affects the pattern and development of the genus, involving two critical species of Nakai and Lour.

A chromosome-level genome assembly provides insights into the local adaptation of Tamarix austromongolica in the Yellow River Basin, China.

Tamarix austromongolica is endemic to the Yellow River Basin and has adapted to diverse ecological settings in the region, including the arid areas of northwestern China and the saline soil regions of the Yellow River Delta. However, the genetic basis of its local adaptation remains unclear. We report a chromosome-level assembly of the T.

Variation in soil bacterial community characteristics inside and outside the West Ordos National Nature Reserve, northern China.

Nature reserves are crucial for protecting biological habitats and maintaining biodiversity. Soil bacterial community plays an irreplaceable role in the structure and function of ecosystem. However, the impact of nature reserves on soil bacterial communities is still unclear.

Productivity and Species Diversity of Plant Communities Are Higher inside than outside the West Ordos National Nature Reserve, Northern China.

Nature reserves play an important role in the protection of biological habitats and the maintenance of biodiversity, but the performance and mechanisms of desert steppe nature reserves in improving plant community productivity, biodiversity and soil nutrient content are still largely unknown. To investigate the conservation effects of desert steppe nature reserve management on plant productivity and biodiversity, we compared the plant biomass, diversity and soil nutrient content inside and outside the West Ordos National Nature Reserve through sample survey, biomass determination, diversity index calculation and soil nutrient content determination. We found the following: (1) The aboveground biomass and belowground biomass of plant communities in the nature reserve were significantly larger than those outside the reserve; and the aboveground biomass of plant communities in shrub-steppe was significantly larger than that of herb grassland in both the nature reserve and the outside of the reserve.

Tracing provenance of eolian sands in the northern Ulan Buh Desert, China: Evidence from the REE geochemical characteristics.

Desertification is a primary threat to crop farming, the livestock industry, and the eco-environment in northwestern China. Through field research and satellite imagery, it has been discovered that there are 4-5 sand belts in the shape of handclasps connecting major deserts in the Alxa Plateau region of northern China. These sand belts have been expanding for several decades.

Density affects plant size in the Gobi Desert.

Plant size is a crucial functional trait with substantial implications in agronomy and forestry. Understanding the factors influencing plant size is essential for ecosystem management and restoration efforts. Various environmental factors and plant density play significant roles in plant size.

Genome-wide analyses of calmodulin and calmodulin-like proteins in the halophyte Nitraria sibirica reveal their involvement in response to salinity, drought and cold stress.

The calmodulin (CaM) and calmodulin-like (CML) proteins are major calcium sensors that play a critical role in environmental stimulus response in plants. Nevertheless, the CaM/CML proteins from the specific plants with extreme tolerance to abiotic stresses remained so far uncharacterized. In this study, 66 candidate proteins (three NsCaMs and sixty-three NsCMLs) were identified from the halophyte Nitraria sibirica, which can withstand an extreme salinity.

Three-dimensional model construction and wind simulation of different tree species in farmland shelter.

Protective forests are the ecological barriers of oases in arid sand areas and can effectively prevent and control wind and sand hazards. The structural characteristics of individual trees, as the basic unit of protective forests, are the key factors affecting the protective benefits. With the typical leafless tree species of Ulan Buh Desert oasis, , var.

Leaf-Root-Soil Stoichiometric Characteristics in Different Shrub Ages of .

The ecological indicators for the growth and restoration of populations are important for grasping the regulatory mechanisms of the biogeochemistry cycle, and for providing basic data for the prediction and evaluation of the evolution characteristics of natural populations. We conducted studies on the eco-stoichiometric characteristics of natural in different shrub ages, in order to understand the nutrient limitations for the growth and development of and the synergy between the soil, leaves and roots, and to explore the C, N and P stoichiometric characteristics on . The results showed the following: (1) The response of C, N and P stoichiometric characteristics in the leaves, roots and soil to changes in shrub age was not completely consistent.

Effects of Six Consecutive Years of Irrigation and Phosphorus Fertilization on Alfalfa Yield.

Alfalfa ( L.) is a major forage legume in semi-arid regions such as North China Plain and is the material foundation for the development of herbivorous animal husbandry. How to improve the yield of alfalfa per unit area from a technical perspective and achieve high-yield cultivation of alfalfa is the focus of research by scientific researchers and producers.

The Glutathione Peroxidase Gene Family in : Genome-Wide Identification, Classification, and Gene Expression Analysis under Stress Conditions.

Plant glutathione peroxidases (GPXs) are the main enzymes in the antioxidant defense system that sustain HO homeostasis and normalize plant reaction to abiotic stress conditions. However, the genome-wide identification of the gene family and its responses to environmental stresses, especially salt stress, in , which is a shrub that can survive in saline environments, has not yet been reported. Here, we first report the genome-wide analysis of the gene family in , leading to a total of seven genes that are distributed on six of the twelve chromosomes.

Assessment on the declining degree of farmland shelter forest in a desert oasis based on LiDAR and hyperspectrum imagery.

We examined the growth decline and health status of farmland protective forest belt ( var and shelterbelts) in Ulanbuh Desert Oasis by using airborne hyperspectral and ground-based LiDAR to collect the hyperspectral images and point cloud data of the whole forest belt respectively. Through correlation analysis and stepwise regression analysis, we constructed the evaluation model of the decline degree of farmland protection forest with the spectral differential value, vegetation index, and forest structure parameters as independent variables and the tree canopy dead branch index of the field survey as dependent variables. We further tested the accuracy of the model.

Allometry of bud dynamic pattern and linkage between bud traits and ecological stoichiometry of under fertilizer addition.

Affected by the pressure and constraints of available resources, plant growth and development, as well as plant life history strategies, usually vary with environmental conditions. Plant buds play a crucial role in the life history of woody plants. is a common dominant woody species in desertified areas of northern China and its growth is critical to the desert ecosystem.

Different Responses of Growing Season Ecosystem CO Fluxes to Rain Addition in a Desert Ecosystem.

Desert ecosystem CO exchange may play an important role in global carbon cycling. However, it is still not clear how the CO fluxes of shrub-dominated desert ecosystems respond to precipitation changes. We performed a 10-year long-term rain addition experiment in a desert ecosystem in northwestern China.

Transcriptome Profiling and Chlorophyll Metabolic Pathway Analysis Reveal the Response of to Increased Nitrogen.

To identify genes that respond to increased nitrogen and assess the involvement of the chlorophyll metabolic pathway and associated regulatory mechanisms in these responses, seedlings were subjected to four nitrogen concentrations (N0, N6, N36, and N60: 0, 6, 36, and 60 mmol·L nitrogen, respectively). The seedling leaf transcriptome was analyzed by high-throughput sequencing (Illumina HiSeq 4000), and 332,420 transcripts and 276,423 unigenes were identified. The numbers of differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were 4052 in N0 vs.