As a flagship species in marine, the conservation of Acipenser sinensis habitat is of great significance for biodiversity maintenance. Based on 339 records of A. sinensis bycatch in the ocean and related environmental data from 2022 to 2023, we investigated its distribution characteristics and habitat selection using the MaxEnt model. The results showed that A. sinensis was primarily distributed in the waters of Hangzhou Bay and the Xiangshan area, with a relatively broad range in spring and winter, while the distribution was more concentrated in summer and autumn. The MaxEnt model revealed that key environmental factors influencing the potential habitat of A. sinensis were bottom water temperature, silicate concentration, and pH. When the temperature of bottom water ranged between 19-23 ℃, the silicate concentration exceeded 15 mmol·m-3, and pH was between 8.2 and 8.5, the probability of A. sinensis presence was higher. Within the study area, the highly suitable zone covered an area of 258.71 km2 (6.9% of the total), while the suboptimally suitable zone spanned 703.46 km2 (18.7%). The main highly suitable zones were located in the waters of Hangzhou Bay, the Xiangshan Port-Jiushan Archipelago-Sanmen Bay-Jiaojiang area, while the suboptimally suitable zones were primarily found in the waters near Zhoushan-Ningbo-Taizhou to the east and south, as well as the coastal waters of Jiangsu.
Based on data from nine plots, we analyzed the population structure of Rhododendron taishunense, a plant endemic to East China, the niche characteristics and interspecific associations of the dominant species, aiming to provide a basis for effective protection and scientific management. The results showed that population age structure of R. taishunense generally exhibited a growing pattern. Some plots showed generational gaps due to digging or habitat destruction. In the tree layer, some species, such as R. taishunense, Castanopsis eyrei and Schima superba, showed clear advantages in niche breadth. In the shrub layers, C. eyrei, R. taishunense, and Lindera aggregata had relatively large niche breadths, indicating strong adaptability. R. taishunense overlapped with 17 species in the tree layer and 15 species in the shrub layer. The niche overlap values of dominant species in the tree and shrub layers were 0.17 and 0.15, respectively, indicating a high degree of niche differentiation, and potential competitive relationships. The tree layer showed no significant association, while the shrub layer showed a significant negative association. Association coefficients, co-occurrence percentages, Pearson and Spearman correlation coefficients showed that the proportion of species pairs with negative associations or no co-occurrence ranged from 60.8% to 76.6%, indicating strong interspecific competition. Although R. taishunense had strong ecological adaptability, its community was in a successional stage with poor stability. It is necessary to establish special protection areas and implement scientific management of seedlings to promote population development.
Exploring land use changes and their terrain gradient effects can provide a scientific basis for the rational planning and sustainable utilization of land resources. With the Red River Basin in Yunnan Province as the research area, we used land use data of 2015 and 2020, crop data from 2017 to 2020, digital elevation model (DEM) data, distribution index and terrain position index to investigate land use and crop cultivation changes as well as their terrain gradient effects, and further conducted functional zoning. Our results showed that forests dominated the basin, accounting for more than 62.8% of the total area. From 2015 to 2020, the areas of water and built-up land increased by 118.55 km2 and 69.68 km2, respectively, while other land types decreased. Between 2017 and 2020, maize had the largest planting area and showed an increasing trend, expanding by 270.30 km2 in total, the planting areas of single cropping rice and sugarcane fluctuated, whereas rapeseed planting decreased. Cultivated land, built-up land, and water bodies were concentrated at low terrain positions (level of terrain position index was 1-3), whereas forests were concentrated at high terrain positions (level of terrain position index was 8-10), grasslands occurred predominantly at mid-to-low positions (level of terrain position index was 1-5). Single-cropping rice tended to expand toward higher terrain positions. Maize was distributed relatively evenly at mid positions. Sugarcane and rapeseed were concentrated at mid and low terrain positions, respectively. The basin could be divided into four functional zones: urban-agricultural coordinated development zone, transitional agro-pastoral composite zone, ecological forestry and steep-slope management zone, and natural ecological conservation zone. The findings would provide a scientific basis for regional land use planning and agricultural structural adjustment.
The rapid and accurate monitoring of soil organic carbon (SOC) is of great significance for evaluating the quality of reclaimed soils in mining areas. With reclaimed soils from the Xinglongzhuang Coal Mine as the object, we constructed five types of inversion variables based on drone multispectral imagery and sample SOC content: band mathematical transformation groups, traditional spectral index groups, improved spectral index groups, full-variable groups, and groups selected by the improved greedy algorithm (IGA). We further built SOC inversion models with six machine learning algorithms, AdaBoost, backpropagation neural network (BPNN), CatBoost, LightGBM, random forest (RF), and XGBoost. The results showed that: 1) When the improved spectral index group was used as the variable, the accuracy of inversion model was higher than that of the traditional spectral index group. 2) When the IGA-selected variable group was used, the accuracy and stability of the model significantly improved. 3) The LightGBM model using the IGA-selected variable group was the optimal SOC inversion model for reclaimed soils, with a modeling set coefficient of determination (R2) of 0.825, root mean square error (RMSE) of 0.914, a validation set R2 of 0.793, and RMSE of 0.945. 4) The inverted SOC content ranged from 7.75 to 13.60 g·kg-1, with an average of 10.48 g·kg-1, which was consistent with the sample SOC measurements. These fin-dings could provide technical support for the planning and implementation of land reclamation in mining areas.
Enhancing the resilience of forest ecosystems is critical for promoting sustainable forestry and regional collaborative governance. To optimize sustainable forestry strategies and strengthen ecological civilization construction, we constructed an evaluation index system for measuring the resilience of forest ecosystems in 31 provinces of China from 2004 to 2021 based on the pressure-state-response (PSR) framework, using the entropy method to determine indicator weights. We established a spatial association network through a modified gravity model and applied social network analysis along with quadratic assignment procedure (QAP) to analyze the structural characteristics and driving factors of the network. The results showed that the overall resilience of China's forest ecosystems increased from 0.13 in 2004 to 0.18 in 2021. There were regional variations across the eastern, central, western, and northeastern regions. The overall network connectivity of China's forest ecosystem resilience required improvement, with individual network structures exhibiting pronounced "core-periphery" characteristics. Henan, Hubei, and Hunan occupied core positions, while Jilin, Heilongjiang, and Tianjin were situated at peripheral locations. Forest ecosystem resilience spatial association network could be divided into four major blocks, characterized by relatively strong internal connections within each block and relatively weak interactions between blocks. Differences in regional total forestry output value, geographical adjacency relationship, forestry ecological construction investment, and forest coverage exerted a strong positive influence on the establishment of the spatial association network, while differences in the proportion of forestry tertiary industry in GDP exerted a weak negative influence. Our results suggested that we should rely on the location advantages of core provinces and regions, strengthen cross-regional cooperation and resource sharing, and give play to the spatial radiation effect of core regions. Meanwhile, we should optimize the spatial allocation of forestry resource elements and develop targeted implementation plans.
Meconopsis comprises rare alpine plants with high ornamental value. Due to global warming and human activities, their habitats have been destroyed. To provide data support for the dynamic monitoring of Meconopsis species and ex situ conservation, and to offer reference for species classification within the genus Meconopsis, we focused on two flagship species of typical alpine scree habitats, M. horridula and M. racemosa. Based on the geographic distribution data, we used the MaxEnt model 3.4.4 to simulate the suitable habitat areas of both species for the current (1970-2000) and future (2041-2060, 2061-2080) periods, and used ArcGIS 10.8 to analyze the dominant factors affecting their habitat suitability and the dynamics of suitable areas under future climate warming. The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve values for both Meconopsis species were greater than 0.9, indicating that the model predictions were accurate. Altitude, isothermality, temperature seasonality, and human footprint were the main variables affecting the suitable distribution of M. horridula and M. racemosa. Currently, the total suitable area for M. horridula and M. racemosa were 2.60 million and 1.62 million km2, respectively, with an overlap of 1.58 million km2, indicating that the suitable ranges highly coincided. Currently, the suitable areas of both Meconopsis species were distributed in Yunnan, Sichuan, Gansu, Qinghai, Tibet, and Xinjiang, and under the influence of climate warming, there would be a potential migration toward the northwest in the future. The main suitability variables of M. horridula and M. racemosa were consistent, with total suitable ranges being highly coincided.
To breed new drought-resistant poplar varieties suitable for the Three-North Region, we used Populus alba var. pyramidalis (PaP) (with strong drought resistance but weak insect resistance) and P. deltoids 'Shalin-yang' (PdS) (with weak drought resistance but strong insect resistance) as hybrid parents. We cultivated their hybrid progenies P. 'Shaxin 2' (PdSPaP_2), P. 'Shaxin 3' (PdSPaP_3), and P. 'Shaxin 4-1' (PdSPaP_4) as research objects, with the parents as controls in the solar greenhouse (day temperature: 25-28 ℃, night temperature: 18-20 ℃, relative humidity: 60%-70%, photosynthetically active radiation: 800-1000 μmol·m-2·s-1). After a 21-day artificial drought stress, the changes in anatomical structure, physiological and biochemical characteristics, and photosynthetic parameters of each variety at the seedling stage were compared. The results showed that the epidermal thickness of young stems of PdSPaP_4 was not significantly different from that of PaP, but significantly higher than that of other varieties. After 21 days of drought, PdSPaP_2 died due to rapid water loss and severe damage in the membrane system, while the other varieties, though showing wilting, remained alive. Leaf relative water content (RWC) of PaP decreased from 89.4% to 50.4%, and that of PdSPaP_4 decreased from 91.6% to 42.5%. The two varieties had the lowest increase rates in relative electrical conductivity (REC), indicating the least membrane damage. PaP and PdSPaP_4 initiated stomatal closure on the 7th day of drought, and the decrease rate of their photosynthetic rate on the 21st day was significantly lower than that of PdS. In conclusion, drought resistance of the P. 'Shaxin' series was ranked as: PdSPaP_4 > PdSPaP_3 > PdSPaP_2. PdSPaP_4 had drought resistance close to that of its male parent (PaP) and thus has the potential to be used as the main poplar variety for shelterbelt construction in the arid areas of the Three-North Region.

