Chinese Geographical Science最新文献

Grasslands in northern China serve the country as both an ecological barrier and a livestock production base. There, installing enclosures has been becoming the major grassland restoration measure adopted by many local governments. However, the effects of restoration on both ecological and production benefits of grassland remain unclear for implemented grassland restoration policies. Therefore, a representative rangeland in northern China, the Maodeng pasture in Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region was selected as the study area, and remote sensing monitoring analyses were carried out to quantify the ecological benefits and economic benefits from 2015 to 2021. The results showed that: 1) in terms of ecological benefits, the grassland area with a grassland coverage rate of more than 60% accounts for 32.3% of the regional area, and 86.4% of its grassland grew significantly better than the same period in 2015, showing a significant improvement in grassland growth. Using the average amount of carbon per unit area as the ecological benefit evaluation index, it increased by 27.1% to 32.48Tg C/yr from 2015 to 2021. 2) In terms of economic benefits, both theoretical grass production and livestock carrying capacity increased from 2015 to 2021. Compared to 2015, the theoretical grass production in 2021 increased by 24.8% to 71 900 t. The livestock carrying capacity reached 52 100 sheep units in 2021, nearly 11 000 sheep units more than that in 2015. During the study period, multiple economic indicators (on a per capita basis of permanent residents) for the pastoral area of Xilin Hot City to which the Maodeng pasture belongs, have grown steadily. Per capita total income rose from 29 630 yuan (RMB) in 2015 to 62 859 yuan (RMB) in 2021. Relying on grassland resources to develop the pastoral ecology also broadens the potential economic development space. Overall, the establishment of the reserve and the experiment of implanting an enclosure policy have had a significant and positive impact on Maodeng pasture’s development from both an ecological and economic perspective. With the support of scientific evidence, enclosure policy can be extended to more than 110 000 km² of grasslands in northern China with similar precipitation and temperature conditions, enhancing the productive and ecological potential of grasslands. The above research results will contribute to the scientific formulation of grassland pasture quality improvement plans in northern China.

It is of great significance to systematically analyze the cultivated land system resilience (CLSR) for the black soil protection and national food security. The CLSR is impacted by planting structure adjustment and cultivated land quality decline, posing major hidden dangers to food security. It is urgent to evaluate the CLSR at multiple spatio-temporal scales. This study took Liaoning Province in the black soil region of Northeast China as an example. Based on the resilience theory, this study constructed the CLSR evaluation system from the input-feedback perspective at the provincial-scale and the city-scale, and used the rank-sum ratio comprehensive evaluation method (RSR) to analyze the key influencing factors of CLSR in Liaoning Province and its 14 cities from 2000 to 2019. The results showed that: 1) the time series changes of CLSR at the provincial-scale and the city-scale in Liaoning Province were similar, both showing an increasing trend. 2) The CLSR in Liaoning Province presented a spatial pattern of ‘high in the west and low in the east’ at the city-scale. 3) There were seven and six main influencing factors of CLSR at the provincial-scale and the city-scale, respectively. In addition to the net income per capita of rural households, other influencing factors of CLSR were different at the provincial-scale and the city-scale. The feedback factors were dominant at the provincial-scale, and the input factors and feedback factors were dominant at the city-scale. The results could provide a reference for the utilization of black soil and draw on the experience of regional agricultural planning and adjustment.

As the most economically developed metropolitan area in China’s Yangtze River Delta, the rapid changing land use patterns of Suzhou-Wuxi-Changzhou (Su-Xi-Chang) metropolitan area have profound impacts on the ecosystem service value (ESV). Based on the patterns of land use change and the ESV change in Su-Xi-Chang metropolitan area from 2000 to 2020, we set up four scenarios: natural development scenario, urban development scenario, arable land protection scenario and ecological protection scenario, and simulated the impact of land use changes on the ESV in these scenarios. The results showed that: 1) the area of built-up land in the Su-Xi-Chang metropolitan area increased significantly from 2000 to 2020, and the area of other types of land decreased. Arable land underwent the highest transfer-out area, and was primarily converted into built-up land. The total ESV of Su-Xi-Chang metropolitan area increased initially then declined from 2000–2020, and the value of almost all individual ecosystem services decreased. 2) Population density, GDP per area, night lighting intensity, and road network density can negatively impact the ESV. 3) The total ESV loss under the natural development and urban development scenarios was high, and the expansion of the built-up land and the drastic shrinkage of the arable land contributed to the ESV decline under both scenarios. The total ESV under arable land protection and ecological protection scenarios increases, and therefore these scenarios are suitable for future land use optimization in Su-Xi-Chang. This study could provide a certain reference for land use planning and allocation, and offer guidance for the rational allocation of land resources.

Human activities in a transborder watershed are complex under the influence of domestic policies, international relations, and global events. Understanding the forces driving human activity change is important for the development of transborder watershed. In this study, we used global historical land cover data, the hemeroby index model, and synthesized major historical events to analyze how human activity intensity changed in the Heilongjiang River (Amur River in Russia) watershed (HLRW). The results showed that there was a strong spatial heterogeneity in the variation of human activity intensity in the HLRW over the past century (1900—2016). On the Chinese side, the human activity intensity change shifted from the plain areas for agricultural reclamation to the mountainous areas for timber extraction. On the Russian side, human activity intensity changes mostly concentrated along the Trans-Siberian Railway and the Baikal-Amur Mainline. Localized variation of human activity intensity tended to respond to regional events while regionalized variation tends to reflect national policy change or broad international events. The similarities and differences between China and Russia in policies and positions in international events resulted in synchronous and asynchronous changes in human activity intensity. Meanwhile, policy shifts were often confined by the natural features of the watershed. These results reveal the historical origins and fundamental connotations of watershed development and contribute to formulating regional management policies that coordinate population, economic, social, and environmental activities.

Water conservation initiatives satisfy the demand for water supply, electricity generation, irrigation, and flood control. While helping humanity, they have also altered the ecosystem of natural rivers, impacted river ecology, disrupted river continuity, and jeopardized the existence of aquatic creatures in rivers. Studying the impacts of dam construction on rivers can enhance our knowledge of river ecological and environmental concerns and help sustain the health of river ecosystems, thereby realizing the harmony between humans and water in both theoretical and practical aspects. This study used bibliometrics and constructed an author-keyword 2-mode matrix network using Co-Occurrence software to identify the hotspots and research trend in eco-hydrology of dammed rivers. We identified ‘FLOW’ ‘SEDIMENT’ ‘QUALITY’ and ‘MODEL’ as the research hotspots in the ecological impact of dammed rivers, and combined the related literatures, we highlight the research progress in the four directions. Then the research shortcomings and prospect were discussed, including strengthening the monitoring and analysis of critical ecological variables, enhancing the hydrological monitoring density for small rivers, strengthening the research of relationship between eutrophication and zooplankton, establishing multiscale approaches, and combining multi-sources information technologies to improve parameter accuracy in the model research.

Studying the impact of urbanization on agricultural development in shrinking areas is important for maintaining food security and promoted agricultural development in China. Based on the measurement results of the shrinking cities in the three provinces of Northeast China, this paper selects 15 shrinking cities as the research object, and constructs a multi-dimensional index system to explore the impact of the urbanization level of the shrinking areas on the agricultural development in the region since 2007–2019, analyzes the influencing factors and their differences by using the geographically-weighted regression model and Geodetector, and proposes a targeted regulation strategy. The results show that: 1) overall, there is a negative correlation between the urbanization level and the agricultural development level in the contracted areas of the three northeastern provinces. The urbanization level in these areas has a certain negative impact on the overall level of agricultural development; 2) regarding the time dimension, the impact of urbanization level on the agricultural development level in the contracted areas of the three northeastern provinces gradually increases over time; 3) regarding the spatial pattern, the overall impact of shrinking urbanization levels in the three provinces of Northeast China on the agricultural development shows a significant distribution pattern of high in the east and low in the west; 4) the total population and natural population growth rate at the end of the year were the main factors influencing a certain level of urbanization on agricultural development in the shrinking cities while population density and the urban fixed asset investment rate were the secondary factors; and 5) the main reasons why the level of agricultural development in different cities was affected by the level of urbanization were different. However, they can be categorized into areas of population loss and spatial construction, which can be further divided into area of population loss in the northeast, areas of negative population growth in the west, and areas of urban spatial change in the south. According to the causes of the impact, this paper adopted targeted regulation strategies and formulated relevant policies and solutions that cater to local conditions.

As cultural facilities, physical bookstore is an important part of urban infrastructure. Influenced by the development of social economy and the internet, physical bookstores also have become a combination of cultural space and tourism experience. In this case, it is necessary to explore the spatial characteristics and influencing factors of physical bookstores. This study uses Density-Based Spatial Clustering of Applications with Noise (DBSCAN), spatial analysis and geographical detectors to calculate the spatial distribution pattern and factors influencing physical bookstores in national central cities/municipality (hereafter using cities) in western China. Based on spatial data, population density, road density and other data, this study constructed a data set of the influencing factors of physical bookstores, consisting of 11 factors along 6 dimensions for 3 national central cities in western China. The results are as follows: first, the spatial distribution pattern of physical bookstores in Xi’an, Chengdu, and Chongqing is unbalanced. The spatial distribution of physical bookstores in Xi’an and Chongqing is from southwest to northeast and are relatively clustered, while those in Chengdu are relatively discrete. Second, the spatial distribution pattern of physical bookstores has been formed under the influence of different factors. The intensity and significance of influencing factors differ in the case cities. However, in general, the social factor, business factor, the density of research facilities, tourism factor and road density are the main driving factors in the three cities. There is a synergistic relationship between public libraries and physical bookstores. Third, the explanatory power becomes stronger after the interaction between various factors. In Xi’an and Chengdu, the density of communities and the density of research facilities have stronger explanatory power for the dependent variable after interacting with other factors. However, in Chongqing, the traffic factors have stronger explanatory power for the dependent variable after interacting with other factors. The results could provide a practical reference for the sustainable development of physical bookstores and encourage a love of reading among the public.

Groundwater mineralization is one of the main factors affecting the transport of soil water and salt in saline-sodic areas. To investigate the effects of groundwater with different levels of salinity on evaporation and distributions of soil water and salt in Songnen Plain, Northeast China, five levels of groundwater sodium adsorption ration of water (SARw) and total salt content (TSC mmol/L) were conducted in an oil column lysimeters. The five treated groundwater labeled as ST0: 0, ST0: 10, ST5: 40, ST10: 70 and ST20: 100, were prepared with NaCl and CaCl₂ in proportion, respectively. The results showed the groundwater evaporation (GWE) and soil evaporation (SE) increased firstly and then decreased with the increase of groundwater salinity. The values of GWE and SE in ST10: 70 treatment were the highest, which were 2.09 and 1.84 times the values in the ST0: 0 treatment with the lowest GWE and SE. There was a positive linear correlation between GWE and the Ca²⁺ content in groundwater, with R² = 0.998. The soil water content (SWC) of ST0: 0 treatment was significantly (P < 0.05) less than those of other treatments during the test. The SWC of the ST0: 0 and ST0: 10 treatments increased with the increase of soil depth, while the other treatments showed the opposite trend. Statistical analysis indicated the SWC in the 0–60 cm soil layer was positively correlated with the groundwater TSC and its ion contents during the test. Salt accumulation occurred in the topsoil and the salt accumulation in the 0–20 cm soil layer was significantly (P < 0.05) greater than that in the subsoil. This study revealed the effects of the salinity level of groundwater, especially the Ca²⁺ content and TSC of groundwater, on the GWE and distributions of soil water and salt, which provided important support for the prevention and reclamation of soil salinization and sodificaton in shallow groundwater regions.