Air temperature(Ta) datasets with high spatial and temporal resolutions are needed in a wide range of applications, such as hydrology, ecology, agriculture, and climate change studies. Nonetheless, the density of weather station networks is insufficient, especially in sparsely populated regions, greatly limiting the accuracy of estimates of spatially distributed Ta. Due to their continuous spatial coverage, remotely sensed land surface temperature(LST) data provide the possibility of exploring spatial estimates of Ta. However, because of the complex interaction of land and climate, retrieval of Ta from the LST is still far from straightforward. The estimation accuracy varies greatly depending on the model, particularly for maximum Ta. This study estimated monthly average daily minimum temperature(Tmin), average daily maximum temperature(Tmax) and average daily mean temperature(Tmean) over the Loess Plateau in China based on Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer(MODIS) LST data(MYD11A2) and some auxiliary data using an artificial neural network(ANN) model. The data from 2003 to 2010 were used to train the ANN models, while 2011 to 2012 weather station temperatures were used to test the trained model. The results showed that the nighttime LST and mean LST provide good estimates of Tmin and Tmean, with root mean square errors(RMSEs) of 1.04°C and 1.01°C, respectively. Moreover, the best RMSE of Tmax estimation was 1.27°C. Compared with the other two published Ta gridded datasets, the produced 1 km × 1 km dataset accurately captured both the temporal and spatial patterns of Ta. The RMSE of Tmin estimation was more sensitive to elevation, while that of Tmax was more sensitive to month. Except for land cover type as the input variable, which reduced the RMSE by approximately 0.01°C, the other vegetation-related variables did not improve the performance of the model. The results of this study indicated that ANN, a type of machine learning method, is effective for long-term and large-scale Ta estimation.

This study constructs a quasi-natural experiment based on the expansion of the Yangtze River Delta urban agglomeration(YRDUA) of China in 2010 to investigate the impact and inner mechanism of urban agglomeration expansion on fine particulate matter(PM_(2.5)) concentrations through propensity scores in difference-in-differences models(PSM-DID) using panel data from 286 prefecturelevel cities in China from 2003 to 2016. The results show that 1) urban agglomeration expansion contributes to an overall decrease in PM_(2.5) concentration, which is mainly achieved from the original cities. For the new cities, on the other hand, the expansion significantly increases the local PM_(2.5) concentration. 2) In the long term, the significant influence of urban agglomeration expansion on PM_(2.5) concentration lasts for three years and gradually decreases. A series of robustness tests confirm the applicability of the PSM-DID model.3) Cities with weaker government regulation, a better educated population and higher per capita income present stronger PM_(2.5) reduction effects. 4) Urban agglomeration expansion affects the PM_(2.5) concentration mainly through industrial transfer and population migration, which cause a decrease in the PM_(2.5) concentration in the original cities and an increase in the PM_(2.5) concentration in the new cities.Corresponding policy suggestions are proposed based on the conclusions.

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 CaCl_2 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 Ca~(2+) content in groundwater, with R~2 = 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 Ca~(2+) 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.

The sustainable development of border port-cities is of considerable significance to the stabilization and consolidation of border areas, unlike coastal-ports cities that consist of coastal ports and cities. Border ports should continue to drive the development of their surrounding towns to provide high-quality living conditions, employment, and housing for inhabitants of such towns and enhance the population agglomeration capacity of border areas. This study aimed to analyze the structure of employment and settlement in the cities surrounding the Khorgas Port at the different stages of its development—employing semi-structured interviews with individuals to analyze the spatial orientation characteristics of the daily needs of different groups of people and reveal the ways in which border ports drive the development of their surrounding towns—and recommend ways in which this can be improved. This study finds that as the Khorgas Port's mutual trade market, industrial base, comprehensive management, and other functions continue to grow, the port is becoming increasingly important. As more people work and settl in the surrounding towns, their living needs also increase. However, a considerable number of employed people do not live nearby, and many living needs are not being addressed in the towns surrounding the port. The study also reveals the living services demands of government management personnel who work at the port on weekdays and return to Yining City on weekends, employees of industrial enterprises who work at the port and return home for the New Year's celebration, and government management personnel and individual business personnel who work at the port and live nearby. In the future, the focus should be on improving the living conditions of the inhabitants of the towns surrounding Khorgas Port, including public services and the settlement ability of employees of industrial enterprises to better realize the radiation drive of the port on the surrounding towns.

Urban shrinkage is a global phenomenon, and it will coexist with urban growth for many years. At the same time, the network connection between cities continuously improved due to the construction of the transportation and information networks.However, the relationship between urban network externalities and urban population growth/shrinkage remains unclear. Therefore,based on high-speed railway(HSR) flow data, a spatial econometric model is used to explore the mechanism behind urban population growth and shrinkage from the perspective of network externalities in China. The results indicate that: 1) the urban network experiences a certain clubbing effect. Growing cities that are strongly connected are concentrated along China's main railway lines and the southeastern coastal areas, while shrinking cities that are weakly connected are distributed at the periphery of the network. 2) Moreover, the network externality disregards spatial distance and together with the agglomeration externality influences the growth and shrinking of cities. 3) Urban economic development still promotes the development of Chinese cities. However, the improvement of the urban economy has a negative cross-regional spillover effect on neighboring cities due to urban competition. 4) Lastly, Local spillovers of urban network externalities are positive, while cross-regional ones are negative. Consequently, the government needs to promote the construction of multi-dimensional network connections between cities to promote cities' sustainable development. This study reveals the relationship between urban network externalities and urban development, enriches the theories of network externalities and urban growth/shrinkage, and provides a reference for regional coordinated development.

Rapid urbanization and population growth have triggered an increase in urban housing demand and rising housing prices,which can influence the migration intention of high-level talents. Much work within the literature has focused more on the migration of the general public. However, antecedents of migration intention and the impact of housing prices on the migration of high-level talents remain unclear. Therefore, based on the push-pull theory, this study investigates the influencing factors of talent migration intention and explores the role of housing prices. This study reveals a complex mechanism underlying migration decisions by using logistic regression models and survey data of high-level talents in the Pearl River Delta(PRD) megalopolis of China. The results indicate that: 1) in high house-price regions, social integration is the primary push factor, and the main factors for retaining talents are the expectation of future work and intimate family relationships; 2) in medium house-price regions, the main factors that attract talents are the current salary level and close family ties; 3) in low house-price regions, living convenience is a determining factor in retaining talents. This study provides a new perspective for talent mobility research and offers valuable inputs for retaining and attracting talents in different economic development regions. Findings are of great significance for formulating talent introduction policies and forming a new pattern of rational spatial docking and effective allocation of human resources.

Urban agglomeration(UA) is an advanced spatial economic form formed and developed in the process of rapid industrialization and urbanization, and an important carrier of urbanization and economic development. The economy has developed rapidly in the recent decades of China, and the UAs have also developed rapidly. However, as a large population country, the population distribution and changes of UAs in China has unique characteristics. Using the fifth, sixth and seventh population census data, spatial auto-correlation and spatial econometric models, we analyzed the spatial-temporal evolution characteristics and influencing factors of population agglomeration in China's UAs. Results revealed that: 1) from 2000 to 2020, the population gradually converged into UAs, and the characteristics of population agglomeration in different development degree of UAs differ. The higher the development degree of UA, the higher the population agglomeration degree. Besides, UAs are the main area with the most significant population agglomeration degree,and the spatial autocorrelation show that the cities with similar degree tend to be concentrated in space. The urban population gathering in UAs has a certain positive spillover effect on population size of neighboring cities. 2) Economic development and social conditions factors are important factors affecting population agglomeration degree in UAs. The main factors of population gather into UAs are similar with the outside UAs, but the positive promotion of urbanization rate and proportion of tertiary industry in GDP on population agglomeration of UAs in China are enhancing from 2000 to 2020. Meanwhile, the other factors, such as high-quality public services, good urban living environment conditions, high-quality medical and educational resources, are also important factors to promote urban population gather into UAs. This study provides a basis for formulating the development planning of UAs in China, and enriches the relevant theoretical research of population evolution and influencing factors of UAs.

Carbon storage of terrestrial ecosystems plays a vital role in advancing carbon neutrality. Better understanding of how land use changes affect carbon storage in urban agglomeration will provide valuable guidance for policymakers in developing effective regional conservation policies. Taking the Pearl River Delta Urban Agglomeration(PRDUA) in China as an example, we examined the heterogeneous response of carbon storage to land use changes in 1990–2018 from a combined view of administrative units and physical entities. The results indicate that the primary change in land use was due to the expansion of construction land(5897.16 km2). The carbon storage in PRDUA decreased from 767.34 Tg C in 1990 to 725.42 Tg C in 2018 with a spatial pattern of high wings and the low middle. The carbon storage loss was largely attributed to construction land expansion(55.74%), followed by forest degradation(54.81%). Changes in carbon storage showed significant divergences in different sized cities and hierarchical boundaries. The coefficients of geographically weighted regression(GWR) reveal that the alteration in carbon storage in Guangzhou City was more responsive to changes in construction land(-0.11) compared to other cities, while that in Shenzhen was mainly affected by the dynamics of forest land(8.32). The change in carbon storage was primarily influenced by the conversion of farmland within urban extent(5.05) and the degradation of forest land in rural areas(5.82). Carbon storage changes were less sensitive to the expansion of construction land in the urban center, urban built-up area, and ex-urban built-up area, with the corresponding GWR coefficients of 0.19, 0.04, and 0.02. This study necessitates the differentiated protection strategies of carbon storage in urban agglomerations.

The development of landscapes in one of the most populated river basins of the southern Russian Far East was studied using pollen and diatom data. The study sites were a multi-layered mountain fortress, Steklyanukha-2, and an Upper Holocene high floodplain sequence of the Steklyanukha River. Buried soil from the fluvial section acts as an environmental archive of the time in which people from the Yankovskaya archeological cultures settled in the river basin. The soil was formed under conditions of decreasing water supply in the valley and prolonged droughts. Findings of pollen Fagopyrum and Urtica signal economic activity in the Early Iron Age.Floodplain lake sediments accumulated from 1.6 to 0.5 kyr, when the valley was actively developed during the Middle Ages. There are signals of the development of secondary birch and oak forests. In the cultural layer of the fortress and lake sediments formed in the Middle Ages, Ambrosia and Xanthium pollens were found and are reliable evidence of agricultural activity in the valley. The pollens of plants typically seen in human-disturbed areas were also found. Indirect evidence of human activity includes non-pollen palynomorphs.The study of diatoms in a depression near a rampart confirmed the archaeologists' assumption that it was used as a water reserve. Pollen spectra from surface soils reflect agricultural activity in the river basin since the second half of the 19th century. The largest amount of pollen of alien and synanthropic plants and weeds, as well as spores of pathogenic fungi and fire indicators, were found here.

Urban spatial carrying capacity is the comprehensive support capacity of natural resources for urban development, which is of great significance in guaranteeing the sustainable urbanization. The middle-east section of North Slope of Kunlun Mountains in Xinjiang, China, is characterized by harsh climate and sparse population, whereas it is important for the initiative of the new Silk Road Belt because of its important location. Cities in this area have begun to take shape, and the implementation of the Silk Road Belt Initiative will inevitably stimulate the urbanization in this area. The extent to which the cities in this area will be supported by natural resources and how to fulfill the requirements of sustainable socioeconomic development needs to be investigated. In view of this, the present study evaluated the urban spatial carrying capacity and discussed feasible approaches that could support the sustainable urbanization in this area. The results show that 97.59% of the study area belongs to the low and relatively low levels of spatial carrying capacity for urban construction, and the area of medium, relatively high and high levels is 1.12 × 10~4 km~2, accounting for 2.41% of the total study area,mainly distributed in small clusters in the central alluvial fan oasis plains. Resource and environmental factors highly constrain urban construction, and low spatial matching of land and water resources, harsh climatic conditions and high risk of geological disasters are three major shortcomings. In addition, lagging transportation infrastructure construction and the resulting weak internal and external spatial connections also affect urban development. On this basis, the scientific arrangement of urban distribution, steady promotion of regional economic development based on local characteristics, further improvement of transportation infrastructure construction and strengthening the cooperation between the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps and local governments are suitable approaches for sustainable urbanization in the study area.

Building a more resilient response system to climate change for sustainable development and reducing uncertainty in China's food markets, requires access to historical research gaps and mapping future research progress for decision making. However, the lack of quantitative and objective analyses to ensure the stability and development of agroecosystems increases the complexity of agro-climatic mechanisms, which leads to uncertainty and undesirable consequences. In this paper, we review the characteristics of climate change in China(1951–2020), reveal the mechanisms of agroecosystem structure in response to climate, and identify challenges and opportunities for future efforts in the context of research progress. The aim is to improve the scientific validity and relevance of future research by clarifying agro-climatic response mechanisms. The results show that surface temperature, precipitation, and frequency of extreme weather events have increased to varying degrees in major agricultural regions of China in 1951–2020. And they have strong geographic variation, which has resulted in droughts in the north and floods in the south. Moreover, climate change has complicated the mechanisms of soil moisture, Net Primary Productivity(NPP), soil carbon pool, and crop pest structure in agroecosystems. This lends to a reduction in soil water holding capacity, NPP, soil carbon content, and the number of natural enemies of diseases and insects, which in turn affects crop yields. However, human interventions can mitigate the deterioration of these factors. We have also realized that the methodology and theory of historical research poses a great challenge to future agroecosystem. Historical and projected climate trends identified current gaps in interdisciplinary integration and multidisciplinary research required to manage diverse spatio-temporal climate change impacts on agroecosystems. Future efforts should highlight integrated management and decision making, multidisciplinary big data coupling, and numerical simulations to ensure sustainable agricultural development, ecological security, and food security in China.

The health and function of ecosystems are largely determined by the quality of habitat, and the optimal regulation of landscape patterns has become an important way to improve regional habitat quality. This article takes the Poyang Lake Basin of China as a case, reveals the spatial and temporal change of its habitat quality at the small watershed scale, and attempts to examine the multidimensional response of habitat quality to landscape pattern changes with respect to landscape compositions and landscape configuration. The results show: 1) from 2000 to 2020, the overall landscape fragmentation of the basin decreased, the landscape aggregation in the central small watersheds changed significantly, and the spatial distribution of landscape elements in the central and southern small watersheds were relatively homogeneous. 2) The overall habitat quality of the Poyang Lake Basin is at a middle to high level, with significant spatial differentiation, showing the distribution characteristics of ‘high in the periphery, low in the center, high in the south and low in the north'. 3) Both landscape compositions and landscape configurations influenced habitat quality, but there were obvious differences in the response degree. From the landscape composition and configuration dimension, the influence of landscape composition on habitat quality was greater than that of landscape configuration; from the multilevel landscape configuration dimension, compared to landscape level, landscape configuration at the class level impacted habitat quality more deeply. To the end, this article proposes a differentiated regulation strategy for habitat quality conservation in small watersheds from the perspective of landscape patterns to improve the ecological service level of Poyang Lake Basin.

Vegetation is an important factor linking the atmosphere, water, soil, and biological functions, and it plays a specific role in the climate change response and sustainable development of regional economies. However, little information is available on vegetation vulnerability and its driving mechanism. Therefore, studying temporal and spatial change characteristics of vegetation and their corresponding mechanisms is important for assessing ecosystem stability and formulating ecological policies in the Kherlen River Basin. We used Moderate-resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer(MODIS) normalized difference vegetation index(NDVI) remote sensing images from 2000 to 2020 to analyse temporal changes in NDVI with the autoregressive moving average model(ARMA) and the breaks for additive season trend(BFAST) in the basin and to assess natural, anthropogenic and topographic factors with the Geodetector model. The results show that: 1) the long NDVI time series remained stable in the Kherlen River Basin from 2000 to 2020, with a certain significant mutation period from 2013 to 2017; 2) the coefficient of variation(CV) in the analysis of the spatial NDVI was generally constant,mainly at the level of 0.01–0.07, and the spatial NDVI change was minimally impacted by external interference; and 3) temperature and precipitation are the key factors affecting the NDVI in the basin, and changes in local hydrothermal conditions directly affect the local NDVI. The results of this study could provide a scientific basis for the effective protection of the ecological environment and will aid in understanding the influence of vegetation change mechanisms and the corresponding factors.

Globally, agricultural soils are considered as one of the most important sources of greenhouse gas(GHG) emissions. No-tillage(NT), one of the most admired ways of climate-smart agriculture, has been deemed to have co-benefit to mitigation of GHG emissions and sustainability for crop yield, however, the effect of NT on GHG emissions is controversial. This study analyzed the overall effects of NT on GHG emissions, as well as the moderators that significantly influenced the overall effects, of the wheat-based rotation cropping systems in China through meta-analysis. The results showed that the overall effect size of NT on methane(CH4) uptake, nitrous oxide(N_2O) emission, and global warming potential(GWP) was 0.70(95% Confidence Interval(CI): 0.21–1.19),-0.27(95%CI:-0.72–0.18), and-0.39(95%CI:-1.01–0.23), respectively. In temperate climate zones with alkaline soils, the nitrogen application rate of 120–240 kg/ha, NT could significantly reduce GHG emissions and GWP. However, the mitigation effect will be weakened along with NT duration, except for proper straw addition. Overall, NT has the potential to reduce GHG emissions from wheat-based rotation systems in China, but it is necessary to implement NT depending on local conditions, soil characteristics, and field management.

As the population continues to shrink in the black soil region of Northeast China since 2000, it is critical to master the impact of population shrinkage on rural functions to realize rural revitalization and sustainable development. In this study, we focused on the impacts of depopulation on the evolution and interrelationship of rural subfunctions. Based on the rural function indexes system, the TOPSIS(Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to an Ideal Solution) method, spatial analysis method, and mathematical statistics analysis method were used to summarize the spatial and temporal characteristics of rural function development, as well as the effect of population shrinkage in the typical black soil region of Northeast China. The results showed that depopulation varied in the extent and duration between the forested region and plain areas, which both impacted the trajectories of rural subfunctions evolution. For the economic development function and ecological conservation function, the effect of continuous slight depopulation was beneficial, while the effect of rapid depopulation was adverse, which was exactly opposite to the agricultural production function. All forms of population shrinkage were conducive to the development of the social security function. With the deepening population shrinkage, depopulation mainly promoted the collaborative development between subfunctions in this study, except the relationship between agricultural production and social security function. But effects of depopulation on the interrelationship of rural subfunctions varied between the forested region and plain areas in some cases. The results provided evidence for the cognition that population shrinkage had complicated effects on rural subfunctions.

The intermediate link compression characteristics of e-commerce express logistics ne tworks influence the tradition al mode of circulation of goods and economic organization, and alter the city spatial pattern. Based on the theory of space of flows, this study adopts China Smart Logistics Network relational data to build China's e-commerce express logistics network and explore its spatial structure characteristics through social network analysis(SNA), the PageRank technique, and geospatial methods. The results are as follows:the network density is 0.9270, which is close to 1; hence, indicating that e-commerce express logistics lines between Chinese cities are nearly complete and they form a typical network structure, thereby eliminating fragmented spaces. Moreover, the average minimum number of edges is 1.1375, which indicates that the network has a small world effect and thus has a high flow efficiency of logistics elements. A significant hierarchical diffusion effect was observed in dominant flows with the highest edge weights. A diamond-structured network was formed with Shanghai, Guangzhou, Chongqing, and Beijing as the four core nodes. Other node cities with a large logistics scale and importance in the network are mainly located in the 19 city agglomerations of China, revealing the fact that the development of city agglomerations is essential for promoting the separation of experience space and changing the urban spatial pattern. This study enriches the theory of urban networks, reveals the flow laws of modern logistics elements, and encourages coordinated development of urban logistics.

Mastering the pattern of food loss caused by droughts and floods aids in planning the layout of agricultural production, determining the scale of drought and flood control projects, and reducing food loss. The Standardized Precipitation Evapotranspiration Index is calculated using monthly meteorological data from 1984 to 2020 in Shandong Province of China and is used to identify the province's drought and flood characteristics. Then, food losses due to droughts and floods are estimated separately from disaster loss data. Finally, the relationship between drought/flood-related factors and food losses is quantified using methods such as the Pearson correlation coefficient and linear regression. The results show that: 1) there is a trend of aridity in Shandong Province, and the drought characteristic variables are increasing yearly while flood duration and severity are decreasing. 2) The food losses caused by droughts in Shandong Province are more than those caused by floods, and the area where droughts and floods occur frequently is located in Linyi City. 3) The impact of precipitation on food loss due to drought/flood is significant, followed by potential evapotranspiration and temperature. 4) The relationship between drought and flood conditions and food losses can be precisely quantified. The accumulated drought duration of one month led to 1.939 × 10~4 t of grain loss, and an increase in cumulative flood duration of one month resulted in1.134 × 10~4 t of grain loss. If the cumulative drought severity and average drought peak increased by one unit, food loss due to drought will increase by 1.562 × 10~4 t and 1.511 × 10~6 t, respectively. If the cumulative flood severity and average flood peak increase by one unit, food loss will increase by 8.470 × 10~3 t and 1.034 × 10~6 t, respectively.

Since China announced its goal of becoming carbon-neutral by 2060, carbon neutrality has become a major target in the development of China's urban agglomerations. This study applied the Future Land Use Simulation(FLUS) model to predict the land use pattern of the ecological space of the Beibu Gulf urban agglomeration, in 2060 under ecological priority, agricultural priority and urbanized priority scenarios. The Integrated Valuation of Ecosystem Services and Trade-offs(In VEST) model was employed to analyse the spatial changes in ecological space carbon storage in each scenario from 2020 to 2060. Then, this study used a Geographically Weighted Regression(GWR) model to determine the main driving factors that influence the changes in land carbon sinking capacity. The results of the study can be summarised as follows: firstly, the agricultural and ecological priority scenarios will achieve balanced urban expansion and environmental protection of resources in an ecological space. The urbanized priority scenario will reduce the carbon sinking capacity. Among the simulation scenarios for 2060, carbon storage in the urbanized priority scenario will decrease by 112.26 × 10~6 t compared with that for 2020 and the average carbon density will decrease by 0.96 kg/m~2 compared with that for 2020. Carbon storage in the agricultural priority scenario will increase by 84.11 × 10~6 t, and the average carbon density will decrease by 0.72 kg/m~2. Carbon storage in the ecological priority scenario will increase by 3.03 × 10~6 t, and the average carbon density will increase by 0.03 kg/m~2. Under the premise that the population of the town will increases continuously, the ecological priority development approach may be a wise choice.Secondly, slope, distance to river and elevation are the most important factors that influence the carbon sink pattern of the ecological space in the Beibu Gulf urban agglomeration, followed by GDP, population density, slope direction and distance to traffic infrastructure.At the same time, urban space expansion is the main cause of the changes of this natural factors. Thirdly, the decreasing trend of ecological space is difficult to reverse, so reasonable land use policy to curb the spatial expansion of cities need to be made.

Karst environmental issues have become one of the hot spots in contemporary international geological research. The same problem of water shortage is one of the hot spots of global concern. The peak-cluster depression basins in southwest of Guangxi is an important water connotation and ecological barrier areas in the Pearl River Basin of China. Thus, studying the spatial and temporal variations and the influencing factors of its water yield services is critical to achieve the sustainable development of water resources and ecological environmental protection in this region. As such, this paper uses the Integrated Valuation of Ecosystem Services and Tradeoffs(InVEST) model to assess the spatial and temporal variabilities of water yield services and its trends in the peak-cluster depression basins in southwest of Guangxi from 2000 to 2020. This work also integrates precipitation(Pre), reference evapotranspiration(ET), temperature(Tem), digital elevation model(DEM), slope, normalized difference vegetation index(NDVI), land use/land cover(LULC) and soil type to reveal the main factors that influence water yield services with the help of Geodetector. Results show that: 1) in time scale,the total annual water yield in the study area show a fluctuating and increasing trend from 2000 to 2020, with a growth rate of 7.3753 × 10~8m~3/yr, and its multi-year average water yield was 538.07 mm; 2) in spatial pattern, with high yield areas mainly distributed in the south of the study area(mainly including Shangsi County, Pingxiang City, Ningming County, Longzhou County and Jingxi County), and low yield areas mainly distributed in Baise City and Nanning City; 3) the dominant factor of water yield within karst and non-karst landforms is not necessarily controlled by precipitation, and the explanation degree of DEM factors in karst areas is significantly higher than that in non-karst areas; 4) amongst the climatic factors, Pre, ET and Tem are dominant in the spatial pattern of region water yield capacity. among which Pre has the highest explanatory power for the spatial heterogeneity of annual water production, with q values above0.8, and each driver showed a significant interaction on the spatial distribution of water yield, with Pre exhibiting the strongest interaction with LULC.

The toxic heavy metal mercury(Hg) has significantly enhanced the global Hg cycle influenced by human activities over the last century. In this study, we presented a high-resolution Hg deposition history between ～ 1780 and 2015 AD in a sediment core from Xincun Lagoon, located in the southeastern Hainan Island, South China, and analyzed it in conjunction with geochemical elements,grain-size distribution, organic matter, and HYSPLIT backward trajectory simulation. The objective was to investigate the influencing factors affecting historical Hg deposition in relatively remote regions and assess the extent of the effects of natural background and human activities. The results showed that the Hg in the sediment was deposited primarily through atmospheric deposition, which was closely related to regional and even global human activities. Anthropogenic Hg contamination increased gradually from the 1830s to1850s, possibly due to Hg emissions from Opium Wars I and II occurring in southeastern China. High broad peaks of anthropogenic Hg were observed during the 1910s to 1950s and in the 1980s, likely associated with the two world wars and modern Chinese wars. In addition, a further sharp increase in anthropogenic Hg from the mid-1970s to the present occurred, likely originating from the intense industrial activities in China triggered by the reform and opening-up policy of China in 1978 and some countries in Southeast Asia.

Agricultural green development is an essential direction for global sustainable agriculture. The academic literature, however,needs to place greater emphasis on studying the factors influencing agricultural green development performance and how such performance can be improved. A theoretical framework for agricultural green development performance was constructed in this paper using the Super-SBM model, which considers undesirable outputs, to measure the agricultural green development performance of 330 cities at or above the prefecture level in China(excluding Tibet Autonomous Region, Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan of China) from 2007 to2018. Furthermore, the influencing mechanism of agricultural green development performance was then analyzed using a spatial econometric model. The results show that: 1) from 2007 to 2018, China's agricultural green development performance experienced three stages of evolution: ‘rise, decline and rise'. 2) The regions with high performance agricultural green development are mainly distributed in eastern China, northeastern China, and southern Qinghai Province. 3) The agricultural economic level, industrialization process, and labor quality play significant roles in promoting local agricultural green development performance, while such performance is obviously inhibited by the openness level and the government's environmental regulations. Local agricultural green development performance is significant inhibited by the agricultural economic level and accelerated industrialization process in neighboring cities, while significantly promoted by the agricultural industrial structure in neighboring cities. Some suggestions for improving agricultural green development performance are proposed based on these research results, which can provide scientific references for promoting sustainable agriculture.

The vigorous development of information and communications technology has accelerated reshaping of the financial industry. The COVID-19 pandemic has further catalyzed the demand for digital financial services. Digital financial inclusion relies on information technology to overcome spatial limitations. In this case, the research question is whether it adheres to the spatial laws governing conventional financial activities. This study uses exploratory spatial data analysis and a geographical detector to elucidate the spatiotemporal characteristics and factors influencing digital financial inclusion at the county level in China(Data don't include that of Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan of China) from 2014 to 2020. The research findings indicate: first, China's county-level digital financial inclusion is generally increasing and exhibits significant spatial autocorrelation. Second, population density, level of traditional financial development, government regulation, and education level are key determinants of China's county-level digital financial inclusion. Third,policies should be differentiated by region to narrow the spatial gap in digital financial inclusion. The results provide a reference for other developing countries on using digital technology to develop financial inclusion.

Conservation tillage as an effective alternative to mitigate soil degradation has attracted worldwide attention, but the influences of conservation tillage on soil microbial community and especially function remain unclear. Shotgun metagenomics sequencing was performed to examine the taxonomic and functional community variations of black soils under three tillage regimes, namely no-tillage with residue(maize straw) return(NTS), moldboard plow with residue return(MPS), and moldboard plow without residue return(MPN) in Northeast China. The results revealed: 1) Soil bacterial and archaeal communities differed significantly under different tillage regimes in contrast to soil fungal community. 2) The overlay of less tillage and residues return under NTS led to unique soil microbial community composition and functional composition. Specifically, in contrast to other treatments, NTS increased the relative abundances of some taxa such as Bradyrhizobium, Candidatus Solibacter, and Reyranella, along with the relative abundances of some taxa such as Sphingomonas, Unclassified Chloroflexi and Nitrososphaera decreased; NTS had a unique advantage of increasing the relative abundances of genes involved in ‘ATP-binding cassette(ABC) transporters' and ‘quorum sensing(QS)' pathways, while MPN favored the genes involved in ‘flagellar assembly' pathway and some metabolic pathways such as ‘carbon' and ‘glyoxylate and dicarboxylate'and ‘selenocompound' metabolisms. 3) Significantly different soil bacterial phyla(Acidobacteria, Gemmatimonadetes, and Chloroflexi)and metabolic pathways existed between MPN and another two treatments(NTS and MPS), while did not exist between NTS and MPS.4) Dissolved organic carbon(DOC) and soil bulk density were significantly affected(P < 0.05) by tillage and accounted for the variance both in microbial(bacterial) community structure and functional composition. These results indicated that a change in tillage regime from conventional to conservation tillage results in a shift of microbial community and functional genes, and we inferred that residue return played a more prominent role than less tillage in functional shifts in the microbial community of black soils.

Village classification is the first step to implementing China's rural revitalization(RR) strategy, and understanding the geographic differences in the distribution of village types helps to grasp the pathway of their unique development. This study spatialized9250 villages in Jilin Province(divided into six types) of China, and their distribution characteristics and influencing factors were examined using methods such as kernel density estimation, Ripley's K function, the co-location quotient, and Geodetector. The results indicate that the spatial distribution balance and density of village types are different. All types of villages show an agglomeration distribution pattern, but the scale and intensity vary. There is a strong spatial association between agglomerative promotion(AP) and stable improvement(SIm) villages, as well as between characteristic protection(CP) and prospering frontier and enriching people(PE) villages.The factors affecting their distribution include terrain undulation, the percentage of arable land, the distance to the county town, road network density, population density, gross domestic product(GDP), and industrial enterprise density. The influencing factors for the distribution of village types are closely related to the function of each village. Based on the differences in the spatial distribution and influencing factors of different village types, policy suggestions are given for classified development.

Agro-pastoral ecotone of northern China is the prominent area for agricultural production, but it is also the most typical ecological fragile area with frequent drought disasters. Taking Yulin City at Shaanxi Province in China as the case area, the paper aims to investigate the spatio-temporal changes of agricultural vulnerability to drought in China's agro-pastoral ecotone in the period 2000 to2020. The results show that: 1) the agricultural vulnerability to drought in Yulin City has shifted from high vulnerability in the period2000–2010 to low vulnerability in the period 2011–2020. 2) There exist obvious spatio-temporal differences of the agricultural vulnerability to drought in Yulin City during the research period. 3) Four sensitive events and 14 resilient events were identified in the research and the crops of Yulin had become more resilient to drought. Finally, the paper put forward with policy implications to make adaptive strategies of agriculture to climate change in China's agro-pastoral ecotone in the future, e.g., carrying out agricultural zoning based on agricultural production conditions, intensifying the construction of disaster prevention and relief system, and integrating with modern agricultural technology to develop new type agriculture.

The development of rural area in suburban(RAS) is comprehensively influenced by the mixed processes of non-farming, local urbanization and rural industrialization and has distinctive multifunctional features on the socioeconomic and resource utilization.Multifunctional reconstruction in the RAS is mainly manifested by changes in the quantity and structure of the construction land use(CLU). We took Tongshan District of Jiangsu Province as the study case. Following the logic of identifying, clustering, and diagnosing,we assessed the functional features of CLU and analyzed the differentiation of the scale and structure of CLU in RAS, with the aim of identifying the types and characteristics of multifunctional development in these regions. This study found that: 1) typical RAS were experiencing multifunctional space reconstruction, and their multifunctional value was emerging and highlighted. The CLU was rapidly expanding, and the types of CLU were evolving from single to multiple uses; 2) based on the dominant function of diverse rural CLU,we classified RAS into five types, dominated by the following functions, respectively: commercial services, industrial production, residential living, basic support and public service; 3) according to the dominant function and spatial pattern, the development types of RAS were classified into agricultural service, comprehensive services, and integrated industries service, showing a circular spatial pattern from the suburbs to distant suburbs. The results can provide policy implication by creating new development impetus from rural multifunction perspective to promote the RAS revitalization.

The climate has an impact on the urban thermal environment, and the magnitude of the surface urban heat island(SUHI) and urban cool island(UCI) vary across the world's climatic zones. This literature review investigated: 1) the variations in the SUHI and UCI intensity under different climatic backgrounds, and 2) the effect of vegetation types, landscape composition, urban configuration,and water bodies on the SUHI. The SUHI had a higher intensity in tropical(Af(tropical rainy climate, K?ppen climate classification),Am(tropical monsoon climate), subtropical(Cfa, subtropical humid climate), and humid continental(Dwa, semi-humid and semi-arid monsoon climate)) climate zones. The magnitude of the UCI was low compared to the SUHI across the climate zones. The cool and dry Mediterranean(Cfb, temperate marine climate; Csb, temperate mediterranean climate; Cfa) and tropical climate(Af) areas had a higher cooling intensity. For cities with a desert climate(BWh, tropical desert climate), a reverse pattern was found. The difference in the SUHI in the night-time was greater than in the daytime for most cities across the climate zones. The extent of green space cooling was related to city size, the adjacent impervious surface, and the local climate. Additionally, the composition of urban landscape elements was more significant than their configuration for sustaining the urban thermal environment. Finally, we identified future research gaps for possible solutions in the context of sustainable urbanization in different climate zones.

Local climate zones(LCZs) are an effective nexus linking internal urban structures to the local climate and have been widely used to study urban thermal environment. However, few studies considered how much the temperature changed due to LCZs transformation and their synergy. This paper quantified the change of urban land surface temperature(LST) in LCZs transformation process by combining the land use transfer matrix with zonal statistics method during 2000–2019 in the Xi'an metropolitan. The results show that,firstly, both LCZs and LST had significant spatiotemporal variations and synchrony. The period when the most LCZs were converted was also the LST rose the fastest, and the spatial growth of the LST coincided with the spatial expansion of the built type LCZs.Secondly, the LST difference between land cover type LCZs and built type LCZs gradually widened. And LST rose more in both built type LCZs transferred in and out. Finally, the Xi'an-Xianyang profile showed that the maximum temperature difference between the peaks and valleys of the LST increased by 4.39°C, indicating that localized high temperature phenomena and fluctuations in the urban thermal environment became more pronounced from 2000 to 2019.

As total nitrogen(TN) and total phosphorus(TP) pollution is the main source of water pollution in the Huaihe River watershed in China, it is important to understand how TN and TP pollution affect the relationship between water supply and demand. Quantifying their impacts and describing the spatiotemporal distribution of these relationships are necessary for furtherly deepening the theory of TN and TP pollution on water bodies, and this information is also particularly essential for managing water resources regionally. In this study, based on the potential water supply, the water demand and the Integrated Valuation of Ecosystem Services and Tradeoffs(InVEST) water purification models, we estimated the TN and TP pollution from agricultural fertilizer, livestock and poultry breeding, and rural residents in the Huaihe River watershed and simulated TN and TP impacts on the relationship between water supply and demand.We found that if the impact of TN and TP pollution on water supply was not taken into account, on average, there was excess water supply in 79.20% of the watershed and excess demand in 20.80% of the rest during 1980–2018. Under the TN concentration limit, Grade-II(The water quality meets the secondary level of water body qualified in GB3838–2002, classified as Grade-II) water was the main watersupply type in 1980–2018, followed by Grade-I and Grade-III water. The total water shortage showed an inverted V-shaped trend: first increasing and then decreasing at the same period. The proportion of the water shortage of Grade-I water in the total water shortage was the largest, followed by Grade-II and Grade-III water. Areas with excess demand were located on the north bank of Wang-Beng,Yishuhe, and Huxi regions, although the water in these sub-watersheds met the water quality standards of Grade-I water. Under the TP concentration limit, Grade-II and Grade-I water were the main water-supply types. The overall water shortage trend first increased and then decreased, exhibiting an inverted V-shape from 1980 to 2018. The water shortages of Grade-I and Grade-II water showed similar inverted V-shape trend over time. Areas that met the water quality standard of Grade-I included the north banks of Wang-Beng and Huxi regions, where there was a surplus of demand. This paper suggests a way to analyze the interaction between water pollutants and the water supply-demand ratio as the example of TN and TP pollution at a watershed scale, which can broaden water pollution theory for relative water resources departments when water supply and demand will be evaluated.

High-quality development of ethnic minority areas is a key issue in China's economic and social transformation. In order to explore the development trend and optimization path of high-quality development in ethnic minority areas, this study constructed a systematic evaluation index system of economic development, social development and government governance. The coupled coordination model was adopted to quantitatively analyze the spatio-temporal evolution characteristics of economic development, social development and government governance in Xinjiang from 2013 to 2020. The influencing factors of coupling coordination development of the three systems were identified by grey correlation analysis. The spatial-temporal pattern analysis results show that the coupling coordination degree of Xinjiang increased steadily, but the regional differences gradually expanded. The coupling coordination degree shows a stable structure with high center and low periphery, and a spatial pattern of low in southern Xinjiang and high in northern Xinjiang. The results of grey correlation analysis show that the grey correlation degree among economic development, social development and government governance in Xinjiang is above 0.78. The three systems of economic development, social development and government governance interact with each other, forming a complex system of high-quality development in ethnic minority areas. To promote highquality development in Xinjiang, it should take social stability and long-term stability as the overall goal, improve the quality of the production and living environment on the basis of economic development, enhance regional economic competitiveness, and take government governance as a means to optimize the environment for regional development.

Globally known about the drivers through which farmers are instigated to uphold and use Hail Canon Technology(HCT) is lacking. Therefore, this article intended to examine the drivers of forecasting the behavioral intention and acceptance behavior of the HCT, 249 apple farmers from northwestern Iran were recruited, including adopters(n1 = 114) and non-adopters(n2 = 135). The conceptual foundation included demographic theory, resource-based theory, theory of planned behavior, innovation diffusion model, and institutional support model. We also used the system dynamics model(SDM) in the Netlogo to assess the results of the conventional statistical approach(i.e., the logistic model). Authenticated the fitness of conceptual model with the data, logistic model manifests that the most outstanding determinants of the acceptance of HCT entail age, experience, total land size, income, attitude, compatibility, visibility, relative advantage, and financial support. Using the SDM, it was also shown that the results of the logistic model are confirmed by the SDM. In conclusion, management implications are available for the university extension to eliminate the adoption obstacles and stir up farmers to join in applying HCT, furthermore, researchers would avail themselves of remarks for future research.

The problem of rural development arises from the evolution of rural regional system. It is urgent to deepen the research on the evolution process and mechanism of rural regional system. However, there are relatively few studies on rural development from the perspective of the evolution process, driving mechanism and evolution mechanism of rural regional system. Therefore, this study took Huang-Huai-Hai Area for example, started with the systematicness of the rural regional system, the spatio-temporal pattern and driving mechanism of rural regional system evolution, and further summarized and refined the evolution mechanism of the rural regional system. The methods of spatial pattern analysis, gray correlation degree and geographical detection were adopted. The results showed that the problems in rural areas were often dominated by one factor and produced by the joint action of many factors. Factors such as county urbanization, county economy, county public service, agricultural mechanization, surrounding cities and convenient transportation will affect the evolution of rural regional systems. Based on the evolution of the elements in the rural regional system, the evolution types of rural regional system can be divided into decline type, equilibrium type and growth type. This study can provide a reference for understanding the process of rural rise and fall and can also guide rural revitalization and rural sustainable development.

The drylands of China are extensive, and they are home to more than one-third of the country's population. However, the watershed territories of the drylands, where the majority of human activities are concentrated have long experienced strained human-land relationships, culminating in ecological security concerns. Correspondingly, it is essential to carry out a comprehensive assessment of the ecological security of dryland watersheds and to identify the key factors influencing ecological security in order to formulate strategies that ensure the sustainability of drylands. Premised on the Driving-Pressure-State-Impact-Response(DPSIR) model, this study developed an ecological security index and applied it to the Irtysh River Basin of Xinjiang, China, from 2000 to 2020. The obstacle degree model was applied to reveal the obstacles in two dimensions: criterion level and indicator level. The findings suggested that the ecological security comprehensive index in the Irtysh River Basin has increased significantly from 2000 to 2020, irrespective of the fact that it decreased during the study period and then increased. The ecological security level changed from ‘critically safe' in 2000 to ‘general safety' in 2020, with the state subsystem and pressure subsystem becoming ecological security weaknesses. The primary factors influencing the ecological security of the study area were water consumption, the area of high-efficiency water-saving irrigation, the proportion of wetland area, vegetation coverage, and livestock population. The ecological security of different counties in the basin varies greatly, whereas the factors that influence ecological security showed both similarities and differences among the counties. In light of on the findings, we proposed that future strategies for ecological security enhancement should concentrate on enacting the policy of localizing spatial differentiation, optimizing industrial structure, strengthening scientific and technological support in the field of water conservation, bolstering the treatment capacity of environmental facilities, and implementing the Mountains-Rivers-Forests-Farmlands-LakesGrasslands System to support the sustainable development of dryland watersheds.

In order to achieve a rapid and accurate identification of soil stratification information and accelerate the development of smart agriculture, this paper conducted soil stratification experiments on agricultural soils in the Mollisols area of Northeast China using Ground Penetrating Radar(GPR) and obtained different types of soil with frequencies of 500 MHz, 250 MHz, and 100 MHz antennas. The soil profile data were obtained for 500 MHz, 250 MHz, and 100 MHz antennas, and the dielectric properties of each type of soil were analyzed. In the image processing procedure, wavelet analysis was first used to decompose the pre-processed radar signal and reconstruct the high-frequency information to obtain the reconstructed signal containing the stratification information. Secondly, the reconstructed signal is taken as an envelope to enhance the stratification information. The Hilbert transform is applied to the envelope signal to find the time-domain variation of the instantaneous frequency and determine the time-domain location of the stratification. Finally, the dielectric constant of each soil horizon is used to obtain the propagation velocity of the electromagnetic wave at the corresponding position to obtain the stratification position of each soil horizon. The research results show that the 500 MHz radar antenna can accurately delineate Ap/Ah, horizon and the absolute accuracy of the stratification is within 5 cm. The effect on the soil stratification below the tillage horizon is not apparent, and the absolute accuracy of the 250 MHz and 100 MHz radar antennas on the stratification is within 9 cm. The overwhelming majority of the overall calculation errors are kept to within 15%. Based on the three central frequency antennas, the soil horizon detection rate reaches 93.3%, which can achieve accurate stratification of soil profiles within 1 m. The experimental and image processing methods used are practical and feasible; however, the GPR will show a missed detection for soil horizons with only slight differences in dielectric properties. Overall, this study can quickly and accurately determine the information of each soil stratification, ultimately providing technical support for acquiring soil configuration information and developing smart agriculture.

Since China's reform and opening up in 1978, the acceleration of industrialization and urbanization in China had led to dramatic changes in the pattern of urban-rural land use. In this paper, we focused on the rural industrialized areas in central China(Xinxiang County and Changyuan City of Henan Province). We used the average nearest neighbor index, spatial statistical analysis, and a structural equation model to analyze the spatiotemporal evolution and influencing factors of urban-rural construction land based on multisource spatial data and survey data. The results showed that: 1) from 1975 to 2019, the spatial distribution of urban-rural construction land in rural industrialized areas had evolved from homogeneous distribution to local agglomeration. In terms of comparative analysis of cases, the spatial distribution of urban-rural construction land in Changyuan City had shown a trend from diffusion to agglomeration,and Xinxiang County had overall shown a spatial change from homogenization to agglomeration and then to regional integration development. 2) The hot spots with increased urban-rural construction land significantly expanded, and they had a high degree of spatial overlap with industrial development. Among them, Xinxiang County was concentrated in central and marginal areas, and Changyuan was mainly concentrated in central urban areas. 3) From the evolution of spatial proximity of urban-rural construction land, rural industrialized areas generally decline, showing the characteristics of internal differentiation in the rate of change. 4) Industrial development, social economy, the policy environment, and urban development played a positive role in promoting the expansion of urban-rural construction land in rural industrialized areas. To promote the optimal use of regional land and the integrated development of urban-rural areas, we should combine the advantages of regional endowment, formulate development strategies according to local conditions, and adjust the way that land is used in a timely manner.

Human-wildlife conflict(HWC) negatively impacts both humans and wildlife. Attitudes of local residents have been critical in promoting wildlife conservation. It is therefore necessary to understand the characteristics of HWC and identify influential factors on attitudes towards conservation to implement conservation strategies efficiently. This research focused on features of human-elephant interactions, while attitudes and values regarding the small population of Asian elephants(Elephas maximus) in Nangunhe National Nature Reserve(NNR), Yunnan, China. The total of 327 valid questionnaires were gathered around the area where Asian elephants were distributed. Logistic regression models were employed to analyze the correlations among five predictor variables(‘Area', ‘Family size',‘Annual income', ‘Quantity of family members in non-primary industries' and ‘Experiencing loss or not') and three response variables(‘Attitude towards elephants', ‘Perception of the values of elephants' and ‘Attitude towards tourism development'). The study area was densely forested with tea plants, rubber trees, corns and sugarcane. There, 25.99% of respondents reported the experience of human-elephant conflict(HEC), with crop raiding and cash crop damages being the major conflict types. To demonstrate respect for elephants and to mitigate HEC, a unique custom called ‘Giving tribute to elephants' was developed long ago. Respondents' township with an official annual festival of ‘Giving Tribute to Elephants'(odds ratio(OR) = 2.75, P = 1.73 × 10~(-6)) and higher annual income(OR = 2.09, P =5.45 × 10~(-5)) significantly contributed to forming a more positive attitude towards elephants, whereas HEC itself have contributed to a more negative attitude(OR = 0.50, P = 3.29 × 10~(-3)). Therefore, we propose that: 1) reducing human-elephant conflict by testing multiple mitigation measures and adopting the most effective one of them; 2) enhancing local livelihoods through the development of ecological products and ecotourism; and 3) preserving and developing the Wa culture in this region. The study area deserves more attention and further research to explore and obtain endorsement from the public to achieve coexistence between human and wildlife.

Straw is widely incorporated into soil worldwide, but most studies have concentrated on the effects of straw mulching or incorporation with topsoil. To determine the effect of depth of straw incorporation on bacterial and fungal communities, we established a field experiment in a region in Northeast China with Haplic Chernozems using four treatments: conventional tillage(CT, tillage to a depth of 15 cm with no straw incorporation), straw incorporation with conventional tillage(SCT, tillage to a depth of 15 cm), inversion tillage(IT, tillage to a depth of 35 cm) and straw incorporation with inversion tillage(SIT, tillage to a depth of 35 cm). The soils were managed by inversion to a depth of 15 or 35 cm after harvest. The results show that soil organic carbon content was significantly higher and pH and bulk density were significantly lower in the 15–35 cm layer in IT and SIT than CT and SCT. Fungal abundance was higher with straw incorporation, but fungal diversity was lower in the 0–15 cm layer in SCT and SIT than in CT and IT. Path length in the bacterial network was shorter and connectivity was higher in CT + SCT than in IT + SIT, leading to a more complex ecosystem, and the fungal network had opposite patterns. The key taxa in the phylum Actinobacteriota and Ascomycota in the microbial networks changed dramatically at the genus level following inversion tillage with straw amendment, which may increase bacterial network resistance to environmental disturbances and unstable fungal networks, resulting in large changes in the fungal community involved in the decomposition of recalcitrant straw-derived C and the more efficient acquisition of limiting resources.

It is crucial to investigate the urban agglomerations spatio-temporal evolution patterns and driving factors for analyzing the urban spatial structure-functional division and promoting the coordinated development of urban agglomerations. In this study, a novel vegetation-building-nighttime light-adjusted index(VBNAI) was established for rapid and effective mapping of urban construction land(UCL) in Central Plains Urban Agglomeration(CPUA), China during 2000–2020 based on Google Earth Engine(GEE) platform. Compared with traditional indices, VBNAI can significantly decrease the blooming effect, Normalized Difference Vegetation Index(NDVI)saturation, and soil background of nighttime light data. In addition, the urban expansion indices and standard deviation ellipse model were synthetically adopted to analyze the spatio-temporal evolution pattern of urban expansion. The gravity model and the geographically weighted regression model were employed to determine the spatial interaction forces and drivers of urban expansion, respectively.The results showed that the VBNAI index has obvious advantages in efficiency and accuracy to extract UCL with the overall accuracy of more than 91%. The UCL of CPUA had increased by 4489.84 km2 during 2000–2020 with the gravity center moving towards southeast continuously. From 2000 to 2010, the urban expansion was in a ‘center-hinterland' pattern which had benefit from the favorable effect of the traffic shaft belt. During 2010–2020, the urban network structure had basically established. Urban expansion had been influenced by a variety of socio-economic and demographic factors, and the impact degree varied from region to region. This study could provide scientific references for facilitating the intensive utilization of urban resources and optimizing the spatial development pattern of urban agglomeration.

This paper aims to interpret the connotation of high-quality development of tourism economy(HQTE) from the perspective of the new development concepts of innovation, coordination, green, openness and sharing, and then to evaluate the spatial differentiation of China's HQTE based on provincial panel data from 2009 to 2018. Specifically, we employ the spatial convergence model to explore the absolute and conditional β convergence trends of HQTE in the whole country and the eastern, central and western regions of China. Our empirical results reveal that: 1) within the decade, from 2009 to 2018, regions of China with the highest HQTE index is its eastern region followed by the central region and then the western region, but the fastest growing one is the western region of China followed by the central region and then the eastern region. 2) Whether or not the spatial effect is included, there are absolute and conditional β convergence in HQTE in the whole country and aforementioned three regions. 3) The degree of government attention as well as the level of economic development and location accessibility are the positive driving factors for the convergence of HQTE in the whole country and the three regions. The degree of marketization and human capital have not passed the significance test either in the whole country or in the three regions. The above conclusions could deepen the understanding of the regional imbalance and spatial convergence characteristics of HQTE, clarify the primary development objects, and accomplish the goal of China's HQTE.

The water conservation(WC) function of ecosystems is related to regional ecological security and the sustainable development of water resources, and the assessment of WC and its influencing factors is crucial for ecological and water resource management.The Tumen River Basin(TRB) is located in the core of the Northeast Asian ecological network and has been experiencing severe ecological crises and water shortages in recent years due to climate change and human activities. However, these crises have not been fully revealed to the extent that corresponding scientific measures are lacking. This study analyzed the spatial and temporal evolution characteristics and drivers of WC in the TRB from 1990 to 2019 based on the water yield module of the Integrated Valuation of Ecosystem Services and Tradeoffs(InVEST) model. The results showed that: 1) under the combined effect of nature and socioeconomics, the WC depth of the TRB has slowly increased at a rate of 0.11 mm/yr in the past 30 years, with an average WC depth of 36.14 mm. 2) The main driving factor of the spatial variation in WC is precipitation, there is a significant interaction between precipitation and velocity, the interaction between each factor is higher than the contribution of a single factor, and the interactions between factors all have nonlinear enhancement and two-factor enhancement. 3) Among the seven counties and municipalities in the study area, the southern part of Helong City and the southeastern part of Longjing City are extremely important areas for WC(> 75 mm), and they should be regarded as regional water resources and ecological priority protection areas. It is foreseen that under extreme climate conditions in the future, the WC of the watershed is under great potential threat, and protection measures such as afforestation and forestation should begin immediately. Furthermore, the great interannual fluctuations in WC depth may place more stringent requirements on the choice of time scales in the ecosystem service assessment process.