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Advances in Soil Erosion and Ecological Restoration

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A special issue of International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health (ISSN 1660-4601). This special issue belongs to the section "Environmental Earth Science and Medical Geology".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (6 April 2023) | Viewed by 11372

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Special Issue Editors

Dr. Yaojun Liu

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Guest Editor

School of Geographical Sciences, Hunan Normal University, Changsha 410081, China
Interests: water erosion process and mechanism; ecological control of soil erosion; soil erosion and vegetation; soil erosion and carbon sequestration; sustainable agriculture of hilly region

Dr. Fangxin Chen

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Guest Editor

College of Resources and Environment, Southwest University, Chongqing 400715, China
Interests: sediment sources; rural nonpoint source pollution; improvement of cultivated land quality; monitoring of agricultural small watershed; source-sink landscape; climate change

Dr. Yusong Deng

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Guest Editor

College of Forestry, Guangxi University, Nanning 530004, China
Interests: soil water erosion process; soil gravity erosion; water and soil conservation technology; soil water movement; soil erosion of plantation; soil nutrient cycling

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Soil erosion leads to soil degradation, reduces land productivity, and affects agricultural production and food security. In addition, the pollutants transported with runoff and sediment have serious impacts on the ecological environment and socio-economic development of the adjacent areas in the erosion zone, causing the eutrophication of water bodies; the destruction of plant, animal and microorganism habitats; and the intensification of droughts and floods in the downstream areas of erosion. Meanwhile, the transport of eroded sediments changes the content and components of soil carbon, nitrogen and phosphorus, which in turn affects the global element cycles. Thus, soil erosion becomes one of the important driving factors of global climate change. The prevention and control of soil erosion has become an important environmental issue related to the survival and development of human beings. Soil and water conservation measures can prevent soil erosion, protect and reasonably use soil and water resources, and maintain and improve land productivity, in order to establish a healthy, rich, and diverse ecological environment. Finally, due to the current context of climate change and the frequent occurrence of extreme climate, soil erosion is expected to appear in new forms in the future, and it is necessary to study soil erosion systematically with a global perspective and long-term vision. Soil erosion is complex, and there are many types, affecting people’s health and ecological environment in different ways. New measures are needed to combine new policies for prevention and treatment in order to promote sustainable socio-economic development.

This Special Issue of International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health (IJERPH) focuses on the current state of knowledge on the links between soil erosion and environmental development. New research papers, reviews, case reports and conference papers are welcome to this Issue. Other accepted manuscript types include methodological papers, position papers, brief reports, and commentaries.

We will accept manuscripts from different disciplines, including but not limited to soil erosion and ecological restoration, soil and water conservation, and erosion assessment and modeling.

Some topics of interest for this Special Issue include:

Extreme climate events and soil erosion response;
New runoff–sediment relations under changed environment;
New technologies for soil erosion management;
Soil erosion and food security;
Soil erosion and material cycle;
Soil erosion management and carbon sequestration;
Regional adaptable soil erosion models;
Agricultural non-point-source pollution control;
Ecological restoration and ecosystem services;
Cultivated land quality protection and promotion strategy.

Dr. Yaojun Liu
Dr. Fangxin Chen
Dr. Yusong Deng
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2500 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

soil erosion
ecological restoration
soil and water conservation
erosion assessment and modeling
agricultural non-point source pollution control
cultivated land quality protection and promotion strategy

Published Papers (6 papers)

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Research

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14 pages, 2657 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Effects of Variation in Tamarix chinensis Plantations on Soil Microbial Community Composition in the Middle Yellow River Floodplain

by Xinyu Yan, Lanlan Zhang, Qi Xu, Linyu Qi, Jingyuan Yang, Xiongde Dong, Meiguang Jiang, Mengjun Hu, Junqiang Zheng, Yanyan Yu, Yuan Miao, Shijie Han and Dong Wang

Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2023, 20(6), 5015; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph20065015 - 12 Mar 2023

Viewed by 1374

Abstract

Floodplains have important ecological and hydrological functions in terrestrial ecosystems, experience severe soil erosion, and are vulnerable to losing soil fertility. Tamarix chinensis Lour. plantation is the main vegetation restoration measure for maintaining soil quality in floodplains. Soil microorganisms are essential for driving biogeochemical cycling processes. However, the effects of sampling location and shrub patch size on soil microbial community composition remain unclear. In this study, we characterized changes in microbial structure, as well as the factors driving them, in inside- and outside-canopy soils of three patch sizes (small, medium, large) of T. chinensis plants in the middle Yellow River floodplain. Compared with the outside-canopy soils, inside-canopy had higher microbial phospholipid fatty acids (PLFAs), including fungi, bacteria, Gram-positive bacteria (GP), Gram-negative bacteria (GN), and arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi. The ratio of fungi to bacteria and GP to GN gradually decreased as shrub patch size increased. Differences between inside-canopy and outside-canopy soils in soil nutrients (organic matter, total nitrogen, and available phosphorus) and soil salt content increased by 59.73%, 40.75%, 34.41%, and 110.08% from small to large shrub patch size. Changes in microbial community composition were mainly driven by variation in soil organic matter, which accounted for 61.90% of the variation in inside-canopy soils. Resource islands could alter microbial community structure, and this effect was stronger when shrub patch size was large. The results indicated that T. chinensis plantations enhanced the soil nutrient contents (organic matter, total nitrogen, and available phosphorus) and elevated soil microbial biomass and changed microbial community composition; T. chinensis plantations might thus provide a suitable approach for restoring degraded floodplain ecosystems. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Soil Erosion and Ecological Restoration)

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15 pages, 3026 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Analysis of the Spatial Relationship between Ecosystem Regulation Services and Rural Tourism

by Junying Wang, Guifeng Han, Jing You, Liang Zhu, Yafei Li and Xiang Zhou

Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2023, 20(5), 3888; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph20053888 - 22 Feb 2023

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1620

Abstract

In the context of China’s implementation of the rural revitalization strategy and establishment of a mechanism to realize the value of ecological products, rural tourism as an eco-friendly industry promotes regional social and economic development with high-quality natural and ecological conditions in rural areas and is one of the key patterns to realize regional green development. Existing studies in the field focus on the spatial relationship between rural tourism and traditional factors such as economy, population, and transportation and ignore to some extent the relationship between ecosystem services and rural tourism. However, from the perspective of distribution, rural tourism is popular mainly in areas with high ecological quality, so it can be inferred that there is a relationship between ecosystem services and rural tourism. Therefore, this paper targets the key problem—the spatial relationship between ecosystem regulation services and rural tourism, taking rural tourist spots in six districts and counties in the Wuling Mountains in southeastern Chongqing as the subjects, and using the geo-econometric analysis method and geographic detector model to analyze the spatial-driving and development-support roles of ecosystem services on rural tourism. The results show that: (1) the nearest neighbor index of the distribution of rural tourist spots in the regions of study is 0.28, showing a significant clustering trend as a whole; (2) there are obviously high-value areas among the six types of ecosystem regulation services, which are mainly distributed in forest ecosystems; (3) the driving effects of dual factors are more significant, and the combined driving effects of climate regulation and anion supply services are the most significant, with the q value of these driving effects being 0.1962; (4) from the perspective of the supply–demand relationship of industrial development, ecosystem services play an important role in supporting the development of rural tourism. Based on these results, it is proposed in this paper that, in the next step, a comprehensive analysis of the impact of ecosystem regulation services should be conducted during the special planning of rural tourism and the rational layout of industries should be guided on the premise of compliance with space-use control, as well as economical and intensive land use, to support the scientific formulation of regional rural tourism development strategies with new ideas based on basic analysis and better realize the value of ecological products and boost rural revitalization. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Soil Erosion and Ecological Restoration)

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21 pages, 5470 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Applying Convolutional Neural Network to Predict Soil Erosion: A Case Study of Coastal Areas

by Chao Liu, Han Li, Jiuzhe Xu, Weijun Gao, Xiang Shen and Sheng Miao

Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2023, 20(3), 2513; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph20032513 - 31 Jan 2023

Cited by 7 | Viewed by 1977

Abstract

The development of ecological restoration projects is unsatisfactory, and soil erosion is still a problem in ecologically restored areas. Traditional soil erosion studies are mostly based on satellite remote sensing data and traditional soil erosion models, which cannot accurately characterize the soil erosion conditions in ecological restoration areas (mainly plantation forests). This paper uses high-resolution unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) images as the base data, which could improve the accuracy of the study. Considering that traditional soil erosion models cannot accurately express the complex relationships between erosion factors, this paper applies convolutional neural network (CNN) models to identify the soil erosion intensity in ecological restoration areas, which can solve the problem of nonlinear mapping of soil erosion. In this study area, compared with the traditional method, the accuracy of soil erosion identification by applying the CNN model improved by 25.57%, which is better than baseline methods. In addition, based on research results, this paper analyses the relationship between land use type, vegetation cover, and slope and soil erosion. This study makes five recommendations for the prevention and control of soil erosion in the ecological restoration area, which provides a scientific basis and decision reference for subsequent ecological restoration decisions. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Soil Erosion and Ecological Restoration)

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18 pages, 4040 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Vegetation Dynamics and Food Security against the Background of Ecological Restoration in Hubei Province, China

by Yu Zhang, Na Gong and Huade Zhu

Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2023, 20(2), 1225; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph20021225 - 10 Jan 2023

Cited by 4 | Viewed by 1369

Abstract

A series of ecological restoration projects have been proposed to solve ecological problems resulting from human activities. The project of returning farmlands to forests, initiated in 1999, was the most widely implemented ecological restoration project in China. Large amounts of cropland with steep slopes have been converted to forests or grasslands to promote vegetation restoration, reduce soil erosion, and control nonpoint source pollution. Therefore, identifying the dynamics of vegetation and food security is crucial for further decision making. Based on the mean normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) and grain yield data, this study explored the vegetation dynamics and food security of Hubei Province against the background of ecological restoration. The results show that, on a whole, the NDVI significantly increased from 2000 to 2018. The spatial agglomeration of the NDVI decreased between 2000 and 2008 and then increased from 2009 onwards. High–high NDVI agglomerations were more concentrated in mountainous areas. Food security was not threatened, and the grain yield in Hubei Province and most of the cities exhibited significant upward trends, as a whole. The change trend of the grain yield was not stable during the period from 2000 to 2018. The grain yield for Hubei Province and almost all of the cities decreased during the first 5 to 11 years, probably due to the sharp decrease in the sloping cropland areas against the background of ecological restoration. Grain yield was more sensitive and had a longer downward trend in regions with steeper slopes. Increasing trends in grain yield were detected during the last 6 to 10 years for most of the cities, and this can mainly be attributed to the newly added croplands that were created from land with other kinds of land uses, the increase in grain productivity, and strict cropland protection policies. The project of returning farmlands to forests is suggested as a long-term policy from the perspective of ecological restoration, and effective measures should also be continuously taken to maintain grain production and food security. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Soil Erosion and Ecological Restoration)

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17 pages, 3547 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Quantifying the Spatiotemporal Heterogeneity of PM_2.5 Pollution and Its Determinants in 273 Cities in China

by Li Yang, Chunyan Qin, Ke Li, Chuxiong Deng and Yaojun Liu

Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2023, 20(2), 1183; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph20021183 - 9 Jan 2023

Cited by 4 | Viewed by 1158

Abstract

Fine particulate matter (PM_2.5) pollution brings great negative impacts to human health and social development. From the perspective of heterogeneity and the combination of national and urban analysis, this study aims to investigate the variation patterns of PM_2.5 pollution and its determinants, using geographically and temporally weighted regression (GTWR) in 273 Chinese cities from 2015 to 2019. A comprehensive analytical framework was established, composed of 14 determinants from multi-dimensions, including population, economic development, technology, and natural conditions. The results indicated that: (1) PM_2.5 pollution was most severe in winter and the least severe in summer, while the monthly, daily, and hourly variations showed “U”-shaped, pulse-shaped and “W”-shaped patterns; (2) Coastal cities in southeast China have better air quality than other cities, and the interaction between determinants enhanced the spatial disequilibrium of PM_2.5 pollution; (3) The determinants showed significant heterogeneity on PM_2.5 pollution—specifically, population density, trade openness, the secondary industry, and invention patents exhibited the strongest positive impacts on PM_2.5 pollution in the North China Plain. Relative humidity, precipitation and per capita GDP were more effective in improving atmospheric quality in cities with serious PM_2.5 pollution. Altitude and the proportion of built-up areas showed strong effects in western China. These findings will be conductive to formulating targeted and differentiated prevention strategies for regional air pollution control. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Soil Erosion and Ecological Restoration)

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Review

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21 pages, 5671 KiB

Open AccessReview

Progress of Ecological Restoration Research Based on Bibliometric Analysis

by Xi Wei, Wei Song, Ya Shao and Xiangwen Cai

Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2023, 20(1), 520; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph20010520 - 28 Dec 2022

Cited by 10 | Viewed by 3143

Abstract

With the deterioration of the global/regional ecological environment, ecological restoration plays an important role in sustainable development. However, due to the differences in research methods, objectives, and perspectives, the research results are highly diverse. This makes it necessary to sort the publications related to ecological restoration, clarify the research status, grasp the research hotspots, and predict the future research trends. Here, 23,755 articles from the core database of Web of Science were retrieved, and bibliometric analysis was carried out to understand the global ecological restoration research progress from 1990 to 2022 from a macro perspective, with the aim to determine the future development direction. The results are as follows. (1) From 1990 to 2022, the number of publications in the field of ecological restoration constantly increased, and the fluctuation of the average annual citations increased. The most important articles were published in high-ranking journals. (2) Ecological restoration covers a wide range of research areas, including biodiversity, ecosystem services, climate change, land use, and ecological restoration theories and technologies. The four main hotspots in this field are heavy metal removal, soil microbial biomass carbon and nitrogen concentrations, grassland ecological restoration, and evaluation framework and modeling of ecological restoration’s effects. Currently, studies focus on river basin remediation, heavy metal removal, and forest restoration. (3) Future ecological restoration research should strengthen the multi-object aspect and multi-scale ecological restoration research, improve the ecological restoration effect evaluation system, and incorporate social and economic issues. This study identified current research hotspots and predicted potential future research directions, providing a scientific reference for future studies in the field of ecological restoration. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Soil Erosion and Ecological Restoration)

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