Search Results (154)

Alpine mountain peatlands are valuable archives of climatic and anthropogenic impact. However, the impacts of human activities on the Altay peatlands are poorly documented. Therefore, studying heavy metal (HM) concentrations, evaluating HM pollution levels, and identifying the sources in the Altay Mountain peatlands are crucial for revealing the intensity of human activities. The present study was performed on two peatland profiles: Jiadengyu (JDY) and Heihu (HH). The contents of HM and ²¹⁰Pb and ¹³⁷Cs dating technologies were used to construct a profile of anthropogenic pollutant distributions in the peatlands. Furthermore, the enrichment factor (EF) and geo-accumulation index (Igeo) of selected HMs were used to evaluate the risk assessment of HMs. The association of metals and assignment of their probable sources were examined using principal component analysis (PCA) and a positive matrix factorization model (PMF). The results showed that the concentrations of elements Cu, Zn, Cr, Pb, Ni, and As were at high levels in the two peatlands of the Altay Mountains, while the elements Hg and Cd were in low concentrations. Moreover, the concentrations of Cu, Cd, Hg, and Sb were higher than the background values of local element and posed a high environmental risk to the ecosystem. Combined with the results of the chronology, the peatland records indicated considerable growth in HMs concentrations from 1970 to 1990 related to recent anthropogenic activities. Additionally, the main sources of HMs are mining activities, domestic waste, and traffic sources in the two peatlands. Due to the environmental protection policies implemented since 2010, the natural processes have been the primary origin of HMs in peatlands, while emissions of industrial, agricultural, and domestic waste were still fundamental sources. The results of this study describe the sedimentary features of HMs in alpine mountains, and the data provide an essential theoretical basis for the evolutionary process through the characteristics of HM deposition. Full article

Under the background of China’s strategy of becoming a powerful agricultural country, geographical indications (GIs) of agricultural products, as an important intellectual property right to enable Chinese agriculture to develop with high quality, have a strong effect of strengthening and promoting agriculture. However, there are a large number of infringements of GIs among agricultural products in judicial practice, which not only greatly damage the economic and social values of GIs of agricultural products, but also bring huge food safety hazards to consumers and hinder the overall protection of intellectual property rights in China. On this basis, this paper, with the help of a quasi-case research method, integrates the facts of relevant cases, the focus of disputes, the application of law, and other case elements to realize the case similarity judgment based on the legal argumentation model. With the help of the retrieval tool of “Peking University Magic Weapon”, this paper provides statistics on the civil cases of infringement of GIs of agricultural products in China from 1 January 2014 to 31 July 2022 and sets different retrieval conditions for two searches. After two screenings, 245 valid samples were obtained, and the judicial patterns of infringement disputes over GIs of agricultural products in China were systematically sorted out from the distribution of plaintiff and defendant, the distribution of infringement types, the basis of adjudication, and the standard of compensation. It was found that the plaintiff types showed double simplification, the infringement types took edge infringement as the basic form, and the general trademark provisions occupied the main position in legal applications. Then, the main litigation points, such as the dispute over the identification of GIs of agricultural products, the dispute over the use of geographical names, and the dispute over tort liability, are summarized, so as to dig out the characteristics of the implicitness of infringement, the expectation of implementation, and the concreteness of aspects. On this basis, the regulatory path of the infringement of GIs of agricultural products is put forward, such as introducing procuratorial public interest litigation, multi-agents cooperating to implement all-round supervision, and reasonably determining the amount of damages. Full article

Biochar and nitrogen fertilizers are known to increase soil carbon storage and reduce soil nitrogen loss as amendments, suggesting a promising strategy for highly effectively increasing soil productivity. However, few studies have explored the mechanisms of their effects on crop yield in terms of active carbon fraction and enzyme activity, which ultimately limits the potential for the application of biochar in combination with nitrogen fertilizers. To evaluate the effect of biochar and nitrogen fertilizer on the improvement of black soils in northeast China, a field experiment was conducted in the black soil to compare and analyze the application methods on total organic carbon (TOC), total nitrogen (TN), enzyme activities, and maize yields. Biochar rates: CK, C1, C2, and C3 (0, 9.8, 19.6, and 29.4 Mg·ha⁻¹); N fertilizer rates: N1/2 and N (30 and 60 kg·ha⁻¹). Results indicated that biochar and N fertilizer amendments significantly ameliorated soil fertility, such as TOC and TN, compared to the unamended soil. The TOC levels in the C3 treatment increased by 35.18% and the TN levels by 23.95%. The improvement in TN is more significant when biochar is blended with N fertilizer. Biochar blended with N fertilizer increased maize cellulase, urease, and invertase activities by an average of 53.12%, 58.13%, and 16.54%, respectively. Redundancy analysis showed that TOC, TN, and MBN contributed 42%, 16.2%, and 22.2%, respectively, to the maize yield indicator. Principal component analysis showed that reduced N fertilizer was more effective in improving yields, with a maximum yield increase of 50.74%. Biochar blended with N fertilizer is an effective strategy to improve the fertility and productivity of black soils in northeast China, while nitrogen fertilizer reduction is feasible and necessary for maintaining grain yield. Full article

Carrying out environmental protection and governance in the process of using foreign capital to develop the economy is a realistic problem that China needs to solve urgently. In order to reduce environmental pollution, all enterprises are called upon by the local government to fulfil CSR and improve the quality of FDI use. However, previous studies have rarely explored the threshold effect of FDI and CSR on haze pollution. This paper employs the threshold effect model to explore the above problem based on panel data of 30 provinces in China from 2009 to 2018. The empirical study found the following: (1) FDI has a significantly positive double-threshold effect on haze pollution. Meanwhile, the promotion effect of FDI on haze pollution is the strongest in the two threshold ranges. (2) CSR has a significantly negative single-threshold effect on haze pollution; that is, the increase in CSR intensity inhibits haze pollution. Such a negative effect shows the characteristics of increasing marginal efficiency. (3) In addition, the provinces in different thresholds display obvious geographical distribution characteristics. Through the above analysis, it can be observed that FDI and CSR have distinct impacts on haze pollution. Thus, the country and the government can reduce haze pollution by improving the investment structure, using environmentally friendly technology, guiding enterprises to abide by business ethics and promoting social responsibilities fulfilment. Full article

Green development is the only way to realize harmonious coexistence between people and nature, so it is of great significance to create a benchmark for high-quality development. Based on the panel data of 30 provinces (except Tibet, Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan) in China from 2009 to 2020, the super-efficiency slacks-based measure model was used to calculate the green economic efficiency of various regions in China, and a related statistical model was used to verify the influence of different types of environmental regulation policies on green economic efficiency and the intermediary effect of innovation factor agglomeration. The results show that: (1) during the inspection period, the influence of public-participation environmental regulation on the efficiency of the green economy presents an “inverted U” trend, while command-control and market-incentive environmental regulation policies inhibit the improvement of green economic efficiency; (2) the agglomeration of innovative elements plays a significant intermediary role in the transmission path of environmental regulation affecting green economic efficiency, but the intermediary effects of different types of environmental regulation are slightly different. Finally, we discuss environmental regulation and innovative elements, and some corresponding suggestions are put forward. Full article

Open burning of straw is the most significant problem of environmental pollution in rural areas. Returning straw to the fields is beneficial to rural environmental management and rural development. Comprehensive utilization of straw in the field not only reduces environmental pollution, but also benefits food production and farmers’ income. Because planting farmers, enterprises, and local governments have different interests, it is difficult for the straw return system to operate soundly. In this study, a three-party evolutionary game model of farmers, enterprises, and local governments was constructed to analyze the evolutionary stability of the strategic choices of the three subjects, explore the influence of each element on the strategic choices of the three parties, and use Matlab2022b simulation to further analyze the dynamic evolution of the game behavior of the system subjects under the given benefits and the given subjects, respectively. The study findings showed that the higher the preferences given by the local government, the higher the probability of farmers and enterprises participating in the straw return system. Only with the participation of local governments can the straw return system be operated robustly. Our study findings also revealed that the interests of farmers must be fully protected in order to mobilize the main body and stimulate market dynamics. The overall findings of this study provide useful insights for promoting government agencies to govern the local environment, increase local revenues, and build integrated waste utilization systems. Full article

Quantifying total economic impacts of flood disaster in a timely manner is essential for flood risk management and sustainable economic growth. This study takes the flood disaster in China’s Jiangxi province during the flood season in 2020 as an example, and exploits the input–output method to analyze indirect economic impacts caused by the agricultural direct economic loss. Based on regional IO data and MRIO data, a multi-dimensional econometric analysis was undertaken in terms of inter-regional, multi-regional, and structural decomposition of indirect economic losses. Our study reveals that the indirect economic losses caused by the agricultural sector in other sectors in Jiangxi province were 2.08 times the direct economic losses, of which the manufacturing sector suffered the worst, accounting for 70.11% of the total indirect economic losses. In addition, in terms of demand side and supply side indirect losses, the manufacturing and construction industries were found to be more vulnerable than other industries, and the flood disaster caused the largest indirect economic loss in eastern China. Besides, the supply side losses were significantly higher than the demand side losses, highlighting that the agricultural sector has strong spillover effects on the supply side. Moreover, based on the MRIO data of the years 2012 and 2015, dynamic structural decomposition analysis was undertaken, which showed that changes in the distributional structure appear to be influential in the evaluation of indirect economic losses. The findings highlight the spatial and sectoral heterogeneity of indirect economic losses caused by floods, and have significant implications for disaster mitigation and recovery strategies. Full article

Net zero emission scenarios are aligned with the criteria for the Paris Agreement to keep global warming below 1.5 °C. By soft-linking an energy model with a macroeconomic model, we create a similar pathway to the net zero emission scenario from the International Energy Agency (IEA) to 2050 both of demand for fossil fuels and total CO₂ emissions. Soft-linking entails that we insert endogenous variables from one model into the other model. We implement measures such as CO₂ taxes, improved energy efficiency, more renewables in electricity production and other sectors, easier substitution between electricity and fossil fuels for final users, and drastically limiting future production of oil, gas and coal. Our conclusion is that net zero is possible by introducing very strict measures, e.g., a high rate of energy efficiency improvement, far above what has been achieved in the past. While our partial equilibrium energy model, similar to the IEA model, overlooks the potential rebound effects, i.e., more energy used by consumers due to lower prices caused by energy efficiency improvement, our macroeconomic model does capture the rebound effects and has to implement stricter supply-side measures to reduce fossil fuel use to achieve the 1.5 °C scenario. Full article

Clustering algorithms are widely used to mine the heterogeneity between meteorological observations. However, traditional applications suffer from information loss due to data processing and pay little attention to the interaction between meteorological indicators. In this paper, we combine the ideas of functional data analysis and clustering regression, and propose a functional clustering regression heterogeneity learning model (FCR-HL), which respects the data generation process of meteorological data while incorporating the interaction between meteorological indicators into the analysis of meteorological data heterogeneity. In addition, we provide an algorithm for FCR-HL to automatically select the number of clusters, which has good statistical properties. In the later empirical study based on PM_2.5 concentrations and PM₁₀ concentrations in China, we found that the interaction between PM₁₀ and PM_2.5 varies significantly between regions, showing several types of significant patterns, which provide meteorologists with new perspectives to further study the effects between meteorological indicators. Full article

Against the backdrop of the pressing issue of global warming, the concept of green development, which emphasizes the rational utilization of resources and energy, has emerged as a viable model for future economic growth. Despite this, the interplay between big data technology and green development has yet to receive due consideration. This study aims to shed light on the role of big data in green development from the perspective of factor configuration distortion. To this end, a panel data analysis of 284 prefecture-level cities spanning from 2007 to 2020 was conducted, utilizing the Difference-in-Differences (DID) and Propensity Score Matching-Difference-in-Differences (PSM-DID) models to assess the impact of the establishment of the National Big Data Comprehensive Experimental Zone on green total factor productivity. The findings reveal that the establishment of the National Big Data Comprehensive Experimental Zone has a positive impact on green total factor productivity, primarily through optimizing the capital and labor allocation distortions, with the effect being more pronounced in areas with high levels of human capital, financial development, and economic activity. This research provides empirical evidence to evaluate the impact of the establishment of the National Big Data Comprehensive Experimental Zone and offers valuable policy implications for the pursuit of high-quality economic development. Full article

Blood platelets are a typical instance of perishable age-differentiated products with a shelf life of five days (on average), which may lead to significant wastage of some collected samples. At the same time, a shortage of platelets may also be observed because of emergency demands and the limited number of donors, especially during disasters such as wars and the COVID-19 pandemic. Therefore, developing an efficient blood platelet supply chain management model is highly necessary to reduce shortage and wastage. In this research, an integrated resilient–sustainable supply chain network of perishable age-differentiated platelets considering vertical and horizontal transshipment is designed. In order to achieve sustainability, economic cost, social cost (shortage), and environmental cost (wastage) are taken into account. A reactive resilient strategy utilizing lateral transshipment between hospitals is adopted to make the blood platelet supply chain powerful against shortage and disruption risks. The presented model is solved using a metaheuristic based on a local search-empowered grey wolf optimizer. The obtained results demonstrate the efficiency of the proposed vertical–horizontal transshipment model in reducing total economic cost, shortage, and wastage by 3.61%, 30.1%, and 18.8%, respectively. Full article

Counties are the basic unit for addressing unbalanced development in a region, revitalizing rural areas, and promoting the integrated development of urban and rural areas. Despite the importance of county-level research, few studies have been conducted research at such a small scale. To address this gap in knowledge, this study constructs an evaluation system to measure the county sustainable development capacity (CSDC) of counties in China, identify constraints to development, and provide policy suggestions to promote the counties’ long-term stable development. Specifically, the CSDC indicator system was based on the regional theory of sustainable development and included economic aggregation capacity, social development capacity, and environmental carrying capacity. This framework was applied to 103 key counties to receive assistance in pursuing rural revitalization in 10 provinces in western China. The AHP–Entropy Weighting Method and TOPSIS model were employed to inform the scores of CSDC and its secondary indicators, and ArcGIS 10.8 was used to portray the spatial distribution of CSDC and to classify these key counties into categories that guided specific policy recommendations. The results demonstrate a high degree of unbalanced and inadequate development in these counties and that rural revitalization efforts can be targeted to increase the speed of development. It is crucial to follow the recommendations that conclude this paper to promote sustainable development in areas that have been lifted out of poverty and to revive rural areas. Full article

Green technologies are important for achieving green and high-quality agricultural development. The Chinese government has issued various policies to explicitly encourage the adoption of green technologies. However, incentives for Chinese farmers to adopt green technologies remain insufficient. This study examines whether participation in agricultural cooperatives can help break the barriers to Chinese farmers’ adoption of green technologies. It also examines the potential mechanisms by which cooperatives can mitigate the lack of incentives for farmers to adopt agricultural green technologies. Using data from a study on farmers in four Chinese provinces, we found that cooperative participation significantly increases farmers’ adoption behavior for both green technologies with effective market incentives (e.g., commercial organic fertilizer technologies) and those without such incentives (e.g., water-saving irrigation technologies). Full article

The development of China’s manufacturing industry is constrained by factors such as energy and resources, and low-carbon development is arduous. Digitalization is an important method to transform and upgrade traditional industries. Based on the panel data of 13 manufacturing industries in China from 2007 to 2019, a regression model and a threshold model were used to empirically test the impact of digitalization and electricity consumption on carbon emissions. The research results were as follows: (1) The digitalization level of China’s manufacturing industry was steadily increasing; (2) The proportion of electricity consumption in China’s manufacturing industries in the total electricity consumption hardly changed from 2007 to 2019, basically maintaining at about 6.8%. The total power consumption increased by about 2.1 times. (3) From 2007 to 2019, the total carbon emissions of China’s manufacturing industry increased, but the carbon emissions of some manufacturing industries decreased. (4) There was an inverted U-shaped relationship between digitalization and carbon emissions, the higher the level of digitalization input, the greater the carbon emissions of the manufacturing industry. However, when digitalization develops to a certain extent, it will also suppress carbon emissions to a certain extent. (5) There was a significant positive correlation between electricity consumption and carbon emissions in the manufacturing industry. (6) There were double energy thresholds for the impact of labor-intensive and technology-intensive manufacturing digitalization on carbon emissions, but only a single economic threshold and scale threshold. There was a single scale threshold for capital-intensive manufacturing, and the value was −0.5352. This research provides possible countermeasures and policy recommendations for digitalization to empower the low-carbon development of China’s manufacturing industry. Full article

Agricultural carbon emission is an significant cause of global climate change and many environmental and health problems. Achieving low-carbon and green development in agriculture is not only an inevitable choice for countries around the world to cope with climate change and the accompanying environmental and health problems, but also a necessary path for the sustainable development of global agriculture. The promotion of rural industrial integration is a practical way to realize sustainable agricultural growth and urban–rural integration development. The analysis framework of agriculture GTFP is creatively extended in this study to include the integration and growth of rural industries, rural human capital investment and rural land transfer. According to the sample data of 30 provinces in China from 2011 to 2020 and the systematic GMM estimation method, and through the combination of theoretical analysis and empirical testing, this paper discusses the influence mechanism of rural industrial integration development on agriculture GTFP growth, as well as the regulating role of rural human capital investment and rural land transfer. The results show that rural industrial integration has significantly promoted the growth of agriculture GTFP. Additionally, after decomposing agriculture GTFP into the agricultural green technology progress index and agricultural green technology efficiency index, it is found that rural industrial integration has a more obvious role in promoting agricultural green technology progress. Furthermore, quantile regression found that with the increase in agricultural GTFP, the promoting effect of rural industrial integration showed an “inverted U-shaped” feature. Through heterogeneity testing, it is found that the agriculture GTFP growth effect of rural industrial integration is more obvious in areas with high level of rural industrial integration. Additionally, as the nation places more and more focus on rural industrial integration, the promotion role of rural industrial integration has become more and more obvious. The moderating effect test showed that health, education and training, migration of rural human capital investment and rural land transfer all strengthened the promoting effect of rural industrial integration on agricultural GTFP growth to varying degrees. This study provides rich policy insights for China and other developing countries around the world to address global climate change and many related environmental and monitoring issues by developing rural industrial integration, strengthening rural human capital investment and promoting agricultural land transfer to achieve sustainable agricultural growth and reduce undesirable output outputs such as agricultural carbon emissions. Full article