Search Results (3)

The mass ratio hypothesis posits that ecosystem functions are predominantly influenced by the dominant species. However, it remains unclear whether a species must be abundant to exert functional dominance. We conducted a removal experiment in an alpine grassland near Pudacuo National Park, Yunnan, China, to assess the community and ecosystem impacts of the removed species. We implemented four treatments as follows: exclusive removal of the most abundant species (Blysmus sinocompressus), exclusive removal of a sparse species with high individual biomass (Primula secundiflora), simultaneous removal of both species, and a control with no removals. Results showed that removing B. sinocompressus significantly reduced biomass production, supporting the mass ratio hypothesis, while removal of P. secundiflora had negligible effects. B. sinocompressus removal positively impacted community metrics like coverage, species evenness, and the Shannon diversity index, but not species richness, likely due to its spatial dominance. Conversely, P. secundiflora removal had minimal community impact, probably due to its limited influence on nearby species. This study underscores the proportionate roles of the dominant species in alpine grasslands, emphasizing that their community and ecosystem impacts are proportional to their abundance. Full article

Problems such as global environmental pollution and climate change have made the public’s desire for nature and closeness to greenery increasingly strong amid rapid urbanization. Improving the ability of experiential environmental interpretation products and services is the basis for national parks to meet the public’s needs, and the evaluation of their effectiveness is a necessary basis for optimizing the quality of environmental interpretation services in response to the current problems of unsynchronized environmental interpretation facilities and service levels. Using Pudacuo National Park as a case study, 365 visitors’ spatio-temporal trajectories with GPS devices and questionnaire data were collected, and the interaction changes of visitors’ external spatiotemporal behaviors and internal emotional experiences were analyzed using cluster analysis, GPS geoprocessing model construction, and emotional mean calculation methods, and the results showed that (1) Pudacuo National Park visitors mainly comprise four types of visitor clusters, which are the sightseeing type, trekking + sightseeing type, cruise type, and hiking + cruise type, as well as four types of spatio-temporal behavior patterns; the differences of visitors’ spatiotemporal behavior patterns are reflected in spatial movement, time allocation, and stopping behavior, and correspond to different emotional experience intensity. (2) Emotional experience value is positively correlated with location stay time, and emotional experience intensity is higher, corresponding to spatio-temporal behavior patterns with longer trajectory distance, longer dwell time, and more stopping behaviors, indicating that environmental services promote longer visitor stopping time and generate high-quality recreation experiences. (3) Finally, we proposed the optimization of environmental interpretation mode according to the spatiotemporal emotional differences of different types of visitor clusters. This study provides a basis for improving the quality of visitor experience and optimizing the quality of environmental interpretation services and provides a useful reference for guiding the construction of high-quality and diverse ecological experiences in national parks. Full article

Forest ecosystems play an important role in maintaining the stability of the biosphere and improving the ecological environment. The valuation of forest ecosystem services provides data to support the implementation of forest ecosystem conservation and the development of ecological-compensation standards. We used multiple sources of data, such as remote-sensing and ground data, and we employed the methods of substitute market, shadow project, and contingent valuation. We valued the forest ecosystem services of Pudacuo National Park in Shangri-La, China, which consisted of six functions: soil conservation, forest nutrient retention, water conservation, carbon fixation and oxygen released, forest health care, and atmospheric environmental purification. The results showed that: the value of forest ecological services in Pudacuo National Park was 4.49 × 10⁹ yuan·a⁻¹, with higher values of carbon fixation and oxygen released, water conservation, and forest health care, in the following order: carbon fixation and oxygen released (3.85 × 10⁹ yuan·a⁻¹), water conservation (3.40 × 10⁸ yuan·a⁻¹), forest health care (1.44 × 10⁸ yuan·a⁻¹), soil conservation (1.15 × 10⁸ yuan·a⁻¹), forest nutrient retention (3.29 × 10⁷ yuan·a⁻¹), and atmosphere environmental purification (1.17 × 10⁷ yuan·a⁻¹). In addition, the value of services per stand and unit area is discussed, and the results of the study will inform the government’s ecological-compensation criteria in high-quality environmental areas. Full article