Search Results (725)

Understanding the spatiotemporal dynamics and driving mechanisms of cultivated land ecosystem health in the Northeast black soil region is essential for sustainable land management, regional ecological security, and national food security. This study selected 2002, 2012, and 2022 as representative years. Based on CLCD land use data and related natural and socio-economic datasets, an evaluation framework was established incorporating comprehensive productivity, landscape stability, and ecological sustainability. The cultivated land ecosystem health index (FEHI) was calculated using an integrated evaluation framework combining the InVEST model and weighted evaluation method, and the spatial differentiation characteristics and driving mechanisms were investigated using the GeoDetector model. The results showed that (1) among the three study years, cultivated land comprehensive productivity generally increased, whereas landscape stability declined and ecological sustainability remained at a relatively low level with signs of degradation; (2) the FEHI exhibited a fluctuating upward pattern, with the mean value increasing from 0.195 to 0.211. Low-health areas decreased, while high-health areas expanded, suggesting an enhancement in the comprehensive health level of cultivated land ecosystems. (3) GeoDetector analysis revealed that precipitation and elevation were the dominant factors influencing spatial differentiation. The interactions between precipitation and slope, as well as precipitation and nighttime light intensity, showed strong explanatory power, although the explanatory power of dominant factors varied among different years. These findings provide scientific support for ecological protection, black soil conservation, and sustainable cultivated land management in the Northeast black soil region. Full article

Scarcity of cultivated land resources and socioeconomic expansion have diversified cultivated land utilization modes. This research takes 183 county administrative units across Sichuan Province as research samples to build a three-dimensional (production, living, ecological) evaluation framework for cultivated land multifunctionality. Entropy weight method, multifunctionality index and sensitivity model are applied to quantify the spatiotemporal evolution of cultivated land functions across 2013–2023, and to detect the response intensity of multifunctionality to cultivated land quantity variation. Results indicate the following: (1) During 2013–2023, Sichuan’s cultivated land production function (PF) maintained stability, showing a contiguous east-high–west-low spatial pattern. The living function (LF) experienced moderate growth with scattered high–low values but shared identical spatial differentiation rules; the ecological function (EF) declined slightly with a decelerated decreasing rate in the late research phase, and its high- and sub-high-value areas agglomerated in the Eastern Sichuan Basin and mountainous area of Southwest Sichuan. (2) Provincial cultivated land area slightly increased initially then declined, yielding a slight total reduction while the overall spatial layout remained consistent. (3) Comparison between 2013–2018 and 2018–2023 reveals that production function sensitivity decreased sharply, LF sensitivity fell moderately, and ecological function sensitivity climbed upward. Investigations into spatiotemporal evolution and sensitive responses of cultivated land multifunctionality deliver vital theoretical and practical implications for mitigating conflicts between regional cultivated land protection and exploitation, as well as advancing efficient land resource allocation and coordinated promotion of multifunctions. Full article

Under pressure from climate change, market volatility, and policy adjustments, rural livelihood systems face increasing vulnerability, which threatens poverty reduction gains. Livelihood resilience—the ability to withstand shocks, sustain livelihoods, and drive transformation—has become central to assessing sustainable rural development; however, its concepts, metrics, and links to land-use policies have not yet been systematically integrated. This review synthesizes existing research on farmers’ livelihood resilience and its relationship with land-use policy, yielding three main findings: (1) It synthesizes existing definitions and clarifies major assessment approaches based on the distinction between resilience and vulnerability. (2) Multiple drivers influencing livelihood resilience were identified, many of which can be directly or indirectly influenced, mediated, or coordinated through land-use policy and related rural governance instruments. (3) Three potential pathways linking land-use policies to buffering, adaptive, and transformative capacities were identified, with policy effects varying across households and contexts and potentially contributing to rural revitalization through changes in livelihood resources and opportunities. Full article

Cultivated land protection is fundamental to sustainable agricultural development, and reducing pesticide use is a key pathway for improving cultivated land quality. While policy-based agricultural insurance plays an important role in ensuring food security, whether it can promote pesticide-use reduction by influencing farmers’ production decisions remains unclear. Using survey data from 521 large-scale rice farmers in Jiangxi Province, China, this study takes the coverage depth of policy-based rice insurance as the core explanatory variable and employs ordinary least squares (OLS) estimation, the instrumental variable (IV) approach, and propensity score matching (PSM) to examine its effect on pesticide expenditure. Furthermore, the mediating roles of green technology adoption and farmland operational scale are explored. Specifically, for every one-unit increase in the coverage depth of policy-based rice insurance, pesticide expenditure decreases by 0.169 units. The results show that (1) greater insurance coverage depth significantly reduces pesticide expenditure among large-scale rice farmers, and this finding remains robust across a series of robustness tests and after addressing endogeneity concerns; (2) policy-based rice insurance promotes pesticide expenditure reduction by encouraging green technology adoption and expanding farmland operational scale; and (3) the pesticide-reduction effect is more pronounced among farmers with larger operational scales and more extensive farming experience. Based on these findings, efforts should be made to dynamically optimize the policy-based rice insurance system, strengthen its risk protection capacity, improve agricultural resource allocation efficiency, enhance its green incentive effects, and implement differentiated insurance support policies with more accurate compensation mechanisms. Full article

Continuous paddy reclamation is a promising strategy for restoring sodic lands, yet the exact mechanisms driving soil organic carbon (SOC) stabilization remain insufficiently quantified. Here, we investigated SOC dynamics across a 12-year rice cultivation chronosequence (0, 2, 5, 10, and 12 years) at 0–20 cm and 20–40 cm depths in western Jilin Province, China. Successive rice cultivation progressively alleviated saline–alkaline stress, with electrical conductivity (EC) decreasing by 70.11% in topsoil after 12 years, establishing a stabilized soil environment by years 10–12. Concurrently, topsoil SOC and total nitrogen (TN) increased by 63.09% and 26.02%, respectively. This physicochemical amelioration triggered a directional carbon transformation: while particulate organic carbon (POC) accumulated in early stages, mineral-associated organic carbon (MAOC) dominated medium-term storage, expanding by 147.12% in topsoil and elevating its share of SOC. Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy confirmed a shift toward molecular structural persistence, marked by increased aromaticity and hydrophobicity. Partial least squares path modeling (PLS-PM) demonstrated that cultivation duration directly drove soil stability (β = 0.94, p < 0.001), operating through a hierarchical cascade where management-induced stress reduction enhanced soil enzyme activity and microbial processing, thereby accelerating the conversion of labile plant inputs into mineral-protected MAOC. Overall, this study quantifies the pivotal role of paddy management in driving organo-mineral protection and chemical persistence, providing a mechanistic framework for carbon sequestration in degraded agroecosystems. Full article

Under China’s dual-carbon targets, mountainous areas are critical ecological barriers with substantial carbon-sink potential. This study investigated the effects of land-use and land-cover change (LUCC) on carbon emission (CE), carbon storage (CS), and carbon balance in Longhui, Dongkou, and Suining counties in the central Xuefeng Mountains. Using LUCC data from 2000 to 2020, we combined the InVEST, PLUS, and Gray Models with an emission-coefficient method to reconstruct historical LUCC and analyze the spatiotemporal patterns of CE and CS. Future carbon balance was then modeled for 2040 under natural development (ND), ecological protection (EP), and economic development (ED) scenarios. The results indicated that: (1) from 2000 to 2020, construction land doubled, whereas cultivated land and forest land decreased significantly; (2) net CE increased by 3.5-fold, with construction land acting as the dominant carbon source and forest land serving as the primary carbon sink. CS declined by 3.7 × 10⁵ t and exhibited a spatial pattern of high in the west, low in the east. The carbon supply-demand ratio (CSDR) showed a continuous downward trend, with central towns approaching carbon deficits. (3) Projections for 2040 indicated that Taohong Town will face a carbon deficit under the ED, while nearing the critical threshold under the ND. Although the EP prevents a deficit, the town remains vulnerable near the tipping point; in contrast, western ecological townships maintain substantial carbon surpluses. Accordingly, four carbon-balance regulation zones are identified, and differentiated governance strategies are proposed. These findings provide a scientific basis for carbon-balance regulation and low-carbon territorial planning in mountainous counties. Full article

Land-use transformation driven by large-scale water conservancy projects profoundly reshapes regional ecosystem structures and the supply capacity of ecosystem services, yet targeted quantitative assessments linking land-use evolution to ecosystem service values (ESV) in the Xiaolangdi Reservoir resettlement zone remain insufficient, restricting scientific ecological management and territorial spatial governance for reservoir-affected counties and districts. This study draws on the latest ecosystem service valuation theories proposed by domestic and international scholars and applies the value equivalence method to quantify variations in land-use pattern changes and ESV across nine resettlement counties and districts (including the Sanmenxia urban area) affected by the Xiaolangdi Reservoir relocation project. Data collected included historical records (1995–2020), digital elevation models (DEM, 30 m resolution), and land-use information. By applying value equivalence theory and analyzing land-use change impacts, the study calculated changes in ESV and conducted sensitivity analyses across different land types. The findings reveal significant impacts on surrounding counties following the reservoir’s completion. Data indicate that the expansion of water areas drove the total ESV to rise from US$3.3261 billion in 1995 to a peak of US$3.6557 billion in 2010, followed by a decline to US$3.6128 billion in 2020. The most pronounced changes occurred during the first five years post-reservoir filling (2000–2005), marked by elevated water sensitivity indices. This research clarifies the differentiated responses of ecosystem service functions to land-use changes across reservoir-affected counties, provides quantitative decision-making support for coordinated ecological restoration, cultivated land protection, and sustainable land management in the resettlement area of the Xiaolangdi Reservoir, and offers a replicable technical framework for ecosystem service valuation of large sediment-laden river reservoir regions worldwide. Full article

Rapid growth in photovoltaic (PV) development has intensified competition between renewable energy expansion and land resources, highlighting the importance of integrating PV growth with spatial planning toward carbon neutrality. This study addresses the lack of township-level evidence by integrating spatio-temporal analysis, the Optimal Parameter Geodetector (OPGD), and the Patch-generating Land Use Simulation (PLUS) model to investigate the evolution, driving mechanisms, and future spatial patterns of PV development. Taking Xintai City as a case study, this research examines PV development from 2010 to 2022 and simulates future spatial patterns under natural development (ND) and carbon neutrality (CN) scenarios. Results show that PV development entered a rapid expansion stage after 2015, characterized by leapfrog growth and increasing spatial agglomeration. The centroid of PV patches shifted eastward, whereas the centroid of PV area migrated westward, indicating differentiated spatial evolution between the number and scale of PV facilities. PV development was jointly shaped by climatic conditions, socioeconomic factors, and land availability, with interactions among multiple factors substantially enhancing spatial heterogeneity. Scenario simulations revealed that PV development continued under both scenarios, while the CN scenario promoted more concentrated expansion in coal subsidence areas and inefficient industrial and mining lands, thereby helping alleviate potential conflicts with cultivated land protection. These findings highlight the importance of prioritizing low-conflict land resources and strengthening spatial coordination between renewable energy development and land management to support sustainable low-carbon development in resource-based cities. Full article

The Chinese Loess Plateau is a vast semi-arid landscape that has experienced substantial vegetation recovery through afforestation since the late twentieth century, altering the regional carbon cycle and contributing to China’s carbon neutrality efforts. However, large-scale quantification of carbon storage (CS) remains challenging in this heterogeneous and erosion-prone landscape. In this study, the PLUS land-use simulation model was coupled with an InVEST-based carbon storage accounting framework, and multi-source remote sensing and field survey data were integrated to quantify historical carbon storage from 1980 to 2020 and predict carbon storage in 2040 under three future land-use scenarios: natural development (ND), cultivated land protection (CLP), and ecological protection (EP). The results showed that NDVI exhibited a distinct southeast-to-northwest gradient, with peak values (>0.8) in the southeastern tablelands, where CS reached 10.27 ± 4.20 kg C m⁻². Carbon storage increased from 1980 to 2020, primarily due to afforestation, with higher CS in the humid southeastern plateau and lower CS in the arid northwest. Scenario simulation showed that CS maintained a baseline level of 7.07 ± 3.81 kg C m⁻² under the ND scenario, increased slightly to 7.08 ± 3.77 kg C m⁻² under the CLP scenario, and reached the highest value of 7.10 ± 3.80 kg C m⁻² under the EP scenario. SEM-based mechanism analysis indicated that topography exerted the strongest direct influence on CS, followed by vegetation, climate, and socioeconomic factors. These findings suggest that water availability and topographic constraints strongly regulate CS in semi-arid regions, while land-use policy can still modify CS through scenario-dependent land-use change. Full article

Global food security remains under severe strain, and the conversion of cultivated land to non-grain uses poses a significant threat to the stability of food production capacity. Driven by mineral development and urbanization, the risk of non-grain conversion in resource-based counties has increased. This study selected Qian’an City as the study area to accurately identify the spatiotemporal evolution characteristics of non-grain production at the county scale. GF-1 satellite (China Centre for Resources Satellite Data and Application, Beijing, China) imagery from 2016, 2020, and 2024 was employed, integrated with a vegetation index, multi-scale segmentation, and a decision tree model. Non-grain conversion rate measurement, spatial trend surface analysis, and kernel density estimation were then applied for analysis. The results were as follows. (1) The high-precision identification system for the non-grain conversion of cultivated land accurately distinguished grain crops from non-grain land uses, achieving an overall accuracy of over 91%. (2) The process of non-grain conversion of cultivated land in Qian’an City showed significant stage characteristics. The non-grain conversion area first increased and then decreased, with the non-grain rate fluctuating from 49.38 to 53.48% before declining to 46.62%. (3) The driving mechanism exhibited a phased evolution: from natural economy-led, to policy-driven strong intervention, and finally to market location-led. In 2016, the terrain undulation (q = 0.63) and GDP (q = 0.551) were dominant. In 2020, the proportion of ecological protection red line area (q = 0.539) took the lead. By 2024, GDP (q = 0.66) and the distance from the main road (q = 0.544) were dominant. This reflected the coupling effect of market and location within the policy baseline and interpreted the dynamic evolution of cultivated land use management. The spatial and temporal evolution characteristics of non-grain conversion for cultivated land were quantitatively revealed. The findings provide a scientific basis and decision support for regional cultivated land protection, food security, and optimal allocation of land resources. Full article

Non-grain production of cultivated land has increasingly affected regional food security and the stability of agricultural ecosystems. In traditional rice-producing regions, changes associated with non-rice cultivation, fallow land, rice-fishery integrated farming, and intensive agricultural management are reshaping the spatial structure of paddy landscapes. To identify the long-term spatiotemporal evolution of paddy systems, this study investigated Northern Jiangxi, China, using Landsat surface reflectance imagery from 2000, 2005, 2010, 2015, and 2020 on the Google Earth Engine (GEE) platform. The Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI) and Land Surface Water Index (LSWI) were used to construct a phenology-based Flooding Frequency (FF) indicator. Based on the annual frequency with which pixels satisfied the condition LSWI > EVI, cultivated land was classified into three categories: non-flooded cropland, standard rice paddy, and high-frequency flooded cropland. In this study, non-flooded cropland was used as an indicator of potential non-rice cultivation rather than as direct evidence of confirmed non-grain production. Landscape metrics, transition matrices, gravity center migration, standard deviation ellipses, and geographically weighted regression (GWR) were then used to examine paddy landscape dynamics, fragmentation patterns, and county-level spatial associations with socioeconomic factors. The results suggest that the paddy system in Northern Jiangxi experienced marked stage-based fluctuations between 2000 and 2020. Standard rice paddy recovered during 2005–2010, whereas non-flooded cropland expanded considerably during 2010–2015, accompanied by intensified paddy landscape fragmentation. Non-flooded cropland was mainly distributed around urban fringes, transport corridors, and some hilly margins. Standard rice paddy was concentrated in traditional grain-producing areas, including the Poyang Lake Plain and the Gan-Fu Plain. High-frequency flooded cropland was primarily located in low-lying lake areas, where its dynamics were likely associated with rice-fishery integrated farming, continuous irrigation, and hydrological fluctuations. Landscape metrics showed that the largest patch index and mean patch size of standard rice paddy declined after 2010, indicating reduced spatial continuity of core paddy fields. The GWR analysis provided auxiliary evidence that total population, per capita gross domestic product (GDP), and urbanization rate were spatially associated with changes in non-flooded cropland at the county level; however, the results should be interpreted as exploratory associations rather than causal mechanisms. Overall, paddy landscape change in Northern Jiangxi was expressed not only through changes in cultivated land area, but also through the reorganization of paddy function, spatial continuity, and land-use intensity. Future cropland protection should therefore move beyond area-based control toward integrated management of quantity, quality, function, and spatial configuration. Future research should further verify these findings using dynamic cropland boundaries, higher-resolution imagery, and more detailed socioeconomic data. Full article

Terrestrial water storage in semi-arid basins is increasingly affected by the combined pressures of climate variability, land use change and intensive human activities. However, how landscape composition and configuration interact with climatic forcing to shape basin-scale terrestrial water storage anomalies (TWSA) remains insufficiently understood, particularly in rapidly urbanising tributary basins of the Yellow River. This study integrates GRACE/GRACE-FO-derived TWSA, meteorological observations and multi-period land use data to examine the coupled relationships among climate variability, landscape patterns and water storage in the human-dominated Yiluo River Basin. The results show that basin-averaged TWSA experienced a significant long-term decline during the GRACE/GRACE-FO period (−4.47 mm yr⁻¹), with a statistically detectable transition around 2012 and stronger depletion in the northern and eastern parts of the basin. Precipitation exhibited a cumulative and delayed relationship with TWSA, with the strongest raw association occurring under a six-month accumulation and one-month lag (Pearson’s r = 0.44, p < 0.001, n = 134). After removing the seasonal cycle, the relationship remained significant but weaker (r = 0.30, p = 0.001, n = 129), indicating that precipitation explains part, but not all, of the interannual variability in water storage. Landscape composition showed stronger associations with TWSA than landscape configuration. Construction land was negatively associated with water storage, whereas cultivated land and grassland showed positive associations, suggesting that impervious surface expansion and the loss of permeable land may weaken the basin’s water retention capacity. These findings indicate that water storage change in the Yiluo River Basin is shaped by both climatic forcing and human-induced land surface transformation. Basin management should therefore prioritise the control of urban impervious surface expansion, the protection of permeable agricultural and ecological land, and the integration of land use planning with adaptive water resource regulation. Full article

The Pearl River–Xijiang Economic Belt, a vital economic zone and ecological barrier in southwestern China, has witnessed significant land-use transitions since the new millennium. Scientific assessment and simulation of the ecological effects of land-use transitions in this region can provide essential support for coordinated regional development and green transformation in areas with similar ecological and economic functions. Based on land-use datasets from 2000, 2010, and 2020, this study adopted the equivalent value coefficient method to quantify the spatiotemporal evolution of ecosystem service value (ESV) across the Economic Belt. The GeoSOS-FLUS model was further used to simulate land-use changes and their corresponding ESV effects under multiple scenarios for the year 2030. The results showed that from 2000 to 2020, construction land expanded dramatically while cultivated land shrank sharply. The main land-use conversions involved reciprocal transitions between cultivated land and forest and large-scale conversion of water bodies and cultivated land into construction land. The total regional ESV exhibited a continuous declining trend over this study period, with a more pronounced decline in the Pearl River section than in the Xijiang section. Spatially, ESV exhibited a differentiation pattern of high values in the Xijiang section and low values in the Pearl River section. Multi-scenario simulations for 2030 indicate that the ecological protection scenario achieves the most notable ESV improvement, outperforming the natural development, economic development, cultivated land protection, and comprehensive development scenarios by 2.72%, 2.88%, 3.30%, and 0.87%, respectively. Based on these findings, this study proposes targeted policy implications for land development and utilization in the Pearl River–Xijiang Economic Belt and analogous regions, providing references for evidence-based land-use decision-making. Full article

Global warming is driving large-scale shifts in the climatically suitable habitats of many species. However, climate-only species distribution assessments may overestimate the spatial availability of future suitable habitats when dynamic land-use change is not considered. To assess potential spatial overlaps between climate-driven habitat suitability shifts and human land-use patterns, this study focuses on Quercus L. as a widely distributed keystone forest taxon in China. The genus-level assessment was designed to identify broad-scale habitat–land-use conflict patterns under multiple climate pathways and territorial spatial planning scenarios, rather than to predict species-specific distribution responses. We developed a soft-coupled framework integrating the Maximum Entropy (MaxEnt) model and the Patch-generating Land-Use Simulation (PLUS) model, and applied the Habitat–Land-Use Conflict Index (HLCI) as a categorical spatial overlay framework to classify potential overlaps between projected suitable habitats and future land-use categories across 16 exploratory scenario combinations integrating Shared Socioeconomic Pathway (SSP)-based climate projections and land-use/land-cover (LULC) scenarios for the 2040s at the grid scale. The results indicate that: (1) climate warming may reshape Quercus habitat suitability, characterized by northward/westward expansion and southward contraction in some low-latitude regions; (2) future land-use patterns may reduce the spatial availability of projected suitable habitats by increasing their overlap with built-up land and cultivated land. Under high-emission scenarios, potential newly suitable habitats overlapped with built-up land by up to 5.90 × 10⁴ km² and with cultivated land by up to 36.42 × 10⁴ km²; and (3) the Ecological Protection scenario showed lower overlap with non-ecological land-use categories and a larger area of potentially realizable habitat expansion. This study provides a scenario-based spatial assessment of where future Quercus habitat suitability may overlap with human land-use patterns, offering broad-scale support for adaptive forest conservation and territorial spatial planning. Full article

Understanding the driving mechanisms of land-use structure change is fundamental for exploring co-evolutionary dynamics of coupled human-land systems. This study focuses on traditional villages in Enshi Tujia and Miao Autonomous Prefecture, integrating spatial analysis, landscape pattern indices, and structural equation modeling (SEM) with field surveys and multi-source data. It analyzes spatial distribution, spatiotemporal evolution, and the direct and indirect pathways of topographic heterogeneity, human activities, economic development, and social level on land-use structure change. Results show: (1) Villages concentrate in mountainous junctions at 800–1200 m (52.2%), forming a multi-core, west-dense east-sparse pattern with significant spatial dependence. (2) During 1990–2020, Dong villages exhibited a development-oriented evolution, with slightly expanded cultivated and forest land, intensified fragmentation (patch density increased by up to 8.55%), increased landscape diversity, and slightly decreased grassland and water, reflecting an adaptive balance between economic development and ecological constraints. (3) SEM reveals that topographic heterogeneity exerts significant negative direct effects on human activities (−0.694) and economic development (−0.686), and indirectly constrains social level through multiple mediating pathways; human activities (0.829) and economic development (0.837) strongly drive social level, with economic development also synergistically promoting human activities. This study reveals cascading transmission mechanisms of land-use structure change, providing an empirically grounded theoretical foundation and decision-making reference for ecological protection, cultural inheritance, and sustainable development in mountainous ethnic areas. Full article