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Vernal ponds are temporary, isolated bodies of water that lack vertebrate predators like fish. Palmer Park in Detroit, MI, USA, contains an old-growth forest with multiple vernal ponds that are home to numerous invertebrates, including water mites, which are the main focus of this study. These vernal ponds are unique since they are geographically isolated in the middle of an urban landscape. Previous research discovered new species of non-biting midges in Palmer Park vernal ponds, suggesting the potential for the discovery of previously undocumented organisms and relationships in this ecosystem. Here we document the invertebrate species found in the vernal ponds of Palmer Park, both to illustrate their diversity and to determine their cytochrome oxidase I (COI) barcode sequences. COI barcode sequences are used in this study to verify identification and provide reference sequences for comparison to sequences in the diets of water mites also collected from the ponds. Three taxa of water mites found in Palmer Park Pond A are Hydryphantes waynensis, Parathyas sp., and Hydryphantes sp. (distinct from H. waynensis by having a COI barcode sequence 11.6% different from Hydryphantes sp.). This paper also uses Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) to analyze the complex diets of the water mites at Palmer Park. The diets consisted of a diversity of species of oligochaetes, mosquitoes, non-biting midges, crustaceans, flies, and beetles. Beetles identified as whole organisms in the ponds or from diet-detected bar codes in vernal pond water mites include Copelatus glyphicus, Acilius sp., and Hygrotus sayi. The diets of water mites in these vernal ponds are compared to previous molecular studies in which water mites in a riverine lagoon were identified as opportunistic predators of a diverse invertebrate diet. Beetle DNA was consistently detected in association with water mites, suggesting a potential and previously unreported dietary or ecological interaction; however, alternative explanations such as external contamination by environmental DNA or secondary ingestion cannot be excluded. Beetles have not previously been reported in water mite diets, so this finding represents a new discovery. This molecular analysis revealed taxa and novel COI barcode sequences not observed through traditional sampling, highlighting the value of water mites for community characterization. These results support the hypothesis that water mites are opportunistic predators, uniquely reports beetles as putative components of their diets, and emphasizes their ecological importance and utility in assessing vernal pond biodiversity. Full article

Urban resilience (UR) is shaped by multiple interacting factors, yet existing studies have paid limited attention to the differentiated nonlinear and interactive mechanisms across different resilience dimensions. Based on panel data from 110 prefecture-level and above cities in the Yangtze River Economic Belt (YREB) from 2015 to 2024, this study adopts a four-dimensional framework covering social, economic, ecological, and infrastructure resilience. Spatial analysis and the XGBoost-SHAP model are combined to examine the spatiotemporal evolution, key drivers, nonlinear responses, turning point characteristics, and factor interactions of overall UR and its four dimensions. The results show that overall UR increased steadily, while the four dimensions followed distinct evolutionary trajectories: economic and infrastructure resilience improved most rapidly, ecological resilience increased steadily, and social resilience improved relatively slowly. The importance and effects of key drivers also varied across overall resilience and its four dimensions. Major factors, including technological investment, non-registered population, unemployment insurance coverage, land use, and natural population growth, exhibited distinct nonlinear responses and turning point characteristics, with their effects changing across different variable levels. Furthermore, significant interactions were identified among population and industrial structure, population and transportation, industry and technology, and industry and social security across different resilience dimensions. Overall, UR in the YREB is characterized by differentiated development, nonlinear responses, nonlinear transition patterns, and joint influences of multiple factors. Full article

Plants have coevolved with microbes for nearly 500 million years; however, their interrelationship is not well understood. Plant roots have an intricate relationship with soil microbes. Such relationships mold the growth, development, immunity and physiology of plants and thus are of immense interest to agriculture and the environment. Technological advancements in sequencing, imaging, omics, synthetic biology and artificial intelligence have allowed scientists to dissect such relationships to a higher resolution. Thus, these advances have facilitated a deeper understanding of plant–microbe interactions and their role in the life cycle of plants and the environment. However, factors such as microbial diversity, microbial abundance, heterogeneity of soil and plasticity of the environment have precluded a clear in situ understanding of microbial community structure. Thus, constructing synthetic microbial communities or SynComs and investigating their effect on plants in a controlled environment offers a reductionist and manageable approach to understand plant–microbe relationships. This approach reduces the confounding variables present in the natural environment and facilitates the understanding of such complex interactions. Members of such communities are identified using 16S rRNA sequencing and are constructed using few microorganisms; often fungal strains are added for cross-kingdom SynComs. Metabolic modeling, metabolic cross-feeding along with ecological and evolutionary principles, can be used while choosing candidates for SynComs. Scalability, transferability, reproducibility, predictability and stability are the major bottlenecks in SynCom research. This emerging area of science may have transformative impact in agriculture, environment and space colonization. In this article, we present our perspective on the latest advancements, challenges and future potential of this technology. Full article

Objective: Simulated microgravity (SMG) alters fluid dynamics and may influence microbial aggregation. However, its effects on oral bacteria remain unclear. This study investigated the effects of SMG on the growth and aggregation of representative oral bacteria. Methods: Four facultative oral bacteria representing distinct ecological and adhesive properties—Staphylococcus aureus(opportunistic pathogen), Streptococcus mutans (glucan-producing cariogenic bacterium), Streptococcus salivarius (commensal fructan-producing bacterium), and Streptococcus sanguinis (early colonizer)—together with the periodontal pathogen Porphyromonas gingivalis were cultured under SMG (10⁻³G) or normal gravity (NG). Streptococci were grown with or without sucrose to evaluate the role of extracellular polysaccharides. Growth was assessed by optical density, and aggregation was quantified by image analysis. Results: SMG induced aggregation in a species-dependent manner. S. mutans and S. salivarius formed spherical aggregates under SMG, whereas little or no aggregate formation was observed in S. aureus, S. sanguinis, or P. gingivalis. Aggregation of S. mutans was markedly reduced without sucrose, indicating dependence on glucan-mediated adhesion. S. salivarius also showed reduced aggregation under sucrose-free conditions, although limited aggregation persisted. Growth kinetics were virtually unaffected by SMG. Conclusions: SMG promotes aggregation of selected oral bacteria through species-specific mechanisms. These findings suggest that microgravity may alter the architecture of oral microbial communities by enhancing particular intercellular adhesion pathways. Full article

Global commodity chains reshape rural territories through interconnected environmental and socioeconomic processes; these dynamics are often examined through the lens of land-use change. Export-oriented agricultural frontiers illustrate how global market integration can generate landscape and societal transformations. In western Mexico, the expansion of the avocado industry exemplifies commodity-driven territorial change, linking land-use dynamics with transformations in rural economies and livelihoods. This study analyzes how export integration into the international avocado commodity chain was associated with transformations in land systems and socioeconomic dynamics across four municipalities in Michoacán, Mexico, between 2003 and 2023. Using high-resolution land-use maps alongside demographic and socioeconomic indicators, we apply a qualitative, comparative and inductive synthesis of spatial and census data to examine how commodity integration interacted with local conditions to shape landscape and territorial organization. Avocado expansion coincided with territorial transformation, including the conversion of pine-oak forest and traditional agricultural lands, as well as changes in labor arrangements, demographic dynamics, and rural livelihood systems. Land-use analysis shows continued orchard expansion and accelerated land conversion after 2015. Socioeconomic indicators reveal population growth, increased female employment, and persistent income inequality, highlighting the uneven incorporation of rural territories into global commodity chains. We identified four territorial pathways: agricultural specialization, agro-industrial urbanization, transitional diversification, and rural commodity integration. These findings contribute to debates on uneven geographical development and commodity frontier expansion by showing how global commodity integration intersects with ecological, economic, and social processes to generate distinct pathways. Full article

Marine ecological systems are severely compromised by oil spill incidents, while oceanic economic growth and public well-being are also put at considerable risk. Therefore, the development of high-efficiency and precise detection techniques for marine pollution prevention and control holds substantial practical importance. A marine radar oil spill detection approach is presented herein, integrating Restricted Boltzmann Machine (RBM) feature learning with the Improved Quantum Golden Jackal Optimization (IQGJO) algorithm. Initially, raw radar imagery is preprocessed. Subsequently, unsupervised deep feature extraction is executed via RBM, and oil spill regions of interest are identified using K-means clustering. Ultimately, the IQGJO algorithm is employed to perform adaptive threshold optimization, along with fine segmentation of oil film targets. When benchmarked against conventional Golden Jackal Optimization (GJO) and gravity search algorithm (GSA), quantum mechanisms, along with Lévy flight perturbation, are incorporated within IQGJO. Consequently, the tendency of traditional approaches to converge toward high-gray local optima is effectively mitigated. Moreover, recognition capability for both weak-reflection and fragmented oil films is substantially enhanced. Experimental outcomes reveal that an accuracy of 99.7% is achieved by the IQGJO algorithm, representing a marked improvement over both GJO and GSA counterparts. High-precision automated segmentation of surface oil spills under intricate maritime conditions is thus enabled, while effective technical guidance is offered for radar-based oil spill surveillance and emergency response. Full article

Background: Manure-amended agricultural soil is a critical reservoir of antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs), posing escalating threats to environmental health and food safety. However, the temporal trajectories of ARG prevalence throughout the complete reproductive cycle of cash crops, and their mechanistic linkages with fertilization regimes and microbial community succession, remain inadequately understood. Methods: To bridge this knowledge gap, we conducted an in situ field experiment over the entire growth period of Chinese cabbage at a long-term manure-amended farm in Tianjin, China. Six contrasting fertilization strategies were evaluated: unfertilized control (CK1), unfertilized baseline control (CK2), traditional full-rate combined manure–chemical fertilization (TF), traditional half-rate combined manure–chemical fertilization (T1), half-dose sole manure fertilizer (T2), and half-dose sole chemical fertilizer only (T3). Results: Our results demonstrated that ARG abundance and associated mobile genetic elements (MGEs) exhibited a pronounced transient surge immediately post-fertilization, yet reverted to baseline levels by harvest, revealing a tangible resilience of the soil resistome. Notably, the optimized half-organic fertilization (T2) effectively curtailed the proliferation of manure-derived pathogenic taxa while preserving beneficial keystone phyla (e.g., Acidobacteria and Proteobacteria), indicating a trade-off between nutrient provisioning and ecological filtering. Co-occurrence network analysis further identified MB-A2-108, Saccharimonadales, and Rokubacteriales as pivotal hosts for multidrug-resistant ARGs, underscoring that microbial interspecific interactions—rather than taxonomic richness alone—are the primary drivers of resistome succession. Quantitative risk assessment confirmed that the T2 regimen reduced the composite ARG contamination index (CF_zone) by 25% relative to conventional full fertilization (TF), while maintaining comparable cabbage yields. Conclusions: Collectively, our findings advocate for precision organic fertilization as a nature-based solution that synchronizes nutrient supply with crop demand, curtails ARG propagation, and mitigates long-term agroecological risks. Full article

Ecological corridors can promote regional integration, socio-economic development, and biodiversity conservation by enhancing cross-border connectivity. The Nepal–China Himalayan Corridor (NCHC), a strategic component of the Belt and Road Initiative, traverses an ecologically fragile and disaster-prone mountain region where infrastructure development, local livelihoods, and ecological sustainability need to be balanced. This study combines Q-methodology with the lens of imaginaries to examine stakeholder perspectives on SDG-oriented development pathways for the NCHC. Five major factors were identified: sustainable green infrastructure development, Himalayan climate adaptive capacity, inclusive growth through bilateral collaboration, trans-Himalayan multi-dimensional connectivity through viable projects, and local capacity building through transnational policy transformation. These factors reveal different stakeholder priorities and the synergies and trade-offs among SDGs in corridor development. The findings highlight the importance of multi-stakeholder cooperation and differentiated development pathways for advancing sustainable corridor development in fragile transboundary mountain regions. Full article

While continuously promoting agricultural water-saving and efficiency improvement, Ningxia is confronted with problems such as deepening groundwater tables and growing ecological vulnerability. Exploring the trade-off relationships and their evolutionary characteristics between socioeconomic development and water resource carrying capacity, as well as between water use efficiency improvement and groundwater-ecosystem maintenance, is of great significance for coordinated water resource governance in arid irrigation districts. Based on time-series data covering 2000–2024, this paper establishes a DPSIR evaluation model and constructs a progressive quantitative analytical framework coupling the entropy-weight-Tapio decoupling, rate-scissors difference and PLS-SEM models. During the study period, the growth rate of the response (R) dimension (13.76%) was far higher than that of the state (S) dimension (3.23%) from 2011 to 2020, confirming the objective existence of dual trade-offs. The two categories of trade-offs underwent a three-stage evolution of “latent-intensified-remediation”, showing the counter-intuitive feature of “effective total-volume control alongside continuous groundwater table deepening”. Hidden transmission barriers were identified for 2008–2016 (θ₁, θ₂ dropped to 0.46–1.32°): the transfer of water-saving dividends to industry caused groundwater extraction to rise rather than fall to a certain extent. PLS-SEM analysis reveals that structural lock-in acts as the core inhibiting factor for ecological protection. The total effect of socioeconomic development on ecology reaches 0.921, whereas structural lock-in produces a chained negative mediating effect of −0.192 by suppressing water use efficiency. Improvement in water use efficiency presents dual characteristics of overall ecological gain and localized groundwater-recharge loss. It can be concluded that engineering-only water-saving measures cannot balance water-intake reduction and recharge deficits. It is necessary to simultaneously advance low-water-consumption cropping-pattern restructuring, rigid enforcement of the 2.5 m ecological groundwater table threshold, and the substitution mechanism for saved-water volume between industry and agriculture, so as to build a coordinated “water-saving-recharge-ecology” regulation system. Full article

Open-pit coal mining in arid and desert regions causes extensive and persistent surface disturbance, yet long-term monitoring of disturbance and backfilling processes remains challenging. Existing time-series change detection approaches can identify spectral changes but provide limited information on mining disturbance types and their evolution pathways. To address this issue, an automated surface disturbance detection method (Auto-SD) was developed for open-pit coal mines in arid and desert environments. This method integrates disturbance-type identification and temporal information extraction using the tasseled cap brightness (TCB) component to characterize changes associated with surface material exposure and accumulation. Using Landsat imagery from 1990 to 2023, Auto-SD was applied to 89 open-pit coal mines in China’s arid and desert regions, achieving an overall classification accuracy of 0.84. The cumulative disturbed area reached 423.10 km², while the internal dumping area reached 94.25 km², indicating limited backfilling recovery. Disturbance intensified after 2006, whereas backfilling lagged behind, forming a trajectory of rapid expansion, delayed recovery, and gradual stabilization. Spatially, mining areas exhibited a progressive transition from external dumping to internal dumping and backfilling. Furthermore, cumulative pit area generally followed an S-shaped growth pattern with mining duration. These findings provide new insights into long-term mining landscape evolution and support ecological restoration assessment and sustainable resource management in arid mining regions. Full article

The rapid growth of rural e-commerce is reshaping rural development, yet its implications for territorial sustainability remain unclear. Using panel data from 1503 Chinese counties from 2014 to 2022, the effects of Taobao Village development and the mechanism of territorial sustainability are examined through causal, spatial, and mechanism analyses. The results show the following: (1) Taobao Village development significantly improves territorial sustainability, with stronger effects observed in central and northeastern China, while the impacts vary considerably across regions due to differences in economic foundations, digital infrastructure, and land-use conditions. (2) Spatial analysis reveals that the sustainability-enhancing effects of Taobao Villages are mainly localized, with no significant spillover effects to neighboring counties, indicating the constraints of existing administrative and spatial governance systems. (3) The ecological land-use change induced by Taobao Village development is characterized by quantity reduction with potential quality upgrading. The development of Taobao Village has reduced the ecological land area, but it does not mean a decline in ecological functions. The converted land may be composed of low-quality ecological plots, and the fiscal benefits driven by e-commerce and China’s land use compensation policy may maintain or enhance the overall ecological function. These findings highlight the importance of integrating digital rural development with ecological sustainability and territorial spatial governance. The study provides policy implications for promoting resilient and sustainable rural transformation through differentiated land-use strategies. Full article

Panax ginseng, a high-value medicinal plant, faces substantial yield losses due to black spot disease, while conventional chemical controls cause pesticide residues and soil ecological damage, necessitating green biocontrol strategies. Here, two antagonistic strains, Bacillus sp. WY17 and WY26, were isolated from the surface-sterilized internal root tissues of 10-year-old ginseng. Through systematic optimization of carbon/nitrogen sources, inorganic salts, and fermentation parameters (temperature, pH, agitation, inoculum size, and duration), the optimal culture conditions were established. The optimal consortium consisted of WY17 and WY26 in a 2:1 ratio (WY17:WY26 = 2:1), which achieved an antifungal inhibition rate of 84.94% against the pathogen compared to the untreated control group (pathogen only). Mechanistic investigations revealed that the crude protein extract exerted its antifungal effect by compromising the integrity of the pathogen’s cell membrane, leading to increased permeability and leakage of intra-cellular contents, and produced cell wall-degrading enzymes (chitinase and β-1,3-glucanase), thereby inhibiting mycelial growth and spore germination. In vitro efficacy tests demonstrated that this crude protein extract performed comparably to the chemical fungicide 70% mancozeb, with no statistically significant difference observed between them (p > 0.05). These findings identify a promising compound biocontrol agent derived from indigenous Bacillus strains, offering an effective and environmentally friendly alternative for managing ginseng black spot disease. Full article

The co-occurrence of microplastics (MPs) and heavy metals in agricultural ecosystems poses emerging threats, yet their combined ecotoxicological effects on crop plants remain poorly understood. To address this gap, a hydroponic exposure experiment was conducted to evaluate the individual and combined effects of 50 mg·L⁻¹ polystyrene (PS) microplastics, lead (Pb, 35 mg·L⁻¹), and cadmium (Cd, 20 mg·L⁻¹) on the phenotypic growth, biomass accumulation, and peroxidase (POD) activity of rice seedlings. The results indicated that: (1) Individual polystyrene microplastics (PS-MPs) treatment did not induce morphological inhibition; rather, it exhibited a growth-promoting trend, with a significant increase in fresh weight and a non-significant increasing trend in dry weight compared to the control. (2) The phenotypic impact of PS-MPs on the toxicity of heavy metals was element-specific. In the PS + Cd co-exposure system, microplastics significantly alleviated Cd-induced inhibition of fresh weight relative to the single Cd treatment, although this recovery effect was not observed in dry weight. Conversely, in the PS + Pb system, microplastics aggravated the phenotypic toxicity of Pb, with biomass showing a numerical decrease relative to the single Pb treatment, though the difference did not reach statistical significance. (3) The plant antioxidant system exhibited organ-specific responses to the combined stresses. Under PS + Pb co-exposure, root POD activity was significantly up-regulated while shoot POD activity was notably suppressed, revealing an asynchrony in physiological responses between roots and shoots. In contrast, the decrease in root POD activity under the PS + Cd system was consistent with phenotypic recovery in fresh weight. In conclusion, PS-MPs can significantly alter the phenotypic and physiological responses of rice seedlings to heavy metals, with the direction of modulation being element-specific. While the underlying mechanisms require further elucidation, this study provides a phenotypic and physiological basis for assessing the early ecological risks associated with the co-exposure of microplastics and heavy metals. Full article

Coastal dune fields provide important ecological and geomorphic functions, while their evolution is strongly influenced by groundwater-controlled surface moisture. However, the effects of seasonal groundwater-level fluctuations and moisture-affected sand on long-term dune development remain insufficiently represented in numerical models. In this paper, a time-varying groundwater-level field and moisture-dependent entrainment thresholds are incorporated into a real-space cellular automaton model to investigate the coupled evolution of coastal dunes and interdune lakes. The results show that rising groundwater levels reduce the wind-erodible surface area, inundate interdune depressions, and delay the growth of peak dune height. Periodic water-level fluctuations also produce a sediment storage–release cycle, in which sand is temporarily stored on inundated interdune surfaces during high-water stages and is progressively remobilized during subsequent low-water stages, while newly exposed moisture-affected sand remains subject to an elevated entrainment threshold. In addition, increasing the critical threshold shear stress within the groundwater-controlled moisture-affected layer suppresses dune development and reduces final peak dune height by approximately 8–17%. Comparison with the observed wet-season water-pond area further shows that incorporating the moisture-affected layer brings the simulated relative water-pond area closer to the observed value in the Lençóis Maranhenses dune field. Overall, the results demonstrate that groundwater regulates dune evolution through both direct inundation and an enhanced entrainment resistance of moisture-affected sand above the water table. Full article

Although asymbiotic orchid seed germination was first achieved in vitro in 1922, the prediction of germination requirements under in vitro conditions still remains complicated. To address this, we developed a machine learning framework to classify the ex situ asymbiotic germination potential of wild orchids into four discrete groups: Low (0–30%), Mid (31–50%), High (51–80%), and Max (81–100%). Models were trained on a dataset of 203 species, utilizing seed morphometrics—specifically, the embryo-to-testa (E:S) length ratio—alongside core ecological traits (subfamily, growth habit, habitat, and climate zone), as well as chemical scarification duration as a proxy of seed permeability. Validation leveraged novel germination and trait data from 26 taxa from Greece (17) and Armenia (9), published here for the first time. To mitigate class imbalance and prevent algorithmic bias toward highly germinating species, we applied inverse frequency weighting during training. Iterative testing of six algorithms revealed that the “Step 4” feature matrix (excluding climate zone and pretreatment duration) yielded the optimal predictive balance. K-Nearest Neighbor (KNN) and Support Vector Machine (SVM) emerged as the superior models, achieving overall accuracies of 44.4% and 61.1%, respectively, with both achieving 100% accuracy for low-germinating species. Finally, we synthesized a novel database compiling new seed morphometrics from Armenia (17 taxa), Greece (52 taxa), and the data from the literature (479 taxa). After filtering previously utilized species, we generated a prediction pool of 361 orchid taxa. Applying our Step 5 KNN and SVM models to forecast their germination behavior revealed distinct variations linked to ecological profiles. This high-accuracy framework, particularly for low-germinability groups, offers a powerful screening tool for ex situ conservation planning. The final trained models are compiled in the publicly available R (v. 4.6.0) package OrchidGermClass. Full article