Search Results (8,264)

Root hairs are tubular protrusions of root epidermal cells that expand the root surface area to facilitate water and nutrient uptake. The target of rapamycin (TOR) kinase has been identified as a positive regulator of root hair elongation, and the RHD6-RSL4 bHLH transcriptional cascade is well established as a core module that governs root hair morphogenesis. However, whether TOR signaling acts upstream of the RHD6-RSL4 pathway and how glucose signals are integrated into this transcriptional regulatory network during root hair development remain incompletely understood. In this study, transcriptome profiling combined with pharmacological and genetic functional assays was performed to elucidate the TOR-mediated transcriptional regulatory pathway of root hair elongation in Arabidopsis. Chemical inhibition of TOR triggered genome-wide transcriptional reprogramming in seedling roots, including disruption of auxin and ethylene signal transduction and pronounced downregulation of hundreds of genes related to root hair development. Glucose-activated TOR signaling modulates the expression of root hair-specific (RHS) genes mainly through the core RHD6-RSL4 transcriptional cascade. The transcription of RSL1–RSL5 was strongly dependent on functional TOR activity, whereas RHD6 transcript abundance was specifically induced by glucose–TOR signaling under carbon-starvation recovery conditions. Genetic overexpression of either RHD6 or RSL4 partially rescued root hair elongation defects caused by TOR suppression, confirming that the RHD6-RSL4 cascade functions as a critical downstream transcriptional module of glucose–TOR signaling. Collectively, this work establishes a transcriptional framework in which glucose–TOR signals modulate root hair elongation via transcriptional activation of the master bHLH regulators RHD6 and RSL4. Full article

Industrial symbiosis is one of the main routes for turning waste streams into useful materials and energy within a circular economy. Little empirical evidence exists, however, on how symbiosis projects are managed within a circular economy project management standard. This exploratory single-case study examines the motivations, implementation, and outcomes of symbiosis initiatives in the water sector, developed by an organisation certified under the XP X30-901 standard and covering treated water, biomethane, thermal energy, and fertiliser recovery. An externally assured indicator series for 2016 to 2025 compares the years before the portfolio was formalised in 2019 with those after certification in 2021. Sludge sent to landfill fell from 16.4% of the total managed in 2016 to zero from 2022, the share sent to agriculture and fertiliser production rose from 46.0% to 64.1% between 2019 and 2023, and the average transfer cost fell from EUR 134.34 to EUR 107.15 per tonne. The standard supported the identification, prioritisation, and monitoring of circular projects, although these outcomes cannot be attributed to it alone. Indicators exposed to hydrological, market, and regulatory conditions proved less stable than those that the organisation controls directly, suggesting that standardisation consolidates controllable outcomes rather than improving overall performance. Full article

Poly(β-L-malic acid) (PMLA) is a water-soluble, biodegradable aliphatic polyester whose pendant carboxyl groups support chemical functionalization for biomedical, packaging, and materials applications. Microbial fermentation can use pure sugars and biomass-derived carbon sources under mild conditions, but industrial translation remains constrained by feedstock cost and variability, strain performance, oxygen and pH control, pretreatment-derived inhibitors, and downstream recovery. This review therefore focuses on the fermentative production of PMLA from refined and renewable carbon sources, the microorganisms and metabolic routes involved, and the process variables that govern titer, yield, productivity, molecular weight, and purification. Agricultural and forestry feedstocks are compared according to their actual carbohydrate class and processing requirements. Bamboo shoot shell hydrolysate is treated as an emerging case study rather than an established production platform: one accepted shake-flask study directly demonstrated PMLA production by Aureobasidium pullulans NRRL Y-2311-1, but controlled bioreactor validation, reproducibility, techno-economic analysis, and application-specific product qualification remain to be further investigated. The review also examines autohydrolysis, low-molecular-weight PMLA for biomedical use, furan inhibition, membrane and ion-exchange purification, and the limits of current economic comparisons. This evidence-based framing identifies where bamboo-processing residues may contribute to renewable PMLA production while distinguishing laboratory feasibility from industrial readiness. Full article

Mine leachate and saline industrial wastewater streams are often treated as liabilities to be remediated or disposed of. These flows often contain substantial water and dissolved mineral resources that can be reclaimed. In this work, a waste-heat-assisted falling-film evaporation reactor was developed and assessed for application as a pre-concentration step before water and mineral recovery processes. Two case studies were considered: synthetic saline wastewater containing 80 g/L Na₂SO₄ and 70 g/L NaCl for salt recovery, and iron-rich mine water containing approximately 4000 mg/L Fe²⁺, 95 mg/L Fe³⁺, and 13,000 mg/L acidity as CaCO₃ for downstream pigment and magnetite recovery. Saline water or mine leachate flows down a bank of vertical conduit pipes as a thin film while air flows through the pipe cores. Heat is transferred to the system from industrial waste gas externally. Psychrometric relationships, heat transfer, energy balances, and techno-economic analysis were used to assess the impact of air temperature, conduit diameter, column height, pipe material, and waste-gas temperature on overall reactor performance. Experiments were carried out to confirm expected psychrometric operation and establish appropriate operating temperatures while confirming the impact of conduit geometry on heat-transfer characteristics. A benchmark case of design evaporation rate equal to 100 L/h was chosen for comparison of all tests. Dry air operation was shown to be technically possible but severely limited by the moisture capacity of air; at 26 °C and 101.3 kPa, approximately 205,000 m³/h of air was required. When using industrial waste heat, the operation changed from psychrometric/mass-transfer-limited to heat-transfer-controlled. Using waste gas entering at 144 °C and exiting at 80 °C reduced airflow requirements to approximately 880 m³/h, allowing a much more compact reactor design with approximately 635 (12 mm diameter) conduit pipes. Relative to the 40 °C air benchmark, electrical power was reduced from approximately 24.7 kW to 2.9 kW, and screening-level reactor cost by ~84%. Findings demonstrated that appropriate waste heat enables the application of evaporation if there is sufficient local heat flux. Smaller conduit diameters, sufficient column height, and greater waste-gas inlet temperatures were all beneficial. Choice of material required trade-offs between heat-transfer coefficient, corrosion, and material cost. Full article

The increasing generation of spent Ni-rich layered cathodes creates an urgent demand for efficient lithium recovery and value-added reutilisation of transition-metal components. An MnSO₄·H₂O-assisted rapid thermal reconstruction route coupled with water leaching was developed for selective lithium recovery from spent NCM811 cathodes. At an MnSO₄·H₂O-to-NCM811 mass ratio of 0.9:1, an applied current of 30 A, and a treatment duration of 20 s, the layered structure was converted into water-soluble lithium sulfates and transition-metal-rich oxides. Water leaching at 20 °C for 20 min achieved a stage lithium-leaching recovery of 99.12%, with limited dissolution of Ni, Co, and Mn. The combined aqueous stream contained 0.42 g L⁻¹ Li. After concentration and CO₂ carbonation, Li₂CO₃ was obtained with a precipitation efficiency of 90.6% and a purity of 99.52 wt.%, corresponding to an overall lithium recovery of 88.7%. Elemental-balance closures were 98.6–99.6% for Li, Ni, Co, Mn, and S. The regenerated cathode LiNi_0.54Co_0.07Mn_0.39O₂ delivered 95.2 mAh g⁻¹ after 150 cycles at 0.2 C. These results demonstrate integrated lithium recovery and transition-metal reutilisation from spent Ni-rich cathodes. Full article

Pulsed electric field (PEF) technology was used as a green extraction method for the simultaneous recovery of starch and polyphenols from acorns using water as extraction solvent, and the gelatinization properties of the extracted starch were compared with those of a starch obtained via alkaline extraction. Results showed that the electric field intensity had a significant negative quadratic effect on the antioxidant activity and hydrolyzable tannin content, whereas it had a positive quadratic effect on the starch yields. Time had no significant effect on the starch yields but had a negative quadratic effect on the phenolic and hydrolyzable tannin contents and antioxidant activity. The extraction condition that allowed the highest starch and polyphenol contents with the greatest antioxidant activity was 0.1 kV/cm for 63.3 µs, with a desirability of 87%. In comparison to alkaline extraction, PEF increased tannin extraction by 11-fold, highlighting its potential to produce tannin-rich extracts suitable for leather manufacture. Although the starch yield was 30% lower than that obtained via alkaline extraction, the PEF-isolated starch is a cleaner and safer ingredient for human consumption. The alkaline starch had a significantly higher solubility than the PEF-isolated starch, but both had similar swelling power. Full article

High carbonate alkalinity (CA) is a major constraint on shrimp culture in saline–alkaline waters. The hepatopancreas is central to shrimp immunity and metabolic regulation. Litopenaeus vannamei underwent a 7-day exposure period to 5 mmol/L CA, followed by a subsequent 7-day recovery phase after removal of the stressor. The physiological regulatory mechanism of the hepatopancreas during CA stress and recovery was investigated by integrating multiple biological levels including histomorphology, antioxidant and immune indices, energy metabolism, and metabolite profiles. Results showed that CA stress induced structural changes in the hepatopancreas and triggered stress responses. Specifically, a significant upregulation was observed in genes involved in antioxidation (romo1, nrf2, gpx, hsp70), apoptosis (casp-9, casp-3), endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress (ire1, xbp1), immune defense (alf, crus, pen-3, lys, propo), and detoxification (cyp450). CA stress also increased osmoregulatory genes (ccp, nhe, ca, aqp, vatp, nka-β, nka-α), whereas clc and tip4 were suppressed. CA stress reduced the levels of energy-metabolism-related biochemical indicators, including glucose (GLU), pyruvic acid (PYR), lactic acid (LAC) and triglycerides (TG), while markedly inducing the expression of genes involved in carbohydrate metabolism (ldh, pdh, hk, pk), lipid metabolism (ampk, srebp, fas), the tricarboxylic acid (TCA) cycle (mdh, cs, idh, odh, sdh, fh), and the electron transport chain (ETC) (ndh, cytc, coi, cco, atph). Moreover, the hepatopancreatic metabolic profile was remodeled, especially “phenylalanine, tyrosine and tryptophan biosynthesis” and the metabolism of β-alanine, arachidonic acid, linoleic acid, and sphingolipids being substantially altered during both the stress and recovery phases. Several functional metabolites linked to stress responses were further pinpointed. Following stress relief, some physiological parameters partially recovered, yet overall function failed to return to normal. Collectively, CA stress compromised hepatopancreatic homeostasis by damaging morphological integrity, eliciting stress and immune responses, and perturbing energy metabolism and metabolite homeostasis; these adverse effects were not readily reversible in the short term. Full article

Sudden tailings dam breaches trigger large-scale heavy metal compound pollution in coupled surface water–groundwater systems, requiring systematic full-cycle ecological damage quantification tools applicable to diverse contamination types. This study constructs an integrated full-cycle ecological damage assessment framework for sudden water pollution accidents, integrating three core modules: multi-model pollutant migration prediction, multi-scale aquatic biological damage diagnosis, and three-dimensional ecological-economic loss accounting. The framework adopts a modular design that can potentially accommodate heavy metals (Cd, Cr, As, Pb) and organic pollutants such as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), with standardized molecular, individual, and population-level biological endpoints and corresponding pollutant dose–response templates reserved as reference calculation modules. However, applicability beyond this case has not been validated and requires case-specific calibration. To verify the operability and accuracy of the proposed integrated system, a typical tailings dam leakage incident dominated by hexavalent chromium (Cr(VI)) and arsenic (As) pollution was selected as the practical validation case; all field monitoring, pollutant simulation, and final economic loss quantification in this case exclusively rely on on-site measured Cr(VI) and As data, while Cd and PAH-related biological response curves and remediation cost formulas retained in the manuscript only serve as illustrative universal template components of the framework rather than case-measured results. For the Cr(VI)/As pollution case, the advection–diffusion model simulation revealed that the Cr(VI) contamination plume horizontally spread 250 m within 48 h and extended to 560 m after seven days, and anaerobic groundwater environments drove the transformation of toxic mobile trivalent arsenic (As(III)) from primary pentavalent arsenic. The calibrated SWAT model achieved Nash–Sutcliffe efficiency (NSE) coefficients of 0.75 for dissolved Cr(VI) and 0.68 for particulate As. The graph theory-based rapid prediction model cut computation duration down to minutes; when validated against independent field monitoring data, it yielded an average relative error of 14.2%, and its consistency with the SWAT model reached 10.5% relative deviation, satisfying the accuracy requirement for emergency early warning. Field biological monitoring demonstrated substantial ecological impairment: metallothionein (MT) expression in fish tissues was markedly elevated (the reported 6.2-fold induction value derives from standard Cd exposure template tests within the framework, with analogous MT upregulation also observed for field Cr(VI)/As co-stress), and benthic community Shannon diversity declined by over 50% in polluted river reaches. The standardized Ecological Damage Index (EDI) of the case was calculated as 480.2, indicating severe aquatic ecosystem damage, with total comprehensive ecological and economic losses reaching 17.25 million CNY. This study innovatively couples high-precision physical transport models with fast emergency prediction algorithms and establishes a complete multi-tier biological indicator chain linking molecular biomarkers to community integrity metrics; the three-dimensional loss accounting system integrating ecosystem service impairment, restoration expenditure, and post-pollution recovery loss realizes closed-loop full-cycle damage evaluation. The proposed framework, demonstrated for Cr(VI) and As pollution, has a modular design that may potentially be extended to other pollutants such as Cd and PAHs by adjusting model parameters, providing a quantitative reference for emergency disposal, pollution remediation, and ecological compensation of water contamination accidents, although further validation across different pollutants and hydrological settings is required. Full article

Reverse osmosis (RO) desalination is a major technology for freshwater production in arid regions, but its energy demand becomes more challenging when the system is supplied by variable renewable energy. This study presents an offline digital-twin-assisted decision-support framework for dynamic RO under Kuwait solar-availability conditions. Within this framework, the predictive models are driven primarily by the dynamic RO process variables, while NASA Prediction Of Worldwide Energy Resources (POWER) data provide the Kuwait solar-availability context, and the PV power margin serves as a scenario-level energy indicator. The purpose is to predict instantaneous permeate flow rate, estimate specific energy consumption, and identify energy-efficient operating conditions using machine learning. Kuwait City was used as the solar case-study location. Hourly solar and meteorological data were obtained from NASA POWER, while dynamic RO membrane data were obtained from the open experimental wave desalination dataset published by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) through Data.gov and the Marine and Hydrokinetic Data Repository. The RO dataset includes steady-state, ramp, sinusoidal, and Wave Energy Converter SIMulator (WEC-Sim) pressure/flow experiments. The process-flow image used in the system description was also taken from the same NREL dataset and is cited in the figure caption. The raw RO files were cleaned, harmonized, and transformed into a process-informed modeling dataset. Derived features included pressure rate, recovery ratio, salt rejection, estimated pump power, specific energy consumption (SEC), PV power margin, and rolling pressure/flow features. Three supervised regression models were tested: Gradient Boosting, Random Forest, and XGBoost. A representative subset of 60,000 records was used to preserve the main experimental conditions while reducing redundancy in the densely sampled sequential data. Results show that permeate flow rate can be predicted with high accuracy using Gradient Boosting (R² = 0.981; RMSE = 0.161 L/min). The moderate energy prediction performance yielded an R² of 0.654 and RMSE of 7.570 kWh/m³ for Random Forest. The accuracy of permeate conductivity predictions was lower (R² = 0.257; RMSE = 245.44 µS/cm) because membrane and feed characterizing parameters should be included for an adequate water quality control. The proposed approach is best suited as an offline decision-support framework for dynamic RO process analysis. Full article

Floating plastic pellets spread rapidly after marine spills, reducing the efficiency of surface recovery. This study models floating pellet transport using advection, turbulent diffusion, Stokes drift, and particle loss, and quantifies patch expansion during the first $72\mathrm{h}$. Preliminary experiments with popcorn and styrofoam particles showed no lifting from the water surface under the tested conditions, indicating that wind moves light particles along the surface rather than into the air. A two-dimensional diffusion calculation was initialized with a $5650{\mathrm{m}}^2$ patch associated with a $28{\mathrm{m}}^3$ spill. Under constant diffusivity, the lower and upper cases reached $2.50$ and $6.00{\mathrm{km}}^2$ after $24\mathrm{h}$, followed by projected areas of $4.99$ and $11.99{\mathrm{km}}^2$ after $48\mathrm{h}$. Across diffusion coefficients of $0.5$–$2.0{\mathrm{m}}^2/\mathrm{s}$, the calculated $48\mathrm{h}$ area ranged from $3.26$ to $13.02{\mathrm{km}}^2$. These estimates describe how the patch may expand under the selected diffusion conditions and show that the area requiring surveillance and recovery may increase sharply within two days. The Python code used to generate the numerical results is provided to support reproducibility. Full article

Phycobiliproteins are water-soluble photosynthetic pigments extracted mainly from microalgae and cyanobacteria with many potential biotechnological applications, such as healthy food colorants, nutraceuticals, fluorescent tags, or non-toxic therapeutic agents. We have recently devised a green innovative two-step ultrasound-based process (named UltraBlu) to obtain blue phycocyanin (a phycobiliprotein) with a high-purity grade from the cyanobacterium Limnospira platensis. To assess the possibility of a wider use of the method, this study evaluates the UltraBlu process on an organism of a different taxonomic domain, the red microalga Porphyridium cruentum, for extracts rich in B-phycoerythrin (B-PE), the main phycobiliprotein produced by this organism. The UltraBlu process is characterized by the extraction of phycobiliproteins decoupled from biomass cell lysis, although the process is entirely carried out in an aqueous medium. Conversely, cell lysis is integrated with the purification step and is carried out by ultrasonication in ammonium sulfate solution before the pigment extraction/recovery step. B-PE, significantly purer than that obtained via conventional one-step direct ultrasound-assisted extraction, was recovered within a few hours from fresh biomass, only isolating the B-PE extract from the leftover biomass by centrifugation. Yields generally exceeded 9%, approaching the highest pigment contents reported for P. cruentum in the literature. Full article

Complex narrow-channel reservoirs are strongly constrained by depositional architecture, resulting in highly nonuniform areal waterflood sweep, and pronounced water-cut variations among different channel types. These characteristics pose substantial challenges to stabilizing oil production and controlling water cut at high water-cut stages. To elucidate how narrow-channel planform architecture controls waterflood sweep, gel-assisted flow-field regulation by heterogeneous-phase composite flooding (HPCF), and remaining-oil mobilization, three representative configurations were reproduced in two-dimensional visual physical models. Sequential waterflood–HPCF–post-waterflood experiments were conducted, and time-lapse images and dynamic production data were integrated to characterize sweep evolution and remaining-oil mobilization across displacement stages. The results demonstrate that narrow-channel architecture exerts primary control on preferential flow-path development, gel migration and retention, spatial fluid redistribution, and displacement performance. During waterflooding, injected water preferentially migrated through high-permeability zones along channel centerlines, leaving channel margins, branch termini, and poorly connected regions insufficiently swept. After HPCF injection, the gel-containing composite system preferentially entered the established dominant flow paths. Gel retention and accumulation selectively increased flow resistance in these pathways, while mobility control induced subsequent fluids to divert toward bypassed regions, thereby enlarging the macroscopic swept volume and improving local displacement efficiency. A low injection rate promoted sustained gel-assisted flow diversion within bifurcated channels, whereas a high injection rate facilitated gel-slug propagation against the geometric constraints of highly sinuous channels and expanded its spatial coverage. Compared with waterflooding alone, HPCF increased the ultimate oil recovery of the three channel models by 19.23–26.47 percentage points. These findings clarify the coupled effects of narrow-channel architecture, gel transport and injection parameters on the profile-control and oil-recovery performance of HPCF, providing a mechanistic basis for water control and development optimization in high-water-cut narrow-channel reservoirs. Full article

Extreme drought events have become increasingly frequent under ongoing climatic change, thereby constraining vegetation growth and altering ecosystem processes. Vegetation recovery time following drought plays a crucial role in ecosystem stability, and extensive studies have been conducted to quantify vegetation recovery. However, most studies estimate vegetation recovery time using a single vegetation index, which does not adequately reflect how vegetation responds to drought conditions, since different vegetation indicators reflect different facets of vegetation dynamics. In this study, multiple vegetation indicators, including Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI), Leaf Area Index (LAI), Gross Primary Productivity (GPP), and Solar-Induced Chlorophyll Fluorescence (SIF), were applied to investigate post-drought vegetation recovery in the Yangtze River Basin (YRB). The findings reveal that: (1) most vegetation recovered within four months after drought, with one-month recovery being the most prevalent, followed by four-month recovery; (2) the average recovery times derived from EVI, LAI, NDVI, GPP, and SIF were 2.23, 1.62, 2.45, 2.79, and 2.00 months respectively; (3) forests exhibited the fastest recovery rates, whereas shrublands recovered the slowest. This study assesses post-drought vegetation status via the recovery duration, offers theoretical basis for water resource allocation optimization, and provides important reference for coping with future ecological risks. Full article

The tight sandstone gas reservoir in Qingshimao gas field has the characteristics of complex gas–water distribution, low reservoir quality, low porosity, low permeability and high water saturation. Single-well productivity is low, the production and pressure decrease rapidly, the stable production period is short and economically viable development remains challenging. Therefore, considering the reservoir physical properties and development characteristics of the Qingshimao area, physical experiments and numerical simulations were conducted to investigate the reserve utilization characteristics of complex tight water-bearing gas reservoirs and to evaluate the effectiveness of CO₂ injection in restoring reservoir pressure and enhancing gas recovery after depletion. The results show that: (1) The movable-water saturation of Type I and Type II reservoirs ranged from 2 to 18% and 3–21%, respectively, while increasing water saturation reduced cumulative gas production and increased gas-flow resistance. Type III and Type IV reservoirs are limited by low permeability and fine pore throat. The movable-water saturation is less than 8% and 6% respectively under high water saturation conditions, and the gas–water flow is obviously limited. (2) Both continuous CO₂ injection and post-injection soaking can promote residual-gas recovery after depletion. Post-injection soaking prolongs the contact time between CO₂ and residual methane, whereas fractured cores exhibit more rapid pressure recovery but earlier CO₂ breakthrough. (3) Pore scale and two-dimensional visualization experiments show that after CO₂ injection, the pressure is transferred from the injection inlet to the production outlet, and the depleted low-pressure area is supplemented. The incremental recovery factor of the two-dimensional models after CO₂ injection ranged from 22.81 to 25.28 percentage points. (4) The numerical simulation results show that permeability, water saturation, and the injection and production rates jointly control pressure restoration and gas recovery during CO₂ injection. The high-permeability reservoir achieves a higher recovery factor but experiences earlier CO₂ breakthrough. High water saturation and high injection and production rates will weaken the effective sweep. In field application, the layers with good connectivity and moderate water saturation should be preferred, and the injection and production rates should be reasonably controlled to reduce the risk of gas channeling. Overall, post-depletion CO₂ injection can effectively restore reservoir pressure, mobilize residual methane, and enhance gas recovery in tight water-bearing gas reservoirs. The experimental results support post-depletion CO₂ injection as a potential approach for improving the development performance of tight water-bearing gas reservoirs. Full article

Since the implementation of the Grain-for-Green Program (GGP), vegetation across the Loess Plateau (LP) has substantially recovered. However, whether the associated increase in ecosystem carbon gain was accompanied by a proportional increase in water consumption and whether groundwater storage changed synchronously remain unclear. This study integrated multi-source remote sensing products, GLDAS-Noah land-surface assimilation data, GRACE/GRACE-FO satellite gravimetry, irrigation water-use data, provincial water-use statistics, and coal-resource information to examine long-term changes in gross primary productivity (GPP), evapotranspiration (ET), water-use efficiency (WUE), soil moisture (SM), and groundwater storage anomaly (GWSA) during 2002–2023. GPP increased significantly by 10.67 g C m⁻² yr⁻¹ ($p<0.01$), whereas ET increased more modestly by 1.97 mm yr⁻¹ ($p<0.05$). The relative growth rate of GPP (1.66%) was approximately 3.5 times that of ET (0.47%), and WUE increased by 0.018 g C m⁻² mm⁻¹ yr⁻¹ ($p<0.01$). In the XGBoost–SHAP models for 2004–2019, LAI showed the strongest model-based association with GPP and WUE, whereas ET was associated more broadly with LAI, air temperature, and precipitation. SM declined during 2002–2015 but showed an increasing tendency during 2016–2023, particularly in the middle and deep layers. The long-term GWSA slopes derived from CSR and JPL were −8.707 and −9.505 mm yr⁻¹, respectively, and the averaged CSR–JPL GWSA series showed a Sen’s slope of −9.131 mm yr⁻¹. GWSA declined during 2002–2020 and showed only a short-term, nonsignificant increase during 2020–2023 (4.110 mm yr⁻¹, $p>0.05$). These contrasting trajectories indicate that increases in surface carbon uptake and improvements in soil-water conditions were not accompanied by synchronous regional groundwater recovery. Overall, the ecological-restoration period was accompanied by increased carbon gain and WUE without a proportional increase in regional ET, while groundwater storage followed a distinct trajectory. These findings provide regional-scale evidence and a quantitative basis for coordinating sustainable water-resource management with ecological-restoration optimization on the LP. Full article