It is of great significance for regional ecological construction to grasp the dynamic change characteristics of ecosystem service value (ESV) and clarify the evolution trend of its leading factors. Based on the remote sensing interpretation data of 2005, 2010, 2015 and 2019, the characteristics of ESV dynamic changes in Hubei Province were analyzed using the equivalent factor method and spatial statistical tools. Furthermore, the random forest model was used to clarify the dominant factors of ESV, and the spatio-temporal weighted regression model was further used to explore the dominant factors. The results show that (1) the amount of ESV in Hubei Province from 2005 to 2019 decreased by 124.31×10⁸ yuan, but the ESV’s decreasing rate at 2005-2010 decreased from 1.14% to 0.57% during 2015-2019. Over the years, ESVs presented a distribution feature of “higher in the surrounding and lower in the middle”. During the study period, ESV in 83.4% regions fluctuated slightly and presented at a stable spatial distribution. (2) The results of random forest sequencing showed that social and economic factors were more important to ESV, followed by natural factors. The most important factors were human activity (60.16%), net primary productivity (50.66%), annual rainfall (46.85%), gross regional product density (34.00%), population density (29.53%) and construction land proportion (29.36%), respectively, and the topographic and temperature ranked behind of them. The results of the importance of ESV leading factors changes showed that factors increased in varying degrees, except the human activities and precipitation. (3) The strength and fluctuation trends of the dominant factors for ESV in different regions varied. Human activities had the strongest driving effect on ESV, showing a global negative correlation, which was most obvious in western Hubei. The positive impact area of net primary productivity was mainly located in the east of Enshi County, the west of Yichang City and the west of Shiyan City. The negative impact of annual rainfall was gradually stabilized in the Jianghan Plain. The fluctuation trends of population density and GDP density in the Three Gorges and Danjiangkou reservoir areas diverged since 2010. The fluctuation trend of the proportion of construction land was positive at west and negative at east. The research results can provide a theoretical basis for the formulation of ecological protection policies and sustainable development in Hubei Province.

Soil microbial community structure and diversity of potato rhizosphere and non-rhizosphere were studied by using Illumina-MiSeq high-throughput sequencing technologies (soil becteria, 16S rDNA gene; soil fungi, 18 s rDNA gene), and then explore the relationships between soil microbial community structure and diversity and soil nutrients, providing theoretical data for the healthily planting potato. The results showed that: (1) The pH of potato in rhizosphere soil was significantly lower than that of non-rhizosphere (P<0.05), and the conductivity, organic carbon, available nitrogen and available phosphorus of rhizosphere soil were significantly higher than that of non-rhizosphere (P<0.05), while the difference between total phosphorus and non-rhizosphere soil was not significant (P>0.05). (2) The richness index of bacteria and fungi, shannon-wiener index, ACE index and Chao 1 index in potato rhizosphere soil were significantly higher than those in non-rhizosphere soil (P<0.05). However, there were no significant difference in the coverage, uniformity and Simpson index between the rhizosphere and the non-rhizosphere (P>0.05). (3) The dominant soil bacterial phylum in rhizosphere and non-rhizosphere soil were Proteobacteria, Acidobacteria, Gemmatimonadetes, followed by Planctomycetaceae, Actinobacteria, Bacteroidetes, Firmicutes, Chloroflexi, Verrucomicrobia. The relative abundance of Acidobacteria in rhizosphere was higher than non-rhizosphere soil, while the relative abundance of Proteobacteria in rhizosphere was lower than non-rhizosphere soil. Similarly, the dominant soil fungal phylum in rhizosphere and non-rhizosphere soil were Ascomycota and Basidiomycota, followed by Zygomycota, Chytridiomycota, Neocallimastigomycota, Glomeromycota, Blastocladiomycota. (4) Principal component analysis (PCA) analysis showed that bacterial and fungal communities of potato in rhizosphere and non-rhizosphere soil had good similarity, and bacterial communities in rhizosphere and non-rhizosphere had obvious separation effect. Pearson correlation analysis showed that there was no significant correlation between soil bacteria and fungus Coverage and ACE and soil nutrients (P>0.05). Soil pH was negatively correlated with soil bacterial and fungal diversity, while soil electrical conductivity and total phosphorus were not significantly correlated with soil bacterial and fungal diversity (P>0.05). And (5) redundancy analysis showed that 7 soil environmental factors explained 86% of the total characteristic values of bacteria and 82% of fungi, respectively, indicating that soil environmental factors had a significant impact on the diversity of bacteria and fungi in potato soil. Among them, SOC and TN had great influence on soil bacterial and fungal diversity, while pH had negative influence on soil bacterial and fungal diversity.

Grassland is the largest terrestrial ecosystem, which possesses extremely important production and ecological functions. Long-term overutilization and climate change, however, have contributed to degradations of grassland ecosystems worldwide. The natural restoration of degraded grasslands takes long time, and manipulating practices could be indispensable to accelerate the restoration. Although grassland ecological restorations have been studied for several decades in China, the phenomenon of degradation-restoration-re-degradation-re-restoration is common, and grassland degradation has not been comprehensively improved due to the ecological functions have not been paid enough attention. Lately, ecological priority and green development are emphasized, and more attention has been paid to grassland protection and ecological restoration. Restoration of degraded grassland ecosystems is a major problem and daunting task to be solved urgently in China. To provide scientific references for the ecological restoration of degraded grasslands, we reviewed the researches of grassland ecological restoration, as well as the main practical and policy measures. Restoration effects, limiting factors and existing shortcomings of different practical measures (no-tillage sowing, rational grazing, artificial pasture establishment, fence enclosure, tillage and fertilization) were also assessed. On these bases, research directions and suggestions for the grassland ecological restoration in the future were put forth: (1) To establish a modern grass husbandry system and management pattern to fundamentally solve the contradiction between grass and livestock is the prime way to tackle the grassland degradation and ecological restoration; (2) To improve the grassland degradation classification and grading system to provide theoretical bases for ecological restoration; (3) To strengthen the development and utilization of native grass germplasms and soil microorganisms to provide material support for ecological restoration; (4) To break through the theoretical and technical bottlenecks to restore the grasslands full of poisonous weeds; (5) To build a region-classification-grade theoretical and technical system and evaluation system of ecological restoration. Grassland ecological restoration is a complicated, transdisciplinary and systematic engineering, and the key is to strengthen multi-field cooperation.

The ecological security pattern is the basis for ensuring regional ecological security and an important means for human beings to maintain green, healthy, and sustainable development. Under the background of increasingly prominent global ecological problems, the ecological security pattern has become a hot area of ecosystem research. Strengthening the study of ecological security pattern is of great significance for maintaining the integrity of the ecosystem structure and function, protecting biodiversity, ensuring regional ecological security, and improving human well-being. Based on “conceptual analyses, fundamental framework, research progress and prospects”, this article comprehensively and systematically reviewed research results on ecological security patterns at home and abroad. The following conclusions were drawn after summarizing the research methods, scales, and contents in the literature: (1) The basic research framework of "source identification-resistance surface construction-corridor extraction" needs to be developed; (2) the identification of ecological source areas lacks a unified scientific standard, and the relationship between supply and demand of ecosystem services has not been considered; (3) the extraction method of ecological corridor needs to be further optimized; (4) there is a lack of consideration of the interrelationship between geospatial linkage and ecosystem functions; (5) The research on the coupling relationship between natural ecosystems and socio-economic systems is relatively weak. Future research may focus on the following aspects: (1) integrated research of multi-model, multi-method, and multi-technology; (2) quantitative research on dynamic consideration of ecological safety standards; (3) realistic implementation research of the game of interests of all parties; (4) research on ecological security prediction, early warning, and regulation management; (5) research on the construction of ecological security patterns serving national strategies.

Regional resources and environment carrying capacity evaluation is an important way to comprehensively measure the coordination between regional population, resources and environment, and the sustainable development of regional economy. It is of great significance to fully understand the research progress of regional resources and environment carrying capacity evaluation for guiding the future research direction. By focusing on the basic theory of resources and environment carrying capacity, the selection of evaluation methods, the construction of index system and empirical research, the domestic and foreign research results of regional resources and environment carrying capacity evaluation are sorted out, the basic theoretical research of regional resources and environment carrying capacity is less, its theoretical system has not yet formed; the limitation of single evaluation method; complex and lack of quantitative basis in index selection; the lack of attention to spatial scale diversity and regional openness in the empirical study of regional resources and environment carrying capacity evaluation. The main problems that need to be solved in the future research include: defining the definition, connotation and extension, essential characteristics, constituent elements, carrying mechanism and evolution mechanism of regional resources and environment carrying capacity, constructing theoretical analysis framework; the combination of qualitative and quantitative evaluation methods, focusing on the introduction of GIS geospatial technology methods for analysis; designing targeted and more scientific and reasonable evaluation indicators of regional resources and environment carrying capacity based on the actual situation of regional resources and environment system; to establish a dynamic monitoring platform, real-time monitoring and analysis of regional and inter regional resources and environment.

As important health care resources, beneficial biogenic volatile organic compounds (BVOCs) released by plants not only help enhance human immunity, regulate emotions, and treat chronic diseases, but also play multiple roles in improving atmospheric environmental quality, global ecosystem, and global carbon cycle balance. Therefore, research on BVOCs has important practical values. Traditionally, the selection and allocation of plants in urban gardens and greenspaces are usually determined based on their environmental adaptability, disease and insect resistance, and the ability to purify and beautify the environment, but their chemical ecological effect is seldom taken into account. Moreover, the benefits of BVOCs released by garden plants for the environment and human health are usually ignored. Based on a large body of domestic and foreign literature, this study summarized and described the components of beneficial volatile organic compounds (i.e., olefins, esters, aldehydes, ketones, alcohols, organic acids and others), release time dynamics, influencing factors, applications, and controversies on this topic. The study identified the specific types of beneficial volatile organic compounds of different categories released by plants and their corresponding health effects. In addition, most studies on the temporal variation of BVOCs released from plants focused on the entire or various species, but few on beneficial components. Beneficial components of BVOCs have specific temporal variabilities. The number of species or the content of beneficial BVOCs released by coniferous species is greater than that released by broadleaf species. Most plants have different characteristics of beneficial BVOCs, and the release of beneficial BVOCs by plants at different growth stages is dynamic in nature. At present, temperature, light and relative humidity are the main environmental factors affecting the release of beneficial volatile organic compounds from plants. Due to the powerful physiological activity of BVOCs, it is easy for them to react with other compounds in the atmosphere, especially atmospheric pollutants that produce substances harmful for human health or the ecological environment. The study provides a strong theoretical basis for scientific selection and allocation of greening and healthy tree species in Beijing and even northern cities, and for the establishment of an ‘ecological and health-promoting urban green space’. Furthermore, the study informs the selection of appropriate times for doing outdoor health activities that are beneficial for one’s health.

Rice is an important part of the food system in China and the world. It is of great significance to study the life cycle carbon footprint of rice food system from the perspective of food system for low-carbon transformation and green development. Based on statistics from 22 major rice-producing provinces in China in 2018, the cradle-to-market carbon footprint of Rice food systems in China, including its structural composition, regional differences and rice type differences was calculated and analyzed by using the life cycle assessment (LCA) method and the CF-Rice rice carbon footprint calculation tool developed by the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI). The results showed that 1) when comparing carbon footprint per unit production (CO₂ eq), the carbon footprint was in the order of late indica rice (2.31 kg?kg^-1), middle indica rice (1.32 kg?kg^-1), japonica rice (1.13 kg?kg^-1) and early indica rice (1.08 kg?kg^-1). When comparing carbon footprint per unit area (CO₂ eq), the carbon footprint was in the order of late indica rice (9.15×10³ kg?hm^-2), middle indica rice (6.34×10³ kg?hm^-2), japonica rice (5.56×10³ kg?hm^-2) and early indica rice (4.16×10³ kg?hm^-2); 2) Methane (CH₄) in paddy field was the most important component of the carbon footprint of rice food system, accounting for 36.2%-71.5%, followed by fertilization (8.69%-20.0%), harvest (8.41%-18.5%) and prenatal (4.97%-12.1%). Mechanical operations, storage, processing, packaging and transportation, although only accounting for less than 10%, were also significant sources of emissions; 3) early indica rice, middle indica rice and late indica rice showed no obvious spatial distribution pattern, while the main producing areas of japonica rice had a large spatial span and showed an increasing trend of carbon footprint from north to south, specifically as follows: except for Shandong, the carbon footprint of japonica rice in Northeast (Heilongjiang, Jilin, Liaoning) and North China (Inner Mongolia, Hebei) was lower than that in East (Anhui, Jiangsu, Zhejiang), central (Henan, Hubei) and southwestern China (Yunnan); 4) from the perspective of the composition of greenhouse gases, the contribution rate of CH₄ to the carbon footprint of rice food system was the highest, reaching 20.1%-76.4%, followed by that of CO₂ (21.1%-72.3%), and that of N₂O (1.76%-10.7%) was the lowest. The regional and type differences of rice food system carbon footprint were mainly related to climatic conditions, planting management measures and emission factors. Hence, in order to reduce the carbon emissions of rice food system, it is necessary to take overall consideration to reduce the CH₄ emission of rice field, improve water and fertilizer management, reduce energy consumption, and decrease food loss and waste.

Forest soil microorganisms determine the energy flow and material cycle of forest ecosystems, and their community structure and influencing factors are significant to maintain ecosystem stability and respond to global climate change. Phospholipid fatty acids (PLFAs) can be used as biomarkers to directly reflect the biomass and community structure of different microbial communities in soil because they only exist in living microorganisms. This study focuses on soil microorganisms and uses the PLFA method to analyze the community structure, biomass, and physicochemical properties of microorganisms in natural forest soils from all six climate types in China. The main factors affecting the microbial community structure were analyzed using correlation analysis and redundancy analysis methods. The analysis results indicate that there are significant differences in soil density, soil pH, soil litter carbon content, soil organic carbon content, soil total nitrogen content, soil carbon nitrogen ratio, and soil total phosphorus content among the six climate types. There are significant differences in fungal community biomass among the six climate types, with a trend of first increasing and then decreasing as the climate types change from cold zone to temperate zone to tropical zone. The ratio of fungi to bacteria in warm temperate soil is the highest (0.7), significantly higher than that in subtropical and tropical soils (0.4-0.5). The ratio of Gram positive to negative bacteria in tropical and alpine soils is significantly higher than that in other climate types (1.3-1.5), with the lowest in subtropical soils (0.7). The climate (annual average temperature, annual precipitation) and soil physicochemical properties (soil pH, soil density, soil total nitrogen content and soil organic carbon content) are significantly correlated with the soil microbial biomass and community structure represented by PLFAs content (P<0.01). This study summarizes that there is no significant difference in the overall microbial biomass represented by total PLFAs among six climate types, but there are significant differences in soil physicochemical properties and microbial community structure. The main influencing factors of forest soil microbial community structure are annual mean temperature, annual mean precipitation and soil pH value. This study reveals the characteristics of forest soil microbial communities in China as a whole, and providing a basis for us to reveal the response of soil microbial communities to climate change in space.

Thermal adaptability of soil microbial respiration is considered to be an important mechanism that determines the feedback effects of terrestrial ecosystem on global warming. It may significantly change the trend of climate change in the future. However, little is known about how the soil microbial community structure change causes the thermal adaptability of soil microbial respiration. More research is needed to accurately assess the influence of thermal adaptability of soil microbial respiration in order to predict the future trend of climate change. This paper addressed the current controversies and debates on the thermal adaptability of soil microbial respiration and microbial diversity based on the research on the impact of global climate change on soil microbial respiration. The paper also proposed a conceptual model for studying soil microbial community structure and diversity under global climate change by comparing three fundamental theories of microbial community construction and an ecological metabolism theory. At present, several views have been accepted, such as conducting long-term positioning monitoring studies in natural ecosystems to verify the thermal adaptability of soil microbial respiration, constructing local scale sequences of climate cooling and warming, revealing the response mechanism of soil microbial community succession and functional genome to climate conditions, and answering whether climate warming and cooling have significantly changed the soil microbial community structure as well as predicting the future trend of climate change. These ideas are helpful for revealing the micro-mechanism and driving mechanism of soil microbial in response to climate change.

Comprehensively promoting rural revitalization and accelerating the modernization of agricultural and rural areas has become a major strategy in China after the building of a moderately prosperous society in an all-round way. As the main battlefield for rural revitalization, vast agricultural and rural areas also show a large concentration of green waters and mountains, which contain rich ecological products. Under the new situation of rural revitalization and agricultural and rural modernization, how to promote rural revitalization by promoting the realization of the value of ecological products has become an important topic, especially research on the realization model path. On the basis of systematically expounding the route, pattern and mechanism of ecological product value realization, the realization of ecological product value mainly includes six main routes: market model, government model, public welfare model, government & market model, government & public welfare model, and market & public welfare model. Six patterns, such as ecological protection compensation, ecological resource indicators and property rights transactions, green finance, eco-agricultural industrialization, eco-tourism and characteristic cultural industrialization, and ecological restoration and value attributable to it were proposed. Four categories, including government-led mechanism, market demand mechanism, technology support mechanism, and public participation and consumption mechanism, and 12 sub-categories of value realization mechanisms, such as space zoning, property rights management, and accounting evaluation, were also proposed. The results can provide a reference for the realization of ecological product value, rural revitalization, and agricultural and rural modernization. Results will also provide a reference for the cultivation of the “fourth industry”, the ecological industry, following agriculture, industry and service industries. On these bases, rural ecological advantages can be truly transformed into development advantages, and a win-win situation between regional economic and social development and resource environmental protection will be achieved.

The Yellow River Delta is an important ecological protection base and land reserve resource area in China, which has been suffering from severe soil salinization. Therefore, exploring the effects of different functional materials on soil physical and chemical properties can provide theoretical basis for improving coastal saline soils and increasing crop yields. In this study, light-medium (T₁) and severe (T₂) coastal saline soils in the Yellow River Delta were taken as research objects. Three types of straw applications: straw mulch (F₁), straw burial (F₂), and straw mulch plus straw burial (F₃), and three kinds of modifiers addition: desulfurization gypsum (A), organic fertilizer (B) and desulfurization gypsum plus organic fertilizer (C), were combined into multiple improvement modes to conduct improvement experiments. By comparing and analyzing the effects of different improvement models on the physicochemical properties and nutrient changes of saline soils, the optimal improvement modes of coastal saline soils with different salinization levels were explored. Compared with returning green stage, soil moisture content of T₁F₂C treatment reached the highest value (40.65%) in the mature period, besides the average value of soil electrical conductivity showed the largest decrease (35.57%) compared with that under control treatment, and the salt inhibition efficiency (SIE) value reached the highest value (31.83%). Simultaneously the average moisture content of soils treated by T₂F₃C was as high as 29.26%, and the SIE value increased by 18.88%. The soil nutrients of T₁ and T₂ increased in different ranges. The following conclusions were drawn: straw application can reduce soil salinity and play a role in retaining water and fertilizer, and the order of overall effects is F₃>F₂>F₁; The combined apllication of desulfurized gypsum and organic fertilizer (C) has the best effect on controlling water loss and inhibiting the accumulation of soil salt, followed by separate use of organic fertilizer (B) and desulfurized gypsum (A). Generally, F₂C and F₃C treatments have better effects on water and salt improvement and nutrient enhancement of T₁ and T₂ soils, respectively, indicating that they are the best improvement models for light-medium and severe coastal saline soils, respectively. In addition, significant or extremely significant positive correlations were found between F₁/F₃ treatments and SOC content, F₁ treatment and the content of soil available phosphorus and available potassium, as well as F₂/CK treatments and soil alkaline nitrogen content, which revealled the effect of straw application on soil nutrients.

Rice production is the main source of carbon emissions. Liaoning Province is a major production area of high-quality rice in China. Exploring the potential of carbon sequestration and emission reduction in rice fields is very important for achieving carbon peak and carbon neutralization. Following the basic framework and requirements of IPCC, we estimated the potential of carbon sequestration and emission reduction of rice fields in Liaoning Province. The results showed that the methane emission (CO₂-eqv) from rice fields in Liaoning Province was 2.13-3.39 Tg·a^-1, and the direct or indirect N₂O emission (CO₂-eqv) was 0.37-0.40 Tg·a^-1 or 0.08-0.09 Tg·a^-1, respectively. The total carbon emission (CO₂-eqv) of conventional fertilization was 2.61 Tg·a^-1. Optimized fertilization could reduce carbon emission (CO₂-eqv) by 0.03 Tg·a^-1. Organic fertilization and straw returning increased carbon emission (CO₂-eqv) by 0.42 Tg·a^-1 and 1.36 Tg·a^-1, respectively. The carbon emission intensity per unit area and per unit yield of rice field were the highest in straw returning, which were 49.96%-52.68% and 50.30%-52.46% higher than those of conventional fertilization. The carbon emission (CO₂) intensity per unit area of rice field in Liaohe Delta was the highest, which was 5.17-8.08 t·hm^-2·a^-1; the carbon emission (CO₂) intensity of unit yield in southeast area of Liaoning Province was the highest, which was 0.66-1.01 t·t^-1·a^-1. Liaohe Delta rice area had the largest carbon emission (CO₂-eqv) reduction potential, which was 5.50-14.20 million tons per annum. Among nutrients, the carbon emission (CO₂-eqv) reduction from nitrogen fertilizer was the largest, which was 0.18-12.00 million tons of per annum; among fertilization methods, organic-inorganic combined fertilization showed the greatest reduction, which was 3.78-14.2 million tons of per annum. The amounts of carbon sequestration (CO₂-eqv) in soil with organic-inorganic combined fertilization and straw returning were 0.10-0.28 Tg·a^-1 and 0.22-0.65 Tg·a^-1, respectively, and the offset ratios of carbon sequestration to soil by increased carbon emission were 56.68%-82.52% and 89.34%-99.03%, respectively. Therefore, organic-inorganic combined fertilization is the best nutrient management measure for carbon emission reduction in rice production in Liaoning Province.