Nowadays, a wide variety of approaches have been used to improve the less effective traditional wastewater treatment methods. One of the advanced technologies for purifying water is ultrasonic degradation method, which is based on the phenomenon of acoustic cavitation. Semiconductor materials, such as titanium dioxide and zinc oxide, possess large specific surface area, high reactivity, and photo-and sono-sensitive property, making them suitable for execution in wastewater treatment. To find the optimal approach for sewage arrangement, the literatures of the combined use of ultrasonic and semiconductor materials for degradating the pollutants in water were reviewed. The review is aimed at the material type of semiconductor combined with ultrasonic on pollutants degradation and the influence of different experimental parameters on their sonocatalytic activities, such as ultrasonic irradiation time, pollutants concentration, solution temperature, solution pH, sonocatalyst dosage and crystal phases of sonocatalyst, etc. From what has been discussed, it could be concluded that the sonocatalysts consisting of up-conversion luminescent reagent and two different band gap semiconductor materials will have excellent sonocatalytic activities and wide applications for sonocatalytic degradation of organic pollutants, providing a new way to achieve large-scale dispose of wastewater.

As important final product of organic waste aerobic composting, humic substance (HS) is considered as a crucial index to assess composting process and its product maturity. HS contains various of functional groups, which bring significant agronomic benefits to crop and soil, such as nutrient reservoir, soil physical and chemical properties improvement. The research progress in recent years was summarized, including structure, formation way as well as regulation of HS development during aerobic composting. The effect of main physical-chemical parameters of aerobic composting, including raw materials type, bulking agent type, temperature, moisture content, C/N ratio, oxygen content, pH, porosity, on the formation and quality of HS was reviewed and discussed. The relationship between HS functional groups and its agronomic effects was also elaborated, including plant growth enhancement, water holding capacity improvement, disease suppression and nutrient preserving reinforce. Finally, the direction of further research was looked forward on the basis of current achievement. Probe into aggregate structure and chemical information of HS using synchrotron radiation X-ray microtomography and soft X-ray spectromicroscopy technology were proposed to facilitate deep analysis. On summary, the aim of this review is to provide the insight to understand the relationship between HS characteristic and beneficial functions to corresponding agronomic improvement to soil and crop.

The Yangtze River Economic Belt is an important ecological security barrier of China. On the basis of ecosystem spatial pattern and structure datasets for 2000, 2010 and 2015, temporal and spatial change characteristics of ecosystem spatial pattern and structure were analyzed, using the method of transfer direction and extent of ecosystem, degree of dynamic change in ecosystem type. The results show that the area proportion of forestland, farmland, grassland, settlement, water body and wetland, desert and other ecosystems in 2015 was 45.96%, 30.31%, 16.58%, 3.29%, 3.06% and 0.80%, respectively. The farmland area continued to decrease during the periods of 2000-2010 and 2010-2015, while the settlement area continued to increase. The changing rate of comprehensive ecosystem from 2010-2015 was higher than the previous period. Returning farmland to forest and grassland projects, expansion of construction land, and national strategy implementation were the major causes of the changing of regional land use.

Rural settlements are critical ecological-production-living spaces in rural areas. Exploring its spatial pattern and evolution process are significant for optimizations of land resources. The spatial-temporal evolution characteristics and driving forces of rural settlements in Jiangxi Province between 2005 and 2015 were analyzed based on remote sensing data by using the methods including grid analysis, transect investigation and geographical detector. It has been found that there were a large number of rural settlements in Jiangxi province, which were highly dispersed in larger spatial scales and agglomerated in smaller spatial scales. The spatial pattern of rural settlements in Jiangxi Province showed a north-south differentiation, i.e. more patches and larger total areas in the north while less patches and smaller total areas in the south. It was also found that there were generally more settlements in lowlands and areas closing to cities and towns. Jiangxi Province has experienced accelerated rural-urban migration in the past decades. Nevertheless, the number and total area of rural settlements increased by 35.8% and 21.4%, respectively, showing an expansion to cities, towns and main roads. In contrast, the decrease of rural residential area happened in mountainous areas and the peripheral areas of big cities owing to ecological immigrant project and rural residential land consolidation. Generally, the area of rural settlements was become more fragmentated. The geographical detector analysis indicate that the main factors influencing county level rural settlement patterns are agricultural and economic development, population growth and topographical conditions.

By constructing a comprehensive evaluation index system of human settlements suitability and utilizing comprehensive evaluation model to calculate the human settlements environment index of Keriya Oasis in 1995, 2005 and 2015, the evolution of human settlements suitability was analyzed from the space-time perspective and the spatial pattern and geographical characteristics of human settlements suitability were quantitatively revealed. The results show that from 1995 to 2015, the human settlements environment index in Keriya Oasis appeared to be on a rise in general, the quality of human settlements was improved in the period, the area suitable for human settlements increased year by year, while the area of the critical suitable area and the low suitable area were generally decreased. As a whole the erosion of the ecotone on the periphery of the oasis caused by desertification remained serious. From 1995 to 2015, the phenomenon of conversion between various types of human settlements suitability, especially between geographically adjacent types, was quite obvious in Keriya Oasis. Within the oasis, the various types were relatively stable, while on the periphery of the oasis, the conversion extent between various types were comparatively large. Ranking of the correlation between the indicators and the human settlements environment index is distance from the market > distance from water source > land cover index > GDP > temperature > precipitation > relief degree of land surface. The moderately suitable area and the highly suitable area have a high degree of suitability for various indicators, which are mainly distributed in the central part of the oasis, close to the market as well as the traffic lines, and are ideal places for human settlement. The unsuitable area and the critical suitable area are mainly distributed in the desert and ecotone on the periphery of the oasis. These areas are strictly restricted by the conditions of various indicators and are not suitable for human settlement. The low suitable area are mainly distributed in the grassland area on the periphery of the moderately suitable area, which is restricted by the conditions of various indicators. The living conditions of this area are relatively poor and human settlement is subject to certain restrictions.

For studying the CO₂ emissions of Hongshui River Longtan Reservoir, the underway sampling was carried out to continuously survey the Longtan Reservoir of Hongshui River using a professional water sampler in July 2016. The partial pressure of CO₂(p_CO2) are calculated using the water-chemical balance and the Henry's law. The results show that the data of p_CO2 values on the surface water were divided into three intervals because the data of p_CO2 values on the surface from near the dam to the middle section ranged from 64.28 to 152.56 Pa, the transition zone of the middle section ranged from 161.57 to 257.57 Pa, as well as inflow waters ranged from 126.45 to 264.29 Pa, which was higher than that of p_CO2 before the dam. There was a significant positive correlation on surface water p_CO2 with its TDS, Cond and ORP, and a significant negative correlation on surface water p_CO2 with pH, which suggests aquatic biosynthesis-respiration, carbonate karst system are important factors affecting the change of reservoir p_CO2. Reservoir CO₂ flux had a increasing trend from the dam to the end of the tail reservoir with the mean value of the CO₂ flux being 45.96 mmol·m^-2·d^-1 and ranged from 9.06 to 78.80 mmol·m^-2·d^-1. Reservoir water showed an atmospheric CO₂ source with an obvious variation characteristics changing from weak carbon source before the dam to strong carbon source to the upstream, which implies the river type reservoir would slow down the carbon emission of river water.

It is a new and higher requirement of ecological protection to draw ecological protection redline, which could protect national ecological security and strengthen the construction of ecological civilization. During the processes of delineation of national, provincial and municipal levels of ecological protection redlines, the matching management policy is also actively explored. Dongying City, Shandong Province is taken as a research area, and the ecological assets and its value evaluation index system have been constructed. The ecological assets evaluation model was used to evaluate ecological assets and their value of different types of ecological protection redline areas to obtain the status of their ecological assets, changes in ecological assets and the value of ecological assets, in order to provide reference for working out related measures of ecological compensation in ecological protection redline areas. According to the results, the total value of ecological assets in the ecological protection redline areas of Dongying City in 2010 was 365.79×10⁷ yuan, accounting for 20.77% of total value of ecological assets of natural resources in Dongying City. Ecological protection redlines delineation is significant for maintaining the ecological assets value of natural resources, but the proportion of ecological assets value is not as significant as expected. It is suggested that more areas of high ecological assets value should be included in ecological protection redline, so that the ecological protection redline could play a more important role in ecological protection.

To explore effects of Triticum aestivum and forage grass(Elymus nutans+Medicago sativa) plantation on soil wind erosion in Qinwangchuan irrigated region, through measuring the coverage, height and above-ground biomass of the vegetation (or crop stubble) and the roughness, humidity, soil moisture content and wind erosion of the soil surface, analysis was done of the vegetation for characteristic indices and of the soil erosion under vegetation. Results show that during the whole wind erosion season, the amount of soil loss was big in late autumn and beginning winter, then became very small in winter, and once again became bigger when spring came, the dynamic cured line of erosion liked "U" shape. The most severe season of wind erosion was from March to May, and the wind erosion from September to October should not be ignored. The coverage, height and above-ground biomass of mixed sowing grass were significantly higher than that of wheat alone (P<0.05). The order of roughness, humidity and soil moisture of these treatments were mixed bowing grass land > wheat land > bare land, while the order of wind erosion was opposite. Correlation analysis indicates that the coefficients between soil erosion and above-ground biomass was the highest (r=-0.841), followed by vegetation coverage (r=-0.816) and vegetation height (r=-0.726). Regression analysis demonstrates that for every 1 g·m^-2 of increase in biomass, the soil erosion decreased by 6.0 g·m^-2. From analysis of the most severe wind erosion period (March to May), planting spring wheat couldn't prevent soil wind erosion, because the erosion of wheat land was similar to that of bare land, while planting Elymus nutans+Medicago sativa might significantly reduce wind and soil erosion declining rates up to 57%. Obviously, in order to reduce soil erosion in Qinwangchuan irrigated region and improve the ecological environment of Lanzhou New Area, it was necessary to reduce the planting of spring wheat, and vigorously promote the planting of perennial grass (such as Elymus nutans+Medicago sativa).

Being an important indicator of soil quality, soil nematode has been set as one of the critical indices for environmental safety assessment of transgenic crops. During the period of 2014-2015, a field experiment was conducted on effects of drought-resistance transgenic cotton 013011 and salt-tolerance transgenic cotton 013018 on soil nematode community structure. At the end of the experiment, a total of 34 genera of soil nematodes were detected and identified to be 13 genera of bacteria-feeding nematodes, 3 genera of fungi-feeding nematodes, 9 genera of predatory nematodes and 9 genera of herbivorous nematodes, among which Cephalobus, Eucephalobus and Helicotylenchus were dominant ones. Compared with CK planted with corresponding non-transgenic cotton, all the treatments did not vary much in all ecological indices and trophic groups, except in the treatment planted with 013011 where the abundance of soil nematodes dropped drastically, but the abundance of bacteria-feeding ones increased significantly (P<0.05). And in the treatment planted with 013018, the abundance of soil nematodes, bacteria-feeding nematodes and predatory nematodes exhibited significant difference or extremely significant difference from those in CK relative to sampling time. The treatment planted with 013011 also differed significantly or ultra-significantly from the CK planted with TH2, a corresponding non-transgenic cotton in soil nematodes thoroughfare index, maturity index and herbivorous nematodes index relative to sampling time. The comparisons between the treatments planted with 013011 and 013018 and their CKs show that Mesorhabditis and Thornia varied significantly in relative abundance, while dominant genera of soil nematodes did not.

A two-year pot experiment was conducted to investigate effects of application of urea, NH₄HCO₃, SSP, CMP, KCl or K₂SO4, (six common types of fertilizer) on Cd immobilization in remediation of Cd polluted soil with sepiolite. Results show that Cd concentration in brown rice decreased by 41.4% in the first year and 32.7% in the second. The application of NH₄HCO₃ and CMP decreased the Cd concentration in brown rice by 28.4% and 26.9% in the first year and by 2.1% and 11.4% in the second, respectively, while the pa of SSP and KCl increased the Cd concentration in brown rice in both years by 31.6% and 39.3%, and by 9.24% and 53.8%, respectively. The application of Urea decreased the Cd concentration in brown rice by 49.93% in the first year, but increased it by 23.51% in the second. The application of K₂SO₄ increased the Cd concentration in brown rice by 36.57% in the first year, but decreased it by 3.29% in the second. Besides, the effect of sepiolite immobilizing Cd was much higher in the first year than in the second, but was still good in the second in remedying the polluted soil. However, its effect was affected by application of fertilizers. In the first year its Cd immobilization coefficient dropped the least in the treatment of CMP and the most in the treatment of KCl, while in the second year, it dropped by 4.54% and 10.2%, respectively, in the treatment of urea and NH₄HCO₃. Nonetheless, CMP, SSP, KCl and K₂SO₄ all increased the Cd immobilization coefficient to a varying extent. Considering the effects of different fertilizers on Cd concentration in brown rice and sepiolite immobilization of Cd, it is highly recommended to use NH₄HCO₃, CMP and K₂SO₄ in the process of remedying Cd contaminated soil with sepiolite.

The effects of single and compound pollution of sulfonamides (SA) and sulfamethazine (SMT) on the growth and physiology of Brassica campestris were studied by seed germination and hydroponic experiments. The correlations between Brassica campestris growth & physiological indexes with SA, SMT were analyzed. The results showed that the effect of low concentration of SAs on the germination of Brassica campestris seeds was not significant. Under single and combined pollution conditions, compared with the control group, the growth and quality of Brassica campestris were affected. The inhibitory effects on root elongation, shoot elongation, fresh weight and dry weight of Brassica campestris increased with the increase of SAs concentration, the content of chlorophyll and soluble protein in Brassica campestris showed a general downward trend. Under single pollution, the content of malondialdehyde (MDA) increased with the increase of SA concentration. With the increase of SMT concentration, the content of MDA increased at first and then decreased, while the MDA content decreased with compound pollution. The content of SAs in Brassica campestris increased with the increase of SAs pollution concentration, and the enrichment of SMT was greater than that of SA. Pearson correlation analysis showed that SAs had a good correlation with soluble protein, chlorophyll, CAT activity and POD activity of Brassica campestris under single and combined pollution conditions,respectively. Under the SAs pollution, the physiological growth indexes and quality of Brassica campestris were affected by different degrees. The SAs content in Brassica campestris increased with the increase of SAs pollution concentration, and the enrichment of SMT was greater than that of SA. SAs can be enriched into Brassica campestris leading to potential food safety risks.

Ecological compensation is conducive to coordinating the relationship between regional economic development and ecological environment protection. The equivalence factor method was used to evaluate the ecosystem service value of Dongjiang River Basin and the equivalent weight table of ecosystem service value of Dongjiang River Basin was conducted. Furthermore, according to the benefit range of ecosystem service function, the theoretical ecological compensation standard of Dongjiang River Basin was determined. Finally, the ecological compensation priority sequence (ECPS) was introduced to determine the urgency of ecological compensation in 19 counties and cities along Dongjiang River Basin and the ecological compensation standard of each county and city of Dongjiang River Basin was investigated. The results show that the total value of ecosystem services in Dongjiang River Basin is 171.141 billion yuan, in which the forest ecosystem value accounted for 86.17% of the total value. The regulating service is the most important function in the first ecological service types, and the hydrological regulation is the most significant function in secondary ecological service types. The total theoretical value of ecological compensation of Dongjiang River Basin is 104.726 billion yuan, in which the forest ecosystem compensation value is 88.021 billion yuan, accounting for 84.05% of the total compensation value. The forest ecosystem compensation value is the core of regional ecological compensation. The actual total amount of ecological compensation of 19 counties and cities of Dongjiang River Basin is 6.873 billion yuan, of which the amount for Dongyuan County is the highest at 1.676 billion yuan. The priority order of ecological compensation of 19 counties and cities in Dongjiang River Basin is Dongyuan > Anyuan > Xunwu > Zijin > Xinfeng > Lianping > Longchuan > Heping > Dingnan > Longmen > Xingning > Huidong > Boluo > Huiyang > Heyuan > Huizhou > Zengcheng > Dongguan > Shenzhen.

Information about the effect of organic and conventional practice on the quality of rice and wheat was little known. A field experiment was conducted to investigate the effects of organic and conventional rice and wheat rotation on nutritional quality including 4 kinds of protein, 8 kinds of essential amino acid, 10 kinds of non-essential amino acid, mineral elements, vitamins and total flavonoids, and the effects on safety quality including nitrate and 7 kinds of heavy metals. The results show that organic rice and wheat are significantly lower in protein contents (P<0.05) than conventional ones. Both the contents of essential amino acids and non-essential amino acids of organic rice and wheat were significantly lower than conventional rice and wheat practice except for cystine, aspartic acid, tryptophan and methionine, and threonine in organic wheat (P<0.05). Organic crops had much lower heavy metal contents compared with conventional cultivation, especially for Cr and As contents in the rice grains which were 42.41% and 52.78% lower than those in the conventional ones, and the contents of Cd and Cu in organic wheat were 50.00% and 18.42% lower than those in conventional ones. Both rice and wheat from organic system contained higher flavonoids than that from conventional system, while nitrate content in organic rice is significantly lower than conventional rice (P<0.05). All the findings indicate that organic practice could produce more safety rice and wheat compared with conventional practice, but there are differences in nutritional quality between organic and conventional rice and wheat.