Biodiversity is necessary for ecological sustainable development. Priority areas for biodiversity conservation are the key areas for biodiversity conservation in China. It is of great significance to monitor the dynamic changes on vegetation and water which are important natural habitats. In the present study, the MODIS reflectance data and GLASS products (2001-2016) were used as the main data source, and fractional vegetation coverage (FVC) and water area which are closely related to the maintenance of biodiversity, were selected as the monitoring indicators. The present situation and changing trends on the natural habitat status for 32 priority areas for terrestrial biodiversity conservation in China were analyzed in depth based on remote sensing. The results show that FVC in priority areas is better than national average. The varying trend on FVC in the priority areas were generally improved from 2001 to 2016, of which 53.98% was increased while 24.41% was decreased. In the past five years the FVC in Qiangtang-Sanjiangyuan area, Hulunbeir District and Dongting Lake region has shown a decreasing trend. In addition, water area was increased generally, which was more evident in the three priority areas, Qiangtang-Sanjiangyuan area, Songnen Plain area and West Ordos-Helan Mountains-Yin Mountains area.

With rice input-output data and meteorological data of 29 provinces, autonomous regions and metropolises in China from 1978 to 2015, the impacts of climate factors on rice yield and the regional heterogeneity were empirically analysed by constructing an "economy-climate" model. The results show that:(1) There is an inverse-U shape relation between precipitation, duration of sunshine, temperature, and the total rice production in China.(2) The regional heterogeneity of the influence of climate change on rice yield is obvious. The increase of precipitation is beneficial to the increase of rice yield in the southwestern, Huang-Huai-Hai and northwestern regions, but it is not favorable to the rice production in the northeastern China, the middle and lower reaches of Yangtze River and the southern China; the increase in sunshine duration has a positive effect on rice yield in the southwestern and northeastern regions; the increase of temperature has a positive effect on rice production in the middle and lower reaches of Yangtze River, southern area and northwestern area, but exerts a significantly negative effect on rice production in the southwestern, the northeastern, and Huang-Huai-Hai areas.

Vegetation recovery promotes changes to landscape patterns and ecological processes. Ecological risk assessments of landscape can help reveal the landscape-scale, potentially harmful ecological effects produced by ecosystem structure and function under human intervention. Due to the weak ecosystem and sensitive interaction between humans and the ecological environment, the Loess Plateau in Northern Shaanxi, China, is targeted as the study object. According to night remote sensing photomaps, vegetation net primary productivity (NPP), and land use data for 2000, 2005, 2010, and 2015, risk indexes of landscape ecology are established to quantitatively assess the status and variations of comprehensive risk to the Loess Plateau in Northern Shaanxi and to analyze the correlations of landscape ecological risk with vegetation change and urbanization. As a result, the change of the landscape pattern produces potential effects on ecological stability. The fastest landscape ecological risk area expansion was increased by 186.0% during 2005-2010. The areas of middle and extremely high risk levels had been increased over 2.7 times. The percentage of expansion was slowed down to 12.9% during 2010-2015. The eco-risk levels during 2000-2005 was shrunken by 26.0%. The area with low risk is reduced, whereas the areas with other levels of risks were increased. After 2005, the levels of landscape ecological risks extended in the shape of a flake and were mainly located in the sandy area of northwest of Northern Shaanxi. Vegetation change and urbanization are positively correlated with landscape ecological risk variation in the sandy area in the northwest. In the area with increased risk, the vegetation displayed a trend of degradation. In the area with low risk, that is, in the extended area of the Grain-to-Green Project (GTGP), vegetation recovery promotes the reduction of ecological risk. Compared with urbanization, vegetation recovery has larger effects on landscape ecological risk. The results have certain reference value for the comprehensive regulation of regional development and ecological recovery.

Landscape pattern changes and landscape development are indicators of wetland ecosystem health. By interpreting multi-temporal TM images of 1974, 1992, 2001 and 2015 of Caohai National Nature Reserve, based on remote sensing and geographic information system, and field investigation on the Caohai wetland, the landscape was classified into 7 elements as, cultivated land, forest land, wasteland, mudflat, meadow swamp, building site and lake. And 5 landscape indexes, i.e. landscape patches area, landscape diversity index, landscape dominant index, landscape evenness index and landscape fragment index were chosen to analyze the landscape character, landscape pattern change and landscape development. The results show that, the landscape diversity index, landscape dominant index, landscape evenness index and landscape fragment index presented large fluctuation, affected by multiple factors including the natural driving factors such as climate change, precipitation, soil erosion and water eutrophication, and human driving factors such as population and economic growth, land use, industrial and agricultural pollution during the 4 periods. Additionally, the mean landscape development intensity index (I_LD,total) of the 4 periods was 4.00±0.24, which reached to the highest value in 2015 (I_LD,2015=4.27), indicates that Caohai wetland belonged to agricultural wetland type, in which the agricultural uses in the watersheds were primarily row crops and pasture. The Caohai wetland is shifting to unban wetland type with the rapid development of urban construction. So, reasonable configuration of the wetland landscape is a comprehensive management measures to ensure the healthy development of ecological environment in Caohai National Nature Reserve.

Xinjiang Altai Mountain Forest and Prairie Ecological Functional Area (referred as Altai Ecological Function Area hereafter) is one of the eight key water conservation ecological function areas defined by the Major Function Oriented Zoning of China. Understanding the responses of vegetation growth to climate change in the area is extremely important due to the strong sensitivity and vulnerability of the vegetation ecosystem in the area. Weather (temperature and precipitation) and vegetation (coverage and type) data (1986-2015) that derived from 7 meteorological stations across the Altai Ecological Function Area and the remote sensing data were used in this study for identifying the response relationship of vegetation coverage to climate change in the area. The results show that:(1) During the period of 1986-2015, changes in mean annual temperature (MAT) in the area represented as a significant upward trend, with a tendency rate of 0.34℃·(10 a)^-1, while the mean annual precipitation (MAP) showed a cycle fluctuation increasing trend, with a tendency rate of 6.19 mm·(10 a)^-1; The mean annual normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) showed a slow overall downward trend, with a small tendency rate of -0.001 (10 a)^-1; Meanwhile, the NDVI showed a significant upward trend during the growing season, with a tendency rate of 0.002 (10 a)^-1. (2) Vegetation coverage in the area remained stable over the period of 1986-2015. The areas with rate of NDVI change -0.001 (10 a)^-1 to 0.001 (10 a)^-1 covered approximately 60.4% of the study area; The areas with significantly-declined vegetation coverage[rate of NDVI change <-0.002 (10 a)^-1] covered approximately 3.1% of the area, and were mainly distributed in the northwestern parts of Altai Mountains; The areas with significantly-increased vegetation coverage[rate of NDVI change>0.002 (10 a)^-1] covered 2.1%, and were mainly distributed in the southeast and central regions of the study area. (3) Across the Altai Ecological Function Area, the responses of vegetation coverage to changes in precipitation are more sensitive than to temperature, however, the responses of changes in NDVI to changes in temperature and precipitation have a lagging effect that differed significantly for different time periods.

Based on the Landsat remote sensing images from 1994, 2002, and 2016, the ecological environment quality of Jinghe County was studied by using the remote sensing ecological index (RSEI) to analyze Comprehensive Green, Humidity, Dryness and Heat Index and Principal Components. The results show that the RSEI index based on greenness, humidity, heat and dryness has certain applicability, and can better monitor and evaluate the ecological environment quality and its temporal and spatial changes in Jinghe County. In 1994, 2002, and 2016, the average RSEI index was 0.377, 0.323 and 0.327, respectively, and after ranking the RSEI index, it was found that the "poor" quality of the ecological environment was dominant, the grade of "excellent" was reduced, the ecological environment in the area was developing to the bad direction. The artificial oasis in Jinghe County expanded remarkably, and the area of natural oasis decreased. Climate change and human activities have had combined effects on the ecological environment of Jinghe County. The deterioration of ecological environment quality is greatly affected by human disturbance. Population pressure, urbanization process, unreasonable grazing, rational allocation of land resources, inefficient utilization of water resources and other human factors are still the critical points to concern for future ecological environment construction in Jinghe County.

Taking the rural settlements of Hexi area in Gansu Province as an example, the spatial pattern evolution characteristics of rural settlements in the past 30 years of the area were analyzed using single dynamic degree index, landscape pattern index, average nearest neighbor index and nuclear density method. The results show that:(1) The scale of rural settlements in the Hexi area increased slowly, and the agglomeration of settlement patches enhanced. The structure became more compact. (2)The spatial distribution of rural settlements is agglomerated overall. The rural settlements are densely distributed around Dunhuang City, Suzhou District, Ganzhou District, Owase District of Gaotai Oasis, Minle County, Liangzhou District and Minqin County. (3) The rural settlements are concentrated in corridor plains and basins,and gentle slopes with the elevation of 1 200-2 400 m and gradient <5°. Less settlements are distributed in relatively high elevation hills, mountain areas, and areas with relatively steep slopes. The settlements mostly lie within 1 km in distance to the county roads and the roads above county level. The rivers have a significant impact on the distribution of rural settlements within the range of 1 to 6 km in distance. (4) Due to the regulation and urging of policies and economic interests, the production and lifestyle are constantly changing and influencing on rural settlements, which directly or indirectly leading to the evolution of rural settlements.

The application of organic fertilizer is of important practical significance in the green transformation of agricultural industry. On the basis of survey data from 544 households in Suizhou City, Tianmen City and Xinzhou District in Wuhan City in Hubei Province, binary Logistic model was employed to explore the impacts of family human capital, economic capital, social capital and natural capital on rice farmers' willingness to adopt organic fertilizer. Results show that, with respect to the influence of family human capital, both the amount of household labor and the average educational level of family members have significantly positive impacts on rice farmers' willingness to adopt organic fertilizer. As for the influence of family economic capital, the higher the annual farming income is, the more inclined rice farmers are to adopt organic fertilizer. For the influence of family social capital, rice farmers who have participated in professional cooperatives, are more willing to adopt organic fertilizer, and those whose family members are public officials or village cadres, are more willing to adopt organic fertilizer. With respect to the influence of family natural capital, the larger the scale of land management is, the more inclined rice farmers are to adopt organic fertilizer. Besides, the less the fragments of farmland are, or the poorer the farmland is, the more inclined rice farmers are to adopt organic fertilizer.

Mixed-species flocks of birds are common in tropical and subtropical forest worldwide. In South China, babblers (Timaliidae) are the main members of these flocks. Most of babblers are small-bodied insectivores. Niche separation and coexistence of these species within the mixed-species flocks are hot ecological issues. A study of the nesting niche of understory birds at Guangdong Dinghushan National Nature Reserve (DNR) and Guangdong Yunan Tongledashan Provincial Nature Reserve (TNR) was carried out by systematically searching for bird nests during the breeding seasons of 2016 and 2017. Niche width and niche overlap of nesting habitat types,nesting substrate and nesting height were compared for 7 species. The grey-cheeked fulvetta (Alcippe morrisonia) was found to have the largest niche breadth in all three variables. This may explain why grey-cheeked fulvetta is the dominant species in mixed-species flocks in South China. The niche overlap values were 0.85±0.01(n=10) in DNR, 0.76±0.02 (n=10) in TNR for nesting habitat types, 0.20±0.08 (n=10) in DNR, 0.23±0.12 (n=10) in TNR for nesting substrates, and 0.26±0.09 (n=10) in DNR, 0.35±0.20 (n=10) in TNR for nesting heights. There was high niche overlap for nesting habitat types, but lower niche overlap for nesting substrates and nesting heights. This implies that niche separation of nesting substrate and nesting height may decrease competition for resources between species in the same flocks. This study of breeding niche overlap helps to explain how species in mixed-species flocks can coexist.

In order to understand the colonization process of periphyton community in an estuarine water body and obtain the maturation time, a landscape lake in Shanghai Lingang was studied by using glass slide method in the winter of 2015. A total of 4 classes, 37 genera and 65 species were identified. Bacillariophyta contributed 69.57% of the total periphyton, followed by Chlorophyta (25.95%). The total abundance of periphyton reached to the peak at the 27th day, and ranged from 1.13×10⁴ to 500×10⁴ cm^-2. The abundance of Bacillariophyta peaked on the 25th day, and ranged from 1.13×10⁴ to 299.05×10⁴ cm^-2. According to results of the clustering analysis (CA), the non-metric multidimensional scaling (N-MDS) analysis and analysis of similarities (ANOSIM), the colonization process of periphyton was divided into 5 stages. And the main dominant taxa in each stage were changed as Nitzschia/Synedra/Fragilaria → Nitzschia/Synedra → Nitzschia → Nitzschia/Stigeoclonium → Gomphonema/Stigeoclonium. Besides, the results of dynamic change of pulse amplitude modulation (PAM) fluorescence measurements in periphyton community showed that the change of maximal photochemical efficiency (F_v/F_m) was consistent with the total abundance of periphyton and it could be used as a potential indicator to show the colonization process of periphyton. It has been found in the study, we found that the periphyton community gradually matured at 3.5 to 4 weeks after hanging slides and it is better to conduct sampling at this time.

The sample plots were set up in the degraded alpine meadows in the Source Region of the Three Rivers, where the regularities including occurrence of shallow soil freezing and thawing in degraded alpine meadows, spatial and temporal changes of soil temperature and correlation between soil temperature and air temperature, etc. were discussed based on the acquisition of soil temperature data of a complete freeze-thaw cycle in different degraded grasslands and different soil layers through continuous field observations. The results show that in a freeze-thaw cycle, the period of soil from freezing to thawing in the degraded alpine meadow lasted for 179-196 days, and the soil temperature showed an approximate sinusoidal trend. With the aggravation of degradation, the 0-40 cm soil layers were frozen and thawed earlier. Compared with non-degraded grassland, the freezing and thawing start dates of severely degraded grassland were 7-23 and 18-38 days earlier, respectively. The frozen front surface of the soil moved faster from the surface to the deeper soil layer, the soil temperature gradient became larger and the rate of change became faster, the soil was more likely to be warmed up and cooled down; the soil temperature's response to air temperature became stronger from non-degraded soil to severely degraded soil, and the correlation coefficients between soil temperature of all layers of soil and air temperature were 0.646-0.876, 0.751-0.901, 0.821-0.930 and 0.854-0.951, respectively. September and March were transitional periods of soil temperature in different soil layers. In the degraded alpine meadow sample plots, the degree of degradation, depth of soil and air temperature were the factors affecting the process of freezing and thawing of shallow soil. The change of soil freezing and thawing characteristics caused by degradation was not conducive to the stability of alpine meadow ecosystem and frozen soil environment.

Luoma Lake is a suburban lake with the characteristics of water carrying in the northern Jiangsu Province, China. The information of physicochemical parameters in Luoma Lake will help to assess the trophic state and well understand the application values of suburban lakes, and further provide scientific basis for protecting and exploiting the water resources. In this study, the current water-quality characterization and trophic state at 20 uniform distributed sites in Luoma Lake were investigated monthly from June to August, 2017. The spatial distributions of the physicochemical parameters were assessed by the piper plot and isoline map. Results show that total nitrogen (TN), total phosphorus (TP) and chemical oxygen demand (COD_Mn) were significantly increased and the dominant ions were transformed from Ca²⁺+HCO₃^- to Na⁺(K⁺)+Cl^-, while the secchi depth, dissolved oxygen and pH were not changed compared to the years from 1991 to 2014. The concentrations of ρ(TN), ρ(TP) and COD_Mn varied in the range of 2.540-3.246, 0.173-0.531 and 9.90-14.29 mg·L^-1, respectively. According to the Environmental Quality Standards for Surface Water, Luoma Lake fell into the categories of V in water quality. The comprehensive trophic level index indicate that most sites of the Lake were reached the state of mesotrophication, some sites even reached the state of hypertrophication. The spatial distributions of pH, HCO₃^-, Ca²⁺, Mg²⁺, total alkalinity and total hardness were significant different among sampling sites (P<0.05). The spatial distributions of water-quality parameters were complicated, Ca²⁺, Mg²⁺, total alkalinity and total hardness were higher in the northeast region than that in the southwest region, while ρ(TN), ρ(TP), COD_Mn and ρ(chlorophyll a) were higher in the north region than in the east region in Luoma Lake. The differences of spatial distribution among these physicochemical parameters were attributed to the contaminants contained in the inflowing rivers, the human activities and the self-purification functions in the Luoma Lake, which indicate that the disturbances in suburban lakes caused by human activity should not be ignored.

Dredging can effectively solve the problem of black and offensive odor in river and improve water quality, but the disposal of sediment produced in dredging has become difficult in the later stage. In order to better dispose the river sediment, sediment ceramsite was prepared by thermal treatment and reused for river regulation. Based on single factor experiment, the optimum preparation conditions of sediment ceramsite were obtained by response surface methodology, with sintering time as 14 min, sintering temperature as 1 025℃, and the addition amount of w(Al₂O₃) as 8.10%. As suggested by experimental results, the phosphorus adsorption process on sediment ceramsite was better accorded with Langmuir isotherm by single layer adsorption, and the maximum phosphorus sorption capacity was 9.40 mg·g^-1 by model calculation. Pseudo-first order kinetic model accurately fitted the adsorption data. Combined with XRD, SEM-EDS and FTIR analysis, phosphorus was mainly removed by sediment ceramsite adsorption. Compared with other adsorbents, sediment ceramsite has the advantages of better adsorption performance and lower cost. The application of sediment ceramsite in river water treatment can not only solve the problem of dredged sediment disposal, but also effectively reduce phosphorus released from river sediment and realize sediment utilization.

Phosphorus doped graphitic carbon nitride (PCN) was synthesized by the combination of hydrothermal treatment and copolymerization of melamine and glyceryl phosphatidylcholine in this manuscript. To analyze the phase composition and photoelectric properties of as-prepared photocatalysts, X-ray diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), X ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), ultraviolet visible diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (UV-vis DRS) and photoluminescence spectrum (PL) were performed. These results show that the P doping increased the specific surface area of PCN photocatalyst, reduced the recombination rate of photo-generated electron-hole pairs, broadened the spectral response range and improved the oxidation properties of PCN photocatalysts. The obtained PCN photocatalysts were used in the visible-light photocatalytic degradation of aqueous sulfathiazole (ST). The degradation rate of aqueous sulfathiazole (ST) over PCN under visible light irradiation was much higher than that over bulk graphitic carbon nitride (CN), and the 60% PCN (where 60% is the mass ratio of glyceryl phosphatidylcholine to melamine) photocatalyst exhibited the best activity. The results of trapping experiment indicate that the hydroxyl radical (·OH) is the dominant active species in the process of photocatalytic reaction.

Low contents of copper (Cu) and zinc (Zn) in rice and wheat grains will affect not only plant growth and grain nutritional value but also the suitability of the grains in human diet. A pot experiment was conducted using selected typical paddy soils in the dominant rice producing areas of China to study the differences in Cu and Zn uptake in rice-wheat rotation systems with two cultivars of rice and of wheat with contrasting cadmium (Cd) accumulation capacities. There were significant differences in the average concentrations of Cu and Zn in high and low Cd accumulating rice cultivars, with Cu concentrations of 5.07 and 5.75 mg·kg^-1 and Zn concentrations of 42.10 and 33.60 mg·kg^-1, respectively. However, there were no significant differences in the average Cu and Zn concentrations in the high and low Cd accumulation wheat cultivars, with 4.37 and 4.94 mg·kg^-1 Cu and 34.40 and 35.40 mg·kg^-1 Zn, respectively. Summarizing the previous results, the differences in high and low Cd accumulation in wheat were not significantly related to the large differences in Cu and Zn in the wheat grains. The Zn bio-concentration factors (BCF) of rice and wheat were higher than those of Cu. The Cu and Zn BCF of high and low Cd accumulation rice cultivars grown in soils from northeast China were 0.31 and 0.73, and 0.41 and 0.64, respectively. However, the Cu and Zn BCF of the high and low Cd accumulation wheat cultivars were only 0.19 and 0.44, and 0.22 and 0.42, respectively. Growing rice in the northern region can therefore increase the enrichment of Cu and Zn in rice more effectively than in wheat. These results indicate that, in terms of the safety and nutritional quality of rice and wheat, planting high and low Cd accumulating rice and wheat will not result in Cu and Zn nutrient imbalance.

Misgumus anguillicadatus is a representative ground fish endemic to China. The data of acute ecotoxicity of ammonia, heavy metals (Ni²⁺ and Cu²⁺), pesticides (dichlorvos and endosulfan), and nitrobenzene to Misgumus anguillicadatus were screened and collected. The species sensitivity distribution method was used to evaluate the sensitivity of Misgumus anguillicadatus to chemicals above. According to the toxicity grade, ammonia, dichlorvos, endosulfan, and Cu²⁺ were extremely toxic to Misgumus anguillicadatus while nitrobenzene was highly toxic[ρ(LC₅₀)<1 mg·L^-1]. Misgumus anguillicadatus was especially susceptible to dichlorvos with the cumulative probability of 5.88% and was relatively tolerant to Ni²⁺. Compared to the model fish, Danio rerio, Misgumus anguillicadatus showed a higher sensitivity to dichlorvos, endosulfan, Cu²⁺, and nitrobenzene, indicating its potency of being a bio-indicator for those substances. Misgumus anguillicadatus can be used as the experimental subject for water quality criteria studies of pesticides, Cu²⁺, and nitrobenzene.

According to the data reported by the environmental protection departments (Bureaus) of different provinces (autonomous regions and metropolitan cities) of China (abbreviated as MEP), there were 192 construction projects that affecting nature reserves (abbreviated as CPANR) from 2012 to 2015. Based on the statistical analysis, three significant characteristics of the CPANR were found, which include diverse types (14 types), widespread (affected 101 nature reserves distributed in 25 provinces) and ecological impact complex. Among the CPANR types road projects (44 projects) accounted for the most (22.92%), followed by water conservancy projects (37 projects) accounted for 19.27%. Considering the current demand of ecological protection for China, it is significantly important that the supervision on nature reserves and CPANRs in China should be strengthened. Hence, the following five suggestions are proposed:improving local governments' awareness of ecological protection, aggrandizing the control effect of the environmental impact assessment for planning projects, strengthening the argumentation on the selection of project sites/lines, implementing ecological compensation measures, and increasing public participation.

The action plan for soil pollution control (The Soil Ten Measures) proposes the agricultural soil to be put into three categories based on its contamination level. The unpolluted and slightly polluted soil is classified as priority protection, the mild and moderate polluted soil is classified as security utilization class and the heavy polluted soil is in the strict control category. Those categories should be judged based on the site specific soil standard. Based on the standard GB 15618-2018, the method for derivation of adverse effect critical value and safe use critical value could be a tool to facilitate the implementation of countermeasures to protect soil environmental quality, food safety and plant growth.