The mechanisms underlying the response of soil respiration (Rs) to nitrogen (N) addition remain to be explored in semiarid ecosystems. This study was conducted to determine the effect of N addition on soil microbial composition, Rs and the temperature sensitivity of Rs (Q10). The N addition experiment was carried out in a semiarid grassland in China, with N fertilizer application rates of 0, 2, 4, 8, 16, or 32 g N m -2 yr -1. Microbial phospholipid fatty acids (PLFAs), Rs and Q10 were measured, and their relationships with soil properties were determined for three growing seasons. The results showed that N addition significantly increased the content of soil dissolved organic carbon (DOC) and inorganic nitrogen (IN), and decreased soil pH. With respect to soil microbes, N addition reduced soil PLFAs, reduced the fungi to bacteria ratio (F:B) and increased the gram-positive bacteria to gram-negative bacteria ratio (G+:G-). Rs under the N2, N4, N8, N16 and N32 treatments decreased by 2.58%, 14.86%, 22.62%, 23.97% and 19.87%, respectively, compared to the N0 (control) treatment. The results of structural equation models showed that N addition reduced Rs by lowering soil PLFAs and altering the microbial composition. However, N addition had no significant effect on either Q10, soil total organic carbon (TOC) or total nitrogen (TN), indicating that N addition alleviated soil carbon loss and was unlikely to change the potential for a bigger loss under global warming.

Given the high alpine grassland coverage and intensive animal grazing activity, the ecosystem and livelihood of the herders are extremely vulnerable in the headwater region of the Yellow River. A series of programs have been implemented by the Chinese government to restore degraded grasslands in this region, and major function-oriented zones (MFOZs) applied in 2014, have divided the region into three zones, i.e., the development prioritized, restricted, and prohibited zones, based on environmental carrying capacity, as well as the utilization intensity of grassland. This study identified various restoration approaches adopted in different MFOZs, and assessed the effects of the approaches in order to determine the most effective approaches. We collected 195 questionnaires from herders to analyze the effects of the various restoration approaches, and additional remote sensing and statistical data were also used for the analysis. Four distinct differences in the ecological and socioeconomic characteristics were found in three MFOZs. (1) Five technologies were applied in the study areas. (2) The grassland recovery rate was higher in development prioritized zones than in restricted and prohibited zones during 2000 and 2016, and especially high and very high coverage grasslands increased in the areas where crop-forage cultivation and grass seeding dominated in the prioritized zones. (3) The net income of households in the development prioritized zone was the best of all three zones. (4) The degree of awareness and willingness of herders to restore grassland was more positive in development prioritized zones than in restricted zones, where more herders adopted approaches with a combination of enclosure + deratization + crop-forage cultivation + warm shed. Based on these findings, it is recommended that decision-makers need to increase their efforts to narrow the gap of willingness and behavior between herders and other stakeholders, such as researchers and grassland administrators, in order to ensure grassland sustainability in the MFOZs. It is also beneficial to understand the effects of restoration on the ecological carrying capacities in different zones depending on the different development goals.

The Yabello rangeland is a semi-arid area in Borana, Ethiopia that is facing great degradation challenges. Increasing infestation of vegetation cover, over grazing and high seasonal variation have significantly affected the herbage composition and biomass in the Yabello rangeland. This study focused on assessing the effect of vegetation cover, grazing and season on both herbage composition and biomass in the Yabello rangeland. An experiment was conducted using randomized plots of 1 m × 1 m. Sites were selected based on vegetation cover type and grazing variation, and seasonal impacts were also assessed. Data on herbage composition, height and mass with respect to those parameters were analyzed using SAS statistical software version 9.1 ( SAS Institute, 2001) and Microsoft Excel. A total of 26 grass species were recorded and Chloris roxburghiana Chrysopogon aucheri and Chrysopogon aucheri grass species showed the highest average single species cover height and biomass production, for all the sites among all parameters. As a result, those grass species are highly recommended for the rehabilitation of degraded rangeland in the study area. This study also showed that vegetation cover type grazing and seasonal variation were the key factors in determining herbage species composition, height and biomass production. Finally, we recommended that sustainable management which controls bush vegetation cover and balances grazing levels is essential for sustainable herbage production and biodiversity conservation in the area.

Identifying the cause of a threatened species can aid in how best to formulate recovery actions. Recovery can be based on broad concepts and may not reflect a specific community or species requirements. Urban sprawl and intensification of land are known as threatening processes. How a threatening process interacts with a threatened species can aid in the recovery efforts. In South Australia, the species Allocasuarina robusta provides an opportunity to understand how past land usage may direct recovery efforts. Information on past land usage can involve identifying and using data from multiple repositories. The investigation focused on the relationship between changes in land use and herbarium data to understand a relationship between a common and threatened species. As a species evolves and adapts, the conservation practices used, including the methods used for identifying future actions, needs to be reflective of a changing environment. A changing environment can have consequences to biodiversity, creating several issues for a land manager. Traditional species recovery techniques can slow the threatening process down. Sometimes these threats may be visible like grazing from fauna (native and introduced). The threat to Allocasuarina robusta is a change in land use originating from anthropogenic activities. Supplementary planting with tube stock is a well-grounded practice, but the implications from this practice may need further investigation. Natural regeneration is crucial for long term population survival, but in Allocasuarina robusta, this is not occurring. The Allocasuarina robusta investigation aims to explore the relationships between herbarium data and land-use histories to guide future recovery efforts.

Environmental pollution caused by rapid economic development like that seen in China over the past twenty years poses various threats to human health. People have started to place much more of an emphasis on environmental security, working to find a balance between sustainability and economic growth. In recent years, air pollution has emerged as a highly discussed topic of social and environmental relevance in China, due in part to persistent smog that affects everyday life and causes serious harm to human health. Although air pollution is normally associated with human activity, is can be caused by natural processes such as eruptions and forest fires, but is always characterized by the release of certain substances into the atmosphere which, when present in certain concentrations or for given durations, can harm human health, daily life, productivity, and other aspects. In humans, it mainly affects the respiratory system, notably the lungs, as well as the immune system. A series of studies both in China and overseas have shown, in certain cases, even low concentrations of air pollution can pose a great threat to human health. In this study, we conducted an analysis of air quality policies, focusing on the 2018 revision of the People’s Republic of China’s Law on the Prevention and Control of Air Pollution (LPCAP). We utilized the content analysis method and Strauss and Corbin’s grounded theory to construct a policy framework, demarcate analysis units, code and classify policy texts, determine descriptive statistics, and analyze dimensional interactions. We used two dimensions (basic policy instruments classified as demand-, supply-, and environment-side; and air carrying capacity) to quantify and analyze the LPCAP, which enabled us to analyze the deficiencies and conflicts within policy instruments. The results show a higher utilization frequency of environment-side policy instruments, particularly regulation management and strategic measures. This reflects efforts by the government to create a favorable environment for improving air quality. Additionally, supply-side policy instruments are used far less frequently than environment-side policy instruments. Air quality legal policies and pollution control measures mainly consist of environment-side policy instruments; ecological thinking and air quality policies that are based mainly on supply-side and environment-side policy instruments; and social coordination policies that mainly use environment-side policy instruments. Based on the results of this study, we recommend an increase in the number of supply- and demand-side policy instruments, particularly the latter which includes promoting ecological thinking amongst citizens, to optimize and improve air pollution prevention and control policies.

Affected by factors such as the city’s functional orientation and tourism consumption, the spatial layout of the catering industry in a tourism city has its own distinctive characteristics. The spatial distribution characteristics of the catering industry and the factors impacting it (from the perspectives of transportation, tourism resources and population) in the main city area of Lhasa, Tibet were analysed through point of interest data mining, average nearest neighbour analysis, a standard deviational ellipse, kernel density estimation, and buffer analysis in ArcGIS software. As a result, the spatial distribution pattern showed catering providers are mainly aggregated in the vicinity of areas with either developed transportation or rich tourism resources. The resident population has an important but inconclusive influence on the distribution, while the distribution of its concentration is highly consistent with that of the instant population. Considering the spatial structure, functional orientation, and tourism development of the area, measures are proposed for optimizing the spatial layout of the catering industry in this tourism-heavy plateau city.

Shanxi Province is a typical resource-based region. After years of economic transformation, the air quality has been at a low level for a long time. The rationalization of industrial structure can measure the effect of economic transformation and whether it has an important impact on air quality. Therefore, it is necessary to study the non-linear impact that the rationalization of industrial structure has had on air quality at different stages, which is of positive significance for the continuing transformation and upgrading of resource-based regions. This study constructs a threshold regression model based on the panel data of 11 provincial cities in Shanxi Province from 2004 to 2016. The results show that the rationalization of industrial structure had a double threshold effect on air quality under different threshold variables. On the whole, optimizing the rationalization of industrial structure in Shanxi Province can improve air quality, and the improvement effect dropped first, and then began to rise. As a result, the current energy transformation and upgrading process should focus on the rationalization of industrial structure to solve the conflict between air quality and economic development.

Gandaki River Basin (GRB) is part of the central Himalayan region, which provides habitat for numerous wild species. However, due to changes in climate and land cover, the habitats of many protected species are at risk. Based on the maximum entropy (MaxEnt) model, coupled with bioclimatic layers, land cover and DEM data, the impacts of environmental factors on habitat suitability of Himalayan Monal (Lophophorus impejanus), a national bird of Nepal, was quantified. This study further assessed the present and future habitat and distribution of the Himalayan Monal in the context of climate and land cover changes. The results of this study show that the highly suitable habitat of Himalayan Monal presently occupies around 749 km 2 within the northern, eastern and western parts, particularly protected areas such as Langtang National Park, Manaslu Conservation Area and Annapurna Conservation Area, while it is likely to decrease to 561 km 2 by 2050, primarily in the northern and northwestern parts (i.e., Chhyo, Tatopani, Humde and Chame). These expected changes indicate increasing risk for Himalayan Monal due to a decline in its suitable habitat area.