Soil salinization has rapidly encroached from the coastline to inland areas over the past two decades in the Yellow River Delta (YRD). Soil samples were collected from low‐ (LSW), medium‐ (MSW), and high‐ (HSW) salinity wetlands at a depth of 0–20 cm for 16S rRNA sequencing and bioinformatic analyses. The richness and α‐diversity indices were significantly lower in saline soils (ECe > 15 dS/m, HSW)

We evaluated symbiotic (rhizobia) and non‐symbiotic efficiency and the diversity of native communities of plant growth‐promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR) in soil samples from an area in recovery after iron mining (RA) and from adjacent phytophysiognomies (Ironstone Outcrops, Neotropical Savanna, Atlantic Forest) in the Quadrilátero Ferrífero region, MG, Brazil, in two climate seasons. Greenhouse experiments

Selective logging strongly affects forest structure and functions, which has direct and indirect effects on the soil microbial community. However, the effect of selective logging on soil microbial community composition remains unclear. We analyzed the soil microbial diversity and community composition in a pine (Pinus yunnanensis) forest using the Illumina platform for bacterial and fungal sequencing

Due to imbalanced groundwater withdrawal, Mg concentration has relatively increased in the majority of irrigation waters in arid and semiarid regions, which may negatively affect soil properties and productivity. Therefore, this study was aimed at understanding to what extent varying Ca to Mg ratios in the calcareous soil solution alter the ratio on the exchangeable sites. To do so, four calcareous

Landscape metrics play an important role in pedodiversity studies. Despite considerable research on pedodiversity, there is a lack of standardised methods for assessing the degree of soil cover diversity, especially in the urban area. Hence, in this work, we propose a new approach for spatial analyses of the urban soils using landscape metrics. The aim of the study was to develop a qualitative–quantitative

Gramineae and Leguminosae forages are widely grown in the semiarid region of northwest China. To understand the changes in root morphology in forage seedlings under drought stress, a nursery experiment was conducted with and without water stress using four Gramineae species (Bromus inermis, Agropyron mongolicum, Lolium perenne, and Bothriochloa ischaemum) and four Leguminosae species (Lespedeza bicolor

The development of unplanned shrimp aquaculture has brought many environmental issues and multiuser conflicts worldwide due to the lack of ecosystem characteristics based comprehensive methodology for identifying suitable areas for aquaculture development. This study was conducted to identify proper zones for vannamei farming using the analytical hierarchy process based spatial analysis. Seventeen

While most studies account for the effect of total annual precipitation on aboveground net primary production (ANPP), few studies have demonstrated how decreased precipitation within specific periods of growing season affects ANPP. Using a precipitation manipulation experiment, we assessed the response patterns and underlying mechanisms of ANPP to decreased precipitation in the early (DEP) and late

Water plays a vital role in sustaining the natural functioning of the entire ecosystem that supports life on Earth. It plays key roles in the well‐being of society in numerous ways. However, climate variability and land use land cover (LULC) change have caused spatiotemporal water supply variation. Disentangling the effects of climate variability from LULC change on water supply is crucial for sustainable

City managers need to understand how land use and land cover change in an urban landscape can affect future land degradation and conditions for ecosystem services (ESs) supply and demand. Optimal land use and land management requires explicit spatial mapping of ESs supply and demand under alternative land use scenarios. In this study, we applied spatially explicit models to predict changes in ESs supply

Terrestrial ecosystem productivity (TEP) is an important component of ecological services. The variability of the TEP is driven by multiple factors, both natural and anthropogenic. However, little is known about the dominant factor driving the TEP change at the pixel level, which may hinder ecosystem management particularly in face of global climate changes. In this study, a 22‐year‐long dataset including

Predicting soil loss tolerance (T‐value) as a first and crucial step in assessing soil erosion using pedotransfer functions (PTFs) could save time and cost. Therefore, this study aimed to evaluate T‐value and its influential parameters for calcareous soils of the Dorudzan Watershed, Fars Province, Iran, and to develop PTFs for its prediction using easily measureable soil properties. T‐value was determined

The accuracy of databases on land quality, particularly on cultivated land quality, is a prerequisite for land quality assessment and land degradation evaluation. Error checking of land quality databases is an important step in ensuring the accuracy of these land quality databases. The existing methods do not consider the intrinsic relationships among data elements in error checking of land quality

Runoff and soil erosion on sloping farmland pose a serious threat to agricultural productivity. Soil and water conservation management is considered to be effective in controlling runoff and soil erosion, especially in sloped farmland. In this study, 1910 natural rainfall events were monitored to evaluate the effectiveness of soil and water conservation management and rainfall types on runoff and soil

Understanding regional spatial pattern of soil organic carbon density (SOCD) and its potential influencing factors in cropland is of paramount importance to evaluate soil quality and assess the carbon sequestration potential. However, little information is available regarding the regional SOCD for the plow layer of the cropland soils with high‐density sampling sites. In this context, 14,058 soil samples

Understanding the growth adaptive strategies of Amorpha fruticosa to the changes of saline soil environment under different mulch types (plastic mulch, PM; sand mulch; rice straw mulch, RSM; and control with non‐mulching, CK) is very important, as this determines afforestation success in a moderately saline soil. The species' soil microenvironments, fine root traits, and biomass allocation patterns

The importance of birds to pedogenesis and their impact on soil characteristics is a long‐standing topic of research. For this reason, the ornithogenic soils (avian soils) are distinguished as a separate category in some soil classifications. The continuous progress of knowledge on and changes in the management of the Earth's resources demand constant updating of definitions and classification criteria

Understanding how biotic and abiotic filters drive plant distributions is critical for informing restoration efforts of degraded lands. However, it remains unclear whether or not it is possible to develop efficient restoration strategies that are based on field investigations? Here, we conducted a field‐based investigation along a land degradation gradient on the Tibetan Plateau. Along this gradient

Bauxite residue has extreme alkalinity, poor aggregate stability, and low organic carbon content, which limits plants growth at large‐areas bauxite residue disposal areas. Soil formation of bauxite residue is one of the effective approaches to transform bauxite residue into a soil‐like medium for revegetation. In order to improve aggregate stability and organic carbon content in the short term, addition

Identifying sustainable land management practices within smallholder agriculture is a challenge. This is partly driven by the challenge of documenting farmers' perspectives and practices in an integrated manner with site‐specific scientific soil assessment. Smartphone applications such as LandPKS provide new approaches to quantify site‐specific soil degradation and fertility but are untested with African

Wind erosion is a natural phenomenon that has been increasing due to anthropogenic activities. Wind erosion has detrimental consequences on the environment, and its prevention is a critical issue in many arid regions of the world. The topic of this study was an artificial formation of biocrusts to diminish wind erosion by inoculation of the aeolian sand by two filamentous cyanobacteria of Nostoc punctiforme

Dryland mountain ecosystems regulate global terrestrial carbon cycling and show high sensitivity to climate variability. The Qilian Mountains (QLMs) typify dryland mountain ranges in northern temperate belts and offer fundamental ecosystem services including forage production and water conservation. However, dominant controls on the interannual trend and variability of net primary productivity (NPP)

Land degradation in developing countries is exacerbating hardpan development that causes the formation of perched watertable, which in turn results in increased runoff and erosion. To reduce overland flow and erosion, percolation through the hardpan needs to be improved. One successful way to achieve this is ripping off the hardpan and plausibly liming. However, in the highlands of Ethiopia, there

Since the turn of the century, rubber plantations have been expanding their footprint across Southeast Asia in response to an increasing global demand for rubber products. Between 2000 and 2014, the area cultivated with rubber more than doubled. It is not clear how this major change in the agricultural landscape of Southeast Asia, the main area of rubber production in the world, is affecting land‐use

Railways are known to have less influence on land use than other transportation systems. However, railways also affect biodiversity, water resources, socioeconomic outcomes, and land prices. In the context of changes in land cover and land use (LCLU) classes, this study analyses the changes arising from the establishment of the Carajás Mining Project in 1984 along the more than 900‐km length of the

Frequently, the plants used for the management of contaminated soil are those native to the area of action and provided different ecosystem services (ES). However, in many cases the sustainability of the afforestation planning and the provision of ES are not evaluated under scenarios of climate change (CC). In the present research work it is proposed a fast‐track methodology for evaluating the potential

Phosphorus depletion from cultivated lands by runoff is a significant contributor to soil chemical degradation. Our objective was to elucidate the mechanisms through which soil and organic matter amendments affect rain‐induced runoff P losses in Mediterranean soils. Clay, loam and loamy sand mixed with non‐composted activated sludge (AS), manure compost (MC), industrial humic acid (HA), orthophosphate

Crop residue is an important natural factor affecting soil wind erosion. Few studies have tested the effects of crop residue on threshold friction velocities (U*t) which not only controls the initiation of wind erosion events, but also the frequency and intensity of erosion events and thus the rate of land degradation. This study measured the threshold friction velocity (U*t) and aerodynamic roughness

The Qinghai‐Tibetan Plateau (QTP) is the most expansive area of alpine grasslands worldwide, which have been grazed for thousands of years. Distinct environmental conditions render QTP grasslands vulnerable to disturbances. Intensified grazing in the area has led to its degradation in recent decades. However, the effects of grazing on grassland production, soil carbon, and nitrogen contents, their

Despite the impacts of extraction activities, quarries have great potential for conservation of biodiversity, and their restoration can be considered a major task in restoration ecology. A particularly important issue is to quantify the roles of the following various factors that may influence biodiversity and restoration success: (i) local variables, (ii) landscape variables and (iii) ecological management

Forest regeneration plays an important role in the carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) budget after clear‐cutting. Nonetheless, the effects of regeneration pattern on soil‐atmosphere exchange of greenhouse gases (GHG; CO2, CH4 and N2O) remain poorly understood on the eastern Qinghai‐Tibetan Plateau. This study reports measured field layer GHG fluxes from Picea asperata broadleaved mixed forest (MF, mixed forests

High‐latitude areas are experiencing rapid change: we therefore need a better understanding of the processes controlling soil erosion in these environments. We used a spatiotemporal approach to investigate soil erosion in Svalbarðstunga, Iceland (66°N, 15°W), a degraded rangeland. We used three complementary datasets: (a) high‐resolution unmanned‐aerial vehicle imagery collected from 12 sites (total

Paddy fields are valuable agricultural land resources in the Three Gorges Reservoir area of China but have been threatened by the expansion and intensification of human activities over recent decades. How paddy fields evolve under human disturbances remains poorly understood, which is critical for land use planning to compromise agricultural production and ecosystem conservation as limited land resource

Coal mining often brings negative impacts to land and eco‐environments. How to quantitatively evaluate this impact at a regional scale, and assess its related influences in mining and nonmining areas from an ecological viewpoint is important and a challenge. The Shendong Mining Area (SMA) at the junction region of Shaanxi Province and Inner Mongolia Autonomous region in northern China is a typical

Many semi‐arid savannas are prone to degradation, caused for example, by overgrazing or extreme climatic events, which often lead to shrub encroachment. Overgrazing by livestock affects vegetation and infiltration processes by directly altering plant composition (selective grazing) or by impacting soil physical properties (trampling). Water infiltration is controlled by several parameters, such as

Overexploitation of magnesium has caused serious environmental pollution and the ecological restoration of magnesite mine has attracted increasing attention in China. The aim of this study was to assess the effects of phytoremediation with Robinia pseudoacacia on soil quality and microbial communities in magnesite mine. Here, soil samples were collected from restored area (Robinia pseudoacacia), natural

Our understanding of desertification on the Tibetan Plateau (TP) is limited. This study aims to fill the knowledge gap by examining desertification and the underlying climatic factors between 1971–2015 on the TP using a dynamic vegetation model and observation‐based gridded climate data. Four factors including precipitation, days with above the threshold wind, simulated vegetation fractional plant

In agro‐ecosystems, fertilization practices must accomplish high and stable crop productivity, with maximum soil organic carbon (SOC) sequestration to address climate change and food security challenges. However, the impacts of these practices on SOC and crop yields are variable over the long‐term duration, and an improved understanding of the factors influencing SOC sequestration and sustainable productivity

The cover‐management factor (C‐factor) is used in the revised universal soil loss equation to represent the effect of vegetation cover and its management practices on hillslope erosion. Remote sensing has been widely used to estimate vegetation cover and the C‐factor, but most previous studies only used the photosynthetic vegetation (PV) or green vegetation indices (VI, e.g., normalized difference

The rapid mineralization of organic nitrogen (ON) in semiarid soils frequently results in large N losses, reduced crop yields, and environmental pollution. The addition of manures to soil has the potential to promote microbial growth, increase N immobilization, reverse the decline in soil organic matter, and enhance soil quality. In this study, three contrasting organic manures were used to determine

The establishment of well‐facilitated farmland in recent years has played a key role in addressing the issues of land fragmentation and food security in China. However, few researches focused on the spatially explicit simulation of comprehensive benefit levels (CBL) of well‐facilitated farmland projects in each 1 km × 1 km grid. Here, we analyzed the CBL of well‐facilitated farmland projects in the

The aboveground biomass (AGB) production of grazed grasslands is mediated by climate, soil nutrients, livestock and other factors. How the biotic and abiotic factors directly or indirectly regulate AGB remains unclear. To fill this gap, from 2014 to 2017, we conducted a rotational grazing experiment to examine the response of AGB to biotic and abiotic factors in Nagqu, a typical alpine meadow community

Plant community characteristics and functional traits may respond to soil erosion due to their high plasticity in varied environments. However, the linkages between plant functional traits and soil properties under erosion stress remain poorly understood, despite the fundamental role they play in controlling soil erosion. Here, we selected 50 plots on degraded land caused by long‐term water erosion

Land use and land cover change (LULCC) can alter surface climate through biogeophysical feedbacks including the modification of energy, moisture, and momentum exchanges between the land and atmosphere. Permafrost, a component of the cryosphere, plays an important role in the climate system. However, the role of permafrost in LULCC in cold regions is still not clearly understood. Here, we employ a LULCC

Human activities may lead to land degradation, and then influences diversity and function of ecosystems. Understanding the plant community assembly processes and diversity patterns along human activities‐related gradients are an important facet of ecological research and can be used to reveal vegetation dynamics under land degradation on the Loess Plateau. In this study, we evaluated the net relatedness

The capacity of riparian wetlands to remove nitrogen from upland runoff through the denitrification process is mainly controlled by soil properties and biological communities. However, the pathways or mechanisms by which soil properties and biological communities may regulate riparian denitrification rates are still largely unknown. Here, we measured the potential and unamended denitrification rates

The configuration of multifunctional cultivated land is critical for its protection. Although studies on multifunctional cultivated land have been conducted, there is a lack of information regarding the spatiotemporal characteristics and tradeoff synergy relationship of cultivated‐land functions at the same time on a nonadministrative unit scale. The purpose of this study was to analyze the spatial

Poor soil properties and low soil moisture content (SMC) are major limitations for cultivating a second crop after the rainy season rice (Oryza sativa L.) in the uplands of the Eastern Himalayas. Information on impact of conservation tillage and residue management (RM) to alleviate soil constraints is limited in the region. Thus, a field study was conducted in a rice–rapeseed (Brassica campestris Var

The nanoscience and nanotechnology have shown to have the capacity to study, manipulate, design, and synthesize new nano‐sized materials to manufacture new products with desired features never seen before. The unique properties of materials at nanoscale opened an excellent possibility for nanotechnology to be used in soil environmental remediation, and water, and air decontamination. In crop management

It is unclear how multi‐year planting of alfalfa affects soil carbon & nitrogen stocks. We investigated the alfalfa fields differing from 2, 5, 8, 10 and 20 planting years (wheat field, CK) in the semiarid Loess Plateau. In general, soil water storage tended to drop from the second to eighth year and then turned to increase at the 10th and 20th years, displaying a V‐shaped curve. Comparing with CK

Deforestation affects environmental systems worldwide by increasing disaster risk and carbon emissions and also by reducing soil fertility rejuvenation and biodiversity. Here, we inspected the patterns and processes of deforestation in Zhejiang Province of China since 2000 under a background of national forest restoration. By integrating the Hansen high‐resolution forest cover change products and a

In response to increasing fire, fuel‐reduction treatments are being used to minimize large fire risk. Although biocrusts are associated with reduced cover of fire‐promoting, invasive grasses, the impact of fuel‐reduction treatments on biocrusts is poorly understood. We use data from a long‐term experiment, the Sagebrush Steppe Treatment Evaluation Project, testing the following fuel‐reduction treatments:

Land fallow policy is an important measure for improving cultivated land protection. There is a lack of heterogeneous farmers' willingness to fallow, although scholars have done a lot of researches on the fallow farmers. Therefore, this research based on farmer classification and field research, a questionnaire survey, and PROBIT model was adopted to analyze farmers' willingness to fallow and the influence

China has a long history and has made a substantial contribution to global crop production, but lacking in potassium (K) mineral resource, have led to numerous studies of K availability in Chinese agricultural soils. In this study, we collected 2,428 surface soil samples from nine important agricultural regions to investigate available K reserves in Chinese agricultural soils. Soil highly available

Ecological restoration programmes (ERPs) play an important role in reversing degraded ecosystems and realizing environmental sustainability. However, few studies have given attention to the spatial heterogeneity in the effectiveness of large‐scale ERPs for restoring vegetation on a broad regional scale. Based on the GIMMS NDVI3g time‐series of southwest China, we determined the spatiotemporal trends

The environmentally sensitive area (ESA) methodology (originally proposed in the framework of MEDALUS–Mediterranean Desertification and Land Use—a series of international cooperation research projects funded by the European Union) is used worldwide to identify 'sensitive areas' that are potentially threatened by land degradation and desertification (LDD). The distinctive outcome of this approach is

Land degradation and regeneration are complex processes that greatly impact climate regulation, ecosystem service provision, and population well‐being and require an urgent and appropriate response through land use planning and interventions. Spatially explicit land change models can greatly help decision makers, but traditional regression approaches fail to capture the nonlinearity and complex interactions

Farmland surface soil mulching with plastic film is extensively used to enhance agricultural productivity in the Loess Plateau (LP). However, the effect of mulching on the key processes that dominate soil nitrogen dynamics is rarely assessed quantitatively. We quantified the responses of agroecosystem nitrogen cycling to plastic mulching using a comprehensive database drawn from mulching experiments

Desertification often occurs in fragile steppe ecosystems, which may lead to severe soil degradation. Understanding how soil microbial communities respond to desertification is critical for ecological restoration of degraded desert steppes. We used an Ion S5™ XL sequencing platform to explore the soil bacterial community succession across four desertification stages in a desert steppe in Ningxia, China

Depopulation and economic marginalization of rural districts have induced a progressive land abandonment in agricultural and pastoral districts. In Europe, areas at higher risk of farmland abandonment are characterized by low‐intensity pasture systems whose fate is strongly dependent on state incentives or subsidies to rural development promoting more sustainable land‐use trajectories. Especially in