The authors measured root morphological and architectural traits of 22 different dominant plant species across 16 Inner Mongolia grassland sites along soil water gradients, and analyzed the response of these root traits (diameter, length, SRL, RTD, BrIntensity and BrRatio) to four environmental factors (MAT, MAP, Soil N and Soil C). The results showed that variation of absorptive root diameter, tissue density and specific root length among different species was 7, 9, and 15 times, respectively. There was a significant positive correlation between root diameter and lateral root length, but negative correlation between root diameter and root branching intensity. Responses of both absorptive and non-absorptive roots to precipitation and soil nitrogen were species-specific. When using different combinations of root traits to describe plant adaptation strategies, different species’ root traits respond to environmental changes with different degrees and direction of variation, resulting in a diversity of plant adaptation strategies.

Experiments were conducted to investigate the effects of warming and dominant plant species removal on net ecosystem CO₂ exchange (NEE), ecosystem respiration (ER) and gross ecosystem production (GEP) along elevational gradients (3200 m and 4000 m) in the alpine meadow on the Tibetan Plateau. The results showed that GEP was higher than ER at both elevations, indicating that both ecosystems were a net C sink during the growing season in 2017. At a lower elevation (3200 m), warming did not have a significant effect on ecosystem C flux due to water limitation caused by warming. At a wetter high elevation (4000 m), warming significantly stimulated ecosystem C fluxes, on average, the warming-induced increase in GEP (2.30 mg CO₂/(m²·s)) was higher than that in ER (0.62 mg CO₂/(m²·s)), leading to an increase in NEE. Dominant plant species removal did not have a significant effect on ecosystem C flux at either elevations, probably due to the compensatory effects of the remaining species, because the removal on above ground biomass (AGB) or below ground biomass (BGB) was not significant at both elevations. There was no significant interaction between warming and dominant species removal on the ecosystem C fluxes at either elevations. The results reveal the importance of soil moisture in mediating the response of ecosystem C flux to climate warming in alpine meadow ecosystems, and removal of a single dominant plant species may not have a significant impact on ecosystem C flux in species-rich regions.

In order to explore spatiotemporal dynamics of soil extracellular enzyme activity (EEA) and its influence on potential mineralization rate of soil organic carbon (SOC) of the Daxing’an Mountain range, soil samples of three forests (Pinus sylvestris forest; Birch forest; Larch pine forest) and three ground cover plants in Larch forest (Grass; Ledum; Moss) were collected from Daxing’an Mountain range in summer and winter. Activities of six enzymes including carbon- (C) (β-1,4-glucosidase, β-1,4-xylosidase, β-D-cellobiohydrolase), nitrogen- (N) (N-acetyl-β-glucosaminidase, leucine aminopeptidase) and phosphorus- (P) (acid phosphatase) acquisition, potential mineralization rate of SOC and main environmental factors were analyzed and potential driving mechanisms were explored. Results showed that Both Pinus sylvestris forest and Birch forest exhibited significant higher activities of enzyme C, N and P in summer, however, Larch forest showed contrary seasonal dynamic with soil EEA of moss soil significantly higher in winter. From summer to winter, soils of three forests and three ground cover plants all experienced reduced P vs. N limitation. Besides, soils of Pinus sylvestris forest and Birch forest both experienced increased C vs. nutrient limitation, however, Larch forest showed contrary seasonal dynamics with the existence of moss. In Pinus sylvestris forest and Larch forest, potential mineralization rate of SOC exhibited higher in winter while Birch forest showed contrary trend. Analysis showed that potential mineralization rate of SOC was influenced by enzyme C and enzyme N significantly, whereas little influenced by enzyme P. C vs. nutrient limitation had little correlation while P vs. N limitation had significant negative correlation with potential carbon mineralization rate.

A N addition experiment was established with four treatments: control (no fertilization), low-N (20 kgN/(hm²·a)), medium-N (50 kgN/(hm²·a)) and high-N fertilization (100 kgN/(hm²·a)) in an N-limited Pinus sylvestris forest in Hebei Province, North China to study the production, biomass and turnover of fine root systematically. The results showed that fine root productivity (NPPfr) increased in low-N plots, decreased in high-N treatment, while the proportion of NPPfr to net primary productivity (NPP) reduced in low-N addition and increased in medium-N addition. With the increase of N availability, root biomass decreased, turnover rate increased, and carbon returned to soil decreased at first and increased later. The influence of N availability on NPPfr didn’t change with depth, while turnover rate varied among depth. N-addition made an impact on fine root productivity through soil nitrogen content, soil carbon content and soil pH, while affecting turnover rate of fine root by root carbon and nitrogen content.

Using the international vehicle emission (IVE) model and on-road vehicle monitoring data, the carbon emission factors of three main types of vehicles in Shenzhen were calculated. Then, the authors estimated carbon emission intensities of several main roads and analyzed the spatial-temporal characteristics of transportation carbon emissions in Shenzhen. Finally, scenario analysis was used to quantitatively compare three kinds of low-carbon transport development strategies. The results showed that the transportation carbon emissions of the investigated roads were highly spatially heterogeneous, and the intensities of transportation carbon emissions in urban centers and the roads linking urban centers were higher than other roads. The transportation carbon emissions of the investigated roads had apparent daily cycle, and they had four main types: single-peak curve, double-peak curve, fluctuation curve, and stable curve. The transportation carbon emissions were high in morning and evening commuting hours during workdays. The comparative analyses of three low-carbon transportation development scenarios indicated that the mild-constraint carbon mitigation scenario could better meet the targets of socioeconomic development and transportation development of Shenzhen.

The DeST model is used to simulate the energy consumption of typical civil buildings in Shenzhen, and the temporal and spatial characteristics of energy consumption of various types of buildings are summarized. The results show that different civil buildings in Shenzhen have different energy consumption characteristics in space and time. Residential buildings with low energy consumption per unit area are most widely distributed, and commercial buildings with limited numbers have the largest volume and high energy intensity, so the total consumption can not be ignored. Meanwhile, office buildings, most sensitive to the parameters change, have great energy saving potential. Combined with the development plan of Shenzhen 13th Five-Year Plan, suggestions on the strategy of building carbon reduction in Shenzhen can be summarized as follows: 1) building a comprehensive smart city, creating an exhaustive monitoring network for measuring energy consumption of various types of buildings, managing energy consumption behavior more scientifically; 2) constructing green buildings in an allround way, implementing green building standards when constructing new buildings, and valuing the reconstruction of old buildings as well, taking appropriate measures (for instants, taking part of the transformation, demolishing and reconstructing, optimizing the room combination and improving energy efficiency) when reconstructing according to the different energy consumption characteristics of the different types of buildings.

In order to reveal the relationship between plant root growth strategy and the environment and the contribution of fine root turnover to grassland soil carbon pool, the authors sampled root to one meter soil depth at 17 sites across the desert grasslands, typical grasslands and meadow grasslands across Inner Mongolia, and lowerorder roots were separated from total root. The results showed that 1) lower-order root biomass was positively correlated with total root biomass, and both lower-order root biomass and total root biomass were positively related to annual average precipitation and soil nitrogen content, negatively related to annual average temperature; 2) the ratio of lower-order root biomass to total root biomass showed a trend of desert grassland (14%) < typical steppe (20%) < meadow steppe (39%), and the ratio was positively related to average annual rainfall, negatively related to annual average temperature and not related to soil carbon and nitrogen content; 3) the vertical distribution patterns of lower-order root biomass and total root biomass were similar: decreasing with soil depth in meadow grasslands with 85% of the biomass distributed in the 0–40 cm layer, while not significantly differented among soil layers in typical grasslands and desert grasslands. This study suggested that 1) plant roots could response the two environmental factors through different mechanisms; 2) in habitats with lower water availability, plants might allocate less C to the lower-order roots to reduce C loss, and allocate more C to higher-order roots to store water and nutrient. It is further suggested that fine root absorption efficiency may be higher in drier habitats than moister habitats.

Three urban parks along a building density gradient (indicating a gradient of human disturbance) in Shenzhen were chosen as the sampling sites, and in each park, three vegetation types (lawn, high forest and Lichi forest) were selected to sample soils, with a rural forest of Wutongshan as the reference. The results showed that soil bulk density and pH value in the urban sampling sites were higher than those of the rural forest, exceeding the optimal range of plant growth. Soil carbon and nitrogen concentrations and fine root biomass in urban sampling sites were lower than those of rural forest. However, soil phosphorus concentration in urban sampling sites was higher than those of rural forest, particularly indicated by phosphorus eutrophication in Lichi forests. Soil carbon concentration, nitrogen concentration and fine root biomass were positively related to each other, indicating that urban plant growth may be constrained by soil nitrogen, and that fine root inputs may have contributed substantially to soil organic matter. The results suggest that soil carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus and root biomass in urban green lands were affected by vegetation type and building density. The results may have important implications for green land construction and management: lawns are able to accumulate soil carbon and nitrogen rapidly in the shallow soil layer, and Lichi forests are better to accumulate soil carbon and nitrogen concentration in deeper soil layer. In addition, aboveground litter should not be removed in urban high forests in order to increase soil carbon and nitrogen concentrations.

Integrating the basic theories of landscape ecology, the concept of equity of urban green space pattern is put forward to explore an equity assessment method oriented on human behavior scale. The authors choose Shenzhen as a case study, using the method of neighborhood analysis on ArcGIS platform, to assess the equity of urban green space pattern in four scenarios and carrying out discussions on its optimization strategy. The results show that: 1) spatial differentiation exists obviously in equity on urban green space in Shenzhen; 2) the big differences between absolute equity (E) and relative equity (E^*) on urban green space pattern indicate that the configuration of the residential land could affect the equity of urban green space pattern in some extent; 3) the different results under two behavior scales demonstrate that trip distance could impact the equity of urban green space pattern; 4) the equity assessment results could be used to guide the optimization of urban green space pattern and provide reference for urban green space system planning and management.

The experiment aims to investigate the influence of chlorination agents (NaCl, CaCl₂, and FeCl₃) on volatilization of heavy metals in fly ash from a Shenzhen municipal solid waste incinerator (MSWI) during thermal treatment by using a tube furnace. The results indicate that these three chlorination agents could promote the evaporation of heavy metal in fly ash with different performance. However, these chlorination agents had different effects on the volatilization of heavy metals. All of Pb and Cr could be almost volatilized without addition of chlorination agents, while chlorination agents addition produced significant effect on the volatilization of Zn and Cu: FeCl₃≈ CaCl₂> NaCl. The optimal parameters for vaporization were obtained as follows: fly ash with addition of 15% CaCl₂ was treated at 1000℃ for 2 hours under the condition of N₂ as carrier gas (0.6 L/min).

The authors analyze the characteristics of the quantity and development of plant litter in Shenzhen, the correlation of standing stocks of different green-space type with the coverage of arboreal, shrub and herb, the edge disturbance, the frequency of treatment and the distance from the nearest road. Sanitation Department and Green Office are investigated to analyze the litter management and treatments. The results show that the highest quantity and best development of litter is found in the urban green-space type of natural forest, the productive green space and road greenbelt are in the next place; the worst is the roadside trees. Multiple correlation analysis show that the standing stocks of existing litter is highly related with the frequency of treatment and the coverage of shrub. Multiple Linear Regression Models including all influencing factors of different green-space types can explain 40.6%-93.3% of the variation in standing stocks. Green spaces in Shenzhen are arranged by the human-impact level on their litter from the worst to best as: roadside trees; the village green space, unit attached green space, park green space and community green space; the productive forest and road greenbelt; the natural forest.

In order to investigate the polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) contamination in typical urban area, a total of 110 surface soil samples were collected and analyzed in the laboratory to explore the spatial distribution and mass inventory in surface soil of Shenzhen, China. The results show that, the concentrations of 6 12 PBDEs and BDE209 in soils ranged from 1. 1 to 85. 8 ng/ g ( dw) and from 1.2 to 1931 ng/g (dw), respectively. The mean concentrations of 6 13 PBDEs in soils of different land-use types decreased in the following sequence: industrial area > residential area > commercial area > urban park > country park, and the wide spread usage of deca-BDE in Shenzhen manufacturing industry resulted in the high soil contamination in industrial area. Soil PBDEs contaminations in Nanshan District and Baoan District (in the west of Shenzhen) , were more serious than that in Longgang District and Yantian District ( in the southeast of Shenzhen). Additionally, the 6 13 PBDEs levels in soils had a significant exponent relationship with the build-up area percentage in different districts (r = 0. 98, p < 0. 01) , suggesting that the urbanization level was the key factor influencing the soil contamination. The mass inventories of 6 12 PBDEs and BDE209 in soils of Shenzhen were estimated at 1. 51 tons and 15. 9 tons, respectively, based on the variety of PBDEs concentration levels in different land use areas.

To investigate heavy metals (HMs) pollution in the different kinds of plants including trees, shrubs and herbs resulting from municipal solid waste incineration (MSWI), leaf samples in 34 species of 22 families around the Shenzhen Qingshuihe MSWI plant were collected. The levels and bioaccumulation factors of mercury (Hg), chromium (Cr), cadmium (Cd) and lead (Pb) in the leaves were determined. Results show that, these plants were polluted by HMs and the characteristics of pollution were different among trees, shrubs and herbs. Trees were mainly polluted by Cr, while shrubs and herbs by Hg. Significant differences ( P_t ≤ 0. 028) were observed in concentrations and bioaccumulation factors between trees and shrubs, and also between trees and herbs. The potential species for different HM pollution remediation are recommended as follows: 1) for Hg, the tree plants of Acacia auriculif ormis and Eucalyptus citriodora; 2) for Cr, the herb of Miscanthus floridulus and the shrub of Bougainvillea spectabilis; 3) for Cd, the shrub of Ilex asprella and tree of Acronychiapedunculata; and 4) for Pb, the herbs of Oxalis corniculata and Dicranopteris dichotoma. Consequently, building a multi-level botanical structure consisting of trees, shrubs and herbs is helpful to phytoremediate the pollution of heavy metals.

A field experiment manipulating throughfall was constructed in a Pinus sylvetris var. mongolica plantation at PKU-SOGES. This study investigated the response of two indicators of belowground ecosystem processes, soil microbial biomass carbon and microbial quotient, to±30% throughfall amount. During the growing season from May to September, 2007, soil microbial biomass carbon (260.7 mg/kg) and microbial quotient (1.84 %) decreased with soil depth. Generally, the effects of ±30% throughfall amount on the means of soil microbial biomass carbon and soil microbial quotient in the growing season were not significant. Interestingly, the dynamics were much clear for the -30% throughfall treatment, with soil microbial biomass ranged from 243.1 mg/kg to 354.3 mg/kg and microbial quotient from 1.43% to 2.16%, and the highest value was in May and the lowest was in July. This indicates that the decrease of precipitation in a growing season may lead to a stronger fluctuation in soil microbial activity, thus alter the dynamics of belowground carbon cycle processes.

This paper took Shenzhen Special Economic Zone as an example, using the TM and Quickbird images of Shenzhen in November 2005, and further inversion of surface temperature and manual interpretation of urban green space based on them, discussed the relationship between the types, attribute characteristics of urban green space and the spatial differentiation of urban thermal environment. The results show that the land surface temperature differed in green space types, and the artificial green space was generally higher than that of natural green space. Furthermore, the sample plots analysis in the research area revealed significant relationships among the selected indices. The HI index was positively correlated with the average NDVI index and the contagion index; besides, the HI index was negatively correlated with the average evenness index and the fragmentation index.Since the types, structure and pattern characteristics of urban green space could have significant influence on the spatial differentiation of urban thermal environment, more attention should be paid to the thermal impacts of urban green space in order to gain better ecological services.

On the basis of the previous studies, six key issues can be identified which are static state of the model, shortage of the flexibility of parameter choice, ignoring of the influence that socioeconomic factors give to the productivity of lands, unilateralism of the ecological accounting, weakness of sustainability assessments and overlooking the complexity of land quality or function. Furthermore, the authors point out another kind of defect that there is a conceptual shortage in original trade-correct method and suggest a series of methods to adjust ecological footprint model, then analyze the feasibility of these methods and discuss the challengeso as to perfect the ecological footprint theory and methodology.

Based on fractal geometry, a refined method is introduced for analyses of thioredoxin reductase (TrxR) structures, and the calculating results of the method are suitable for TrxR. It is discovered that the fractal dimension of normal TrxR structures is about 1.33, and increase slightly when oxidized. The idea that fractal dimension is one of the important characteristics of proteins is supported by TrxR. The idea that the fractal dimensions of pharmaceutical molecule structures should agree with the fractal dimensions of target proteins is supported by the experiments in pharmaceutical molecule design.

Increasing species loss due to human-induced habitat destruction is a formidable task in conserving global biodiversity. In order to reverse the negative situation in which traditional theories and practices can hardly stop the trend of species extinction, a holistic strategy for biodiversity conservation at landscape and regional levels is raised and underpinned by GAP analysis approach. GAP analysis is to integrate land cover, species distribution and land stewardship in a GIS context to identify the "gaps" that need special attentions in the future planning of regional biodiversity conservation and land use. This paper reviewed the GAP Analysis Program in US focusing on its basic technical processes, related theories and practical progress made recently as well as the key constraints in application. Also, necessity in theory and application to conduct similar research and applications in China is discussed based on the key issues existing in the biodiversity conservation in China.

The authors studied the spatial and temporal variation of landscape diversity pattern as well as the causes in Wolong natural reserve since mid 1980's, and also discussed the related problems of management and scale effect of landscape diversity study. Results indicated that the basic cause that led to significant changing of landscape diversity pattern during our study period was human impact in the past 35 years. Large scale of wood logging began at mid 1960's decreased landscape diversity of total working area, especially the mediumlow mountain area, but the afforestation behavior lasted for more than 30 years gradually increased landscape diversity of different areas. It should be one of the important problems concerned by the related studies, which were the restoration object of suitable integrated landscape structure including spatial diversity pattern and the practice methodologies. Our study also proved that landscape diversity research has obvious scale effect characteristics. Clear evidence is that forest rehabilitation increased landscape diversity of mediumscale study area such as the total working area, natural landscape, human impacted landscape, and different altitude area, but decreased diversity degree of small scale area such as the buffer zones of different human impact sources. Experimental study resulted that suitable square sample size for mediumsmall scale study of landscape diversity in our working area is 50×50 cells.

Two temporal satellite images were used for vegetation mapping of Wolong nature reserve.Through overlay analysis of the vegetation maps and DEM data, the authors studied the distribution pattern variation of different vegetation types along the topographic gradients. The Study resulted that: (1) The extensive deforestation activity beginning at medium 1960's made intensively impact on the vegetation distribution pattern, and the aftereffect can be distinguished clearly even in medium 1980's. (2) The productive afforestation during timber production period from medium 1960's to 1970's and the continually protective afforestation after the setting up of the nature reserve were the primary causes of the significant variation for vegetation distribution pattern along topographic gradients during the study period. Furthermore, natural recovery process also gave an impulse to the pattern changing. (3) Some obvious phenomena of human impact on natural vegetation can also be watched in our working area. Decreasing of coniferous forest and broad-leaved forest with the simultaneous increasing of shrub reflected the type and spatial characteristics of human disturbance activities in working area. The related management department should consider the above problems more seriously.

Based on the landscape remote sensing mapping, buffer zone analysis and total variation index calculation of landscape structure for two neighbored buffer zones were used to divide the natural landscape and human impacted landscape in Wolong Natural Reserve. The spatial distribution characteristics of human impacted landscape were also studied. The results indicated that hydraulic power station, residential area, and road are three primary human impact sources, and the distance of significant impact on landscape structure of around area for these sources is between 1000～1200m. This distance can be used to divide the whole study area into natural landscape and human impact landscape suitably. Human landscape distribution to land form resulted that the area with elevation from 2400 to 4800m and slope gradient from 20°to 40°are the heaviest human impacted region in Wolong Natural Reserve. The spatial distribution characteristics of human impacted landscape are very dangerous for the natural conservation management works. Furthermore, it is also concluded that suitable dividing of natural and human impacted landscape may help the detailed study of landscape human impact.

Authors used auto-correlation method and took Longhua area, Shenzhen City, as working area to study the spatial structure characteristics of landscape pattern and their contributing factors. The results indicated that all the landscape structure variables, which were used in the analysis process, expressed good structure features. It means that the landscape pattern of working area was formed by some kinds of driving forces which could not only cover the whole area, but also had good continuity. Detailed analysis resulted that the elevation differences were only the background impact factor of the landscape spatial pattern, but the intensive artificial landscape reforming of the fast urbanization process was the main contributing factor, which made the significant differences of landscape structure between 1988 and 1996. Since 1990, the landscape of working area has gradually changed to a landscape dominated by human impact.

Remotely sensed mapping data and methods of landscape structure analysis were used to study the structure and spatial distribution characteristics of agricultural land patches during the fast urbanization process of Longhua area, Shenzhen City. Conclusions of the study were as follows: (1) The fast urbanization process made croplands decrease rapidly, but did not produce very significant impacts on the total area of the orchard; (2) Human landscape transformation during 1992 was very severely, and the cropland fragmentation could be divided into two different stages; (3) Random spatial distribution with microscopic heterogeneity of the two agricultural elements was maintained, but the evenness had a little bit decreasing. Compared with farmland, the spatial distribution of orchard expressed very different characteristics. Under continuous scale, distribution of orchard showed a regular pattern such as unevenness (small scale: side length of the box was shorter than 8 cells)-evenness (small and moderate scale: the length was among 8 and 50 cells)-unevenness (moderate scale: the length was among 50 and 200 cells)-evenness (moderate and large scale: the length was longer than 200 cells); (4) Human landscape transformation was the major impact factor of landscape changing, and a kind of moderate scale impact factor. The terrain was only a background impact factor; (5) During domestic landscape transforming in the working area, because the ecological maintenance value of two agricultural elements were not considered, their structural and functional equilibrium decreased gradually.

6 periods of landscape type maps based on remotely sensed data were used for a 324km2 region in the eastern part of Zhujiang delta, to carry out a computer supporting experiment study of spatial resolution effects for landscape pattern. 6 experimental conditions were designed which are 30, 60, 120, 240, 480, and 960m. The results demonstrated that: (1) the landscape pattern of study area changed significantly coincided with the decreasing of resolution; (2) patch number, patch perimeter, total landscape fragmentation index FN1, andtwo shape indexes (S1 and S2) are sensitive pattern indices to resolution, but patch areaproportion, diversity, dominance, and element fragmentation index FN2 are weakly sensitivepattern indices to resolution; (3) the resolution of fine scale landscape pattern study in study area should be lower than 60m, and that of coarse scale study should be higher than 240m.