Progress on ecological conservation and restoration for China Karst

Xiaojia, 何霄嘉 He; Lei, 王磊 Wang; Bing, 柯兵 Ke; Yuemin, 岳跃民 Yue; Kelin, 王克林 Wang; Jianhua, 曹建华 Cao; Xiong, Kangning

doi:10.5846/stxb201812292842

Cited by 13 publications

(8 citation statements)

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“…It has well-developed soil surface, stone pits and other niches, which is a typical karst area. The unique geological structure and soil-forming materials of carbonate rocks in karst area are lacking, resulting in shallow and discontinuous soil layer, and soil erosion leads to soil degradation easily ( He et al, 2019 ).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of vegetation restoration on distribution characteristics of heavy metals in soil in Karst plateau area of Guizhou

Tian

Wang

et al. 2023

PeerJ

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In southwest China, vegetation restoration is widely used in karst rocky desertification control projects. This technology can effectively fix the easily lost soil, gradually restore the plant community and improve soil fertility. However, the change law of soil heavy metals in the restoration process remains to be further studied. Therefore, in this work, Guizhou Caohai Nature Reserve as a typical karst area was taken as the research object to investigate the influence of vegetation restoration technology on repairing soil heavy metal pollution. The spatial distribution characteristics of soil heavy metals (chromium, nickel, arsenic, zinc, lead) before and after vegetation restoration in karst area were studied by comparative analysis and linear stepwise regression analysis. The main influencing factors and spatial distribution characteristics of heavy metals in karst area were further discussed. The results showed that: (1) heavy metals in karst soils are affected by surface vegetation, root exudates, microorganisms and leaching. Only heavy metals nickel (Ni) and lead (Pb) showed the tendency of surface enrichment and bottom precipitation enrichment in non-karst soils. Path analysis suggested that non-metallic soil factors such as soil bulk density (BD), total nitrogen (TN) and ammonium nitrogen (NH4+-N) had direct effect on the content of heavy metals in soil. (2) The proportion of 0.25–2 mm aggregates in the surface soil of vegetation restoration belt was more than 40%, and the proportion of surface soil ≤2 mm aggregates in this increased to 83% and 88%, respectively, which could improve the soil structure and properties effectively. (3) Vegetation restoration effectively restored the nutrient elements such as carbon and nitrogen in the soil, and enhanced the soil material circulation. Furthermore the content of heavy metals in the surface soil higher than that in the 10–20 cm soil layer. Plant absorption, biosorption mechanism of microorganisms, coupling of root exudates, dissolution of soil soluble organic carbon and pH make the contents of heavy metals Cr, Ni and Pb in vegetation restoration belt slightly lower than those in karst soil. At the same time, affected by vegetation coverage, residual heavy metals in soil are further leached by surface runoff. Therefore, the content of heavy metals in soil could reduce combined heavy metal enrichment plants for extraction with remediation. This study elucidates the advantages and remedy mechanism of vegetation restoration in the remediation of heavy metal contaminated soils in Caohai area of Guizhou, and this plant activation and enrichment extraction remediation technology would be popularized and applied in the remediation of heavy metal contaminated soils in other karst areas.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of vegetation restoration on distribution characteristics of heavy metals in soil in Karst plateau area of Guizhou

Tian

Wang

et al. 2023

PeerJ

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“…Second, these areas have a population density of 207 person/km 2 , which is 1.5 times the average national population density and twice the theoretical maximum population density (100 person/km 2 ) a karst region can bear (State Forestry Administration, 2018). Third, these regions comprise the largest areas of continuous poverty in China (He et al, 2019), consisting of several extreme-poverty areas. For these reasons, RRS implementation in rocky desertification areas is of great significance to enhancing regional ecological functions and facilitating the building of a moderately prosperous society.…”

Section: Enlightenment To Rural Revitalizationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Its negative impact on the local economy may not be apparent when land resources are abundant. However, in Southwest China, where the population density is already high, the expansion of rocky desertification has added pressure to people's lives (Jiang et al, 2014;He et al, 2019), causing severe poverty that is difficult to tackle (Wang et al, 2003) and exacerbating the poverty level of residents who depend on agricultural products (Wang et al, 2019a). With the implementation of measures such as building a comprehensively prosperous society, targeted poverty alleviation and rural revitalization in recent years, scholars have come to realise that rocky desertification poverty (RDP) is a significant obstacle hindering China's poverty alleviation efforts.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Rocky desertification poverty in Southwest China: Progress, challenges and enlightenment to rural revitalization

Zuo

Zhang

et al. 2022

J. Geogr. Sci.

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Rocky desertification poverty (RDP) refers to rural poverty triggered or exacerbated by rocky desertification, which deprives farmers of opportunities for improving their financial conditions through agricultural production. As China implements strategies including building a moderately prosperous society, targeted poverty alleviation, and rural revitalization, issues concerning RDP have become the work foci for the Chinese government and research hotspots for Chinese academic circles. This paper provides a thorough review of the history, progress, challenges and prospects based on decades of RDP studies in Southwest China. First, we review the origin, definitions and historical development trends of RDP. Over nearly four decades, research on RDP can be framed as four stages: start-up, poverty alleviation and ecological reconstruction, rocky desertification comprehensive control and green development. We find that RDP research progress appears to be directly related to the Chinese government's policy support and decision-making in mitigating RDP. Second, previous findings are reviewed and summarised regarding four research aspects: relationship exploration between rocky desertification and rural poverty, mechanisms of rocky desertification for exacerbating poverty, strategies for eliminating RDP and anti-poverty benefit evaluations of rocky desertification control efforts. Third, the remaining challenges are identified and summarised, including the challenges of conducting theoretical research on RDP and consolidating achievements in eliminating RDP. We find that while many achievements have been made in the study of RDP in recent decades, the completeness and systematism of the theoretical system remain weak, and the guidance for empirical research is still insufficient. Finally, this research is fundamental in achieving rural revitalization in rocky desertification ar-

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“…Karst regions cover approximately 15% of the Earth's land area and are crucial for supplying drinking water to a quarter of the global population. There are 88 countries with karst landforms over 50,000 km 2 or more than 20% of their total area (He et al, 2019). Among these countries, China possesses the most extensive karst area, accounting for roughly one-third of its land territory.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Vegetation restoration in South China’s karst region under geological background constraint: Forest or non-forest

Yue,

Wang,

et al. 2023

Transactions in Earth, Environment, and Sustainability

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Over the past two decades, the karst region in southern China has emerged as a critical area for ecological conservation and restoration, attracting global attention for its efforts in ‘greening.’ However, particular areas face challenges transitioning into forests due to the carbonate bedrock constraint, which likely undermines sustainability of greening efforts in karst regions. This study overviews the significant achievements in vegetation restoration in the karst region of southwest China, emphasizing the potential of short-term ecological restoration in effectively sequestering carbon, a valuable approach to achieving carbon neutrality in the region. However, combating rocky desertification remains difficult due to geological limitations that hinder large-scale afforestation. Additionally, variations in soil and rock composition impact the success and quality of vegetation restoration, leading to some areas failing to establish forests. Therefore, establishing the goals for rocky desertification control in different regions (enhancement, degradation, or reduction) should be based on current conditions and the evolutionary characteristics of rocky desertification. To facilitate precise afforestation and grass planting in the karst region, factors such as climate, rock conditions, and human-environment relationships should be considered in regional divisions, including natural restoration zones, artificial afforestation zones, grass planting zones, and protected zones.

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Progress on ecological conservation and restoration for China Karst

Cited by 13 publications

References 0 publications

Effects of vegetation restoration on distribution characteristics of heavy metals in soil in Karst plateau area of Guizhou

Effects of vegetation restoration on distribution characteristics of heavy metals in soil in Karst plateau area of Guizhou

Rocky desertification poverty in Southwest China: Progress, challenges and enlightenment to rural revitalization

Vegetation restoration in South China’s karst region under geological background constraint: Forest or non-forest

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