The network characteristics and driving mechanism of the spatial correlation of forest ecological security in China

Huang

2023

IJERPH

The imbalance of regional tourism ecological security (TES) is an important barrier to the sustainable development of tourism. Relying on the spatial correlation network to coordinate the regional TES is effective. Taking 31 provinces in China as examples, social network analysis (SNA) and the quadratic assignment procedure (QAP) are used to analyze the spatial network structure of TES and its influencing factors. The results show that (1) the network density and the number of network relationships increased, while the network efficiency remained at approximately 0.7, and the network hierarchy decreased from 0.376 to 0.234. (2) Jiangsu, Guangdong, Shandong, Zhejiang, and Henan were always more central than the average and dominated. Anhui, Shanghai, and Guangxi have much lower centrality degrees than the average, with little effect on other provinces. (3) The TES networks could be divided into four parts: “net spillover”, “agent”, “bidirectional spillover” and “net benefit”. (4) The differences in economic development level, tourism industry dependence, tourism load level, educational attainment, investment in environmental governance, and transportation accessibility all had a negative impact on the TES spatial network, whereas geographic proximity had a positive driving effect. In conclusion, the spatial correlation network of provincial TES in China is increasingly close, but the network structure is loose and hierarchical. The core–edge structure is obvious, and there are significant spatial autocorrelations and spatial spillover effects between provinces. The difference in regional influencing factors has a significant effect on the TES network. This paper presents a new research framework for the spatial correlation of TES and provides a Chinese solution to promote the sustainable development of tourism.

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 92%

Section: Analysis Of Influencing Factorsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Exploring Spatial Correlations of Tourism Ecological Security in China: A Perspective from Social Network Analysis

Huang

2023

IJERPH

“…In recent years, the ecological protection has also been strengthened. (11) www.nature.com/scientificreports/ Third, in terms of the values, in 2013, the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region had the highest level of forest ecological security (0.579), and Shanghai had the lowest level (0.096). In 2018, Hainan had the highest level of forest ecological security (0.580), while Shanghai's level remained the lowest (0.169) (Fig.…”

Section: Spatiotemporal Distribution Of Forest Ecological Security In...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Evaluation of provincial forest ecological security and analysis of the driving factors in China via the GWR model

Ma,

Yang,

Feng

et al. 2024

Sci Rep

Economic and social factors pose an enormous threat to forest ecological security, which in turn affects the development of ecological civilization. This paper applies a geographically weighted regression model to study the impact of urbanization, industrial structure, and foreign direct investment on forest ecological security of 30 provinces in 2013 and 2018 and reveals the spatial differences of various influencing factors in different provinces. First, the overall forest ecological security in China is at an average level, with slight improvement. Second, urbanization has the greatest impact on forest ecological security in all provinces, which shows a rising trend. Third, the positive impact of industrial structure on forest ecological security has improved. Fourth, in 2013, FDI (foreign direct investment) had a negative correlation with forest ecological security. In 2018, FDI had a positive impact on the forest ecological security index of 16 provinces, while it had a negative correlation in other provinces. Therefore, it is necessary to formulate a coordinated security improvement plan for neighboring provinces. The government should promote rural revitalization, plan the layout of cities rationally, increase the proportion of tertiary industry, appropriately raise access barriers to foreign investment and strengthen environmental supervision over existing foreign-invested enterprises.

“…Animal husbandry has been a important source of income for local people living across TianShan for thousands of years (Wang et al, 2014a). While snow leopard are thought to prefer wild prey, they often consume livestock (Wegge et al, 2012;Chetri et al, 2017;Bagchi et al, 2019).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Trophic interaction and livestock dependence of snow leopard and sympatric carnivores in Tianshan, Northwest China.

Zhong,

Atzeni,

et al. 2024

Preprint

Diets of carnivores provide insights into predator-prey relationship and intra-guild competition, and contribute to drafting fruitful conservation strategies. However, few high-resolution dietary dataset of carnivores exist in Central Asia, hindering deep understanding of their coexistence in grazing landscape. Here, we present detailed trophic interaction among four carnivores in Tianshan Mountains of Northwest China deriving from 179 fecal samples. Using DNA metabarcoding, we identified 20 prey items across 5 orders. High dietary overlap (Ojk = 0.995) was found between snow leopard (Panthera uncia) and wolf (Canis lupus), which mainly preyed on large mammals (%PR = 85%, 91%). Red fox (Vulpes vulpes) mainly consumed large and small mammals (%PR = 43%, 31%). Significant differences (P < 0.001, P < 0.05) and lower dietary overlaps (Ojk = 0.761, 0.756) were observed between red fox and snow leopard/wolf. Wild animals such as ibex (Capra sibirica) were detected in the diet of dog (Canis lupus familiaris), indicating wildlife depredation. High dietary overlaps were observed between dog and snow leopard/wolf (Ojk = 0.989, 0.999). These results suggest that dog compete with wild predators for prey resources and underline the need to further study their potential disturbance to natural ecosystems. All carnivores consumed livestock (%PR = 14 ~ 27%). Corrals reinforcement and husbandry practice improvement are necessary to prevent potential economic losses and retaliatory killing. Our results suggest that dietary partitioning and livestock subsidies facilitate carnivore coexistence in Tianshan and have implications for developing effective conservation intervention to promote human-carnivore coexistence in Central Asia.