co-author

SDG interactions showed nonlinear changes as the SDG Index increased:SDGs were both more positively and more negatively connected at low and high sustainable development levels, but they were clustered into more isolated positive connection groups at middle levels.

Understanding how ecological restoration affects the regional water balance is important for scientific desertification management. Using remote sensing satellite images and meteorological data, we analyzed the impacts of ecological restoration on water resources in the Kubuqi Desert during 1986–2017.

After reviewing the social-ecological effects of 23 ecosystem restoration programs in Asia’s drylands, we find that these programs mainly contribute to SDGs synergistically, but the tradeoffs between social-ecological effects still exists.

In the context of global change, the community, as the basic unit of a social-ecological system, is facing both potential or existing shocks and trends in the structure and function of the system. Community-based adaptation (CBA) provides an effective way for communities to mitigate change and even seize the opportunity for transformation.

Based on a review of recent international frameworks for Water-Food-Energy-Ecosystem （WFEE） nexus construction，we found that there was a need to integrate the social governance processes of water，food and energy resource sectors from the perspective of ecosystem services.

During these 30 years, YRB surface waters were characterized by spatial and seasonal heterogeneities. The open-surface water coverage in the upper and middle reaches of the YRB was 8.74‰ and 4.24‰, respectively, less than the average coverage in the whole YRB of 9.45‰. Surface water area was significant larger in flood seasons than in dry seasons, while during 1990–2020, the surface water area increased by 27.5% in the flood season and by 58.9% in the dry season, reaching 7239.2 km2 (flood season) and 6654.8 km2 (dry season) in 2020.

We quantified the relative roles of VPD and SMC in limiting LUE and analysed the interactions among VPD, SMC and LUE using data from CO2 and water flux stations and weather stations along a climatic gradient in the Heihe River Basin, China.

By eliminating positive effects from precipitation and including negative effects from breakpoints, TSS-RESTREND highlighted the potential overestimate of improvement by the linear regression method and the underestimate of degradation by the linear regression and RESTREND methods. These results showed that the land degradation detection with TSS-RESTREND method is useful for land conservation and restoration.

Our study demonstrated that network analysis could be one promising direction to untangle the complex SES and understand the relationship between SES structure and outcomes. We suggest comanaging the cross-boundary river and lands to further match the SES for basin sustainability.

Diurnal variation and its influencing factors of leaf water potential ( ψl ) of Spinifex littoreus on the nebkhas in two succession periods were measured on the coast of Pingtan Island, Fujian Province．