Livelihood Resilience or Policy Attraction? Factors Determining Households' Willingness to Participate in Rural Tourism in Western China.

Rural tourism in developing countries has been regarded as a means for rural development, environment conservation and poverty alleviation. This study aims to examine the determining factors for rural households' willingness to participate in rural tourism in western areas under the context of China's rural revitalization strategy. Based on survey data from 22 tourism poverty alleviation villages located in the poor areas of western China, we characterize our results by stating that rural households' livelihood resilience "push" on their willingness to participate, and that poverty alleviation policy perception and involvement "pull" on it. Among distinct livelihood adaptive strategy groups, i.e., farming-oriented households, migratory-oriented households and tourism-participating households, this study also revealed that buffer capacity was a significant driving force for the three types of household's willingness. Positive poverty alleviation policy perception could attract migratory households to return to their hometowns to start tourism businesses; however, better self-organizing capacity decreased their willingness. In addition, both self-organization and learning capacity and positive policy perception and involvement encouraged tourism-participating households to engage in tourism activities continually. Finally, some practical implications and recommendations for further research are also discussed.

Ratoon rice with direct seeding improves soil carbon sequestration in rice fields and increases grain quality.

Increasing both carbon (C) sequestration and food production is essential for a sustainable future. However, increasing soil C sequestration or graining yield/quality in rice (Oryza sativa L.) systems has been a tradeoff in that pursuing one goal may compromise the other goal. Field experiments were designed to evaluate methane emission and grain yield in two rice systems in southern China, including the traditional double rice with a seedling transplanting system and innovative ratoon rice with a direct seeding system. Grain yield, grain quality, methane (CH4) emission, and total organic carbon (TOC) loss rate were investigated, and yield-scaled CH4 gas emission was assessed. It is found that double rice has a higher grain yield than ratoon rice. However, the grain quality (processing, appearance of chalkiness degree and chalky grain percentage, and nutritional quality) of ratoon rice is superior to double rice, especially the ratoon crop. The yield-scaled CH4 emission of ratoon rice (0.06 kg kg-1) decreased by 49.29% than double rice (0.12 kg kg-1) throughout the growth period. Compared with the TOC loss rate of double rice (2.95 g kg-1), the rate of ratoon rice was lower (1.97 g kg-1). As a result, ratoon rice with direct seeding can not only improve grain quality but also mitigate yield-scaled CH4 gas emission and TOC loss rate of rice fields. Therefore, we suggest to use ratoon rice with a direct seeding technique to promote agricultural C sequestration.

Biota-mediated carbon cycling-A synthesis of biotic-interaction controls on blue carbon.

Research into biotic interactions has been a core theme of ecology for over a century. However, despite the obvious role that biota play in the global carbon cycle, the effects of biotic interactions on carbon pools and fluxes are poorly understood. Here we develop a conceptual framework that illustrates the importance of biotic interactions in regulating carbon cycling based on a literature review and a quantitative synthesis by means of meta-analysis. Our study focuses on blue carbon ecosystems-vegetated coastal ecosystems that function as the most effective long-term CO2 sinks of the biosphere. We demonstrate that a multitude of mutualistic, competitive and consumer-resource interactions between plants, animals and microbiota exert strong effects on carbon cycling across various spatial scales ranging from the rhizosphere to the landscape scale. Climate change-sensitive abiotic factors modulate the strength of biotic-interaction effects on carbon fluxes, suggesting that the importance of biota-mediated carbon cycling will change under future climatic conditions. Strong effects of biotic interactions on carbon cycling imply that biosphere-climate feedbacks may not be sufficiently represented in current Earth system models. Inclusion of new functional groups in these models, and new approaches to simplify species interactions, may thus improve the predictions of biotic effects on the global climate.

Can ecotourism contribute to ecosystem? Evidence from local residents' ecological behaviors.

Ecotourism has long been considered as a means of ecological conservation. However, local residents' disturbances to ecosystem were often ignored and inadequately studied. This paper examined whether and how local residents' participation in ecotourism affected their ecological behaviors by using the survey data of ecotourism demonstration villages in western China and PLS-SEM method to correct measurement misspecification. The results showed that different forms of ecotourism participation affected ecological behaviors in different ways. Decision participation brought the strongest and positive effects on ecological perception, but failed to transform into actual ecological behaviors. Capital participation's influence on ecological behaviors was positive, direct, and multidimensional. Business participation directly reduced intensity of resource use, but this effect was counteracted by the increase of economic perception and the reverse effects it induced. It indicated the opportunities and challenges for ecotourism to realize its eco-goal, as well as the strategies to relax the constraints.

Assessing nutrient responses and biomass quality for selection of appropriate paludiculture crops.

Tall wetland graminoids with rapid growth, high productivity and wide tolerance of biotic and abiotic stresses are potentially valuable bioenergy crops, especially when grown in rewetted peat soils for biomass (paludiculture). Using wetland plants as renewable bioenergy crops instead of fossil fuels has the ecological benefits of reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, improving water quality and conserving peat soils. As these potential crops will grow in peat that differs in nutrient availability, not only will their biomass productivity be affected, but also the biomass quality for bioenergy may be altered. We set up five different nutrient availability treatments in waterlogged peat soil to simulate different nutrient environments for wetland plant cultivation. Seven wetland plants suitable for paludiculture (Typha latifolia, Arundo plinii, Arundo donax and four distinct genotypes of Phragmites australis from Denmark, The Netherlands, Romania and Italy) were selected to test responses of biomass production and tissue quality to different nutrient availability. Due to their high biomass productivity, T. latifolia, A. donax, Dutch (NL) and Romanian (RO) P. australis had the greatest potential to produce bioenergy feedstock. All taxa survived when cultivated with very low nutrient availability, especially NL and RO P. australis and T. latifolia. Moreover, biomass quality was both species-specific and element-specific, affected by increasing nutrient availability. Overall, T. latifolia had the lowest tissue concentrations of S and Si as well as high concentrations of Ca, and therefore the best tissue quality for combustion both at low and high nutrient availability. These results will provide crucial information for choosing appropriate crops and managements and promote the success of culturing wetland plants as bioenergy feedstock.

[Landscape pattern change of Dongzhai Harbour mangrove, South China analyzed with a patch-based method and its driving forces].

According to the interpreted results of three satellite images of Dongzhai Harbour obtained in 1988, 1998 and 2009, the changes of landscape pattern and the differences of its driving forces of mangrove forest in Dongzhai Harbour were analyzed with a patch-based method on spatial distribution dynamics. The results showed that the areas of mangrove forest in 1988, 1998 and 2009 were 1809.4, 1738.7 and 1608.2 hm2 respectively, which presented a trend of decrease with enhanced degree of landscape fragmentation. The transformations among different landscape types indicated that the mangrove, agricultural land and forest land were mainly changed into built-up land and aquaculture pond. The statistical results obtained from three different methods, i.e., accumulative counting, percentage counting and main transformation route counting, showed that natural factors were the main reason for the changes of patch number, responsible for 58.6%, 72.2% and 72.1% of patch number change, respectively, while the percentages of patch area change induced by human activities were 70.4%, 70.3% and 76.4%, respectively, indicating that human activities were the primary factors of the change of patch areas.