Agricultural drought research knowledge graph reasoning by using VOSviewer.

Drought seriously affects agricultural systems and food security. While previous researchers have explored the causes, monitoring, and impacts of drought on agriculture, no systematic investigations into the development of agriculture drought (AD) and its relationships with related knowledge have been conducted. This study assessed existing publications, particularly those conducted between 2020 and 2023. Systematic analysis was carried out using VOSviewer software and the Web of Science (WoS) database. These findings reveal a rising trend in the literature, with a recent acceleration. A total of 7416 articles on AD were identified, with contributions from 6935 institutions across 166 countries. China leads with 1833 publications, followed by the USA with 1278. There are 457 journals publishing AD studies, with the top five being sustainability, frontiers in plant science, agricultural water management, water, and agronomy-basel. The most frequently used keywords reflecting the current significant research direction in the AD field include climate change, yield, variability, impact, growth, and adaptation. The study also highlights four research hotspots and four future research directions. This bibliometric analysis provides a novel guide for agricultural drought research.

Vegetation types and flood water level are dominant factors controlling the carbon sequestration potential in Dongting Lake floodplain, China.

Wetlands are important carbon sinks. However, the carbon sequestration potential of flooded wetlands may be weakened owing to water regime changes induced by anthropogenic disturbances. Using the eddy covariance technique, this study quantified the effects of the water level and vegetation types on the net ecosystem CO2 exchange (NEE), gross primary production (GPP), and ecosystem respiration (Reco) from a reed marsh (Miscanthus sacchariflorus) and a sedge meadow (Carex spp.) in the Dongting Lake floodplain from 2014 to 2016. Our results indicated that the sedge meadow (-89.49 to -186.47 g C m-2 y-1) and reed marsh (-246.12 to -513.94 g C m-2 y-1) were carbon sinks on the interannual timescale. However, the sedge meadow changed from a carbon sink to a carbon source during the flooding season. The effect of flooding on the carbon sink function in the reed marsh was dependent on the water level. The carbon sink function of the reed marsh was enhanced by moderate flooding (water level under 30.5 m in Chenglingji) owing to the inhibition of Reco, but was weakened by extremely high-water levels (over 33 m in Chenglingji) during the flooding season. Seasonal variations in NEE, GPP, and Reco were closely related to photosynthetic photon flux density, soil water content, water level, soil temperature, and air temperature. We can conclude that the increase in reed area combined with the decrease in flooding days in the sedge meadow can potentially enhance the carbon sink function of the Dongting Lake floodplain.

Change and relationship between growing season metrics and net primary productivity in forestland and grassland in China.

BACKGROUND: Vegetation phenology can characterize ecosystem functions and plays a key role in the dynamics of plant productivity. Here we investigated the changes in growing season metrics (start of growing season, SOS; end of growing season, EOS; length of growing season, LOS) and their relationships with net primary productivity (NPP) in forestland and grassland in China during 1981-2016. RESULTS: SOS advanced, EOS delayed, LOS prolonged and NPP increased significantly in 23.7%, 21.0%, 40.5% and 19.9% of the study areas, with an average rate of 3.9 days decade-1, 3.3 days·decade-1, 6.7 days·decade-1 and 10.7 gC m-2·decade-1, respectively. The changes in growing season metrics were obvious in Northwest China (NWC) and North China (NC), but the least in Northeast China (NEC). NPP was negatively correlated with SOS and positively correlated with EOS and LOS in 22.0%, 16.3% and 22.8% of the study areas, respectively, and the correlation between NPP and growing season metrics was strong in NWC, NC and Southwest China (SWC), but weak in NEC and South China (SC). CONCLUSION: The advanced SOS, delayed EOS and prolonged LOS all contribute to the increased NPP in forestland and grassland in China, especially in NWC, NC and SWC. This study also highlights the need to further study the response of NPP to growing season changes in different regions and under the influence of multiple factors.

Predicting the Potential Distribution of Haloxylon ammodendron under Climate Change Scenarios Using Machine Learning of a Maximum Entropy Model.

Haloxylon ammodendron (H. ammodendron) is a second-class protected plant of national significance in China that is known for its growth in desert and semidesert regions, where it serves as a desert ecosystem guardian by playing a substantial role in maintaining ecosystem structure and function. The changing global climate has substantially altered the growth conditions for H. ammodendron. This study focuses on identifying the key variables influencing the distribution of H. ammodendron and determining their potential impact on future distribution. We employed the Maxent model to evaluate the current climate suitability for H. ammodendron distribution and to project its future changes across various shared socioeconomic pathway (SSP) scenarios. Our findings indicate that precipitation during the warmest quarter and precipitation during the wettest month are the most influential variables affecting the potentially suitable habitats of H. ammodendron. The highly suitable habitat area for H. ammodendron currently covers approximately 489,800 km2. The Maxent model forecasts an expansion of highly suitable H. ammodendron habitat under all future SSP scenarios, with the extent of unsuitable areas increasing with greater global warming. The increased highly suitable habitats range from 40% (SSP585) to 80% (SSP126) by the 2070s (2060-2080). Furthermore, our results indicate a continued expansion of desertification areas due to global warming, highlighting the significant role of H. ammodendron in maintaining desert ecosystem stability. This study offers valuable insights into biodiversity preservation and ecological protection in the context of future climate change scenarios.

The prevalence of human papillomavirus among women in northern Guangdong Province of China.

Globally, cervical cancer, whose etiologic factor is Human papillomavirus (HPV), is the third most common cancer among women. In cervical cancer screening, HPV testing is important. However, the prevalence of HPV in northern Guangdong Province has not been conclusively determined. A total of 100,994 women attending Yuebei People's Hospital Affiliated to Shantou University Medical College between 2012 and 2020 were recruited. HPV was tested by a polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-based hybridization gene chip assay. The prevalence of HPV among these women was established to be19.04%. Peak prevalence was observed in women aged 40-49 (7.29%). Besides, the prevalence of single-type HPV infection (14.46%) was significantly high, compared to multiple-type infection (4.58%) (p < 0.01), while the prevalence of high-risk HPV infection (19.97%) was significantly higher than that of low-risk genotypes (5.48%) (p < 0.01). The most prevalent high-risk genotypes were HPV52 (4.16%), HPV16 (2.98%), HPV58 (2.15%), HPV53 (1.58%) and HPV68 (1.34%). HPV co-infection with up to 10 genotypes was reported for the first time. Our findings suggested a high burden of HPV infections among women in northern Guangdong. Establishing the prevalence and genotype distribution characteristics of HPV infections in the region can contribute to cervical cancer prevention through HPV vaccination.

Improving modeling of ecosystem gross primary productivity through re-optimizing temperature restrictions on photosynthesis.

The terrestrial ecosystem gross primary productivity (GPP) plays an important role in the global carbon cycle and ecosystem functions. However, the estimates of GPP still have large uncertainties due to insufficient understanding of the photosynthesis-temperature relationship and maximum light use efficiency (LUEmax). We used satellite-derived proxies of GPP to derive optimum, minimum, and maximum temperature for photosynthesis at the ecosystem scale, which was then used to construct a new temperature stress expression. This study improves the MODIS-based light use efficiency model through coupling the optimized LUEmax with the new proposed temperature stress expression. The new model (R2 = 0.81, RMSE = 17.8 gC m-2 (16 d)-1) performed better than the MODIS GPP products (R2 = 0.67, RMSE = 30.4 gC m-2 (16 d)-1), especially for evergreen broadleaf forests and croplands. The mean annual GPP over China is 5.7 ± 0.27 PgC, and the GPP significantly increased by 0.046 ± 0.006 PgC year-1 during 2001-2018. This study provides a potential method for future projections of terrestrial ecosystem functioning.

Inhibition of FOXQ1 induces apoptosis and suppresses proliferation in prostate cancer cells by controlling BCL11A/MDM2 expression.

Forkhead box Q1 (FOXQ1) has been recognized as an oncogene that is overexpressed in different cancers, and several studies have shown that FOXQ1 is related to apoptosis and proliferation in many cancer types. However, the role and the molecular mechanism of FOXQ1 in prostate cancer remains unclear. In this study, we aimed to explore the role of FOXQ1 in regulating cell apoptosis, proliferation and invasion in prostate cancer and the underlying mechanism. We found that FOXQ1 was highly expressed in the prostate cancer tissues and cell lines. In our FOXQ1 loss-of-function experiments, the data indicate that the expression of BCL11A and MDM2 was significantly downregulated, prostate cancer cell proliferation and invasion were markedly suppressed, and apoptosis was significantly induced. Moreover, overexpression of BCL11A obviously reversed the effect of FOXQ1 inhibition on apoptosis, proliferation and invasion of prostate cancer cells. In addition, BCL11A overexpression also abrogated the inhibitory effect of FOXQ1 suppression on MDM2 expression. Taken together, our study suggests that FOXQ1 regulates prostate cancer cell proliferation and apoptosis by regulating BCL11A/MDM2 expression and indicates that FOXQ1 may serve as a potential therapeutic target for prostate cancer.

[Forest health ecological risk assessment in China].

Forest health ecological risk assessment is an important factor in forest resources management. In this paper, we selected forest fire, forest disease-pest disasters and acid rain as main risk sources, described the risk resources by probability, intensity and distributing, and mapped each risk source. The endpoints were the damages that the risk acceptor might and these damages might cause ecosystems' organization and function changing under the uncertainty risk sources. Endpoints of forest might compose of productivity descent, reducing biodiversity, forest degrading, forest ecological function declining, furthermore, forest disappearing. We described exposure in terms of intensity, space, and time. In the exposure and hazard analysis, we used fragile index to show frangibility or resistibility (resistibility is reverse to frangibility), and analyzed the damages by different risk sources. Risk assessment and management was the integrated phase of the research. Because of the spatial heterogeneity of risk sources, all risk index were overlaid in the China map by GIS, which divided the region into 30 ecological risk sub-zones (provinces), according to risk index of each risk sub-zone, and the forest in China was divided into six levels of risk zones. In every level of risk zones, we also put forward the countermeasures for forest health ecological risk management. The result of assessment could provide scientific basis for forest management.