Studying vulnerability has become one of the hot issues of ecological research under global change and sustainable development scenarios. However, there are few studies focusing on the vulnerability of karst areas, especially on the comparison between karst and non-karst areas. This study integrated climate factors, soil and vegetation factors, and social factors within a vulnerability evaluation framework that combined the analytical hierarchy process (AHP) technique to evaluate and compare the ecological environments of 10 karst nature reserves and five non-karst nature reserves in Guizhou Province, China. The evaluation results were divided into five categories: potential, light, moderate, severe, and extremely severe vulnerability. The results indicated that the general vulnerability of national nature reserves in Guizhou Province showed moderate vulnerability. The vulnerability index of karst nature reserves was significantly higher than that of non-karst nature reserves. The general vulnerability of karst nature reserves showed moderate vulnerability, while that of non-karst nature reserves showed light vulnerability. Average soil thickness, arable area, and the length of roads may be the factors contributing to the significant difference in the vulnerability between karst and non-karst nature reserves. Overall, this study is conducive to a comprehensive understanding of the ecological environment status of national nature reserves in Guizhou Province, and is of great significance to maintaining ecological security and sustainable development in karst areas.

Understanding the spatiotemporal variation and drivers of ecosystem services is fundamental to optimal management and sustainable development of World Heritage (WH) sites. Although WH sites face multiple natural and anthropogenic threats, our understanding of their ecosystem services is still limited, especially for karst WH sites. In this study, we assessed habitat quality (HQ), carbon storage (CS), soil retention (SR), water conservation (WC), and the combined ecosystem service (CES) of karst and non-karst WH sites in Southwest China from 2000 to 2020 using the InVEST model. We also assessed trade-offs/synergies among ecosystem services using the spatial overlay method, and identified driving factors of variation in ecosystem services using geographical detector and structural equation models. The results showed that ecosystem services of the WH sites exhibited high spatiotemporal variation. In particular, there were higher values in the property zone than in the buffer zone, and an increasing trend in SR but a decreasing trend in HQ and CES over time. Compared to non-karst sites, karst WH sites had significantly lower values of HQ, CS, SR, and CES, but higher spatial heterogeneity in CS, WC, and CES. Weak trade-offs among ecosystem services dominated the WH sites, with the proportion of weak synergies increasing over time. Compared to non-karst sites, karst WH sites had a significantly lower proportion of strong synergies and a significantly higher proportion of weak synergies. The provision of ecosystem services was primarily influenced by natural factors (e.g., landscape division index and normalized difference vegetation index), followed by anthropogenic factors (e.g., distance from road and population density). Overall, these findings may have important implications for decision-making aimed at protecting the outstanding universal value, authenticity, and integrity of WH with different attributes.

Under the background of global environmental change, a huge impact has been made on the village ecosystem, which leads to disorder of structure and function of the village ecosystem. The current management measures of the village have failed in allowing the village to achieve sustainable development. Research on the vulnerability and resilience of the village ecosystem is helpful in regards to the ecological restoration of the village. The research status and progress in regards to the vulnerability and resilience of the village ecosystem are not clear, and the summary of research results and problems is insufficient. Based on 87 related literatures, this paper focuses on the current status and progress of village ecosystem vulnerability and resilience research, and reveals the current research results and shortcomings of village ecosystem vulnerability and resilience. We found that: (1) the research on vulnerability and resilience of the village ecosystem is on the rise; (2) the research mainly focuses on the index system, monitoring and assessment, mechanism research and strategy research. The monitoring and assessment research is the most prominent, which mainly discusses the research methods, the vulnerability and the resilience of the village ecosystem; (3) the study area is mainly concentrated in Asia, North America and Africa. Research institutions are mainly institutions of higher learning and research institutes (centers). Finally, this paper finds that major scientific and technical studies such as the construction of indicator systems and the study of governance strategies in the study of vulnerability and resilience of village ecosystems are lagging behind. In future research, we should deepen the research on the concept and connotation of vulnerability and resilience. We must establish a scientific and reasonable research framework for vulnerability and resilience of the village ecosystem. We should also strengthen and improve the index system of vulnerability and resilience of the village ecosystem. We should strengthen research on the impact mechanisms and governance strategies of vulnerability and resilience, and apply the research on vulnerability and resilience to the planning and governance of the village ecosystem.