Karst rocky desertification occurs after vegetation deteriorates as a result of intensive land use, which leads to severe water loss and soil erosion and exposes basement rocks, creating a rocky landscape. Karst rocky desertification is found in humid areas in southwest China, the region most seriously affected by rocky desertification in the world. In order to promote ecological restoration and help peasants out of poverty, the Chinese government carried out the first phase of a rocky desertification control project from 2006 to 2015, which initially contained the expansion of rocky desertification. Currently, the Chinese government is prepared to implement the second phase of the rocky desertification control project, and therefore it is essential to summarise the lessons learned over the last 10 years of the first phase. In this paper, we analyse the driving social and economic factors behind rocky desertification, summarise the scientific research on rocky desertification in the region, and finally identify the main problems facing rocky desertification control. In addition, we put forward several policy suggestions that take into account the perspective of local peasants, scientific research, and China's economic development and urbanisation process. These suggestions include promoting the non-agriculturalization of household livelihoods, improving ecological compensation, strengthening the evaluation of rocky desertification control and dynamic monitoring, and strengthening research on key ecological function recovery technologies and supporting technologies.

To improve water quality and reduce the negative impacts of sudden inputs of water pollution in the Lixia River watershed, China, a series of experimental water transfers from the Yangtze River to the Lixia River were conducted from 2 December 2006 to 7 January 2007. Water samples were collected every six days at 55 monitoring sites during this period. Eight water parameters (water temperature, pH, dissolved oxygen (DO), chemical oxygen demand (COD), potassium permanganate index (COD_Mn), ammonia nitrogen (NH₄⁺-N), electrical conductivity (EC), and water transparency (WT)) were analyzed to determine changes in nutrient concentrations during water transfers. The comprehensive pollution index (Pi) and single-factor (Si) evaluation methods were applied to evaluate spatio-temporal patterns of water quality during water transfers. Water quality parameters displayed different spatial and temporal distribution patterns within the watershed. Water quality was improved significantly by the water transfers, especially for sites closer to water intake points. The degree of improvement is positively related to rates of transfer inflow and drainage outflow. The effects differed for different water quality parameters at each site and at different water transfer times. There were notable decreases in NH₄⁺-N, DO, COD, and COD_Mn across the entire watershed. However, positive effects on EC and pH were not observed. It is concluded that freshwater transfers from the Yangtze River can be used as an emergency measure to flush pollutants from the Lixia River watershed. Improved understanding of the effects of water transfers on water quality can help the development and implementation of effective strategies to improve water quality within this watershed.

Houzhai (Guizhou Province, Southwest China) is a typical karstification area, with dolomite and limestone constituting the major rock types. The aim of this study was to utilize major element mass-balance and multivariate statistical methods to analyze the chemical composition of water in the Houzhai River catchment area with regard to seasonal variations in ion content, dissolution reactions, and rates. Data demonstrated that the Houzhai's hydrochemical composition is dominated by calcium (Ca²⁺), magnesium (Mg²⁺), bicarbonate (HCO₃⁻), and sulfate (SO₄²⁻) which predominantly originated from chemical weathering of carbonate rocks like limestone and dolomite. Carbonate weathering contributes 83% of the dissolved Ca²⁺. Sulfuric acid also plays an important role in rock weathering. Our analysis identified three principal sources of hydrochemical variation in the study area, including dolomite dissolution, limestone dissolution, and anthropogenic activities. In addition, the identified two main hydrochemical facies were characterized by the predominance of Ca-Mg-HCO₃ and Ca-Mg-HCO₃-SO₄. In terms of temporal variation, all of the examined parameters showed strong inter-annual and seasonal variations of concentration distribution, except pH levels and potassium and sodium (K⁺+Na⁺). The dissolution rate of carbonate was estimated using the concentration of Ca²⁺ and discharge rate, which constitutes a simple, practical, and innovative method. Compared with other research methods, our strategy was found to be simple, feasible, readily adaptable, and less demanding of data inputs.

Carbon sink in karstic areas is very important at a global scale. Consequently, accurate determination of the carbon sink of karst ecosystems has become a core issue in research. We used flow and carbon ion concentration data from three stations with different environmental background conditions in the Houzhai Basin, southwestern China, to analyse the differences in carbon uptake between stations and to determine their impact factors. The results show that carbon sink discharge was mainly controlled by the flow at each site. Preliminary analysis indicated that the rapid increase in flow only had a partial dilution effect on the ion concentrations due to the high speed and stability of chemical carbonate weathering. The Land-Use and Cover-Change (LUCC) type had important effects on the bicarbonate ion concentrations; under stable run-off conditions, the influence of flow variation on the ion concentration was lower than the effects of chemical carbonate weathering on bicarbonate ion concentrations under different environmental conditions (a comparison of Laoheitan and Liugu stations showed a difference of 150 %). However, if run-off increased significantly, the impact of run-off variation on bicarbonate ions was greater than the effects of chemical carbonate weathering caused under different environmental conditions. This work provides a reference for the calculation of the karst geological carbon sink.