The Yellow River Basin and the Yangtze River Basin are the two most important watersheds in China, which consist of several key ecological function areas and are crucial in terms of economic contributions. The evaluation of the ecosystem service value and the quantitative acquisition of the regional ecological quality status are necessary for supporting the ecological protection and high-quality development of the two basins. By considering basic data and adopting different ecological function models, this study was carried out to evaluate the value of ecosystem services in the Yellow River Basin and the Yangtze River Basin from 2015 to 2018 in terms of provisioning services, regulating services, and cultural services. Additionally, analysis was conducted in combination with economic indicators. The results showed that there were great differences in the ecosystem patterns between the Yellow River Basin, where grassland accounted for 45% of land use, and the Yangtze River Basin, where forest accounted for 39% of land use. The values of the ecosystem services of the two basins had similar spatial distributions, with higher values upstream (west) followed by downstream (east) and lower values in the middle (central China). The total annual ecosystem value of the Yangtze River Basin was more than three times that of the Yellow River Basin. In addition, the ecosystem services value of most counties in both basins was higher than their GDP, and there was a positive trend of transforming ecological benefits into economic benefits in the Yangtze River Basin. This research provides a methodology for evaluating ecosystem valuation. The results are helpful for formulating and implementing eco-compensation and payments for ecosystem service policies among different regions in the basins, and the results lay a foundation for the spatial planning and high-quality development paths of key basin areas in China.

Anthropogenic activities have weakened the invasion of ruderals and increased the number of non-native species in urban areas. Ruderals are an important component of urban plant diversity and are of great significance to the sustainable development of urban green space. We used the tessellation–randomized plot method to examine the composition and biodiversity of ruderal species among urban land use types (LUTs) in the built-up areas of Beijing. Soil samples from the surface to a depth of 10 cm were taken from each site to examine the impact of soil characteristics on ruderal species diversity. Results showed that a total of 120 ruderal species were observed, including 71 native and 49 non-native species. Among them, 90% were identified as Cosmopolitan. Native species accounted for the majority of ruderals across all the eight LUTs. Institutional, residential, and woodlot areas with coarser management had higher ruderal species richness than did commercial areas and roadside lawns. Allergenic species showed the highest proportions in municipal parks, and invasive species accounted for 20% of all ruderal species. Ruderal species diversity was related to distance from the urban center, pruning intensity, and soil characteristics. These results suggest that with ruderals playing an important role in urban grass species diversity, there is tremendous potential for more native species in Beijing lawns, which would contribute substantially to increasing the ecological system’s functional benefits. Ruderal species accustomed to the causal processes and environmental conditions of different LUTs should be used and conserved properly to improve the harsh conditions of different LUTs and to sustain ecosystem health.

This paper aims to evaluate the cost of environmental degradation by adopting the conventional environmental economic methodology in China from 2004 to 2017 and summarize the change in both the causes and costs of China’s environmental degradation. Results from this study revealed the following: i. The environmental degradation cost in China increased from 511 billion yuan to 1,892 billion yuan from 2004 to 2017, and its share in the GDP decreased from 3.05% to 2.23%; ii. The environmental degradation cost growth rate was lower than the GDP growth rate. The environmental degradation cost growth rate decreased sharply, by dropping from 10% in 2014 to 2% in 2017. The environmental benefits of industrial transformation have emerged; iii. The provinces of Shandong, Hebei, Jiangsu, Henan, and Guangdong had the highest environmental degradation costs. The annual average growth rate of the environmental degradation costs in Jiangsu, Guangdong, and Zhejiang were lower than their growth rate of the GDP respectively; iv. Consideration of environmental degradation cost in decision-making could contribute to the high-quality development of China.

The DPSIR model is a conceptual model established by the European Environment Agency to solve environmental problems. It provides an overall framework for analysis of environmental problems from five aspects: driving force (D), pressure (P), state (S), impact (I), and response (R). Through use of the DPSIR model framework, this paper presents the SEEC model approach for evaluating watershed ecological security. The SEEC model considers four aspects: socioeconomic impact (S), ecological health (E), ecosystem services function (E), and control management (C). Through screening, 38 evaluation indicators of the SEEC model were determined. The evaluation results showed that the ecological security index of the study area was >80, indicating a generally safe level. The lowest score was mainly attributable to the low rate of treatment of rural domestic sewage. The water quality status was used to evaluate the applicability of the SEEC model, and the calculation results indicated that the higher the score of the ecological security evaluation results, the better the water quality status. The findings show that the SEEC model demonstrates satisfactory applicability to evaluation of watershed ecological security.

As one of China’s most common vegetation types, grasslands comprise about 27.5% of its terrestrial area and 41% of its carbon storage. Since climate change (CC) and human activities (HA) have a great effect on grasslands, quantifying the contributions of CC and HA on grassland net primary productivity (NPP) is crucial in understanding the mechanisms of grassland regional carbon balances. However, current approaches, including residual trend, biophysical model and environmental background-based methods, have limitations on different scales, especially on the national scale of China. To improve assessment accuracy, modifications to the environmental background-based method were introduced in calculating the CC and HA contributions to the actual NPP (ANPP). In this study, the grassland ANPP in national nature reserves was defined as the environmental background value (PNPP), which was only affected by CC and without HA. The pixel PNPP outside the nature reserves could be replaced by the pixel PNPP in the nature reserve with the most similar habitat in the same natural ecological geographical division. The impact of HA on grassland ANPP (HNPP) could be identified by calculating the difference between PNPP and ANPP. Finally, the contributions of CC and HA to ANPP changes were assessed by the trends of ANPP, PNPP, and HNPP. The results showed that the average grassland ANPP significantly increased from 2001 to 2020. CC contributed 71.0% to ANPP change, whereas HA contributed 29.0%. Precipitation was the main contributor to grassland growth among arid and semi-arid regions, while temperature inhibited productivity in these areas. HA was the major cause of degradation in China’s grasslands, although the effects have declined over time. The research could provide support support for government decisions. It could also provide a new and feasible research method for quantitatively evaluating grasslands and other ecosystems.