C2H2 zinc finger proteins (ZFPs) play important roles in plant development and response to abiotic stresses, and have been studied extensively. However, there are few studies on ZFPs in mangroves and mangrove associates, which represent a unique plant community with robust stress tolerance. MpZFP1, which is highly induced by salt stress in the mangrove associate Millettia pinnata, was cloned and functionally characterized in this study. MpZFP1 protein contains two zinc finger domains with conserved QALGGH motifs and targets to the nucleus. The heterologous expression of MpZFP1 in Arabidopsis increased the seeds’ germination rate, seedling survival rate, and biomass accumulation under salt stress. The transgenic plants also increased the expression of stress-responsive genes, including RD22 and RD29A, and reduced the accumulation of reactive oxygen species (ROS). These results indicate that MpZFP1 is a positive regulator of plant responses to salt stress due to its activation of gene expression and efficient scavenging of ROS.

The objective of this study was to analyze the effects of calcium chloride (CaCl₂) used as a de-icing agent on growth and physiological responses of three ground cover plants, Hosta longipes, Iris ensata, and Iris pseudacorus. CaCl₂ concentration was set to be 0 mM (control), 9 mM (0.1%), 18 mM (0.2%), and 54 mM (0.6%). After treatment with CaCl₂ for 3 months, plant heights, fresh weights of shoots and roots, photosynthetic rates, chlorophyll fluorescence, chlorophyll content (SPAD), and leaf water potential were measured. After Hosta longipes was treated with CaCl₂ for 60 days, physiological damage began to occur in all treatment groups except for the control group. Those treated with 54 mM CaCl₂ completely withered. At 90 days after treatment (DAT), there were significant differences for all measured parameters for Hosta longipes compared to the control (p < 0.001). The higher the treatment concentration, the lower the photosynthetic rate, the SPAD, and the leaf water potential. There was no significant difference in plant height in Iris ensata after 60 DAT (p > 0.05), but in other physiological responses, there was a significant difference by concentration (p < 0.001). Iris ensata had a visually healthier state at 90 DAT, showing the smallest reduction in photosynthetic rate at 60 DAT and 90 DAT. Its SPAD value was increased more at 90 DAT than at 60 DAT, indicating its higher resistance to CaCl₂. Iris pseudacorus showed similar results as Iris ensata. Over time, the 54 mM treatment resulted in significant damage. Among these three plants, Iris ensata showed the highest tolerance to CaCl₂. Therefore, they are considered to be highly beneficial ground cover plants for green infrastructure in urban areas with high CaCl₂ concentrations.

Background and objective: The area of mangroves is gradually decreasing globally, and mangroves are already one of the most threatened ecosystems. Despite net growth in the mangrove areas in China, the restoration potential of mangroves is still insufficient. This study proposed the Random forest model as an excellent data mining method to map the restoration potential based on the predicted probability of mangrove habitat suitability.Methods: We demonstrated the vital environmental variables influencing habitat suitability. The de-cisive advantages of RFM were parsimonious (variables selection), cost-effective (us-ing existing open-source data), accurate (training AUC was 0.89, testing AUC was 0.91), highly efficient (fast-training speed); and its results had high explanatory power. Here, we first mapped the conservation gaps using the RFM.Results: The results showed that temperature was the most important environmental factor influencing the habitat suit-ability of mangroves. The northern limit of suitable areas was around 24°44' N. The theoretical suitable habitat area for mangrove was 196,566.6 ha (the highly suitable area was 32,551.4 ha, the medium suitable area was 164,015.2 ha). The potential area for mangrove restoration was 176,264 ha (Guangdong with 104215.4 ha, Guangxi with 65957.5 ha).Conclusion: We proposed 24 sites with conservation gaps for mangrove forests restoration and nine potential sites as examples for the further restoration plan. We took one example site with high restoration potential for further explanation: how the key environmental factors influence the habitat suitability and how to use the infor-mation to guide the restoration strategies. RFM can be used as a data mining algo-rithm for the utmost use of the presence-only ecological data, objectively evaluating the suitability of species distribution, and providing scientifically technical data for species restoration planning.

한국조경학회지(Journal of the Korean Institute of Landscape Architecture)

한국조경학회지(Journal of the Korean Institute of Landscape Architecture)