Researchers and managers of natural resource conservation have increasingly emphasized the importance of maintaining a connected network of important ecological patches to mitigate landscape fragmentation, reduce the decline of biodiversity, and sustain ecological services. This research aimed to guide landscape management and decision-making by developing an evaluation framework to construct ecological security patterns. Taking the Jianghan Plain as the study area, we identified key ecological sources by overlaying the spatial patterns of ecological quality (biodiversity, carbon storage, and water yield) and ecological sensitivity (habitat sensitivity, soil erosion sensitivity, and water sensitivity) using the Integrated Valuation of Environmental Services and Tradeoffs (InVEST) model and the Chinese Soil Loss Equation Function. Ecological corridors were obtained by the least-cost path analysis method and circuit theory. A total of 48 ecological sources (3812.95 km²), primarily consisting of water area, forestland, and cropland, were identified. Ninety-one ecological corridors were derived, with a total length of 2036.28 km. Forty barriers and 40 pinch points with the highest improvement coefficient scores or priority scores were selected. There were 11 priority corridors with very high levels of connectivity improvement potential and conservation priority, occupying 16.15% of the total length of corridors. The overall potential for ecological connectivity is high on the Jianghan Plain. Our framework offers a valuable reference for constructing ecological security patterns and identifying sites for ecological restoration at the regional scale.

Controlling soil erosion is beneficial to the conservation of soil resources and ecological restoration. Understanding the spatial distribution characteristics of soil erosion helps find the key areas for soil control projects and optimal scale for investing in a soil and water conservation project at the lowest cost. This study aims to answer the question of how the spatial distribution of soil erosion in Hubei Province changed between 2000 and 2020. Moreover, how do the effects of natural factors and human activities on soil erosion vary over the years? What are the differences in landscape pattern characteristics and the spatial cluster of soil erosion at multiple administrative scales? We simulated the spatial distribution of soil erosion in Hubei province from 2000 to 2020 by the Chinese Soil Loss Equation model at three administrative scales. We investigated the relationship between soil erosion and driving factors by Geodector. We explored the landscape pattern and hotspots of land at different levels of soil erosion by Fragstat and hotspot analysis. The results show that: (1) The average soil erosion rate decreased from 2000 to 2020. Soil erosion is severe in the mountainous areas of western Hubei province, while it is less severe in the central plains. (2) Land-cover type, precipitation, and normalized difference vegetation index are the most influencing factors of soil erosion in 2000–2010, 2015, and 2020, respectively. (3) The aggregation index values at the town scale are higher than those at the city and county scales, while the fractal dimension index values at the town scale are lower, which indicates that soil erosion projects are most efficient when the project unit is ‘town’. (4) At the town scale, if the hotspot area (6.84% of the total area) is treated as the protection target, it can reduce 50.42% of the total soil erosion of Hubei province. Hotspots of soil erosion overlap with high erosion zones, mainly in the northwestern, northeastern, and southwestern parts of Hubei province in 2000, while the hotspots in northwestern Hubei disappear in 2020. In conclusion, land managers in Hubei should optimize the land-use structure, soil and water conservation in slope land, and eco-engineering controls at the town scale.

Abiotic stresses increasingly threaten crop productivity, whereas reliance on chemical and resource-intensive interventions can compromise environmental sustainability. Existing literature identifies Trichoderma spp. as multifunctional biocontrol agents, biofertilizers, and microbial biostimulants capable of influencing plant growth, stress signaling, and rhizosphere processes; however, evidence remains fragmented across strains, crops, formulations, and stress conditions. This review aimed to integrate current knowledge on Trichoderma-mediated resilience to salinity, drought, heavy metals, temperature extremes, and emerging pollutants, while distinguishing experimentally validated mechanisms from statistical associations and conceptual inference. It evaluates constraints governing reproducibility from controlled studies to field deployment. The synthesis shows that selected crop–strain systems improve root architecture, photosynthesis, antioxidant regulation, osmotic adjustment, nutrient acquisition, ion homeostasis, hormonal balance, and stress-responsive gene expression. Benefits arise through coordinated delivery, root colonization, metabolite and protein signaling, physiological reprogramming, and rhizosphere modulation. Nevertheless, microbiome co-occurrence patterns do not establish causal network repair, evidence for broad heat and cold protection remains limited, and biochar co-application should not be interpreted as a carrier formulation without direct validation. Future progress requires strain- and crop-specific screening, mechanistic gene and protein studies, standardized formulations, combined-stress experiments, multi-location field trials, biosafety evaluation, and farmer-level economic assessment to develop reliable precision microbial technologies.

Cadmium (Cd) contamination threatens wheat productivity by impairing growth, redox homeostasis, and metal partitioning. Beneficial fungi and phytohormones improve plant stress tolerance, but the combined role of Trichoderma harzianum and the synthetic strigolactone analog GR24 in wheat Cd tolerance remains unclear. This study evaluated whether co-application of T. harzianum and GR24 enhances Cd tolerance by improving growth, photosynthetic activity, and antioxidant defense, and by reducing Cd accumulation. A greenhouse pot experiment was conducted with two Cd levels (Cd₀ and Cd₁), two GR24 treatments (H₀, without GR24; H₁, 100 mg L⁻¹ GR24), and two T. harzianum treatments (TH₀ and TH₁; 2 g kg⁻¹ soil), using five biological replications. Cd stress markedly inhibited wheat growth, photosynthetic performance, and antioxidant defense while increasing oxidative injury and Cd accumulation in plant tissues. Under Cd stress, the combined GR24-T. harzianum treatment increased shoot growth and biomass by 53.04–80.43%, reduced EL, MDA, and H₂O₂ by 18.70–30.36%, enhanced SOD, POD, and CAT activities by 24.01–44.50%, and lowered Cd concentrations in roots, shoots, and leaves by 41.09–56.19%. These responses strengthen the treatment’s practical relevance. Collectively, these findings indicate that T. harzianum-GR24 co-application offers a promising biological approach to improve wheat resilience and reduce Cd accumulation in wheat tissues.