Habitat suitability assessment is critical for wildlife population conservation and management planning. The MaxEnt model is widely used in species habitat suitability modeling. In order to investigate the habitat status of the black-necked crane in the Zoige grassland wetland ecological function area, this study evaluated the habitat suitability of the black-necked crane using the MaxEnt model with 152 occurrence records and 13 environmental variables. Based on the Akaike information criterion corrected for the small sample size, the best optimal parameter combination (feature class LQPHT, regularization multiplier 3.0) was selected. The results show that the Maxent model had good accuracy with an area under the curve (AUC) value of 0.895. Distance to roads, average summer precipitation, distance to lakes, and altitude are the dominant environmental variables affecting the potential distribution of black-necked cranes, with the contribution rates of 31.6%, 29.8%, 14.3%, and 8.2%, respectively. The suitable habitat area of black-necked cranes is mainly distributed in and around the Zoige Wetland National Nature Reserve, accounting for 46.49% of the Zoige Grassland Wetland National Key Ecological Function Zone. The potential distribution area has a tendency to spread to Hongyuan County in the south of the functional zone, and the unsuitable habitat is mainly distributed in the high-altitude area in the southwest of the functional zone. This study recommends focusing on the distribution area of black-necked cranes around Zoige Wetland National Nature Reserve and Hongyuan County to improve conservation strategies and strengthen protection efforts.

As the largest alpine peat swamp wetland distribution area in the world, the Zoige has important ecological functions, including water conservation and biodiversity maintenance. In the past 20 years, the regional ecological protection and restoration measures continuously strengthened under the leadership of the local government have led to gradual improvements in the ecological environment of the region. In this study, multisource satellite remote-sensing image data were used to carry out quantitative monitoring and assessment of the main ecological elements (vegetation and water), as well as the regional leading ecosystem service function in the Zoige. Combined with local ecological protection management policies and measures, we analyzed the characteristics and effectiveness of ecological protection. We compared the ecosystem change trends of the Zoige reserve and the county, from 2001 to 2020, and found that the fractional vegetation cover (FVC) of Zoige county has increased at a rate of 0.25%/year. The growth rate was highest between 2015 and 2020, and the growth rate of FVC in the Zoige Wetland National Nature Reserve is approximately 1.89-fold that of the whole county. The water area also shows similar variation characteristics. On the whole, the water conservation capacity of the Zoige showed a significant increase from 2001 to 2020. We used high-resolution satellite remote-sensing images to capture the details of land use changes brought about by local ecological protection policies and measures, and together with macroecological indicators, we reflected on the effectiveness of regional ecological protection measures. We observed that the ecological effects of nature reserves are more direct and rapid, and the amount of water conservation within the nature reserve is about 1 × 10⁴ m³/km² higher than that of the surrounding grasslands. Satellite remote-sensing images can not only capture the multiscale change information of ecological indicators, such as vegetation and water, in a timely manner, but can also help us to identify the effectiveness of conservation measures by distinguishing and analyzing the causes of these changes.

Water conservation is an essential indicator of the hydrological regulation capacity of terrestrial ecosystems. At the regional scale, the water conservation capacity of an ecosystem is typically assessed using the water balance model (WBM). However, the estimation of the runoff depth relies heavily on rainfall data and the ecosystem runoff coefficient look-up table, which introduces uncertainties in the assessment results. To address this issue, this study constructed a new method for quantifying the spatiotemporal distribution pattern of runoff depth based on the ecosystem type and regional spatial heterogeneity characteristics using runoff observation data from hydrological observation stations. We use this new method to evaluate the water conservation capacity of the ecosystem on a regional scale and compare and analyze the differences between the new and old methods in terms of connotation, data format, and evaluation results. Finally, we discuss the advantages and potential applications of the new method.

The protection of ecological systems is currently a trending topic. Numerous countries have implemented various measures to safeguard ecosystems. Evaluating the effectiveness of regional ecological protection and cooperative conservation is of paramount importance. In this paper, Hainan Island, China, was taken as an example to construct an evaluation framework of the ecosystem change characteristics and conservation effects of different types of protected areas. In this way, the study evaluated the ecological status of important protected areas and the effects of collaborative management and control, and it discussed the changes in ecological status and protection effects. The results revealed the following. (1) Important protected areas occupy a large proportion of natural ecological space, reaching 76.33%, more than twice the proportion of ecological space on Hainan Island. In the past 20 years, the ecological space retention rate has increased by 0.57%. (2) The contribution of excellent-quality and good-quality ecosystems is the greatest, accounting for 82.65% of the whole island. In the past 20 years, the ec7osystem quality has improved in more than 80% of the areas. The proportion of excellent-quality and good-quality ecosystems is as high as 96.75% in these conservation areas, and their contribution to Hainan Island is 44.29%, while conservation areas only account for about 38%. (3) The ecosystem services of Hainan Island have improved and become stable in the past 20 years. The contribution of all types of protected areas to the ecosystem services of Hainan Island is more than 53.22%. In general, the ecological quality and service function has increased in Hainan Island, and the ecological space tends to be stable. Different types of protected areas have effectively protected various ecosystems on Hainan Island with different protection and management mechanisms.