Accurately identifying the spatiotemporal variations and driving factors of ecosystem services (ES) in ecological restoration is important for ecosystem management and the sustainability of nature conservation strategies. As the Green for Grain project proceeds, food provision, water regulation and climate regulation services in the Northern Shaanxi Loess Plateau (NSLP) are changing and have caused broad attention. In this study, the dynamic pattern of the normalized differential vegetation index (NDVI) and the main drivers of grain production (GP), water yield (WY) and net primary production (NPP) in the NSLP from 2000–2013 are identified by incorporating multiple data and methods, in order to provide a better understanding of how and why ES change during ecological restoration. WY was simulated by hydrological modeling, and NPP was estimated with the Carnegie Ames Stanford Approach (CASA) model. The results show that vegetation restoration continued from 2000–2013, but fluctuated because of the comprehensive influence of climate and human activity. GP and NPP both exhibited significantly increasing trends, while changes in WY occurred in two stages: decline (2000–2006) and growth (2007–2013). Spatially, significantly increasing trends in NPP and WY were detected in 52.73% and 24.76% of the region, respectively, in areas that correspond with the Green for Grain project and high precipitation growth. Correlation and partial correlation analyses show that there were different dominant factors (i.e., natural vs. anthropogenic) driving ES change in the NSLP from 2000–2013. The change in WY was mainly driven by precipitation, while the improvements in GP and NPP can be attributed to investments in natural capital (i.e., chemical fertilizer, agricultural machinery power and afforestation). We also found that vegetation restoration can produce positive effects on NPP, but negative effects on WY by using response analyses of WY or NPP change to NDVI change, demonstrating that additional research on the role of water in vegetation restoration is needed. Our results provide support for ES management and the sustainable development of ecological restoration in the NSLP.

The process for reasonably evaluating the potential impacts of circular agriculture on the environment has become a key issue in the sustainable development of circular agriculture. Based on this consideration, by using Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and focusing on the circular agriculture industry company of Xingyuan, Fuqing, this paper evaluates the potential impacts of the pig farming industry-dragon fruit planting-forage planting-fishery industry-mushroom planting-biogas generating-organic fertilizer production circular agriculture model compared to a main agriculture industrial model, the pig farming industry, from environmental and environmental-economic perspectives. Moreover, this paper determines key elements that restrict the development of circular agriculture through a sensitivity analysis. The results show that if we simply consider the potential environmental impacts, circular agriculture does not produce better results than those of the main agricultural production model. In addition, if we consider reducing the potential environmental impact as well as improving the economic benefits from the perspective of a “reduction ring”, we should consider removing mushroom planting and organic fertilizer from the circular agriculture framework. Moreover, if we want to reduce the potential environmental impact without changing the current recycling model, we should focus on the premix components, especially the three main components of corn, soybean meal, and whey protein concentrate.

Studying the characteristics, trends, and evolution of carbon emissions in agricultural related sectors is of great significance for rational formulation of carbon emission reduction policies. However, as an important carbon emission reduction policy, carbon tax has been controversial over whether or not it should be levied on China. Based on this consideration, this paper takes China’s agricultural related sectors as an example and analyzes the degree of carbon tax on macro-environment, macroeconomy, and agricultural sectors during the period 2020–2050 by constructing a 3EAD-CGE (economy-energy-environmental-agricultural-dynamics Computable General Equilibrium) model. The results show that: (1) carbon tax has a time effect, specifically, the short-term effect is better than the long-term. (2) If the incremental rate of carbon tax is carried out alone, it will exert a great influence on the macroeconomy as well as on most of the agricultural related sectors. (3) If a carbon tax is introduced at the same time as indirect taxes are cut (proportionally), the policy will exert a negative impact on agriculture-related sectors that are subsidized. However, the policy will have a positive impact on those nonsubsidized sectors. Finally, based on the results, we put forward some suggestions that are more suitable for the introduction of a carbon tax in China’s agricultural-related sectors.

Identifying the relationships between ecosystem services (ESs) and land use change is crucial for ES management and sustainable regional development. The Manas region in China has witnessed dramatic reclamation activities in its desert areas that resulted in ecological problems. The changes in eight ESs, including crop production (CP), livestock production (LP), soil conservation (SC), water yield (WY), sand fixation (SF), carbon sequestration (CS), habitat quality (HQ), and nature landscape recreation (NLR), were investigated by using biophysical and questionnaire methods. At the regional scale, provisioning services (i.e., CP and LP) showed some performance improvements, whereas most of the regulating services (i.e., WY, CS, and HQ) along with NLR showed a performance decline. Five ES bundles—Upper Mountain, Foothill, Oasis, Oasis–Desert Transition, and Desert bundle—were identified at the township scale via k-means clustering. From 2000 to 2015, the Oasis bundle sprawled as a result of oasisization, whereas the Oasis–Desert Transition and Foothill bundles decreased. We performed a questionnaire survey and a statistical analysis to identify the causes behind the performance improvement/decline of these ESs and found that the land use changes in the Manas region had a significant impact on these services. More than 50% of the survey respondents identified land use changes as the primary driver of the changes in some ESs (i.e., CP, CS, HQ, and NLR). In the correlation and partial correlation analyses, oasisization was significantly and positively correlated with CP but was negatively correlated with WY, CS, HQ, and NLR. We enhanced the reliability of our conclusions by integrating biophysical and sociocultural methods into our investigation of ES and land use change. In view of the huge losses in regulating and cultural services, the Manas region should limit its desert reclamation activities to control the expansion of its oasis and to improve the quality of its cropland. Our results can help formulate effective ES management and land use decisions in the Manas region or similar areas.