The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Global Geoparks (UGGp) and geotourism activities not only improve people’s scientific quality by popularizing geoscience knowledge, but also play important roles in protecting precious geoheritages and promoting the development of regional economies. However, tourism activities also have a negative impact on the local ecological environment, placing the regional ecological system under great pressure. Therefore, this paper constructed a tourism ecological security evaluation indicator system suitable for geoparks by using the “Driving-Pressure-State-Impact-Response” (DPSIR) model. The spatial autocorrelation and obstacle degree model are used to analyze the spatio-temporal characteristics and influencing factors of the tourism ecological security index (TESI) of Huanggang Dabieshan UGGp in 2000, 2005, 2010, 2015 and 2018, respectively. The results indicate that the TESI of the study area has gradually improved from 2000 to 2018. Spatially, the level of TESI presents a gradient distribution from the townships where the main scenic spots are located to the surrounding townships. The main obstacle factors affecting TESI include: per capita tourism income, proportion of comprehensive tourism revenue in GDP, per capita net income of rural residents, proportion of tertiary industry in GDP, coverage of nature reserves, planning integrity of geopark, informatization of geopark, growth rate of tourists, comprehensive utilization rate of solid waste, etc. The influencing factors of TESI varied from time to time. Balancing the conflict between local tourism activities and environmental protection, encouraging the participation of local communities, and strengthening science popularization for the local public will effectively improve the tourism ecological security of geoparks.

Frequent droughts have severely undermined agricultural productivity. Using the standardized precipitation evapotranspiration index (SPEI), we identified that drought events predominantly occurred from July to September during 2000–2021 in Jianghan Plain, southern China. Over 50% of the total paddy field area experienced drought conditions in the actual rice growth periods in eight years (2001, 2003, 2006, 2009, 2011, 2018, 2019, and 2021), with the most severe and prolonged event in 2019 lasting nearly 4 months. To assess the ecological impacts, we employed solar-induced chlorophyll fluorescence (SIF) to examine the differential drought responses of three rice cropping systems: common single cropping rice (CSCR), double cropping rice (DCR), and integrated farming of rice and aquaculture animals (IFRA). The main findings are: (1) Under drought years, average SIF reductions were -3.33% for CSCR, -5.09% for DCR, and -2.17% for IFRA, indicating DCR was the most sensitive and the IFRA the least. (2) The sensitivity of rice SIF to water stress declined from the vegetative stage to the ripening stage. (3) Pre-transplanting precipitation anomalies affected the subsequent drought resilience. These findings provide insights into the mechanistic responses of rice photosynthetic capacity to water deficits and offer a framework for evaluating drought impacts on paddy ecosystems.

Frequent droughts seriously threaten rice productivity. Previous studies generally adopted uniform transplanting dates for rice pixels, with relatively limited attention to coexisting cropping systems. This study investigates drought responses of paddy rice ecosystems in the Jianghan Plain from 2000 to 2021 using satellite-derived solar-induced chlorophyll fluorescence (SIF), considering three cropping systems: conventional single-cropping rice (CSCR), double-cropping rice (DCR), and integrated farming of rice and aquaculture animals (IFRA). A pixel-specific phenological matching framework was developed to extract meteorological conditions and SIF values within the actual growing season for each rice pixel, with drought characterized by the standardized precipitation evapotranspiration index (SPEI). Results show that seasonal drought suppressed rice SIF, but the magnitude of decline was not linearly correlated with SPEI. DCR exhibited the greatest SIF reduction, possibly due to two consecutive growing seasons exposed to water stress, whereas IFRA showed the smallest reduction, potentially associated with persistent field water storage. The vegetative stage, particularly during tillering, was most sensitive to drought. Anomalously dry or wet pre-transplant moisture conditions may be associated with greater SIF reduction, while normal moisture conditions tend to produce milder SIF reduction. These findings highlight the importance of cropping system characteristics and phenological stages in modulating rice drought responses, providing insights into drought assessment and water resource management under diverse cropping systems.