Ecological security assessment aims at identifying an ecosystem’s stability, recognizing the ability to maintain ecological health under various scenarios of ecological risks. In this study, we focus on the ecological security of Liao River Basin not only in terms of directly considering the sustainable development of the basin itself but also in terms of its importance as part of an ecological macro-control for northeast China. We built a “structure-quality-process” analytical framework to assess the ecological security of Liao River Basin. Our results showed that (i) land conversion from cultivated to artificial surfaces represented a dramatic change occurring in the region; (ii) the requirements of regional sustainable development would not likely be satisfied in regard to the given ecosystem services provided by the basin due to poor spatial coordination capability; and (iii) the priority areas for optimizing the ecological security patterns of the basin include the upstream and the downstream regions. The “structure-quality-process” assessment framework provides a dynamic perspective of ecological security and also considers the relationships and functions of the internal structures and processes of the ecosystem. The optimization of ecosystem structures and processes is essential and forms the basic measures and key content of macro-control for well-structured ecological security patterns.

Ecosystem services (ES) are indispensable contributors to rural population wellbeing (RPWB). Understanding the relationship between ES and RPWB is important to human welfare and conserving ecosystem services. Ecologically-vulnerable areas are widely distributed in China and are concentrated with impoverished people. This study explored the relations of ES and RPWB in an ecologically-fragile area, and provided some recommendations for regional improvement. We developed an evaluation framework, analyzed the spatio-temporal characteristics of services and RPWB, and examined their relations. Results showed that: (1) the level of RPWB in an ecologically-vulnerable area was lower than that in the downstream region; however, the wellbeing gap between regions has narrowed over time; (2) Regions with a higher ecosystem service capacity had higher levels of rural population wellbeing, and vice versa; (3) In addition to the food supply, other ES indicators were closely associated with RPWB in the region. Specifically, the net income and living space were closely related to food supply, while rural-urban income ratio and water environment were more relevant to the other services. Lastly, it is important to address environment and poverty issues simultaneously.

It has been demonstrated that climate change is an established fact. A good comprehension of climate and extreme weather variation characteristics on a temporal and a spatial scale is important for adaptation and response. In this work, the characteristics of temperature, precipitation, and extreme weather distribution and variation is summarized for a period of 60 years and the seasonal fluctuation of temperature and precipitation is also analyzed. The results illustrate the reduction in daily and annual temperature divergence on both temporal and spatial scales. However, the gaps remain relatively significant. Furthermore, the disparity in daily and annual precipitation are found to be increasing on both temporal and spatial scales. The findings indicate that climate change, to a certain extent, narrowed the temperature gap while widening the precipitation gap on temporal and spatial scales in China.