Groundwater resource is crucial for the development of agriculture and urban communities in valley basins of arid and semiarid regions. This research investigated the groundwater chemistry of a typical urbanized valley basin on the Tibetan Plateau to understand the hydrochemical status, quality, and controlling mechanisms of groundwater in arid urbanized valley basins. The results show groundwater is predominantly fresh and slightly alkaline across the basin, with approximately 54.17% of HCO₃-Ca type. About 12.5% and 33.33% of sampled groundwaters are with the hydrochemical facies of Cl-Mg·Ca type and Cl-Na type, respectively. Groundwater is found with the maximum TDS, NO₃⁻, NO₂⁻, and F⁻ content of 3066 mg/L, 69.33 mg/L, 0.04 mg/L, and 3.12 mg/L, respectively. Groundwater quality is suitable for domestic usage at all sampling sites based on EWQI assessment but should avoid direct drinking at some sporadic sites in the urban area. The exceeding nitrogen and fluoride contaminants would pose potential health hazards to local residents, but high risks only existed for infants. Both minors and adults are at medium risk of these exceedingly toxic contaminants. Groundwater quality of predominant sites in the basin is suitable for long-term irrigation according to the single indicator of EC, SAR, %Na, RSC, KR, PI, and PS and integrated irrigation quality assessment of USSL, Wilcox, and Doneen diagram assessment. But sodium hazard, alkalinity hazard, and permeability problem should be a concern in the middle-lower stream areas. Groundwater chemistry in the basin is predominantly governed by water-rock interaction (silicate dissolution) across the basin in natural and sporadically by evaporation. Human activities have posed disturbances to groundwater chemistry and inputted nitrogen, fluoride, and salinity into groundwater. The elevated nitrogen contaminants in groundwater are from both agricultural activities and municipal sewage. While the elevated fluoride and salinity in groundwater are only associated with municipal sewage. It is imperative to address the potential anthropogenic contaminants to safeguard groundwater resources from the adverse external impacts of human settlements within these urbanized valley basins.

Developing effective forest management plans to address the threats posed by global climate change has garnered widespread attention worldwide. A prerequisite for successful adaptation is the ability to forecast and understand how climatic changes affect the provision of ecosystem services. Although notable progress has been made in adapting forest systems to climate change, sustaining multiple forest ecosystem services remains a major challenge for forest management. It is, therefore, imperative to develop feasible approaches that not only enhance the adaptive capacity of forests but also optimize the delivery of ecosystem services. In this review, we first synthesize current knowledge on forest ecosystem responses and adaptive mechanisms under changing climatic conditions. We then examine existing forest management strategies and propose a conceptual framework for adaptive forest management that explicitly integrates ecosystem service objectives within the context of climate change. Finally, we highlight key research gaps and suggest priorities for future studies. We strongly advocate that future forest management planning should take the enhancement of multiple ecosystem services as a central objective under evolving climate conditions. The framework proposed in this study offers a novel perspective on adaptive forest management and provides a potential pathway for strengthening human capacity to manage ecosystems sustainably.

The source regions of the Yangtze and Yellow Rivers on the Tibetan Plateau provide vital water resources for downstream ecosystems and populations, yet their runoff responses to climate warming remain insufficiently understood. Based on daily runoff data from six hydrological stations in the Yellow and the Yangtze River basins during 1980–2023, this study investigates the evolution and relatively stronger statistical climatic association of runoff in the source regions of the Yangtze and Yellow Rivers. The results indicate that annual runoff exhibited an overall increasing trend, primarily driven by a significant increase in non-flood-season runoff, while flood-season runoff increased insignificantly; Low runoff indices increased significantly at most stations, reflecting enhanced low-flow conditions and increased dry-season water availability, whereas high runoff indices showed no significant trends; wavelet analysis identified dominant periodicities of approximately 13.5 and 4.8 years. Furthermore, it indicates that precipitation remains the relatively stronger partial statistical climatic association for flood-season runoff throughout the study period, with its statistical association continuously strengthening. However, under climate warming, the influence of temperature on runoff is also gradually intensifying. The preceding cold season has exhibited an increased statistical contribution of temperatures, although concurrent warm-season precipitation maintains a stable statistical contribution. These findings carry significant implications for sustainable water resource management and climate adaptation in the Asian Water Tower, underscoring the necessity to incorporate changing climatic associations into long-term hydrological planning to safeguard downstream water security and ecosystem services.

To address the challenges of immature theories and technologies for ecological restoration in high-altitude mining areas, this study focuses on the Jiangcang mining area at an altitude of 3850 m, aiming to develop an effective and comprehensive ecological restoration model. Through on-site investigation and diagnosis, a site-specific approach was adopted, incorporating topography restoration following natural terrain, on-site screening of mine waste for cover soil materials, soil improvement with bulk blending fertilizer, mixed sowing of native grass species, slope stability analysis using Bishop’s method, and environmental monitoring. The results showed that the restored area reached 9303 mu. The soil structure and holding capacity of coal gangue and waste soil were effectively improved, and the artificial soil exhibited good fertility. Vegetation coverage exceeded 90%, outperforming that of the surrounding natural grassland. Surface water quality met the Grade II standard, and all slope safety factors exceeded 1.20, indicating that potential geological hazards were significantly eliminated. These findings suggest that this integrated ecological restoration model successfully restored ecosystem functions in the mining area, providing a replicable and scalable “Jiangcang model” for addressing ecological restoration challenges in high-altitude mining regions, with substantial ecological, social, and economic benefits.