Ecosystem services are fundamental in supporting human well-being which is a core component of sustainability. Understanding the relationship between ecosystem services (ESs) and human well-being (HWB) in a changing landscape is important to implement appropriate ecosystem management and policy development. Combining with demographic, economic, and cultural factors, their land use are the elements linking ESs and HWB at fine scale. Within this context, the purpose of this study is to evaluate household HWB changes in the past decade, and understand the relationship between demographic factors, land use, ESs, and HWB in the social-ecological landscapes of Uxin, in Inner Mongolia. Our results indicate that: the levels of HWB of local herder families were slightly improved from 2007 to 2016; changes in family demographic factors enhanced their land use intensity, resulting in an increased supply capacity of ecosystems and improved HWB; in addition, regulating services contributed more to HWB than provisioning services. The results of this study can help improve the understanding of the relationship between ESs and HWB, and provide valuable information to policy-makers to maintain particular ESs or to improve HWB.

At present, the relationship between the diversity distribution patterns of different taxonomic levels of plants and climatic factors is still unclear. This paper explored the diversity pattern of vascular plant families, genera, and species in China at the municipal scale. It also studied the effects of accumulated temperature ≥ 10°C, annual precipitation, and hydrothermal base which reflect the effect of hydrothermal resources on the plant diversity pattern. The results showed that: There were extremely significant correlations among the diversities of plant families, genera, and species, and the interpretation degree of diversity between adjacent the taxonomic levels was more than 90%. The diversity pattern of plant families was mainly affected by dominant climatic state indicators such as the maximum value of accumulated temperature, annual precipitation, and hydrothermal base, and the gradient range of the hydrothermal base, which showed a clear latitudinal gradient law. The diversity pattern of plant species was found to be mainly dependent on the climatic heterogeneity indicators, being closely related to the heterogeneity indicators and sum indicators of the hydrothermal base. It was also affected by the range of precipitation gradient range. Plant genus and its diversity pattern are not only significantly affected by heterogeneity and sum indicators but also closely related to climate state indicators. In comparison with the humidity index in vegetation ecological studies, the related indicators of the hydrothermal base proposed in this paper excelled at revealing the relationship between climate and diversity patterns of plant families, genera, and species, and could effectively solve the species-area relationship issue in arid and low-temperature areas. The results of this paper have presented important theoretical and practical values for comprehensively understanding the correlation between climate and diversity of plant families, genera, and species, clarifying the impact of climate difference and climate change on plant diversity.

Background: Caloric value is an important indicator of grassland ecosystem function, but the response of caloric value to nitrogen (N) addition and mowing is still unclear. We explored the adaptive changes of plant caloric value and energy standing crop along a N addition gradient after six-year NH₄NO₃ addition and mowing treatments in an Inner Mongolian temperate meadow steppe in northern China. Results: We found that the response of plant caloric value to N addition at different organizational levels was diverse. The caloric value of legumes increased linearly with N addition rates. The caloric value of grasses exhibited a non-linear response trend, initially increasing followed by saturation or decrease, with a N response threshold present. Due to the dominance of grass species, the caloric value at the community level followed a similar pattern to that of the grasses along the N addition gradient. Under mowing, the caloric value of plants at each organizational level increased and usually mowing enhanced the N response threshold. Amongst these, the N response threshold of Leymus chinensis increased from 3.302 to 5.443 g N m⁻² yr⁻¹, grasses increased from 4.414 to 5.746 g N m⁻² yr⁻¹, and community increased from 5.373 to 9.216 g N m⁻² yr⁻¹. Under non-mowing treatment, the N response thresholds of the most dominant species, Leymus chinensis, and community energy standing crop were 10.001 and 15.119 g N m⁻² yr⁻¹, respectively. Under mowing, the energy standing crops showed a linear increasing trend. Conclusions: N response thresholds of plant caloric value and energy standing crop vary at different organizational levels (community > functional group > species). The results reveal varying regulatory capabilities of plants on the ecological environment at different organizational levels. These findings enhance our understanding of plant-environment interactions in grassland ecosystems under N deposition from an energy perspective, which is of great significance to clarify the response mechanism of grassland ecosystem structure and function to N deposition.

Determining how nitrogen (N) addition and mowing jointly affect aboveground net primary productivity (ANPP) is crucial for assessing the sustainable utilization of grassland ecosystems under increasing N deposition. However, it remains unclear how these two factors together influence the thresholds of ANPP and N saturation as well as the underlying stoichiometric mechanisms. In a typical meadow steppe in Inner Mongolia, we established a field experiment with a gradient of N addition (0, 2, 5, 10, 20, and 50 g N m ⁻² year ⁻¹ ) and mown treatment. We analyzed their effects on ANPP and explored the roles of dominant species and their elemental stoichiometry (C:N, C:P, and N:P ratios) in driving the N saturation threshold. Our results showed that N addition rates significantly increased ANPP in a nonlinear manner. Mowing increased the N saturation threshold for ANPP from 11.7 to 16.7 g N m ⁻² year ⁻¹ . The Simpson dominance index, the absolute and relative biomass of Leymus chinensis exhibited similar response trends in response to increasing N addition, suggesting that changes in the dominance of this species are closely associated with ANPP responses under N enrichment. Whole aboveground plant tissue N concentrations and C:N ratios also exhibited nonlinear responses to N addition rates, with saturation thresholds. When N addition exceeded 10 g N m ⁻² year ⁻¹ , the total effects of N addition, N concentration, and C:N ratio on ANPP declined, collectively driving ANPP to saturation. These findings provide new evidence for understanding how N addition and mowing influence ANPP and N saturation threshold in grassland ecosystems, offering a threshold‐based framework for formulating rational N management and grassland utilization strategies. Practically, by integrating findings from this study, we cautiously recommend that no more than 10 g N m ⁻² year ⁻¹ be applied to balance productivity enhancement and biodiversity conservation in sustainable grassland management.