China announced its first policy framework for the construction of a protected areas system centered on national parks in 2019. It is increasingly recognized that the intentions of local community residents to engage in environmentally responsible behaviors are essential to achieving biodiversity goals in area-based conservation. Using an extended theory of planned behavior that incorporates the emotional factors of “Awe” and “place attachment,” this research tested hypotheses and constructed a theoretical model regarding the environmentally responsible behavioral intentions of community residents within and outside Potatso National Park, a pilot park in the new Chinese protected area system. A quantitative questionnaire survey of residents yielded 503 valid responses, and structural equation modeling was used to test the theoretical hypotheses. The results show that Awe has a significantly positive effect on environmentally responsible behavioral intentions. It also has a significantly positive effect on Place Attachment and subjective norms, which also strengthen environmentally responsible behavioral intentions. In addition, Place Attachment was found to be an important mediating factor for the influence of Awe on environmentally responsible behavioral intentions. According to the general model, both rational and emotional factors drive the behavioral intentions of local residents. Moreover, the findings reveal that the regulating effect of Place Attachment plays a greater role among those whose livelihoods are more dependent on the natural environment, while subjective norms play a greater role among those whose livelihoods are less dependent on the natural environment. The results provide a useful theoretical basis and practical reference for the use of rational and emotional factors to drive environmentally responsible behaviors among residents in and surrounding national parks, and for the promotion of the role of protected areas in nature preservation and community development.

Being responsible for ensuring nature preservation, environmental interpretation raises people’s awareness of nature preservation as a form of public service, and enhance their environmentally responsible behavior. Based on the flow theory, this study proposes a conceptual model of environmental interpretation impacts on visit motivation, ecological experience, environmental attitudes, and environmental behaviors. Selecting the users (visitors) of environmental interpretation at Potatso National Park in Shangri-La, Yunnan Province, China, we obtained 568 valid questionnaires and used Amos software to analyze a structural equation model to verify the model. The results indicate that the environmental interpretation plays a significant role in enriching the public’s ecological experience, which is an intermediary variable in which visiting motivation influences environmental attitudes and guides environmentally responsible behavior. The research suggests that national parks should strengthen the environmental interpretation facilities experiential and available, and adjust the configuration of the existing interpretation media in the three-dimensional structure of theme, space, and time, considering the motivation of the public visits, enriching ecological experience, and inspiring service details.

Problems such as global environmental pollution and climate change have made the public’s desire for nature and closeness to greenery increasingly strong amid rapid urbanization. Improving the ability of experiential environmental interpretation products and services is the basis for national parks to meet the public’s needs, and the evaluation of their effectiveness is a necessary basis for optimizing the quality of environmental interpretation services in response to the current problems of unsynchronized environmental interpretation facilities and service levels. Using Pudacuo National Park as a case study, 365 visitors’ spatio-temporal trajectories with GPS devices and questionnaire data were collected, and the interaction changes of visitors’ external spatiotemporal behaviors and internal emotional experiences were analyzed using cluster analysis, GPS geoprocessing model construction, and emotional mean calculation methods, and the results showed that (1) Pudacuo National Park visitors mainly comprise four types of visitor clusters, which are the sightseeing type, trekking + sightseeing type, cruise type, and hiking + cruise type, as well as four types of spatio-temporal behavior patterns; the differences of visitors’ spatiotemporal behavior patterns are reflected in spatial movement, time allocation, and stopping behavior, and correspond to different emotional experience intensity. (2) Emotional experience value is positively correlated with location stay time, and emotional experience intensity is higher, corresponding to spatio-temporal behavior patterns with longer trajectory distance, longer dwell time, and more stopping behaviors, indicating that environmental services promote longer visitor stopping time and generate high-quality recreation experiences. (3) Finally, we proposed the optimization of environmental interpretation mode according to the spatiotemporal emotional differences of different types of visitor clusters. This study provides a basis for improving the quality of visitor experience and optimizing the quality of environmental interpretation services and provides a useful reference for guiding the construction of high-quality and diverse ecological experiences in national parks.

The maintenance of biodiversity and ecological balance heavily relies on the diversity of insects. In order to investigate the impacts of elevation and human disturbance, as well as their interactions on insect diversity, we conducted an intensive survey of insects in the Hengduan Mountain Range, which is situated on the southeastern periphery of the Tibetan Plateau in China. A total of 50 line transects were established in this study to investigate the impact of elevation and human disturbance on insect diversity and distribution patterns. Designed insect surveys were conducted at various elevations and levels of human disturbance, and statistical methods such as generalized linear modeling and redundancy analysis were employed for data analysis. The results of this study indicated a negative correlation between insect diversity and elevation. Additionally, moderate disturbance was found to have a positive impact on insect diversity to some extent. The explanatory power of the model for the distribution of insect diversity could be improved if elevation and human disturbance were included as an interaction effect into the model, and there were differences in the effects of human disturbances on insect diversity at different elevation levels. The highest insect diversity was observed under low disturbance conditions below elevation of ~2200 m, whereas above this threshold, insect diversity was the highest under moderate disturbance compared to low disturbance. The response of different insect taxa to the interactions of elevation and human disturbance varied. The findings imply that when formulating strategies for managing insect diversity, it is crucial to thoroughly consider the interaction of environmental factors and disturbance response of individual insect taxa.

In this cross-sectional study of 1475 Chinese university students, we explored associated factors of attitude and willingness of biodiversity conservation, analyzed the hypothesized mediation by social support in the association between attitude and willingness of biodiversity conservation. Multivariate logistic regression model revealed that major and social support were prominently related to both attitude and willingness of biodiversity conservation. Besides, path model identified a statistically significant mediation by social support, sex, race, and family residence presented noticeable effect modification on the mediation of social support. These major findings suggest that intervention measures which aiming at enhancing social support could be considered for elevating attitude and willingness of biodiversity conservation among Chinese university students.

The interaction between fig wasps and their host fig trees (Ficus spp.) is a striking example of an obligate pollination mutualism. Male and female fig wasps are confined within their natal patch instead of panmictic; under this circumstance, mating only occurs between individuals of the same patch. This is known as a local mate competition (LMC). It pays foundresses to invest mainly in daughters and to only produce enough sons to ensure that all female offspring can be fertilized, but in nature, pollinating fig wasps may face many problems with host quality, such as limitation of oviposition sites and the nutrition deficiency of the host fig. The sex ratio of wasps can determine the stability of fig–fig wasp mutualistic system and, thus, the stability of other species associated with it. In this study, we controlled the quality of host figs in three ways. The results showed that the host fig age can influence the sex ratio of pollinator offspring, while the foundress numbers and the presence of pollen have no significant effect on it. A compelling explanation for this result is that the sex-dependent mortality occurs. This is a novel finding of how host quality influences the interaction of fig and fig wasps, which can also help us understand the evolution and stability mechanism of this symbiotic system.