Wetlands, as the most essential ecosystem, are degraded throughout the world. Wetlands in Zhenlai county, with the Momoge National Nature Reserve, which was included on the Ramsar list, have degraded by nearly 30%. Wetland degradation is a long-term continuous process with annual or interannual changes in water area, water level, or vegetation presence and growth. Therefore, it requires sufficiently frequent and high-spatial-resolution data to represent its dynamics. This study mapped yearly land-use maps with 30-m resolution from 1985 to 2018 using Landsat data in Google Earth Engine (GEE) to explore the wetland degradation process and mapped 12-day interval land-use maps with 15-m resolution using the Sentinel-1B and Sentinel-2 data in GEE and other assistant platforms to study the characteristics of wetland dynamics in 2018. Four sets of maps were generated using Sentinel-1B (S1), Sentinel-2 (S2), the combination of Sentinel-1B and Sentinel-2 (S12), and S12 with multitemporal remote sensing (S12’). All of the classifications were performed in the Random Forest Classification (RFC) method using remote sensing indicators. The results indicate that S12’ was the most accurate. Then, the impact of the historic land-use degradation process on current wetland change dynamics was discussed. Stable, degradation, and restoration periods were identified according to the annual changes in wetlands. The degraded, stable, restored, and vulnerable zones were assessed based on the transformation characteristics among wetlands and other land-use types. The impact of historical land-use trajectories on wetland change characteristics nowadays is diverse in land-use types and distributions, and the ecological environment quality is the comprehensive result of the effect of historical land-use trajectories and the amount of rainfall and receding water from paddy fields. This study offers a new method to map high-spatiotemporal-resolution land-use (S12’) and addresses the relationship between historic wetland change characteristics and its status quo. The findings are also applicable to wetland research in other regions. This study could provide more detailed scientific guidance for wetland managers by quickly detecting wetland changes at a finer spatiotemporal resolution.

Recent studies have demonstrated that the presence of belowground neighbours induces varied morphological and biochemical responses in plants. Plant allelopathic activity is elicited by the presence of competitor seedlings or competitor root exudates. However, it is unknown whether allelopathy also influences root recognition behaviour in weed–crop interaction. To assess barnyardgrass response to the presence of allelopathic rice roots, we conducted a greenhouse experiment of barnyardgrass–rice mixed culture, including barnyardgrass monoculture, barnyardgrass mixed with the allelopathic rice line PI312777 and barnyardgrass mixed with the nonallelopathic rice cultivar Liaojing-9. Our results showed that the presence of allelopathic rice roots enhanced root allocation and tissue density (RTD) of barnyardgrass, whereas it decreased root biomass, total root length, specific root length (SRL) and topological index (TI), compared to barnyardgrass grown in monoculture; moreover, there was a significant correlation of topological index with root foraging precision and competition. Therefore, the presence of allelopathic rice roots affected the barnyardgrass root morphology, nutrient foraging and competition, suggesting that allelopathy plays a key role in root recognition behaviour of barnyardgrass–rice competitive interaction.

Landscape pattern is closely associated with pollution in rapidly urbanizing watersheds, but most studies still focus on single pollutants or single environmental media. This study developed a watershed-based framework to compare coupled water and air pollution in the Liaohe River Basin, China. A total of 156 hydrologically connected sub-basins were used as common spatial units. Landscape metrics were calculated for 2000, 2010, and 2020. Total nitrogen and total phosphorus loads were simulated using the Soil and Water Assessment Tool, while annual mean PM_2.5 and O₃ concentrations were aggregated from gridded products to the same sub-basin scale. Coupling coordination degree was used to identify relative co-pollution patterns within the aquatic and atmospheric systems. GeoXGBoost with spatial block cross-validation was used to evaluate predictive performance, and GeoSHAP was used to interpret model-based predictor contributions. The aquatic coupled pollution index was predicted more accurately than the atmospheric index, indicating a stronger landscape association with nutrient coupling. Cropland proportion was the most stable predictor of aquatic coupling, whereas forest proportion was the most stable predictor of atmospheric coupling. These results suggest that water-oriented management should focus on cropland structure and ecological buffering, while air-oriented management should emphasize forest continuity and fragmentation control. The framework provides a spatially explicit basis for differentiated watershed management and territorial spatial planning.

Synthetical eco-environmental problems’ treatment is a new stage for certain pollutant control or ecological restoration. Traditional urban planners have focused more on social–economic development but less on eco-environmental considerations. Spatial planning is currently an essential administrative management method for regional development and eco-environmental protection in China. National and provincial spatial planning designs general strategies, and prefecture-level planning is the most important scale for spatial management. For scientific, spatial governance for eco-environmental protection, we propose a synthetic spatial analysis and planning method framework that involves atmospheric, edaphic, hydrographic, and ecological processes to identify pivotal regions for regional eco-environmental security goals. The synthetic method was conducted using advanced models including the CMAQ and SWAT models and spatial statistical methods. A Chinese prefecture-level city, Anshan City, was chosen to fulfill the method framework due to its various ecosystem types and environmental problems. A total of 67 eco-environmental management units (EMU) were divided based on atmospheric pollution patterns, hydrographic processes, edaphic heavy metal pollution, and ecological spatial analysis. Each unit was identified with ecological or environmental risk and a proposed management regulation. For considering the whole eco-environmental process, the ecological security pattern (ESP) was constructed. The results showed that 166 corridors were identified with an area of 2241.25 km², with enhanced connectivity among 76 ecological sources (12.27% of Anshan City). By coupling two results, the optimized ecological conservation and restoration pattern was proposed, in which priority protection areas were identified. This synthetic method can provide scientific analysis and guidance to support spatial planning and ecological construction for multi-purpose ecological and environmental protection.