Knowing the spatial structure of traditional villages is required to promote and preserve these villages. These traditional villages are an essential part of China’s farming legacy and hold substantial historical and cultural significance. Therefore, this article analyzed 30 nationally recognized traditional villages in Liaoning Province, selected from the 6819 traditional villages in the province, as samples. These were divided into three types based on elevation: plain-type (below 200 m above sea level), hilly-type (200–500 m), and mountain-type (above 500 m) villages. Two villages of each type were selected for a total of six villages as the study objects; for these, quantitative comparative research on the spatial structure of these villages was carried out. The results of the study show that: (1) plain-type traditional villages are little affected by the terrain, the overall presentation of the surface space, the village traffic is well developed, able to form a commercial street as the core of the road interruptions in the head of the road more; (2) hilly-type traditional villages are influenced by mountains and water systems, forming a linear space with main roads as the core and crossroads, their core areas are more remote and lack space for public activities, and the villages rely on religious venues or the former residences of celebrities to attract tourists; (3) mountain-type villages are greatly influenced by the mountains, making it difficult to form a commercial area, the distribution of each natural town is relatively scattered and forms a point-like space, each point is developed with public space as the core, and there is a lack of characteristics within the village. The above quantitative characteristics are compared and three targeted conservation strategies for national-level traditional villages in Liaoning are proposed.

The transition analysis and type division of landscape heritage are the effective management methods to achieve the overall conservation and targeted utilization of modern urban parks. In this study, Shenyang Zhongshan Park, the first modern urban park in Shenyang, was taken as the research object to explore the historical and cultural value of modern urban parks in Northeast China. The current status and transition characteristics of landscape heritage were analyzed, and the landscape heritage types were divided by their conservation and utilization evaluations. A total of 44 landscape heritages existed in Shenyang Zhongshan Park, including three categories, i.e., 15 historic sites, 20 cultural comprehensive sites, and 9 natural sites. Based on the IPA model, the landscape heritage was further divided into three subcategories, i.e., already designated for conservation (ADC), should be designated for conservation (SDC), and should be restricted scale (SRS). ADC was composed of one historic (Chiyoda water tower), two cultural comprehensive (water sources), and three natural (ancient trees) landscape heritages. SDC was a landscape heritage with long construction age, high importance, poor conservation, and high utilization, which can represent the cultural characteristics of the park and the need to speed up the improvement of its protection system. SRS weakened the cultural characteristics of the park. Its construction intensity should be reduced to highlight the core themes of the park (i.e., historical and cultural themes). In the future, modern urban parks should be conserved and utilized based on identifying different landscape heritage types. This study provides a theoretical basis for the management and development of modern urban parks from the perspective of conservation and utilization of landscape heritage.

Rapid urbanization exacerbates atmospheric pollutant emissions, markedly altering precipitation chemistry. However, a comprehensive understanding of the equilibrium between multicomponent precipitation chemistry and urbanization remains unclear. This study characterizes the spatiotemporal urbanization dynamics of the Pearl River Delta (PRD) urban agglomeration from 2000 to 2020 by integrating multi-source datasets, including nighttime light (NTL) observations, Landsat-derived land cover, and gridded population products. The interplay between precipitation chemistry and urbanization was evaluated through a multidimensional equilibrium assessment framework integrating spatial heterogeneity, trade-off and synergy analysis, and decoupling diagnosis. The results indicated that interannual variation in precipitation ion concentrations initially increased and then decreased from 2000 to 2020. Spatially, major ion concentrations (SO₄²⁻, NO₃⁻, Ca²⁺, and NH₄⁺) generally declined across the region after 2009, with the most pronounced declines in peripheral PRD areas. Conversely, urbanization intensified, spreading from the central core to the periphery. NTL intensity exhibited the strongest explanatory power for major ion concentrations, suggesting that economic urbanization is more closely associated with spatial variability in precipitation chemistry. Over time, the relationship between precipitation ion concentrations and urbanization shifted from synergy to trade-off. After 2005, the dominant decoupling status of major ion concentrations relative to urbanization shifted from expansive negative decoupling (up to 62.93%) to strong decoupling (up to 75.86%). This shift indicates that the antagonism between urbanization and precipitation pollution has gradually transitioned toward equilibrium. However, this equilibrium exhibits spatiotemporal non-stationarity. These findings highlight the complex nonlinear interactions between urbanization and precipitation chemistry. Identifying spatial heterogeneity in decoupling between urbanization and environmental pollution facilitates the formulation of differentiated zoning management strategies.

Investigating the spatiotemporal dynamics of urban heat islands and their responses to urban forest (UF) landscape patterns is crucial for mitigating urban thermal stress. However, the nonlinear influence and conditional constraints of UF landscape composition and configuration on the warming effects across varying urbanization gradients remain inadequately understood. By integrating land use/cover data, MODIS-derived land surface temperature (LST), and meteorological datasets, this study employed the XGBoost-SHAP model to quantify the nonlinear and interaction effects of UF landscape patterns on developed and developing urban regions of the Pearl River Delta. The results indicate that (1) spatial clustering patterns of warming varied significantly between the two regions, with substantial seasonal heterogeneities (p < 0.05). Summer exhibited the most intense warming, characterized by more rapid temperature increase in developed areas than in developing regions. (2) Relative to UF landscape metrics, the proportion of impervious surfaces, precipitation, and temperature exerted greater influence on regional warming. Coverage area, fragmentation, and connectivity of UFs emerged as the primary landscape drivers modulating warming. In developed areas, spatial configuration metrics exerted greater influence on LST than compositional metrics. (3) The responses of LST to diverse UF landscape patterns are characterized by nonlinearity and pronounced threshold effects. These landscape thresholds vary by season, revealing critical tipping points for warming suppression; however, this regulatory effect is highly context-dependent. Specifically, under high percentages of impervious surface, the warming-suppression capacity of UFs intensifies with increasing percentage of UF area or core. Our findings highlight the necessity of strategic UF planning and forest fragmentation mitigation for developing effective climate resilience strategies. These results provide a foundation for adaptive planning tailored to specific urbanization stages and the implementation of targeted UF cooling strategies.

Leguminous green mulching (LGM) enhances soil biochemical properties and ecosystem functions of orchards, yet the underlying mechanisms remain poorly understood. To address this, we compared three mulching regimes—clean tillage, 4‐year mulching, and 8‐year mulching—to examine the response of soil microbial metabolic limitation and ecosystem multifunctionality (EMF) to LGM. Results showed that soil carbon (C), nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) contents, corresponding enzyme activities, and EMF all increased significantly with mulching duration but decreased with soil depth. In topsoil, 8‐year mulching achieved the highest EMF during the seeding‐fruit maturity stage (2.04), followed by the withering‐fruit swelling (WFS) stage (2.00). Microbial C limitation consistently declined with mulching age, while P limitation fluctuated across growth stages and mulching treatments. Compared with clean tillage, 8‐year mulching reduced microbial C limitation by 6.69%–45.02% and P limitation by 1.59%–9.47%. Partial least squares structural equation modeling indicated that EMF was driven directly by C‐ and N‐acquiring enzyme activities and indirectly by C and N nutrient pools. Among these, C‐acquiring enzyme activity (path coefficient: 0.42) exerted the strongest synergistic effect during the WFS stage. Collectively, prolonged LGM enhanced EMF by alleviating microbial nutrient constraints, with the greatest benefits observed in topsoil and during the WFS period. These findings provide multi‐temporal and spatial evidence that LGM regulates soil nutrient supply and cycling, offering a basis for more refined and targeted orchard management strategies.