Ecological degradation impedes sustainable development in Southwest China, and artificial afforestation has been a key strategy of the Government of China to effectively curb it. However, the water consumed by large-scale afforestation has a huge impact on water supply in Southwest China, which also arise a new challenge causing severe drought here recently. In order to determine the impact of artificial afforestation on the region, this study conducts spatiotemporal, abrupt change, and correlation and regression analyses. Results show that although water resources fluctuate, they exhibit a general declining trend. Especially after 2000, water resources showed a significant downward trend. In terms of spatial tendency, there has been an obvious decrease in water resources in the Sichuan Basin, the mountainous region of eastern Chongqing, and the Yunnan–Guizhou Plateau. Due to extensive afforestation and vegetation cover growth, there has been an increase in most trends of forest-shrub ecosystems, resulting in substantially enhanced evapotranspiration effects. The uptake of water by afforestation in Southwest China could reach 40.42 billion m³, which is equivalent to 10.69% of its annul available water supply (1980–2015). Generally, afforestation disrupts the water balance of the region. This study recommends substituting afforestation for natural restoration or, at the very least, selecting vegetation that requires less water for the restoration of the ecological environment of Southwest China, which provide scientific method for regional sustainable development.

Ecosystem degradation accompanied by soil erosion risk is caused by the interaction of many factors, including climate change and human activities. Therefore, before attempting the optimal form of ecological restoration, we must know the key factors responsible for soil erosion risk and determine their impacts on the ecosystem health. To test this approach, we conducted a case study in the Three Gorges Reservoir Area from 1980 to 2015, where extensive restoration (primarily afforestation) has been conducted. The results showed that climate was most important during Period I (1980 to 1984), and explained 84% of the variation in erosion. However, vegetation became equally important during Period II (1985 to 2006), when it accounted for 51% of the variation. Climate became as important as vegetation during Period III (2007 to 2015), when it accounted for 51% of the variation. The temporal variation in the dominant factors that controlled soil erosion risk suggests that the ecological effect of vegetation improvement resulting from ecological restoration in Three Gorges Reservoir Area has been gradually enhanced since the 1980s.

Direct decarboxylative sulfinamidation of aliphatic carboxylic acids via a photoinduced iron-mediated ligand-to-metal charge-transfer process was reported.