Chinese Journal of Nature ›› 2022, Vol. 44 ›› Issue (1): 1-18.doi: 10.3969/j.issn.0253-9608.2022.01.001

• Invited Special Paper •     Next Articles

Evolutions, functions and conservations of mountains-rivers-forests-croplands-lakesgrasslands-deserts system 

SHI Yue, ZHAO Xia, ZHU Jiangling, FANG Jingyun①②   

  1. ① State Key Laboratory of Vegetation and Environmental Change, Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100093, China;② Department of Ecology, College of Urban and Environmental Sciences, Institute of Ecology, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China
  • Received:2021-09-22 Online:2022-02-25 Published:2022-02-21

Abstract:  Mountains-rivers-forests-croplands-lakes-grasslands-deserts system is a brief summary and easy-to-understanding description of China’s diversified ecosystems. Despite the significant differences in the appearance and structures, mountains, rivers, forests, croplands, lakes, grasslands, and deserts together constitute a “community of life” through complex interconnections and interactions, providing material foundations and necessary conditions for the development of human society. At present, the integrated management, protection and restoration of the system have been an important starting point to promote the construction of ecological civilization in China. We summarize the background information on each component of the system, and briefly describe their formations and main functions. Meanwhile, we discuss how to conduct the governance, conservation and utilization of the system in the context of ecological civilization construction, review several cases which showed negative impacts on the environments, and briefly elaborate the measurements for ecological civilization construction from the perspective of ecology.

Key words:  , mountains-rivers-forests-croplands-lakes-grasslands-deserts, ecological civilization, ecosystem diversity, ecosystem function, ecosystem conservation