Multi-objective ecological restoration priority in China: Cost-benefit optimization in different ecological performance regimes based on planetary boundaries

Eco-resilience of China's mangrove wetlands: The impact of heavy metal pollution and dynamics

Mangrove forests in China have significantly degraded over the past several decades primarily due to rapid economic growth and land reclamation for aquaculture and infrastructure development. Among various threats, heavy metal pollution, primarily from urbanization, agricultural runoff, and industrial runoff, poses a substantial risk to mangroves in China. It impairs their ecological functions, limiting biodiversity and reducing their natural ability to sequester carbon and detoxify coastal areas. Despite these challenges, the mangrove ecosystem's resilience in China has not been completely compromised. Natural adaptations and phytoremediation mechanisms, such as limiting metal uptake, excreting metal binding proteins, upregulating antioxidants, forming Fe plague, excreting metals through salt glands, and tolerance to specific metal concentrations, help mitigate heavy metal toxicity. However, these adaptive strategies are limited by the extent of pollutants and the speed at which these pollution factors arise. This review highlights a need to shift restoration efforts from expanding mangrove areas to enhancing ecosystem integrity, with a specific focus on reducing heavy metal pollution through phytoremediation. It also examines how heavy metal interactions at the sediment-water interface impact microbial communities and local fauna, contributing to climate change. Addressing these challenges is critical to improving mangrove conservation in China and ensuring the long-term health and resilience of these critical ecosystems for future generations.

Shuffling the deck: A gamified multicriteria approach to prioritize agroecological restoration areas in Northeastern Pará, Brazilian Amazon

Decision support tools such as Multicriteria Decision Analysis (MCDA) can be employed in the context of the Theory of Change (ToC) to support stakeholders' concerns and guide agroecological transitions in the tropics. Given the so often limitation of financial resources, identifying priority areas for large-scale, cost-effective agroecological investments is critical. This study introduces a simplified card-ranking MCDA approach to integrate spatialised socioecological factors and stakeholder preferences for identifying priority restoration areas in Northeastern Pará, Brazil. The stakeholders interviewed comprised 20 farmers and 23 specialists. They were tasked in ranking 21 factors with potential to influence secondary vegetation dynamics (according to a regression modelling study), grouped into two clusters: "economic/infrastructure" and "biophysical/land use restrictions". Both groups prioritised key infrastructure factors, like distance to 'roads', 'markets', and 'urban centres'. Discrepancies arose in biophysical/land use factors, with farmers prioritising, for example, 'conservation units of sustainable use', a factor disregarded by specialists. The data was processed through a prioritization model applied to 10 × 10 km grids to produce maps. Specialists identified 5 % of the NE Pará mesoregion as high priority, while farmers indicated 9 %, with convergence revealing Bragantina as the key microregion to promote agroecology (33 % high-priority area). Our results offer insights into Structured Decision Making (SDM) methods and inform regional policies, highlighting western Bragantina and southwestern Salgado as prime areas for cost-effective agroecological restoration interventions.

An analytical framework based on social-ecological systems for identifying priority areas for ecological restoration in coastal regions

Owing to rapid urbanization, coastal regions worldwide are experiencing immense resource and environmental stress. Ecological restoration is vital for maintaining and sustainably developing coastal regions. This study proposed a method for delineating priority areas for ecological restoration based on the social-ecological systems (SES) theory. First, an analytical model was established based on three dimensions: ecosystem function, social system pressure, and SES evolution, for analyzing the social and natural systems of coastal regions. Second, based on the modes of land-sea interaction relevant to ecological restoration, auxiliary marine factors were incorporated to aid the delineation of priority areas for ecological restoration. A case study was conducted on the Dapeng New District of Shenzhen City to validate our method. The marine areas of the Dapeng New District have significantly poorer ecosystem function than its terrestrial areas because of the natural geography of this area and human activities. A total of 43.4% of marine areas require artificially assisted ecological restoration, and inland areas 1.5 km from the shoreline are significant for ecological conservation and restoration. Additionally, estuaries and artificial shorelines should be the focus of ecological restoration work in the study area. This case study proved the efficacy of our method. The findings will serve as a reference for the planning and implementation of ecological restoration plans in coastal regions.