Enclosure is commonly used in the restoration of degraded grasslands. However, the effects of enclosure on grassland plant and soil restoration remain controversial, particularly in deserts. To assess the effects of enclosure on desert plants and soil properties, using high throughput sequencing, the differences between plants and soil were systematically analyzed before and after enclosure construction. The soil organic carbon, total nitrogen and total phosphorus contents of the three desert flora increased and decreased, but the difference was not significant; enclosure increased plant height, coverage, aboveground biomass, and species richness by 58.99%, 59.35%, 33.29%, and 51.21%, respectively, in a Seriphidium transiliense formation; by 15.49%, 33.52%, 20.85%, and 5.13%, respectively, in a Haloxylon persicum formation; and by 83.80%, 31.51%, 76.66% and 33.33%, respectively, in an Anabasis salsa formation. For soil bacteria, enclosure significantly increased the average number of operational taxonomic units and Shannon-Wiener index by 12.74% and 2.92%, respectively, under S. transiliense formation and by 17.08% and 3.17%, respectively, under H. persicum formation. However, enclosure had no significant effect on the average number of operational taxonomic units or Shannon-Wiener index under A. salsa formation. Enclosure significantly increased desert plants, soil bacterial diversity, and desert plant community productivity; however, the increase in soil nutrient content was not significant. These results demonstrate that enclosure is effective for restoring desert ecosystems but may have little effect on the soil nutrient content.

Vulnerability research is the core issue and one of the research hotspots of sustainable development science. Vulnerability and its evaluation framework provide a new perspective for rural social-ecosystem studies. This paper introduced the ‘input-output’ efficiency theory and constructed the ‘SEE-PSR’ framework for the analysis of social-ecosystem vulnerability in the rural area in Qingpu District of Shanghai City. The DEA models, spatial autocorrelation model, multivariate logistic regression model, geographical detector and hierarchical cluster model were used to analyze the spatial differences of social-ecosystem vulnerability, and its geographical impact mechanisms and ecological restorations, in 184 administrative villages in this area. The results can be divided into three main points. (1) The results of the ‘input-output’ efficiency model of the EW-DEA based on entropy weight aggregation crossover was more reliable and accurate for the evaluation of rural social-ecosystem vulnerability. The vulnerability of the social-ecosystems in the administrative villages showed a trend of gradual decline from east to west, with an average value of vulnerability of 0.583, and the vulnerability of social systems had become an important factor in constraining the decrease of the vulnerability of the social-ecosystems in the region. (2) The distances from the center of Shanghai City, from Dianshan Lake, from the center of Qingpu District and from the water area were the four dominant geographical factors affecting the vulnerability of the social-ecosystem in this region. The geographical impacts exhibited the spatial differentiations of systemic structure, the substitution of typological attributes and the transformation level. (3) The geographical factors coupling the impact types of the social-ecosystem vulnerability were divided spatially into 10 types. The geographic multi-factor coupling impact types were dominant, which presented multi-cyclic spatial patterns and were dominated by the central multi-factor which was surrounded by the single factor types on both sides. According to the different types, some feasible ways of ecological restoration were proposed, which drew on the experiences of integrated territory consolidation to remediate the vulnerability of rural social-ecological systems. The results of this study can provide scientific reference for rural spatial reconstruction, regional ecological restoration and sustainable development for the regions characterized by conflict in the ‘strict protection of the ecological environment and vigorous development of the economy’.

Poaceae plant species, such as silver grass, are commonly used in mulching activities Japan. In contrast, local farmers have traditionally used Japanese knotweed (Fallopia japonica) mulch in the cultivation of solanaceous crops in the Nishi-Awa area of Japan, which is a Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems site. We have previously evaluated the positive effects of Japanese knotweed mulching on solanaceous crops, such as eggplants, tomato, and potato. In the present study, we observed that the naturally occurring diseases in the solanaceous crops tended to decrease when the knotweed mulching system was adopted, in comparison to when Poaceae mulch was adopted. In eggplants, leaf mold and powdery mildew decreased under Japanese knotweed mulching. We further evaluated the effects of Japanese knotweed mulching by inoculating test plants with Pseudomonas cichorii. We observed suppression of bacterial disease and tomato mosaic virus under Japanese knotweed mulching and following spraying with Japanese knotweed extracts. In addition, disease-resistance genes were expressed at high levels in Arabidopsis thaliana, a model plant, following treatment with Japanese knotweed extracts. The results suggest that Japanese knotweed has potential applications in future sustainable agriculture activities.