Hongmei Liu

Emergy Evaluation of three Rice Wetland Farming Systems in the Taihu Lake Catchment of China

Emergy analysis was performed to evaluate the sustainability of three rice farming systems (rice mono-cropping, rice-fish and rice-duck farming systems) in the Jiangsu province. The results showed that the three systems exhibit unique characteristics on each component. The emergy of rice seeding and the labour input were the most important costs, at 57.18 and 18.20 sej/ha/season, respectively, for the rice mono-cropping system. In the rice-fish and rice-duck systems, the feed input played a more important role, corresponding to values of 63.70 and 79.20 sej/ha/season, respectively. The machinery input was 45.21 sej/ha/season for the rice-fish system due to the construction of fish ponds and ditches. The rice-duck system exhibited lower environmental loading and a higher sustainability index than the rice mono-cropping and rice-fish systems, respectively. The ratios of the economic input to output were 0.41, 0.61 and 0.41 for the rice mono-cropping, rice-fish and rice-duck systems, respectively. The net profit of the rice-duck system was

Priority assessment of wetlands restoration in HuangHuaiHai region, China

3264.2 per hectare, which was nearly 40% higher than those of the other systems. Based on the results showing the highest economic efficiency and value on the sustainability index, the rice-duck system may be the optimal rice agriculture system from both ecological and economic perspectives.

Maize straw ensilage process and ensilage pool for farmers

With vast area of wetlands (coastal estuaries, semi-arid rivers, lakes, and other typical wetlands) and rich biodiversity (especially water-birds), HuangHuaiHai Region (HHHR) has its uniqueness and irreplaceability at local, regional and global scales. HHHR not only provides huge suitable habitats for various wildlives, but also plays very import role in providing great ecosystem service for local people. However, due to intensive human activities in HHHR during the half past century, wetlands have long been suffering from large-scale destruction and increasing degradation. In spite of large invest for wetlands conservation and restoration, however, the efficacy was low. Therefore, its essential to identify the priority areas for wetlands restoration to limit wetlands degradation. Firstly, we conducted the wetlands evolutionary analysis during the period from 1980s to 2000s. Then, on the basis of it, combining with socio-economical factors, such as GDP, population, etc., using the priority theory of Systematic Conservation Planning (SCP) and Marxan space-optimized software used universally in the world, we established wetland restoration scenarios based on different levels, and established wetlands priority restoration pattern. The results showed that: on the whole, wetlands in HHHR tended to degrade from 1980s to 2000s, decreasing about 99.37km2. The priority areas for wetlands restoration involved 29 counties in all, 2 counties in Tianjin City, 3 counties in Shandong Province, 4 counties in Hebei Province, and 20 counties in Henan Province, respectively, mainly along the Yellow River in Henan Province and around the Bohai Sea, others distributed sparsely. Finally, these proposed protected areas should be well integrated together, thus we can form a wetlands priority restoration pattern for HHHR.