Wei Liu

Historical remote sensing imagery, including archival aerial photographs and declassified satellite imagery, has been increasingly used to extend earth observation records into periods not covered by modern satellite missions. However, the broader application of these data remains constrained by georeferencing challenges related to incomplete metadata, uncertain acquisition geometry, and heterogeneous image characteristics. This systematic review examines georeferencing practices for historical remote sensing imagery. Out of the 2547 studies identified in the literature, 205 peer-reviewed journal articles were deemed eligible for analysis. This systematic review provides the first comprehensive, PRISMA-compliant synthesis of georeferencing practices for historical remote sensing imagery, analyzing 205 peer-reviewed studies to establish methodological patterns and identify critical gaps. The review considers imagery types, spatial and temporal distributions of case studies, georeferencing workflows, geometric constraints, and accuracy reporting practices. The results indicate a strong reliance on ground control points and a clear preference for manual or semi-automatic georeferencing approaches, while fully automatic methods remain rare. Although the use of historical imagery has increased over time, its potential has not been fully exploited due to persistent georeferencing difficulties, and study areas are often spatially limited or selectively processed to achieve acceptable accuracy. Nevertheless, properly georeferenced historical imagery has been widely applied to land-cover analysis, geomorphology, cryosphere research, hazard assessment, and archeology by extending observation records into earlier decades.

The Biome-BGC model is a classic forest ecosystem carbon cycle model driven by remote sensing and plant trait data, and it has been widely applied in various regions of China over the years. However, does the Biome-BGC model have good applicability in all regions of China? This question implies that the rationality of some applications of the Biome-BGC model in China might be questionable. To quantitatively assess the overall spatial applicability of the Biome-BGC model in China’s vegetation ecosystems, this study selected ten representative forest and grassland ecosystem sites, all of which have publicly available carbon flux data. In this study, we first used the EFAST method to identify the sensitive ecophysiological parameters of the Biome-BGC model at these sites. Subsequently, we calibrated the optimal values of these sensitive parameters through a literature review and the PEST method and then used these to drive the Biome-BGC model to simulate the productivity (including GPP and NEP) of these ten forest and grassland ecosystems in China. Finally, we compared the simulation accuracy of the Biome-BGC model at these ten sites in detail and established the spatial pattern of the model’s applicability across China. The results show that the sensitive ecophysiological parameters of the Biome-BGC model vary with spatial distribution, plant functional types, and model output variables. After conducting parameter sensitivity analysis and optimization, the simulation accuracy of the Biome-BGC model can be significantly improved. Additionally, for forest ecosystems in China, the model’s simulation accuracy decreases from north to south, while for grassland ecosystems, the accuracy increases from north to south. This study provides a set of localized ecophysiological parameters and advocates that the use of the Biome-BGC model should be based on parameter sensitivity analysis and optimization.

In recent years, the accelerated pace of urbanization has increased patch fragmentation, which has had a certain impact on the structure and ecological environment of forest–grass ecological networks, and certain protection measures have been taken in various regions. Therefore, studying the spatiotemporal changes and correlations of ecological service functions and forest–grass ecological networks can help to better grasp the changes in landscape ecological structure and function. This paper takes the Wuding River Basin as the research area and uses the windbreak and sand fixation service capacity index, soil conservation capacity, and net primary productivity (NPP) to evaluate the ecological service capacity of the research area from the three dimensions of windbreak and sand fixation, soil conservation, and carbon sequestration. The Regional Sustainability and Environment Index (RSEI) is used to extract ecological source areas, and GIS spatial analysis and the minimum cumulative resistance (MCR) model are used to extract potential ecological corridors. Referring to complex network theory, topology metrics such as degree distribution and clustering coefficient are calculated, and their correlation with ecological service capacity is explored. The results show that the overall ecological service capacity of sand fixation, soil fixation, and carbon sequestration in the research area in 2020 has increased compared to 2000, and the ecological flow at the northern and northwest boundaries of the river basin has been enhanced, but there are still shortcomings such as fragmented ecological nodes, a low degree of clustering, and poor connectivity. In terms of the correlation between topology indicators and ecological service functions, the windbreak and sand fixation service capacity index have the strongest correlation with clustering and the largest grasp, while the correlation between soil conservation capacity and eigencentrality is the strongest and has the largest grasp. The correlation between NPP and other indicators is not obvious, and its correlation with eccentricity and eigencentrality is relatively large.

The sequestration of carbon in forests plays a crucial role in mitigating global climate change and achieving carbon neutrality goals. Carbon use efficiency (CUE) is an essential metric used to evaluate the carbon sequestration capacity and efficiency of Vegetation. Previous studies have emphasized the importance of assessing CUE at specific regions and times to better understand its spatiotemporal variations. The southeastern region of Tibet in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau is recognized as one of the most biodiverse areas in China and globally, characterized by diverse vegetation types ranging from subtropical to temperate. In this study, we focused on Nyingchi, which is the largest virgin forest area in southeast Tibet, to explore the spatial-temporal dynamic characteristics of regional CUE based on MODIS remote sensing products. The following results were obtained: (1) On a monthly scale, regional CUE exhibits significant seasonal variations, with varying patterns among different vegetation types. Specifically, the fluctuation of CUE is the lowest in high-altitude forest areas and the greatest in grasslands and barrens. On an annual scale, forests exhibit higher fluctuations than areas with sparse vegetation and the overall volatility of CUE increased over the past 11 years. (2) There are regional differences in the trend of CUE changes, with a substantial downward trend in the Himalayan region and a significant upward trend in the residual branches of the Gangdise Mountains. More than 75% of the regions exhibit no persistent trend in CUE changes. (3) Vegetation type is the main determinant of the range and characteristics of vegetation CUE changes, while the geographical location and climatic conditions affect the variation pattern. CUE in the southern and northern regions of Nyingchi at 28.5°N exhibits different responses to temperature and precipitation changes, with temperature having a more significant impact on CUE.

Permafrost and alpine vegetation are widely distributed in Tibet, which is a sensitive area for global climate change. In this study, we inverted the surface deformation from 22 May 2018 to 9 October 2021 in a rectangular area within the city of Linzhi, Tibet, using the Sentinel1-A data and two time-series interferometric system aperture radar (InSAR) techniques. Then, the significant features of surface deformation were analyzed separately according to different vegetation types. Finally, multiple machine learning methods were used to predict future surface deformation, and the results were compared to obtain the model with the highest prediction accuracy. This study aims to provide a scientific reference and decision basis for global ecological security and sustainable development. The results showed that the surface deformation rate in the study area was basically between ±10 mm/a, and the cumulative surface deformation was basically between ±35 mm. The surface deformation of grassland, meadow, coniferous forest, and alpine vegetation were all significantly correlated with NDVI, and the effect of alpine vegetation, coniferous forest, and grassland on permafrost was stronger than that of the meadow. The prediction accuracy of the Holt–Winters model was higher than that of Holt′s model and the ARIMA model; it was expected that the ground surface would keep rising in the next two months, and the ground surface deformation of alpine vegetation and the coniferous forest was relatively small. The above studies indicated that the surface deformation in the Tibetan permafrost region was relatively stable under the conditions of alpine vegetation and coniferous forest. Future-related ecological construction needs to pay more attention to permafrost areas under grassland and meadow conditions, which are prone to surface deformation and affect the stability of ecosystems.

In the context of strengthening the construction of ecological civilization and accelerating the “carbon peak” in China, the regional ecological pattern and its connection with carbon sink capacity have become an urgent topic. Given that Inner Mongolia is a large carbon emission province and the conflict between economic development and ecological protection is particularly prominent, we took Inner Mongolia as an example to extract its ecospatial network, then calculated the integrity index, topological indices, and recovery robustness of the network and evaluated integrity and other properties of the ecospatial network structure by combining them with the ecological background. In addition, we analyzed the relationship between the topological indices and net primary productivity (NPP). The results showed that the network was scale-free and heterogeneous, with low integrity, connectivity and stability, which were the focus of future optimization. The nodes with important functions were mainly distributed in the farm-forest ecotone, grasslands, and the agro-pastoral ecotone; under the simulation attack, the node recovery robustness was stronger than the corridor recovery robustness, and NPP was negatively and significantly correlated with the woodland nodes and grassland nodes. In terms of ecological restoration, the unused land in the west is a key area, and it is necessary to add new ecological nodes and corridors. In terms of enhancing carbon sequestration capacity, under the premise of ensuring network connectivity, the appropriate and rational merging of ecological nodes and corridors within woodlands and grasslands is a particularly effective means. This study provides a reference for evaluating and optimizing the ecological pattern of areas with prominent ecological problems and improving the carbon sink of ecosystems in terms of their ecospatial network structure.

Achieving carbon neutrality is a necessary effort to rid humanity of a catastrophic climate and is a goal for China in the future. Ecological space plays an important role in the realization of carbon neutrality, but the relationship between the structure of vegetation ecological space and vegetation carbon sequestration capacity has been the focus of research. In this study, we extracted the base data from MODIS products and other remote sensing products, and then combined them with the MCR model to construct a vegetation ecospatial network in the Yellow River Basin in 2018. Afterward, we calculated the topological indicators of ecological nodes in the network and analyzed the relationship between the carbon sequestration capacity (net biome productivity) of ecological nodes and these topological indicators in combination with the Biome-BGC model. The results showed that there was a negative linear correlation between the betweenness centrality of forest nodes and their carbon sequestration capacity in the Yellow River Basin (p < 0.05, R² = 0.59). On the other hand, there was a positive linear correlation between the clustering coefficient of grassland nodes and their carbon sequestration capacity (p < 0.01, R² = 0.49). In addition, we briefly evaluated the vegetation ecospatial network in the Yellow River BASIN and suggested its optimization direction under the background of carbon neutrality in the future. Increasing the carbon sequestration capacity of vegetation through the construction of national ecological projects is one of the ways to achieve carbon neutrality, and this study provides a reference for the planning of future national ecological projects in the Yellow River Basin. Furthermore, this is also a case study of the application of remote sensing in vegetation carbon budgeting.

There exists serious heavy metal contamination of agricultural soils in China. It is not only time- and labor-intensive to monitor soil contamination, but it also has limited scope when using conventional chemical methods. However, the method of the heavy metal monitoring of soil based on vegetation hyperspectral technology can break through the vegetation barrier and obtain the heavy metal content quickly over large areas. This paper discusses a highly accurate method for predicting the soil heavy metal content using hyperspectral techniques. We collected leaf hyperspectral data outdoors, and also collected soil samples to obtain heavy metal content data using chemical analysis. The prediction model for heavy metal content was developed using a difference spectral index, which was not highly satisfactory. Subsequently, the five factors that have a strong influence on the content of heavy metals were analyzed to determine multiple regression models for the elements As, Pb, and Cd. The results showed that the multiple regression model could better estimate the heavy metal content with stable fitting that has high prediction accuracy compared with the linear model. The results of this research provide a scientific basis and technical support for the hyperspectral inversion of the soil heavy metal content.