Mingyue Li

Intensive pesticide application sustains global agriculture but poses poorly characterized risks to complex soil ecosystems. Here, we quantitatively evaluated pesticide residues and utilized high-resolution environmental DNA (eDNA) metagenomics to decode multi-trophic community responses across a typical major grain-producing region located in China. Among 39 targeted pesticides, 26 were detected with total concentrations ranging from 27.9 to 478.8 ng/g. While herbicides and fungicides dominated the residual mass, insecticides posed the most severe ecological threat. Notably, the neonicotinoid imidacloprid exhibited high-risk levels (RQ = 1.78 ± 1.49) at >61.1% of the sampling sites. eDNA profiling and Procrustes analyses revealed a clear trophic-dependent sensitivity gradient (p < 0.01). Lower-trophic microbial communities were significantly altered in composition; pesticide stress was strongly associated with profound non-target suppression on keystone plant-beneficial bacteria (e.g., Nocardioides). Concurrently, the fungal eDNA profiles indicated that the soil mycobiome harbored an alarming 34.7% of potential phytopathogenic fungi (e.g., Aspergillus and Colletotrichum), intrinsically driving the massive fungicide reliance. In contrast, higher-trophic soil metazoa (Rotifera, 40.4%) and weed communities (e.g., Digitaria sanguinalis) exhibited significant spatial stability, reflecting robust environmental buffering and herbicide-driven ecological escapes. Furthermore, co-occurrence networks decoupled target from non-target toxicities, uniquely revealing that persistent herbicide metabolites (desethylatrazine) induce prolonged legacy toxicities on specific soil fauna. Collectively, this study unveils the deep, cross-kingdom ecological disruptions caused by current pesticide regimes, underscoring the urgency of integrating eDNA biomonitoring to guide precision pest management and safeguard soil health in vital agricultural hubs.

Agricultural green production (AGP) is a key strategy for ensuring stable and sustainable grain production in developing countries. However, from the perspective of technology acquisition, research on farmers’ willingness to adopt AGP remains limited. Based on this, a survey was conducted on 862 households in major grain-producing counties in the Huang Huai Hai Plain of China with a reliable and effective response rate of 97.44%. The aim was to employ Probit and mediation models to empirically analyze the direct impacts of green perception benefits and environmental regulation intensity on farmers’ AGP willingness, and further examine the intrinsic mechanisms of technology acquisition. The results demonstrated that both green perception benefits and environmental regulation intensity significantly enhanced farmers’ willingness to engage in AGP, with green perception benefits having a greater influence. Among the two-dimensional variables, economic benefits had a stronger promoting effect than identity benefits, with a difference of 0.044 units, while subjective regulation intensity outperformed objective regulation intensity by 0.173 units. This suggested the need to strengthen the subjective impact of AGP policies in practice. Further analysis revealed that technology acquisition mediated 5.87% of the effect of green perception benefits on farmers’ AGP willingness, with acquisition evaluation having the greatest mediating effect, followed by acquisition quality and acquisition channels. However, although the overall environmental regulation intensity did not significantly impact farmers’ willingness to engage in AGP, its two-dimensional indicators played a mediating role to varying degrees. The findings in this study provide valuable empirical evidence for promoting AGP among grain producers, contributing to grain production security and the sustainable development of developing countries. Thus, implementing environmental regulatory policies tailored to local conditions, enhancing farmers’ economic awareness and sense of responsibility, and expanding farmers’ channels for technology acquisition are reasonable policy choices.

In response to climate change, the reduction of carbon emissions during agricultural production has garnered increasing global focus. This study takes high-standard farmland construction (HSFC) implemented in 2011 as the standard natural experiment and adopts the continuous differences-in-differences (DID) model to explore the impact and internal mechanism of HSFC on agricultural carbon emissions based on a panel data of 31 provinces, municipalities, and autonomous regions in China from 2003 to 2021. The results show that HSFC can effectively reduce the carbon emissions in agricultural production, and the average annual reduction can reach 53.8%. The effects of HSFC on agriculture carbon emissions could be associated with reducing agricultural fossil energy consumption and reducing agricultural chemical use. Further, the heterogeneity study shows that the carbon reduction effect of HSFC was mainly reflected in non-major grain-producing areas, while there was no significant impact in major grain-producing areas. Policymakers should unswervingly continue to promote HSFC, considering their own economic and geographical conditions. This study can provide valuable information and references for developing countries similar to China to formulate policies on agricultural carbon reduction.