Recently, related researches on land use transition combining with the characteristics of China’s socio- economic development have been carried out rapidly since the research field of land use transition was introduced to China. Land use morphology is the key content of land use transition research. However, the concept and connotation of land use morphology has been developed continuously with the in-depth research and socio- economic change and innovation. Based on the analysis of the evolvement of the concept and connotation of land use morphology, this paper argues that there are two formats for depicting land use morphology: one is dominant morphology, and the other is recessive morphology. The dominant land use morphology refers to the quantity, structure and spatial pattern of land use, and the recessive land use morphology includes the land-use features in the aspects such as quality, property rights, management mode, fixed input and productive ability. Then, a conceptualization of the models of land use transition was annotated based on the two formats of land use morphology. Land use transition refers to the changes in land use morphology of a certain region over a certain period of time driven by socio-economic change and innovation, and it usually corresponds to the transition of socio-economic development phase. Rural transformation development means the restructuring of rural socio- economic morphology and territorial spatial patterns resulted from local actors’responses and readjustments to the change, recombination and interaction of socio-economic development factors and rural-urban migration in the process of rapid urbanization and industrialization, including the changes in traditional rural industries, the employment mode, the consumption structure, and the social structure. Such transformation radically changes the urban-rural relationship and the relationship between agriculture and industry. Since farmland and rural settlement are the engines driving land use transition and rural transformation development, the interaction between rural transformation development and farmland and rural settlement transition was analyzed to understand the relationship between land use transition and rural transformation development. Finally, the future research fields concerning land use transition and rural transformation development were suggested as follows: the dynamic pattern and territorial type of land use transition and rural transformation development; the interaction and dynamical mechanism of land use transition and rural transformation development; the resources and environment effects of land use transition and rural transformation development; and the ways and countermeasures of optimizing and adjusting land use transition and rural transformation development.

Changes of cultivated land use structures including type structure, input structure, and plantation structure, could succinctly reveal change of cultivated land use function morphology. Cultivated land use function transition (CLUFT) in the process of socio-economic development, however, is currently an issue to be resolved. Based on the underlying relationship between induced production substitution and cultivated land use structure change, this paper established a comprehensive explanation framework of the CLUFT. Then, the regional CLUFT was studied with Guangdong province as a typical case area. Results show that cultivated land use functional morphology in Guangdong overall entered the interim stage of the transition from socio-economic morphology to ecological and economic morphology. Cultivated land use function in the Pearl River Delta has accomplished the transition from socio-economic morphology to ecological-economic morphology. The rest of districts of Guangdong, however, accomplished the transition from socio-ecological morphology to socio-economic morphology. Both socio-economic and institutional forces drove the CLUFT in Guangdong. Mechanism of the CLUFT behaves as cascading effects of interactions among urbanization, socio-economic development, induced production substitution, changes of cultivated land use structures, and transformation of cultivated land use function morphologies. The positive analysis above justified the comprehensive explanation framework presented in this paper. That is, changes of cultivated land use structures could effectively denote cultivated land use function transition. With socio-economic development from its primary stage to an advanced one, changes of cultivated land use structures will drive transition of cultivated land use function morphology from socio-ecological morphology to socio-economic morphology, and to ecological and economic morphology under the direct force of induced production substitution. This paper presented new knowledges on morphology and transition explanations in land use transition research. Furthermore, new knowledges on the underlying mechanism of cultivated land use transition has been developed based on rethinking of the induced production substitution in agriculture. This study is of significance to bridge the knowledge gap of cultivated land use transition among scholars, the public, and policy makers and to deepen further research on land use transition. Finally, suggestions on transformation from dryland to paddy filed in southern China and control of socio-ecological effects of cultivated land use function transition were discussed.

Farmland marginalization has become the main trend of land-use change in the mountainous areas of China. Using the China Agricultural Production Costs and Returns Compilation (annual survey data of major agricultural production costs and earnings at national and provincial levels), this paper first analyzed the changes in the cost structure of agricultural production and the farmers' responses, under the context of the rapid rise in agricultural labor prices since 2003, and further compared the responses from the mountainous and plain regions. We found that farmers on the plains have reduced their labor input effectively through intensive use of agricultural machinery, which has minimized the impact of the increase in labor price. However, it is a severe challenge for farmers in the mountainous areas to use the same method due to the rough terrains. Thus, the agricultural labor productivity in these areas has increased relatively slowly, causing a widening gap in agricultural labor productivity between the two regions. With the rapid rise in labor costs, the marginalization of cultivated land in the mountainous areas is evident. In 2013, the profit of agricultural production in mountainous China, which takes maize cultivation as a representative, has fallen below zero. Since 2000, the land-use and land cover change in these areas has been characterized by the reduction of farmland area, reforestation, and the enhancement of the NDVI value. The high correlation between the NDVI change rate and the ratio of change in farmland (r = -0.70) and forest (r = 0.91) areas in mountainous areas at provincial level from 2000 to 2010, attests to the trend of farmland marginalization there. Finally, according to the analysis results, we summarized the mechanism of such marginalization against the backdrop of the rapid increase in the opportunity cost of farming and the sharp fall of agricultural labor forces. This study contributes to a deep understanding of the development process of farmland abandonment and forest transformation in the mountainous areas of China.

In agricultural society, the cultivation of mountainous land was a representative of intensified contradiction between human and land which resulted in water loss and soil erosion. With the rapid urbanization and industrialization in poverty-stricken mountainous areas, the labor emigration relieves this contradiction significantly, and leads to land use transition, which results in a series of natural and socio-economic changes. This research built an analysis framework of "Land use transition - driving mechanism - effects - responses" in mountainous land use transition and then put forward the further direction of mountainous land reclamation. The results indicate that: (1) The tendency change of land use morphology was the core of rural land use transition in mountainous areas. The expansion of cropland, as well as the contraction of forest land in agricultural society, has changed to the abandonment of cropland and the expansion of forest land is the main characteristic of the dominant land use morphology transition. Land marginalization and land ecological functional recovery are the main characteristics of the recessive land use morphology transition in mountainous areas. (2) Socio-economic factors are the primary driving forces during the mountainous land use transition. Labor emigration is the direct driving forces. Meanwhile, the rising costs of farming opportunities, and the harsh living environment that lead to labor emigration are the root cause for mountainous land use transition. (3) The transition of rural land use in mountainous areas reduces the vulnerability of land ecosystem and improves its ecological security barrier function. The advantages and disadvantages of its socio-economic effects should focus on rural development of mountainous areas and the livelihood of farmers, and need to be supported by empirical and quantitative researches. (4) The transition of land use in rural areas is a benign process of natural restoration and ecological optimization. The rural land remediation in mountainous areas should conform to the law of land use transition, and the target orientation will shift from the increase of cultivated land to the synergies of ecological and environmental protection.

Based on the theories of landscape ecology, this paper discussed the principles and methods of ecological planning and designing in agricultural landscapes. It is suggested that the ecological planning and designing in agricultural landscapes became an important applied field of landscape ecology, due to the characteristics of microspatiality, and correlation and integration involved problems. The Zhuolu basin, located in the semiarid region of northwest Hebei Province was chosen as a case study.

The discussion on function transformation of agricultural utilization and its corresponding driving mechanism in the Three Gorges Reservoir Area (TGRA) can reflect the change of the relationship between people and environment in the transitional belt between central and western China, mountainous areas and reservoir area, and provide a scientific basis for the development of agricultural multi-function in typical mountainous areas. This paper, selected five counties from the hinterland of the TGRA as the study area, analyzed the change of scaling farmland and its corresponding mechanism by defining the concepts of "scaling farmland", with the aid of Arcgis10.2, SPSS, geodetectors and other technical means. Results show that the scaling farmland was mainly converted from cultivated land and shrubland. Apart from some land used for alpine off-season vegetables, the growth of scaling farmland generally occurred at low altitude, and was mainly found in the range with a slope of 30°. The spatial change of scaling farmland of different types was significantly different, which was closely related with road and township administrative center. At the patch level, natural factors such as elevation and slope contribute much to the scaling farmland. At the township level, the driving forces of socioeconomic and humanistic factors were attributed to road traffic, agricultural population density and so on. At the regional level, the influencing factors of each county were more significant than those of the study area. The change and development of scaling farmland was driven by many factors. But the agricultural policy had been one of the dominant factors. Behavior subjects at different levels would promote the scaling farmland development in different directions under the background of national agricultural development and policy implementation.

ContextEuropean agricultural landscapes are facing contradictory phenomena in that some areas are experiencing unsustainable land-use intensification while others are being abandoned. Specifically, agricultural intensification is increasing resulting in numerous negative environmental impacts on European soils, water and biodiversity; increased crop ecological footprints; and creation of social conflicts and inequalities. Within this context, we mapped and assessed ecosystem services fromSpanish agricultural landscapes to identify ecological and economical win-win situations that could provide good examples of sustainable landscape management.ObjectivesWe aim to spatially identify gaps and areas of overlap of ecological and economic values of ecosystem servicesat the national scale for Spanish agricultural landscapes. Additionally, we analyse possible connections among social concerns and preferences related to environmental issues and ecosystem services with economic and ecological values of local agricultural landscapes.MethodsFirst, we quantified and mapped the economic value of crop production at the national level. Second, we mapped the ecological value of agricultural landscapes based on the high nature value farming index. Third, we explored the spatial correlations between economic and ecological values to identify major agricultural landscape patterns at the national level and specific win-win situations at the local level. Fourth, we conducted a public survey of the Spanish population about environmental concerns and their preferences towards ecosystem services. Fifth, we analysed the links among the social concerns and preferences with the ecological and economic values of agricultural landscapes at the national level.ResultsOur results allow us to better understand the main landscape patterns and help develop more balanced management strategies. For instance, the results show how current landscape management in Spain is polarized between areas with high economic values and areas with high ecological performance. The maps produced also allow the identification of agricultural landscapes with high economic and ecological values that can be used as good examples for sustainable landscape management. Additionally, the public survey revealed that environmental concerns of the Spanish population and the importance the population places on agricultural ecosystem services received very low scores.ConclusionsThe results from this study show that the possibility of balancing and reconciling the supply of ecological and economic values from agricultural landscapes exists in practice. The results help identify areas in Spain where actions should be taken to enhance sustainable landscape planning at the national level. Among the analysed environmental concerns of the Spanish population, the three environmental concerns that had the lowest scores are those that are tightly linked to the type of action needed to shift towards more sustainable agroecological systems. Finally, we discuss how complex interactions among ecosystem services should become part of the planning strategies for new sustainable landscape management at the national level.

Satellite data show increasing leaf area of vegetation due to direct (human land-use management) and indirect factors (climate change, CO fertilization, nitrogen deposition, recovery from natural disturbances, etc.). Among these, climate change and CO fertilization effect seem to be the dominant drivers. However, recent satellite data (2000-2017) reveal a greening pattern that is strikingly prominent in China and India, and overlapping with croplands world-wide. China alone accounts for 25% of the global net increase in leaf area with only 6.6% of global vegetated area. The greening in China is from forests (42%) and croplands (32%), but in India is mostly from croplands (82%) with minor contribution from forests (4.4%). China is engineering ambitious programs to conserve and expand forests with the goal of mitigating land degradation, air pollution and climate change. Food production in China and India has increased by over 35% since 2000 mostly due to increasing harvested area through multiple cropping facilitated by fertilizer use and surface/ground-water irrigation. Our results indicate that the direct factor is a key driver of the "Greening Earth", accounting for over a third, and likely more, of the observed net increase in green leaf area. They highlight the need for realistic representation of human land-use practices in Earth system models.