Groundwater is an important water source to support China's economic and social development. Since the 1970s, China, especially the north region, has started to intensively pump groundwater as a water supply for agricultural irrigation, industry and city expansion. To meet the water demand due to the rapid development of the economy and society, groundwater is continuously and disorderly exploited to a great extent for a prolonged time in some regions in China, besides faulty operation and management, and insufficient emphasis on protection, which leads to severe problems of groundwater over-exploitation and contamination. In recent years, the Chinese government has attached great importance to groundwater protection. This paper illustrates the general ideas and strategies of groundwater protection and management in China from the aspects of over-exploitation control, quality protection, water ecosystem protection, and implementation of the strictest water management systems.
In the last 15 years, the west population of white-naped crane (Antigone vipio) decreased dramatically despite the enhanced conservation actions in both breeding and wintering areas. Recent studies highlighted the importance of protecting the integrity of movement connectivity for migratory birds. Widespread and rapid landcover changes may exceed the adaptive capacity of migrants, leading to the collapse of migratory networks. In this study, using satellite tracking data, we modeled and characterized the migration routes of the white-naped crane at three spatial levels (core area, migratory corridor, and migratory path) based on the utilization distribution for two eras (1990s and 2010s) spanning 20 years. Our analysis demonstrated that the white-naped crane shifted its migratory route, which is supported by other lines of evidences. The widespread loss of wetlands, especially within the stopover sites, might have caused this behavioral adaptation. Moreover, our analysis indicated that the long-term sustainability of the new route is untested and likely to be questionable. Therefore, directing conservation effects to the new route might be insufficient for the long-term wellbeing of this threatened crane and large-scale wetland restorations in Bohai Bay, a critical stopover site in the East Asian-Australasian flyway, are of the utmost importance to the conservation of this species.
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