In the face of escalating environmental challenges and the urgent need to safeguard global food security, cutting-edge research from Northeast Agricultural University is breaking new ground in ecological security planning. A team led by Liang Guo has developed an innovative framework that synergizes ecological connectivity, climate-specific risks, and economic feasibility into a seamlessly integrated model designed for cold-region landscapes—areas critical for biodiversity preservation and agricultural resilience amid climate change.
High-latitude cold regions, often overlooked in global ecological strategies, are especially vulnerable due to their fragile environments, which are rapidly deteriorating under mounting climatic and anthropogenic pressures. These regions play a pivotal role as biodiversity reservoirs and vital agricultural hubs, making their protection imperative. Traditional approaches to spatial ecological planning have centered predominantly on ecological parameters, neglecting the strong interdependencies between economics, climate variability, and dynamic ecosystem functions. This oversight has limited practical applications and compromised the ability to create adaptive, cost-effective conservation networks.
The newly proposed Connectivity-Ecological Risk-Economic Efficiency (CRE) framework addresses this critical gap by integrating these multidimensional factors into ecological security patterns (ESPs). This novel framework recognizes that maintaining ecosystem stability requires a delicate balance between preserving ecological corridors that support species migration and considering the socioeconomic costs associated with land-use decisions, particularly under varying climate scenarios characteristic of cold regions.
Liang Guo’s study, published in Agricultural Ecology and Environment in October 2025, presents a comprehensive analysis spanning current and future ecological conditions. Employing sophisticated methods such as circuit theory, morphological spatial pattern analysis (MSPA), and genetic algorithms (GA), the research evaluates ecosystem services (ESs) distributed over the landscape for the year 2020 and projects changes under diverse climate scenarios including SSP119, SSP245, and SSP545 by 2030. The multicriteria evaluation revealed that mountainous areas harbor notably high ecosystem service values, while central plains exhibit reduced ecological functionality, underscoring spatial heterogeneity in ecosystem resilience.
Under low-emission scenarios typified by SSP119, ecological prioritization led to expansion in core habitat areas, signifying enhanced ecosystem integrity potentially conducive to biodiversity preservation. Conversely, scenarios simulating intensive development and higher emissions (SSP245 and SSP545) indicated habitat fragmentation and degradation of ecological functions. The dynamic response of ecological networks to these scenarios elucidates how climate policy and land-use management interactively influence cold region landscapes.
A vital advancement in the CRE framework is its optimization of ecological corridors through genetic algorithms, which refine corridor widths based on ecological risk levels and economic considerations. By 2020, the study identified 498 ecological corridors, each optimized for maximal ecological benefit and minimal economic cost. Notably, optimized corridor designs under the SSP119 scenario exhibited narrower, more efficient networks, reflecting the framework’s capacity to enhance connectivity in a cost-effective manner while mitigating anthropogenic pressures.
One of the key innovations of this research lies in the construction of a resistance surface amalgamating natural and socio-economic parameters. This integrated resistance model elucidates the impact of urbanization and agricultural expansion on connectivity, highlighting that maintaining forest integrity and vigilant landscape planning are essential for sustaining ecosystem services and biodiversity, especially as urban footprints grow.
The CRE framework’s holistic approach is well-suited to address the complex interplay of climatic, ecological, and economic factors that underpin resilience in cold-region ecosystems. By incorporating climate variability, particularly factors like seasonal snow cover important for species’ migratory routes, the model transcends static ecological planning techniques. This innovation enables adaptive management strategies that respond to evolving environmental conditions, ensuring ecosystem functions are preserved under future uncertainty.
Another critical contribution of this framework is its replicability, making it applicable beyond Northeast China to other cold-region landscapes facing similar ecological and socioeconomic challenges. The ability to balance conservation goals with sustainable development priorities opens paths for actionable land-use planning that harmonizes ecological protection with human needs in vulnerable regions.
As climate change accelerates and pressures on food systems intensify, the CRE framework offers a timely solution for policymakers and conservationists seeking to design resilient ecological networks. Its integration of genetic algorithms and multifaceted scenario analysis allows for data-driven decisions that optimize landscape connectivity while accounting for economic realities and climate risks, advancing a new paradigm in ecological security planning.
The study’s insights are poised to significantly influence environmental management strategies under low-emission pathways, emphasizing the preservation of ecological connectivity as a cornerstone of sustainability. By foregrounding economic efficiency alongside ecological risk, this approach affords a pragmatic roadmap for mitigating biodiversity loss without curtailing necessary development in sensitive cold regions.
In conclusion, Liang Guo’s team has produced a seminal work that redefines ecological network construction for cold environments, melding robust theoretical advancements with practical application potential. This integrated, forward-looking framework stands as a benchmark for future research and policy aimed at securing the ecological and economic health of some of the planet’s most endangered landscapes against the backdrop of climate change.
Subject of Research: Not applicable
Article Title: Integrating ecological networks and multi-scenario optimization: a novel framework for constructing ecological security patterns
News Publication Date: 13-Oct-2025
Web References: https://www.maxapress.com/article/doi/10.48130/aee-0025-0007
References: 10.48130/aee-0025-0007
Keywords: Biochemistry, Engineering, Technology
