Invasive alien species pose significant threats to biodiversity and ecosystem functioning in protected areas (PAs) worldwide. This study examines ecological impacts of invasive weeds Lantana camara and Mesosphaerum suaveolens on plant species diversity, community composition and soil chemical properties in Parsa and Shuklaphanta National Parks (NPs), Nepal. In total, we sampled 180 pairs of 5 m × 5 m plots, comprising 45 pairs (3 sites × 15 pairs) for each invasive species in each NP. Across all sampling sites, these weeds consistently reduced species diversity (Shannon, Simpson indices), despite the species- and site-specific variations in species richness and soil characteristics. Non-metric multidimensional scaling and Canonical correspondence analysis revealed substantial modifications in plant species composition, along with shifts in indicator species and an increase in the relative cover of established alien plants in invaded plots. While the effects of invasions on soil properties were inconsistent, L. camara significantly increased soil organic carbon and total nitrogen in Parsa, whereas M. suaveolens had no measurable impact on soil parameters except soil pH in either PA. These results suggest that species diversity indices and changes in species composition serve as reliable ecological indicators for assessing impacts of invasive weeds and monitoring ecological restorations. The decline in species diversity and alterations in plant community composition can have cascading effects on ecosystem processes and livelihoods of local communities. Given the increasing threats of plant invasions in Nepal's PAs, urgent and effective management interventions are needed to prevent further spread, mitigate ecological and socio-economic impacts, and restore invaded habitats.

The analysis of the Polish environmental impact assessment (EIA) reports (EIARs) for natural gas (NG) projects, preceded by a legislation survey, with regards to the consideration of major accidents and disasters (MADs), showed that although reports prepared after January 1, 2017 contain more detailed information on MADs, none of the reports introduced the concept of risk, understood as the probability of hazards//impacts in combination with their consequences//effects, nor did they present the assessment results of such defined risk. The quality of the EIARs can be improved. It would be valuable, in addition to the arbitrary, minimum distances from the NG pipeline to other structures used in Poland (DMINs), to include assessment results of such defined risk. It is therefore recommended that sector-specific guidelines for assessing the risk of MADs on pipelines be developed in Poland to support LUP decisions, as well as general guidelines for integrating the risk assessment of MADs within the EIA. Although Polish EIA practitioners and proponents recognize the importance of public participation and consideration of social factors in the EIA practice, in the context of mitigating social conflicts fuelled by concerns about hazards posed by MADs, there is still room for improvement in this regard. It relates directly to the recommendations concerning the presentation of the results of the risk assessment of MADs in the EIARs. In addition, it is suggested that the Polish EIA legislation be modified and a set of man-made disasters analyzed in the EIA be expanded to include consideration of "technical disasters" in place of "construction disasters".

This study provides a comprehensive analysis of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in free surface constructed wetlands (FSCWs) by combining qualitative insights from literature with machine learning-based quantitative analysis. Key factors influencing CO₂, CH₄, and N₂O emissions were identified, with a focus on the effects of seasonal variation, vegetation, substrate, and influent characteristics. The qualitative review highlights vegetation and substrate as critical drivers, noting that specific plant traits, such as root oxygenation, significantly impact methane dynamics. Influents with high nutrient loads, such as agricultural runoff and municipal wastewater, were found to increase GHG emissions, underscoring the importance of influent composition in emissions management. The machine learning analysis, using tree-based models (Random Forest, Gradient Boosting, CatBoost, and XGBoost), further quantified variable importance, revealing that presence of vegetation and All Sky Surface Shortwave Downward Irradiance (SW DNI) are primary drivers for CO₂ and CH₄ emissions, while the age of the Wetland is an important determining factor for N₂O emissions due to its impact on nitrogen cycling. Earth skin temperature, the thermal metric used in this study, showed low importance. This may reflect the fact that SW DNI better captures surface energy inputs that influence microbial activity, or that different thermal variables, such as air temperature, are more relevant in other contexts. These findings emphasize the need for targeted management strategies to optimize GHG mitigation in FSCWs, supporting sustainable wetland design that balances wastewater treatment with climate mitigation goals.

Structures made by humans are shaped by regional culture, history, climate, and social needs. Although such structures are not designed for wildlife, birds often use them as nesting sites, suggesting that human infrastructure can unintentionally influence avian behaviour and population dynamics. This study examined a striking example of this in Arrow poles widely installed in Hokkaido, Japan. Developed as a winter road-safety feature in the 1980s, Arrow poles consist of a hollow horizontal aluminium pipe that is often left open-ended, creating cavities for bird nesting. To our knowledge, this is the first systematic assessment of these structures as avian nesting sites. Focusing on Eurasian Tree Sparrows (Passer montanus) and Russet Sparrows (Passer rutilans), we used Google Street View (February 2024) and field surveys (June 2023) to estimate Arrow pole numbers, nest occupancy rates, and total nest numbers. Of the approximately 281,560 poles estimated across Hokkaido, 5.0% may be occupied by Eurasian Tree Sparrows and 7.67% by Russet Sparrows, corresponding to 2.52% and 8.80% of the total nest numbers for each species, respectively. These estimates were derived from Monte Carlo simulations to incorporate uncertainty. Further analysis using long-term bird monitoring data (1997-2002 and 2016-2020) and statistical comparisons (Mann-Whitney U test and linear regression) suggested that Russet Sparrow populations have increased more in Hokkaido than in mainland Japan, particularly along roads with Arrow poles. These findings highlight how infrastructure developed for human use can unintentionally support wildlife and highlight the potential for integrating biodiversity considerations into infrastructure planning.

Biodiversity conservation in agricultural landscapes requires frameworks that move beyond species richness to address compositional dynamics and community structure. In this study, we apply a zeta diversity approach to explore the patterns of bird compositional turnover across five traditional agricultural systems in the Eastern Himalaya-agropastoral system (AP), farm-based agroforestry system (FAS), large cardamom-based agroforestry system (LCAS), terrace rice cultivation (TRC), and tea cultivation system (TCS). Zeta diversity, which quantifies species shared across multiple sites, enables a deeper understanding of the roles of both common and rare species in shaping community composition. Common, widespread species predominantly influenced compositional turnover within sites of FAS and LCAS, as indicated by higher retention rates across increasing zeta orders. In contrast, AP, TRC, and TCS exhibited greater turnover due to rare or site-specific species, reflected in lower retention rates across sites of the same system. Insectivores emerged as the dominant feeding guild across all systems, with turnover patterns varying significantly among landscapes. Key habitat and environmental drivers of turnover included shrub density, NDVI, temperature seasonality, precipitation seasonality, and elevation. Our findings highlight the critical role of traditional agricultural landscapes in maintaining avian biodiversity and underscore the importance of conserving habitat heterogeneity within agricultural matrices. By leveraging the zeta diversity framework, this study offers valuable insights for integrating biodiversity conservation into agricultural planning and land-use policy. As pressures from land-use change and climate variability intensify, such multidimensional biodiversity assessments are essential for designing resilient agroecosystems that support both ecological integrity, spatial connectivity and local livelihoods in mountain biodiversity hotspots.

Concrete walls and metal or vinyl sheet pilings are commonly used in freshwater systems, including lakes and rivers. Such hardened shorelines are used as a means of reclaiming land for development or as erosion control measures and are typically flat surfaces void of structural complexity. Natural systems, however, have high levels of habitat complexity that yield high volumes of surface area and interstitial space that can be used for refuge, feeding, or other important ecological functions by diverse freshwater organisms. Over the last few decades, there have been innovations in marine systems where hardened shorelines are being augmented by bio-inspired sea walls that include features (ranging from holes and crevasses to simulated mangrove prop roots) to achieve conservation gains for marine life. Freshwater biodiversity is in crisis, with habitat loss and degradation representing one of the most significant drivers of decline. Drawing on lessons learned from similar initiatives in marine environments, new pilot-stage work in freshwater systems have started investigating ways to integrate habitat complexity into hardened shorelines. These interventions offer a promising opportunity to improve conservation in landscapes that has been altered. This paper summarizes the extent of hardened shoreline use in freshwater systems and its contribution to the freshwater biodiversity crisis, presents a case study to develop, deploy, and test alternative structures (embracing learnings from the marine realm), and identifies practical considerations and research needs that must be overcome for such efforts to be widely embraced.

Although coastal ecosystems are impacted by climate change and sea-level rise, many ecological and hydrological models do not yet incorporate sea-level rise projections in their modeling outputs. Therefore, this research examined the various challenges that may prevent sea-level rise from being effectively incorporated in modeling and decision-support tools. We conducted semi-structured interviews with twenty-six professionals involved in Florida's Everglades restoration. We applied the Diffusions of Innovations Theory to better understand factors that can impact practitioners' adoption of newly designed decision-support tools that examine sea-level rise in the freshwater Everglades. The Diffusions of Innovations Theory provided insights into practitioners' perceptions of these tools. We found that these practitioners have a strong interest in using dynamic decision-support tools to plan for sea-level rise impacts on Everglades restoration, particularly when they receive information at appropriate geographic and temporal scales and are given hands-on tools and training. However, challenges that prevent developing these tools include outdated data, limited organizational capacity and funding, limited use of long-term indicators, uncertainty about climate change impacts on local ecosystems, and lack of integration between hydrological and ecological models. Our research also highlights that greater availability of different types of tools can help to meet the needs of the scientific and non-scientific audiences involved in Everglades restoration.

Land resource conflicts in Africa, often manifesting as social dramas driven by competing stakeholders, have been widely studied in contexts like Nigeria's Niger Delta. However, the recent emergence of petroleum-related conflicts in the adjacent Anambra River Basin a region now grappling with oil politics, exclusionary governance, and resistance movements presents a critical yet underexplored case. This paper examines how land resource conflicts, framed as social dramas, shape the development trajectories of communities in the Anambra River Basin, addressing the research question: How do oil well conflicts and associated social dramas influence socioeconomic development in this region? Employing Victor Turner's Social Drama and James C. Scott's State Spatialization frameworks and analyzing published and gray literature through qualitative thematic analysis, the study reveals that conflicts are fueled by the politics of inclusion/exclusion, the pursuit of 'Oil-Producing State Status,' and evolving resistance strategies, all of which disrupt development. By shifting the focus from the Niger Delta to the Anambra Basin, this study uncovers novel dynamics of resource conflicts in Nigeria, demonstrating how they mutate in form and strategy, rendering conventional conflict resolution approaches ineffective. The findings contribute to international scholarship by highlighting the fluidity of resource-based conflicts in Africa and the need for adaptive, context-specific solutions to mitigate their developmental consequences.

Ramsar wetlands, designated as wetlands of international importance under the Ramsar Convention, serve as critical detectors of global change and significant contributors to global conservation and sustainable development. To systematically reveal the development context of Remote Sensing-based Ramsar wetland (RS-RW) research, identify the core hotspots and frontier trends, and evaluate its scientific support role for wetland conservation practice, this study systematically retrieved and analyzed the literature of related RS-RW research based on bibliometric methods and the Web of Science core collection as the database, and discussed the development process and trend of RS-RW research through bibliometric analysis. In this study, the RS-RW research development process was divided into three stages: potential exploration, framework formation, and vigorous growth period. The research objectives, method characteristics, and data source evolution of RS-RW research at different stages were analyzed in detail. Based on the visual representation of hot words in keyword contribution and cluster analysis, VOSviewer© was used to visually present the research hotspots, and the development trend of RS-RW research was summarized from three aspects: classification, indicator, and decision. Finally, focusing on China as a case study, the shortcomings of the current research on RS-RW and future research directions were discussed. The main contributions of this study are as follows: (1) The characteristics and driving forces of RS-RW were systematically clarified; (2) Through multi-dimensional hotspot analysis, the current research frontier with refined classification, multi-indicator collaborative monitoring, and service management decision-making as the core was clarified; (3) The key shortcomings and development paths of RS-RW research in China were proposed. The findings provide valuable insights into the historical development of RS-RW, highlight emerging research frontiers, and lay the foundation for strategic planning of RS-RW initiatives in China. Ultimately, this study contributes to supporting the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (UN 2030 Agenda).

Protected areas (PAs) are the main strategy for area-based nature conservation, and they provide opportunities for rural development through tourism and recreation. Economic policy instruments help PAs to manage commercial activities by regulating visitor flows and providing revenues to strengthen infrastructure and oversight. We employ Icelandic National Parks as a case study of the challenges, opportunities and constraints associated with introducing a concession system to regulate commercial tourism. We summarize and review how the legal framework is used and conduct 21 semi-structured interviews to elicit PA manager and business stakeholder views regarding concessions. Our study answers the literature calling for more studies on concessions and is novel in the context of the Nordic rights to roam. Our results show Iceland has introduced a comprehensive, legally-binding framework for concessions. Stakeholders generally agree that commercial activities need to be regulated, and concession revenues are an important source of financing for the PAs. However, concessions have been introduced primarily with economic motives, and the main challenge is to integrate holistic sustainability into concession contracts with social and environmental criteria. Overlaps and conflicts in the legal regulatory framework contribute to this challenge and could be initially addressed by clear policies providing guidance and interpretation.

Global warming is affecting aquatic ecosystems worldwide. Recreational anglers could contribute to essential data collection as citizen scientists, serving as a prerequisite for adaptive environmental management. Based on a telephone-diary survey, this study investigated German anglers' views on climate change impacts on aquatic ecosystems and identified social predictors of these views. The majority of anglers acknowledged the phenomenon of global warming, associating it with extreme weather events, increased aquatic plant growth, and phytoplankton blooms. Only a minority recognised or suspected an impact of global warming on their target fish species. Neither age nor education level significantly influenced anglers' perceptions of climate warming. Angling motives, gender, angling water, and club membership had little effect, while higher environmental awareness increased the likelihood of recognising climate impacts on aquatic ecosystems. This suggests that environmentally aware anglers may be suitable candidates for environmental monitoring, despite their heterogeneity. The partial inconsistency between anglers' awareness of climate change and their observed and anticipated future impacts highlights the need for appropriate training as precondition for successfully involving anglers in climate-related environmental monitoring.

Growing concern over long-term particulate matter (PM) exposure in coastal industrial complexes highlights limitations in addressing stakeholders' perceptions of acceptability and feasibility (A&F) for targeted gardening for particulate matter alleviation (TGPMA) as a participatory governance strategy towards long-term management. A perception-based survey conducted in the Yeosu National Industrial Complex, South Korea, used statistical and network analyses to examine these perceptions. Results indicate strong awareness of TGPMA's necessity and benefits, with high acceptability but limited feasibility-especially regarding community participation and fundraising. Positive perceptions increased willingness to engage, and prior community experience strengthened acceptability, feasibility, and sustained involvement. Five governance challenges emerged: low voluntary participation, weak fundraising, perceptual gaps in monitoring, limited stakeholder responsibility, and uncertain maintenance commitments. A governance-centered framework towards long-term management is proposed, integrating self-governance, business-sector stewardship, multi-sector fundraising, adaptive monitoring, and shared maintenance. The framework underscores the business sector's dual role as financial contributor and governance partner, enhancing A&F through collaborative responsibility and inclusive decision-making. Although conceptually valuable, this single-site study's generalizability is limited by self-reported survey data, and the lack of deeper exploration of the business sector in light of the study's findings. Future research should test the framework across diverse industrial contexts and assess business sector perceptions to advance co-governance for sustainable air quality management.

Public support for restoration in sensitive ecosystems like the Everglades depends in part on individual-level concern and perceptions of impact from environmental threats. This study examines how environmental knowledge and ideological and political factors (IPFs)- cultural worldview (CWV), political ideology, and voting behavior - influence Floridians' concern for the Everglades and their perceptions of impact for six different threats to the Everglades. Two of these threats, sea level rise and changes in precipitation, relate directly to climate change and thus are more likely to evoke ideological or political responses from participants. Analysis of our sample of 1437 Floridians reveals that: (1) Of the IPFs, CWV had the largest influence on environmental concern and perceptions of impact, except for in the case of sea level rise, for which voting behavior superseded CWV, (2) environmental knowledge had a larger influence on perceptions of impact for environmental threats that are not ideologically entangled (e.g. water quality), (3) IPFs had a larger influence on perceptions of impact from threats that are ideologically entangled (i.e. sea level rise and changes in precipitation), and (4) those with Communitarian-Egalitarian worldviews held higher levels of concern and perceived greater risk impacts on all but one of the threats (invasive species), although some differences vary across the distribution of environmental knowledge. These findings improve our understanding of how environmental knowledge and IPFs shape public concern for and perceptions of threats to the Greater Everglades ecosystem. These insights can help in developing communication strategies that generate public support for restoration.

Half of the world's population currently lives in cities, leading to significant landscape transformations that affect freshwater ecosystems. These changes include increased imperviousness and water runoff, frequent municipal and industrial discharges, and the destruction of riparian corridors and floodplains, resulting in a consistent decline in biodiversity and ecosystem services, and posing new challenges for both environmental and human health. In the last decades, we observed an increase in water-related policies, echoing growing concern with water safety and freshwater ecosystems degradation. However, existing policies frequently fail to provide practical or efficient results or are insufficient. The present manuscript aims to highlight relevant international legislation and directives and to identify potential gaps that should be tackled to promote the protection of urban river and stream ecosystems as well as human health in cities. Despite the existence of EU norms that can protect the urban river and streams ecosystems in the European Union, such as the Water Framework Directive, the Habitats Directive, the Environmental Liability Directive and the Nature Restoration Regulation, or different agendas at a global level, the legislation is dispersed, subject to different interpretations and to conflicting interests in the city's management. Therefore, urban freshwater ecosystems would benefit from the establishment of specific legislation that supports the action of municipal authorities, protecting their biodiversity and safeguarding adequate ecosystem functioning, the existence of floodplains, natural margins, and riparian forests, to guarantee a safe environment and improved well-being for the population of cities.

In Türkiye, where nearly all forests are publicly owned, the government exercises substantial authority over forest management and utilization. This study examines how legislative and regulatory changes in forestry have shaped local outcomes, focusing on the tension between economic priorities and ecological sustainability. Methodologically, the study combines Hamilton's institutional approach, highlighting the role of legal frameworks, administrative routines, and authority structures in shaping governance, with Foucault's concept of governmentality, which emphasizes how power is exercised through norms, regulations, and technical knowledge. This dual framework is applied through a qualitative document analysis of forestry laws, development plans, and policy papers. The findings show that while official statistics suggest an overall expansion of forest area, regional patterns reveal increasing pressures on natural forests to supply industrial raw materials, and growing reliance on non-forestry permits within forest boundaries. These outcomes demonstrate that governance mechanisms and legislative amendments have systematically prioritized economic utilization. The study concludes that the Turkish case illustrates how institutionalized governance choices, mediated through law and regulation, may simultaneously enable resource mobilization and accelerate long-term forest degradation. These insights emphasize the need for policy frameworks that better balance economic development with ecological preservation, offering lessons for sustainable forest governance globally.

Impacts of agriculture are commonly assessed using farm-level tools, especially when the primary objective is to provide environmental management advice on technology adoption and production practices. Among these tools, Ambitec-Agro, developed in 2003 based on the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) framework, has been widely applied to evaluate the socioenvironmental performance of agricultural technologies in a cost-effective and efficient manner. In light of new international governance commitments related to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), this manuscript presents the updated version of Ambitec-Agro and its alignment with the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development focused on crop production. A qualitative, descriptive, and exploratory methodology was adopted, including the selection of relevant SDGs and the revision of the tool's indicators through document analysis, expert consultation, and literature review. The original tool comprises 2 dimensions, 7 aspects, 27 criteria, and 148 indicators. The updated version maintains the original structure and core principles but includes 25 criteria and 139 indicators. A total of 66 indicators were revised: 18 were removed, 14 added, 2 reallocated across criteria, 22 modified, and 10 merged into 5. These revisions enhance the tool's relevance, coherence, and applicability for evaluating agricultural technologies in the context of contemporary sustainability priorities.

The spread of microplastics in urban environments is an increasingly highlighted environmental problem. To prevent their spread, the treatment of stormwater from urban surfaces in bioretention filters may be a possible solution. This research project aimed to identify the occurrence and pathways for microplastics in bioretention filters that receive contaminated stormwater from impervious surfaces in a city. Sampling was conducted in selected bioretention filters, incorporating soil sampling at different depths and flow-proportional stormwater sampling during various rain events. Eleven different polymers on particles >10 µm were analysed in the soil samples and stormwater with Thermal Extraction and Desorption Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry (TED-GC/MS). Additionally, some of the stormwater samples were analysed by pyrolysis PYR-GC/MS on particles >27 µm. The polymers most prevalent in all samples were polyvinyl chloride (PVC), polyethylene terephthalate (PET), and polystyrene (PS). The study revealed variations in polymer composition between water and soil samples, with a tendency for more polar polymers, such as polyethylene terephthalate (PET), to be more prevalent in water samples. This suggests differential transport and retention mechanisms for various polymer types, with more polar polymers perhaps being more soluble or less likely to adhere to soil particles, thus remaining more abundant in stormwater runoff. Further investigation is needed to fully understand the implications of these findings for the design and optimization of bioretention systems in capturing a broad spectrum of microplastic pollutants. Furthermore, the highest microplastic concentrations in soil samples were found in the upper layers of the bioretention filters, demonstrating effective microplastic reduction through their accumulation in soil. However, different outcomes were observed between the analytical methods and some uncertainties in the analysis, necessitating further studies with simultaneous sampling and analysis by different analytical methods of both soil and stormwater. Overall, the investigated bioretention filters proved to be efficient measures for reducing the spread of microplastics from impervious surfaces, preventing their release to recipient surface waters.

Understanding forest management impacts on understory vegetation and belowground processes is essential for sustainable forestry. This study employed a controlled and replicated field experiment to investigate how four forest management practices-three active practices (TTFM: removal of unwanted competitors of selected target trees; SBFM: optimization of forest spatial structure through selective thinning; SFCS: reduction of stand density via timber harvesting) and an unmanaged control (NT)-affect forest structure, light regimes, understory vegetation, soil nutrients, enzymes and examines their interrelationships. Current study was conducted in a natural oak forest within the Xiaolongshan Nature Reserve, Gansu Province, China, where the different management practices have been implemented since 2013. The design consisted of four randomly assigned replicate plots per treatment (16 plots in total). Within each plot, composite soil samples were collected from three depths (0-10, 10-20, and 20-30 cm) using a randomized five-point sampling method. Redundancy Analysis was employed to elucidate the key factors governing soil nutrient and enzyme activities. SBFM significantly enhanced soil acid phosphatase activity at 20-30 cm. Furthermore, both SBFM and TTFM reduced the available phosphorus content at 10-20 cm compared to the NT. Tree mingling, dominance, shrub Shannon diversity, and shrub and herb nitrogen and phosphorus content emerged as primary drivers of soil nutrient and enzyme dynamics. These findings demonstrate that SBFM enhances soil nutrient and enzyme processes. Forest structure-light coupling and understory vegetation jointly regulates soil nutrients and enzymes. This study provides guidance for improving forest management toward ecosystem sustainability.

Biodiversity and ecosystem services are essential to human well-being, yet their complex interactions remain poorly understood, particularly in highly urbanized areas subject to significant anthropogenic disturbances. This study investigates the spatial relationships between biodiversity and five key ecosystem services: crop production, soil conservation, carbon sequestration, water yield, and habitat quality across the rapidly urbanizing Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Urban Agglomeration (BTHUA). We utilize a biodiversity index based on species richness and an ecosystem services index that integrates the value of these five services to examine their spatial distribution and coupling coordination. A coupling coordination degree model is applied to assess interactions between the two systems. Our results indicate that most ecosystem services are positively associated with biodiversity, with habitat quality showing the strongest correlation. In contrast, water yield is negatively associated with crop production, primarily due to urban expansion and hydrological constraints that limit agricultural output. Coupling coordination analysis reveals stronger coordination at broader spatial scales. Land use and Average annual precipitation are identified as the dominant drivers, especially in coastal areas. These findings fill a crucial gap in understanding the spatial dynamics of ecosystem services and biodiversity, offering valuable insights for regional ecological management and policy-making.

The health and integrity of freshwater ecosystems are significantly affected by anthropogenic pressures. Understanding the ecological conditions of freshwater ecosystems is crucial for effective conservation and management strategies. In this study, we developed a new multimetric index, the Karun Fish-Macroinvertebrate Index (KFMI), that incorporates data on fish and macroinvertebrate assemblages to assess the ecological conditions of the Karun River basin, in Iran. We sampled 53 sites and collected data on fish and macroinvertebrate communities, physicochemical parameters, and habitat characteristics. We used physicochemical and physical habitat characteristics data to identify reference conditions using the concept of least-disturbed condition and based on Principal Component Analysis (PCA). We calculated 54 fish and 363 macroinvertebrate metrics to represent different aspects of ecosystem health. We created multiple KFMIs by combining specific core metrics through a stepwise process that assessed metric stability, responsiveness to environmental variables, and redundancy. The final KFMI consisted of seven metrics (3 fish and 4 macroinvertebrate) related to taxa richness, community composition, functional diversity indices, functional feeding groups, reproduction status, and habitat preferences. The index showed good discrimination efficiency (92%) and precision in classifying sites into different ecological health categories and highlights the value of incorporating multiple biological assemblages in multimetric indices to support ecosystem assessment and management strategies.

Soil heavy metal (HM) contamination from mining activities poses a threat to fragile alpine ecosystems. However, comprehensive risk assessments and quantitative source apportionment for the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau (QTP) remain insufficient. In this study, we investigated a typical alpine acidic mine and integrated regional data to evaluate the characteristics, ecological risks, and sources of HM contamination. Results revealed that high-intensity mining activities led to elevated topsoil HM concentrations. The mean total potential ecological risk index (TRI) reached 188.75, indicating a medium-high ecological risk level, with Cu, Cd, and Pb identified as the primary pollutants. A comparative analysis across the QTP further disclosed widespread HM contamination risks in metal mining areas, particularly for Cu, Cd, and Pb. By integrating positive matrix factorization (PMF) and Spearman correlation analysis, five contamination sources were quantified. Among these, copper mining (Cu-dominant, 41.13%) and mining-induced sulfide dust emissions (Pb/Cd-associated, 19.73%) were the dominant contributors, collectively accounting for 60.86% of the total HM contamination. Our results emphasize the necessity of implementing prioritized control measures for these mining-driven sources and provide a critical scientific basis for targeted remediation strategies in alpine metal mining areas.