Objective: This study aims to provide a scientific basis for improving the ecological product value realization mechanism and promoting the high-quality development of the forest ecological capital-rich regional economy, through investigating the economic conversion efficiency of forest ecological capital in Lishui City, Zhejiang Province in China, the pilot area of the national ecological product value realization mechanism, and clarifying the efficiency mechanism of forest ecological capital promoting regional economic growth. Method: In this study, a forest ecological capital input-output index system was constructed.The super-efficient SBM-Malmquist model, least squares (OLS) model, fixed effect and random effect model, and spatio-temporal geographic weighted regression model (GTWR) were used to analyze the efficiency, change characteristics, main influencing factors and influencing mechanism of the economic conversion of forest ecological capital in Lishui City, Zhejiang Province from 2011 to 2019, with the help of Stata and ArcGIS software. Result: Forest ecological capital had a positive impact on regional economic growth, that was, under the condition of keeping factors, such as forestry labor, physical capital and forest land area, unchanged, the marginal efficiency of economic growth increased by 0.076% for every 1% increase in forest ecological capital, which had a positive effect on regional economic growth.Overall, the regional openness in Suichang County, Qingyuan County and Longquan City had a significant positive impact on the economic conversion efficiency of forest ecological capital, but there was a negative correlation between the two in the other regions.The improvement of per capita disposable income had a good role in promoting the economic conversion efficiency of forest ecological capital in most areas.The industrial structure of Jingning County and Longquan City had a significant positive impact on the economic conversion efficiency of forest ecological capital, while the industrial structure in the other regions had a significant negative impact on the economic conversion efficiency of forest ecological capital.In general, the influencing factors had obvious characteristics of spatial-temporal heterogeneity. Conclusion: The economic conversion of forest ecological capital and the efficient promotion of regional economic growth are not only limited by regional natural resource endowments and the investment of science and technology, talents and funds, but also rely on scientific and reasonable allocation of production factors.Therefore, it is necessary to improve the rational allocation of forest ecological capital factors under environmental and resource constraints, reduce resource misallocation, and promote the coordinated improvement of factor agglomeration level and economic growth efficiency.

Objective: Within the context of promoting common prosperity for all people, the impacts of value realization of forest ecological products on the development gaps of 26 mountainous counties of Zhejiang Province were studied in order to provide a scientific basis for formulating policies for common prosperity in mountainous counties with rich forest resources. Method: Based on the panel data of 26 mountainous counties of Zhejiang Province from 2001 to 2020, a system of indicators for multi-dimensional assessment of development level at counties was developed to measure the development levels of counties and the development gaps among counties.A quantitative analysis of the impacts of value realization efficiency of forest ecological products on development gaps among counties were conducted by means of remote sensing and geographic information system technologies, InVEST model, Super-SBM model and two-way fixed effect model. Result: 1) The overall development level of the 26 mountainous countiesshowed an increasing trend from 2001 to 2020, and the development gaps among the counties showed an expansion first and followed by a narrowing, featured as an 'inverted U curve'.2) From 2001 to 2020, the value realization efficiency of forest ecological products in the 26 mountainous counties increased significantly, and slightly higher in counties based on ecological development than those based on leap development.3) The improvement of the value realization efficiency of forest ecological products can effectively narrow the development gaps among counties, and slightly better in counties based on leap development than those based ecological development.4) The value realization efficiency of forest ecological products can narrow the county development gaps by improving the output value of forestry secondary and tertiary industries, the level of technology application and human capital. Conclusion: The value realization efficiency of forest ecological products and county development level in the 26 mountainous counties of Zhejiang Province showed a significant upward trend from 2001 to 2020.Factors such as industrial development, technological progress and qualification of human resources affected the value realization of forest ecological products and the performance of promoting balanced and coordinated development of counties.Therefore, each county unit needs to make efforts from the aspects of innovating the integrated development model of forest ecological industry, improving the ability of technology application and operation management, and enhancing the complementary advantages and holistic development among counties, so as to comprehensively improve the efficiency of transforming the resource advantages of "lucid water and lush mountains" to invaluable assets, promote the coordinated and high-quality development of mountainous counties, and take the lead in building a demonstration model of common prosperity in mountainous counties with high-quality development.

Objective: Narrowing the gap between urban and rural development is an important link in achieving common prosperity for all people.Building a multi-dimensional assessment system to measure the value realization efficiency of forest ecological products and the urban-rural gap, and analyze the impact of the value realization efficiency of forest ecological products on the urban-rural gap and its mechanism, so as to provide a scientific basis for formulating and improving urban and rural common prosperity planning and policies in the new era and new journey. Method: Based on the panel data of 11 districts and cities in Zhejiang Province from 2001 to 2020, the double fixed effect static panel model was used to analyze the impact of the value realization efficiency of forest ecological products on the urban-rural gap, and the mechanism was analyzed from four aspects: urban-rural income gap, urban-rural consumption gap, urban-rural employment gap, and urban-rural public service gap. Result: 1) From 2001 to 2020, the achievement rate of the value realization efficiency of forest ecological products in Zhejiang Province was relatively low, and the overall situation was fluctuating.The average efficiency of value realization of forest ecological products in district-divided cities in the past 20 years was ranked as follows: Jiaxing> Jinhua> Taizhou> Zhoushan> Huzhou> Shaoxing> Ningbo> Wenzhou> Hangzhou> Lishui.2) From 2001 to 2020, the urban-rural gap in Zhejiang Province showed a declining trend in general, and the urban-rural development gaps among the district-divided cities were obviously heterogeneous.In the past 20 years, the average value of urban-rural gap of each city was ranked as follows: Jiaxing < Huzhou < Zhoushan < Ningbo < Hangzhou < Shaoxing < Wenzhou < Taizhou < Jinhua < Quzhou < Lishui.3) The impact of the value realization efficiency of forest ecological products on the urban-rural gap shows an overall "inverted U-shaped" development trend with an increase first followed by a decrease.4) The efficiency of the value realization of forest ecological products can influence and narrow the urban-rural gap through the number of non-agricultural employment, agricultural, forestry and water expenditure, and the per capita transfer income of rural residents. Conclusion: All district-divided cities should, according to their respective forest resources, innovate the value added model of forest ecological products, improve the forest ecological compensation mechanism, the marketization promotion mechanism of forest ecological industry and the benefit sharing mechanism of ecological industry development, broaden the path to realize the value of forest ecological products, actively absorb rural labor forces, and improve the level of rural non-agricultural income and forest resource property income, transform the advantages of Zhejiang's forest resources into the advantages of urban and rural common prosperity.

Objective: Within the context of common prosperity for all people, this paper studies the influencing mechanism of the value realization efficiency of forest ecological products on the income gap between urban and rural areas in 26 counties in mountainous areas of Zhejiang Province, in order to provide a scientific basis for the establishment of the value realization mechanism of ecological products and the planning and policy formulation for promoting common prosperity in mountainous counties with rich forest resources. Method: Based on the statistical data of 26 counties in mountainous areas of Zhejiang Province from 2001 to 2020, the value realization efficiency of forest ecological products was measured by means of geographic information system (ArcGIS), InVEST model and Super-SBM model.The two-way fixed effect model was used to test the impact of the value realization efficiency of forest ecological products on the urban-rural income gap, and the path mechanism of the impact was clarified. Result: 1) From 2001 to 2020, the value realization efficiency of forest ecological products in 26 counties in mountainous areas of Zhejiang Province has been significantly improved, which is manifested in the obvious increase of the number of the medium and high-efficiency areas.The value realization efficiency of forest ecological products in ecological development counties is higher than that in leap-forward development counties.2) The efficiency improvement of value realization of forest ecological products has a positive effect on narrowing the urban-rural income gap in 26 counties and has a greater marginal effect on narrowing the urban-rural income gap in leap-forward development counties.3) The improvement of value realization efficiency of forest ecological products narrowing urban-rural income gap is mainly achieved through pure technical efficiency, and the impact of scale efficiency on urban-rural income gap is not significant. Conclusion: The value realization effect of forest ecological products in 26 counties in mountainous areas of Zhejiang Province has been greatly improved, and remarkable achievements have been made in exploring the transformation mode of "two mountains".The 26 counties in the mountainous area should pay attention to optimizing the allocation of fiscal expenditure scale, improving the degree of opening to the outside world, grasping technological innovation and increasing investment in forestry scientific research, and continue to make good use of the advantages of forest resources to continuously promote the economic growth of 26 counties in mountainous areas, so as to continuously narrow the income gap between urban and rural areas.

Objective: To narrow the income gaps among farmers is an important link to achieve common prosperity in rural areas.Quantitative analysis of the impact of socialized forestry services on the income gap of peasant households and its mechanism was conducted to improve the socialized forestry service system in the new era and new journey and to help achieve the common prosperity of rural planning and policy decision-making. Methods: Based on the theories of division of labor and specialization effect, optimization of family labor allocation and promotion of forestland circulation and management, the analysis framework of the impact of socialization of forestry services on household income gap of farmers was constructed.The survey data of 2 413 households in Fujian, Jiangxi, Zhejiang, Hunan, Sichuan, Guangxi provinces (region) were used and the unconditional quantile regression model was applied to test the impact of socialized forestry services on household income gap, as well as to analyze the difference and decomposition effect of different adoption degrees of socialized forestry services. Results: 1) Socialized forestry services had a significant increase effect on the income level of farmer households, and the increase effect on low-income households was greater, which was conducive to narrowing the income gap of farmers' households.2) There were significant differences in the marginal contribution of socialized forestry services to the household income of farmers with different income levels.The socialized forestry services could significantly reduce the Gini coefficient, and the lower the income level, the greater the marginal contribution, the socialized forestry services could help narrow the income gap of rural households.3) The coefficient effect dominated the widening of rural household income gap.Among them, whether the head of the household is a village cadre, the proportion of forestry income, the degree of woodland fragmentation, the distance between the village and the county town, and the terrain were the main factors affecting the coefficient effect at the income levels of Q₁₀-Q₉₀.4) The average adoption degree of socialized forestry services was 0.354, and forestry socialized services had a good income increase effect on households with low adoption level, and the income gap of households was mainly dominated by the characteristic effect. Conclusions: It needs to attach great importance and give full play to the positive role of socialized forestry services in reducing the income gaps among farm households, through continuous improvement of supportive policies on demand and supply of socialized forestry services for low-income farmer households, implementation of targeted incentives to stimulate and encourage farmers to actively adopt socialized forestry services to form a "demand promotes supply and supply drives demand" virtuous cycle pattern.

Objective: In the context of promoting common prosperity to achieve the ambitious goal of Chinese-style modernization, we investigate the effect of the implementation of forest resource development project on county's urban-rural income gap in the less-developed regions and the underlying mechanism, thus to provide a basis to support common prosperity and Chinese-style modernization in the less developed regions in the new era. Method: Based on county-level panel data of 650 less-developed regions in 28 provinces in China from 2008 to 2019, we analyze the effect of forest resource development on their urban-rural income gap using the spatial Durbin model, and analyze its impact mechanism from income effect and employment effect. Result: 1) The forest resource development project enlarged the effect on the urban-rural income gap in the less-developed regions, adjacent regions and all regions as a whole, specifically, a 1% increase in afforestation area leading to an expansion of the gap by 0.035, 0.200, and 0.236 in the three types of regions, respectively.2) Forest resource development project widens the overall urban-rural income gap mainly by reducing the income of rural residents and increasing the income of urban residents in the less-developed regions.3) Mechanism analysis shows that due to the constraints of ecological protection, human capital, and geographical location in the less-developed regions, the effects of forest resource development project on income and employment are not significant, which makes the less-developed regions fall into the "forest resource curse" phenomenon characterized by "abundant forest resources but slow economic growth", thus increasing their urban-rural income gap.Specifically, the forest resource development project has no significant effect on tourism income in the less-developed regions; meanwhile, the implementation of the forest resource development project can only promote the employment of farmers in the primary industry, which has a lower marginal labor remuneration, but fails to improve or even squeeze out the labor forces from the secondary and tertiary industries, which have higher marginal labor remunerations, thus the employment effect is not obvious. Conclusion: We should combine forest protection and regional industrial development, promote the joint development of forest resources among regions, and strengthen the coordinated development of forestry and other industries, to effectively transform the "clear waters and green mountains" resource advantage of forest resources in the less-developed regions into the economic advantage of "invaluable assets", aiming to utilize the abundant forest resources in the less-developed regions to reduce the urban-rural income gap.

Objective: The objective of this study was to assess the effect of watering regimes and photoperiod manipulations of acclimation treatments on seedling morphology and physiology attributes in the nursery and field performance of Larix principis-rupprechtii. Method: We applied three watering regimes at 40%, 60%, 80%(control) of container capacity (CC) combined with two photoperiod manipulations at natural daylength (ND) and 10-hour (10 h) daylength (SD) in the nursery for three weeks during summer and then outplanted in late-July (July 23rd).We measured seedling morphological and physiological attributes in the nursery.Additionally, we measured field survival for two years. Result: Compared to ND, SD significantly induced seedling bud set (66% vs.26%).Reduced photoperiod slightly increased root starch concentration (P=0.068).Watering regime to CC 40% significantly decreased shoot to root ratio (S/R)(P < 0.001) and accelerated shoot starch converted into soluble sugars.Compared to ND, SD significantly improved field survival at the end of the first growing season (92% vs.82%).This suggested that photoperiod manipulation at 10 h daylength increased root starch concentration and bud set, which strengthened seedling hardness.SD combined with CC 40% and CC 60% treatments improved field survival (above 60%) at the end of the second growing season. Conclusion: Photoperiod manipulation at 10 h daylength combined with watering regimes at 40%-60% increased field survival of Larix principis-rupprechtii seedlings at the end of the first and second growing season.The study reveals the vital role of seedling carbon storage and S/R in seedling quality for summer-planted seedlings.

Objective: This study investigated the effects of the interaction between Bacillus paramycoides JYZ-SD5 and Schizophyllum commune Be on the growth and salt tolerance of Metasequoia glyptostroboides under salt stress, in order to explore the mechanism of action, and to provide a reference for the use of beneficial microorganisms to improve the salt tolerance of woody plants and the bioremediation of saline-alkali land. Method: A pot experiment was conducted to investigate the effects of B.paramycoides JYZ-SD5 and S.commune Be on the physiological and metabolic indexes and salt tolerance of M.glyptostroboides under NaCl stress. Result: 1) Compared with control seedlings, the biomass and root growth parameters of M.glyptostroboides were improved by different inoculation treatments, and the effect of co-inoculation with JYZ-SD5+Be was better than single inoculation with JYZ-SD5 or Be.The height growth, diameter growth, root length, root surface area, root volume, root tips number and branches of M.glyptostroboides of co-inoculation with JYZ-SD5+Be were significantly increased by 65.47%, 63.46%, and 1.05, 1.51, 2.2, 1.88, and 2.31 times, respectively (P < 0.05).2) Under salt stress, compared with uninoculated control, all inoculation treatments effectively alleviated the damage of salt stress on M.glyptostroboides leaves and relieved the symptoms of salt damage.Single inoculation with JYZ-SD5 improved the soluble sugar, soluble protein and proline significantly by 12.4%, 62.58%, and 38.99%, respectively (P < 0.05), single inoculation with Be and co-inoculation with JYZ-SD5+Be significantly improved proline by 122% and 35.64%(P < 0.05).3) Under salt stress, compared with uninoculated control, all inoculation treatments effectively reduced the H₂O₂ content, O₂^·-generation rate, MDA content and electrolyte leakage, among which, single inoculation with JYZ-SD5 significantly reduced by 26.58%, 9%, 15.85%, and 18.76%(P < 0.05), single inoculation with Be reduced by 8.91%, 7.77%, 8.54%, and 22.09%, co-inoculation with JYZ-SD5+Be significantly reduced by 15.58%, 26.38%, 53.66% and 30.39%(P < 0.05), respectively.At the same time, all inoculation treatments significantly reduced the activity of SOD, POD, CAT, APX and GR.4) Under salt stress, compared with uninoculated control, all inoculation treatments improved K⁺ content and reduced Na⁺ content, and thus reduced Na⁺/K⁺ ratio which was the highest in the single inoculation with Be and was significantly reduced by 23.84% and 26.58% in shoots and leaves of M.glyptostroboides (P < 0.05), respectively. Conclusion: This study showed that B.paramycoides JYZ-SD5 and S.commune Be can promote the growth of M.glyptostroboides, alleviate the damage of salt stress on M.glyptostroboides and improve the tolerance of M.glyptostroboides to salt stress by raising the plant water absorption and accumulation of osmotic regulation substances, maintaining the cell membrane stability, reducing the level of membrane lipid peroxidation and the accumulation of reactive oxygen species and antioxidant enzymes activity and reducing the Na⁺/K⁺ ratios.

Objective: Soil salination is one of the main factors restricting the productivity of agricultural and forestry resources. To adapt to the environment, plants alleviate salt damage by initiating gene expression, altering the physiological metabolism and morphological structure. A growing number of studies have shown that C2H2 zinc finger proteins (ZFPs) play important roles in the regulatory networks of plant response to salt stress. To date, studies on the biological function of plant ZFPs have focused on plant-specific Q-type, while researches on non-Q-type ZFPs is very limited. Previously, 109 genes encoding C2H2 ZFPs, PtrZFPs, were identified from Populus trichocarpa, 62 genes of which encoded the proteins of non-Q-type ZFPs. Identification and analysis of the function of salt-resistant C2H2 zinc finger protein genes will provide important information for further understanding the molecular mechanisms of plants in response to abiotic stress. By analyzing the phenotypes and identifying the functions of transgenic P. davidiana×P. bolleana overexpressing PdbZFP26, this study aims to provide excellent resources and theoretical basis for genetic improvement of salt resistance of P. davidiana×P. bolleana. Method: In this study, real-time quantitative PCR was used to analyze the expression patterns of PdbZFP26 in different organs, and the response to abiotic stresses and phytohormones. The transgenic P. davidiana×P. bolleana was obtained by leaf disc transformation. The growth of transgenic and control lines was observed before and after salt stress treatment, and the physiological indexes of stress resistance were measured to compare the tolerance of different lines to salt stress. Result: Based on the analysis of preliminary expression profile data, a salt stress-inducible C2H2 zinc finger protein gene PdbZFP26 was screened from the stem cDNAs. The coding region of this gene is 2 061 bp, encoding 686 amino acids. PdbZFP26 contained only one C2H2 zinc finger domain and did not have the type-Q characteristic motif "QALGGH". The phylogenetic tree revealed that PdbZFP26 belonged to type-C type ZFPs. The expression pattern analysis showed that PdbZFP26 was specifically expressed in the stem, mainly in xylem (including vascular cambium); In addition to salt stress, both ABA and BRs were able to cause the upregulation of PdbZFP26 to different degrees. The result of the phenotypes showed that the transgenic P. davidiana×P. bolleana overexpressing PdbZFP26 grew significantly better than the control under salt stress, with significantly higher chlorophyll content, lower MDA and H₂O₂ content, and higher antioxidant enzyme activities such as SOD, POD and CAT. Conclusion: The overexpression of PdbZFP26 can reduce peroxide accumulation by increasing activities of antioxidases, and thus improve the tolerance of transgenic P. davidiana×P. bolleana to salt stress.

Objective: Nomascus hainanus is an endemic and critically endangered species in China. They inhabit in dense forests in Hainan Tropical Rainforest National Park, and singing is an important part of the behavior of N. hainanus. This study aims to identify male N. hainanus individuals by their song, so as to provide support for intelligent perception and monitoring of N. hainanus population in the future and construction of intelligent protected areas in Hainan Tropical Rainforest National Park. Method: Many studies have proved that the vocal sounds of some species have individual differences, which can be used as a kind of acoustic fingerprint to identify species individuals. In this paper, by studying the characteristics of the song spectrum of male N. hainanus and the basic principle of voiceprint recognition, a method of voiceprint recognition was proposed based on Convolutional Neural Network. The active acoustic monitoring and passive acoustic monitoring of two kinds of methods were used to collect the original data of N. hainanus songs, and the original data were preprocessed, and the phonograms of the combination of FM notes in the song phrase of seven male N. hainanus were used as input. By building CNN and Residual CNN models, the voiceprint features of seven male N. hainanus in five populations were extracted and classified to realize individual recognition. Result: The five fold cross validation showed that the recognition accuracy of CNN model was 91.2%, the standard deviation of recognition effect was 4.24%, and the inference time was 40 ms. The recognition accuracy of Residual CNN model was 95.04%, the standard deviation of recognition effect was 2.97%, and the reasoning time was 120 ms. Compared with CNN, Residual CNN had higher recognition accuracy and more stable classification effect, but it took longer time to calculate. Conclusion: The actual verification results show that the CNN model and Residual CNN model are reliable for the classification and individual recognition of male N. hainanu by their song spectrograms, and this method can be applied to the voiceprint recognition of Hainan gibbon. Compared with CNN, the Residual CNN model has better recognition stability, and the classification effect is improved by 3.84% to 95.04%. However, from the perspective of application, compared with Residual CNN, CNN model has lower training cost, faster inference calculation speed, and the accuracy and prediction stability can meet the application requirements. The voiceprint recognition method based on Convolutional Neural Network overcomes the limitations of calculation and data set in many existing methods, and provides a better solution for the voiceprint recognition research of other species in the future.

Objective: This study aims to determine the population dynamics of Monochamus alternatus adults in Guangxi and its correlation with pine stand and meteorological factors, which could provide information for its forecast and prevention. Method: Based on the data collected with APF-I lure cores and ZM-80B traps, the population dynamics of M. alternatus adults occurred in eastern, northern, western, southern and central regions of Guangxi were studied through dynamic monitoring method from 2019 to 2020. Subsequently, the correlations of population dynamics in M. alternatus with stand factors, including latitude, inner/edge, altitude, canopy density, tree age, slope and epidemic area and non-epidemic area of pine wood nematode (Bursaphelenchus xylophilus), and meteorological factors, including monthly average temperature, monthly average maximum temperature, monthly average minimum temperature, monthly average humidity, monthly average minimum relative humidity, monthly average rainfall and monthly average sunshine hours were analyzed. Result: One to three peak periods of M. alternatus adults appeared in eastern, western, southern and central regions of Guangxi in one year, adults were able to be trapped from January to February that usually are the coldest months. However, only one peak period of M. alternatus adult appeared in northern Guangxi in one year, and no adult was trapped from January to February. The inception period of M. alternatus adults occurred in eastern, northern, western, southern and central Guangxi was early January, early April, early February, early January and late February, respectively. The annual occurrence peak period was from mid March to mid-late September, from mid April to late July, from late March to early August, from late March to mid-late August, and from early April to mid-late August, respectively. The end of peak period was mid-late September, late July, early August, mid-late August and mid-late August, respectively. The end period was late December, early November, late December, late December and late November, respectively. The amount of female adults trapped in central Guangxi was significantly higher than that in other four regions, and the amount of male adults trapped in eastern, western and central regions of Guangxi was significantly higher than that in northern and southern regions of Guangxi. The amount of female adults trapped was significantly higher than that of males in Guangxi, except for western regions. The amount of male and female adults trapped in the forest was significantly higher than that in the forest edge, however the trapping number had no correlation with latitude, altitude, tree age and epidemic area and non-epidemic area of B. xylophilus. There were significant negative correlations between canopy density and number of captured male adults, and slope and annual trapping amount of females. Occurrence regulation of M. alternatus in the five regions of Guangxi had significant positively correlation with monthly average temperature, monthly average maximum temperature, monthly average minimum temperature and monthly average rainfall. Conclusion: There are 1-3 peak periods of M. alternatus adult occurrence per year in Guangxi, i.e., 2 peak periods in the eastern regions, 1 peak period in the northern, southern and central regions, 3 peak periods in the western regions. Adults are active in the forest for a longer time; air temperature has significant effect on the their population dynamics among all meteorological factors, while the effect of stand factors is little.

There are complicated interactions among termites, clay, and ecological environment.Many studies have focused on the impact of higher termites on clay distribution and their ecological role in recent decades.The clay mineralogy is a restriction factor for determining the geographical distribution of some higher termites in the family of Termitidae.Meanwhile, termite activities can change the distribution of clay particles and accelerate the weathering process of clay minerals.Some higher termites transport large amounts of clay from the deep layer of soil to the surface for constructing termite hills or mounds.Clay not only improves the structural robustness of the hill but also creates suitable microhabitats with moisture and near-constant temperature conditions that ensure the growth of termite symbiotic fungi.In addition, the clay relocated by termites can be washed into surrounding soil by rain and promote the circulation of soil particles, significantly improving soil fertility and water retention and thus creating a favorable environment for the growth of vegetation and the development of animal communities.In arid or semiarid areas in tropical regions, the termite mounds rich in clay can improve heterogeneity of ecosystems and drought resistance, thus helping ecosystems to confront the challenge of global climate changes.In some developing countries, the clay collected from termite hills can be used as construction materials and cultivation substrates.Also, high proportions of women (especially pregnant women) in rural areas of Africa widely eat the clay-enrich soil collected from termite mounds.Some latest studies have also showed interactions of clay and lower termites in the family of Rhinotermitidae.Some lower termites usually transport large amounts of clay to construct mud tubes or sheetings, or use clay to fill the voids of food.Clay induces feeding activities of these lower termites by moistening wood fibers as well as providing structural supports.In addition, some clay minerals trigger the aggregation behaviors of subterranean termite pests and can be used as bait attractants, providing new ideas for the control of harmful termites.