PLOS ONE: [sortOrder=DATE_NEWEST_FIRST, sort=Date, newest first, q=subject:"Terrestrial environments"]PLOShttps://journals.plos.org/plosone/webmaster@plos.orgaccelerating the publication of peer-reviewed sciencehttps://journals.plos.org/plosone/search/feed/atom?sortOrder=DATE_NEWEST_FIRST&unformattedQuery=subject:%22Terrestrial+environments%22&sort=Date,+newest+firstAll PLOS articles are Open Access.https://journals.plos.org/plosone/resource/img/favicon.icohttps://journals.plos.org/plosone/resource/img/favicon.ico2024-03-28T20:09:42ZExploring the effects of habitat management on grassland biodiversity: A case study from northern SerbiaDubravka MilićMilica RatBojana BokićSonja Mudri-StojnićNemanja MiloševićNataša SukurDušan JakovetićBoris RadakTamara TotDušanka VujanovićGoran AnačkovDimitrije Radišić10.1371/journal.pone.03013912024-03-28T14:00:00Z2024-03-28T14:00:00Z<p>by Dubravka Milić, Milica Rat, Bojana Bokić, Sonja Mudri-Stojnić, Nemanja Milošević, Nataša Sukur, Dušan Jakovetić, Boris Radak, Tamara Tot, Dušanka Vujanović, Goran Anačkov, Dimitrije Radišić</p>
Grasslands represent a biodiversity hotspot in the European agricultural landscape, their restoration is necessary and offers a great opportunity to mitigate or halt harmful processes. These measures require a comprehensive knowledge of historical landscape changes, but also adequate management strategies. The required data was gathered from the sand grasslands of northern Serbia, as this habitat is of high conservation priority. This area also has a long history of different habitat management approaches (grazing and mowing versus unmanaged), which has been documented over of the last two decades. This dataset enabled us to quantify the effects of different measures across multiple taxa (plants, insect pollinators, and birds). We linked the gathered data on plants, pollinators, and birds with habitat management measures. Our results show that, at the taxon level, the adopted management strategies were beneficial for species richness, abundance, and composition, as the highest diversity of plant, insect pollinator, and bird species was found in managed areas. Thus, an innovative modelling approach was adopted in this work to identify and explain the effects of management practices on changes in habitat communities. The findings yielded can be used in the decision making as well as development of new management programmes. We thus posit that, when restoring and establishing particular communities, priority needs to be given to species with a broad ecological response. We recommend using the decision tree as a suitable machine learning model for this purpose.Research on the coupling relationship and interaction between urbanization and eco-environment in urban agglomerations: A case study of the Chengdu-Chongqing urban agglomerationWeilong WuYing HuangYuzhou ZhangBo Zhou10.1371/journal.pone.03012872024-03-28T14:00:00Z2024-03-28T14:00:00Z<p>by Weilong Wu, Ying Huang, Yuzhou Zhang, Bo Zhou</p>
Urban agglomerations are emerging as new regional units for national participation in global competition and the international division of labor. However, they face increasingly severe resource and eco-environment pressures during urbanization. The coordination of the relationship between urbanization and the eco-environment has attracted global attention. In this study, we used Coupling Coordination Degree and Vector Autoregression models to examine the dynamic evolution, coupling relationships, coordinated development patterns, and interaction mechanisms between urbanization and the eco-environment. The results indicate that: (1) The level of urbanization in the Chengdu-Chongqing Urban agglomeration was relatively low, and the region showed a good eco-environment background. However, rapid urbanization is gradually straining the carrying capacity of the eco-environment. (2) A close and stable coupling relationship exists between urbanization and the eco-environment, which has reached an advanced coupling stage. The status of coordinated development among cities differs considerably, and multiple stable forms may exist simultaneously. (3) Urbanization has a substantial impact on environmental changes, whereas the restrictive effect of the eco-environment on urbanization development is not particularly notable. (4) Various interactive relationships exist between the urbanization and eco-environment subsystems, including positive promotion and negative constraint effects. The positive promotion effect mainly manifests between the economic, social, and ecological response subsystems, while the negative constraint effect is most evident in the mutual coercion and inhibition between the regional urbanization, economic urbanization, ecological status, and ecological pressure subsystems. These findings have important policy implications for decision makers exploring the path of coordinated and sustainable development in urbanization and the eco-environment in Urban agglomerations.Evaluation and optimization of outdoor wind environment in block based on space syntax and CFD simulationPeng CaoWenhui Li10.1371/journal.pone.02976832024-03-28T14:00:00Z2024-03-28T14:00:00Z<p>by Peng Cao, Wenhui Li</p>
The wind environment quality at the height of pedestrians can significantly affect the thermal comfort and physical and mental health of pedestrians, promote the diffusion of air pollutants and inhibit the formation of urban heat island effect, and has been paid more and more attention in the field of urban and rural planning. This paper takes Jianlan Road commercial pedestrian Street as an example to maximize the thermal comfort of pedestrians. Based on CFD numerical simulation technology and space syntax theory, the pedestrian wind environment of the accessible space of the block is selected for quantitative research. Through numerical simulation, the influence of block spatial form on the wind environment at pedestrian height under the initial condition of uniform air flow is analyzed, and some suggestions are put forward for the optimization of block spatial form. Finally, the block optimization scheme is verified and simulated. The visualization results show that the wind environment quality of the optimized high-accessibility space is significantly improved, the proportion of comfort zone is increased from 58.2% to 86%, and the static wind rate is reduced from 41.8% to 14%. The wind environment optimization effect is obvious.National-scale spatiotemporal patterns of vegetation fire occurrences using MODIS satellite dataUpenyu Naume MupfigaOnisimo MutangaTimothy Dube10.1371/journal.pone.02973092024-03-28T14:00:00Z2024-03-28T14:00:00Z<p>by Upenyu Naume Mupfiga, Onisimo Mutanga, Timothy Dube</p>
As the risk of climate change increases, robust fire monitoring methods become critical for fire management purposes. National-scale spatiotemporal patterns of the fires and how they relate to vegetation and environmental conditions are not well understood in Zimbabwe. This paper presents a spatially explicit method combining satellite data and spatial statistics in detecting spatiotemporal patterns of fires in Zimbabwe. The Emerging Hot Spot Analysis method was utilized to detect statistically significant spatiotemporal patterns of fire occurrence between the years 2002 and 2021. Statistical analysis was done to determine the association between the spatiotemporal patterns and some environmental variables such as topography, land cover, land use, ecoregions and precipitation. The highest number of fires occurred in September, coinciding with Zimbabwe’s observed fire season. The number of fires significantly varied among seasons, with the hot and dry season (August to October) recording the highest fire counts. Additionally, although June, July and November are not part of the official fire season in Zimbabwe, the fire counts recorded for these months were relatively high. This new information has therefore shown the need for revision of the fire season in Zimbabwe. The northern regions were characterized by persistent, oscillating, diminishing and historical spatiotemporal fire hotspots. Agroecological regions IIa and IIb and the Southern Miombo bushveld ecoregion were the most fire-prone areas. The research findings also revealed new critical information about the spatiotemporal fire patterns in various terrestrial ecoregions, land cover, land use, precipitation and topography and highlighted potential areas for effective fire management strategies.Diagnostic efficacy of hand-held digital refractometer for determining total serum protein in indigenous sheep of PakistanMadiha SharifMushtaq Hussain LashariUmer FarooqMusadiq IdrisMuhammad Abrar Afzal10.1371/journal.pone.02951072024-03-28T14:00:00Z2024-03-28T14:00:00Z<p>by Madiha Sharif, Mushtaq Hussain Lashari, Umer Farooq, Musadiq Idris, Muhammad Abrar Afzal</p>
The study was designed to ascertain the diagnostic efficacy of hand-held digital refractometer in determining total protein (TP). The Sipli sheep (n = 128) were grouped as per gender (females = 99, males = 29) and age (G1 = up till 1 year, n = 35; G2 = from 1 to 2 years, n = 63; G3 = above 2 years, n = 30). The results regarding the overall mean (±SE) values for the TPs attained through serum chemistry analyzer (TP1) and hand-held digital refractometer (TP2) were non-significantly (P≥0.05) different (59.2±1.6g/L and 59.8±0.5g/L, respectively). However, the reference intervals (RIs) were quite different for the two TPs being 45.1–95.7g/L and 57.0–67.0g/L for TP1 and TP2, respectively. Similar results were seen for gender-wise and group-wise results. On the contrary, the results regarding correlation coefficient and logilinear regression showed a negative correlation between the two TPs (r = -0.0244) with an adjusted r-square of 0.059 (5.9% probability). Furthermore, the three tests implied to assess the level of agreement between the two methods (Cronbach alpha, Intraclass correlation coefficient, and Bland & Altman test) revealed least agreement between the two methods. In a nutshell, the results of TP through digital refractometer were not in concordance with those attained through serum chemistry analyzer. However, it can cautiously be used if these results are compared with relevant corrected RIs.Eurasian aspen (<i>Populus tremula</i> L.): Central Europe’s keystone species ‘hiding in plain sight’Antonín KusbachJan ŠebestaRobert HrubanPavel PeškaPaul C. Rogers10.1371/journal.pone.03011092024-03-27T14:00:00Z2024-03-27T14:00:00Z<p>by Antonín Kusbach, Jan Šebesta, Robert Hruban, Pavel Peška, Paul C. Rogers</p>
Knowledge of Eurasian aspen’s (<i>Populus tremula</i> L.) ecological and growth characteristics is of high importance to plant and wildlife community ecology, and noncommercial forest ecosystem services. This research assessed these characteristics, identified aspen’s habitat optimum, and examined causality of its current scarce distribution in central Europe. We analyzed a robust database of field measurements (4,656,130 stands) for forest management planning over 78,000 km<sup>2</sup> of the Czech territory. Our analysis we used GIS techniques, with basic and multivariate statistics such as general linear models, ordination, and classification. Results describe a species of broad ecological amplitude that has heretofore attracted little research attention. Spatial analysis showed significant differences between aspen and other forest non-forest cover types. Additionally, we found significant association between the proportion of aspen in a stand, the size of forest property, and the forest category. The results demonstrate historic reasons for aspen’s widespread presence, though contemporary occurrence is limited. This study advances the concept of a quantitatively based aspen ecological optimum (niche), which we believe may be beneficial for numerous aspen associates in the context of anticipated warming. Irrespective of local ecology (i.e., the realized aspen niche), the study confirms that profit-driven policy in forestry is chiefly responsible for historic aspen denudation in central Europe. Even so, we demonstrate that ample habitat is present. Further solutions for improving aspen resilience are provided to support these keystone systems so vital to myriad dependent flora and fauna.Soil fungal communities varied across aspects of restored grassland in former mining areas of the Qinghai-Tibet PlateauXiaoqing LiQiang LiYinzhu DuanHaiqun SunHui ChuShunbin JiaHongjie ChenWenxi Tang10.1371/journal.pone.02950192024-03-26T14:00:00Z2024-03-26T14:00:00Z<p>by Xiaoqing Li, Qiang Li, Yinzhu Duan, Haiqun Sun, Hui Chu, Shunbin Jia, Hongjie Chen, Wenxi Tang</p>
To determine whether different aspects lead to a heterogeneous distribution of soil fungi, we investigated artificially established alpine grasslands in the Muli mining area in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. Employing high-throughput sequencing techniques, we analyzed the composition, diversity, and function of soil fungal communities across various aspects (flat, East-facing, South-facing, West-facing, North-facing). We also examined their relationships with environmental factors. Soil fungal communities of restored alpine grasslands differed significantly across aspects in terms of the dominant phyla, classes and species level. Compared with No aspect, the Shannon index of fungi respectively decreased by 2.99%, 19.32%, 19.37% and 10.56% for East aspect, South aspect, West aspect and North aspect, respectively, and the Chao1 index of fungi respectively decreased by-2.44%, 35.50%, 42.15% and 3.21%, respectively. A total of 22 different types of fungi were identified in the study area. Predictive analysis, based on PICRUSt2, indicated that the primary functions of the fungal communities across different aspects were aerobic respiration I (cytochrome c) and aerobic respiration II (cytochrome c). Among the environmental variables, total phosphorus (P) and total nitrogen (N) were the principal factors influencing the fungal community composition.In conclusion, aspect plays a significant role in shaping the composition of fungal communities and also affects their overall diversity.Preserving the spots: Jaguar (<i>Panthera onca</i>) distribution and priority conservation areas in ColombiaMaría Camila Machado-AguileraLeonardo Lemus-MejíaJairo Pérez-TorresDiego A. Zárrate-CharryAndrés Arias-AlzateJosé F. González-Maya10.1371/journal.pone.03003752024-03-22T14:00:00Z2024-03-22T14:00:00Z<p>by María Camila Machado-Aguilera, Leonardo Lemus-Mejía, Jairo Pérez-Torres, Diego A. Zárrate-Charry, Andrés Arias-Alzate, José F. González-Maya</p>
The jaguar (<i>Panthera onca</i>) is a charismatic species considered Vulnerable in Colombia but yet largely unknown in the country. The species is mostly threatened by the continuous decline in its habitats, mostly derived from deforestation and habitat loss, additional to hunting and conflicts with humans. Thus, the future of jaguars in Colombia depends on protecting and recovering existing habitats. The aims of this study were to 1) evaluate jaguar distribution and identify the remnant patches of habitat in Colombia, 2) define an ecological connectivity network within the country, and 3) propose a priority areas portfolio for the conservation and recovery of jaguars. We used a presence background model for estimating species potential distribution and subsequently identified remaining habitat patches across the country based on land cover and species-specific ecological attributes. We then created an ecological connectivity network based on circuit theory and following a multi-criteria approach identified jaguar priority areas for conservation (JPCA) and recovery (JPRA). Jaguar potential distribution comprises 1103122.43 km<sup>2</sup>, from which 56.71% maintain suitable patches of potential habitat. We identified 960 corridors between remnant patches of natural or semi-natural vegetation. Based on the criteria, JPCAs with greater importance were identified in each of the five Colombian regions. JPRAs were located mainly towards the Andean and Caribbean regions. These JPCAs and JPRAs could serve as a guide for designing and implementing management strategies for the long-term conservation and recovery of the species in Colombia.A time of decline: An eco-anthropological and ethnohistorical investigation of mpox in the Central African RepublicRomain DudaJosé Martial BetouletCamille BesombesFestus MbrengaYanina BorzykhEmmanuel NakounéTamara Giles-Vernick10.1371/journal.pgph.00029372024-03-22T14:00:00Z2024-03-22T14:00:00Z<p>by Romain Duda, José Martial Betoulet, Camille Besombes, Festus Mbrenga, Yanina Borzykh, Emmanuel Nakouné, Tamara Giles-Vernick</p>
The Central African Republic (CAR) has experienced repeated mpox outbreaks since 2001. Although several mpox epidemiological risk factors for zoonotic and interhuman transmission have been documented, the reasons for more frequent epidemic outbreaks are less well understood, relying on vague explanatory categories, including deforestation, hunting, and civil unrest. To gain insight into increasingly frequent outbreaks, we undertook an ethnohistorical, eco-anthropological analysis in two CAR regions: the Lobaye prefecture, experiencing one or more annual outbreaks in the past decade, and the Sangha-Mbaere prefecture, with a longer history of mpox but less frequent outbreaks. We comparatively examined changing political economies, forest use practices, and understandings of mpox. In 2022, we conducted 40 qualitative ethnohistorical, anthropological interviews and participant-observation of forest activities in two languages (Sango and French). We compared contemporary practices with hunting, trapping, and meet consumption practices, documented through quantitative and qualitative observation in one research site, over 6 months in 1993. We find increased rodent capture and consumption in both sites in the past 30 years and expanded practices of other potentially risky activities. Simultaneously, we also identify important differences in risky practices between our Lobaye and Sangha-Mbaere participants. In addition, Lobaye and Sangha participants underscored historical processes of decline producing mpox among other emergences, but they framed these declension processes diversely as economic, political, nutritional, and moral. Our findings are important because they mobilize new types of evidence to shed light on the processual dynamics of mpox outbreaks in the CAR. This study also reveals variability across two sites within the same country, highlighting the importance of comparative, fine-grained anthropological and historical research to identify underlying dynamics of mpox outbreaks. Finally, our study points to the need for mpox interventions and risk communication accounting for these regional differences, even within a single country.Spatial-temporal differentiation of urban eco-efficiency and its driving factors: A comparison of five major urban agglomerations in ChinaXiang LiuXinyuan ZhangMan YuanJia LiuGuolin Zhou10.1371/journal.pone.03004192024-03-21T14:00:00Z2024-03-21T14:00:00Z<p>by Xiang Liu, Xinyuan Zhang, Man Yuan, Jia Liu, Guolin Zhou</p>
This paper utilizes an improved undesirable output DEA model to measure the eco-efficiency of cities in five major urban agglomerations in China during 2006–2020. It employs the Theil Index and Geodetector to investigate the spatial-temporal distribution differentiation characteristics and driving factors of urban eco-efficiency. The main findings are as follows. Firstly, the eco-efficiency of all urban agglomerations showed a fluctuating upward trend, but the eco-efficiency performance of different urban agglomerations in China shows a stratification characteristic. Specifically, the Pearl River Delta urban agglomeration consistently ranks first in China, while the mean values of the Yangtze River Delta urban agglomeration, Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei urban agglomeration, and Chengdu-Chongqing urban agglomeration are lower than the national average. Secondly, the overall differences in the urban eco-efficiency of all sample cities show a consistently fluctuating downward trend. The factor that affects the level differences of eco-efficiency in different cities is the intra-regional differences. Last but not least, the top three factors affecting the spatial distribution difference of urban eco-efficiency in the whole sample are environmental pollution control investments, innovation level, and environmental infrastructure investments. In the end, this paper proposes that reducing the intra-regional differences is the primary task to achieve the coordinated improvement of urban eco-efficiency in urban agglomerations, and then puts forward some policy suggestions to improve eco-efficiency for the five major urban agglomerations.The potential use of mass timber in mid-to high-rise construction and the associated carbon benefits in the United StatesPrakash NepalJeffrey P. PrestemonIndroneil GangulyVaibhav KumarRichard D. BergmanNeelam C. Poudyal10.1371/journal.pone.02983792024-03-20T14:00:00Z2024-03-20T14:00:00Z<p>by Prakash Nepal, Jeffrey P. Prestemon, Indroneil Ganguly, Vaibhav Kumar, Richard D. Bergman, Neelam C. Poudyal</p>
Nonresidential and mid- to high-rise multifamily residential structures in the United States currently use little wood per unit floor area installed, because earlier building codes lacked provisions for structural wood use in those types of buildings. However, revisions to the International Building Code allow for increased wood use in the form of mass timber, as structural and fire safety concerns have been addressed through new science-based design standards and through newly specified construction materials and measures. This study used multiple models to describe alternative futures for new construction, mass timber adoption rates, and the associated carbon benefits in higher than three-story buildings in the United States. The use of mass timber, in place of traditional constructions (i.e., structures dominated by concrete and steel), in projected new higher than three-story buildings was shown to provide combined carbon benefits (i.e., global warming mitigation benefits), including avoided embodied carbon emissions due to the substitution of non-wood alternatives and additional biogenic carbon storage in mass timber materials, of between 9.9 and 16.5 million t CO<sub>2</sub>e/yr spanning 50 years, 2020 to 2070. These carbon benefits equate to 12% to 20% of the total U.S. harvested wood products carbon storage for 2020. Future research is needed to understand how greater mass timber adoption leads to changes in forest product markets, land use, and total forest sector carbon.Contrary to expectation: The surface urban heat island intensity is increasing in population shrinking region while decreasing in population growing region-A comparative analysis from ChinaLuofu LiuWei Zhang10.1371/journal.pone.03006352024-03-18T14:00:00Z2024-03-18T14:00:00Z<p>by Luofu Liu, Wei Zhang</p>
Exploring the complex relationship between population change and surface urban heat island (SUHI) effect has important practical significance for the ecological transformation development of shrinking cities in the context of the prevalence of urban shrinkage and the global climate change. This paper compares the population change and SUHI effect between population shrinking region (Northeast Region, NR) and population growing region (Yangtze River Delta, YRD) in China, and explores their differences in driving mechanisms, using GIS spatial analysis and Geodetector model. Our results indicated that there are significant differences in population changes and SUHI intensity between these two regions. About 72.22% of the cities in the NR were shrinking, while their SUHI intensities increased by an average of 1.69°C. On the contrary, the urban population in the YRD shows a linear growth trend, while their SUHI intensities decreased by 0.11°C on average. The results of bivariate Moran’s I index also indicated that the spatial correlation between the urban population changes and the SUHI intensity changes are not significant in the above regions. Furthermore, there are significant differences in the primary drivers of SUHI variations between these two regions. In the NR, underlying surface changes, including the changes of green coverage and built-up areas, are the most important driving factors. However, atmospheric environment changes, such as carbon dioxide emission and sulfur dioxide emission, are the key drivers in the YRD. Northam’s theory of three-stage urbanization and environmental Kuznets curve hypothesis are powerful to explain these differences.Impact of rural soundscape on environmental restoration: An empirical study based on the Taohuayuan Scenic Area in Changde, ChinaHui YangShuangQuan Zhang10.1371/journal.pone.03003282024-03-18T14:00:00Z2024-03-18T14:00:00Z<p>by Hui Yang, ShuangQuan Zhang</p>
Previous studies on environmental restorative effects have mainly focused on visual landscapes, and less on the influence of soundscapes on restorative, but soundscapes play a crucial role in restorative environments, especially rural soundscapes, but there is insufficient existing theoretical evidence on the subject. Therefore, this study aims to investigate the influence of Rural Soundscape Perception on Environmental Restoration Perception, and introduces two affective variables, tourism nostalgia and place attachment, to explore the mechanism of Rural Soundscape Perception on Environmental Restoration Perception, as well as the moderating role of the number of trips is also discussed. Based on the theory of restorative environment, this study took the Taohuayuan Scenic Spot in Changde, Hunan Province, China, as the case site, and selected the rural soundscape in the area as the research object; a total of 506 valid data were collected through questionnaire surveys, and structural equation modeling was used to validate the collected data. It was found that rural soundscape perception had a significant positive effect on tourism nostalgia, place attachment, and environmental restoration perception. The results also showed that tourism nostalgia and place attachment mediated the relationship between rural soundscape perception and environmental restoration perception. Additionally, the results revealed that the number of trips did not play a moderating role in the structural relationship between rural soundscape perception and environmental restoration perception. Last, the results of the study shed light on the complex influence path of "rural soundscape perception→tourism nostalgia→place attachment→environmental restoration perception", which provides a new perspective for understanding the mechanism of the rural environment to people’s health, and also has a certain guiding significance for the landscape planning of rural tourism sites.The impact of rivers and lakes on urban transportation expansion: A case study of the century-long evolution of the road network in Wuhan, ChinaRan PengKeyuan DingHaixu GuoXueliang LiuYehao LiuHuaiyang WengRui Li10.1371/journal.pone.02986782024-03-18T14:00:00Z2024-03-18T14:00:00Z<p>by Ran Peng, Keyuan Ding, Haixu Guo, Xueliang Liu, Yehao Liu, Huaiyang Weng, Rui Li</p>
Throughout history, rivers and lakes have wielded a profound influence on the dynamics of urban transportation expansion. To illustrate this phenomenon, we turn to the century-long evolution of the road network in Wuhan, China, as a case study. The study aims to explore the relationship framework between water bodies and urban transportation, characterized by the sequence of “strong connection” to “weakened connection”, then to “mutual restriction”, and ultimately to “mutual benefit”. Additionally, the analysis of the impact mechanisms of rivers and lakes on urban transportation at different stages of development is also a key research objective. To facilitate our exploration, we select the road networks in Wuhan from four years of 1922, 1969, 1995, and 2023 as the primary research subjects. By establishing water buffers, we scrutinize the evolving characteristics of riverside and lakeside transportation amidst the city’s expansion. Based on the modified shortest path model, we introduce the innovative concepts of “Detour Index” and “Weighted Detour Index” to assess the road accessibility of each node in the city based on its inherent environmental conditions. This allows for the effective analysis of the potential impact of water bodies as “obstacles” on the road network at different stages of urban development. The study found that in the areas adjacent to the rivers and lakes in Wuhan, there is insufficient road accessibility based on their inherent environmental conditions. Particularly, some areas along the rivers may become “terminals” in the urban road network. Furthermore, during the process of urban expansion, the correlation between the urban road network and rivers continues to weaken, while the correlation with lakes continues to strengthen. These conclusions can provide valuable insights for the planning of urban roads near water bodies.Adapt or not: A comparison of rural migrant adaptation in two cities in ChinaJianxi FengShuangshuang Tang10.1371/journal.pone.02982382024-03-18T14:00:00Z2024-03-18T14:00:00Z<p>by Jianxi Feng, Shuangshuang Tang</p>
Leading with the principle of ‘people-oriented urbanization,’ the adaptation of rural migrants in urban China has attracted increasing concerns from policy-makers and scholars. Today, China has proceeded to a new stage of urbanization. Many rural migrants prefer moving to cities near their home villages rather than to large cities, reflecting the changes in migration patterns and expectations of rural migrants. Although migrant adaptation has been repeatedly investigated in academia, researchers tend to address the topic in one host setting, while migrant adaptation in diverse urban settings has rarely been compared. This paper seeks to fill this research gap via a survey conducted in two cities with different urban settings in Jiangsu. The rural migrant adaptation experiences in the two cities are systematically compared. Our statistical results show that economic structure and living costs, on the one hand, and local regulations and socio-cultural environments, on the other hand, determine rural migrant adaptation experiences in different urban settings. Despite abundant employment opportunities in more-developed cities, the high living costs, working pressure, and strict institutional schemes significantly hamper rural migrant adaptation. In less-developed cities, limited employment opportunities and conservative socio-cultural environments hinder rural migrants from adapting in host societies. Our findings suggest that the governments of different cities need to tailor strategies to assist rural migrants in adapting in urban communities.