摘要：Regional sustainable development is the primary goal of regional ecological research. Regional ecology aims to support sustainable development from an ecological perspective at the regional scale. In nearly half a century of the development of the discipline, regional ecology has developed into an essential branch of ecology. However, due to the complexity of regional ecosystems and ecological problems, regional ecology does not define clear research methods and research objects. This editorial sorts out the definition, research methods, and important research contents of regional ecology, including regional ecological security evaluation, regional sustainable development evaluation, regional resource analysis represented by water-food-energy relationship, and ecosystem service value evaluation.
