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Natural and artificial approaches are the mainly management strategy used in degraded lands restoration, while few studies examine the effect of the two strategies on soil nutrient properties in an earthquake-triggered degraded ecosystem. We compared soil chemical traits and major nutrient stoichiometry from areas following landslides that had undergone natural restoration (D. NR.) and artificial restoration (D. AR.), as well as neighboring undisturbed areas (Und.), following the 2017 magnitude 7.0 earthquake in Jiuzhaigou, eastern Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. The results showed that soil organic carbon (C), total nitrogen (N), available nitrogen (AN), available phosphorus (AP), exchangeable calcium (eCa), exchangeable magnesium (eMg), C/P, C/K, N/P, N/K, P/K, cation exchange capacity, and vegetation cover in landslides of D. NR. and D. AR. were lower than those in Und. land, while their pH and total potassium (K) concentration were higher. Compared to D. NR., most of these traits were higher in D. AR., except for the C/N, which was reduced in D. AR. Soil C was positively related to AN, C/K, N/P, N/K, P/K in each land type, while in D. NR., it was not related to N, AP, AK, eCa, eMg, C/N, although it was negatively related to P and K concentration. The findings demonstrated that vegetation restoration strategies could affect not only soil nutrient content but also the macronutrient stoichiometry (N, P, K). Furthermore, artificial restoration projects can enhance soil nutrient concentration and facilitate vegetation recovery more quickly than natural restoration, which is primarily driven by soil N rather than P or K. 

With a growing body of literature on the topic of ecosystem service (ES), there is an urgent need to summarize ES research in the context of ecological restoration programs (ERPs) in China and identify knowledge gaps for future directions. We conducted a systematic literature review of articles to examine the use of ES approaches for ERP assessments. Our results showed that previous studies mainly focused on the Shaanxi Province, and more than half of the reviewed studies considered no more than three ES types simultaneously. All ES categories were not covered equally; most of the studies focused on provisioning and regulating services, while cultural services have received little attention. Although regional-scale and short-term assessments dominated the reviewed papers, we suggest that multiple temporal and spatial scales for ERP assessments should be given more attention in future work. Moreover, we highlight that an oversimplified land use/land cover (LULC) categorization scheme may potentially lead to inaccuracies and biases in ESs detection under restoration programs. Based on this review, our findings can guide future ERP assessments by using the ES approach. Meanwhile, given the global LULC change brought by the proliferation of plantations under ERPs, our results are also expected to provide a path forward to assess ESs associated with LULC change globally.