Abstract: The conflict between conservation and development has emerged, due to the simultaneous increase of global protected areas (PAs) and local populations within and adjacent to the PAs. Assuming that PAs and their local communities are of an interactive system, the relationships between them were analyzed from two aspects, i.e., the influence of PAs upon the economic development, life quality, and cultural education of local communities, and that of local communities upon the biodiversity of PAs. Based on these analyses, three typical patterns on the relationships between PAs and local communities, i.e., harmonious development, unbalanced development (including community-damaged type and protected area- damaged type), and conflict and competition, were put forward, and the critical behavioral characteristics of these patterns in terms of employment opportunity, intensity of wildlife destruction and compensation, restrictions on resources utilization, tourism, community participation, breeding and grazing, collection of non-timber forest products, hunting, agricultural activities, and traditional conservation were distinguished, which could offer some information for the orientation of community management in PAs, and benefit the harmonious development between PAs and local communities.

Key words: Elevated atmospheric CO₂, Rhizosphere microbes, Arbuscular mycorrhiza