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Adaptive farming behavior is a key strategy for farmers to cope with climate change. This paper aims to explore the potential impacts of climate change information sources on farmers’ adaptive farming behavior. This paper clarifies the internal mechanism of three typical information sources, namely government departments, scientific research institutions and neighborhood communication, affecting farmers' adaptive farming behavior. Based on the sample data of 1200 farmers in the main wheat producing areas of Shaanxi Province, the theoretical conjecture is empirically tested. The results showed that the climate change information from government departments and scientific research institutions has a significant positive impact on farmers' adaptive farming behavior, but in the case of considering the three sources of information at the same time, the information source of scientific research institutions has the strongest positive impact on farmers' adaptive farming behavior. After farmers have access to climate change information exchanged by government departments, scientific research institutions and neighbors, their differences in climate change adaptive farming behavior mainly depend on their climate change cognition rather than subject trust factors. Formally organized climate change information represented by government departments and scientific research institutions has a more significant positive impact on farmers' adaptive farming behavior, but this impact depends largely on whether the information obtained by farmers can improve their climate change awareness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Agro-pastoral ecotone of northern China is the prominent area for agricultural production, but it is also the most typical ecological fragile area with frequent drought disasters. Taking Yulin City at Shaanxi Province in China as the case area, the paper aims to investigate the spatio-temporal changes of agricultural vulnerability to drought in China's agro-pastoral ecotone in the period 2000 to 2020. The results show that: 1) the agricultural vulnerability to drought in Yulin City has shifted from high vulnerability in the period 2000–2010 to low vulnerability in the period 2011–2020. 2) There exist obvious spatio-temporal differences of the agricultural vulnerability to drought in Yulin City during the research period. 3) Four sensitive events and 14 resilient events were identified in the research and the crops of Yulin had become more resilient to drought. Finally, the paper put forward with policy implications to make adaptive strategies of agriculture to climate change in China's agro-pastoral ecotone in the future, e.g., carrying out agricultural zoning based on agricultural production conditions, intensifying the construction of disaster prevention and relief system, and integrating with modern agricultural technology to develop new type agriculture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The conversion of farmland to forestland not only changes the ecological environment but also enriches the soil with organic matter and affects the global carbon cycle. This paper reviews the influence of land use changes on the soil organic carbon sink to determine whether the Chinese “Grain-for-Green” (conversion of farmland to forestland) project increased the rate of SOC content during its implementation between 1999 and 2010 in the hilly and gully areas of the Loess Plateau in north-central China. The carbon sink was quantified, and the effects of the main species were assessed. The carbon sink increased from 2.26×106 kg in 1999 to 8.32×106 kg in 2010 with the sustainable growth of the converted areas. The black locust (Robinia pseudoacacia L.) and alfalfa (Medicago sativa L.) soil increased SOC content in the top soil (0–100 cm) in the initial 7-yr period, while the sequestration occurred later (>7 yr) in the 100–120 cm layer after the “Grain-for-Green” project was implemented. The carbon sink function measured for the afforested land provides evidence that the Grain-for-Green project has successfully excavated the carbon sink potential of the Shaanxi province and served as an important milestone for establishing an effective organic carbon management program. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The SWAT model is used to quantitatively analyze the regional soil and water loss affected by different climate changes. • The evaluation and prediction model of agricultural sustainable planting is constructed in case of Yulin City, China. • With fixed precipitation, the increase and decrease of 5 °C temperature would lead to an extreme change rate of soil loss. • With fixed temperature, the increase and decrease of +20 % precipitation would lead to an extreme change rate of soil loss. • Slope change and crop rotation should be adopted to realize the coordination of soil conservation and agricultural benefits. As different hydrological phenomena caused by different climates have a far-reaching impact on agricultural sustainable development, analysis of the impact of soil erosion on agricultural sustainable planting under different climates was conducted. The SWAT model was used to quantitatively analyze the regional soil and water loss affected by different climate changes. In addition, the evaluation and prediction model of agricultural sustainable planting was constructed with EPIC software, in order to achieve the agricultural sustainable planting by selecting appropriate crops. Based on the analysis of Yulin City in Shaanxi Province, the results showed that: with fixed precipitation, the increase and decrease of 5°C temperature would lead to a change rate of soil loss of -27.78 % and 9.52 % respectively; with fixed temperature, the increase and decrease of +20 % precipitation would lead to a change rate of soil loss of 21.43 % and - 38.10 % respectively. The situation of soil erosion under the slope environment was more serious, and the yield of grain and farming income decreased. It is necessary to choose reasonable planting methods and environmental control policies to reduce the impact of soil erosion on agricultural sustainable planting. Currently, conservation tillage is adopted as the control measure in Yulin. The results of this paper indicated that slope change and crop rotation should be adopted simultaneously to realize the coordination of soil and water conservation and agricultural benefits under the climate change background. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]