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The Early–Middle Eocene palynoflora and paleoclimate of Changchang Basin, Hainan Island, South China, is described in the present paper and is compared with that of the Middle–Late Eocene, Hunchun City, Jilin Province, North China. The nearest living relatives (NLRs) of the recovered palynotaxa suggest a subtropical evergreen or deciduous broad-leaved forest at the center of the basin but a temperate evergreen or deciduous broad-leaved forest and needle-leaved forest growing in the peripheral part of the basin. Based on the climatic preferences of the NLRs, the climate in the Changchang Basin during the Early–Middle Eocene was warm and humid subtropical with a mean annual temperature of 14.2–19.8°C, a mean temperature of the warmest month of 22.5–29.1°C, a mean temperature of the coldest month of 1.7–11.9°C, a difference of temperature between coldest and warmest months of 12.1–24.6°C, a mean annual precipitation of 784.7–1,113.3 mm, a mean maximum monthly precipitation of 141.5–268.1 mm and a mean minimum monthly precipitation of 6.9–14.1 mm. A comparison of the palynoflora and paleoclimate between the Changchang Basin and Hunchun City, suggests essentially a similar climate in South and North China during Eocene time in contrast to the oceanic tropical climate in South China and cool dry temperate climate in North China as at present. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper measures the economic impacts of climate change on China's agriculture based on the Ricardian model. By using county-level cross-sectional data on agricultural net revenue, climate, and other economic and geographical data for 1275 agriculture dominated counties, we find that under most climate change scenarios both higher temperature and more precipitation would have an overall positive impact on China's agriculture. However, the impacts vary seasonally and regionally. Autumn effect is the most positive, but spring effect is the most negative. Applying the model to five climate scenarios in the year 2050 shows that the East, the Central part, the South, the northern part of the Northeast, and the Plateau would benefit from climate change, but the Southwest, the Northwest and the southern part of the Northeast may be negatively affected. In the North, most scenarios show that they may benefit from climate change. In summary, all of China would benefit from climate change in most scenarios. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]