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The increasing global warming trend has resulted in the mass loss of most glaciers. The Urumqi Vally, located in the dry and cold zone of China, and its widely dispersed glaciers are significant to the regional ecological environment, oasis economic development, and industrial and agricultural production. This is representative of glaciers in Middle Asia and represents one of the world's longest observed time series of glaciers, beginning in 1959. The Urumqi Headwater Glacier No. 1 (UHG-1) has a dominant presence in the World Glacier Monitoring Service (WGMS). This paper supplies a comprehensive analysis of past studies and future modeling of glacier changes in the Urumqi Valley. It has received insufficient attention in the past, and the mass balance of UHG-1 was used to verify that the geodetic results and the OGGM model simulation results are convincing. The main conclusions are: The area of 48.68 ± 4.59 km2 delineated by 150 glaciers in 1958 decreased to 21.61 ± 0.27 km2 delineated by 108 glaciers in 2022, with a reduction of 0.47 ± 0.04 km2·a−1 (0.96% a−1 in 1958–2022). The glacier mass balance by geodesy is −0.69 ± 0.11 m w.e.a−1 in 2000–2022, which is just deviating from the measured result (−0.66 m w.e.a−1), but the geodetic result in this paper can be enough to reflect the glacier changes (−0.65 ± 0.11 m w.e.a−1) of the URB in 2000–2022. The future loss rate of area and volume will undergo a rapid and then decelerating process, with the fastest and slowest inflection points occurring around 2035 and 2070, respectively. High temperatures and large precipitation in summer accelerate glacier loss, and the corresponding lag period of glacier change to climate is about 2–3 years. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rapid global changes are altering regional hydrothermal conditions, especially in ecologically vulnerable areas such as coastal regions, subsequently influencing the dynamics of vegetation growth. However, there is limited research investigating the response of vegetation in these regions to extreme climates and the associated time lag-accumulation relationships. This study utilized a combined approach of gradual and abrupt analysis to examine the spatiotemporal patterns of vegetation dynamics in the coastal provinces of China from 2000 to 2019. Additionally, we evaluated the time lag-accumulation response of vegetation to extreme climate events. The results showed that (1) extreme high temperatures and extreme precipitation had increased over the past two decades, with greater warming observed in high latitudes and concentrated precipitation increases in water-rich southern regions; (2) both gradual and abrupt analyses indicate significant vegetation improvement in coastal provinces; (3) significant lag-accumulation relationships were observed between vegetation and extreme climate in the coastal regions of China, and the time-accumulation effects were stronger than the time lag effects. The accumulation time of extreme temperatures was typically less than one month, and the accumulation time of extreme precipitation was 2–3 months. These findings are important for predicting the growth trend of coastal vegetation, understanding environmental changes, and anticipating ecosystem evolution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]