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To achieve carbon peak targets, realize carbon neutrality vision, and tackle global climate change, China must improve the carbon emission performance at the city level. Based on the carbon emission performance of 191 prefecture-level cities in China from 1997 to 2017, this paper analyses the evolution characteristics of urban carbon emission performance from three aspects: the overall spatial and temporal evolution, the differences according to both region and city size, and the differences among clusters categorized by carbon emission performance at the city level. This paper also reveals the impact of the social and economic transition on China's carbon emission performance. The results show that: (1) The overall level of carbon emission performance of Chinese cities is low, and there is a downward trend during the study period. The differences in carbon emission performance among cities are convergent, but there is a wide gap between high and low values. (2) The carbon emission performance of cities in eastern coastal areas is higher than that in non-coastal areas cities. Large urban agglomerations and economically developed regions, such as provincial capitals, are the agglomeration areas of high urban carbon emission performance values. (3) The carbon emission performance level of cities with similar sizes will converge. At the same time, such changes will enhance the differences among carbon emission performances at the city level within the same region. (4) Cities that belong to high urban carbon emission performance clusters are mainly distributed in the eastern region. Such cities are classified into large cities, supercities, and megacities. Compared with low urban carbon emission performance clusters, cities in high urban carbon emission performance clusters show a higher proportion in the medium-high level and high level of carbon emission performance. Moreover, cities in high urban carbon emission performance clusters are more likely to improve theirurban carbon emission performance. (5) The economic agglomeration effect, industrial structure adjustment and carbon intensity reduction have a significant impact on improving urban carbon emission performance. Population agglomeration has an incremental effect, and the anticipated benefits of environmental regulation have yet to be fully realized. The impacts of different clusters and different regions are variable. Finally, this paper advances policy enlightenment according to its research findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The reconstruction of high-resolution chronologies for prehistoric cultures is a prerequisite for understanding the history of human evolution and its relationship with environmental change, and is valuable for exploring the trajectory of transcontinental cultural exchanges in prehistoric time. The Hexi Corridor of northwest China was one of the earliest centers for long-distance culture exchange in the prehistoric world. The timing and sequence of cultural changes in this area remains poorly understood resulting from the lack of radiometric age control. This paper presents a refined radiocarbon (14C) chronology to resolve the timing of human occupation and cultural evolution in the Hexi Corridor. Radiocarbon dating of crop remains, which have an annual life cycle, has the advantage of eliminating problems such as the carbon stored in 'old wood'. As a result, 14C dates from crop remains are used to test the validity of the 14C dates derived from charcoal, bone and plant remains. The resultant database of ages is modelled using the Bayesian approach. The updated chronology presented in this paper shows generally good agreement with the original dates used to constrain cultural evolution in the Hexi Corridor. However, the occupation of the corridor by the Shajing and Shanma Late Bronze Age-Early Iron Age cultures appears to have taken place ~300 years later than previously thought. On the basis of comparing this updated chronology of cultural evolution with palaeoclimatic and historical records, it is proposed that the collapse of the Shajing and Shanma cultures occurred as a result of geopolitical impact rather than climate change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Concurrent compound dry and hot events (CDHEs) amplified more damange on the ecosystems and human society than individual extremes. Under climate change, compound dry and hot events become more frequent on a global scale. This paper proposes a mathematical method to quantitatively attribute changes of CDHEs to changes of precipitation, change in temperature and change in the dependence between precipitation and temperature. The attribution is achieved by formulating the total differential equation of the return period of CDHEs among Meta-gaussian model. A case study of China is devised based on monthly precipitation and temperature data during the period from 1921 to 2020 for 80 major river basins. It is found that temperature is the main driving factor of increases in CDHEs for 49 major river basins in China, except for the upper and middle reaches of the Yangtze River. In West China, precipitation changes drove the increase in CDHEs in 18 river basins (23%), particularly in parts of North Xinjiang, Qinghai and Gansu. On the other hand, dependence between precipitation and temperature dominated changes of CDHEs in 13 river basins (16%) of China with other factors, including parts of South China, East China and Northwestern China. Furthermore, changes in both the mean and spread of precipitation and temperature can also contribute to changes in CDHEs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There are many types of atmospheric heat engines in land-air systems. The accurate definition, calculation and interpretation of the efficiency of atmospheric heat engines are key to understanding energy transfer and transformation of land-air systems. The atmosphere over the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau (QTP) in summer can be regarded as a positive heat engine. The study of the heat engine efficiency is helpful to better understand land-air interaction and thermal-dynamic processes on the QTP. It also provides a new perspective to explain the impact of the QTP on the climate of China, East Asia and even the world. In this paper, we used MOD08 and ERA5 reanalysis data to calculate the atmospheric heat engine efficiency, surface heat source and atmospheric heat source on the QTP in summer (May to September) from 2000 to 2020. The average atmospheric heat engine efficiency on the QTP in summer from 2000 to 2020 varies between 1.2% and 1.5%, which is less than 1.6%; the heat engine efficiency in summer is higher than that in June, July and August; the Qaidam Basin is the region with the highest atmospheric heat engine efficiency, followed by the western QTP. The mean surface heat source on the QTP in summer from 2000 to 2020 is 96.0 W m−2, the atmospheric heat source is 90.7 W m−2, and the release of precipitation condensation latent heat is the most important component of the atmospheric heat source on the QTP in summer. There is a strong and significant positive correlation between the atmospheric heat engine efficiency and the surface heat source on the QTP in summer. The precipitation con densation latent heat is the most important component of the atmospheric heat source in summer and can reflect the precipitation process. There is a strong and significant negative correlation between the atmospheric heat engine efficiency and the atmo spheric heat source on the QTP in summer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Regional processes on land-water-air interface carbon (C) budget and balance that interconnect the land and sea are in fact C neutrality critical processes within the earth system. It is therefore essential to quantitatively analyze synergistic land-water-air interface C transport and C exchange processes to gain a deep understanding of the important role that terrestrial ecosystems play in "missing C sink". This paper systematically analyzes global land-water-air interface C migration processes as well as C budget changes and associated impact mechanisms. It also investigates the important role that these C budgets and C cycling processes play in inland water bodies, respective to C budgets at the land-water-air interface. Moreover, this study reveals the regulatory mechanisms of land-water-air interface C budgets and balances under a background of global climate change. It also quantitatively evaluates the status of China's regional land-sea-air interface C budgets as well as the C sequestration potential of its lake systems. Finally, this study concludes that the explicit quantification of anthropogenic activity impacts on land-water-air interface C transport and exchange processes is of great significance to global C balances and C neutrality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate and climate change have always been a research focus of atmospheric sciences. This paper summaries research efforts, achievements and international contributions of the Chinese scientific community on climate and climate change over the past 70 years. The review is based on papers published officially in national or international scientific journals, and is organized to cover six aspects: (1) general climate studies; (2) impact of the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau; (3) impact of the East Asian monsoon; (4) influences of teleconnection oscillation and westerlies; (5) climate dynamics and development of climate models; and (6) climate change. It is, however, to be noted that the present review can not be considered as an exhaustive one, since there is a huge body of literature in the field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The stable carbon isotope composition (δ13C) of lacustrine sediments, which can record changes in past environmental conditions such as the C4/C3 terrestrial vegetation composition, has been widely used for the reconstruction of terrestrial ecosystems and global climate changes. It has also been widely used in paleolimnological studies in arid northwestern China. In recent years, however, an increasing number of studies have enriched the environmental significance reflected by the stable carbon isotope geochemistry of lakes; therefore, the interpretation of lake δ13C variations in paleoenvironmental reconstructions should be carefully evaluated from various aspects. In this paper, previous studies from the past several decades on the lacustrine δ13C variations in arid northwestern China were reviewed, and the possible mechanisms of the δ13C variations were discussed. Our study will provide a reference for the application of carbon isotope geochemistry in paleoenvironmental reconstructions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since climatic condition is the important foundation for human subsistence and development and the key factor in sustainable development of economy and society, climate change has been a global issue attracting great attentions of politicians, scientists, governments, and the public alike throughout the world. Existing climate regionalization in China aims to characterize the regional differences in climate based on years of the mean value of different climate indexes. However, with the accelerating climate change nowadays, existing climate regionalization cannot represent the regional difference of climate change, nor can it reflect the disasters and environmental risks incurred from climate changes. This paper utilizes the tendency value and fluctuation value of temperature and precipitation from 1961 to 2010 to identify the climate change quantitatively, and completes the climate change regionalization in China (1961-2010) with county administrative regionalization as the unit in combination with China's terrain feature. Level-I regionalization divides China's climate change (1961-2010) into five tendency zones based on the tendency of temperature and precipitation, which are respectively Northeast China-North China warm-dry trend zone, East China-Central China wet-warm trend zone, Southwest China-South China dry-warm trend zone, Southeast Tibet-Southwest China wet-warm trend zone, and Northwest China-Qinghai-Tibet Plateau warm-wet trend zone; level-II regionalization refers to fourteen fluctuation regions based on level-I regionalization according to the fluctuation of temperature and precipitation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Global climate change and its possible ecological consequences have become the focused issue (IPCC, 2007; Mann et al., 2008; Ding et al., 2009). The Holocene contains the analogous characteristic of future climatic change and the continuous agriculture activity, providing the ideal “similar pattern” for studying the climate change and human adaption and impact in the future. Based on the recent studies of stalagmite, ice core, ocean, and lake etc., the paper introduces the new progress in the Holocene climate and agriculture research in China as follows: (1) Discuss the variability, amplitude, and unstable characteristic of climate, as well as the abrupt events and mechanisms of climate. (2) Analyze the botanical index records for studying the early agriculture. (3) Review the agricultural origin, expanding, and development. (4) Reveal the style and intensity of early agriculture and understand the agricultural impact and adaption to the environmental changes. (5) Introduce ongoing research projects in China and emphasize the significance of increasing the dating precision and the indicative effectiveness of proxies. (6) Realize how the ecosystem and environmental factors respond to the increasing temperature process, understand how the human adapt to the rapid climate change, and provide the scientific basis for assessing the effects of climate change and the human adaption in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper deals with the backscatter coefficients known as sigma0 at Ku band and C band based on the GDR-M (Merged Geophysical Data Record) of TOPEX/Poseidon (T/P) through Jan. 1993 to Dec. 2004 over land surface of China. After smoothing and interpolating the backscatter coefficients for both bands, we achieve the 5′×5′ grid data and the time series of backscatter coefficients in 12 years. The spatial distribution of sigma0 over typical areas (wetland, desert, mountainous area, agriculture base, etc.) of Chinese territory is analyzed and discussed. The fast Fourier transformation (FFT) is used to detect the cycles of seasonal variations of sigma0 time series and gives that the annual period is the major cycle. Meanwhile a semiannual period is also found in some places. We use the least squares method on both periods and find that the amplitude of annual period is obviously greater than that of semi-annual period. The relationship among the anomalousness of time series, variations of environment and climate change, and the serious natural calamity (flood, drought) is also discussed. Data of topography slope extracted from SRTM are used to do correlation analysis with the backscatter coefficients in parts of China to quantify the impact of slope on backscatter coefficients in Ku and C bands, and the results show that they all have a negative correlation but the magnitudes are different in different places with different coverages. Such as the area of Liaoning and Jilin has the maximum correlation −0.56, the Taklimakan Desert has the minimum correlation −0.11, and the other places commonly have correlations in (−0.3, −0.5). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many well-preserved silicified megalodontids found from the Jiapila Formation of the Upper Triassic in western China show great variations in the amorphous teeth and the massive hinge plate, making the internal molds vary greatly in size and shape. Thus, the internal molds of megalodontids do not always provide reliable taxonomic characters. As a result, about 3/4 of the 132 species and 6 of 9 genera of Triassic Megalodontidae erected on the basis of internal molds have to be revised. The revised definitions of genera Neomegalodon, Triadomegalodon, and Conchodon are given in this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

High-precision (±0.1 ppm) and high-frequency (hourly averaged) in situ measurements of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO) were made for the first time from August 2005 to July 2007 at Yanbian, China using a non-dispersive Infrared (NDIR) analyzer with National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration/Earth System Research Laboratory (NOAA/ESRL) standards. The results of these measurements are presented in this paper and are used to investigate the regional representativeness of regional background data at Yanbian and determine the CO emission source regions in Northeast Asia. The phase of the monthly variations at Yanbian reflects the special regional characteristics, which were overall in excellent agreement with other observatories in the middle-to-high latitudes in the Northern Hemisphere. Applying a hybrid receptor model to the regional emission source events in cold period (November-April), we estimated the distribution of the major CO emissions in the northeast Asia. The results indicated that the strongest potential emission areas contributing to Yanbian are the Beijing & Tianjin metropolitan areas, southwestern part of Shandong Province including Jinan, and Vladivostok. The results of this study reveal the usefulness of in situ CO measurements at Yanbian in establishing the scientific foundation for monitoring the large CO emission areas in northern China and Russia. Continued monitoring of CO at Yanbian within a regional network should provide significant contributions to both understanding the global/regional carbon cycle and constraining 'top-down' emissions in Northeast Asia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Global warming has altered the thermodynamic and dynamic environments of the climate system, thus affecting the energy budget and water cycle process of the land-atmosphere system. Under changes in key hydrological elements such as precipitation, runoff, and terrestrial water storage, future drought variation remains a complex question. Existing studies have utilized terrestrial water storage anomaly (TWSA) in drought monitoring and assessment, but they usually focused on either drought duration or intensity, overlooking the multi-faced attributes of droughts as well as their socioeconomic impacts under a non-stationary condition. In this study, we first identify dry/wet conditions over China using GRACE/GRACE-FO satellite observations, and then evaluate the feedback effects of humidity and energy factors (e.g., sensible heat flux, latent heat flux, atmospheric relative humidity, and convective available potential energy) to drought events. Future changes in TWSA and dry/wet conditions are projected by eight Coupled Model Inter-comparison Project Phase 6 (CMIP6) global climate models (GCMs) under three shared socioeconomic pathways (SSPs), with their biases corrected by a trend-preserving quantile mapping method. The time-varying Copula function of drought duration and intensity is constructed by a moving windows method, and future bivariate drought risks are quantified with the most likely realization method. The population and GDP affected by increasing drought risks are finally quantified based on the SSPs data. It is found that the land-atmosphere coupling effects closely interact with drought evolution, and the uneven distribution of water resources is projected to be further aggravated, with most areas of China will be threatened by continuous drying tendency. By the end of the century, the duration of moderate, severe and exceptional droughts in some regions of China will double, and the drought intensity will increase by over 80%. For the 50-year bivariate droughts during the historical period, their occurrence may increase by 5–10 times in several regions, and might affect about 35–55% of China's population and GDP at the end of 21st century. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ammonia (NH3) can interact with other trace chemicals in the atmosphere, significantly impacting atmospheric chemistry and global climate change. China is a largely agricultural country with high consumption of nitrogen fertilizer and large livestock herds, resulting in high NH3 emissions. In this study, a comprehensive county-level inventory of Chinese NH3 emissions from 2013 to 2018 was compiled. Based on previous research, an estimate of NH3 emissions from household coal combustion was added to the inventory. The estimation of emissions from open biomass burning was improved by using a method based on fire radiative energy (FRE). The total NH3 emissions in China increased from 2013 (9.64 Tg) to 2015 (9.75 Tg), and then decreased to 9.12 Tg in 2018. Emissions from fossil fuels reached a peak value in 2018, accounting for 8.4% of total emissions, while fertilizer application and livestock waste were responsible for fewer emissions than in previous years, accounting for 27.7% and 49.9% of the total from non-fossil fuel sources, respectively. The highest emission rates were in central and southwestern China. Seasonally, NH3 emissions peaked in spring and summer. The inventory had a 1-km spatial resolution and a monthly temporal resolution, which confirmed its suitability for global and regional air quality simulations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A key scientific issue in the study of the Anthropocene is the determination of the corresponding stratigraphic marker in geological archives. The arid and semi-arid regions of Asia are the second largest dust source on Earth, and their release, transport and deposition of dust affect global climate change, as well as marine and terrestrial biogeochemical cycles. Over the past ∼2000 years, human activity has outpaced natural climatic variability as the dominant control of dust storms in northern China. Thus, exploring the potential of anthropogenic Asian dust as a marker of the Anthropocene and its impacts on lake ecosystems may contribute to an improved definition of the characteristics and timing of the Anthropocene. In this context, we measured spectrally-inferred chlorophyll a from the sediments of an undisturbed alpine lake in northern China, and compared the results with dust storm data from the same cores and with regional climatic records. Asian dust is a widely distributed, globally significant signal of human activity, and it is also well preserved in various geological archives; hence, we propose anthropogenic dust can be considered as a potential marker of the Anthropocene. Anthropogenic dust signals in stratigraphic records during the past ∼2000 years differ substantially from those during the early and middle Holocene, which demonstrates that, at least since ∼2000 years ago, human activity has exceeded the natural forcing of dust transport in northern China. We therefore propose that there are spatial and temporal differences in the onset of the Anthropocene, as defined by anthropogenic dust deposition, which is therefore time-transgressive. Our spectrally-inferred chlorophyll a record is consistent with dust storm activity over the past ∼2000 years (except since the 1950s), suggesting that anthropogenic dust storms were the dominant control on lake primary production. Prior to the 1950s the interactions of the East Asian summer monsoon (EASM), human activity, dust storms and lake ecosystems resulted in a shift from a pattern in which "human activity outpaced the EASM as the dominant control on the Earth surface system" to one in which, after the 1950s, "human activity became the dominant factor influencing the EASM and the Earth surface system". In the future this pattern may trend towards one in which there is the "sustainable development of humans and the environment". We suggest that, in order to better understand the interactions of human activity, climate and environment, future research on the Anthropocene should focus on its time-transgressive characteristics and regional differences, in addition to the "Great Acceleration". [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The topographic evolution of continental orogens is important for understanding continental orogenic processes, geodynamic mechanisms, and climatic and environmental changes. The Qinling Orogen is a major orogenic belt in China, and its uplift history can provide insights into the tectonic configuration and geodynamics of China and East Asia. Previous studies have shown that the Dabashan and Micangshan-Hannan Dome (MHD) in the South Qinling orogenic belt were uplifted during the Mesozoic. However, the magnitude of the uplift remains unclear. In this study, using sedimentary records in the northern Sichuan Basin and lithospheric flexural modeling, we estimated the magnitude of Mesozoic uplift of the Dabashan and MHD, along with the effective elastic thickness (Te) of the Sichuan Basin. The Dabashan and MHD were uplifted by approximately 1220 and 880 m during the Middle Jurassic and Early Cretaceous, respectively. Therefore, we propose that the present-day elevation of the Dabashan and MHD is primarily the result of Mesozoic uplift. The differences in the duration and amount of uplift between different tectonic units indicate that the uplift processes and driving mechanisms in the South Qinling orogenic belt were different in the Mesozoic and Cenozoic. Mesozoic uplift was the result of convergence of the North China and South China blocks advanced from east to west, whereas Cenozoic uplift was driven by ongoing indentation of the Indian Plate into Eurasia from southwest to northeast. The lithospheric strength of the northern Sichuan Basin was weakened from the Middle Jurassic to Early Cretaceous, and Te decreased from 73 to 57 km. This may have been caused by the flexure-related bending stresses in the lithosphere that developed due to the large topographic loading. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Clouds and aerosols can significantly affect global climate change and the atmospheric environment, and observing them three-dimensionally with high spatial and temporal resolutions is a long-standing issue. Spaceborne lidars are effective instruments for the vertical detection of clouds and aerosols globally. Numerous Mie scattering lidars were successfully launched and widely used, such as the Cloud-Aerosol Lidar with Orthogonal Polarization (CALIOP) and Geoscience Laser Altimeter System. However, the retrieval of Mie scattering lidar data is an ill-posed problem that introduces a large uncertainty. The spaceborne Aerosol and Cloud High Spectral Resolution Lidar (ACHSRL) of China is currently under development and scheduled for launch in the near future. The ACHSRL attracted extensive attention, because it can separate Mie and Rayleigh scattering signals and avoid ill-posed retrieval. In this study, we conducted ACHSRL signal simulation and retrieval to explore the potential of the ACHSRL. First, we proposed a simplified scheme for retrieving optical parameters, which reduced the number of equations and intermediate variables of the traditional method and avoided false extrema in the backscatter coefficient retrieval. Additionally, the experiments showed that the backscatter coefficient retrieval was overestimated owing to the influence of the Poisson noise but can be corrected. Second, we examined the feasibility of the strategy of "first retrieving the lidar ratio then retrieving the extinction coefficient" to improve the extinction coefficient retrieval. We found that the retrieval error in the simulated cases can be reduced to less than 1% of the original retrieval error. Furthermore, we discussed the influence of the uncertainty of the iodine filter transmittance on the retrieval of the optical parameters and found that the average relative error was less than 1‰. Finally, we conducted simulation and retrieval based on the atmospheric parameters measured by the CALIOP. Results showed that the relative error in the backscatter and extinction coefficients at night was 12% and 28% for test cases, respectively, which was superior to that in the backscatter and extinction coefficients of the corresponding CALIOP product (i.e., 75% and 82%). This research is significant and useful for the development and application of satellite lidars in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Acquiring spatiotemporal patterns of phenological information and its drivers is essential for understanding the response of crops to climate change and implementing adaptation measures. However, current approaches to obtain phenology and analyse its drivers have deficiencies such as sparse observations, excessive dependence of remote sensing inversion on sensors, and inevitable difficulties in upscaling site-based crop models into larger regions. Based on the Wang-Engel temperature response function, we improved the Crop Estimation through Resource and Environment Synthesis-Wheat (CERES-Wheat) model. First, we calibrated the model at the regional scale and evaluated its performance. Furthermore, the spatiotemporal changes in winter wheat phenology in China from 2000 to 2015 were analysed. The results showed that the improved model significantly enhanced the simulation accuracy of the anthesis and maturity dates by averages of 13% and 12% in most planting areas, especially in the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau (YG) with improvements of 26% and 28%. The simulated phenology of winter wheat grown in a colder environment (e.g., the average temperatures during the vegetative growth period range from 0 to 5°C and from 15 to 20°C, and the reproductive growth period ranges from 10 to 15°C) also notably improved. These results confirmed that the original temperature response function indeed had limitations. Further analyses revealed that the key phenological dates and growth periods over the past 16 years were dominantly advanced and shortened. Specifically, the anthesis date, vegetative growth period (VGP), and reproductive growth period (RGP) indicated obviously spatial characteristics. For example, the anthesis date and VGP in the North China Plain (NCP) and the Middle-Lower Yangtze Plain (YZ) and the RGP in northwestern China (NW) showed opposite trends of delay and prolongation as comparing with the dominant patterns. Sensitivity analysis indicated that the key phenological dates and growth periods were advanced and shortened as the minimum (Tmin) and maximum temperatures (Tmax) rose, while they were postponed and prolonged with the increased precipitation. However, their responses to solar radiation did not show spatial consistency. Additionally, we found that the sensitivity of phenology to climatic factors differed across subregions. In particular, phenology in southwestern China and YG was more sensitive to Tmin, Tmax, and solar radiation than in the NCP and NW. Moreover, the sensitivity to precipitation in NW was higher than that in YZ. Totally, the improved crop model could provide more refined spatial characteristics of phenology at a large scale and benefit to explore its drivers more objectively. Furthermore, our results highlight that different planting areas should adopt suitable adaptation measures to cope with climate change impacts. Ultimately, the improved model is promising to enhance the accuracy of yield prediction and provide powerful tools for assessing regional climate change impact and adaptability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Quaternary palynology in the Tibetan Plateau (TP) was initiated in the 1960s to meet the needs of economic development in western China. Pollen analysis was conducted for the first time on a 200-m long core of Quaternary lacustrine sediments taken from the main body of the TP in order to study pollen assemblages as well as vegetation and climate changes of glacial (cold)/interglacial (warm) periods. Pollen analysis of alpine snow and ice began at the first scientific expedition to the TP in the 1970s. After the 1980s, a series of international collaborative programs were carried out under Sino-French, Sino-German, Sino-Australian, and Sino-American cooperation, marking the integration of Chinese Quaternary palynology society with the international community. New methods for Quaternary palynology were gradually promoted and applied, changing the vegetational and climatic interpretation of Quaternary palynology from qualitative to quantitative. Since the 1990s, many palynologists have carried out extensive Quaternary palynological studies on fossil pollen sites of more than 60 lakes/sections and alpine glaciers in the TP to discuss the spatiotemporal vegetation changes and climatic and environmental evolution of the TP since the Pleistocene. Over the past half-century, Quaternary palynology in the TP has contributed to the establishment of the Chinese Quaternary pollen database and the study of vegetation and climate evolution since the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) in the TP. Currently available pollen records revealed the spatial and temporal distribution of vegetation in the TP since the LGM, exhibiting expansions and shrinkages of forest, meadow, grassland and desert in different periods such as the LGM, the last deglaciation, and Holocene optimum period. The paleomonsoon reflected by paleovegetation since the LGM has undergone the changes of weak-strengthening-strong-weakening but still active-shrinking, which is mainly affected by solar insolation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Macrophytes play important roles in maintaining ecosystem health and stability of shallow lakes. Better understanding of their long-term dynamics has important theoretical and practical significance for both lake ecosystem restoration and eutrophication control. However, the knowledge about the historical status and changing patterns of macrophytes in China's shallow lakes is still controversial and lacks systematic research. Here, we reviewed and synthesized the published records of submerged macrophytes from 14 typical shallow lakes in the eastern plain covering the past 100 years. The results suggest that submerged macrophytes have experienced three clear stages of change: rare period (the 1900s-the 1950s), growth period (the 1950s-the 1980s), and recession period (the 1980s-now). This finding is different from the traditional understanding that submerged macrophytes were abundant in the early 20th century and have been degrading since then. On this basis, we proposed the possible evolution pattern (less-more-less) of submerged macrophytes in the eastern plain lake region over the past 100 years, which provides new perspectives about the long-term evolution process of macrophytes in shallow lakes. Furthermore, we found that the decline of submerged macrophytes during the regime shift shows a gradual process at the interdecadal scale; this finding contradicts the classical regime shift theory that macrophytes decline sharply during the critical transition. This study has important theoretical value for the restoration of the eastern plain lakes in China from "turbid lake" to "clear lake", especially for establishing the historical reference condition and restoration path of macrophytes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is conducive to the sustainable development of human beings in karst regions to research the mechanism of karst rocky desertification (KRD) expansion. Whether the large-scale KRD in southwestern China is caused by climate change or human activities is still controversial. In this study, the evolution of the KRD in southwestern China over the past 2000 years was reconstructed through the high-precision δ13C record of stalagmites from Shijiangjun (SJJ) Cave, Guizhou Province, China. The δ13C of the stalagmites from SJJ Cave exhibited heavy values from the Medieval Warm Period (MWP) to the Little Ice Age (LIA). Furthermore, the δ13C records of other stalagmites and tufa from southwestern China also showed the same significant heavy trend. Because the stalagmite δ13C could record the change of ecological environment, it indicated that the consistent change of the stalagmites δ13C may record the process of KRD expansion in the karst regions of southwestern China. During the MWP, the stronger Asian summer monsoon and the northward movement of the rain belt led to a dry period in southwestern China and a wet period in northern China. In contrast, it was wet in southwestern China and dry in northern China during the LIA. In addition, after the Jing-Kang event (JK event, AD1127) occurred at the end of the Northern Song dynasty, the political and economic center of China migrated to southern China for the first time, which changed the population distribution pattern of larger population in the north and smaller population in the south. Therefore, the expansion of KRD in southwestern China was exacerbated in the MWP due to the change of climate in southwestern China, the migration of a large number of people, wars, the large-scale reclamation of arable land, and the cultivation of large areas of crops. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Landscape evolution is modulated by the regional tectonic uplift, climate change, and river dynamics. However, how to distinguish these mechanisms through the research of surface exhumation and fluvial incision remains controversial. In this study, cosmogenic 10Be, 26Al, and 21Ne concentrations in quartz from cave deposits, modern river sediments, and bedrocks were measured to constrain the applicability of cosmogenic 21Ne and discuss Quaternary landscape evolution history in the Guizhou Plateau, southeast China. Using the 26Al-10Be and 21Ne-10Be pairs to distinguish the cosmogenic 21Ne concentration from the excess 21Ne, we found that the nucleogenic 21Ne produced by the U and Th decay in quartz is significant in the samples although there is the possibility of inherited cosmogenic 21Ne. Combining with previous studies, we suggest that the precise approach for applying the cosmogenic 21Ne could be reached by (1) estimating the contribution from nucleogenic 21Ne, (2) avoiding samples with complex burial histories to exclude inherited cosmogenic 21Ne, and (3) combining the 10Be-26Al-21Ne nuclides method for the Quaternary samples. In addition, both pre-burial basin denudation rates and burial ages derived from the 26Al-10Be pair were used to determine the different timescale surface denudation rate and fluvial incision rate in relation to previous work. The consistency of the different timescales pre-burial basin denudation rate, 36Cl surface denudation rate, and modern basin denudation rate indicates that the landscape-scale surface denudation has been likely stabilized since the Quaternary in the Guizhou Plateau area. The slightly higher river incision rates than the local surface denudation rate show that the river dynamics may not have reached a steady-state due to the regional tectonic uplift in the Guizhou Plateau. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The spatial and temporal variations of the vegetation carbon flux in China from 1901 to 2005 were studied using the vegetation net primary production (NPP) values from seven Earth-system models. In addition, the temporal and spatial changes in the nitrogen deposition flux in China were studied using the NHx and NOx fluxes from 1901 to 2005. The relationship between changes in the carbon flux, nitrogen flux and climate was analyzed. The results show that (1) over the past 100 years, NPP in China has shown an upward trend. The average trend coefficient is 0.88 and the NPP distribution trend is generally low in the north and high in the south, with a gradual increase from the northwest to the southeast. Temperature, precipitation and radiation are all conducive to plant growth in the direction of the gradient. The correlation coefficients between the ensemble model mean NPP and temperature, precipitation, longwave radiation and shortwave radiation are 0.88,0.73,0.91 and 0.67, respectively. (2) In the past 100 years, the NHx and NOy fluxes in China have shown an upward trend, with trend coefficients of 0.98 and 0.98, respectively, which pass the 99.9% confidence level of the t-test. NHx and NOy fluxes are also generally low in the north and high in the south, with a gradual increase from the northwest to the southeast in a step-like pattern. (3) The spatial distribution of the correlation coefficients between the NHx and NOy fluxes and air temperature is similar, with only slight differences in values. The spatial distribution of the correlation coefficients between the NHx and NOy fluxes and precipitation is similar in overall pattern, but the pattern is relatively complicated, with a positive-negative-positive-negative-positive pattern occurring across the monsoon region from north to south, and a negative-positive-negative-positive pattern occurring beyond the monsoon region from east to west. (4) The spatial distribution of the correlation coefficients between the NHx and NOy fluxes and NPP shows a generally consistent pattern, but the pattern is relatively uneven. The average distribution of the ensemble model mean is positive correlation in northeast China and southwest China, and alternating positive and negative correlation in other regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The natural environment provides material essentials for human survival and development. The characteristics, processes, regional differentiation and forcing mechanisms of the elements of the natural environment (e.g. geomorphology, climate, hydrology, soil, etc.) are the main objects of research in physical geography. China has a complex natural environment and huge regional differentiation and therefore it provides outstanding reserach opportunities in physical geography. This review summarizes the most important developments and the main contributions of research in the physical geography and human living environment in China during the past 70 years. The major topics addressed are the uplift of the Tibetan Plateau and the evolution of its cryosphere, the development of fluvial systems, the acidification of the vast arid region of the Asian interior, variations in the monsoon and westerly climate systems on multiple timescales, the development of lakes and wetlands, the watershed system model, soil erosion, past human-environment interactions, biogeography, and physical geographic zonality. After briefly introducing international research developments, we review the history of research in physical geography in China, focusing on the major achievements and major academic debates, and finally we summarize the status of current research and the future prospects. We propose that in the context of the national demand for the construction of an ecological civilization, we should make full use of the research findings of physical geography, and determine the patterns and mechanisms of natural environmental processes in order to continue to promote the continued contribution of physical geography to national development strategies, and to further contribute to the theory of physical geography from a global perspective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Grain price volatility during historical periods is regarded as an important indicator of the impact of climate change on economic system, as well as a key link to adjust food security and social stability. The present study used the wheat prices in Baoding Prefecture, China, during 1736–1850 to explore connections between climatic transition and grain price anomalies in the North China Plain. The main findings were as follows: (1) The grain price change showed an apparent correspondence with climatic transition. The period 1781–1820 was a transition phase, with more extremes and decreased precipitations when the climate shifted from a warm phase to a cold one. Corresponding with the climatic transition, the grain price during 1781–1820 was characterized by that the mean of the original grain price series was significantly higher (lower) than the previous (later) phase, and the variance and anomaly amplitude of the detrended grain price series was the highest during 1736–1850. (2) The correspondence between grain price extremes and drought events occurred in phases. Five grain price extremes occurred following drought events during 1781–1810, while extreme droughts were the direct cause of the grain price spike during 1811–1820. (3) Social stability affected by climate change also played an important role in the grain price spike between 1811 and 1820. Paralleling the pathway of "precipitation-grain production-grain price", climate change could have an impact on grain price via the pathway of "precipitation-grain production-grain price-famine-uprising-grain price", as shown during the Tianli Uprising in 1813. These findings could contribute to an improved understanding of the interaction between climate change and human society during the historical period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Stalagmite is one kind of secondary carbonates formed in limestone caves (speleothem). After cave water droplets containing Ca2+ and H C O 3 − drip onto floor, carbonate in the water might become supersaturated due to CO2 degassing under certain conditions, resulting in the formation of stalagmite in a process year after year. Stalagmite is one of important geological archives for paleoclimate research. The advantages include wide spatial distribution, suitable for U-Th and U-Pb dating, enriched in climate proxies, continuity, long time span, comparability and lower sampling cost etc. These factors have propelled stalagmite paleoclimate research to the forefront of global paleoclimatology with an irreplaceable role. The stalagmite paleoclimate study started in the western countries, mainly in Europe and America in 1960s–1970s, while the relevant research in China was progressively developed in the 1980s–1990s after the Reform and Opening up. Although there was a huge gap between the overall research level in China and western countries, a solid research foundation, as well as a number of talent teams were established during the period. In the 21st century, starting from the publication of stalagmite records from Hulu Cave in Nanjing in 2001, the stalagmite paleoclimate research in China has ushered in a flourishing development and a real leap on the basis of international cooperation, resulting in significant international impacts. The landmark achievements, including establishment of the world's longest (640000 years) East Asian monsoon stalagmite record, as well as the longest Indian monsoon (280000 years), South American monsoon (250000 years), North American westerly climate (330000 years), Central Asian westerly climate (135000 years), and northwestern China westerly climate (500000 years), have laid a milestone in the paleoclimate study in these climate domains. Importantly, these stalagmite records have revealed the relationship of Asian monsoon variations with solar insolation climate change in polar regions, and the South American monsoon changes on orbital-suborbital timescales, which have provided new geological observations for the development of orbital-suborbital climate theory; elaborated coupling and differentiation relationships between the Asian monsoon and the westerly climate; reconstructed the history of Asian monsoon changes in the Holocene in detail, and thus the hydrological and climate variances behind Chinese and Indian civilization-cultural evolutions. Furthermore, a large number of high-resolution stalagmite records over the past 2000 years have been reconstructed, which are important for understanding short-term climate variability and magnitude, events, cycles, and thus the future climate projection. The achievements have also involved the improvements of a number of important techniques, such as U-Th dating method, the establishments of various hydroclimatic proxies, as well as the contributions to the reconstruction of the atmosphere 14C variation history over the past ∼54000 years. On the perspective of the future, the Chinese stalagmite community should continue to develop key techniques, further clarify the hydroclimatic significance of stalagmite proxies, impel the integration of related disciplines, and concentrate on key scientific issues in global climate change and major social demands. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This case study of the Hexi Corridor, Northwestern China, utilizes statistical methods to estimate quantitatively the interaction at a regional level between climate change, ancient social developments, and political coping strategies over the past 2000 years. The data is sourced from high-resolution reconstructions of climate series (temperature and precipitation), and historical records of cultivated land, war, population, and changes in regional administrative systems. The results show that moisture conditions played a more significant role than temperature in driving land reclamation in the Hexi Corridor. Analysis also showed a negative correlation between war frequency and the area of cultivated land in the Corridor over 20-year time intervals. Population growth was found to have a significant positive correlation with the cultivated land area during the study period. The results indicate that a climate-induced decline in agricultural production and the subsequent fluctuations in population could act as a trigger for social unrest, which is especially true at the mutual decadal time-scales. However, the interaction with administrative reform also suggests that, in the face of social and economic turmoil, a reasonable administrative hierarchy could strengthen the social governance of regional government, and promote social stability and economic development at a regional level. The study substantiates this notion with empirical quantitative evidence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Quantitative paleoclimatic reconstruction is crucial for understanding the operation and evolution of the global climate system. For example, a quantitative paleoclimatic reconstruction for the Last Glacial Maximum (18±2 ka 14C, LGM) is fundamental to understanding the evolution of Earth's climate during the last glacial-interglacial cycle. Previous quantitative palaeoclimate reconstructions in China are generally based on statistical comparison of modern pollen assemblages and modern climate data. These methods are based on the premise that vegetation-climate interactions remain the same through time, and implicitly assume that the interactions are independent of changes in seasonality and atmospheric CO2 concentration. However, these assumptions may not always be valid, which may affect the reconstructions. Here, we present the results of a quantitative study of the LGM climate of China based on an improved inverse vegetation model which incorporates physiological processes combined with a new China Quaternary Pollen Database. The results indicate that during the LGM, mean annual temperature (ANNT), mean temperature of the coldest month (MTCO) and mean temperature of the warmest month in China were lower by ~5.6±0.8, ~11.0±1.6 and ~2.6±0.9°C, respectively, compared to today, and that the changes in ANNT were mainly due to the decrease of MTCO. The ANNT decrease in southern China was ~5.5±0.5°C. Mean annual precipitation was lower by ~46.3±17.8 mm compared to today and was especially low in northern China (~51.2±21.4 mm) due to the decrease in summer rainfall. Comparison of our results with recent outputs from paleoclimatic modelling reveals that while the latter are broadly consistent with our estimated changes in mean annual climatic parameters, there are substantial differences in the seasonal climatic parameters. Our results highlight the crucial importance of developing seasonal simulation on paleoclimatic models, as well as the need to improve the quality of paleoclimatic reconstructions based on proxy records from geological archives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The nature and dynamics of climate change in central Asia since the late Pleistocene are controversial. Moreover, most of the published studies focus mainly on the evolution of moisture conditions, and there have been few attempts to address changes in seasonality. In this study, records of δ13Corg, TOC, TN, C/N and grain size were obtained from lacustrine sediments at Yili Basin, Xinjiang, NW China. Our aim was to reconstruct the trend in seasonality of precipitation from the last glaciation to the Holocene. The organic matter content of the sediments is derived predominantly from terrestrial plants. The δ13Corg values vary from -19.4% to -24.8%, indicating that the vegetation was dominated by C3 plants. Winter-spring precipitation is identified as the factor determining the relative proportions of C3 and C4 plants in the region. A negative trend in δ13Corg corresponding to an increase in the relative abundance of C3 plants indicate a trend of increasing winter-spring precipitation from the last glaciation to the Holocene. The increased incidence of wintertime storms in the interior of Asia is suggested to result in the increase of winterspring precipitation in the Holocene. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study quantitatively investigates the long-term dynamics of the association between natural disasters and the migration of agriculturists in historical China. Population pressure is also studied because migration is a population density-dependent phenomenon. This study has adopted correlation analysis, multivariate linear/Poisson regression analyses, and Granger causality analysis to verify the linkages of natural disaster-migration and population-migration in historical China by collecting updated datasets. This study is the first attempt to reveal that the duration effects of natural disasters on the migration of agriculturalists are short-term and almost instantaneous. Although the agrarian society has a low buffering capacity, the effects of natural disasters within a short-term scale could be relieved to some extent. However, population pressure can push migration on a long-term scale despite its limited forcefulness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Traditionally, the evaluation of pollen-based quantitative paleoclimate reconstructions focuses on the ability of calibration sets to infer present climatic conditions and/or the similarity between fossil and modern assemblages. Objective criteria for choosing the most appropriate climate parameter(s) to be reconstructed at a specific site are thus lacking. Using a novel approach for testing the statistical significance of a quantitative reconstruction using random environmental data, in combination with the advantageous large environmental gradients, abundant vegetation types and comprehensive modern pollen databases in China, we describe a new procedure for pollen-based quantitative paleoclimatic reconstructions. First, the most significant environmental variable controlling the fossil pollen assemblage changes is identified. Second, a calibration set to infer changes in this targeted variable is built up, by limiting the modern ranges of other environmental variables. Finally, the pollen-based quantitative reconstruction is obtained and its statistical significance assessed. This novel procedure was used to reconstruct the mean annual precipitation ( P ) from Gonghai Lake in the Lvliang Mountains, and Tianchi Lake in the Liupan Mountains, on the eastern and western fringe of the Chinese Loess Plateau, respectively. Both P reconstructions are statistically significant ( p<0.001), and a sound and stable correlation relationship exists in their common period, showing a rapid precipitation decrease since 3300 cal yr BP. Thus, we propose that this procedure has great potential for reducing the uncertainties associated with pollen-based quantitative paleoclimatic reconstructions in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Land cover is one of the most basic input elements of land surface and climate models. Currently, the direct and indirect effects of land cover data on climate and climate change are receiving increasing attentions. In this study, a high resolution (30 m) global land cover dataset (GlobeLand30) produced by Chinese scientists was, for the first time, used in the Beijing Climate Center Climate System Model (BCC_CSM) to assess the influences of land cover dataset on land surface and climate simulations. A two-step strategy was designed to use the GlobeLand30 data in the model. First, the GlobeLand30 data were merged with other satellite remote sensing and climate datasets to regenerate plant functional type (PFT) data fitted for the BCC_CSM. Second, the up-scaling based on an area-weighted approach was used to aggregate the fine-resolution GlobeLand30 land cover type and area percentage with the coarser model grid resolutions globally. The GlobeLand30-based and the BCC_CSM-based land cover data had generally consistent spatial distribution features, but there were some differences between them. The simulation results of the different land cover type dataset change experiments showed that effects of the new PFT data were larger than those of the new glaciers and water bodies (lakes and wetlands). The maximum value was attained when dataset of all land cover types were changed. The positive bias of precipitation in the mid-high latitude of the northern hemisphere and the negative bias in the Amazon, as well as the negative bias of air temperature in part of the southern hemisphere, were reduced when the GlobeLand30-based data were used in the BCC_CSM atmosphere model. The results suggest that the GlobeLand30 data are suitable for use in the BCC_CSM component models and can improve the performance of the land and atmosphere simulations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Tianshan Mountains, located in the northwestern China, are bounded by the Tarim Basin to south and the Junggar Basin to north. In the north piedmont of this mountain range, ongoing thrusting and folding forms a set of roughly parallel anticlines. Geological observations predicted that averaged over last ~1 Ma time scale, the shortening rates of these anticlines are about 2.1-5.5 mm/a; However by averaged over about 10±2 kyr, their shortening rates reduce to merely about 1.25±0.5 mm/a. The slow shortening of the anticlines in the last ~10±2 kyr is coarsely concurrent in time with the last global deglaciation. Here, we use a two-dimensional finite element model to explore crustal deformation across north piedmont of the Tianshan Mountains under various erosion-sedimentation conditions that are assumed to represent the climate-controlled surface process. Numerical experiments show that with a relatively weak erosion-sedimentation strength, the crustal shortening is accommodated mainly by north piedmont of the Tianshan Mountains, similar to the high shortening rate of anticlines averaged over the last ~1 Ma. By increasing erosion-sedimentation strength, the resultant crustal shortening is transformed gradually toward the Tianshan Mountains, resulting in the shortening rate in its north piedmont being decelerated to what is observed as averaged over the last ~10±2 kyr. This result suggests that erosion and sedimentation could play an important role mechanically on strain localization across an intra-continent active tectonic belt. Hence, if the climate change around the last global deglaciation could be simply representative to the enhancement of surface erosion and sedimentation across the pre-existed Tianshan Mountains and its foreland, our models indicate that the observed shortening-rate variations averaged over ~1 Ma and ~10±2 kyr time scales around north piedmont of the Tianshan Mountains should be resulted from climate changes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Arsenic (As) contamination has become the environment issue of global concern. In China, large area of farmland and the site soil were contaminated by As, which means that suitable remedying methods were urgently needed. Phytoremediation, as one of environment-friendly soil remediation techniques developed in recent years, shows a bright future for the remediation of As contaminated soils. However, phytoremediation efficiency needs to be enhanced further because of low concentration of bio-available As in the soils. A triangle flask culture experiment was carried out to study the effects of functional species, isolated from As-polluted soils, that could improve As mobility from the soil. These species included two bacilli, B1 and B2 ( Brevibacillus) and two fungi, F1 ( Trichoderma), F2 ( Fusarium). They could transform the concentration of As fractionation in the soil sterilized by the method of Co-γ ray. Through the experiment, the concentrations of non-specifically-sorbed and specifically-sorbed As fractionation, and pH value of culture solution with inoculated treatment were higher than that with the control. Especially, the concentration of non-specifically-sorbed As fractionation in the treatment-inoculated species was 2 to 6 times higher than that of non-inoculation treatment. Moreover, two bacilli and two fungi could produce IAA, which was conducive to the plant survival when they were jointly used in remedying the As-contaminated soil. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Because of the complexity of social responses to climate change, as well as limitations of proxy data concerning interactions between climate change and human responses, the social impacts of past climate change and associated response mechanisms, thus, require further investigation. To shed light on the transmission of climate change impacts within historical Chinese society, we selected 30-year resolution sequences of temperature anomalies in eastern China and 10-year resolution sequences of grain harvest grades, famine indices, and frequencies of peasant uprisings in China over the past 2000 years. Using a food security perspective, we analyzed the impacts of temperature changes historically transmitted through Chinese production, population, and social subsystems, and differences in transmission characteristics between cold and warm units. Our results were as follows. (1) From 210 BC to 1910 AD, temperature changes in China were significantly positively correlated with grain harvest grades (correlation coefficient, 0.338), and significantly negatively correlated with famine indices, and frequencies of peasant uprisings (correlation coefficients, −0.301 and −0.277, respectively).The correlation coefficients between famine indices and grain harvest grades or frequencies of peasant uprisings were very low. (2) There was a higher proportion of bumper or normal harvests (86.5% of the total decades), more moderate and mild famines (76%), and a lower proportion of peasant uprisings (33.3%) in the 30-year warm units. Conversely, there was a higher proportion of poor or normal harvests (70.7%), a greater proportion of moderate and severe famines (77.6%), and more peasant uprisings (51.7%) in the 30-year cold units. (3) Of the 23 main transmission pathways extending from temperature change to the social subsystem, 13 occurred in cold units, of which 7 had an endpoint of peasant uprisings, and 10 occurred in warm units of which 3 had an endpoint of peasant uprisings. The main transmission pathways that were more likely to be associated with the impacts of temperature change were: Cold → poor harvests → severe famines → more uprisings; cold → poor harvests → moderate famines → more uprisings; warm → bumper harvests → mild famines → no uprisings; warm → bumper harvests → moderate harvests → no uprisings; warm → normal harvests → mild famines → no uprisings; and warm → normal harvests → moderate famines → no uprisings. (4) The transmission of the impacts of temperature change was a complex process. Within this process, famine was most prone to being modulated by human society. In the transmission pathways from the production to the social subsystem, there was a stepwise decrease in the occurrence rate of decades that were probably affected by climate change. In all cold units, 10.4% of decades ending in more uprisings were most likely to be associated with the impacts of temperature change. In all warm units, 47.9% of decades ending in no uprisings were most likely to be associated with the impacts of temperature change. This research can contribute a better understanding on the past interaction mechanisms and processes within the human-climate-ecosystem complex, as well as a better response to the impacts of the ongoing climate change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Volatiles erupted from large-scale explosive volcanic activities have a significant impact on climate and environmental changes. As an important ecological factor, the occurrence of fire is affected by vegetation cover, and fire can feed back into both vegetation and climatic change. The causes of fire events are diverse; and can include volcanic eruptions. The amount of charcoal in sediment sequences is related to the frequency and intensity of fire, and hence under good preservation conditions fire history can be reconstructed from fossil charcoal abundance. Until now, little research on the role of fire has been carried out in northeastern China. In this study, through research on charcoal and tephra shards from Gushantun and Hanlongwan, Holocene vegetation change in relation to fire and volcanic events in Jilin, Northeastern China, was investigated. Where tephra shards are present in Gushantun it is associated with low level of both conifers and broadleaved trees, and is also associated with a pronounced charcoal peak. This suggests forest cover was greatly reduced from a fire caused by an eruption of the Tianchi volcano. We also detected one tephra layer in Hanlongwan, which also has the almost same depth with low level forest pollen values and one charcoal peak. This was caused probably by an eruption of the Jinlongdingzi volcano. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Five General Circulation Model (GCM) climate projections under the RCP8.5 emission scenario were used to drive the Variable Infiltration Capacity (VIC) hydrologic model to investigate the impacts of climate change on hydrologic cycle over continental China in the 21st century. The bias-corrected climatic variables were generated for the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC AR5) by the Inter-Sectoral Impact Model Intercomparison Project (ISI-MIP). Results showed much larger fractional changes of annual mean Evapotranspiration (ET) per unit warming than the corresponding fractional changes of Precipitation (P) per unit warming across the country, especially for South China, which led to a notable decrease of surface water variability (P-E). Specifically, negative trends for annual mean runoff up to −0.33%/year and soil moisture trends varying between −0.02% to −0.13%/year were found for most river basins across China. Coincidentally, interannual variability for both runoff and soil moisture exhibited significant positive trends for almost all river basins across China, implying an increase in extremes relative to the mean conditions. Noticeably, the largest positive trends for runoff variability and soil moisture variability, which were up to 0.41%/year and 0.90%/year, both occurred in Southwest China. In addition to the regional contrast, intra-seasonal variation was also large for the runoff mean and runoff variability changes, but small for the soil moisture mean and variability changes. Our results suggest that future climate change could further exacerbate existing water-related risks (e.g., floods and droughts) across China as indicated by the marked decrease of surface water amounts combined with a steady increase of interannual variability throughout the 21st century. This study highlights the regional contrast and intra-seasonal variations for the projected hydrologic changes and could provide a multi-scale guidance for assessing effective adaptation strategies for China on a river basin, regional, or as a whole. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The default fractional vegetation cover and terrain height were replaced by the estimated fractional vegetation cover, which was calculated by the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) of Earth Observing System Moderate-Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (EOS-MODIS) and the Digital Elevation Model of the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) system. The near-surface meteorological elements over northeastern China were assimilated into the three-dimensional variational data assimilation system (3DVar) module in the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model. The structure and daily variations of air temperature, humidity, wind and energy fields over northeastern China were simulated using the WRF model. Four groups of numerical experiments were performed, and the simulation results were analyzed of latent heat flux, sensible heat flux, and their relationships with changes in the surface energy flux due to soil moisture and precipitation over different surfaces. The simulations were compared with observations of the stations Tongyu, Naiman, Jinzhou, and Miyun from June to August, 2009. The results showed that the WRF model achieves high-quality simulations of the diurnal characteristics of the surface layer temperature, wind direction, net radiation, sensible heat flux, and latent heat flux over semiarid northeastern China in the summer. The simulated near-surface temperature, relative humidity, and wind speed were improved in the data assimilation case (Case 2) compared with control case (Case 1). The simulated sensible heat fluxes and surface heat fluxes were improved by the land surface parameterization case (Case 3) and the combined case (Case 4). The simulated temporal variations in soil moisture over the northeastern arid areas agree well with observations in Case 4, but the simulated precipitation should be improved in the WRF model. This study could improve the land surface parameters by utilizing remote sensing data and could further improve atmospheric elements with a data assimilation system. This work provides an effective attempt at combining multi-source data with different spatial and temporal scales into numerical simulations. The assimilation datasets generated by this work can be applied to research on climate change and environmental monitoring of arid lands, as well as research on the formation and stability of climate over semiarid areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Remote sensing based land cover mapping at large scale is time consuming when using either supervised or unsupervised classification approaches. This article used a fast clustering method-Clustering by Eigen Space Transformation (CBEST) to produce a land cover map for China. Firstly, 508 Landsat TM scenes were collected and processed. Then, TM images were clustered by combining CBEST and K-means in each pre-defined ecological zone (50 in total for China). Finally, the obtained clusters were visually interpreted as land cover types to complete a land cover map. Accuracy evaluation using 2159 test samples indicates an overall accuracy of 71.7% and a Kappa coefficient of 0.64. Comparisons with two global land cover products (i.e., Finer Resolution Observation and Monitoring of Global Land Cover (FROM-GLC) and GlobCover 2009) also indicate that our land cover result using CBEST is superior in both land cover area estimation and visual effect for different land cover types. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The occurrence of bumper or poor grain harvests in ancient China plays an important role in explaining how past climate changes affected the economy. Because of the lack of long-term continuous and high-resolution quantitative data for reconstructing the series of grain harvests in ancient China, understanding of the impacts and mechanisms involved in climate change is limited. This study presents a method designed for reconstructing grain harvest series by quantifying grain output levels based on the descriptions in historical documents. The method involves setting the grain output level for each year based on very specific meanings of different words, calculating a yield index based on the structure of each level and assessing grain yields (bumper or poor harvests) every 10 years. First, 1636 records related to grain yields (including crop yields, food security, agricultural disasters, grain prices, grain storage and people's livelihoods) for each year were retrieved from history books called the Twenty-Four Histories. Second, using this method, a 10-year resolution graded grain harvest series from the Western Han Dynasty to the Five Dynasties (206 BC-960 AD) is reconstructed. Finally, the relationship between the variations in temperature and precipitation and the fluctuation of grain yields is examined. The results show that from the Western Han Dynasty to the Five Dynasties, bumper, average and poor harvest decades accounted for 33.3%, 39.3% and 27.4% of the 1,166-year period, respectively. The grain yields during 206 BC-960 AD can be divided into three stages: a period of bumper harvests during 206-51 BC, poor harvests during 50 BC-590 AD and bumper harvests during 591-960 AD. Bumper harvest decades typically experienced a warm climate with normal or high levels of precipitation, while poor harvest decades had a cold and dry climate. A positive correlation was found between temperature and grain yield because a warm climate allows a full use of resources. The observed relationship between precipitation and grain yield indicated that both flooding and droughts cause poor harvests, which confirms that agricultural production in the monsoon climate of eastern China is greatly impacted by conditions of limited heat and extreme precipitation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The oxygen isotopic values of aquatic plant cellulose and carbonates in Lake Caohai sediments were measured using a continuous flow isotopic ratio mass spectrometer (CF-IRMS). Because of predictable oxygen isotopic fractionation between cellulose and its source water, the oxygen isotopic composition of paleo-lake water has been established quantitatively. Combined oxygen isotopic values of cellulose and carbonates were used in the 'Craig' equation to determine paleotemperatures and their variation in the lake during the past 500 years. Results show that the paleotemperature trend correlates well with meteorological records from Weining. There are four notable cold intervals at Lake Caohai over the past 500 years, namely 1540-1570AD, 1670-1715AD, 1780-1870AD and 1900-1930AD, and the former three cold intervals have been observed in the conventional Little Ice Age (LIA). These cold periods at Lake Caohai correspond well with those recorded from tree ring, peat, and ice core data from adjacent regions, particularly temperature those inferred from δO of peat cellulose from Hongyuan Southwestern China. The trend in paleotemperature variations at Lake Caohai are also consistent with both the change of Indian summer monsoon, derived from δO values of a stalagmite in Dongge, and a recorded shift in solar activity. The findings of this study illustrate that coupled analysis of δO values of cellulose and carbonates from lake sediments may be used as a paleotemperature proxy. These results also provide further evidence of the existence of LIA in southwestern China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate-induced drought has exerted obvious impacts on land systems in northern China. Although recent reports by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) have suggested a high possibility of climate-induced drought in northern China, the potential impacts of such drying trends on land systems are still unclear. Land use models are powerful tools for assessing the impacts of future climate change. In this study, we first developed a land use scenario dynamic model (iLUSD) by integrating system dynamics and cellular automata. Then, we designed three drying trend scenarios (reversed drying trend, gradual drying trend, and acceleration of drying trend) for the next 25 years based on the IPCC emission scenarios and considering regional climatic predictions in northern China. Finally, the impacts of drying trend scenarios on the land system were simulated and compared. An accuracy assessment with historic data covering 2000 to 2005 indicated that the developed model is competent and reliable for understanding complex changes in the land use system. The results showed that water resources varied from 441.64 to 330.71 billion m among different drying trend scenarios, suggesting that future drying trends will have a significant influence on water resource and socioeconomic development. Under the pressures of climate change, water scarcity, and socioeconomic development, the ecotone (i.e., transition zone between cropping area and nomadic area) in northern China will become increasingly vulnerable and hotspots for land-use change. Urban land and grassland would have the most prominent response to the drying trends. Urban land will expand around major metropolitan areas and the conflict between urban and cultivated land will become more severe. The results also show that previous ecological control measures adopted by the government in these areas will play an important role in rehabilitating the environment. In order to achieve a sustainable development in northern China, issues need to be addressed such as how to arrange land use structure and patterns rationally, and how to adapt to the pressures of climate change and socioeconomic development together. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Our analysis of fog and haze observations from the surface weather stations in China in recent 50 years (from 1961 to 2011) shows that the number of fog days has experienced two-stage variations, with an increasing trend before 1980 and a decreasing trend after 1990. Especially, an obvious decreasing trend after 1990 can be clearly seen, which is consistent with the decreasing trend of the surface relative humidity. However, the number of haze days has demonstrated an increasing trend. As such, the role of reduction of atmospheric relative humidity in the transition process from fog into haze has been further investigated. It is estimated that the mean relative humidity of haze days is about 69%, lower than previously estimated, which implies that it is more difficult for the haze particles to transform into fog drops. This is possibly one of the major environmental factors leading to the reduction of number of fog days. The threshold of the relative humidity for transition from fog into haze is about 82%, also lower than previously estimated. Thus, the reduction of the surface relative humidity in China mainly due to the increase of the surface temperature and the saturation specific humidity may exert an obvious impact on the environmental conditions for the formations of fog and haze. In addition, our investigation of the relationship between haze and visibility reveals that with the increase of haze days, the visibility has declined markedly. Since 1961, the mean visibility has dropped from 4-10 to 2-4 km, about a half of the previous horizontal distance of visibility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Historical case studies of climate change impacts and the resulting social responses can provide analogies for better understanding the impacts of current and future climate changes. Around the turn of the 19th century, the climate of the North China Plain experienced a shift from a relatively warm stage in the 18th century to a colder stage in the 19th century, which was characterised by a much colder climate and more frequent and severe floods and droughts. Historical information about refugees, social disorder, grain transportation, and disaster relief on the North China Plain in 1780-1819 is collected from the Veritable Records of the Qing Dynasty (a collection of official records). The mechanism of climate change affecting the food security of the society, as indicated by the development of a refugee problem around the turn of the 19th century, is analyzed by examining the social vulnerability. There are four basic findings: (1) In the 40 years from 1780-1819, the society on the North China Plain was unstable and characterised by a significant deterioration of the refugee situation. The number of refugees increased markedly, and their behaviour became increasingly violent. In the 1780s, most of the disaster victims chose to stay at their residences waiting for relief. From 1790 to 1800, hundreds of thousands of refugees migrated to northeast China. In the 1810s, the frequency of farmer rebellions increased sharply. (2) The increase in instability corresponded to the climatic cooling over the same time period. The increased instability was a result of the negative impacts of climate change accumulating and transmitting to the social level. (3) For food security, a precondition for the negative impacts of climate change on human society was the vulnerability of the regional socioeconomic system, which had a high sensitivity and low capacity to respond. This vulnerability could be described by the following three observations: ① The regional balance of supply and demand for food was in a critical state, which led to a high sensitivity and dramatic reduction in yield that was caused by climate change; ② the capacity for disaster relief efforts by the government was too low to meet the needs of crisis management; ③ the capacity for refugees' resettlement in eastern Inner Mongolia and northeast China, which both border the North China Plain, was severely restricted by climatic conditions or the quarantine policy. (4) It is estimated that climate change caused the social vulnerability to reach a critical level approximately 20 years earlier on the North China Plain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Changes in the vegetation and climate of the westerly-dominated areas in Central Asia during the Holocene were interpreted using pollen-assemblages and charcoal data from a 300-cm-long sediment core of the Sayram Lake, northern Xinjiang. Accele-rator Mass Spectrometry (AMS) radiocarbon dating methods were applied to bulk organic matter of the samples. Artemisia spp./Chenopodiaceae ratios and results from principal component analysis were used to infer that the lake basin was dominated by desert vegetation before ca. 9.6 cal. ka BP, which suggests a warm and dry climate in the early Holocene. Desert steppe/steppe expanded during 9.6-5.5 cal. ka BP, indicating a remarkable increase both in the precipitation and temperature during the mid-Holocene. Desert vegetation dominated between 6.5 and 5.5 cal. ka BP, marking an extreme warmer and drier interval. The steppe/meadow steppe recovered, and temperatures decreased from 5.5 cal. ka BP in the late Holocene, as indicated by the increased abundance of Artemisia and the development of meadows. Holocene temperatures and moisture variations in the Sayram Lake areas were similar to those of adjacent areas. This consistency implies that solar radiation was the main driving factor for regional temperature changes, and that the effect of temperature variations was significant on regional changes in humidity. The evolution of climate and environment in the Sayram Lake areas, which were characterized as dry in the early Holocene and relatively humid in the middle-late Holocene, are clearly different from those in monsoonal areas. Dry conditions in the early Holocene in the Sayram Lake areas were closely related to decreased water vapor advection. These conditions were a result of reduced westerly wind speeds and less evaporation upstream, which in turn were caused by seasonal changes in solar radiation superimposed by strong evaporation following warming and drying local climate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Laizhou Bay provides a critical spawning and nursery habitat for many fishery species, including commercially important species, such as Fenneropenaeus chinensis and Larimichthys polyactis. The bay is severely stressed due to high fishing pressure and environmental changes. Based on the long-term ecosystem surveys in Laizhou Bay during the main spawning period (May) of most fishery species from 1959 to 2008, the responses of the Laizhou Bay fishery ecosystem were analyzed here, including regime shifts in species composition, biomass, species diversity, zooplankton, phytoplankton, and environmental variables. The dominant species of large-size and high economic value (e.g. Trichiurus haumela, L. polyactis) have been replaced by the short-lived, low-trophic-level planktivorous pelagic species (e.g. Setipinna taty, Engraulis japonicus) since the 1980s, and it is probable that the small-sized pelagic fishes have been recently replaced by invertebrates (e.g. Oratosquilla oratoria, Crangon affinis). The biomass of fishery resources declined continuously from 423.6 kg haul h in 1959 to 164.6 kg haul h in 1982, 37.7 kg haul h in 1993, and less than 8 kg haul h in 1998-2008. Moreover, the biomass of zooplankton showed an increasing trend during 1959-2006, but showed a slight decline in 2008. The abundance of phytoplankton increased from 1959 through 1982, decreased substantially in 1993, and increased again until 2004. More recently, however, the phytoplankton abundance was very low. The sea surface temperature (SST) and sea bottom temperature (SBT) in May increased by 0.23°C a and 0.16°C a, respectively, during 1982-2008. The salinity in May showed large fluctuations and reached its lowest values in 2004 and 2006. The ratio of dissolved inorganic nitrogen (DIN) to dissolved inorganic phosphate (DIP) increased. However, the dissolved silicon (DSi):DIP and DSi:DIN ratios decreased to a low level during 1959-2008. These changes seriously impacted primary production, and cascade effects then changed the structure and function of the fishery ecosystem. Further analysis indicated that multiple stresses caused the alterations in the structure of the Laizhou Bay fishery ecosystem. The top-down effect was identified as the main influence on the fishery species (at the top of the food chain) over the past five decades due to the increasing fishing pressure, whereas the bottom-up effect increased over the past three decades due to the strong variations in the environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The general characteristics of climate changes over the past 2000 years in China, regional differences and uncertainties were analyzed based on the recently peer-reviewed high time-resolution climatic reconstructions. The results showed that there exists four warm periods of the temperature variation in China since the Qin Dynasty, including the western and eastern Han Dynasties (200 BC-AD 180), the Sui and Tang dynasties (541-810), the Song and Yuan dynasties (931-1320), and the 20th century, and three cold phases involving the Wei, Jin, and North-South Dynasties (181-540), the late Tang Dynasty (811-930), and the Ming and Qing dynasties (1321-1920). The Song and Yuan warm period is consistent with the Medieval Warm Period over the Northern Hemisphere, and the cold phases of the North-South Dynasties and the Ming and Qing dynasties are paralleled to the Dark Ages Cold Period and the Little Ice Age, respectively. The 13th-15th century could be a shift to the wet condition of the climate, and the low precipitation variability is exhibited in western China prior to 1500. In the context of the climate warming, the pattern of the drought in north and flood in south is prevalent over the eastern China. In addition, the published reconstructions have a high level of confidence for the past 500 years, but large uncertainties exist prior to the 16th century. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Soil respiration is an important process in terrestrial carbon cycle. Concerning terrestrial ecosystems in China, quantifying the spatiotemporal pattern of soil respiration at the regional scale is critical in providing a theoretical basis for evaluating carbon budget. In this study, we used an empirically based, semi-mechanistic model including climate and soil properties to estimate annual soil respiration from terrestrial ecosystems in China from 1970 to 2009. We further analyzed the relationship between interannual variability in soil respiration and climatic factors (air temperature and precipitation). Results indicated that the distribution of annual soil respiration showed clear spatial patterns. The highest and lowest annual soil respiration rates appeared in southeastern China and northwestern China, respectively, which was in accordance with the spatial patterns of mean annual air temperature and annual precipitation. Although the mean annual air temperature in northwestern China was higher than that in some regions of northeastern china, a greater topsoil organic carbon storage in northeastern China might result in the higher annual soil respiration in this region. By contrast, lower temperature, less precipitation and smaller topsoil organic carbon pool incurred the lowest annual soil respiration in northwestern China. Annual soil respiration from terrestrial ecosystems in China varied from 4.58 to 5.19 Pg C a between 1970 and 2009. During this time period, on average, annual soil respiration was estimated to be 4.83 Pg C a. Annual soil respiration in China accounted for 4.93%-6.01% of the global annual soil CO emission. The interannual variability in soil respiration depended on the interannual variability in precipitation and mean air temperature. In order to reduce the uncertainty in estimating annual soil respiration at regional scale, more in situ measurements of soil respiration and relevant factors (e.g. climate, soil and vegetation) should be made simultaneously and historical soil property data sets should also be established. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present the first millennial-length gridded field reconstruction of annual temperature for China, and analyze the reconstruction for spatiotemporal changes and associated uncertainties, based on a network of 415 well-distributed and accurately dated climatic proxy series. The new reconstruction method is a modified form of the point-by-point regression (PPR) approach. The main difference is the incorporation of the 'composite plus scale' (CPS) and 'Regularized errors-in-variables' (EIV) algorithms to allow for the assimilation of various types of the proxy data. Furthermore, the search radius is restricted to a grid size; this restriction helps effectively exclude proxy data possibly correlated with temperature but belonging to a different climate region. The results indicate that: 1) the past temperature record in China is spatially heterogenic, with variable correlations between cells in time; 2) the late 20th century warming in China probably exceeds mean temperature levels at any period of the past 1000 years, but the temperature anomalies of some grids in eastern China during the Medieval climate anomaly period are warmer than during the modern warming; 3) the climatic variability in the eastern and western regions of China was not synchronous during much of the last millennium, probably due to the influence of the Tibetan Plateau. Our temperature reconstruction may serve as a reference to test simulation results over the past millennium, and help to finely analyze the spatial characteristics and the driving mechanism of the past temperature variability. However, the lower reconstruction skill scores for some grid points underline that the present set of available proxy data series is not yet sufficient to accurately reconstruct the heterogeneous climate of China in all regions, and that there is the need for more highly resolved temperature proxies, particularly in the Tibetan Plateau. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Yuzhou Flora of the southern North China Platform possesses the typical regional features of the Middle and Late Cathaysian Flora. For a long time during the Permian, this area was located on shoreline marine tidal flats and deltas at low latitudes with a warm and humid climate. Consequently, many successive layers with abundant well-preserved plant fossils and a complete evolutionary sequence were developed. This is a unique and ideal place to study the Middle and Late Cathaysian Flora. We have recognized 111 genera and 307 species from this flora. The rapid morphological evolution and uninterrupted stratigraphic succession of Lobatannularia (Sphenophytes) make this group one of the bases for biostratigraphic divisions of the Permian System of the North China Platform. Ninety percent of Pteridophytes belong to the order Marattiales, which are well developed during the early and middle stages of the Yuzhou Flora but experience a sudden decline during the late stage. Ancient Pteridospermatophytes only flourished during the Middle Permian whereas advanced Peltaspermales are extremely well developed at the end of the early Late Permian. Among them Shenzhouphyllum is one of characteristic elements in the late stage of the Yuzhou Flora. The Cycadophytes evolved relatively early in this area and they differentiated and proliferated during the late Middle to early Late Permian. The number of species of Ginkgophytes is small but this group is extremely abundant, especially in the early Late Permian. The Gigantopteridales (preangiosperms) is a very important and unique group in the Yuzhou Flora. Based upon their venation and leaf architecture, this group can be divided into three evolutionary stages, i.e., appearance and differentiation, first flourishing, and second flourishing and sudden disappearance, which form the basis for biostratigraphic division and correlation of the Permian System of the North China Platform. Based upon the evolutionary trend of venation pattern and leaf architecture, we propose some taxonomic changes at the generic level. The Yuzhou Flora emerged at the middle Early Permian (Zisongian) and suddenly disappeared at the early Late Permian (Wujiapingian). It is later replaced by the Euro-American Zechstein flora in the late Late Permian. The Yuzhou Flora is divided into three (early, middle and late) stages based upon the cyclic development of its plant groups. Five fossil plant assemblage zones are recognized from the Yuzhou Flora based upon the succession of each group and their combined characters in different layers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]