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Understanding environmental determination of crop yield plays a critical role in agricultural. management in resource-limited areas. The climatic transition zone was a naturally ideal place to study. the relations between environmental factors and crop yield, due to its large annual variability of climatic factors and high speed of temperature increase under global warming. Our objectives were to identify the most critical environmental factor in determining spring wheat yield and analyze the convergence and divergence of water-yield relations for spring wheat in a typical climatic transition zone (semi-arid area). The study was conducted at two locations, Dingxi and Pengyang in Northwest China, with a long-term experiment (1987-2018) and two short-term irrigation experiments. Meanwhile, data of water use and spring wheat yield was collected from a series of previously published literature in the study area. The highest spring wheat yield was obtained under year pattern with higher soil water content at sowing (SWCS) and lower atmospheric dryness condition (ADC, the difference between reference evapotranspiration and precipitation during spring wheat growing season). SWCS was more important than precipitation during the growing season (PGS) in determining spring wheat yield in the study area. The relations between available water supply, water use, and spring wheat yield were convergence. However, SWCS had an impact on the relationship between yield and PGS and SWCS-yield relation was affected by ADC. We concluded that precipitation in 7 months before sowing was the dominant factor determining spring wheat yield in the climatic transition zone under global warming whereas the impact of high atmospheric evaporative demand resulted from the increasing temperature on crop yields and SWCS-yield relation must be taken into account for the analysis of environmental determination of spring wheat yield., (© 2021. The Author(s) under exclusive licence to International Society of Biometeorology.)

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

The process of carbon neutrality does have economic costs; however, few studies have measured the cost and the economic neutral opportunities. This paper uses a dynamic computable general equilibrium (CGE) model to simulate China's carbon neutrality path from 2020 to 2060 and analyzes its economic impact. This paper innovatively adjusts the CGE modeling technology and simulates the boundary of the Porter hypothesis on the premise of economic neutrality. The results show that the carbon neutrality target may reduce the annual GDP growth rate by about 0.8% in 2020–2060. To make the carbon pricing method under the carbon neutrality framework meet the strong version of the Porter hypothesis (or economic neutrality), China must increase its annual total factor productivity by 0.56–0.57% in 2020–2060; this is hard to achieve. In addition, the study finds that China's 2030 carbon target has little impact on the economy, but the achievement of the 2060 carbon neutrality target will have a significant effect. Therefore, the paper believes that the key to carbon neutrality lies in the coexistence of technological innovation and carbon pricing to ensure that we can cope with global warming with the lowest cost and resistance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To address the global warming issue, China is prioritizing the development of clean energy sources such as wind and solar power under its "dual carbon target". However, the expansion of these resources is constrained by their intermittency and the spatial and temporal distribution of wind and solar energy. This paper systematically reviews the evolution of wind and solar energy reserves, their development potential, and their current status in China from a geographical perspective. In conjunction with existing research, this paper anticipates future exploration in the realm of wind–solar complementary development or multi-energy complementary development, viewed through the lens of resource quantity. The anticipated findings are intended to furnish a theoretical foundation for further studies on the development and utilization of wind and solar energy resources within China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the increase in global temperature, the global change situation dominated by climate warming is becoming more and more serious. Climate change will cause differences in the suitable areas of species in different periods. Ginkgo biloba L., a rare and endangered wild plant protected at the national level in China, is the oldest relict plant in the world. Because of severe climate change, only China's wild Ginkgo biloba has been preserved, yet China's wild Ginkgo biloba population is facing extinction risk. Ginkgo biloba has rich ornamental value, application value, economic value, medicinal value and ecological value. Not only can it produce economic and ecological benefits, but it can also produce huge social benefits. Based on the data of Ginkgo biloba sample distribution, bioclimatic variables and soil variables, this paper uses the MaxEnt model to simulate Ginkgo biloba suitable area under current and future different climate scenarios, and analyzes the changes in the potential suitable area of Ginkgo biloba in the future through ArcGIS 10.6. The results are as follows: (1) the results simulated by the MaxEnt model are AUC > 0.9, showing that the simulation results have a high accuracy; (2) the min temperature of the coldest month, precipitation of the wettest month, elevation, and temperature seasonality are the main environmental variables affecting the change in the Ginkgo biloba suitable area; (3) under future climate scenarios, the suitable area of Ginkgo biloba is predicted to expand in the future, covering most of the south and some northeast regions, and moderate temperature and precipitation changes under climate change are conducive for the growth of Ginkgo biloba; and (4) in the future, the distribution center of the suitable area will move to the northeast. According to the conclusions in this paper, it is expected to provide theoretical reference for cultivation and management, sustainable utilization and solution of ecological environment problems of Ginkgo biloba. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Global warming has provoked more co-occurrence of hot extreme and dry extreme, namely compound hot-dry events (CHDEs). However, their health impacts have seldom been investigated. This study aimed to characterize CHDEs and assess its mortality burden in China from 1990 to 2100., Methods: CHDEs were defined as a day when daily maximum temperature > its 90th percentile and Standardized Precipitation Index < its 50th percentile. A two-stage approach, including a distributed lag nonlinear model (DLNM) and a multivariate meta-analysis, was used to estimate exposure-response associations of CHDEs with mortality in 358 counties/districts during 2006-2017 in China, which was then applied to assess the national mortality burden attributable to CHDEs from 1990 to 2100., Findings: We observed a significant increasing trend of CHDEs in China until mid-21st century, and then flatted, while the duration and intensity of CHDEs continuously increased across the 21st century. CHDEs were much riskier (ER=17.82 %, 95 %CI: 14.17 %-21.60 %) than independent hot events (ER=5.86 %,95 %CI: -0.04 %,12.45 %) or dry events (ER=0.07 %,95 %CI: -1.22 %, 1.38 %), and there was significantly additive interaction between hot events and dry events (AP=0.10,95 %CI: 0.04, 0.16). Females (ER=24.28 %, 95 %CI: 19.21 %-29.56 %), the elderly (ER=23.28 %, 95 %CI: 18.23 %-28.55 %), and people living in humid area (ER=18.98 %, 95 %CI: 15.08 %-23.02 %) had higher mortality risks than their counterparts. Mortality burden attributed to CHDEs significantly increased during historical observation and became stable since mid-21st century in China., Interpretation: CHDEs would significantly increase mortality with higher risk for females, the elderly and people living in humid areas. Mortality burden has significantly increased during historical observation and will keep relatively steady since mid-21st century., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.)

Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from wetlands have exacerbated global warming, attracting worldwide attention. However, the research process and development trends in this field remain unknown. Herein, 1865 papers related to wetlands GHG emissions published from January 2000 to December 2023 were selected, and CiteSpace and VOSviewer were used for bibliometric analysis to visually analyze the publications distribution, research authors, organizations and countries, core journal and keywords, and discussed the research progress, trends and hotspots in the fields. Over the past 24 years, the research has gone through three phases: the "embryonic" stage (2000-2006), the accumulation stage (2007-2014), and the acceleration stage (2015-2023). China has played a pivotal role in this domain, publishing the most papers and working closely with the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Germany, and Australia. In addition, this study synthesized 311 field observations from 123 publications to analyze the variability in GHG emissions and their driving factors in four different types of natural wetlands. The results suggested that the average carbon dioxide (CO 2 ), methane (CH 4 ), and nitrous oxide (N 2 O) fluxes in different wetlands were significantly different. River wetlands exhibited the highest GHG fluxes, while marsh wetlands demonstrated greater global warming potential (GWP). The average CO 2 , CH 4 and N 2 O fluxes were 60.41 mg m -2 ·h -1 , 2.52 mg m -2 ·h -1 and 0.05 mg m -2 ·h -1 , respectively. The GWP of Chinese natural wetlands was estimated as 648.72 Tg·CO 2 -eq·yr -1 , and CH 4 contributed the largest warming effect, accounting for 57.43%. Correlation analysis showed that geographical location, climate factors, and soil conditions collectively regulated GHG emissions from wetlands. The findings provide a new perspective on sustainable wetland management and reducing GHG emissions., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

This Special Issue aims to highlight research articles focusing on the geographical scale of glacier and lake ice variations, as well as the engineering scale of ice properties and their practical applications via laboratory tests and numerical modeling. Additionally, it includes research on ecosystems under lake ice. The main goal is successfully achieved through the joint efforts of authors, anonymous reviewers, and editorial managers. In total, 1 review article and 15 research articles are included in this Special Issue. These articles cover a wide range of topics, including water resources from Chinese mountain glacier variation; lake ice phenology at different latitudes and altitudes around the world; ice properties from laboratory experiments and numerical modeling; ice engineering with different purposes in China and the Arctic; and ecosystem under lake ice at different temporal and spatial scales. This Special Issue received contributions from researchers from different parts of China and from Chinese international cooperation partners because of its focus on "higher temperature ice" under global warming. All papers presented are innovative and of high quality. This Special Issue can promote research on ice properties and their applications in practices ranging from mountains to sea, especially in popular water ecosystem environments under ice during seasonal ice period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Natural wetlands are among the most important sources of methane; thus, these areas are important for better understanding long-term temporal variations in atmospheric methane concentration. During the last 60 years, wetlands have experienced extensive conversion and global impacts from climate warming, which makes the estimation of methane emission from wetlands highly uncertain. In this paper, we present a modeling framework, integrating CH4MODWETLAND, TOPMODEL and TEM models, to analyze the temporal and spatial variations in CH4 emissions from natural wetlands (including inland wetlands, coastal wetlands, lakes and rivers) in China. Our analysis revealed an increase of 25.5 %, averaging 0.52g m-2 per decade, in national CH4 fluxes from 1950 to 2010, which was mainly induced by climate warming. Higher rates of increasing CH4 fluxes occurred in northeastern, northern and northwestern China, associated with large temperature increases. However, decreases in precipitation due to climate warming o_set the increase in CH4 fluxes in these regions. The CH4 fluxes from the wetland on the Qinghai Tibetan Plateau exhibited a lower rate of increase, which was approximately 25% of that simulated in northeastern China. Although climate warming has accelerated CH4 fluxes, the total amount of national CH4 emissions decreased by approximately 2.35 Tg (1.91-2.81 Tg), i.e., from 4.50 Tg in the early 1950s to 2.15 Tg in the late 2000s, due to a large wetland loss of 17.0 million ha. Of this reduction, 0.26 Tg 0.24-0.28 Tg) was derived from lakes and rivers, 0.16 Tg (0.13-0.20 Tg) from coastal wetlands, and 1.92 Tg (1.54-2.33 Tg) from inland wetlands. Northeastern China had the largest contribution to this reduction, with a loss of 1.68 Tg. The CH4 emissions were reduced by more than half in most regions in China except for the Qinghai Tibetan Plateau, where only a 23.3% decrease in CH4 was observed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There have been fruitful publications on thermal comfort of urban residential buildings in China. However, there is a lack of reviews on this topic to perform a comprehensive analysis and find opportunities to meet occupants' thermal comfort needs while improving building energy efficiencies. This paper addresses this issue by presenting a systematic review on the advancements in research on thermal comfort in urban residential buildings in China. Firstly, two common thermal comfort research approaches, i.e., field studies and laboratory studies, are discussed. Secondly, eleven main thermal comfort evaluation indicators are summarized. Finally, this paper analyzes the thermal comfort survey data from different researchers, discusses the impacts of adaptive behaviors on human thermal comfort, and provides recommendations for future research on urban residential thermal comfort. It was found that people have higher and higher requirements for their indoor thermal environment as time goes by, especially in the winter; the thermoneutral temperature is higher in warmer climate regions in the summer but lower in the winter than in colder climate regions; the thermoneutral temperature tends to increase with the indoor air temperature due to an adaptation to the indoor thermal environment. The outcomes of this paper provide valuable information on thermal comfort behaviors of urban residents in different climate zones in China, which can serve as a resource for the academic community conducting future research on thermal comfort and assist policymakers in enhancing building energy efficiencies without compromising the occupants' comfort. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The serious consequences of climate warming have increasingly become a globe agenda in recent decades. China has been actively participating in various initiatives to address global climate change and has made commitments to reduce carbon emissions. Although the logistics industry is regarded as the "new driving force of national economic development", its carbon intensity is relatively high. Therefore, whether the logistics industry can develop in a green and low-carbon way is very crucial. This paper takes the green logistics efficiency of China's provincial logistics industry as the research object. The Super-SBM model is used to measure the China's green logistics efficiency, then the general dynamic characteristics is depicted by kernel density analysis. With the GML (Global Malmquist-Luenberger) index model, the reasons for the changes in green logistics efficiency are explained. Finally, Moran's I index is used to analyze the spatial correlation of green logistics efficiency in each province. The results show that the green logistics efficiency in China is at a low level, but with an upward trend. China's green logistics efficiency has a significant positive spatial correlation, showing a zonal pattern of high in the east and low in the west, and a polarization phenomenon. In addition, the bottleneck of the overall development of green logistics efficiency in China depends on the level of green technology. Furthermore, the results also imply that green technology advancement is an inherent key factor for green logistics efficiency to achieve growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the rapid development of China's economy, China has become the world's largest carbon emitter. China not only has an obvious growth rate of industrial carbon emissions but also the intensity of agricultural carbon emissions is hovering at a high level. The development of China's agricultural economy has largely come at the expense of high emissions. Currently, under the background of global warming and difficulty in controlling greenhouse gas emissions, the development of low-carbon agriculture is an important way to realize the harmonious development of the ecological environment and economic growth and to promote the sustainable development of agriculture. The agricultural production efficiency is the main factor affecting the intensity of agricultural carbon emissions. Based on provincial panel data of China from 2010 to 2019, this paper establishes an indicator system and uses the super-efficiency SBM model to measure agricultural production efficiency. The regional agricultural carbon emissions were estimated using carbon-emission-related agricultural production activities. In order to study the nonlinear relationship between agricultural production efficiency and agricultural carbon emission intensity in the narrow sense, this paper uses a threshold regression model with agricultural carbon emissions as the threshold variable. Based on the analysis of China's agricultural production efficiency and agricultural carbon emissions from 2010 to 2019, an empirical test is conducted through a threshold regression model. The results show an "inverted U-shaped" relationship between agricultural production efficiency and agricultural carbon emission intensity. In areas with high agricultural production efficiency, the improvement of production efficiency can suppress the intensity of agricultural carbon emissions; in areas with low agricultural production efficiency, the improvement of production efficiency increases the intensity of agricultural carbon emissions. Finally, based on the research conclusions, this paper provides feasible suggestions and countermeasures for China's agricultural carbon emission reduction and improvement of agricultural production efficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, global warming has become increasingly severe, and the ecological and environmental problems facing mankind have become increasingly serious. As the main areas of transportation activities, cities are also the main places of carbon emissions. As a necessary condition for human's daily-life travel, it is particularly important to calculate the carbon emissions from urban transportation. Due to the different characteristics of economy and population in different regions of a city, the carbon emissions of urban buses show different characteristics in terms of temporal and spatial distribution. The developments of science and technology promote the application of big data analysis to specific practical life, enabling people to research and solve problems from a new perspective. This paper uses the GPS data of urban buses in Sanya City, China, to identify operation conditions from urban buses, and calculates the distance and time under different conditions. Based on the measured data of carbon emissions, this paper visualizes the distribution characteristics of carbon emissions by density analysis; explains the time distribution characteristics by the visual analysis of carbon emissions in different time periods, working days and rest days, and different energy types; and illustrates the spatial distribution characteristics by the spatial distributions of carbon emissions from Sanya's buses on working days and rest days, as well as in different routes, providing reference for a low-carbon development of urban green transport. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The severe global warming issue currently threatens humans' existence and development. Countries and international organizations have effectively implemented policies to reduce carbon emissions and investigate low-carbon growth strategies. Reducing carbon emissions is a hot topic that academics and government policy-making departments are concerned about.Through necessary condition analysis (NCA) and fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis(fsQCA), this paper investigates local governments' configuration linkage effect and path choice to improve carbon emission performance from six dimensions: energy consumption, industrial structure, technological innovation, government support, economic development, and demographic factors. The research findings include the following: (1) Individual condition does not represent necessary conditions for the government's carbon performance. Among the two sets of second-order equivalence configurations(S and Q) (five high-level carbon performance configurations), those dominated by economic development or low energy consumption can produce high-level carbon performance. Therefore, the six antecedent conditions dimensions work together to explain how the government can create high levels of carbon performance. (2)According to the regional comparison, China's eastern, central, and western regions exhibit similarities and differences in the driving forces behind high carbon emission performance. All three regions can demonstrate carbon emission performance when all the factors are combined. However, when constrained by the conditions of each region's resource endowment, the eastern region emphasizes the advantage of economic and technological innovation, the central region favors government support and demographic factors, and the western region prefers upgrading industrial structure based on a specific level of economic development., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist., (Copyright: © 2024 Chen et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.)

Greenhouse gas emissions from the use of fossil energy are the main drivers of global warming. China's dominant consumption of fossil energy necessitates adjustments in its energy consumption structure to break free from the carbon lock-in (CLI) phenomenon. Market-based environmental regulations, represented by the carbon trading market (CTM), play an important role in achieving the dual carbon goals of China. Using panel data of 270 prefecture-level cities in China from 2005 to 2020, this study applies a difference-in-difference model to identify the effect of CTM on urban CLI, analyze its transmission mechanism, and further examine the impact of urban characteristic heterogeneity on policy effects from multiple perspectives. Results show that the construction of CTM significantly reduces the degree of CLI of pilot cities; (2) CTM mainly affects urban CLI by promoting urban green technology innovation, industrial structure upgrading, and public green behavior; and (3) the inhibitory effect of CTM on CLI is more significant in cities with high carbon price, industrialization, and digital finance levels. The primary paths toward realizing carbon unlocking include optimizing the institutional design for CTM, enhancing the effective promotion and application of low-carbon technologies, cultivating the green awareness of the public, and increasing government investments in energy-saving and emission reduction techniques., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Flash drought is characterized by rapid onset and short-duration drought conditions caused by a combination of factors, including high evaporation, high temperature, and prolonged periods of little to no precipitation, leading to a sudden and severe decrease in soil moisture levels. In comparison to conventional drought, it is more susceptible to the effects of global warming and has the potential to become a common drought phenomenon in the coming years, necessitating further research. In this paper, we focused on flash drought events, specifically in forest parts of northeastern China that are included within the Greater Khingan Mountains (GKM), Lesser Khingan Mountains (LKM), and Changbai Mountains (CM), using daily soil moisture data as well as SPOT- VEGETATION NDVI satellite data from 2000 to 2020 and determined their impact on the forest NDVI. Our major findings are as follows. (1) The forest within GKM had the maximum area being affected by flash drought events. (2) The frequency ranged from 1 to 2 times, whereas the total duration varied between 20 and 55 days over the study area in a 21-year period. (3) Flash drought was most common in the plant-growing seasons. (4) The flash drought events had a negative influence on the forest NDVI. Our study contributes to a deeper understanding of the flash drought dynamics in forest areas of northeast China for flash drought monitoring, prediction, and management strategies in this region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The 2015 Paris Agreement has set out the climate change target of limiting global warming to 1.5 °C, which poses a serious challenge to countries to reduce emissions. As the world's largest carbon emitter, promoting the realization of the "dual-carbon" goal is the key to realizing China's green transformation and high-quality development. Chinese asset managers play active roles in the capital market as an important channel of asset allocation. Currently, the vast majority of Chinese asset managers hold high percentages of high-carbon industries in their portfolios, and lack quantitative data of their carbon footprints embodied in equity investments, which faces huge carbon-related risks. Therefore, it's an urgent need to comprehensively and scientifically measure financed emissions of Chinese asset managers, which is of great significance for asset managers' carbon risk management and sustainable investment. This paper develops a detailed inventory of carbon emissions for equity portfolios managed by Chinese asset managers from 2010 to 2020, which stands as a pivotal reference for in-depth analysis of emission characteristics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As global warming intensifies, reducing carbon emissions has become a global common mission. Tourism transportation is one of the important sources of carbon emissions, and reducing its carbon emissions is a key part of achieving China's carbon reduction goals. Based on the panel data of various provinces and cities in North China from 2000 to 2022, this paper calculates the carbon emissions of tourism transportation by using the carbon emission coefficients of different transportation modes in different segments. Moreover, the temporal and spatial evolution of the tourism economy is systematically analyzed. The Tapio decoupling model and LMDI addition decomposition model are used to analyze the relationship between carbon emissions and tourism economic growth and the effects of 11 influencing factors on carbon emissions. The results show that: (1) The carbon emission of tourism transportation in North China has experienced four stages: a steady growth period, a transitional adaptation period, a stable equilibrium period, and a drastic decline period. The overall carbon emission level of tourism transportation is as follows: Hebei Province > Shanxi Province > Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region > Beijing City > Tianjin City. (2) The decoupling coefficient between tourism traffic carbon emissions and economic development fluctuates but mainly shows a weak decoupling state. (3) In terms of influencing factors, passenger size and passenger density have the greatest impact on the carbon emissions of tourism transportation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the challenge posed by global warming, accurately estimating and managing carbon emissions becomes a key step for businesses, especially power generation companies, to reduce their environmental impact. Optuna–LightGBM–XGBoost, a novel power and carbon emission relationship model that aims to improve the efficiency of carbon emission monitoring and estimation for power generation companies, is proposed in this paper. Deeply exploring the intrinsic link between power production data and carbon emissions, this model paves a new path for "measuring carbon through electricity", in contrast to the emission factor method commonly used in China. Unit data from power generation companies are processed into structured tabular data, and a parallel processing framework is constructed with LightGBM and XGBoost, and optimized with the Optuna algorithm. The multilayer perceptron (MLP) is used to fuse features to enhance prediction accuracy by capturing characters that the individual models cannot detect. Simulation results show that Optuna–LightGBM–XGBoost can achieve better performance compared to existing methods. The mean absolute error (MAE), mean squared error (MSE), mean absolute percentage error (MAPE), and coefficient of determination (R2) of the model are 0.652, 0.939, 0.136, and 0.994, respectively. This not only helps governments and enterprises to develop more scientific and reasonable emission reduction strategies and policies, but also lays a solid foundation for achieving global carbon neutrality goals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Simple Summary: Since the 1990s, the golden cuttlefish (Sepia esculenta) has become the dominant cuttlefish fisheries target in the seas around China. In this paper, we aim to determine the current resource status and spatio-seasonal variation in the population in the East China Sea region. We found more juveniles at latitudes of 27.50–28.00° N and 29.00° N and more subadult individuals at 28.50° N in autumn, exhibiting different growth rates and resource densities. In addition, we found the majority of the catches were composed of parent groups in spring, while in autumn, the majority of the catches were composed of juvenile groups. We concluded that the subadult groups might have dispersed widely for feeding and growth along the latitude of 30.00° N and to the south in summer, and the southern area of the Yangtze River extending north was the spawning ground in spring. The groups of S. esculenta preferred to stay in areas with a stable water temperature of ~20.00 °C, and many S. esculenta juveniles might have adapted to endure the negative influence of the low oxygen content in summer. The depth range of the S. esculenta population was 10.00–133.00 m from spring to autumn, but this shrank to 66.00–107.00 m in winter. The golden cuttlefish (Sepia esculenta) is an important cephalopod species with a lifespan of approximately one year. The species plays a crucial role in marine ecological support services and is commercially valuable in fisheries. In the seas around China, this species has emerged as the main target for cuttlefish fisheries, replacing Sepiella maindroni since the 1990s. Variations in oceanographic conditions associated with global warming could significantly impact the temporal-spatial distribution of the species. In this study, we performed bottom trawling surveys with four cruises during 2018–2019 in the East China Sea region to determine the current resource status and seasonal-spatial variations in S. esculenta. We found that the average individual weight (AIW) values were 4.87 and 519.00 g/ind at stations located at 30.50° N, 124.00° E and 30.50° N, 124.50° E, respectively, with the aggregation of larvae and parent groups in spring. The species was not distributed north of 32.00° N in summer. The catch per unit effort by weight (CPUEw) value decreased in the order of 2772.50→2575.20→503.29→124.36 g/h, corresponding to latitudes of 34.50° N→34.00° N→33.50° N→32.50° N 121.50° E in autumn. The most suitable fishing areas were the south of the East China Sea region in spring; the south of the East China Sea region extending to the center and outer parts of the East China Sea region in summer; the south of the Yellow Sea close to the Haizhou Bay fishing ground and the forbidden fishing line region of the Lusi and Dasha fishing grounds in autumn; and the south and center of the East China Sea region in winter. The most suitable sea bottom temperature (SBT) values from spring to winter were 14.76–20.53 °C, 19.54–22.98 °C, 11.79–17.64 °C, and 16.94–20.36 °C, respectively. The most suitable sea bottom salinity (SBS) values were 31.53–34.80‰ in spring, 32.95–34.68‰ in summer, 31.51–34.77‰ in autumn, and 33.82–34.51‰ in winter. We concluded the following: (1) the southern and northern areas of the East China Sea region are spawning and nursery grounds, respectively, in spring; (2) the central distribution is located at a latitude of 28.00° N in autumn and winter; and (3) the southern area of the Yangtze River to the north is a spawning ground in spring, and the areas located at 29.00–34.50° N, 124.00–124.50° E, and 28.00–30.50° N, 125.50–126.50° E are nursery grounds. The results of this study provide useful guidance for appropriate fisheries management, thereby avoiding a collapse in the S. esculenta population, which has been experienced in other species in this area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Freeze–thaw (FT) erosion intensity may exhibit a future increasing trend with climate warming, humidification, and permafrost degradation in the Qinghai–Tibet Plateau (QTP). The present study provides a reference for the prevention and control of FT erosion in the QTP, as well as for the protection and restoration of the regional ecological environment. FT erosion is the third major type of soil erosion after water and wind erosion. Although FT erosion is one of the major soil erosion types in cold regions, it has been studied relatively little in the past because of the complexity of several influencing factors and the involvement of shallow surface layers at certain depths. The QTP is an important ecological barrier area in China. However, this area is characterized by harsh climatic and fragile environmental conditions, as well as by frequent FT erosion events, making it necessary to conduct research on FT erosion. In this paper, a total of 11 meteorological, vegetation, topographic, geomorphological, and geological factors were selected and assigned analytic hierarchy process (AHP)-based weights to evaluate the FT erosion intensity in the QTP using a comprehensive evaluation index method. In addition, the single effects of the selected influencing factors on the FT erosion intensity were further evaluated in this study. According to the obtained results, the total FT erosion area covered 1.61 × 106 km2, accounting for 61.33% of the total area of the QTP. The moderate and strong FT erosion intensity classes covered 6.19 × 105 km2, accounting for 38.37% of the total FT erosion area in the QTP. The results revealed substantial variations in the spatial distribution of the FT erosion intensity in the QTP. Indeed, the moderate and strong erosion areas were mainly located in the high mountain areas and the hilly part of the Hoh Xil frozen soil region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Our understanding of how net global warming potential (NGWP) and greenhouse gas intensity (GHGI) is affected by management practices aimed at food security with respect to rice agriculture remains limited. In the present study, a 5 year field experiment was conducted in China to evaluate the effects of integrated soil-crop system management (ISSM) on NGWP and GHGI after accounting for carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from all sources (methane, CH4, and nitrous oxide, N2O, emissions, agrochemical inputs, Ei, and farm operations, Eo) and sinks (i.e., soil organic carbon, SOC, sequestration). For the improvement of rice yield and agronomic nitrogen use efficiency (NUE), four ISSM scenarios consisting of different nitrogen (N) fertilization rates relative to the local farmers' practice (FP) rate were carried out, namely, N1 (25% reduction), N2 (10% reduction), N3 (FP rate) and N4 (25% increase). The results showed that compared with the FP, the four ISSM scenarios, i.e., N1, N2, N3 and N4, significantly increased the rice yields by 10, 16, 28 and 41% and the agronomic NUE by 75, 67, 86 and 82%, respectively. In addition, compared with the FP, the N1 and N2 scenarios significantly reduced the GHGI by 14 and 18%, respectively, despite similar NGWPs. The N3 and N4 scenarios remarkably increased the NGWP and GHGI by an average of 67 and 36%, respectively. In conclusion, the ISSM strategies are promising for both food security and environmental protection, and the ISSM scenario of N2 is the optimal strategy to realize high yields and high NUE together with low environmental impacts for this agricultural rice field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the context of global warming, frequent heat wave disasters have seriously threatened the safety of human life and property. The urban agglomeration, as the main region with a high concentration of population and economy, is susceptible to heat weaves due to the existing urban heat island effect. In this study, we investigated the temporal and spatial characteristics of heat waves (heat index, HI) in China from 2000 to 2020 and assess the vulnerability of 19 urban agglomerations to heat waves from the perspective of exposure, sensitivity and adaptability. The results show that: (1) In the past 20 years, the frequency and intensity of HI (greater than 26.67 °C) both showed an upward trend. (2) Shandong Peninsula, Central Henan, Yangtze River Delta, Middle Reaches of Yangtze River, and Mid-southern Liaoning urban agglomerations always maintain a high vulnerability. (3) From 2000 to 2020, the vulnerability of Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei, Yangtze River Delta, Chengdu-Chongqing, Middle reaches of Yangtze River, Guangdong-Fujian-Zhejiang, Harbin-Changchun and Mid-southern Liaoning urban agglomerations were always dominated by exposure. The vulnerability of Shandong Peninsula, Beibu Gulf and Central Henan urban agglomeration has always been dominated by sensitivity. The vulnerability of North Tianshan Mountain, Lanzhou-Xining, Guanzhong and Hu-Bao-E-Yu urban agglomeration has always been dominated by inadequate adaptability. (4) Recently, the factors that contributed most to exposure, sensitivity and adaptability were population density, the proportion of outdoor workers and water supply, with contribution rates of 38%, 55% and 26%, respectively. This study can provide a scientific basis for the rational allocation of resources among urban agglomerations, effectively formulating policies and guiding population migration from high temperature disasters., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2023 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

The Tibetan Plateau stands as one of China's largest middle and low latitude permafrost regions. However, the effects of global warming and human activities have led to permafrost thawing, inducing surface instability and posing significant threats to infrastructure and indigenous communities. The deployment of Lu Tan-1 (LT-1), China's premier L-band synthetic aperture radar (SAR) satellite constellation, offers a novel opportunity to assess these changes. This paper evaluates the deformation of critical engineering corridors, such as the Qinghai-Tibet Railway (QTR) and the Qinghai-Tibet Highway (QTH), utilizing time-series InSAR techniques with LT-1 SAR constellation data. We introduce both Stacking InSAR and a multi-baseline persistent scatterer multitemporal (MT-InSAR) method to enhance permafrost and engineering corridor deformation detection capabilities. Results obtained through the MT-InSAR approach reveal line-of-sight (LOS) deformation velocities of permafrost in the Beiluhe region ranging from -90 mm/y to approximately 70 mm/y, with an average velocity amplitude of 0.06 m/y. Differential displacement between alpine meadows and alpine deserts across the Beiluhe region is successfully discerned using LT-1 SAR data. Deformation velocities of QTR, QTH were found to be lower than that of permafrost, with average velocities of 0.027 m/y. These findings underscore the LT-1 SAR constellation's potential to serve as a valuable SAR data source for monitoring engineering corridor deformation within the Tibetan Plateau permafrost region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the face of global warming, air pollution, and other difficulties, electric vehicles have become an industry strongly supported by various countries due to their good environmental protection characteristics. In the context of big data, people are exposed to more and more information, and the convenience brought by big data is also increasing. Based on this background, the development of green and intelligent vehicles is getting faster and faster. This paper is aimed at studying the application of machine learning algorithms in the development and consumption trends of green and intelligent vehicles in the context of big data. This paper proposes machine learning algorithms based on big data, as well as support vector machine algorithms and so on. Machine learning algorithms specialize in how computers simulate or implement human learning behaviors to acquire new knowledge or skills and to reorganize existing knowledge structures to continuously improve their performance. The test results of this paper show that, starting from 2014, China has begun to vigorously develop green and intelligent vehicles. In 2014, the production volume of green and intelligent vehicles in China was 3,675, and the sales volume was 2,790. The development of green and intelligent vehicles is not very good and has not been fully accepted by the public. However, since 2017, the production and sales of green and intelligent vehicles have been slowly increasing. By 2020, the production of green and intelligent vehicles will be 24,360 and the sales will be 24,090. It can be seen that with the development of time, green and intelligent vehicles are gradually being recognized. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rainfall distribution in southwest China is uneven, and the rainstorm threshold cannot use in a unified standard. This paper synthesizes a calculation method for the extremely heavy precipitation threshold and the provision of the rainstorm threshold in meteorological operation. It calculates the daily precipitation rainstorm threshold at 400 national ground stations in southwest China. The rainstorm events from 1961 to 2021 were statistically analyzed using the rainstorm threshold and analyzing the spatial-temporal variation characteristics. The results show that the number of single-station rainstorm events and the average precipitation of single-station rainstorm events in southwest China decreased from east to west. The number and frequency of single-station rainstorm events in Guizhou, Sichuan, Tibet, and Chongqing are increasing, while the number of single-station rainstorm events in Yunnan is decreasing. There is no apparent spatial distribution pattern for the continuous rainstorm events in the southwest region. From 1961 to 2021, the number and frequency of rainstorm events at a single station in southwest China followed an upward trend. The number of rainstorm events at a single station increased by 16.7 times · (10a)−1, and the frequency of rainstorms increased by 9.9% · (10a)−1. The continuous rainstorm events show an increasing trend, with an increase of 0.1 times · (10a)−1. Using the rainstorm threshold in southwest China, the early warning threshold for rainstorm disasters can be adjusted. The temporal and spatial characteristics of rainstorm events since 1961 can analyze the changes occurring in rainstorm events under global warming and provide data to support the response of southwest China to climate change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, concurrent climate extreme conditions (i.e., hot‐dry, cold‐dry, hot‐wet, and cold‐wet) have led to various unprecedented natural disasters (e.g., floods, landslide, wildfire, droughts, etc.), causing significant damages to human societies and ecosystems. This is especially true for China where many unprecedented natural disasters have been reported due to the recent warming in local climate. In this paper, we focus on the issue of ultra‐extreme events (1‰ threshold) and address how future global warming would affect the climate extreme conditions in China. Specifically, to reduce the uncertainties from models, we use a downscaled and bias‐corrected CMIP6 ensemble under two continuously‐warming scenarios to evaluate the impact of global warming on ultra‐extreme events over China. The results show that, under both SSP245 and SSP585 scenarios, extreme hot conditions would become dominant in most regions of China and some regions are likely to experience over 50 extreme hot days at future warming levels. The frequency of extreme cold events is projected to be small. More frequent extreme hot‐wet events with concurrence in the same month and year would be expected for China under the continuously‐warming scenarios. This is particularly obvious for the west where more than 6 hot‐wet months are likely to take place under future warming scenarios. This may imply that more extreme heat waves and flooding events would coincide in the same month or year for China in the future. For univariate ultra‐extreme events, both extreme hot events and extreme wet events would drop by above 25% from 2.0°C to 1.5°C global warming level, particularly under the SSP245 scenario. When the global mean temperature is limited to 1.5°C rather than 2°C, the avoided impacts of hot‐wet and cold‐wet extremes concurring in the same month will be larger than those of dry‐related compound extremes. Overall, the results suggest that slowing down global warming can reduce the frequency of concurrent climate extreme conditions in China, highlighting the importance of immediate action toward carbon emission reduction. Plain Language Summary: In recent years, concurrent climate extreme conditions (e.g., hot‐dry, cold‐dry, hot‐wet, and cold‐wet) have led to various unprecedented natural disasters (e.g., floods, landslide, wildfire, droughts, etc.), causing significant damages to human societies and ecosystems. This is especially true for China where many unprecedented natural disasters have been reported due to the recent warming in local climate. In this paper, we focus on the issue of ultra‐extreme events (1‰ threshold) and address how future global warming would affect the climate extreme conditions in China. Here, we use a downscaled and bias‐corrected CMIP6 ensemble under two continuously‐warming scenarios to address this question. The results show that, under both SSP245 and SSP585 scenarios, extreme hot conditions would become dominant in most regions of China and some regions are likely to experience over 50 extreme hot days at future warming levels. Both extreme hot events and extreme wet events would drop by above 25% from 2.0°C to 1.5°C global warming level, particularly under the SSP245 scenario. Overall, the results suggest that slowing down the global warming can reduce the frequency of concurrent climate extreme conditions in China, highlighting the importance of immediate action toward carbon emission reduction. Key Points: A downscaled and bias‐corrected CMIP6 ensemble is used to evaluate the impact of global warming on ultra extreme events over ChinaMore frequent extreme hot‐wet events with concurrence in the same month and year would be expected for ChinaBoth extreme hot events and extreme wet events would drop by above 25% from 2.0°C to 1.5°C global warming level [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the impact of high-standard farmland construction policy on green and low-carbon agricultural development, such policy has been ignored in literature from the perspective of policy evaluation and it is a promising cure for global warming. The effectiveness and impact mechanism of policy implementation are analyzed, it concludes that the policy significantly reduces agricultural carbon emissions by 12.3%, which benefits from the improvement of agricultural production efficiency. This paper opens a new window for policy-making for modern agriculture and the momentous challenge of the global warming. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Due to the emission of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases, the global climate is warming. As the world's biggest emitter of carbon emissions, China faces a more severe challenge in reducing carbon emissions than developed countries. A reasonable prediction of the carbon peak in China will help the government to formulate effective emission reduction paths. This paper analyzes the changes in carbon emissions in China from 2004 to 2020, uses the STIRPAT model and scenario analysis method to predict carbon emissions from 2021 to 2030, and then calculates the carbon efficiency during carbon peaking to select the most effective carbon peak path for China. The results show that China's carbon emissions increased year by year from 2004 to 2020. Under the baseline scenario, China is unlikely to reach its carbon peak before 2030. Under the regulatory scenarios, China can reach its carbon peak before 2030. The peak values from high to low are seen with the rapid development-weak carbon control scenario, rapid development-intensified carbon control scenario, slow development-weak carbon control scenario and slow development-intensified carbon control scenario, respectively. Correspondingly, China will peak its carbon emissions in 2029, 2028, 2028 and 2028, respectively, according to these scenarios. The carbon efficiency under the rapid development-weak carbon control scenario is the highest, which means that accelerating the growth rate of population, GDP and urbanization while moderately carrying out the transformation of industrial structure and energy structure is an effective way to achieve the goal of "carbon peak by 2030". [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the second-largest contributor to historical global warming, methane emissions must be controlled to slow down temperature increase and achieve climate benefits. Due to a lack of knowledge about the specific sources and processes, a quantitative approach will lead to inaccurate estimation. In this paper, a typical local distribution company with more than 100 years of operation history was chosen. Detailed procedures of pipeline constructions and accidents were investigated, and critical steps leading to methane emissions were clarified. Then emission quantification methodologies for all processes were proposed, including a new pipeline connection, new regulator connection, emergency repair and third-party damages. As a basis for emission estimation, the distribution of parameters, such as diameter, length and pressure, was counted. Then the emission rates of all projects were calculated, and emission factors were established. The average emission rates of the new pipeline connection, new regulator connection, emergency repair, third-party damage (medium pressure) and third-party damage (low pressure) were 234 kg, 147 kg, 217 kg, 17,282 kg and 62 kg, respectively. In addition, the total methane emission in China from these sources was estimated to be about 5 × 104 t, which is large enough to attract attention. The work in this paper aims to establish a reasonable framework to evaluate venting methane emissions from the distribution process of natural gas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: After almost 10 years, people wonder if green finance has been able to attain its objectives in terms of controlling climate change. Persistent global warming and climate deregulation manifested by melting glaciers, droughts and floods, are all of these determinants that have called into question the efficiency of green finance. Design/methodology/approach: Green finance is a way to support climate action through investments. It has proven that this is a viable financial instrument and that it can be used by governments and private companies to plan for the future of our planet. Findings: Based on an analysis of articles published in top international journals from 2016 to 2022, about the relationship between green technology and financial services in China, this paper aims to present an overview of green finance, its importance for the planet, its objectives and its instruments. Research limitations/implications: This study's contribution is to shed light on the aspects that may have limited its effectiveness, such as the absence of incentives, the absence of climate costs and above all the absence of finance green standards. Originality/value: The results have shown that there is still a significant gap in green finance before inclusive green growth can be achieved. Inclusive green growth. All stakeholders need to increase the level of investment in green finance. The green investment financing gap is the result of inconsistencies in sustainability and policies. Therefore, governments must intervene to impose appropriate policies and regulations to compel the financial sector to engage in sustainable development. All of these factors make the concept of green finance just an illusion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Food is the material basis for human survival. Therefore, food security is a top priority for the people's livelihood and the sustainable development and future destiny of human beings. In the context of global warming in recent decades, the Arctic region has experienced more significant temperature anomalies than the midlatitudes due to the "Arctic amplification," and the rate of sea ice reduction has accelerated, which has an important impact on climate change in the middle and high latitudes, especially the frequent occurrence of extreme climate disasters that seriously affect food security and China's agricultural production. However, little research has been conducted on the role of changes in this important system of Arctic sea ice in China's agricultural production. Therefore, this paper analyzes the interannual variability and multi-year trends of Arctic sea ice concentration, CO2, air temperature, precipitation and China's major crop yield data to explore the possible effects and mechanisms of the rapid decrease in Arctic sea ice on China's grain production. From the analysis, it was found that the yield of major grains (rice, maize, wheat and soybean) in China was closely related to the Arctic sea ice anomaly in the previous summer and autumn, and the influence process was primarily through the dynamic process of the Arctic sea ice anomaly affecting the meridional temperature gradient and the positive and negative Arctic Oscillation phases, which in turn affected the air temperature anomalies in Eurasia and China, and finally led to the anomalous changes in Chinese grain yield. Based on this, a prediction model of China's major grain yield was established by stepwise nonlinear multiple regression analysis, which is a good fit and is expected to increase China's major crop yield by 11.4% in 2022 compared with last year. This presents new ideas and methods for future grain yield assessment in China and has far-reaching guidance for the stability and development of national and regional economies worldwide. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nowadays environmental issues have been of great concern to the world, among which the problem of global warming caused by greenhouse gas emissions is particularly prominent. All countries in the Kyoto Protocol and the Paris Agreement have committed to control greenhouse gas emissions, and China, as the largest carbon emitter, has assumed a heavier burden. China has been striving to develop low-carbon technologies such as hydrogen, nuclear, wind, and solar energy, but the most attention should be paid to CCUS, which many scholars have high expectations that CCUS can help China reduce emissions to some extent. Therefore, this paper presents a prediction that CCUS can reduce 3.8% of carbon emissions for China in 2040 when CCUS emission reductions increase at a rate of 30%. The power and chemical industries could reduce carbon emissions by 2.3% and 17.3%, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, CMIP6 and single model initial‐condition large ensemble (SMILE) simulations were applied to reveal possible changes in the spatial coverage (RSC) of summer extreme precipitation (≥99th percentile) in China. Four different approaches were applied to provide a comprehensive assessment of RSC changes. Results indicate that the trend of RSC in summer for the period 1961–2020 in China is underestimated by raw simulations of CMIP6 multi‐model ensembles. Further analyses suggest that the confidence in model simulations reflecting the observed change can be improved based on the two observation constraint approaches and SMILE‐based approach. In addition, the reliability of the spatial distribution can also be improved. Projection results indicate that the RSC of summer extreme precipitation increases consistently with the increment of global warming across the different approaches. Among them, the results based on observational constraints and the SMILE‐based approach show enhanced reliability and present larger RSC changes than by directly using CMIP6 ensembles. In conclusion, extreme precipitation in summer is expected to become more widespread in China as the level of global warming increases. Plain Language Summary: Extreme precipitation causes severe impacts on agriculture, economy, and human health. However, it is projected by models to change in China but with low consistency. Thus, this paper provides an assessment of the projected characteristics of the ratio of spatial coverage (RSC) for extreme precipitation in China combined with multiple evidence and approaches. CMIP6 and single model initial‐condition large ensemble (SMILE) simulations are applied. Four approaches based on the statistics principle and physical interpretability are conducted to comprehensively assess change in RSC. Results reveal that extreme precipitation will become more widespread in China. Among them, results based on observation constraint approaches and SMILE‐based approach, which show enhanced accuracy and reliability, present larger RSC than directly using CMIP6 ensembles. It indicates that extreme precipitation will be more widespread in China combined with multiple evidence and methods. This study provides some scientific foundation for climate mitigation and adaptation. Key Points: Observed trend in RSC in China increased significantly in summer for the period 1961–2020 but is underestimated by CMIP6 multi‐model ensemblesConfidence is improved based on observation constraint and SMILE‐based approaches to raw model simulationsExtreme precipitation in summer will become more widespread, as supported by multiple evidence lines and approaches [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Simple Summary: In this study, we describe the well-preserved fossil seed cones of Nothotsuga found in the Mula Basin, Litang County, Sichuan Province, southwestern China. By detailed morphological comparisons, a new fossil species, Nothotsuga mulaensis Z. Li et J. L. Dong sp. nov. is named. This discovery suggests that Nothotsuga had a more northern distribution during the Miocene. In addition, it suggests that the Mula region had a humid and warm climate during this period. The ancient landform presents an intermountain lake basin, which would have been surrounded by higher mountains. After the Miocene, due to the uplift of the Tibetan Plateau, Nothotsuga was either unable to adapt to the extinction of the local environmental or was able to migrate to several scattered places in southern China. In this paper, we describe a new fossil species, Nothotsuga mulaensis Z. Li & J.L. Dong sp. nov. The discovery of the fossil species was based on well-preserved fossil seed cones that were found in the Mula Basin in Xiamula village, Litang County, Sichuan Province, southwestern China. The shapes of these fossils were characterized by ovate seed cones, rhombic or suborbicular scales with auriculate bases, and the bracts were ligulate-spathulate in shape. This finding suggests that Nothotsuga once had a wide distribution range in China and that it also inhabited the eastern Tibetan Plateau (TP). Nothotsuga mulaensis was distributed in an intermountain lake basin, at altitudes from 2000 to 2300 m, in a warm and humid environment. This finding also suggests that the eastern TP may have provided good habitat for Nothotsuga during the Miocene. In addition, we propose that the uplift, accompanied by the severe cooling and aridification that occurred after the Miocene, caused the disappearance of this species of Nothotsuga in the eastern TP. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China's largest high-latitude permafrost distribution zone is in Northeast China. With the intensification of global warming and engineering construction, the carbon stored in permafrost will gradually thaw and be released in the form of methane gas. However, research on the changes in methane concentration and emission sources in this area is still unclear. In this paper, the AIRS (Atmospheric Infrared Sounder) data carried by the Aqua satellite were used to analyze the distribution and change trends in the overall methane concentration in the near-surface troposphere in Northeast China from 2003 to 2022. These data, combined with national meteorological and on-site monitoring data, were used to study the methane emission characteristics and sources in the permafrost area in Northeast China. The results show that the methane concentration in the near-surface troposphere of Northeast China is mainly concentrated in the permafrost area of the Da and Xiao Xing'an Mountains. From 2003 to 2022, the methane concentration in the near-surface troposphere of the permafrost area in Northeast China showed a rapid growth trend, with an average linear trend growth rate of 4.787 ppbv/a. In addition, the methane concentration in the near-surface troposphere of the permafrost area shows a significant bimodal seasonal variation pattern. The first peak appears in summer (June–August), with its maximum value appearing in August, and the second peak appears in winter (December–February), with its maximum value appearing in December. Combined with ground surface methane concentration monitoring, it was found that the maximum annual ground surface methane concentration in degraded permafrost areas occurred in spring, causing the maximum average growth rate in methane concentration, also in spring, in the near-surface troposphere of permafrost areas in Northeast China (with an average value of 6.05 ppbv/a). The growth rate of methane concentration in the southern permafrost degradation zone is higher than that in the northern permafrost stable zone. In addition, with the degradation of permafrost, the geological methane stored deep underground (methane hydrate, coal seam, etc., mainly derived from the accumulation of ancient microbial origin) in the frozen layer will become an important source of near-surface troposphere methane in the permafrost degradation area. Due to the influence of high-permeability channels after permafrost degradation, the release rate of methane gas in spring is faster than predicted, and the growth rate of methane concentration in the near-surface troposphere of permafrost areas can be increased by more than twice. These conclusions can provide a data supplement for the study of the carbon cycle in permafrost areas in Northeast China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Global warming is a serious threat to human survival and health. Facing increasing global warming, the issue of CO 2 emissions has attracted more attention. China is a major contributor of anthropogenic CO 2 emissions and so it is essential to accurately estimate China's CO 2 emissions and analyze their changing characteristics. This study recalculates CO 2 emissions from Chinese cities from 2011 to 2020 using the SPNN-GNNWR model and multiple factors to reduce the uncertainty in emission estimates. The SPNN-GNNWR model has excellent predictions (R 2 : 0.925, 10-fold CV R 2 : 0.822) when cross-validation is used. The results indicate that the total CO2 emissions in China calculated by the model are close to those accounted for by other authorities in the world, with the total CO 2 emissions increasing from 9.122 billion tonnes in 2011 to 9.912 billion tonnes in 2020. The city with the largest increase in CO 2 emissions is Tianjin, and the city with the largest decrease is Beijing. The study also reveals the regional differences in CO 2 emissions in Chinese mainland, including emissions, emission intensity and per capita emissions. Capturing and understanding the emissions and the related socioeconomic characteristics of different cities can help to develop effective emission mitigation strategies., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2022 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Revealing the complex correlation between population aging and CO 2 , and projecting their future dynamics are fundamentally necessary to inform effective policies toward a low-carbon and sustainable development in China. Differing from the existing studies, this study highlighted a quantitative investigation on the impact of aging on CO 2 emissions across the different stages of regional development in China through a STIRPAT model based on balanced provincial panel data from 1995 to 2019, and projected the demographic change and CO 2 emissions till 2050 by employing cohort model and scenario analysis. It is found that CO 2 emissions in China has witnessed a significant growth during 1995-2019, and will exhibit an inverted U-shaped growth till 2050 with its peak appears between 2030 and 2040. Statistically, every 1% growth of aging population will cause a 0.62% increase in CO 2 emissions in China. However, a big regional difference was also detected as aging contributed to CO 2 reduction in the eastern region, but stimulated CO 2 emissions in the central and western regions. Policy implications for achieving a low-carbon and aging-oriented sustainable development may include the integration of aging into the decision-making in industrial structure upgrading and CO 2 emission reduction at both national and region levels, the promotion of further transition to low-carbon consumption and green products in the eastern region, and strengthening the deep fusion of aging-oriented industries with local resource and environmental endowment in the central and western regions such as the development of eco-agriculture and green pension industries., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2022 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Based on the daily temperature and precipitation data from 1961 to 2021 obtained from 2019 national meteorological stations of China, and by means of Meteorological Drought Comprehensive Index (MCI) and some improved identification methods, we identified all drought event processes in all the seven regions of China in this paper. We also carefully analyzed these regional droughts and made following conclusions: drought was spreading towards southern China with an increasing frequency; consecutive drought year group occurred in all the seven regions of China with an increasing frequency under the background of global warming; both drought duration and comprehensive intensity consistently changed with the area affected by drought, with a correlation coefficient of 0.52–0.67 and 0.88–0.99 respectively, and passed the significance test of 0.05. The method used in this paper could be employed to effectively monitor and evaluate drought processes from multiple dimensions including duration, comprehensive intensity and area affected by drought. Thus, it actually provided a helpful decision-making basis for governments to prevent the risk of drought. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Against the backdrop of severe global warming, the low-carbon city pilot policy, with carbon emission reduction as its main objective, is an important initiative for China to fulfil its international commitment to carbon emission reduction and promote a green and low-carbon development strategy. However, none of the literature has yet evaluated whether the pilot low-carbon city policy promotes urban land use efficiency as a policy effect. In view of this, this paper measures urban land use efficiency from a low-carbon perspective using a global reference super-efficiency SBM model based on data from 186 prefecture-level cities in China from 2005–2017, and subsequently constructs a difference-in-differences method to test the true impact of low-carbon city pilot policies on urban land use efficiency and carbon emissions, and uses a propensity score matching method to test its robustness. It is found that: (1) the average level of urban land use efficiency in China is low and on a downward trend; (2) overall, cities are predominantly low-efficiency cities, with only the high-efficiency cities in Guangdong Province showing spatial agglomeration; and (3) the low-carbon city pilot policy reduces carbon emissions while also negatively affecting urban land use efficiency. Accordingly, this paper puts forward corresponding policy recommendations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Under the context of global warming, compound dry and hot events (CDHEs) will increase and bring serious losses to society and the economy. The projection of CDHEs is of great significance for policy-making and risk assessment. In this paper, two large ensemble simulations, CanESM2-LE and CESM-LE, are used to estimate the risk of extreme CDHEs under different warming scenarios in China. First, the biases of the model in the simulation of the temperature and precipitation over the China region are corrected, and the index of CDHEs is established based on a copula function. The results show that extreme CDHEs will occur more often in China with the increase in global warming and the more severe extreme CDHEs are, the greater the risk will be in the future with higher uncertainties. Events that would be attained once every 50 and 100 years in the current climate from CESM-LE (CAanESM2-LE) will be 1.2/1.6 (1.1/1.5) times and 1.3/2.3 (1.5/2.0) times more likely to occur in a 1.5°C/2.0°C warmer climate, respectively. Northwestern China will experience the greatest increase in the risk of extreme CDHEs. Extreme CDHEs expected once every 100 years in the current period over NW China are expected to occur approximately every 5 and 4 years under a 4.0°C warmer world in CanESM2-LE and CESM-LE, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The existing millennium documents the most adverse consequences of global warming which in contrast to pre-industrial era are more devastating. Thus, these prevailing consequences raise numerous concerns regarding the well-being of future and current generation. Scholars, in this regard, are putting efforts punctiliously towards methods that could halt the surging emissions. This paper also attempts to contributes to existing literature by reporting the empirical evidences regarding the role of energy transition technologies, renewable energy production (REP), trade openness, green investment, and carbon taxes in carbon neutrality in Chinse economy covering the time span of 1980–2020. By employing Dynamic Auto-regressive Distributed Lags (DARDL) model to check the association, findings exposed that electricity production from water sources, electricity production from solar sources, REP, trade openness, green investment, and carbon taxes are negatively correlated with CO2 emissions. Study offers policymakers a help in formulating policies related to achieve carbon neutrality using renewable sources of energy production, carbon taxes, and green investment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Existing research has proven the increase in sea surface temperature (SST) due to global warming. However, the sea bottom temperature (SBT) may exhibit different characteristics in various regional seas. The East China Shelf Seas (ECSSs), which are important shelf seas in the Western Pacific, hold ecological significance when analyzing their SBT variations in a warming future. This article investigates both the interannual and interdecadal SBT variations from 2006 to 2100, utilizing the projection results from phase 5 of the Climate Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP5) sponsored by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). We conducted an analysis of the interdecadal variation by comparing the SBTs from the 2030s, 2060s, and 2090s to the SBT observed in the 2010s. Our findings reveal a significant increase in SBT in the ECSSs. By 2100, the region is projected to experience enhanced warming of 1.18 °C. The springtime warming intensity of the Bohai Sea, reaching 1.92 °C, can be twice the rate of global ocean warming. The outer shelf of the ECSSs also exhibits significant increases in SBT. Through an analysis of the correlation between SBT and ocean currents, we investigate the potential mechanisms behind these observations. This paper provides insights into future SBT variations from both an interannual and interdecadal perspective, explaining the causes and the projected increase in environmental stresses on the benthic ecosystem over the next eighty years. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An analysis of carbon emissions of crop production provides paths for global warming mitigation. Existing studies have focused on the magnitude of the carbon emissions from crop production, which is unreasonable for inter-location comparison due to neglecting regional variations in cultivation technologies and planting scale. Different from the conventional idea, this paper estimated the carbon-emission density of crop production (CEDCP) based on carbon emissions per hectare of crop production. With the 30 Chinese provinces between 2000 and 2020 as the study area, temporal dynamics and spatial patterns of the CEDCP were explored, regional disparities of the CEDCP were discussed based on the Theil index, and the possibility of regional coordinated optimization for the CEDCP was explored by relying on the convergence tests. The results show that the average annual CEDCP in China was 1.462 t/hm2, reaching a peak of 1.576 t/hm2 in 2015. The national carbon-emission densities of agricultural materials, rice fields, soil management, and straw burning were 0.492 t/hm2, 0.390 t/hm2, 0.189 t/hm2, and 0.391 t/hm2, respectively. In many provinces, the CEDCP increased first and then decreased, presenting a spatial pattern of high in the eastern region and low in the western region. Regional disparities of CEDCP shrank early but expanded later, and the disparities within the western region had always contributed considerably to the overall disparities. The CEDCP had shown σ- and β- convergence in both national and regional scales, and the convergence process had positive spillover effects. These findings suggest that inter-provincial cooperation may facilitate the CEDCP to converge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ipomoea cairica (L.) Sweet is an invasive vine in South China with strong ecological adaptability in tropical and subtropical ecosystems. However, its invasion mechanism under global warming still remains unknown. In the present study, the thermal adaptability of I. cairica was investigated from the perspective of photosynthetic physiology to explain its successful invasiveness in South China, compared to a niche-overlapping native vine Paederia scandens (Lour.) Merr. Results of field photosynthesis measurements indicated a higher photosynthesis of I. cairica than P. scandens , which was also more temperature-sensitive. Under heat treatment (40 °C), the thermal-avoidance strategy of P. scandens and the thermal-adaptation strategy of the I. cairica enhanced the photosynthetic growth advantage of I. cairica over P. scandens. In I. cairica , the increase of soluble sugar and antioxidant enzyme activity along with the decrease of Malondialdehyde and oxide accumulation demonstrated that I. cairica has superior thermal-adaptation, contrary to P. scandens. Expression of IcOr and IcSRO1 in I. cairica was induced at 40 °C, maintaining the stability of photosynthetic system II and enhancing antioxidant ability. Out study suggested that a higher frequency of heat disturbance under global warming will enhance the invasion capability I. cairica but inhibit the native vine P. scandens. Highlight This paper reveals that contrary thermal-adaptation strategies expanded the photosynthetic, growing, and physiological advantages of invasive I. cairica over native P. scandens under high temperature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The economic and financial risks of global warming have become a hot issue of academic interest. This article analyzes global warming, financial risk, and the economic statistics of 30 provinces in China from 2010 to 2020 as a sample to assess the influence of the severity of global warming on financial risk. Global warming is found to affect financial risk and to have a substantial favorable influence on the amount of financial risk. Global warming also has significant effects on households, enterprises, financial institutions, and governments. There is heterogeneity in the effects of climate variation on financial risk. Global warming will cause a greater accumulation of financial risk in economically developed regions. Additionally, it will lead to financial risks by causing a decline in the incomes of residents, a decline in the profits of enterprises, growth in the number of loans that financial institutions consider to be nonperforming, and a widening of the gap between government revenue and expenditures. All of these effects will have an adverse domino effect on the economy. To reduce the financial risks caused by global warming, countermeasures are being offered to ensure social cohesion, conduct risk stress testing, create risk mitigation instruments, and encourage environmentally responsible development. This paper discusses policies and provides policymakers with recommendations on how to cope with the systematic financial risks induced by climate variation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the top emitter of carbon dioxide worldwide, China faces a considerable challenge in reducing carbon emissions to combat global warming. Carbon emissions from coal consumption is the primary source of carbon dioxide emissions in China. The decomposition of the driving factors and the quantification of regions and industries needs further research. Thus, this paper decomposed five driving factors affecting carbon emissions from coal consumption in China, namely, carbon emission intensity, energy structure, energy intensity, economic output, and population scale, by constructing a Kaya-Logarithmic Mean Divisia Index (Kaya-LMDI) decomposition model with data on coal consumption in China from 1997 to 2019. It was revealed that the economic output and energy intensity effects are major drivers and inhibitors of carbon emissions from coal consumption in China, respectively. The contribution and impact of these driving factors on carbon emissions from coal consumption were analyzed for different regions and industrial sectors. The results showed that carbon emissions from coal consumption increased by 3211.92 million tons from 1997 to 2019. From a regional perspective, Hebei Province has the most significant impact on carbon emissions from coal consumption due to the effect of economic output. Additionally, the industrial sector had the most pronounced influence on carbon emissions from coal consumption due to the economic output effect. Finally, a series of measures to reduce carbon emissions including controlling the total coal consumption, improving the utilization rate of clean energy, and optimizing the energy structure is proposed based on China's actual development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Due to global warming, the overheating risk in the severe cold region of China has attracted attention, but so far, no studies have examined summer overheating in this region. This paper aims to reveal the overheating risk in recent and future climates in the severe cold region of China. An 18-storey residential building in the severe cold region of China was monitored from May to September 2021 to validate the simulation data of the indoor temperature. Weather files of the typical meteorological year (TMY) from 2007 to 2020, observations in 2021, and forecasts for the climate in different carbon emission scenarios (2030, 2060) were used to simulate the indoor temperature and assess the overheating risk. The results revealed the severity of the overheating risk; the overheating hours in the south-facing bedroom were recorded as 884 h (24.07%) with the TMY weather data and 1043 h (28.40%) in 2030 and 1719 h (46.81%) in 2060 under the RCP8.5 carbon emission scenario. Thus, the low carbon emissions policy may significantly alleviate overheating. Moreover, to cope with climate change, it is suggested that the Chinese local design standards should consider the summer overheating risk and make the necessary adjustments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Grape berry proanthocyandin (PA) mainly exists in the skin and seeds. Its content and composition determine the intensity of bitterness and astringency. Affected by global warming, the world's wine-producing regions, in particular in dry-hot regions such as western China, are facing the problem of unsynchronized berry ripening and seed ripening. Therefore, it is urgent to understand the influence of berry ripening progression on the composition and accumulation of seed PA, ultimately providing strategies for grape harvest decisions. In this paper, Vitis vinfera L. cv. Cabernet sauvignon and Marselan grapes from four sub-regions with different maturation processes were used as experimental materials to study the changes of soluble and insoluble PA contents as well as differences in their composition and mean degree of polymers (mDP) in seeds. The results showed that compared with 'Cabernet sauvignon' seeds, the mDP of soluble and insoluble PA were higher in 'Marselan' seeds. Both varieties showed that the grape berry, with the fastest sugar accumulation, had relatively high soluble PA content in seeds and a high content of (-)-epigallocatechin-3-gallate and (-)-epicatechin in the seed PA composition units. In contrast, the 'Cabernet sauvignon' grapes from the YQ vineyard exhibited the slowest sugar accumulation speed among the four studied vineyards, and their seed PA had the highest mDP and the lowest proportion of (-)-epigallocatechin-3-gallate in the composition units when commercially harvested. According to the results, it is suggested that a faster maturation process would bring about higher levels of bitterness composition, such as (-)-epigallocatechin-3-gallate in seed PA, which is not conducive to the formation of good-tasting tannins. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Leymus chinensis is a primary plant in the meadow steppe and typical steppe of China. With global warming and increasing grazing intensity, grassland degradation is being exacerbated. To better protect the L. chinensis grassland in this area and provide a theoretical basis for restoring it, this paper compared the germinable seed bank in the soil and the germination characteristics of L. chinensis (including initial germination time, duration of germination, germination termination time, germination dynamics, and germination index) in free-grazing and enclosed areas. At the same time, combining information about the density of L. chinensis on the ground and previous research results, a comprehensive analysis was conducted. The major results were: (1) there was no significant difference in the number of germinable seeds in the soil between the free-grazing area and the enclosed area, and these seeds were mainly concentrated in the 0–2 cm soil layer. (2) The free-grazing area resulted in a significant increase in the number of germinable L. chinensis seeds and advanced the initial germination time. (3) The number of soil germinated seeds and the number of L. chinensis germinated seeds decreased with the increase in soil depth. (4) Livestock grazing behaviours increased seed burial, thus improving the L. chinensis germination rate. At the same time, the L. chinensis seed bearing percentage and seed quality and the number of germinable L. chinensis seeds were significantly higher in the free-grazing area than in the enclosed area. However, this result still needs to be further explored. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]