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The present paper provides a scientific assessment of the inter-decadal variability of the Asian summer monsoon and its significant effect on precipitation patterns in China. The paper consists of four parts. The first part shows the observed inter-decadal weakening of the Asian summer monsoon since the end of 1970s. The second part describes the impact of the weakening Asian summer monsoon on precipitation in China, which caused the major monsoon rainbelt to shift southward from North China to South China over about 30 years, with a 60-80 oscillation dominating. The third part projects the future change of the Asian summer monsoon in the warmer climate by using IPCC AR4 climate models. It has been found that major monsoon rainfall belts in East Asia will move northward in the 2040s, with summer precipitation in North China increasing considerably and stably. Finally, in the fourth part, the implication of the adaptation to the above climate change and related water management will be discussed including the water transport engineering project from the Yangtze River to the Yellow River and North China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Severe soil erosion in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River and the middle reaches of the Yellow River is a serious environmental problem in western China. In order to control this soil erosion, the national government implemented the Grain for Green Program (GGP) in Sichuan Province (in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River) and Shaanxi Province (in the middle reaches of the Yellow River) in 1999. To evaluate the effects of the GGP on soil erosion, the present study investigated the relationships between annual precipitation and three parameters, annual runoff, sediment concentration, and sediment discharge, for these rivers. As the area covered by the GGP increased, sediment concentration and sediment discharge both decreased, and the correlation with the GGP area was much stronger than the correlation with annual precipitation. Therefore, China's GGP appears to be controlling soil erosion in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River and the middle reaches of the Yellow River. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The bronze gudgeon ( Coreius heterodon) and the congeneric species largemouth bronze gudgeon ( Coreius guichenoti), two endemic fish species in China, are important economic fishes in local areas. The bronze gudgeon is distributed in Yangtze River and Huanghe River basin, whereas the largemouth bronze gudgeon is distributed only in the middle and upper reaches of Yangtze River. Here, we sequenced the complete mitochondrial genomes of the two species and compared the evolutionary rate differences between the two species. The complete mitochondrial genomes of C. heterodon and C. guichenoti are 16,611 and 16,612 bp, respectively. Both of the complete mitogenome sequences contain 13 protein-coding genes, 2 rRNA subunits, 22 tRNAs and 1 non-coding control region, which are typical vertebrate mitogenomes. The relative rate test shows that the mitochondrial genome of C. heterodon evolves nearly threefold faster than that of C. guichenoti, which is mostly caused by the higher substitution rates in rRNAs and especially in tRNAs in C. heterodon. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]