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• Significantly changes of LAI and GPP mostly occurred in eastern and southern China. • Divergence between LAI and GPP were found in regions with dense vegetation coverage. • The importance of VPD, SM, and PT to vegetation indices increased as latitude decreases. Climate change notably boosts terrestrial hydraulic redistribution pattern, which could directly affect the spatiotemporal evolution characteristics of vegetation productivity. However, the spatiotemporal evolution pattern of long-term hydrometeorological controls of vegetation productivity is still not fully understood. This paper comprehensively explored the impacts of hydrometeorological controls on leaf area index (LAI) and gross primary productivity (GPP) in China during 1982–2015 using both satellite observations and reanalysis. Vapor pressure deficit (VPD), evapotranspiration (ET), precipitation (PT), and soil moisture (SM) were used as representative indicators during investigation. The dynamics of LAI and GPP displayed increasing trends on the whole. And significantly changes mostly occurred in eastern and southern China, accompanied by moderate to dense vegetation coverage. An accelerated increasing trend for LAI could be observed since September 2003 (+0.175 per decade), while the growth rate of GPP (+16.76 g C/m2 per decade) basically maintained stable. In terms of hydrometeorological controls, VPD and ET showed consistently increasing trend and SM presented falling trend in the context of warming climate. Through analysis of feature importance index established by Random Forest, the importance of VPD, SM, and PT obviously increased as latitude decreases, which implied the high sensitivity of vegetation in semi-humid\humid regions to water availability. Additionally, divergence between LAI and GPP can be found in southern Tibet Plateau region and coastal regions, which provides compelling evidence that in the case of high LAI, increasing LAI could weaken the improvement effect on GPP. Findings of this study is expected to promote the understanding of long-term vegetation responses to hydrometeorological variations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The adoption of soil and water conservation (SWC) technology is a key strategy for reducing global land degradation and improving agricultural productivity. This study uses survey data from households in the Loess Plateau in 2017 to evaluate the impact of social interaction on the decision-making process of SWC adoption by farmers. It measures the mediating effect of information acquisition and the moderating effect of internet use and deploys the probit model, general decomposition (KHB) model, and moderated effect model for analysis. The study found that the level of SWC adoption by farmers in the Loess Plateau of China remains relatively low, with only 57.3% of farmers adopting SWC, whereas social interaction increases the possibility of farmers adopting SWC by 10.0%. Accordingly, the paper argues that social interaction can encourage farmers to adopt SWC by improving their ability to acquire information, while internet use can positively moderate the impact of social interaction on farmers' adoption of SWC. Furthermore, the study found the positive impact of social interaction on SWC adoption is more pronounced for farmers in larger villages and those who join cooperative societies. Therefore, the research results provide a new perspective for promoting SWC in China, emphasizing the importance of enhancing social interaction improving farmers' ability to acquire information, and accelerating internet use. • Social interaction plays a crucial role in promoting SWC adoption. • Improving farmers' ability to acquire information can promote SWC adoption. • Internet use can moderate the impact of social interaction on SWC adoption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, studies have found that drought can occur rapidly under anomalous atmospheric circulation patterns and underlying surface conditions. This type of drought is defined as "flash drought". It is more sensitive to global warming compared to traditional drought and may become a common drought phenomenon in the future and require intensive research. But the characteristics and development mechanism of flash drought in northern China has been studied much less than in southern China, and thus deserve further study. Based on the daily station data and GLDAS grid data from 1978 to 2020, this paper identified the flash drought in northern China, analyzed its evolution of temporal-spatial characteristics and explored the meteorological driving factors of flash drought. The main results are as follows: (1)The frequency of flash drought in the year is the highest in WNW (West of Northwest), followed by ENW (East of Northwest), NC (North China) and NE (Northeast China), while the frequency in the plant growing season is the highest in the south of NE and the south of NC, and low in the other regions. (2)The hotspot areas of flash drought showed an obvious eastward trend from WNW to ENW in northern China from the 1980s to 2010s. (3) There is a good relationship between soil moisture and precipitation in WNW and ENW, while the soil moisture is affected by both temperature and precipitation in NC and NE. (4) Flash drought could occur all through the year in WNW and NC, while it mainly occurred in the summer half-year and summer in EWN and NE. The main high occurrence period of flash drought in each region is in late spring and early summer, while a second high occurrence period appears from early September to late October in WNW. (5) From the perspective of the driving of water vapor changes, the flash drought in WNW and ENW is mainly driven by water vapor advection, while that in NC and NE is mainly driven by wind field divergence. • The hotspot areas of flash drought showed an obvious eastward movement from WNW to ENW in northern China. • The main high occurrence period is around early May to early July in northern China, with a second one in WNW. • Flash drought in WNW and ENW (NC and NE) is mainly driven by water vapor advection (wind field divergence). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]