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Ceracris kiangsu (Orthoptera: Arcypteridae), is greatly affected by climatic factors and exhibits strong adaptability, posing a serious threat to the ecological environment. Therefore, predicting its potential suitable habitat distribution provides a proactive theoretical basis for pest control. This study using the Biomod2 package of R simulated and predicted the current and future potential distribution, area changes, changes in the center points of suitable habitats, and niche shifts of C. kiangsu under two different greenhouse gas emission scenarios, SSP1-26 and SSP5-85. The results show that: (1) Currently, the high suitability areas for C. kiangsu are mainly distributed in Yunnan, Jiangxi, Hunan provinces in southern China and phongsaly province in northern Laos. In the future, the center of the suitable habitat distribution pattern of C. kiangsu will remain unchanged, primarily expanding outward from medium and high suitability areas. Additionally, significant suitable habitats for C. kiangsu were discovered in Southeast Asian countries without previous pest records. (2) Compared to the present, the overall suitable habitat area for C. kiangsu is expected to expand, particularly under the SSP5-85 climate change scenario. (3) In the SSP1-26 and SSP5-85 climate scenarios, the geometric center of the suitable habitat generally shows a trend of gradually shifting northeast. (4) Under different climate scenarios, the suitable habitat of C. kiangsu has highly overlapping, indicating that the suitable habitat of C. kiangsu in the invaded areas is broader than in its native regions. In conclusion, the research findings represent a breakthrough in identifying the potential distribution areas of C. kiangsu, which is of great practical significance for the monitoring and control of C. kiangsu pest infestation in China and Southeast Asian countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Different geographical zones have regional heterogeneity in underlying earth surface structure and microclimate which result in different evolution trends and their response to climate change varies in extreme rainfalls in these zones. In the Guizhou province of China, there are complex landforms, which lead to spatial redistribution of rainfall, frequent extreme rainfall, and disasters high risk of geologic disasters. Research on extreme climate in Guizhou mostly paid attention to its spatio-temporal characteristics and modeling, but lack of analysis on its characteristics of extreme rainfall variability and response to temperature changes under different subsurface conditions. This study investigated the characteristics of the extreme rainfall spatiotemporal and recurrence periods in Guizhou province and discussed the relationship between the response of extreme rainfall to temperature change. Daily rainfall data from 1990 to 2020 and 2021–2100 at 31 meteorological observation stations throughout the province were collected to calculate extreme precipitation. This research had the following results. (1) Both historical and future periods show an upward trend in extreme rainfall in Guizhou province, with a spatial distribution pattern of "high in the south and low in the north, high in the east and low in the west" and "high in the southeast and low in the northwest", respectively; the spatial distribution of extreme rainfall under each recurrence period is consistent with the non-recurrence period. (2) Both historical and future periods show an upward trend in temperature in Guizhou province, with a spatial distribution consistent with that of the extreme rainfall in the corresponding period. (3) The change in extreme rainfall intensity with increasing temperature is almost always greater than the C–C rate for different periods and underlying earth surface structure; Extreme rainfall has a Hook response structure to temperature change, and the climate response structure shifts to the right with climate warming. The results of the study can provide a basis for decision-making on regional disaster prevention and mitigation in the context of temperature change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

High-resolution oasis maps are imperative for understanding ecological and socio-economic development of arid regions. However, due to the late establishment and relatively niche nature of the oasis discipline, there are no high-precision datasets related to oases in the world to date. To fill this gap, detailed visual interpretation of remote sensing images on Google Earth Professional or Sentinel-2 was conducted in summer 2020, and for the first time, a high-precision dataset of China's oases (abbreviation HDCO) with a resolution of 1 meter was constructed. HDCO comprises 1,466 oases with a total area of 277,375.56 km2. The kappa coefficient for this dataset validated by the field survey was 0.8686 and the AUC value for the ROC curve was 0.935. In addition, information on the geographic coordinates, climatic conditions, major landforms, and hydrological features of each oasis was added to the attribute table of the dataset. This dataset enables researchers to quantitatively monitor location and area of oases, fosters exploration of the relationship between oases and human under climate change and urbanization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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

Climate elements are important indicators of climate change in China's main grain-producing areas during the April–September growth season and affect the growth and yield of crops. This paper combines grain concentration and geographical detector to divide the North and South regions of China's main grain production. The linear trend and Morlet wavelet transform methods are used to analyse the characteristics of climate change based on observational climate data from April to September 1981–2015. The results show that the climate in the North region is warm and dry during the growth season, whereas the climate is warm and humid in the South region. The main periods of the change in temperature in the North and South regions are 3 years, and that in precipitation is 5 years, and that in sunshine hours is 3–4 years. Changes in the climate elements in various provinces show complex, varying and regional characteristics of cold-warm and dry-wet cycles. The changes in climate elements are significant and different climatic conditions and regions have various possible impacts on grain production in China during the growth season. For China's agricultural-economy sustainable development and grain security, the study suggests that governments should place more emphasis on climatic element changes during the growth season and invest more money in disaster prevention and mitigation, especially in the main grain-producing areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on daily mean temperature data from 32 meteorological stations in the study area, this paper discusses the relationship between the changes in the climatic growing season and altitude and the differences in the northern (NSQM) and southern (SSQM) slopes of the Qinling Mountains (QMs) from 1985 to 2015. Our analyses generated three primary results. First, the spatial distribution patterns of the growing season start (GSS), growing season end (GSE), and growing season length (GSL) exhibited an altitudinal gradient and differences between the NSQM and SSQM. The occurrence time of the GSS, GSE, and the GSL of the NSQM was approximately 15 days later, 10 days earlier, and 25 days shorter respectively than that of the SSQM. Second, the three factors exhibited regular changes with an increasing elevation gradient: the GSS, GSE, and GSL were gradually delayed, advanced, and shortened, respectively. In the area below 1800 m above sea level, the GSS, GSE, and GSL of the NSQM was later, earlier, and shorter, respectively, than that of the SSQM; while the changing trends in the three were opposite in the areas above 2700 m; and the three in the areas between 1800 and 2700 m varied little in the NSQM and SSQM. The sensitivities of the GSS, GSE, and GSL of the NSQM and SSQM to elevation also reflected in the trends of inter-annual variability. Third, among the different altitudinal vegetation belts from low-altitude to high-altitude areas, the occurrence time of the GSS and GSE and the duration of the GSL in the alpine meadow areas were all exchanged in the NSQM and SSQM. The GSS, GSE, and GSL of the NSQM were earlier, later, and longer respectively than that of the SSQM. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present paper examined the teleconnections between two huge Asian summer monsoon components (South and East Asia) during three time slices in future: near-(2010–2039), mid-(2040–2069) and far-(2070–2100) futures under the RCP4.5 and RCP8.5 scenarios. For this purpose, a high-resolution atmospheric general circulation model is used and integrated at 40 km horizontal resolution. To get more insight into the relationships between the two Asian monsoon components, we have studied the spatial displaying correlation coefficients (CCs) pattern of precipitation over the entire Asian monsoon region with that of South Asia and three regions of East Asia (North China, Korea–Japan and Southern China) separately during the same three time slices. The possible factors responsible for these teleconnections are explored by using mean sea level pressure (MSLP) and wind fields at 850 hPa. The CC pattern of precipitation over South Asia shows an in-phase relationship with North China and an out-of-phase relationship with Korea–Japan, while precipitation variations over Korea–Japan and Southern China exhibit an out-of-phase relationship with South Asia. The CCs analysis between the two Asian blocks during different time slices shows the strongest CCs during the near and far future with the RCP8.5 scenario. The CC pattern of precipitation over Korea–Japan and Southern China with the wind (at 850 hPa) and MSLP fields indicate that the major parts of the moisture over Korea–Japan gets transported from the west Pacific along the western limb of NPSH, while the moisture over Southern China comes from the Bay of Bengal and South China Seas for good monsoon activity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Greenhouse gas emissions in China and India have been increasing rapidly over the last decade. Scenario studies can provide insight into expected future trends and the emission reduction potential in these regions. The scenarios show that growing population, gross domestic product, and energy demand are likely to lead to a further increase in emissions. At the same time, a decreasing emission intensity would still allow to create decarbonization scenarios in line with the requirements for reaching a maximal warming of 2 °C. There is, however, a wide range of assumptions across these studies. Based on the literature review, this paper observes that key assumptions in scenarios developed by national institutes in China and India differ from those presented by international studies or modeling teams. We explore how this-and other factors like data availability-may influence the interpretation of the scenarios and how international and national modeling groups could learn from each other. Our main recommendation is for more extensive collaboration between national and international research groups, so that national and international scenario studies can be compared in more detail in order to support international negotiations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using case study analysis across three sectors in China (cement, electric vehicles and coal fired electricity generation) and theoretical insights from the innovation studies literature, this paper analyses the development of China's technological capabilities in low carbon technologies and the ways in which public policies have contributed to developing these capabilities. It finds that China has developed significant capabilities via a strategic approach. The paper's findings have significant implications for international policies designed to support low carbon technology transfer to developing countries and broader processes of low carbon technological change and development. Such policies should go beyond the traditional focus on the transfer of technology hardware to focus on the development of low carbon technological capabilities in developing country firms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Energy security and climate change are topics of primary interest in current Chinese policy debates about the international politics, economy, and environment. In the ongoing process of modernization, China will continue to face challenges to provide secure energy supplies and mitigate climate change over time. Given the size of the country, the development and consumption of future energy supplies will have a substantial impact on global energy markets and the local environment and implications for global climate change. China is currently one of the fastest growing regions in the global automobile market and is the world's largest automobile market. As a result, automotive energy has become a core energy and environmental issue for the country. The purpose of this paper is to provide a better understanding of the dynamics of automotive energy development in China in a systematic way by examining the interactions of economics, technology, and policy. The analysis and paper offers an overview of recent automotive energy consumption and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in China. Two alternative energy scenarios, business as usual (BAU) and integrated policy scenario (IPS), were developed using the Tsinghua China Automotive Energy Model (TCAEM). The two scenarios depict two possible trajectories of automotive energy consumption and GHG emissions out to 2050. These reveal important implications for technology innovation and policy intervention, which are discussed in the context of China developing a sustainable automotive energy industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Extreme heat events have serious effects on human daily life. Accurately capturing the dynamic variance of extreme high-temperature distributions in a timely manner is the basis for analyzing the potential impacts of extreme heat, thereby informing risk prevention strategies. This paper demonstrates the potential application of multiple source remote sensing data in mapping and monitoring the extreme heat events that occurred on Aug. 8, 2013 in Jiangsu Province, China. In combination with MODIS products, the thermal sharpening (TsHARP) method and a binary linear model are compared to downscale the original daytime FengYun 2F (FY-2F) land surface temperature (LST) imagery, with a temporal resolution of 60 min, from 5 km to 1 km. Using the meteorological measurement data from Nanjing station as the reference, the research then estimates the instantaneous air temperature by using an iterative computation based on the Surface Energy Balance Algorithm for Land (SEBAL), which is used to analyze the spatio-temporal air temperature variance. The results show that the root mean square error (RMSE) of the LST downscaled from the binary linear model is 1.30°C compared to the synchronous MODIS LST, and on this basis the estimated air temperature has the RMSE of 1.78°C. The spatial and temporal distribution of air temperature variance at each geographical location from 06:30 to 18:30 can be accurately determined, and indicates that the high temperature gradually increases and expands from the city center. For the spatial distribution, the air temperature and the defined scorching temperature proportion index increase from northern to middle, to southern part of Jiangsu, and are slightly lower in the eastern area near the Yellow Sea. In terms of temporal characteristics, the percentage of area with air temperature above 37°C in each city increase with time after 10:30 and reach the peak value at 14:30 or 15:30. Then, they decrease gradually, and the rising and falling trends become smaller from the southern cities to the northern regions. Moreover, there is a distinct positive relationship between the percentage of area above 37°C and the population density. The above results show that the spatio-temporal distributions of heat waves and their influencing factors can be determined by combining multiple sources of remotely sensed image data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on hydrological and climatic data covering the period from 1961 to 2008, this paper studies the hydrological responses to climate change and to human activities in the Ebinur Lake Catchment. The results show that the annual runoff of three rivers in Ebinur Lake Catchment exhibited different change trends. Specifically, in Jinghe River and Kuytun River exhibited a slightly increasing trend, but an adverse trend in Bortala River, and the variation trend has been the most dramatic since the mid-1990s. The observed variation in the runoff was resulted from the elevated alpine precipitation, rather than rising temperature, and that precipitation is a major factor for runoff generation. The runoff CAR model proposed by this paper can be used to predict the annual runoff in three rivers, and demonstrated annual runoff in Bortala River and Jinghe River will display an increased trend, while a less decreasing trend in Kuytun River under the climate change scenarios of warm-humid variation. In addition, the exploitation of the area of cultivated land led to more water resources consumption, primarily for agriculture irrigation, is the cause of the persistently ecoenvironment degradation, which have reached in a critical state thus, a more pressing concern is the development a scientifically reasonable and administratively practical water resource management scheme. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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

It is well known that soil erosion at the watershed scale is the result of interactions between various factors. Among these environmental factors, vegetation is the most important and plays a major role in the soil erosion process. The impact of fractional vegetation cover change (FVCC) on soil erosion in non-contributing areas is a heavily discussed topic. In this paper, the fractional vegetation cover (FVC) in 2002 and 2005 was calculated by using a backpropagation neural network based on remote sensing (RS) data. Then the impacts of FVCC on sediment loads at the outlets of two Miyun reservoir sub-basins were evaluated by integrating RS and geographic information system with statistical analysis. The Miyun reservoir basin (MRB) is characterized by hilly and mountainous topographies and seasonal rainy weather. The primary goal of this paper is to gain a better understanding of FVCC, its driving forces, and its impact on regional soil erosion. We discuss spatiotemporal variations in precipitation and soil erosion, identify which factors contribute to those variations, analyze the influences of FVCC on climate change and human activities and, finally, conclude that changes in FVC and climate regimes are primary factors for soil erosion in MRB. We also discuss how sediment loads may be used to quantitatively separate biophysical and anthropogenic influences and to identify critical thresholds that might have dramatic consequences for the watershed ecosystem. These findings should be quite helpful for sensible watershed development and management planning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, the data envelopment analysis (DEA) method is introduced to analyze the input-output efficiency of energy consumption and economic indicators in Beijing city under the influence of short-term climatic factors. Total energy consumption, fixed asset investment, average temperature, precipitation, sunshine hours, average wind velocity and the average pressure being employed as the input variables, gross domestic product (GDP) and per capita disposable income being employed as the output variables, effective technology and the validity of the scale of DEA of 31 decision-making units ( DMUs) under the influence of the short-term climatic factors are analyzed, and the inefficient DMUs are improved. Empirical analysis shows that both energy consumption and economic growth are sensitive to short-term climate condition, and the reasonable employing of extreme climatic conditions is a question worthy of consideration. This study provides effective basis for the scientific and reasonable arrangement of Beijing city's short-term climatic resources and energy-economic development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, climate and environment changes since the Little Ice Age have become a focus in modern research. The paper selected the sediment (77 cm) of Sihu Lake, which was located in Guilin, southern China, as the research object and analyzed the karst wetland environmental changes within nearly 450 years. According to the vertical profile of indicators and geochemical elements in sediment core, the regional environmental evolution was divided into four stages. The former two stages were mainly influenced by Little Ice Age (1562–1895). The third stage climate has changed slowly. The fourth stage was mainly affected by human activities and global warming. The factor analysis of geochemical elements indicated that karst wetland regional environmental change was affected by four major factors. In the 53–77 cm stage (1562–1703), F1 (erosion factor), F2 (watershed runoff and diagenesis factor) and F3 (regional background factor) were reduced, indicating that it was in cold and dry stage of Little Ice Age. In the 20–53 cm stage (1703–1895), F1 and F2 increased, indicating that it was in cold and wet stage of Little Ice Age. In the 4–20 cm stage (1895–1987), F1, F2 and F4 (human activity factor) increased slowly, indicating that the climate was affected by global warming and more precipitation. In the 0–4 cm stage (1987–2007), F1 and F2 reduced and F4 increased, indicating the reduced precipitation, rising temperature and more impact of human activities. In addition, it was proposed that the Little Ice Age in Guilin District in southern China started in the 1560s and lasted until the 1895s or so. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As an important cause of global warming, CO2 concentrations and their changes have aroused worldwide concern. Establishing explicit understanding of the spatial and temporal distributions of CO2 concentrations at regional scale is a crucial technical problem for climate change research. High accuracy surface modeling (HASM) is employed in this paper using the output of the CO2 concentrations from weather research and forecasting-chemistry (WRF-CHEM) as the driving fields, and the greenhouse gases observing satellite (GOSAT) retrieval XCO2 data as the accuracy control conditions to obtain high accuracy XCO2 fields. WRF-CHEM is an atmospheric chemical transport model designed for regional studies of CO2 concentrations. Verified by ground- and space-based observations, WRF-CHEM has a limited ability to simulate the conditions of CO2 concentrations. After conducting HASM, we obtain a higher accuracy distribution of the CO2 in North China than those calculated using the classical Kriging and inverse distance weighted (IDW) interpolation methods, which were often used in past studies. The cross-validation also shows that the averaging mean absolute error (MAE) of the results from HASM is 1.12 ppmv, and the averaging root mean square error (RMSE) is 1.41 ppmv, both of which are lower than those of the Kriging and IDW methods. This study also analyses the space-time distributions and variations of the XCO2 from the HASM results. This analysis shows that in February and March, there was the high value zone in the southern region of study area relating to heating in the winter and the dense population. The XCO2 concentration decreased by the end of the heating period and during the growing period of April and May, and only some relatively high value zones continued to exist. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Groundwater in China’s permafrost region is vital for humans and cold-climate ecosystems. Permafrost responses to global warming have significantly changed the spatio-temporal patterns and distribution of properties associated with the groundwater system. The main areas of current and past studies on permafrost hydrogeology in China include four aspects: groundwater distribution and dynamics in permafrost regions, interplay between groundwater and permafrost, the impact of permafrost degradation on groundwater, and the regional effect of groundwater changes on the environment in permafrost regions. Over the last 10 years, the development and use of coupled heat-transport and groundwater models have focused on the hydrogeology of permafrost, and on groundwater development and distribution in permafrost regions. Progress in groundwater-related research on issues surrounding permafrost regions of China are comprehensively summarized and discussed in this review paper, which should provide a theoretical basis for further study of the groundwater system and its effects on the ecological environment under climate change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, the natural hydrology behaviors were greatly influenced by climate change. The relation between runoff and climate change are always the core of scientific hydrological study in arid region. This paper presents a multi-variate time series controlled auto-regressive (CAR) model based on hydrological and climatic data of typical tributaries Jinghe River in Ebinur Lake Basin of Xinjiang covering the period from 1957 to 2012. The aim is to study the climate change and its effects on runoff of the Jinghe River, Northwest China. The results showed the following: the runoff of the Jinghe River was unevenly distributed and has obvious seasonal changes throughout the year. It was concentrated in summer and has along dry season with less runoff. The monthly maximum river runoff was from June to September and accounted for 74% of annual runoff. The river runoff increased since the 1980s till the 1990s; in the 21st century there was a trend of decreasing. The oscillatory period of annual runoff series in the Jinghe River Basin was 21a and 13a, and these periods were more obvious, followed by 32a and 9a. The oscillation with a time scale of 21a and 13a was a fulltimed domain. The MRE is 6.54%, the MAE is 0.84 × 108 m3, and the RMSE is 0.039. The CAR model passed the F-test and residual test, and the change trend of calculated and measured values of annual runoff is consistence, which means that the model was reasonable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the effects of global climate change is increase in the frequency and severity of drought, which strongly affects the Chinese agricultural production. In order to cope these changes more effectively, it is important to document and analyze the agricultural losses caused by drought. We collected and analyzed conventional meteorological data and agricultural statistics data, in order to outline trends in drought occurrence and decline in agricultural yield. Data were assembled for the period 1960-2010. The study pays particular attention to regional differences between northern and southern China. Our results show the drought-caused agricultural loss rates (DCALR) in China have increased by approximately 0.5% per decade in the past 50 years. The study area in this paper is for the whole of the People's Republic of China, minus the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau; when we analyzed regional differences, we found that losses increased by approximately 0.6% per decade in northern China, close to twice the increase in southern China. Moreover, drought risks and agricultural losses are rising faster in northern China. Our results also indicate that the agriculture in northern China is more sensitive to changes in precipitation, whereas the agriculture in southern China is more sensitive to temperature changes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Carbon dioxide capture, utilization and storage (CCUS) is regarded as an important carbon emissions reduction technology response to climate change. Though some full-chain CCUS pilot projects have operated in China, many barriers exist when stepping up to commercial applications, including significant negative perceptions of the environmental risk of CCUS. Therefore, to tailor constructive training or outreach programs for public acceptance of CCUS in China, a large national survey of public perceptions of CCUS technology was conducted in 2013. The questionnaire contained four themes focusing on people with a tertiary education. Six hundred paper-pencil questionnaires were dispatched to 22 universities/enterprises across 19 provinces and 2 municipalities, with a response rate of 95%. The results show that 91.4% of the participants agreed that the earth was experiencing climate change, and 74.3% were interested in low-carbon technologies, but while 22% had heard of CCUS, although with limited knowledge, only 3.6% had a good understanding of the technology. The results from the second part of the questionnaire show that 80.4% of participants believed that CCUS may help to mitigate the impacts of global warming, but the 'Not in My Back Yard' (NIMBY) phenomenon was obvious from the location-based objections to transportation and storage processes. In addition, ten listed CCUS environmental management policies received extensive recognition from the participants, and about half of the participants considered that the related government departments should be responsible for environmental management as a first priority. The survey also indicates that the most trusted sources through which the survey participants obtain CCUS information are academic journals and textbooks, television, radio and newspapers, expert lectures and brochures on CCUS demonstration projects. According to the survey of public awareness of the environmental impact and management of CCUS technology in China, CCUS technology rates well for environmental benefits, but high environmental risk perceptions of CCUS lead to a lower acceptance of this carbon emissions reduction technology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China is facing the problem of climate change, environment protection and energy security. Therefore, China has to create a low-carbon society to address them. The purpose of this paper is to make a comprehensive and in-depth analysis of China's reality and transition to a low-carbon society. The research indicates that China's transition to low-carbon society will inevitably meet many difficulties under the relatively backward situation of China's socio-economic structure and technologies at the current stage. Therefore, China has to take concrete policies and countermeasures to promote its development gradually. In particular, China has to vigorously promote the innovation of low carbon system, technologies, subsidy and tax, financing and investment to lay groundwork for comprehensive development of low-carbon society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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The wet bulb temperature (Tw) has gained considerable attention as a crucial indicator of heat-related health risks. Here we report south-to-north spatially heterogeneous trends of Tw in China over 1979-2018. We find that actual water vapor pressure (Ea) changes play a dominant role in determining the different trend of Tw in southern and northern China, which is attributed to the faster warming of high-latitude regions of East Asia as a response to climate change. This warming effect regulates large-scale atmospheric features and leads to extended impacts of the South Asia high (SAH) and the western Pacific subtropical high (WPSH) over southern China and to suppressed moisture transport. Attribution analysis using climate model simulations confirms these findings. We further find that the entire eastern China, that accommodates 94% of the country's population, is likely to experience widespread and uniform elevated thermal stress the end of this century. Our findings highlight the necessity for development of adaptation measures in eastern China to avoid adverse impacts of heat stress, suggesting similar implications for other regions as well. Attributing spatially heterogeneous heat stress trends to water vapor pressure changes driven by climate change-induced rapid warming in high-latitudes of East Asia, the authors predict widespread and uniform future heat stress in eastern China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The biogeographical range shift of insect pests is primarily governed by temperature. However, the range shift of seasonal long-distance migratory insects may be very different from that of sedentary insects. Nilaparvata lugens (BPH), a serious rice pest, can only overwinter in tropical-to-subtropical regions, and some populations migrate seasonally to temperate zones with the aid of low-level jet stream air currents. This study utilized the CLIMEX model to project the overwintering area under the climate change scenarios of RCP2.6 and RCP8.5, both in 2030s and 2080s. The overwintering boundary is predicted to expand poleward and new overwintering areas are predicted in the mid-latitude regions of central-to-eastern China and mid-to-southern Australia. With climate change, the habitable areas remained similar, but suitability decreased substantially, especially in the near-equatorial regions, owing to increasing heat stress. The range shift is similar between RCP2.6-2030s, RCP2.6-2080s, and RCP8.5-2030s, but extreme changes are projected under RCP8.5-2080s with marginal areas increasing from 27.2 to 38.8% and very favorable areas dropping from 27.5 to 3.6% compared to the current climate. These findings indicate that climate change will drive range shifts in BPH and alter regional risks differently. Therefore, international monitoring programs are needed to effectively manage these emerging challenges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change is a serious environmental issue appearing in China. As a public service institution operating around the clock, the negative impact of hospitals on the environment is evident, promoting their workers' pro-environmental behavior (PEB) through increasing climate change health risk perception (CHRP) is an effective method to protect the environment and achieve sustainable development. This study investigates how CHRP shapes pro-environmental attitude (PEA), pro-environmental intention (PEI), and pro-environmental behavior (PEB) among hospital workers. Using structural equation modeling (SEM) to determine the chain of causation from CHRP to PEB among hospital workers. The result shows that CHRP positively affects PEA and PEI, and PEI positively affects their PEB. In addition, although CHRP has no significant direct effect on PEB, it can play a crucial indirect effect through the mediating role of PEI. Moreover, the result of multiple regression shows that there are significant differences regarding PEA, PEI, and PEB. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Global climate change is one of the major challenges facing the world today, and forests play a crucial role as significant carbon sinks and providers of ecosystem services in mitigating climate change and protecting the environment. China, as one of the largest developing countries globally, owns 60% of its forest resources collectively. Evaluating the carbon sequestration cost of collective forests not only helps assess the contribution of China's forest resources to global climate change mitigation but also provides important evidence for formulating relevant policies and measures. Results: Over the past 30 years, the carbon sequestration cost of collective forests in China has shown an overall upward trend. Except for coastal provinces, southern collective forest areas, as well as some southwestern and northeastern regions, have the advantage of lower carbon sequestration costs. Furthermore, LSTM network predictions indicate that the carbon sequestration cost of collective forests in China will continue to rise. By 2030, the average carbon sequestration cost of collective forests is projected to reach 125 CNY per ton(= 16.06 Euros/t). Additionally, there is spatial correlation in the carbon sequestration cost of collective forests. Timber production, labor costs, and labor prices have negative spatial spillover effects on carbon sequestration costs, while land opportunity costs, forest accumulation, and rural resident consumption have positive spatial spillover effects. Conclusion: The results of this study indicate regional disparities in the spatial distribution of carbon sequestration costs of collective forests, with an undeniable upward trend in future cost growth. It is essential to focus on areas with lower carbon sequestration costs and formulate targeted carbon sink economic policies and management measures to maximize the carbon sequestration potential of collective forests and promote the sustainable development of forestry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The quest to eradicate poverty, central to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), poses a significant global challenge. Advancement in sustainable rural development is critical to this effort, requiring the seamless integration of environmental, economic, and governmental elements. Previous research often omits the complex interactions among these factors. Addressing this gap, this study evaluates sustainable rural development in China by examining the interconnection between agricultural production and government-led poverty reduction, with annual rainfall considered an influential factor of climate change impacts on these sectors and overall sustainability. Utilizing a Meta-frontier entropy network dynamic Directional Distance Function (DDF) within an exogenous Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) model, we categorize China's 27 provinces into southern and northern regions according to the Qinling-Huaihe line for a comparative study of environmental, economic, and governmental efficiency. This innovative approach overcomes the limitations of previous static analyses. The findings reveal: (1) Rainfall, as an exogenous variable, significantly affects agricultural production efficiency. (2) The overall efficiency in both southern and northern regions increases when accounting for rainfall. (3) Government effectiveness in poverty reduction is comparatively lower in the northern region than in the southern region when rainfall is considered. These insights underscore the importance of including climatic variables in sustainable development policies and emphasize the need for region-specific strategies to bolster resilience against climatic challenges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Global warming is now recognized as a significant threat to sustainable development on an international scale. One of the key challenges in mounting a global response to it is the seeming unwillingness of the fastest growing economies such as China and India to sign a treaty that limits their emissions. The aim of this paper is to examine the differential incentives of countries on different trajectories of capital growth. A benchmark dynamic game to study global warming, introduced in Dutta and Radner (J Econ Behav Organ, ), is generalized to allow for exogenous capital accumulation. It is shown that the presence of capital exacerbates the 'tragedy of the common'. Furthermore, even with high discount factors, the threat of reverting to the inefficient 'tragedy' equilibrium is not sufficient to deter the emissions growth of the fastest growing economies-in contrast to standard folk theorem like results. However, foreign aid can help. If the slower growth economies-like the United States and Western Europe-are willing to make transfers to China and India, then the latter can be incentivized to cut emissions. Such an outcome is Pareto improving for both slower and faster growth economies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Water security is an integral aspect of the socio-economic development in China. Nevertheless, water resources are under persistent pressures because of the growing population, heavy irrigation, climate change effects and short-term policies. Traditional management approaches narrowly focus on increasing supply and reducing demand without considering the complex interactions and feedback loops that govern water resource behaviour. Whereas these approaches may provide quick fix solutions, they often lead to unanticipated, sometimes catastrophic, delayed outcomes. Therefore, water management needs to take a holistic approach that caters to the interdependent physical (e.g. water inflows, outflows) and behavioural (e.g. decision rules, perceptions) processes in the system. Unlike reductionist approaches, System Dynamics (SD) takes a system-level view for modelling and analysing the complex structure (cause-effect relationships, feedback loops, delays) that generates the systemic behaviour. Simulating the SD model allows assessing long-term system-wide impacts, exploring leverage points and communicating results to decision makers. In this paper, we follow an SD modelling approach to examine the future of water security in Yulin City. First, we present a conceptual model for integrating water supply and demand. Based on this, we build an SD model to simulate and analyse the dynamics of water resource over time. The model output is tested to ensure that it satisfactorily replicates the historical behaviour of the system. The model is used to quantitatively assess the effectiveness of various supply/demand management options. Three scenarios are designed and examined: business-as-usual, supply management, and demand management. Results show that current management regime cannot effectively meet the future water demand. Whereas supply acquisition provides short-term benefits, it cannot cope with the growing population. A combination of conservation measures and demand-management instruments is regarded the most effective strategy for balancing supply and demand. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Preparatory talks to the next round of negotiations seem to indicate that a comprehensive agreement to mitigate climate change will not be easily attainable, despite the intentions of the US administration and the high expectations surrounding the Copenhagen meeting. One key reason is to what extent fast growing economies, and especially China, should take actions to reduce their growth of emissions. This paper argues that a turning point for international negotiations on climate change could be achieved if China were to agree on carbon obligations in the future. Results from modelling work suggest that the optimal investment behaviour is to anticipate the implementation of a climate policy by roughly 10 years, and that thus future commitments—if credible—could lead to significantly earlier steps towards carbon mitigation. If fast growing economies, and foremost China, believe in the long term objective of global stabilization of carbon concentrations, it might be economically rationale to sign on future targets, provided developed countries take on immediate action. Such a provision could be beneficial for both the developing and developed world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Constructing a mathematic transfer function of pollen and climatic factors is one of the most important approaches in the quantitative reconstruction of paleoclimate elements. In the function building, the key point is the response sensitivity to the climate change for different pollen families and categories. As an example in this paper, the pollen samples from the surface and stratum in Dajiuhu basin, Shennongjia are used to estimate the sensitivity of pollen factor-temperature in the transfer function by the EOF analysis, multiple regression and stepwise regression techniques. Thereafter, the selection methods of pollen factors are discussed and compared with other results from different researchers. The results show that in the pollen samples, the quantity of woody plants is larger than others, but the woody plants have relatively lower sensitivity and slow responses to the climate evolution and abrupt climate change. While the pollens from lower grade plants (herb and fern) have a relatively high sensitivity to the temperature change and fast response to the abrupt climate changes. Therefore, the pollen of herb and fern may significantly record the extreme events in the climate change. Also in different regions, the pollen samples have different sensitivity and optimum combination in the transfer functions. Final conclusion is that the stepwise regression is one of the best methods for transfer function building since it can obtain the maximum multiple correlation coefficients and optimum combination of sensitive pollen factors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The parameterization of physical processes is one of the critical elements to properly simulate the regional climate over eastern China. It is essential to conduct detailed analyses on the effect of physical parameterization schemes on regional climate simulation, to provide more reliable regional climate change information. In this paper, we evaluate the 25-year (1983-2007) summer monsoon climate characteristics of precipitation and surface air temperature by using the regional spectral model (RSM) with different physical schemes. The ensemble results using the reliability ensemble averaging (REA) method are also assessed. The result shows that the RSM model has the capacity to reproduce the spatial patterns, the variations, and the temporal tendency of surface air temperature and precipitation over eastern China. And it tends to predict better climatology characteristics over the Yangtze River basin and the South China. The impact of different physical schemes on RSM simulations is also investigated. Generally, the CLD3 cloud water prediction scheme tends to produce larger precipitation because of its overestimation of the low-level moisture. The systematic biases derived from the KF2 cumulus scheme are larger than those from the RAS scheme. The scale-selective bias correction (SSBC) method improves the simulation of the temporal and spatial characteristics of surface air temperature and precipitation and advances the circulation simulation capacity. The REA ensemble results show significant improvement in simulating temperature and precipitation distribution, which have much higher correlation coefficient and lower root mean square error. The REA result of selected experiments is better than that of nonselected experiments, indicating the necessity of choosing better ensemble samples for ensemble. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study of potential vegetation can reveal the impact of climate on changes in vegetation patterns. It is the starting point for studying vegetation-environmental classification and relationships, and it is the key point for studying global change and terrestrial ecosystems. By using the Comprehensive Sequential Classification System (CSCS) and the meteorological data under the four climate change scenarios from the IPCC5 publication, the present paper carries out a GIS simulation study of the spatial distribution of potential vegetation in China at the end of the 21st century. The results indicate that under the four climate scenarios at the end of the 21st century: (1) The potential vegetation in China shows significant horizontal and vertical distribution, which corresponds well to those of natural topographic features. (2) There are 40 classes of potential vegetation in China. Tropical-extrarid tropical desert (VIIA), which has no corresponding condition of growth in China, is commonly lacking, and differences exist among the potential vegetation classes and among the ratios of the classes under different scenarios. (3) From the perspective of categories, temperate forest is the most widely distributed, and savanna is the least widely distributed. Together with the strengthening of the radiation intensity according to RCP2.6 → RCP4.5 → RCP6.0 → RCP8.5, the area covered by cold-dry potential vegetation decreases as the area covered by warm-humid potential vegetation increases. As a result, the areas of tundra and alpine steppe, frigid desert, steppe, and temperate humid grassland tend to decrease, and those of semi-desert, temperate forest, sub-tropical forest, tropical forest, warm desert, and savanna tend to increase. Moreover, the potential vegetation in China at the end of the 21st century would change at different levels and in different directions when compared with that at the end of the 20th century. (4) In the same period, potential vegetation in different regions shows differences in their sensitivity to climate change, and by the end of the 21st century, 30.73% of land in China would be classified as a sensitive region, which highly corresponds to the current ecologically vulnerable zone, and whose potential vegetation easily evolves along with changes of climate scenarios. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Farmers' perceptions of the local climate reflect their own judgments of climate change and may thus affect their adaptation behavior. However, the mechanisms between the provision of early warning information and farmers' perceptions and adaptation behavior are under-researched. To address this gap in the literature, this study uses original household survey data from nine provinces in China to examine the major factors influencing farmers' perceptions of drought and examines how perceptions affect adaptation behavior. The results show that over half of the sample farmers perceived that drought severity had increased during the past 10 years. Moreover, econometric analysis indicates that about 8% more farmers will adopt surface pipes in response to drought if early warning information about drought is provided. Farmers that perceived increasing drought severity are more likely to attempt to adapt by adopting water-saving technologies. The paper concludes by offering some policy implications for the presented results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports a comprehensive study on the observed and projected spatiotemporal changes in mean and extreme climate over the arid region of northwestern China, based on gridded observation data and CMIP5 simulations under the RCP4.5 and RCP8.5 scenarios. The observational results reveal an increase in annual mean temperature since 1961, largely attributable to the increase in minimum temperature. The annual mean precipitation also exhibits a significant increasing tendency. The precipitation amount in the most recent decade was greater than in any preceding decade since 1961. Seasonally, the greatest increase in temperature and precipitation appears in winter and in summer, respectively. Widespread significant changes in temperature-related extremes are consistent with warming, with decreases in cold extremes and increases in warm extremes. The warming of the coldest night is greater than that of the warmest day, and changes in cold and warm nights are more evident than for cold and warm days. Extreme precipitation and wet days exhibit an increasing trend, and the maximum number of consecutive dry days shows a tendency toward shorter duration. Multi-model ensemble mean projections indicate an overall continual increase in temperature and precipitation during the 21st century. Decreases in cold extremes, increases in warm extremes, intensification of extreme precipitation, increases in wet days, and decreases in consecutive dry days, are expected under both emissions scenarios, with larger changes corresponding to stronger radiative forcing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China is the largest wheat-producing country in the world. Wheat is one of the two major staple cereals consumed in the country and about 60% of Chinese population eats the grain daily. To safeguard the production of this important crop, about 85% of wheat areas in the country are under irrigation or high rainfall conditions. However, wheat production in the future will be challenged by the increasing occurrence and magnitude of adverse and extreme weather events. In this paper, we present an analysis that combines outputs from a wide range of General Circulation Models (GCMs) with observational data to produce more detailed projections of local climate suitable for assessing the impact of increasing heat stress events on wheat yield. We run the assessment at 36 representative sites in China using the crop growth model CSM-CropSim Wheat of DSSAT 4.5. The simulations based on historical data show that this model is suitable for quantifying yield damages caused by heat stress. In comparison with the observations of baseline 1996-2005, our simulations for the future indicate that by 2100 the projected increases in heat stress would lead to an ensemble-mean yield reduction of −7.1% (with a probability of 80%) and −17.5% (with a probability of 96%) for winter wheat and spring wheat, respectively, under the irrigated condition. Although such losses can be fully compensated by CO fertilization effect as parameterized in DSSAT 4.5, a great caution is needed in interpreting this fertilization effect because existing crop dynamic models are unable to incorporate the effect of CO acclimation (the growth-enhancing effect decreases over time) and other offsetting forces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lakes under natural conditions are potential indicators of climate change, but limited evidence has been proposed to explicitly explain the mechanisms of large-scale lake changes associated with climate. In this paper, satellite imageries from the 1970s to 2010 were compared to track the dynamic change patterns of plateau lakes. It aims to identify the forcing of climate change on the lakes in plateau regions of China. Results revealed that: (1) widespread expanding trends in the area and abundance of lakes on wetter plateau regions, by increasing precipitation and snow presented a positive effect on lake levels, as well as warming resulted glacier melting and permafrost degrading contributed to expansion of lakes in the regions covered by glaciers on the Tibetan Plateau by 58-62 % and of 13-20 % on the western Inner Mongolia and Xinjiang Plateau; (2) shrinkage lakes in the main portion of the arid regions were mainly caused by the decreasing wind speed resulted water balance change, irrigation and other human utilization of water resources. Although precipitation decreased, wind speed also has the most dominant impact on decreasing evaporation, followed by solar radiation, both of which offset the effect of increasing temperature, especially in eastern Inner Mongolia and Xinjiang Plateau; (3) thawing permafrost led to shrinkage of lakes in an area of seasonal permafrost, the shrinking and splitting of lakes in a discontinuous permafrost zone, and the rising of lake levels in an area of continuous permafrost; (4) the future of the plateau lakes under climate change must be in question, because the glacier and snow melting water is not sustainable for wetter regions, and the increasing water consumption caused by the farmland expansion for arid regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper estimates the impact of land use change on soil organic carbon (SOC) sequestration in China from 1985 to 2005 using a nationwide, georeferenced database on land use, soil, and climate. The method presented here is capable of incorporating site-specific information on soil, climate, and land use change into a national-level analysis. We find that grassland restoration contributed to the largest increase in SOC in China from 1985 to 2005, while grassland degradation caused the largest decrease. Overall, land use change resulted in only a small net increase in SOC, by 7.5 TgC (0.02 %), which is statistically insignificant at the 95 % confidence level. A cost-effectiveness analysis indicates that it is important to consider SOC when assessing land conservation programs. Restoring degraded grassland is more cost-effective than returning dry farmland to grassland. Inner Mongolia is a key region for dense grassland restoration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China has a large economic and demographic exposure to extreme events that is increasing rapidly due to its fast development, and climate change may further aggravate the situation. This paper investigates China's socioeconomic risk from extreme events under climate change over the next few decades with a focus on sub-national heterogeneity. The empirical relationships between socioeconomic damages and their determinants are identified using a hierarchical Bayesian approach, and are used to estimate future damages as well as associated uncertainty bounds given specified climate and development scenarios. Considering projected changes in exposure, we find that the southwest and central regions and Hainan Island of China are likely to have a larger percentage of population at risk, while most of the southwest and central regions could generally have higher economic losses. Finally, the analysis suggests that increasing income can significantly decrease the number of people affected by extremes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sea level rise (SLR) and storm surge have significant impacts on tourism properties and activities in the low-lying coastal region. Coastal tourism in Zhejiang Province, China, is physically and socioeconomically susceptible to the flood risk posed by accelerated SLR and intensified storm surge. In this paper, within a scenario design of SLR and storm surge, a GIS-based dataset of major coastal tourist attractions in coastal Zhejiang is created to assess their potential flood risk by using a simple inundation model and a risk matrix. It is estimated that only two resorts would be directly flooded by a SLR of 1-2 m, but extensive inundation of coastal tourism communities may occur during low-frequency surges, especially after adding predicted 1-m SLR. The risk assessment further shows that a majority of the exposed sites is subject to moderate and low risk at current state but would be at higher (moderate and high)-risk categories in the future. In the long term, a combination of adaption measures is presented for policy-makers and other stakeholders for sustainable flood risk management in coastal tourism destinations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Warming of the climate system is unequivocal, and the change of climate variables will eventually have a great impact on vegetation cover and agricultural practices, especially in the arid area Xinjiang in China, whose agriculture and ecosystems are heavily vulnerable to climate change. In this paper, normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) was used to study the vegetation growth and its response to climate change in Xinjiang. Firstly, two NDVI datasets (Global Inventory Modeling and Mapping Studies (GIMMS) and Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS)) were merged through a pixel-wise regression analysis to obtain a long time series of NDVI data, and then, relationships between yearly NDVI and yearly climate variables, and monthly NDVI and monthly climate variables were extensively investigated for grassland and cropland in northern and southern Xinjiang, respectively. Results show the following: (1) there was an increasing trend in NDVI for both grassland and cropland in both northern and southern Xinjiang over the past decades and trends were significant except that for grassland in northern Xinjiang; (2) precipitation and evaporation were more important than temperature for grassland in northern Xinjiang, while precipitation and temperature were more important than evaporation for grassland in southern Xinjiang and cropland in both northern and southern Xinjiang; (3) NDVI was highly correlated with accumulated monthly precipitation instead of monthly precipitation, and there was a lagged effect of precipitation, temperature, and evaporation on NDVI change. However, lagged effects were only significant in specific months. The results could be helpful to agricultural practices; e.g., based on lagged effect of precipitation, irrigation in July is very important for crop growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Technical change has a pivotal role to play in low-carbon development. Recent research has offered different insights regarding the effect of technical change on CO2 emissions but ignored the bias of technical changes which lead to changes in CO2 emissions. To fill the gap, this paper uses the 2008 to 2015 provincial-level data on China's 22 industrial sub-sectors to investigate both the effect of directed technical change on CO2 emissions and its heterogeneity. We find that the technical change in most industrial sectors in China was capital-biased, although a labor-biased trend was evident. Labor-biased technical change is conducive to CO2 reduction, while capital-biased technical change has the opposite effect. Moreover, this effect is different by developmental periods, industries, and regions. Therefore, we propose that the government promotes labor-biased technical change based on the differentiated characteristics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Historical records truthfully document human life and activities associated with climate and environmental changes. Based on the official historical records for the years 1–1911 Common Era (i.e., a period of 1911 years), we examine how the 408 epidemic events, occurring in 282 years, are related to solar activity, geographical locations, seasons, and natural disasters of anomalous temperature and irregular precipitation, in China. The epidemics occur more frequently during the low solar activity period. The inland area and area north to the climate boundary of Qinling–Huaihe Line along 35° geographic latitude, in particular, suffer epidemics more often during low solar activity periods. In fact, 45% or more epidemics occurred in summer, while less than 9% occurred in winter. The infection is highly related to social distancing, and therefore the epidemics also occur likely in areas with high-density population or heavy traffic. Statistical tests further demonstrate that natural disasters owing to anomalous temperature and irregular precipitation act as mediators which significantly cause the epidemics in ancient China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Black carbon (BC) encompasses a range of carbonaceous materials––including soot, char, and charcoal––derived from the incomplete combustion of fossil fuels and biomass. Urban soils can become enriched in BC due to proximity to these combustion sources. We conducted a literature review of BC in urban soils globally and found 26 studies reporting BC and total organic carbon (TOC) content collected to a maximum of 578 cm depth in urban soils across 35 cities and 10 countries. We recorded data on city, climate, and land use/land cover characteristics to examine drivers of BC content and contribution to TOC in soil. Results: All studies were conducted in the northern hemisphere, with 68% of the data points collected in China and the United States. Surface samples (0–20 cm) accounted for 62% of samples in the dataset. Therefore, we focused our analysis on 0–10 cm and 10–20 cm depths. Urban soil BC content ranged from 0–124 mg/g (median = 3 mg/g) at 0–10 cm and from 0–53 mg/g (median = 2.8 mg/g) at 10–20 cm depth. The median proportional contribution of BC to TOC was 23% and 15% at 0–10 cm and 10–20 cm, respectively. Surface soils sampled in industrial land use and near roads had the highest BC contents and proportions, whereas samples from residential sites had among the lowest. Soil BC content decreased with mean annual soil temperature. Conclusions: Our review indicates that BC comprises a major fraction (nearly one quarter) of the TOC in urban surface soils, yet sampling bias towards the surface could hide the potential for BC storage at depth. Land use emerged as an importer driver of soil BC contents and proportions, whereas land cover effects remain uncertain. Warmer and wetter soils were found to have lower soil BC than cooler and drier soils, differences that likely reflect soil BC loss mechanisms. Additional research on urban soil BC at depth and from diverse climates is critical to better understand the role of cities in the global carbon cycle. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the largest terrestrial organic carbon pool, soil organic carbon (SOC) plays an important role in the global carbon cycle, but it is easily affected by land use and climate change. The Huang-Huai-Hai Plain (HHHP) in China, which is dominated by dry farming, is experiencing rapid farmland loss and gain (farmland use transition), which may cause drastic changes in SOC storage. To clarify the effects of farmland use transition on SOC in dry farming areas, this study adopted a land use transition matrix and spatial analyst tool to explore the characteristics of farmland use transition and its effects on SOC content and stocks in the 200 cm soil layer in the HHHP from 2000 to 2020. The results showed that the farmland use transition in this area during that time period resulted in a net decrease of 16.06 × 103 km2 of farmland, of which urban built-up land and rural settlements led to a net reduction of farmland by 9.74 × 103 km2 and 6.43 × 103 km2, respectively, which was mainly affected by climate, topography, and economic factors. In addition, the farmland use transition resulted in a net increase in SOC storage of 6.13 Tg C, contributing 44.32% of the net increase. This is likely because the change in land use type led to a change in soil bulk density and soil gravel content while altering the SOC content, which in turn affected the SOC stock. This study has important implications for addressing global climate change and maintaining sustainable agricultural resources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The future state of drought in China under climate change remains uncertain. This study investigates drought events, focusing on the region of China, using simulations from five global climate models (GCMs) under three Shared Socioeconomic Pathways (SSP1-2.6, SSP3-7.0, and SSP5-8.5) participating in the Inter-Sectoral Impact Model Intercomparison Project (ISIMIP3b). The daily Standardized Precipitation Evapotranspiration Index (SPEI) is employed to analyze drought severity, duration, and frequency over three future periods. Evaluation of the GCMs' simulations against observational data indicates their effectiveness in capturing historical climatic change across China. The rapid increase in CO2 concentration under high-emission scenarios in the mid- and late-future century (2040–2070 and 2071–2100) substantially influences vegetation behavior via regulation on leaf stomata and canopy structure. This regulation decelerates the increase in potential evapotranspiration, thereby mitigating the sharp rise in future drought occurrences in China. These findings offer valuable insights for policymakers and stakeholders to develop strategies and measures for mitigating and adapting to future drought conditions in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Low-carbon transition stands as a vital strategy for the global community to address the challenge of climate change, inevitably affecting residents' daily lives. However, there is a notable gap in the quantitative analysis of the low-carbon transition's impact on energy poverty in developing countries, limiting policymakers' understanding of the inherent mechanism and their ability to take informed actions. This study investigates the low-carbon city pilot (LCCP) policy, China's key low-carbon initiative, as a quasi-natural experiment, using the difference-in-differences (DID) method to examine its impact on residents' energy poverty conditions. Utilizing panel data from 4807 households in the CHARLS dataset, this study effectively integrated household-level and city-level data. Benchmark regression indicates that the LCCP policy exacerbates energy poverty among residents. Further analysis reveals the pivotal role of energy infrastructure and expenditure in bridging the nexus between the LCCP policy and energy poverty, providing crucial insights into the potential pathways through which this policy impacts energy poverty. Additionally, heterogeneity analysis indicates that the impacts of LCCP policy are more pronounced in eastern cities, non-resource cities, and high administrative-level cities, as well as in the communities suffering from subpar governance quality. By leveraging reliable survey data and robust quantitative methods, this study not only broadens the methodology of energy poverty studies but also offers valuable insights for developing countries to safeguard residents' energy welfare amid low-carbon transitions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The abnormity of climate change poses environmental concerns and indirectly promotes the development of low-carbon economic growth pattern. Climate change mitigation technology innovations contribute significantly to achieve environmental goals in China, and thus, technological cooperation has become a strategic choice for the Chinese provinces to achieve technological breakthroughs. Based on 3, 280, 808 patents, this study uses social network analysis (SNA) method and similarity measurement to discuss the evolution process and structural features of the spatial correlation network to analyze the patent data from 1985 to 2020. The process for the research is as follows. First, a form solution of the correlation problem to calculate the minimum Euclidean distance is available in the field of social network. Second, the European distance is used to measure the similarity between provinces, and then, SNA is used to construct the spatial correlation network. Finally, the similarity of growth trend of provincial patent applications in different years from a nonlinear perspective is described, so as to calculate the potential provincial linkage strength. The results demonstrate that low-carbon technology innovation in China takes the form of a network structure. The network exhibits significant characteristics of regional agglomeration, and several central provinces exert the role of mediation and transmission, such as Tianjin, Hubei, and Henan. The study contributes by illustrating the current situation of green technology innovation and provides a critical theoretical foundation for the government when formulating future low-carbon economy development policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Quantifying the urbanization effect on trends in climate extremes is important both for detection and attribution studies and for human adaptation; however, a fundamental problem is how to accurately estimate a trend and its statistical significance, especially for non-Gaussian and serially dependent data. In this paper, the choice of trend estimation and significance testing method is suggested as important for these kinds of studies, as illustrated by quantifying the urbanization effect on trends in seven hot-extreme indices for the megacity of Shanghai during 1961-2013. Both linear and nonlinear trend estimation methods were used. The trends and corresponding statistical significances were estimated by taking into account potential non-Gaussian and serial dependence in the extreme indices. A new method based on adaptive surrogate data is proposed to test the statistical significance of the ensemble empirical mode decomposition (EEMD) nonlinear trend. The urbanization contribution was found to be approximately 34 % (43 %) for the trend in the non-Gaussian distributed heat wave index based on nonparametric linear trend (EEMD nonlinear trend) estimation. For some of the other six hot-extreme indices analyzed, the urbanization contributions estimated based on linear and nonlinear trends varied greatly, with as much as a twofold difference between them. For the linear trend estimation itself, the ordinary least squares fit can give a substantially biased estimation of the urbanization contribution for some of the non-Gaussian extreme indices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]