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The Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau (QTP), known as the "Third Pole of the Earth", contains fragile ecosystems and is sensitive to global environmental changes. With the intensification of climate change and human activities, the land cover of the QTP is changing significantly, which affects its function as an ecological security barrier. This paper searched 379 papers in the Web of Science core database, conducted a bibliometric analysis, and proposed potential future research directions to gain a macroscopic understanding of the impact of land use and cover change (LUCC) on the regional and global ecological environment of the QTP. The results are as follows. (1) The period from 1995 to 2022 witnessed an overall increase in the number of publications in this field with a high development potential. (2) Climate change, land use, China, impacts, conservation, and management were high-frequency keywords in the field; among these, climate change has received increasing research attention since 2018. (3) The field included three main research directions: the impact of LUCC on biodiversity, the impact of land degradation on ecosystems, and the impact of climate change and land use changes on ecosystem services. (4) The development and evolution of research hotspots were mainly focused on three aspects: the impact of cultivated land expansion and deforestation, the impact of land use management and conservation, and the impact of climate change and human activities on LUCC. (5) Future research should focus on improving the accuracy of land use and cover data on the QTP, assessing and preventing the ecological risks of LUCC, investigating the impacts of human activities on LUCC and the ecological environment, and exploring the interactions between climate change and human activities on the ecological environment. The findings of this paper will help researchers and stakeholders gain a rapid and comprehensive understanding of this research area and thus contribute to the sustainable development of the QTP. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The long-standing development pattern dominated by international circulation makes China face the risk of "low-end lock-in" and "being decoupling". In addition, the current global climate change and environmental crisis are becoming increasingly severe, coupled with the COVID-19 impact. Chinese enterprises must actively build a green development system for domestic industries in a mutually reinforcing manner in the context of the domestic general circulation, in order to adapt to the new dual circulation environment as soon as possible. This paper analyzes the specific coupling and coordination relationship between the two systems based on the relevant data of China's three major industries from 2008–2014 using Index DEA, entropy value method, gray correlation analysis and coupling coordination model. The results of the study show that: the two systems of dual circulation pattern and industrial green development have a strong correlation and basically present a coupling relationship, but within the industry, there is a problem of the collapse of the tertiary industry. In terms of the type of coupling, the domestic and international circulation in general gradually present the green development leading state, except for the primary industrial segment of the international circulation. On the whole, the coupling quality of the two systems needs to be further improved. Based on this, this paper puts forward the following suggestions: (1) coordinate the internal and external development of the industry; (2) take innovation as the driving force to promote the green transformation of industries; (3) take green sharing as the goal to strengthen the policy orientation of green development; (4) take the opportunity of mutual promotion of dual circulation to stabilize the steady state of green development coupling. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urbanization is accelerating globally, causing a variety of environmental changes such as increases in air temperature, precipitation, atmospheric CO2, and nitrogen (N) deposition. However, effects of these changes on forest soil carbon (C) sequestration remain largely unclear. Here we used urban-to-rural environmental gradients in Guangdong Province, southern China, to address the potential effects of these environmental changes on soil C sequestration in Pinus massoniana forests. In contrast with our expectations and earlier observations, soil C content in urban sites was significantly lower than those in suburban and rural sites. Lower soil C pools in urban sites were correlated with a significant decrease in fine root biomass and a potential increase in soil organic C decomposition. Variation of soil C pools was also a function of change in soil C fractions. Heavy fraction C content in urban sites was significantly lower than those in suburban and rural sites. By contrast, light fraction C content did not vary significantly along the urban-to-rural gradient. Our results suggest that urbanization-induced environmental changes may have negative effect on forest soil C. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Land use/cover change (LUCC) detection and modeling play an important role in global environmental change research, in particular, policy-making to mitigate climate change, support land spatial planning, and achieve sustainable development. For the time being, a couple of hybrid models, such as cellular automata–Markov (CM), logistic–cellular automata-Markov (LCM), multicriteria evaluation (MCE), and multicriteria evaluation–cellular automata–Markov (MCM), are available. However, their disadvantages lie in either dependence on expert knowledge, ignoring the constraining factors, or without consideration of driving factors. For this purpose, we proposed in this paper a new hybrid model, the logistic–multicriteria evaluation–cellular automata–Markov (LMCM) model, that uses the fully standardized logistic regression coefficients as impact weights of the driving factors to represent their importance on each land use type in order to avoid these defects but is able to better predict the future land use pattern with higher accuracy taking Hefei, China as a study area. Based on field investigation, Landsat images dated 2010, 2015, and 2020, together with digital elevation model (DEM) data, were harnessed for land use/cover (LUC) mapping using a supervised classification approach, which was achieved with high overall accuracy (AC) and reliability (AC > 95%). LUC changes in the periods 2010–2015 and 2015–2020 were hence detected using a post-classification differencing approach. Based on the LUC patterns of the study area in 2010 and 2015, the one of 2020 was simulated by the LMCM, CM, LCM, and MCM models under the same conditions and then compared with the classified LUC map of 2020. The results show that the LMCM model performs better than the other three models with a higher simulation accuracy, i.e., 1.72–5.4%, 2.14–6.63%, and 2.78–9.33% higher than the CM, LCM, and MCM models, respectively. For this reason, we used the LMCM model to simulate and predict the LUC pattern of the study area in 2025. It is expected that the results of the simulation may provide scientific support for spatial planning of territory in Hefei, and the LMCM model can be applied to other areas in China and the world for similar purposes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Securing long-term environmental pollution control in a system where local leaders in China hold tenure for only a short term is a challenge. The innovative Chinese accountability audit of natural resources (AANR) pilot project attempts to address this problem by mandating lifelong accountability for local leaders. Using this pilot as a quasi-natural experiment, we explored macro-effectiveness and micro-mechanisms of AANR. The results show that AANR has a positive impact on the environmental investment behaviour of enterprises. This paper finds that AANR stimulates enterprises' investments in the environment by improving the environmental behaviour of local leaders. During mobilisation meetings, local leaders convey signals on environmental matters. Political connections are bridges which convey the signals of mobilisation to enterprises. Those enterprises receive the signals and increase environmental investment. AANR thus promotes collaborative governance by ensuring that the interests of key stakeholders are aligned to prevent pollution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Land use change is a significant contributor to global environmental change. The expansion of urban areas has increasingly impacted rural ecological environments, in particular the shift from agro-ecosystems to urban ecosystems, leading to alterations in land use patterns. Rural land use has led to economic, social, and environmental problems, including poor economic efficiency, emissions of pollutants, and increased environmental crises. The research of alterations in rural land use and their consequential environmental ramifications has garnered escalating attention, evolving into an indispensable subject of inquiry within pertinent academic disciplines. This study aims to obtain a comprehensive understanding of the ecological impacts of rural land use change. We examined 1237 literature sources through the Web of Science database and conducted a bibliometric analysis utilizing the Bibliometrix tool. Secondly, based on the results of bibliometric analysis, we conducted a review study on the impact of rural land use changes on the ecological environment, clarified the current research status in this field, and looked forward to future research directions. The study's findings indicate that there has been a steady rise in publication volume from 1982 to 2023 and a significant potential for growth. The top three journals by publication volume are Sustainability, Land Use Policy, and Land. (2) A total of 4768 scholars from 95 countries or regions have contributed publications in this domain, notably led by researchers and institutions predominantly based in China. Developed nations, exemplified by the U.S., exhibit a notable citation frequency and robust research prowess within this field. (3) Land use, urbanization, China, ecosystem services, biodiversity, and remote sensing emerge as keywords of elevated frequency within the field, indicative of the scholarly emphasis on these subjects. (4) Studies in this domain are directed towards evaluating the effects on intrinsic components of the environment, including but not limited to soil quality, atmospheric conditions, water resources, and biodiversity. The implementation of sustainable rural land use strategies is essential for the realization of rural development and environmental protection. In future research efforts, the use of remote sensing technology holds immense potential as a robust technical tool for investigating both land use change and rural ecology, offering viable strategies for addressing environmental challenges in specific, localized regions. The results of this study can assist in comprehending the current state and direction of research in this field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Clues of climate change on the Alashan Plateau since the last glacial period (40 ka) are important for revealing the mechanism of desertification of middle-latitude deserts in the Northern Hemisphere (NH). Studies are still rare for the understanding of the specific relationship of climate changes between the Alashan Plateau and the global. Based on a systematic and comparative analysis of the existing research in China and the international academic community, this paper reviews the environmental evolution history of the Alashan Plateau since the last glacial period from the records of paleo-environment and geomorphological characteristics in different deserts of the plateau (e.g., Badanjilin, Tenggeli, and Wulanbuhe). From about 40 ka to the end of the last glacial maximum, the climate on the plateau was wetter than it is today, and to the end of the Pleistocene, the climate was generally dry and the aeolian activities were enhanced. However, the climate was arid during the whole last glacial period in the Wulanbuhe Desert, evidently different from the overall pattern of the plateau. The Tenggeli Desert was characterized by an arid climate in the early Holocene. The most controversial events for the Alashan Plateau are the drought events in the middle Holocene in the Badanjilin Desert. The role and impact of the westerlies and the East Asian Summer Monsoon (EASM) systems on the climate change of the desert and even the whole plateau is a vexed question that brings different views in different periods. There is still a lack of definite evidence representing the events of global environmental change that occurred on the plateau during the discussed period. The distinctive morphology of dune mountains and the distribution of sand dunes are mutually indicative of the direction and energy of wind systems on the plateau. It is suggested that appropriate wind energy is the significant key to the desertification in these middle-latitude deserts on the plateau. From a global-scale review of climate change, the desertification of the modern-scale sandy desert landscapes on the Alashan Plateau is generally related to the global glacial period and the cold and dry climate during the past 40 ka. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How fishermen produce and live has been a hot topic of academic concern in recent years. However, existing research has focused excessively on marine fishermen. Inland fisheries make a significant but often overlooked contribution to rural livelihoods in developing countries. In this paper, we constructed a framework for fishermen's livelihood strategies and used questionnaires and in-depth interviews to study 275 households of inland fishermen in a professional fishing village at Poyang Lake. The results show that (1) the impact of the comprehensive fishing ban has led to significant changes in the livelihood capital of inland fishermen, leading to fishermen being forced to change their livelihood strategies. (2) The current livelihood strategies can be divided into four categories, which are non-fishing employment, self-employment, public welfare positions and retirement respectively. (3) Livelihood capital such as age, education, social interaction and fishing rights influence their choice of livelihood strategies. (4) The fishing ban proposal generally meets the interests of fishermen, but there is some capacity for improvement in terms of implementation details and policy flexibility. Based on these findings, we recommend that the government conducts further in-depth research and adjusts and improves its policy options in good time. To the satisfaction of all parties, the current policy protects the environment and achieves sustainable human development, making Chinese contributions and proposing Chinese plans to address global environmental change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This is a paper about the speed and intensity with which new and intensive human land use in a semi-arid environment can bring about large-scale environmental change. In particular, this paper pinpoints how and why it was that the Yellow River shifted from a long-term condition of relative stability to a later state of frequent floods and course changes in the eleventh century. It is possible to trace the environmental history of this dramatic and sudden change of state with precision and confidence. Historical sources that record the dates and characteristics of flood events downstream align well with those that note the locations and dates of human activity upstream. More important, each aligns well not only with one another, but also with information from environmental science: sediment cores that preserve soil and pollen evidence for the timing and processes of systematic change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The world currently faces an unprecedented phase of global environmental change largely driven by the combined impact of anthropogenic climate change and environmental degradation. Adaptation to global environmental changes in natural resource management is often hindered by high levels of uncertainty related to environmental impact projections. Management strategies and policies to support adaptation measures and sustainable resource management under substantial environmental uncertainty are thus urgently needed. The paper reports results of behavioral irrigation experiments with farmers and students in the region of Hangzhou in China. The experimental design simulates a small-scale irrigation system with five parties located along an irrigation channel. The first treatment adds weather variability with a drying tendency that influences water availability in the irrigation channel. In the second treatment, the participants can select one of two adaptation options. Our results suggest that participants react with a marked delay to weather uncertainty. In addition, upstream players are more likely to adapt to uncertainty than those further downstream, and groups who show higher levels of cooperation more frequently invest in adaptation measures. Lastly, extraction inequality in earlier stages is found to constitute a key obstacle to collective adaptation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of Remote Sensing is the property of Editorial Office of Journal of Remote Sensing & Science Publishing Co. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Human activities and global environmental changes have transformed terrestrial ecosystems, notably increasing vegetation greenness in China. However, this greening is less effective across the Hu Huanyong Line (Hu Line). This study analyzes dynamic changes and driving factors of nine vegetation net primary productivities (NPPs) in regions divided by the Hu Line using remote sensing data, trend analysis, and the Geodetector model. Findings reveal that from 2001 to 2022, 38.22% of regional vegetation NPP in China increased, especially in the Loess Plateau, Sichuan Basin, and Northeast Plains, while 2.39% decreased, primarily in the southeastern region and southern Tibet. Grasslands contributed 39.71% to NPP north of the Hu Line, and cultivated vegetation contributed 50.58% south. The driving explanatory power of factors on vegetation NPP on the north side of the Hu Line is generally greater than that on the south side. Natural factors primarily drive NPP changes, with human activities having less impact. Combined factors, particularly climate and elevation, significantly enhance the driving explanatory power (q, 0–1). The joint effects of elevation and precipitation on grassland NPP dynamics (q = 0.602) are notable. GDP's influence on broadleaf forests north of the Hu Line (q = 0.404) is significant. Grasslands respond strongly to land use changes and population density, with a combined effect of q = 0.535. Shrubs, alpine vegetation, and meadows show minimal response to individual factors (q < 0.2). These findings offer insights for devising ecological protection measures tailored to local conditions. [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]

Copyright of Advances in Atmospheric Sciences is the property of Springer Nature and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Accurate information on mining land use and land cover change are crucial for monitoring and environmental change studies. In this paper, RapidEye Remote Sensing Image (Map 2012) and SPOT7 Remote Sensing Image (Map 2015) in Pingshuo Mining Area are selected to monitor changes combined with object-based classification and change vector analysis method, we also used R in highresolution remote sensing image for mining land classification, and found the feasibility and the flexibility of open source software. The results show that (1) the classification of reclaimed mining land has higher precision, the overall accuracy and kappa coefficient of the classification of the change region map were 86.67% and 89.44%. It's obvious that object-based classification and change vector analysis which has a great significance to improve the monitoring accuracy can be used to monitor mining land, especially reclaiming mining land; (2) the vegetation area changed from 46% to 40% accounted for the proportion of the total area from 2012 to 2015, and most of them were transformed into the arable land. The sum of arable land and vegetation area increased from 51% to 70%; meanwhile, build-up land has a certain degree of increase, part of the water area was transformed into arable land, but the extent of the two changes is not obvious. The result illustrated the transformation of reclaimed mining area, at the same time, there is still some land convert to mining land, and it shows the mine is still operating, mining land use and land cover are the dynamic procedure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Altay Steppes are part of the vast Eurasian grasslands where nomadic peoples have lived for thousands of years. Mobile pastoral production is still practised in these steppes. In recent years, however, dramatic changes have occurred in the rangeland society and production system. These have mainly resulted from modernization policies at both state and Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region level. Mobile pastoral production is shrinking and herders are switching between subsistence farming and other livelihood alternatives, at times managing to follow specialized livestock production strategies involving seasonal livestock migrations along transhumance routes. This paper uses original ethnographic data in the form of two case studies to describe this flux in a southern Altay Steppe community. Its Kazakh and Altay Uranghay Mongol herders alternate between sedentary subsistence farming and nomadic pastoralism. The paper looks first at the ways people negotiate these swings between different lifestyles and livelihood options. Second, it considers the environmental changes that result from this uncertainty, and particularly the changing patterns of grassland management in the area. Special attention is given to discussion of the complex impact of the national and regional development strategies and of the ways in which those strategies affect the economic and cultural responses of the local community. Study findings suggest a correlation between cultural fragmentation, which undermines grassland management institutions, and grassland fragmentation and pasture degradation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The concept of unusual environment has brought up rational explanation on some tourism phenomena and pointed out a trial orientation for the construction of tourism study system. Based on the available study, the paper further discusses the essence of experience under unusual environment. The paper points out that experience is of some significance to the aspect of human lives and experience under unusual environment means adjusting the state of life through changes of environment. The paper also makes some additional discussions on the definition of tourism based on the perspective of unusual environment, including initiative, temporality, replaceability and limitation of the value of tourism experience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Land use change has become a new field in global change research, and it is closely related to land resource security and sustainable development. The environmental simulation model was mostly used to study the land-use change before. In this paper, we use the Economic Lorenz curve and Gini coefficient of economic model to study the land use structure changes in the western plain of Jilin Province, China. The results showed that the Lorenz curve has the phenomenon of “two near and two far” and Gini coefficient “two increased and two decreased”. That is to say, during the 15 years from 1989 to 2004, the areas of cultivated land and unused land had increased, Lorenz curves were near to the perfect equality line, and the distribution tended to be uniform; the areas of grassland and water body were reduced, the Lorenz curves were away from the perfect equality line, and the distribution tended to be increasingly uneven, which reflects the main process of the land use structure changes. Studying on the land use changes based on Economic model is simpler and more intuitionistic, and had the generalization values. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Owing to the influence of global change, land cover and land use have changed significantly over the last decade in the cold and arid regions of China, such as Madoi County which is located in the source area of the Yellow River. In this paper, land-use/cover change and landscape dynamics are investigated using satellite remote sensing (RS) and a geographical information system (GIS). The objectives of this paper are to determine land-use/cover transition rates between different cover types in the Madoi County over 10 years e.g., from 1990 to 2000. Second, the changes of landscape metrics using various indices and models are quantified. The impact factors of LUCC (Land-Use land cover Change) are systematically identified by integrating remote sensing as well as statistical data, including climate, frozen soil, hydrological data and the socio-economic data. Using 30 m×30 m spatial resolution Landsat (Enhanced) Thematic Mapper (TM/ETM+) data in our study area, nine land cover classes can be discriminated. Our results show that Grassland, Marshes and Water Bodies decrease notably, while oppositely, Sands - Gobi and Barren land increase significantly. The number of lakes with an acreage larger than six hectares decreased from 405 in 1990 to 261 in 2000. Numerous small lakes dried out. The area of grassland with a high cover fraction decreased as well, while the surface area of grassland with a medium level of cover fraction increased. The medium cover fraction grassland mainly originates from high cover fraction grassland. The desertification of land is a serious issue. (ii) The inter-transformations between Grasslands, Barren Land, Sands, Gobi, Water Bodies and Marshes are remarkable. The Shannon-Weaver Diversity Index (SWDI), the Evenness Index (EI) and the extent of Landscape Heterogeneity (LH) has improved. Marshes have become more fragmented hence, with less connected patches. (iii) In the recent 30 years, average annual temperature, the power of evaporation and the index of dryness did increase significantly. Moreover, soil moisture content (SMC) decreased and the drought trend accelerated. The degradation of frozen soil has impacted on the decrease of surface water area and induced a drop in groundwater levels. Monitoring LUCC in sensitive regions would not only benefit from a study of vulnerable ecosystems in cold and high altitude regions, but would provide scientifically based decision-making tools for local governments as well. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Land use change plays an important role in regional socio-economic development and global environmental change. Whether the land is effectively and efficiently used is not only related to the income level of the people in the surrounding cities but also closely related to the local economy and national economy. Intelligent environment refers to the indoor environment with a variety of data acquisition equipment. Combined with related technologies, the reasoning and analysis of the data can be used to realize the functions of activity identification, data perception, and control. In addition, the Yangtze River Delta is an economically developed area in China, and its land use situation is related to the economic development in the next ten or even decades. Therefore, it is necessary to analyze the spatial and temporal pattern of land use in Yangtze River Delta region by remote sensing image technology and GIS in intelligent environment. Based on intelligent environment, this paper uses RS and GIS technology to interpret remote sensing image and map land use in multitemporal coastal zone. The land use dynamic degree model and spatial interpolation method were used to analyze and evaluate the spatial and temporal evolution characteristics of land use in the Yangtze River Delta region, and the landscape pattern changes in the Yangtze River Delta region were analyzed and evaluated. This study found that the land use types in the Yangtze River Delta have transformed each other, and the land use change speed is fast, which is inseparable from the rapid economic development. In the future, in addition to maintaining the rapid and stable development of industry, the rational use of limited land resources, the improvement of agricultural development short board, and the improvement of tourism economic benefits will make the economy of the Yangtze River Delta region to a new level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Investigating the variations in leaf stoichiometry among plant common species at different altitudes, along with the factors that influence these variations and the adaptative strategies employed, is of significant importance for understanding biogeochemical cycles amidst global environmental changes. In this research, we measured soil organic carbon and nutrient concentrations, as well as leaf stoichiometry for plant common species at five altitudes (2400–3200 m with an interval of 200 m) within the Qilian Mountains of Northwest China. This study aims to enhance our understanding of how plant common species in mountainous regions exhibit adaptable responses to altitude variations and how potential environmental changes in the future may influence their leaf functions. Results showed that the leaf C:N:P stoichiometry of plant common species varied with increasing altitude. Across altitudes, mean annual temperature (MAT), soil total phosphorus, mean annual precipitation (MAP), soil water content, and soil nitrate nitrogen were the main factors influencing leaf element concentrations of plant common species. However, leaf stoichiometric ratios were mainly determined by MAT, MAP, and soil total nitrogen. The effects of MAT and MAP on both leaf element concentrations and leaf stoichiometric ratios of plant common species were found to be significant. Plant growth in the study area was mainly limited by P. The results not only highlight the adaptive strategies employed by plants, but also contribute to understanding of leaf stoichiometry, and establishing connections between individual plant species and broader plant community composed of these common species. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses the relationship between megaproject construction and change in water management institutions. Due to the wide geographical distribution of their costs and benefits, which often spans national and provincial borders, water supply megaprojects frequently prompt intentional or evolutionary institutional change. China’s South-North Water Transfer Project (Middle Route), the world’s largest interbasin transfer project, was completed in December 2014 and is now in operation. Based on extensive fieldwork and analysis of Chinese documents, this paper introduces the government actors involved in, and impacted by, the planning and construction of the project. By detailing the interests of these actors, and the way those interests have been affected by the political, economic and environmental changes wrought by the megaproject, it shows that the Middle Route project has already contributed to change in one major financial institution – water pricing – and is exerting pressure on at least two others—infrastructure financing and compensation. Despite the regulatory efforts of the Chinese central government, incomplete institutional change processes threaten the long-term viability of the megaproject. Megaprojects demand institutional change and this must be factored into policymaking processes; business as usual will not suffice if the real benefits of the South-North Water Transfer are to be fairly distributed and its negative social, economic and environmental effects mitigated and appropriately compensated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: China has the biggest population in the world, and has been experiencing the largest migration in history, and its rapid urbanization has profound and lasting impacts on local and national public health. Under these conditions, a systems understanding on the correlation among urbanization, environmental change and public health and to devise solutions at national, local and individual levels are in urgent need.Methods: In this paper, we provide a comprehensive review of recent studies which have examined the relationship between urbanization, urban environmental changes and human health in China. Based on the review, coupled with a systems understanding, we summarize the challenges and opportunities for promoting the health and wellbeing of the whole nation at national, local, and individual levels.Results: Urbanization and urban expansion result in urban environmental changes, as well as residents' lifestyle change, which can lead independently and synergistically to human health problems. China has undergone an epidemiological transition, shifting from infectious to chronic diseases in a much shorter time frame than many other countries. Environmental risk factors, particularly air and water pollution, are a major contributing source of morbidity and mortality in China. Furthermore, aging population, food support system, and disparity of public service between the migrant worker and local residents are important contributions to China's urban health.Conclusions: At the national level, the central government could improve current environmental policies, food safety laws, and make adjustments to the health care system and to demographic policy. At the local level, local government could incorporate healthy life considerations in urban planning procedures, make improvements to the local food supply, and enforce environmental monitoring and management. At the individual level, urban residents can be exposed to education regarding health behaviour choices while being encouraged to take responsibility for their health and to participate in environmental monitoring and management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, the RIEMS 2.0 model, source emission in 2006 and 2010 are used to simulate the distributions and radiative effects of different anthropogenic aerosols over China. The comparison between the results forced by source emissions in 2006 and 2010 also reveals the sensitivity of the radiative effects to source emission. The results are shown as follows: (1) Compared with those in 2006, the annual average surface concentration of sulfate in 2010 decreased over central and eastern China with a range of -5 to 0 g/m³; the decrease of annual average aerosol optical depth of sulfate over East China varied from 0.04 to 0.08; the annual average surface concentrations of BC, OC and nitrate increased over central and eastern China with maximums of 10.90, 11.52 and 12.50 g/m³, respectively; the annual aerosol optical depths of BC, OC and nitrate increased over some areas of East China with extremes of 0.006, 0.007 and 0.008, respectively. (2) For the regional average results in 2010, the radiative forcings of sulfate, BC, OC, nitrate and their total net radiative forcing at the top of the atmosphere over central and eastern China were -0.64, 0.29, -0.41, -0.33 and -1.1 W/m², respectively. Compared with those in 2006, the radiative forcings of BC and OC in 2010 were both enhanced, while that of sulfate and the net radiative forcing were both weakened over East China mostly. (3) The reduction of the cooling effect of sulfate in 2010 produced a warmer surface air temperature over central and eastern China; the maximum value was 0.25 K. The cooling effect of nitrate was also slightly weakened. The warming effect of BC was enhanced over most of the areas in China, while the cooling effect of OC was enhanced over the similar area, particularly the area between Yangtze and Huanghe Rivers. The net radiative effect of the four anthropogenic aerosols generated the annual average reduction and the maximum reduction were -0.096 and -0.285 K, respectively, for the surface temperature in 2006, while in 2010 they were -0.063 and -0.256 K, respectively. In summary, the change in source emission lowered the cooling effect of anthropogenic aerosols, mainly because of the enhanced warming effect of BC and weakened cooling effect of scattering aerosols. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Deserts and sandylands that are located in the semi-arid and arid regions in the middle latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere are usually regarded as environmentally sensitive change belts which respond to global climatic change. In northern China, activation or immobilization of sand dunes is mainly influenced by humid and dry variation and is related to stronger or weaker Asian monsoons. In this paper, the history of Holocene millennial-scale climatic and environmental change is reconstructed by the systematic analysis of the geochemical element contents and parameters, along with the OSL and C chronologies, from the different lithologies of the palaeosol-aeolian sand sequence in the south-eastern Mu Us Desert, northern China. Our results indicate that the region was dominated by a dry climate with intensive aeolian activity before 7.2 ka BP, and there was an optimal humid climate and fixed desert in 7.2-4.6 ka. Afterwards, the dune fields became mobile again as the effective humidity declined. Additionally, six dry events were discovered with times of ~7.2, 7.0-6.8, 6.6-5.7, 4.6-4.1, 3.7-3.5, and 3.3-2.5 ka, which were not only coincident with the intervals of millennial-scale weaker Asian summer monsoons, but also accordant with the cold events evidenced in the ice cores and deep-sea deposits of the high latitudes in the Northern Hemisphere. In general, the Holocene climatic and environmental changes had the characteristics of the 'monsoonal mode' and 'abrupt millennial-scale oscillation' in the Mu Us Desert. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China has the second largest area of pastoral land in the world, and these lands and their peoples play a very beneficial role in the global environment. Because of China's huge population, rate of social reform, and economic development, the pastoral ecosystems are at a critical turning point. There is a conflict between national benefit and the land users (mainly herders) benefit. This paper introduces the scale of pastoral land, the history of its management institutions, past and current projects and programs, as well as the current framework of policy and law as relevant to land management. The challenges for pastoral management in terms of institutions, administration, technology and their shifting role in regional economies of scale are also analyzed. Opportunities for sustainable development in China's pastoral lands are presented. Finally, this paper highlights the available approaches for enhancing livelihoods and conserving pastoral land, including establishment of law and policy framework at the national level, redefining use rights for community management, promoting Integrated Ecosystem Management (IEM) as a basis for natural resource utilization, preserving and respecting cultural aspects of pastoral peoples, and shifting the focus from GDP generation to environmental protection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Land cover change (LCC) is both a consequence and a cause of global environmental change. This paper attempts to construct a framework to reveal the driving mechanism and ecological effects of different ecological factors under LCC and to explore the ecological characteristics of future LCC. A rule-mining framework based on a land expansion analysis strategy (LEAS) in the patch-generating land use simulation (PLUS) model was used to analyze the drivers of LCC. Neighborhood analysis and ecological effect index were used to investigate multiple ecological effects of LCC. Remote sensing-based ecological indices (RSEI) and the PLUS and stepwise regression model were introduced to explore and predict the integrated ecological effect of LCC. Focusing on the Weihe River basin, study's main drivers of LCC were precipitation, temperature, elevation, population, water table depth, proximity to governments and motorways, GDP, and topsoil organic carbon were the main drivers of LCC. Change directionality were similar for the effects of greenness and biomass formation but opposite for summertime and wintertime temperature. In addition, the conversion of land cover types to cropland had the most significant integrated ecological effect, followed by forest, grassland-shrubland, and other types. The RSEI is predicted to rise to 0.77 in 2030, and the areas where the ecological quality grade will improve and decrease are concentrated on the east and west sides of Ziwuling Mountain, respectively. The findings of this study have practical significance for land management and ecological protection. • The PLUS Model is used to explore driving mechanism of land cover change (LCC). • Ecological effects of LCC are analyzed from multiple and integrated perspectives. • The integrated ecological effect of land cover types converted to cropland is the most significant. • The PLUS model with stepwise regression predicts a decreasing trend of RSEI in 2030. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Geobiology is a new discipline on the crossing interface between earth science and life science, and aims to understand the interaction and co-evolution between organisms and environments. On the basis of the latest international achievements, the new data presented in the Beijing geobiology forum sponsored by Chinese Academy of Sciences in 2013, and the papers in this special issue, here we present an overview of the progress and perspectives on three important frontiers, including geobiology of the critical periods in Earth history, geomicrobes and their responses and feedbacks to global environmental changes, and geobiology in extreme environments. Knowledge is greatly improved about the close relationship of some significant biotic events such as origin, radiation, extinction, and recovery of organisms with the deep Earth processes and the resultant environmental processes among oceans, land, and atmosphere in the critical periods, although the specific dynamics of the co-evolution between ancient life and paleoenvironments is still largely unknown. A variety of geomicrobial functional groups were found to respond sensitively to paleoenvironmental changes, which enable the establishment of proxies for paleoenvironmental reconstruction, and to play active roles on the Earth environmental changes via elemental biogeochemical cycles and mineral bio-transformations, but to be deciphered are the mechanisms of these functional groups that change paleoenvironmental conditions. Microbes of potential geobiology significance were found and isolated from some extreme environments with their biological properties partly understood, but little is known about their geobiological functions to change Earth environments. The biotic processes to alter or modify the environments are thus proposed to be the very issue geobiology aims to decipher in the future. Geobiology will greatly extend the temporal and spatial scope of biotic research on Earth and beyond. It has great potential of application in the domains of resource exploration and global change. To achieve these aims needs coordinative multidisciplinary studies concerning geomicrobiology and related themes, database and modeling of biogeochemical cycles, typical geological environments, and coupling of biological, physical, and chemical processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focused on the development of a framework for collective water resources management in China to meet the change of drought and flood. Based on the observational data of drought and flood from 1950 to 2009 and the precipitation from 1961 to 2010, using the Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI) method, the evolutionary characteristic of drought and flood was analyzed. The results showed that drought and flood occurred frequently, simultaneous occurrences of drought and flood and the rapid shift between the two were increasing. The framework for collective strategies responding to drought and flood under this ever-changing environment was presented. A series of potential mitigation, prevention, and adaptation strategies were discussed. These included both planning and implementation side strategies. In regard to planning, the strategies for dealing with drought and flood should be shifted from crisis management to collective management, unifying normal and emergency management. Combination risk zoning of drought and flood should be conducted and collective emergency planning should be formulated. Moreover, the regulation capability of water conservancy projects group should be optimized to the highest possible level. In regard to implementation, based on the water resources collective management, rational water allocation for both normal and extreme value processes should be implemented. The water conservancy project groups for the extreme value process should work together, and the flood limit water level of reservoirs should be controlled dynamically. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Water Scarcity and drought are recurrent phenomena in China. In the context of environmental change, an increasing tendency in drought frequency and severity is observed in China in recent years. Therefore, it is imperative to take necessary initiatives to reduce the impacts of drought. In this paper, an attempt is made to identify the best water management strategies to cope with droughts. For this objective the records of historical droughts and their impacts in China over the period of 1950-2009 are analyzed. It is observed that the drought affected area has increased nearly by 12 folds and the drought damaged area has increased by about 22 times in China in last 60 years. Over 87,000 reservoirs were built with a total water storage capacity of about 7,064 billion m to cope with droughts. However, this structural supply-based management strategy was not enough to meet the increasing water demand caused by rapid economic development and population growth. A typical relationship between socio-economic development and water resources management strategy to attain sustainability in water management is developed in this study. The relationship shows that the demand-side water management strategies can be the best option to meet the challenges posed by increased severity of drought, population growth, economic development and possible climate change. The concept is later verified through the analysis of changing pattern of water consumptions by different sectors in last 60 years. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The impoundment of the Three Gorges Dam (TGD) has disturbed the hydrological regime downstream and has directly affected the relationship between the Yangtze River and Dongting Lake. To trace the realistic and potential impacts, this paper examined the changes of the channel morphology and sedimentology caused by the TGD through a field survey on the channel cross-sections and then analyzed the impact on lake water level through BP neural networks. The possible impacts on inundation patterns in lake wetlands were studied based on the lake basin DEM. The results indicate that drastic sediment decline and severe channel erosion are putting considerable pressure on the river and lake. Changing river channels are evident in some monitoring cross-sections. Dongting Lake, for the first time, changed from trapping to supplying net sediment to the Yangtze River. During the water storage periods of the TGD, the water level decreased 2.03 m in 2006 and 2.11 m in 2009 at the outlet of the lake, with extreme decreases up to 3.30 m and 3.02 m, respectively. These changes have inevitably induced alterations in the inundation patterns of the lake wetlands, which in turn have disturbed the ecological function of lake wetlands as habitats for both migratory birds and aquatic fish. The serious droughts in Dongting Lake recent years were largely connected with the above changes. Therefore, proper attention should be paid to this occurrence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Land use/cover change and its driving forces has been one of the most important fields in global environmental change research since the 1990s. Karst areas are distributed extensively on the Earth's surface and are usually characterized by a fragile eco-environment. In southwest China, karst landforms are fully developed and their eco-environment is highly fragile. Over the past decades, irrational land use practice has caused a series of alarming eco-environmental issues including forest clearing, soil erosion, and karst rocky desertification. Therefore, it is of great practical significance to study land use/cover change in this area and its driving forces in order to re-build the damaged eco-environment and achieve sustainable land use. In this paper, the authors conduct a case study on land use/cover change and its natural and human driving forces since the early 1970s in southwest China's Maotiaohe watershed. The results indicate that the land use/cover pattern in the study area has undergone a very complex change, which is a result of combined action of both natural and anthropological factors. In the 1970s and 1980s, climate change and fast population increase played dominating roles in the change of arable land, shrub land, grassland, and rocky desertification land. Since the early 1990s, economic development has gradually taken the place of population change to become the overwhelming human factor to go along with climate change in driving the land use/cover change, particularly the change in arable land, construction land, and rocky desertification land. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This cross-cultural study examined college students' environmental risk perception and their preference in terms of risk communication and educational strategies in China and the United States. The results indicated that the Chinese respondents were more concerned about environmental risk, and they perceived the environmental issues to be more harmful to health, to the environment, and to social economic development of the nation than did the American respondents. Both groups desired transparent communications in decision processes and would support educational strategies that foster behavior change for reduction of environmental risks. On the basis of the findings, the paper discusses the changes that would potentially improve non-formal and formal environmental education in China from the perspectives of program foci and approaches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Discharge from the largest karst spring in north China, the Niangziguan Springs, has been declining since the 1950s. This paper examines the response of these springs to climatic change and anthropogenic influence by attempting a model-based discrimination between phases in the stream discharge record. In Niangziguan Springs Basin, the exploitation of karst groundwater began in 1979. Accordingly, the spring discharge data were divided into two phases: pre-1979 and post-1979. In the first phase (1957-78) the spring discharge was believed to be affected solely by climate change, and in the second phase (1979-2007) the spring discharge was influenced by both climate change and human activities. Using grey system theory, a discharge model was estimated for the first phase. Extrapolating the model, we obtained a projection of the spring discharge during the second phase. Using a water balance calculation, we discerned the respective effects of climate change and human activities on depletion of spring discharge for the second phase. The results show that the contribution of climate change to depletion of Niangziguan Springs is 2.30m3/s and the contribution of anthropogenic activities ranges from 1.89 to 2.90 m3/s, although this assumes a constant for the climate change effect. Accordingly, the anthropogenic effects have been approaching and surpassing the effects of climate change during the second phase. With respect to the impact of human activities on spring discharge, groundwater abstraction accounts for only about 34-52% of the declines; 48-66% of the declines are related to other human activities, such as dewatering from coal mining, dam building and deforestation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The lower Yangtze, eastern China, was colonized by several Neolithic and Bronze Age cultures giving rise to possibly the highest concentration of prehistoric sites in the world. Early Neolithic cultures in the delta region cultivated rice (Oryza sativa) and agricultural developments appear to have occurred throughout the Neolithic with abrupt socio-economic changes possibly associated with the terminal Neolithic. Given the extensive history of environmental exploitation and well-preserved archaeological sites, the Yangtze delta is an ideal setting to explore the complex interactions between humans and their environment. Multiproxies of environmental changes, namely pollen, charcoal and phytoliths, in a 14C AMS-dated sequence of sediments from an exposed profile at Qingpu, Yangtze delta, were investigated. 14C AMS dating indicates that the age range of the sedimentary sequence analysed is from c. 1800 to 6000 BP, and therefore encompasses the terminal Neolithic and subsequent Bronze Age in the region. This paper reviews this sediment-based evidence in the light of current understanding of human-environment interactions during a critical phase of the development of the Yangtze delta and associated human cultures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reviews recently published literature, most of which was published in Chinese, and searches for regional patterns of Holocene changes useful in depicting global patterns. The Holocene in the Xinjiang region can be divided into three stages: a warming and dry early stage (from 11 ∼ 10 to 8 ∼ 7 ka BP), a warm and wet middle stage (from 8 ∼ 7 to 4.5 ∼ 3 ka BP) and a fluctuating cool and dry late stage (since 4.5 ∼ 3 ka BP). The Holocene in the northern Tibetan Plateau can also be divided into three stages: a warming and wet stage (from 10.5 ∼ 10 to 5 ∼ 4 ka BP), followed by a variable drying and probably warm stage (5 ∼ 4 to 3 ka BP) and ending with a cool and dry stage (since 3 ka BP). In the Inner Mongolian Plateau, the early Holocene (from 10.5 ∼ 9.5 to 8 ∼ 7.5 ka BP) was warming and dry, and a warm and wet climate occurred from 7.5 to 3.5, during which the best time was 6.3–3.8 ka BP; the climate has been variably drying and probably cooling since 3.5 ka BP. In the northwestern part of the Loess Plateau, several Holocene palaeosols have been identified (10–9, 7.5–5, 4–3 and 2.7–2 ka BP) with the 7.5–5 ka BP palaeosol being most strongly expressed. The best-developed palaeosol-equivalent in major valleys is a swamp-wetland facies deposited between 8885 and 3805 14C yr BP under an extremely wet regime. The climate has fluctuated significantly at least three times around a dry and probably cool regime after the swamp-wetland facies-depositional period. Our summary shows that the Holocene Climatic Optimum occurred nearly contemporaneously (8–5 ka BP) at all sites in the Xinjiang region, in the Inner Mongolian Plateau and in the northwestern part of the Loess Plateau. A warming and wet early Holocene (10–8 ka BP) in the northern Tibetan Plateau is most likely related to high effective soil moisture resulting from snow and ice melting. We propose here that the middle Holocene Climatic Optimum (8–5 ka BP) in arid to semi-arid China was primarily a delayed response of the low latitude oceans to high latitude peak insolation (9–8 ka BP). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The impacts of economic forest on global environmental change(GEC) are one of the hot issues in environmental study. Based on the 3-year observation data and 40-year climate data, GEC and analysis of the hydrological dynamic characteristics of rubber plantations and estimate of the water balance in the rubber plantations in Hainana Island were made. The results showed that the rainfall intercepted by the canopy of the plantations accounted for 11.45% of the annual rainfall, the total runoff for 23.71%, the total evaporation and transpiration for 63.24% , the soil moisture storage for 1.6% . Analysis of the 40-year rainfall data in the 19 counties of Hainan Island during 1951--1990 showed that the large-scale substitution of the the natural vegetation with the rubber plantations had no significant effect on the local rainfall in Hainan Island. The main reasons are (1) 80% of the rainfall in Hainnan in brought by typhoons: (2) the proportion of 11.6% rubber plantations in total forest coverage in Hainan is not enough to influence the local ranfall in Hainan Island; and (3) although the rubber plantation is artificial vegetation, it has the similar function to the tropical rain forest. Analysis of the total water resource and total GDP of Hainan in 1997 showed that the economic benefit resulted from the water resource was 1.0 RMB Yuan/m[sup3]. The value of hydrological of the rubber plantation in Hainan was 113.9 million RMB yuan/a when compared with tropical rain forest. The paper reaches conclusion that the hydrological eco-service function of rubber plantation has been enhanced after transformed from natural vegetation, which includes the natural service and powerful social service. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Accurate assessment of soil C storage patterns and control factors on a regional and global scale is essential for predicting and mitigating soil C feedback to global environmental change. We used soil samples collected in the Shiyang River Basin in 2018, combined with remote sensing data, climate and meteorological data, watershed hydrological data, and soil physical and chemical properties to discuss the change characteristics and influencing factors of soil organic carbon (SOC) under different soil depths in the Shiyang River Basin in an arid area and analyze the storage model and carbon sequestration potential of soil organic carbon in different geomorphic units. The research results show that, (1) in spatial distribution, the SOC content in the Shiyang River Basin shows an obvious regional difference, and the average content of SOC in the oasis area in the middle reaches significantly higher than that in the mountain area in the upstream and desert area in the downstream. In vertical distribution, the content of SOC in the whole watershed decreases with the soil depth increase. (2) Soil carbon sequestration potential decreased with the increase in soil depth, but there were regional differences. The Oasis area in the middle reaches of the Shiyang River Basin is a high-potential area. In contrast, most of the upper mountain areas and the lower reaches of the desert area are low-potential areas. Environmental factors such as vegetation cover, meteorological factors, and physical and chemical properties of soil are important factors that promote the spatial variability of SOC content. The decisive effect of environmental factors on the SOC content is most significant in the surface layer 0–20 cm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Knowledge of the spatial distribution of populations at finer spatial scales is of significant value and fundamental to many applications such as environmental change, urbanization, regional planning, public health, and disaster management. However, detailed assessment of the population distribution data of countries that have large populations (such as China) and significant variation in distribution requires improved data processing methods and spatialization models. This paper described the construction of a novel population spatialization method by combining land use/cover data and night-light data. Based on the analysis of data characteristics, the method used partial correlation analysis and geographically weighted regression to improve the distribution accuracy and reduce regional errors. China's census data for the years 1990, 2000, and 2010 were assessed. The results showed that the method was better at population spatialization than methods that use only night-light data or land use/cover data and global linear regression. Evaluation of overall accuracies revealed that the coefficient of correlation R-square was >0.90 and increased by >0.13 in the years 1990, 2000, and 2010. Moreover, the local R-square of over 90% of the samples (counties) was higher than the adjusted R-square of the general linear regression model. Furthermore, the gridded population density datasets obtained by this method can be used to analyse spatial-temporal patterns of population density and provide population distribution information with increased accuracy and precision compared to conventional models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines how the Republic of China (ROC) uses economic-related techniques to achieve its foreign policy goals as well as factors that affect the ROC's efforts. The paper's central contention is that the effectiveness of economic diplomacy depends not only on wealth but also on the global environment and the capacity of the Taipei government to negotiate and compromise. In the future, as the ROC's economic leverage decreases and the PRC's sensitivity increases, the Taipei government will need all the statesmanship and leadership at its disposal if it is to employ its economic diplomacy effectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The hydrologic design of nonstationary flood extremes is an emerging field that is essential for water resources management and hydrologic engineering design to cope with changing environment. This paper aims to investigate and compare the capability of four nonstationary hydrologic design strategies, including the expected number of exceedances (ENE), design life level (DLL), equivalent reliability (ER), and average design life level (ADLL), with the last three methods taking into consideration the design life of the project. The confidence intervals of the calculated design floods were also estimated using the nonstationary bootstrap approach. A comparison of these four methods was performed using the annual maximum flood series (AMFS) of the Weihe River basin, Jinghe River basin, and Assunpink Creek basin. The results indicated that ENE, ER and ADLL yielded the same or very similar design values and confidence intervals for both increasing and decreasing trends of AMFS considered. DLL also yields similar design values if the relationship between DLL and ER/ADLL return periods is considered. Both ER and ADLL are recommended for practical use as they have associated design floods with the design life period of projects and yield reasonable design quantiles and confidence intervals. Furthermore, by assuming that the design results using either a stationary or nonstationary hydrologic design strategy should have the same reliability, the ER method enables us to solve the nonstationary hydrologic design problems by adopting the stationary design reliability, thus bridging the gap between stationary and nonstationary design criteria. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim: Palaeoclimate legacies have been reported to influence microbial communities and carbon (C) stocks even after thousands of years. However, the direct and indirect influences of climate legacies on microbial C processes remain poorly understood and thus limit our capacity to predict how climate legacies regulate C cycling. Here, we conducted microbial, soil and vegetation surveys along a continental latitudinal transect of 4200 km covering a wide range of forest biomes. With these data, we evaluated the potential capacity of climate legacies to predict direct and indirect variations in microbial metabolic quotient (MMQ) across and within three main forest biomes: tropical, subtropical and temperate forests. Location: North–south transect (4200 km), China. Time period: 2019. Major taxa studied: Soil microbes. Methods: We used molecular ecology technology to determine microbial biomass and diversity, in addition to a soil incubation experiment to measure MMQ. Results: Palaeoclimate explained a unique portion of the variation in the continental distribution of MMQ, which showed a hump‐shaped pattern with latitude. Locations with increased isothermality (an index of temperature) over the last 20,000 years also showed the highest MMQ in the present day. Moreover, we found multiple indirect effects of climate legacies on MMQ caused either by changes in key soil properties, such as soil organic carbon and ammonium (NH4+), in lower latitudinal regions or by plant traits in higher latitudinal regions. Furthermore, MMQ was positively related to bacterial richness but negatively to fungal richness across forest biomes. Main conclusions: Climate legacies associated with continuous changes in temperature over the last 20,000 years influenced MMQ across forest biomes. Our findings demonstrate that including climate legacies in climate carbon models is essential for better prediction of the microbe‐driven ecosystem processes under global environmental change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the various environmental threats to the world as a result of increasing energy use in China. The author points out that by the year 2030, when China will be a major economic and political power, its carbon dioxide emissions per capita will exceed the world average. With the chart and tables, the author emphasizes the urgency of measures to be taken so as to avoid any global environmental hazards.

With the continuous development of industry, the massive emission of carbon dioxide (CO2) has become a global challenge that cannot be ignored due to its nature as the primary driver of global climate change and environmental crisis. Carbon neutrality is proposed as a global initiative to mitigate climate change. As a developing industrial country, China provides about one-third of global carbon emissions and has set a carbon-neutral goal by 2060. To achieve this goal, continuous efforts across the country are required. In this review, Zhejiang Province, one of the most developed regions in China, is set as a model for analysis. We first summarize the current situation of carbon emission in Zhejiang Province. Then, corresponding sustainable approaches such as ecological and industrial solutions for the reduction of future carbon emissions are introduced for Zhejiang Province. We also provide a direction for the realization of carbon neutrality, focusing on the most promising solutions for Zhejiang Province. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The division of the territorial space functional area is the primary method to study the rational exploitation and use of land space. The research on the Production–Living–Ecological Space (PLES) change and its motivating factors has major implications for managing and optimizing spatial planning and may open up a new research direction for inquiries into environmental change on a global scale. In this study, the transfer matrix and landscape pattern index methods were used to analyze the temporal changes as well as the evolution features of the landscape pattern of the PLES in the Chaohu Lake Basin from 2000 to 2020. Using principal component analysis and grey correlation analysis, the primary driving indicators of the spatial changes of the PLES in the Chaohu Lake Basin and the degree of the influence of various driving factors on various spatial types were determined. The study concluded with a few findings. First, from the standpoint of landscape structure, the Chaohu Lake Basin's agricultural production space (APS) makes up more than 60% of the total area, and it and urban living space (ULS) are the two most visible spatial categories. Second, the pattern of the landscape demonstrates that the area used for agricultural production holds a significant advantage within the overall structure of the landscape. Although there is less connectedness between different landscape types, less landscape dominance, and more landscape fragmentation, the structure of different landscape types tends to be more varied. Third, the findings of the driving analysis demonstrate that the natural climate, population structure of agricultural development, and industrial structure of economic development are the three driving indicators of the change of the PLES. Finally, in order to promote the formation of a territorial space development pattern with intensive and efficient production space, appropriate living space, and beautiful ecological space, it is proposed to carry out land regulation according to natural factors, economic development, national policies, and other actual conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Global change caused by increasing greenhouse gas (GHG) emission has become a common concern of the international community. As the largest emitter of GHGs and the second largest irrigator in the world, a clear understanding of how much GHG is emitted from irrigation in China is of great importance. But no previous studies address this question. So based on Chinese official statistical data, this study estimates GHG emissions from agricultural irrigation in order to inform strategies for reasonable use of water resources and emission reduction. The study finds that in 2010 the total carbon dioxide (CO) equivalent (CO-e) emission from agricultural irrigation is 36.72~54.16 Mt. Emissions from energy activities in irrigation (including water pumping and conveyance) account for 50 % ~ 70 % of total emissions from energy activities in the agriculture sector. Ground water pumping is the biggest emission source, accounting for 60.97 % of total irrigation emissions. Given the extent of global ground water over exploitation, balancing conservation and exploitation of ground water resources is very important to both emission reduction and sustainable development. The GHG emission intensity of irrigation depends largely on water use efficiency, so improvement of water use efficiency (both technical and managerial) can be an effective way to reduce emissions. Enhanced overall management of water utilization, balanced exploitation of water resources to avoid excessive ground water consumption, and active promotion of water use efficiency can contribute to reducing GHG emissions and pressure on water resources and advance sustainable agricultural production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In comparison with the amount of study undertaken on the end-Permian mass extinction, the preceding Guadalupian mass extinction has received little investigation, even though it marks a significant biotic turnover associated with global environmental changes. During the earlier event, reef carbonate production shut down and was replaced by siliceous, mud-rich deposits (SRDs) in South China. However, changes in carbonate platform productivity during this epoch remain to be clarified. This paper presents sedimentological and conodont biostratigraphic investigations on the Guadalupian SRDs developed on the Yangtze Carbonate Platform (YCP) in central Guizhou. The findings are viewed in the context of Guadalupian sequence correlation of South China successions, which shows that the integrity of the YCP failed to match the platform tectonic evolution. The platform evolution saw the onset of major intra-platform depressions and the gradual onlap by SRDs along the platform margin. Stratigraphic correlation reveals that the platform experienced three phases of onlap by SRDs during the early Roadian, the late Wordian and the late Capitanian upwards. Platform carbonates re-expanded their extent following the first two phases, but not during the final phase. An evolutionary model is proposed for the Guadalupian carbonate platform, which follows the contemporaneous eustatic sea-level fluctuations. The partial drowning observed within the platform interior and increasing retreat along the platform margin could suggest an insufficient carbonate sediment supply shedding from the platform top during the Guadalupian. The variation in carbonate productivity raises our attention to the change in shallow-water carbonate factories, which is closely related to the fortunes of carbonate-secreting biota and environmental factors impacting the carbonate platform producers during the Guadalupian. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]