Search

A new species of Pachypaederus Fagel, 1958, P. kongshuhensis Li, sp. nov., is described from Yunnan Province, China. This species represents the third member of the genus from the Oriental region. Color plates of the habitus, labrum, mandibles, sternites VII-IX of the male and female, as well as the aedeagal structures are provided. A key to Oriental Pachypaederus species is provided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With rapid economic growth and urbanization, self-sufficiency in crop production has become central to China's agriculture policy. Accurate crop production statistics are essential for research, monitoring, and planning. Although researchers agree that China's statistical authority has considerably modernized over time, China's economic statistics have still been viewed as unreliable and often overstated to meet growth targets at different administrative levels. Recent increases in crop production reported by national statistics have also come under increasing scrutiny. This paper investigates crop production data quality from a planetary boundary perspective--comparing net primary production (NPP) harvested obtained from national statistics with satellite-driven NPP estimates that are supported by detailed observation of land cover, combined with observations on physical factors that limit plant growth. This approach provides a powerful means to check the plausibility of China's grain production statistics at different administrative levels that can generate insights about their discrepancies and can contribute to improved crop production measurements. We find some evidence of potential misreporting problems from the lower administration level where the risk of manipulation of statistics is higher. We also find problems from provincial-level major grain producers. These values can also affect the national totals. Although the numbers are affected by large uncertainties, we find that improving the spatial resolution of key agricultural parameters can greatly improve the reliability of the indicator that in turn can help improve data quality. More reliable production data will be vital for relevant research and provide better insights into food security problems, the carbon cycle, and sustainable development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With support of GIS tools and Theil index, the spatial variance of urban energy consumption in China was discussed in this paper through the parallel comparison and quantitative analysis of the 30 provincial capital cities of mainland China in 2005, in terms of scale, efficiency and structure. The indicators associated with urban energy consumption show large spatial variance across regions, possibly due to diversities of geographic features, economic development levels and local energy source availability in China. In absolute terms, cities with the highest total energy consumption are mostly distributed in economic-developed regions as Beijing-Tianjin-Tangshan Area, Yangtze River Delta and Pearl River Delta of China, however, the per capita urban energy use is significantly higher in the Mid-and-Western regions. With regard to the energy mix, coal still plays the dominant role and cities in Mid-and-Western regions rely more on coal. In contrast, high quality energy carrier as electricity and oils are more used in southeast coastal zone and northern developed areas. The energy intensive cities are mainly located in the northwest, while the cities with higher efficiency are in southeast areas. The large spatial variance of urban energy consumption was also verified by the Theil indices. Considering the Chinese economy-zones of East, Middle and West, the within-group inequalities are the main factor contributing to overall difference, e.g., the Theil index for per capita energy consumption of within-group is 0.18, much higher than that of between group (0.07), and the same applies to other indicators. In light of the spatial variance of urban energy consumptions in China, therefore, regionalized and type-based management of urban energy systems is badly needed to effectively address the ongoing energy strategies and targets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]