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The Niviventer fulvescens species complex (NFSC), a group of abundant and taxonomically ambiguous rodent taxa, is distributed from Southeast Asia to south-eastern China. We combined molecular and morphological datasets to clarify the species composition and variation of the NFSC. Our phylogenetic analyses, using molecular data, recovered eight genetic lineages in the NFSC, including a novel, distinct lineage from Jilong, Tibet, China, which is described as a new species, N. fengi sp. nov. The species status of N. fengi is supported by a species delimitation analysis, and it is morphologically distinguished from other members of the NFSC by its greyish dorsal fur, soft hairs covering the whole body and a hairy tail. NFSC species bearing well-developed spines are found at lower elevations. A comprehensive taxonomic revision of the NFSC within China is provided, represented by five species: N. cremoriventer, N. fulvescens, N. huang, N. mekongis comb. nov. and N. fengi. A further study of this species complex, including samples from Southeast Asia, is needed.

Understanding the change of river islands is essential for water conservancy construction, channel navigation safety, and industrial/agricultural production. Yangtze River is the largest river in China; however, there are few long-term monitoring results on the changes of Yangtze River islands. To fill this gap, Landsat data available on the Google Earth Engine (GEE) were used to obtain the annual changes of the Yangtze River islands located from the lower reaches of the Three Gorges Dam (TGD) to the Yangtze River delta during 1986-2017. Moreover, we focused on the changes of those islands before and after the construction of the TGD. Annual areas of all river islands were calculated and spatial-temporal pattern of Yangtze River islands were analyzed. Our satellite observation results show continuous expansions of Yangtze River islands after the construction of the TGD in 2003. For the total 138 river islands, in three stages: before 2003, after 2003 and in the 32-year study period, 68, 118, and 124 river islands showed increasing trends, with the net increase of 286.47 km2, 417.49 km2, and 665.62 km2. For the total 92 river island groups (138 islands), percentages of river island expansion are 41.30% (before 2003), 80.43% (after 2003) and 88.04% (1986-2017). Moreover, we found 10 newly developed river islands, with a net expansion of 87.42 km2 and an expansion rate of 2.73 km2/year. The significant decrease (2-4 m) in water level before and after the TGD might be the main factor that results in the observed expansion of Yangtze islands downstream the TGD. We also highlighted the importance of using all available Landsat imagery for tracking the changes of river islands. Our satellite-derived dataset provide reference data for the land use planning and environmental protection in the Yangtze River drainage basin.

Climate warming and its corresponding impacts on agriculture system increasingly attach great attentions. Earlier studies more concerned the impacts of the cultivated area expansion under climate change. Yet limited knowledge is about the impacts of climate warming on the cropping index change with the shifts of cropping system border. In this study, we used climatic data (1961-2015) to firstly investigate impacts of warming temperature on potential cropping system border expansion of China, and further used agricultural statistical data and satellite-based land use data to analyze the response of current land system to potential cropping system border expansion. Results of this study indicated that obviously advanced SDT10 and prolonged EDT10 contributed to the 88.4% regions of increased AAT10 at the past half century. Moreover, the northward expansion of the suitable cultivated areas in different cropping systems provided advantages for potential multiple cropping index (PMCI) improvement. Unfortunately, this study found that a significantly declined multiple cropping index (MCI) was observed in the peri-urban regions and the provinces with large out-migration of agriculture labor. The evidently increased MCI was only greatly observed in Xinjiang province. Besides, the potential increment of multiple cropping index (PIMCI) for different cropping system border expansion regions presented a rising trend and reached 53.6% in 2015 due to warming climate. Particularly, the significantly increased PIMCI was observed in the Loess Plateau, the Inner Mongolia, the Middle-lower Yangtze Plain, Northeast China Plain, Southern China and Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Metropolitan Region. However, the response of current land system to the changes of PMCI and PIMCI was not timely. Based on the findings of our study, some potential agriculture development strategies were suggested by comprehensively considering regional natural conditions, agricultural production conditions and socioeconomic conditions. We hope these findings of this study could provide some valuable information for agricultural development policy decision-making.

Rural development degree (RDD) evaluation is a very valuable guidance for rural sustainable development. Earlier studies of RDD evaluatons more focusd on establishing index system, analysing spatial–temporal evolving patterns and functional differentiations. Weighting assignment (WA) method selection is a vital step for rural development degree (RDD) evaluation, but impacts of different WA methods on indicator weight determination and RDD evaluation were not well clarified. This study therefore employed three dominant WA methods, covering equal weight method, entropy method and mean square error method, along with a developed RDD evaluation index system to compare the differences of indicator weights and uncertainties of RDD evaluation. The results indicated that the spatial patterns of three WA-based RDD maps had great differences although using the same evaluation indicators. The RDD types with the largest proportion generated from different WA methods were also spatially various. Spatial distributions of RDD generated by various WA methods regions performed largely differences in central, northeastern and southwestern China. Our analyses found that the differences from industrial prosperity dimension and ecology livability dimension owing to utilizing different WA methods were largely responsible for the RDD spatial distributions in this study. This study gave some potential suggestions for WA method selection in RDD evaluation according to the data characteristics, WA method principles and application requirements. Among them, entropy method was suitable for indicator data with great dispersion degree and mean square error method would be better describe indicator differences with large indicator number. Besides, this study also underlined that WA-derived uncertainties should be paid more attentions in rural development and rural revitalization evaluation.

Land greening in China is regarded as contributing a great deal to greening of the Earth. The phenomenon is mainly attributed to climate change, arising atmospheric CO2 and ‘Grain for Green’ (GFG) land management policies. However, limited knowledge is known how much land greening is from contributions of the GFG practice. Therefore, the study took the typical region of the GFG practice, the Loess Plateau, as the study area, and used 1982–2015 satellite-observed GIMMS3g normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) data, ERA-Interim climatic variables (precipitation, temperature and solar radiation) and atmospheric CO2 concentration data with the help of a developed TPRC-based NDVI model to derive GFG-induced NDVI after 1999. Furthermore, this study tracked the spatial-temporal dynamics of GFG-induced NDVI and assessed contributions of the GFG practice to regional vegetation changes. Results showed that satellite-observed NDVI and TPRC-based NDVI both exhibited an increasing spatial pattern from the northwestern to southeastern Loess Plateau, but their greening trends were separately 0.0022 and 0.0009 per year in 1982–2015 (p

Climate conditions are the major driving factors of vegetation phenology. However, there is limited effort to monitor dynamics of vegetation phenology and its responses to climate change and urbanization. Using NDVI data from 1982 to 2015, this study investigated the spatiotemporal change of spring green-up date (GUD) across the Yellow River Basin (YRB) and estimated the possible effects of different climatic factors on it. Additionally, the urban-rural differences in GUD and its linkage to spring land surface temperature (LST) for YRB’s major cities over 2001–2015 were investigated. The results showed that the GUD significantly advanced at a rate of 0.42 days yr−1 and delayed spatially from southeast to northwest. The interannual variations in regionally averaged GUD were driven mainly by preseason min-temperature (Tmin). Spatially, the effect of preseason Tmin was strongest in the central and western region. The confounding effects of preseason maximum temperature (Tmax) and precipitation jointly affected the GUD, while insolation had a weak impact on GUD. Moreover, the sensitivity of GUD to preseason Tmin and precipitation weakened with an increasing mean annual preseason precipitation gradient, but the sensitivity to preseason Tmax was gradually enhanced. Furthermore, the difference in the GUD between urban and rural areas presented a significant logarithmic relationship with the distance away from the urban center, and it was strongly related to the regional LST. Our findings confirmed the importance of Tmin and urbanization in regulating changes in GUD and further suggested that LST should be considered to develop an improved model of GUD under future climate change and urban development.

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This study investigates the impact of psychological and social motives for the use of fashion magazines among female college students in Shanghai, China. The results of an online survey showed that psychological motives, such as enhancing current body image and preparing for future career roles, were significant predictors of fashion magazine use. The findings also suggest that the desire to satisfy consumerist needs do not motivate students’ fashion magazine use.