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The classification of Köppen climate type has been widely used to identify regional climate change. This study investigated the changes of Köppen climate type over China during 1964 - 2015. On average, the arid climate was located in the northwest, tropical climate, temperate climate, and cold climate were distributed in the east from south to north along the latitude, and polar climate was concentrated on the Tibetan Plateau. Comparing Köppen climate types during 1964 - 1989 and 1990 - 2015, we found that cold climate with dry winter was replaced by a cold steppe climate in Northeast China and North China, warm summer was replaced by cold summer in Northeast China and the Tibetan Plateau, tundra climate was substituted by cold climate in the Tibetan Plateau, and cold climate was replaced by temperate climate in Central China and East China. Our results showed that the arid climate expanded eastward and southward, which may have resulted from a decrease in precipitation. Owing to the increase in temperature, the climate zones moved northward. This study provides valuable insights for government decision-makers in formulating crop planting systems, water resource management, and land use planning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Stalagmite is one kind of secondary carbonates formed in limestone caves (speleothem). After cave water droplets containing Ca2+ and H C O 3 − drip onto floor, carbonate in the water might become supersaturated due to CO2 degassing under certain conditions, resulting in the formation of stalagmite in a process year after year. Stalagmite is one of important geological archives for paleoclimate research. The advantages include wide spatial distribution, suitable for U-Th and U-Pb dating, enriched in climate proxies, continuity, long time span, comparability and lower sampling cost etc. These factors have propelled stalagmite paleoclimate research to the forefront of global paleoclimatology with an irreplaceable role. The stalagmite paleoclimate study started in the western countries, mainly in Europe and America in 1960s–1970s, while the relevant research in China was progressively developed in the 1980s–1990s after the Reform and Opening up. Although there was a huge gap between the overall research level in China and western countries, a solid research foundation, as well as a number of talent teams were established during the period. In the 21st century, starting from the publication of stalagmite records from Hulu Cave in Nanjing in 2001, the stalagmite paleoclimate research in China has ushered in a flourishing development and a real leap on the basis of international cooperation, resulting in significant international impacts. The landmark achievements, including establishment of the world's longest (640000 years) East Asian monsoon stalagmite record, as well as the longest Indian monsoon (280000 years), South American monsoon (250000 years), North American westerly climate (330000 years), Central Asian westerly climate (135000 years), and northwestern China westerly climate (500000 years), have laid a milestone in the paleoclimate study in these climate domains. Importantly, these stalagmite records have revealed the relationship of Asian monsoon variations with solar insolation climate change in polar regions, and the South American monsoon changes on orbital-suborbital timescales, which have provided new geological observations for the development of orbital-suborbital climate theory; elaborated coupling and differentiation relationships between the Asian monsoon and the westerly climate; reconstructed the history of Asian monsoon changes in the Holocene in detail, and thus the hydrological and climate variances behind Chinese and Indian civilization-cultural evolutions. Furthermore, a large number of high-resolution stalagmite records over the past 2000 years have been reconstructed, which are important for understanding short-term climate variability and magnitude, events, cycles, and thus the future climate projection. The achievements have also involved the improvements of a number of important techniques, such as U-Th dating method, the establishments of various hydroclimatic proxies, as well as the contributions to the reconstruction of the atmosphere 14C variation history over the past ∼54000 years. On the perspective of the future, the Chinese stalagmite community should continue to develop key techniques, further clarify the hydroclimatic significance of stalagmite proxies, impel the integration of related disciplines, and concentrate on key scientific issues in global climate change and major social demands. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The first fully coupled atmosphere-ocean-sea ice model developed in China was released in the mid-1990s. Since then, significant advances in climate system model developments have been achieved by improving the representations of major physical processes, increasing resolutions, and including an ice-shelf component. There have also been many modeling studies in China on the polar climate system, including weather and sea-ice numerical forecasts to meet the national needs of polar scientific expeditions, assessments of the state-of-the-art coupled model performance, and process-oriented studies. Future model developments and modeling activities will need to address several big scientific questions originating from the polar climate system: i) How will polar ice mass balance evolve and affect global sea level? ii) How can we properly simulate open-ocean deep convection and quantify its role in driving the lower branch of the global overturning circulation? iii) How are Arctic and Antarctic connected and what caused the contrasting sea ice trends in the two polar regions over the last decades? To address these questions, polar climate system modelers will need to analyze extended observational datasets on a global scale and work together with other polar researchers to develop a more comprehensive and sustainable observation system in the polar regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]