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The changing climate in recent decades has caused rapid, widespread frozen ground degradation of the cryosphere, and changes in frozen ground may largely affect the ecosystem function. This study presents the long-term shrinkage of frozen ground, driven forces and resultant ecological impacts at three high-latitude sites (namely Nenjiang, Jiagedaqi, and Tahe, from low to high latitude) in Northeast China, an area that has received less attention in previous permafrost studies. As the key indicators of frozen ground, the ground surface and subsurface soil temperature (down to 40 cm) were found to increase in the period from the 1970s to the 2000s. The annual mean air temperatures at observation sites have increased significantly at rates of 0.24~0.40 °C/decade from 1971 to 2019, and were found to be negatively correlated to the change in soil freeze depth at the Jiagedaqi and Tahe sites. The annual snow depth at Jiagedaqi was found to decrease at a rate of 1.8 cm/decade, and positively correlate to the soil freezing index. The vegetation status of the three watersheds improved, as indicated by the increased normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) from 2000 to 2017. Our results can make a valuable contribution to knowledge of climate–frozen ground interactions, and can highlight the importance of examining such interaction for permafrost protection in similar high-latitude permafrost-dominated basins.

Appropriate nitrogen (N) application increases crop yield, while its unreasonable application results in environmental problem. Determining the appropriate N application rate is the key to sustainable development. Here, the denitrification-decomposition (DNDC) model was used to analyze the effects of N fertilizer on maize yields, economic benefits, nitrate leaching, and nitrous oxide emissions in China. The N application rate for the trade-off between economy and environment at the county scale was further determined. The geodetector model was used to identify the main driving factors and their interactions of the recommended N rate in each agricultural zone. The results showed that the recommended N rate was generally high in the northwest but low in the south, consistent with the spatial patterns of yield potential. However, clay soils with clay ratios greater than 34% in southern China and sandy soils with bulk densities greater than 1.5 g cm

Flash flood in small catchments of hilly area is an extremely complicated nonlinear process affected by catchment properties and rainfall spatio-temporal variation characteristics including many physical-geographical factors, and thus accurate simulation of flash flood is very difficult. Given the fact that hundreds of hydrological models are available in the literature, how to choose a suitable hydrological model remains an unsolved task. In this paper, we selected five widely used hydrological models including three lumped hydrologic models, a semi-distributed hydrological model and a distributed hydrological model for flash flood simulation, and studied their applicability in fourteen typical catchments in hilly areas across China. The results show that the HEC-HMS distributed hydrological model outperforms the other models and is suitable to simulate the flash floods caused by highly intense rainfall. The Dahuofang model (lumped) has higher precision in peak runoff time simulation. However, its performance is quite poor on the flood volume simulation in the small catchments characterized by intense vegetation coverage and highly developed stream network. The Antecedent precipitation index and Xinanjiang models (lumped) can obtain good simulation results in small humid catchments as long as long-term historical precipitation and runoff data are provided. The TOPMODEL also shows good performance in small humid catchments, but it is unable to simulate the flash floods characterized by the rapid rise and recession. Our results could be very beneficial in practice, since these provide a solid foundation in the selection of hydrological model for flash flood simulation in small catchments in hilly area.

High-resolution digital elevation models (DEMs) offer opportunities for channel network extraction due to its representation of realistic topography. Channels are generally surrounded by well-defined banks that have a distinct signature in the contour lines. Contour curvature is one of the important topographic attributes usually used for channel head identification; however, the curvature at channel heads may vary considerably between and even within watersheds. Therefore, uncertainty exists in the extracted channel heads due to the specified curvature threshold. In this paper, the locations of channel heads in 14 small mountainous watersheds are obtained using a nonparametric method based on the shape of contour lines generated from DEMs with a spatial resolution of 1 m, and the channel head curvature is computed from the extracted channel heads. The spatial distributions of the channel head curvature in these 14 watersheds have been analyzed, and another two watersheds with field-mapped channel heads are selected for validation. The results indicate that: (1) the channel head curvature is sensitive to the local terrain and varies within and between watersheds; (2) the Gamma distribution effectively fits the spatial distribution of the channel head curvature in all the selected watersheds; and (3) constant threshold-based methods for channel head identification gain significant location errors even within a single watershed.

Climate change and human activities have induced alterations to hydrological processes. The quantification of their impacts on streamflow is a challenge, especially at the seasonal scale due to seasonality of climate variables and human activities. In this study, the decomposition method based on Budyko equation is extended to the seasonal scale for quantifying the climate and direct human impacts on annual and seasonal streamflow changes in Huifa River basin by defining prechange period (1953–1974) and postchange period (1975–2005). The results are further verified by the monthly abcd model. Both climate change and direct human activities are found to induce a decrease in streamflow at the annual scale, with 68% of the change contributed by direct human activities. At the seasonal scale, the direct human-induced declines in streamflow account for 67% and 39% of the total changes for energy-limited and water-limited seasons, respectively; whereas, the impact of direct human activities is more pronounced during the irrigation season due to water withdrawal for irrigation. In addition, the decomposition results are analyzed for each month in the energy-limited season to reveal the effects of precipitation and operation rules of ponds and reservoirs during the flood season.

Mitigating environmental pollution and sustaining grain production have been foundational issues in sustainable development, however, ascertaining the optimal balance remains poorly investigated. This study used the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) model to simulate crop growth and nitrogen loss, established the mapping relationship between nitrogen input to yield and water quality, and proposed a general method to determine a nitrogen application strategy for high yield and low pollution at a basin scale. Lake Xiaoxingkai basin, which is the primary maize producing area in China as well as an internationally important wetland distribution area, was used as a case study. First, we designed application scenarios for 10 base fertilizers (B1–B10) and 10 topdressing fertilizers (T1–T10) and evaluated their combined effects of maize growth to identify the critical nitrogen fertilizer rates determined under fixed and dynamic base/topdressing ratios. Then, the critical base and topdressing fertilizer rates were determined. Based on the mapping relationship between nitrogen fertilizer rate and nitrogen loss, we then revealed water quality at the basin outlet under the critical base and topdressing fertilizer rates. Finally, we proposed alternative nitrogen application strategies for high yield and low pollution while considering the different preferences of decision-makers for the economy, agriculture, and environment. We found that adjusting the ratio of base to topdressing fertilizer may create a win-win situation for agriculture and the environment, which will provide a scientific basis for sustainable development.

It is still a great challenge to address nutrient pollution issues caused by various point sources and non-point sources on the watershed scale. Source contribution analysis based on watershed modeling can help watershed managers identify major pollution sources, propose effective management plans and make smart decisions. This study demonstrated a technical procedure for addressing watershed-scale water pollution problems in an agriculture-dominated watershed, using the Dengsha River Watershed (DRW) in Dalian, China as an example. The SWAT model was improved by considering the constraints of soil nutrient concentration, i.e., nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P), when modeling the nutrient uptake by a typical crop, corn. Then the modified SWAT model was used to quantify the contributions of all known pollution sources to the N and P pollution in the DRW. The results showed that crop production and trans-administrative wastewater discharge were the two dominant sources of nutrient pollution. This study further examined the responses of nutrient loss and crop yield to different fertilizer application schemes. The results showed that N fertilizer was the limiting factor for crop yield and that excessive levels of P were stored in the agricultural soils of the DRW. An N fertilizer application rate of approximately 40% of the current rate was suggested to balance water quality and environmental protection with crop production. The long-term impact of legacy P was investigated with a 100-year future simulation that showed the crop growth could maintain for 12 years even after P fertilization ceased. Our study highlights the need to consider source attribution, fertilizer application and legacy P impacts in agriculture-dominated watersheds. The analysis framework used in this study can provide a scientifically sound procedure for formulating adaptive and sustainable nutrient management strategies in other study areas.

Recent developments of satellite precipitation products provide an unprecedented opportunity for better precipitation estimation, and thus broaden hydrological application. However, due to the errors and uncertainties of satellite products, a thorough validation is usually required before putting into the real hydrological application. As such, this study aims to provide a comprehensive evaluation on the performances of Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission Multi-satellite Precipitation Analysis (TMPA) 3B42V7 and Precipitation Estimation from Remotely Sensed Information using Artificial Neural Networks-Climate Data Record (PERSIANN-CDR), as well as their adequacies in simulating hydrological processes in a semi-humid region in the northeastern China. It was found that TMPA 3B42V7 showed a superior performance at the daily and monthly time scales, and had a favorable capture of the rainfall-intensity distribution. Intra-annual comparisons indicated a better representation of TMPA 3B42V7 from January to September, whereas PERSIANN-CDR was more reliable from October to December. The Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) driven by gauge precipitation data performed excellently with NSE > 0.9, while the performances of TMPA 3B42V7- and PERSIANN-CDR-based models are satisfactory with NSE > 0.5. The performances varied under different flow levels and hydrological years. Water balance analysis indicated a better performance of TMPA 3B42V7 in simulating the hydrological processes, including evapotranspiration, groundwater recharge and total runoff. The runoff compositions (i.e., base flow, subsurface flow, and surface flow) driven by TMPA 3B42V7 were more accordant with the actual hydrological features. This study will not only help recognize the potential satellite precipitation products for local water resources management, but also be a reference for the poor-gauged regions with similar hydrologic and climatic conditions around the world, especially the northeastern China and western Russia.

Temporal streams are vitally important for hydrology and riverine ecosystems. The identification of wet channel networks and spatial and temporal dynamics is essential for effective management, conservation, and restoration of water resources. This study investigated the temporal dynamics of stream networks in five watersheds under different climate conditions and levels of human interferences, using a systematic method recently developed for extracting wet channel networks based on light detection and ranging elevation and intensity data. In this paper, thresholds of canopy height for masking densely vegetated areas and the ‘time of forward diffusion’ parameter for filtering digital elevation model are found to be greatly influential and differing among sites. The inflection point of the exceedance probability distribution of elevation differences in each watershed is suggested to be used as the canopy height threshold. A lower value for the ‘time of forward diffusion’ is suggested for watersheds with artificial channels. The properties of decomposed and composite probability distribution functions of intensity and the extracted intensity thresholds are found to vary significantly among regions. Finally, the wet channel density and its variation with climate for five watersheds are found to be reasonable and reliable according to results reported previously in other regions.

Water quality deterioration caused by excessive nutrient discharge from various point and non-point sources are a global challenge. Understanding the pollution sources and their respective contribution is the prerequisite for environmental planning, management and restoration. In this study, the influence of complex pollution sources on the water quality of the Dengsha River watershed in Dalian, China, was investigated. The export coefficient method was coupled with the QUAL2K water quality model to estimate the loads of ammonia nitrogen (NH4-N) and total phosphorus (TP) from different sources, and to explore their respective contributions. Results indicated that animal feedlot and crop production were major sources for NH4-N load, and crop production, soil erosion and animal feedlot are the largest three sources of TP load with an annual total contribution of 98.4%. The pollutant load exhibited an intra-annual variation mainly due to the seasonality of rainfall and anthropogenic agricultural activities. The overall waste assimilation capacity (WAC) is overloaded and suggestions for water pollution control and treatment regarding each pollution source were proposed. This study addressed a new application of QUAL2K model coupled with the export coefficient model for watershed managers towards a sustainable water environmental management, and can therefore be a reference example for other small and medium-sized rural watersheds.

Droughts and heat waves both are natural extreme climate events occurring in most parts of the world. To understand the spatio-temporal characteristics of droughts and heat waves in China, we examine changes in droughts, heat waves, and the compound of both during 1961&ndash, 2017 based on high resolution gridded monthly sc_PDSI and daily temperature data. Results show that North China and Northwest China are the two regions that experience the most frequent droughts, while Central China is the least drought-affected region. Significant drought decreasing trends were mostly observed Qinghai, Xinjiang, and Tibet provinces, while the belt region between Yunnan and Heilongjiang provinces experienced significant drought increasing trends. Heat waves occur more frequently than droughts, and the increase of heat wave occurrence is also more obvious. The increasing of heat wave occurrence since the 2000s has been unprecedented. The compound droughts and heat waves were mild from the 1960s to 1980s, and began to increase in 1990s. Furthermore, the significant increasing trends of the percentage of compound droughts and heat waves to droughts are observed in entire China, and more than 90% drought occurrences are accompanied by one or more heat waves in the 2010s. The results highlight the increased percentage of compound droughts and heat waves and call for improved efforts on assessing the impact of compound extremes, especially in an era of changing climate.

Drought is a natural extreme climate event which occurs in most parts of the world. Northeastern China is one of the major agricultural production areas in China and also a typical vulnerable climate zone. To understand the spatio-temporal characteristics of drought over northeastern China, we first assessed the trends of precipitation and temperature. Drought events were then characterized by Standardized Precipitation Evapotranspiration Index over various temporal scales. The Trend Free Prewhitening Mann&ndash, Kendall test and distinct empirical orthogonal function, were used to investigate the trends and spatio-temporal patterns of droughts. The results indicate precipitation increasing trends are mostly detected in Heilongjiang and Jinling provinces, however, the majority of the trends are insignificant. Temperature increasing trends are detected over the entire northeastern China and most of them are significant. Decreasing drought trends are observed in Heilongjiang province and some bordering area in Jilin province, whereas increasing trends are noticed in Liaoning province and some bordering area in Jilin province. Two main sub-regions of drought variability&mdash, the Liaohe River Plain and the Second Songhua River basin (LS region), and the Songnen Plain and the Lesser Hinggan Mountains (SL region) are identified, and the detected droughts for the two sub-regions correspond well with recorded drought loss. The results will be beneficial for regional water resource management and planning, agriculture production, and ecosystem protection in northeastern China.

The valuation of ecosystem services is critical to understand the current status of ecosystems and to develop an effective planning strategy for ecosystem protection. This study aims to analyse the spatio-temporal changes in ecosystem services driven by land use changes from 1984 to 2013 in Dalian, China. The land use changes are characterized using remote sensing data and then ecosystem service values (ESVs) are assessed using the equivalent factor method, i.e., assigning value coefficients to different land use categories. The total ESV of Dalian reduced significantly by 44.3% from 1984 to 2013, primarily due to the reduction of forests, water and wetlands. Water and climate regulations are the two largest service functions, contributing about 43.6% of the total ESV on average. In addition, ESVs show a spatial variation in different administrative regions, with the central city area having the maximum decreasing rate. Further, ESV changes and distributions are found to have a strong link with city development policies. This study provides an enhanced understanding of the implications of urban policies on ecosystem services, which is essential for sustaining the provision of ecosystem services and achieving sustainable development goals.

To reveal the anthropogenic influences on thermal environment in urban rivers, stream temperatures from 1990 to 2010 of the Tama River were investigated. Both the long-term and longitudinal changes of stream temperature, as well as flow rate, effluent temperature and volume, and water and energy budget were revealed. Stream temperature in winter season increased significantly at points where the temperature and discharge volume of effluents from wastewater treatment plants increased over the past 20 years. The different longitudinal variations in upstream temperature between winter and summer seasons were found primarily due to the flow rate decrease. Water and energy budget analysis suggested that the anthropogenic heat inputs from the wastewater were the dominant warming factor both in winter and summer seasons in downstream segments, while other factors such as groundwater recharges, and air-water and water-sediment interactions were contributing to suppress the stream water warming.