From 1981 to 2010,the effects of climate change on evapotranspiration of the alpine ecosystem and the regional difference of effects in the Tibetan Plateau(TP)were studied based on the Lund-Potsdam-Jena dynamic vegetation model and data from 80 meteorological stations.Changes in actual evapotranspiration(AET)and water balance in TP were analyzed.Over the last 30 years,climate change in TP was characterized by sig- nificantly increased temperature,slightly increased precipitation,and decreased potential evapotranspiration(PET),which was significant before 2000.AET exhibited increasing trends in most parts of TP.The difference between precipitation and AET decreased in the south- eastern plateau and increased in the northwestern plateau.A decrease in atmospheric water demand will lead to a decreased trend in AET.However,AET in most regions increased be- cause of increased precipitation.Increased precipitation was observed in 86%of the areas with increased AET,whereas decreased precipitation was observed in 73%of the areas with decreased AET.

Different government departments and researchers have paid considerable attention at various levels to improving the eco-environment in ecologically fragile areas. Over the past decade, large numbers of people have emigrated from rural areas as a result of the rapid urbanization in Chinese society. The question then remains: to what extent does this migration affect the regional vegetation greenness in the areas that people have moved from? Based on normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) data with a resolution of 1 km, as well as meteorological data and socio-economic data from 2000 to 2010 in Inner Mongolia, the spatio-temporal variation of vegetation greenness in the study area was analyzed via trend analysis and significance test methods. The contributions of human activities and natural factors to the variation of vegetation conditions during this period were also quantitatively tested and verified, using a multi-regression analysis method. We found that: (1) the vegetation greenness of the study area increased by 10.1% during 2000-2010. More than 28% of the vegetation greenness increased significantly, and only about 2% decreased evidently during the study period. (2) The area with significant degradation showed a banded distribution at the northern edge of the agro-pastoral ecotone in central Inner Mongolia. This indicates that the eco-environment is still fragile in this area, which should be paid close attention. The area where vegetation greenness significantly improved showed a concentrated distribution in the southeast and west of Inner Mongolia. (3) The effect of agricultural labor on vegetation greenness exceeded those due to natural factors (i.e. precipitation and temperature). The emigration of agricultural labor improved the regional vegetation greenness significantly.

This paper reviews the process of transportation construction in China and investigates the developmental and spatial characteristics of transportation patterns. The principles of transportation evolution including stages, structures and orders are systematically analyzed. The investigation shows that China’s transportation construction mode has upgraded from investment-driven scale expansion to quality improvement driven by efficiency and promotion. The rapid growth and development of transportation networks has significantly influenced economic and social activities in time and space. The resulting spatial convergence and dominance have improved distribution, promoting development of the socioeconomic structure. Regional development that has traditionally been based on corridors has changed into a networked mode centered on cities and metropolitan areas. The transportation pattern follows evolutionary principles. China has been moving from a hierarchical structure to a cascade structure. Simultaneously, the socioeconomic pattern has changed from an axis to a hub-and-spoke structure with a preliminary ordered network. As transportation networks grow, China’s functional spatial structure and ordered network will gradually become stabilized and balanced.

Eco-compensation is an environmental economic instrument for internalization of external cost. Returning farmland to lake is one of the important parts of restoring wetland ecosystem function in the Yangtze River Valley of China. Whether the project of lake recovery can be successful depends on the compensation to the farmers who have lost their original benefits and contributed to the wetland ecosystem recovery by returning farmland to lake. Aiming at the wetland recovery of the Dongting Lake, the practical implementation of programs of the lake recovery and flood control in this area has been challenged by the heavy task of population resettlement, so it is an ideal area for case studies to reach the academic objectives proposed as the above. Based on field survey and experimentation, this research evaluated the benefit losses of the resettled farmers and the increased values of ecosystem service functions caused by wetland recovery, and furthermore, the value of eco-compensation for relocated farmers was calculated by considering the combination of the farmers’ compensation appeal. The value of eco-compensation for relocated farmers in the Dongting Lake area was 6084.5 yuan per household by synthetic analysis of the effects on wetland ecosystem restoration. Moreover, this article took Dongting Lake area as a case to study and explore the basic issues of the eco-compensation by returning farmland to lake, that was who should pay, who should be paid, how much the payment was and what the payment means was, which sought the mechanisms of wetland restoration eco-compensation and prompted the people’s enthusiasms for ecological restoration.

Under the background that economy and urbanization of China are gradually entering the stage of high-quality development, clarifying the influence of economic development on urban livability is of significant academic and practical value. In this paper, regarded as one “factor”, livability was introduced into the research framework of production function, and a theoretical model of the impact of economic development on urban livability was established. Based on the panel data of 40 cities in China from 2005 to 2019, the System GMM, panel threshold model and other methods were further adopted to carry out an empirical analysis. The results show that: (1) The livability level of large and medium-sized cities in China from 2005 to 2019 has been rising generally, but they present obvious characteristics of dimensional and spatial differentiation. (2) In general, economic development has an inhibiting effect on the improvement of urban livability, but this logical effect shows obvious heterogeneity in different time periods and diverse city scales. This inhibitory effect is more significant for the cities before entering the new normal phase of economy, and large-scale municipalities and economically-developed provincial capitals (namely Class-A cities). (3) There are significant threshold effects in the impact of economic development on urban livability, where the threshold variables are income level and economic development. With the increase of city dwellers’ income, this effect presents an inverted N-shaped nonlinear feature. When the development of economy makes the average wage of employees between 60,000 and 80,000 yuan, economic development can significantly improve urban livability. Also, there is a significant single threshold inhibitory effect when economic development is taken as a threshold variable. However, its negative impact shows a law of diminishing marginal efficiency. In addition, a similar threshold effect is found in smaller-scale Class-B cities. The findings of this research can provide some insights for urban planners and policymakers in both China and vast developing countries to understand better the relationship between economic development and urban livability. Finally, according to the research findings, we proposed the corresponding policy enlightenment from both “macro guidance” and “micro action”.

Forest vegetation carbon patterns are significant for evaluating carbon emission and accumulation. Many methods were used to simulate patterns of forest vegetation carbon stock in previous studies, however, uncertainty apparently existed between results of different methods, even estimates of same method in different studies. Three previous methods, including Atmosphere-vegetation interaction model 2 (AVIM2), Kriging, Satellite-data Based Approach (SBA), and a new method, High Accuracy Surface Modeling (HASM), were used to simulate forest vegetation carbon stock patterns in Jiangxi Province in China. Cross-validation was used to evaluate methods. The uncertainty and applicability of the four methods on provincial scale were analyzed and discussed. The results showed that HASM had the highest accuracy, which improved by 50.66%, 33.37% and 28.58%, compared with AVIM2, Kriging and SBA, respectively. Uncertainty of simulation of forest biomass carbon stock was mainly derived from modeling error, sampling error and statistical error of forest area. Total forest carbon stock, carbon density and forest area of Jiangxi were 288.62 Tg, 3.06 kg/m² and 94.32×10⁹ m² simulated by HASM, respectively.

Based on the radiosonde data observed at 14 stations in Southwest China from 1960 to 2010, as well as the corresponding surface air temperature, the long-term change of free-air 0℃ isotherm height in Southwest China and the relationships between surface air temperature and 0℃ isotherm height are discussed. The results indicated that the spatial distribution of 0℃ isotherm height is generally related with latitude, but the huge massif or plateau may complicate the latitude pattern. The two main regimes influencing the spatial patterns of 0℃ isotherm height in Southwest China are latitude and huge massif. The annual 0℃ isotherm height has increased by 35 m per decade in the recent decades, which is statistically significant at the 0.001 level. Generally, the increasing trend can be examined for each seasonal series, especially in winter (53 m per decade). The diversity of trend magnitudes for annual and seasonal series can also be detected at a spatial view, but generally 0℃ isotherm height correlated well with surface air temperature.

As two rising great powers, China and India have undergone similar development processes, but they also exhibit significant differences in development paths and patterns. The significant differences in political systems, economic systems, and developmental environment between the two countries have attracted great attention from scholars. This research focuses on the regional differences and spatial evolution processes in urbanization and urban systems between the two countries from a geographical perspective. Based on the demographic censuses of both countries and the urban population data from the United Nations, this paper systematically compared and analyzed the spatial characteristics of urbanization and urban systems in China and India using various methods including spatial analysis, parameter estimation, and nonparametric estimation. The results indicate that: (1) Since the 1990s, the regional differences in urbanization in China have transformed from south-north differences to coastal-inland differences, whereas the north-south differences in India have been stable. (2) In recent years, the correlation between population density and urbanization rate kept increasing in China, while such correlation has been decreasing in India. (3) The economic reform posed significantly different effects on the spatial evolution of the urban systems in the two countries. The economic reform changed the major driving force for urban development in China from geographical and historical factors to the spatial structure of the economic system. However, in India, the driving forces for urban development have always been geographical and historical factors, and the economic reform even decreased the effect of the spatial structure of the economic system on urban development.

The rapid development of high-speed rail (HSR) is influencing regional development, regional structure, commuting, and regional integration. East Asia is the region with the world’s first and largest current operating and planned HSR network. In this paper, we examine the evolutionary mechanism and impacts on the transport circle and accessibility of HSR in East Asia. The results indicate that the HSR network first follows a “core-core” model and then forms a corridor in Japan, South Korea, and China Taiwan, but then forms a complete network in China Mainland. The current operating HSR lines are mostly distributed in regions with developed economies and dense populations, and more than half of the population and GDP in China can be served by HSR within 1 hour’s travel time. The planned HSR network will expand to the western region of China and Japan and the southern region of South Korea. The development of the current operating and planned HSR network considerably enlarges the transport circle of core cities, especially cities along trunk HSR lines. This 1 h transport circle of core cities has formed continuous regions in the Yangtze River Delta, the Pearl River Delta, Tokyo, Seoul, and along trunk HSR lines. The HSR network will bring about substantial improvement in accessiblity, but also increase the inequality of nodal accessibility in China Mainland. Spatially, the spatial patterns of the weighted shortest travel time of cities in China Mainland, Japan, and South Korea all present the “core-peripheral structure”, taking Zhengzhou, Tokyo, and Seoul, respectively, as core cities, and cities located along the trunk HSR lines gain large improvement in accessibility.

Given the importance of waterway depths in river development, the effects of the evolution of bars and troughs on waterway expansion play an important role in river management and water depth conservation. This study aims to expand the waterway dimensions of the Jingjiang Reach of the Yangtze River. To achieve this objective, determining the relationship between river evolution processes and the potential for waterway depth improvement and navigation hindrances is vital. Therefore, the sedimentation, hydrological, and terrain data of the Jingjiang Reach from 1955 to 2020 are analysed to elucidate the above-mentioned relationship. Since the commissioning of the Three Gorges Dam, the scouring of the low-flow channel has accounted for 90%-95% of all scouring in the Jingjiang Reach. Furthermore, the central bars and beaches have shrunk by 9.4% and 24.9%, respectively, and 18.3% overall. Considering the bed scouring and waterway regulation projects in the Jingjiang Reach, we investigated the continuity of a 4.5 m × 200 m × 1050 m (depth × width × bend radius) waterway along the Jingjiang Reach, and find that navigation-hindering channels account for over 5.3% of the waterway length. Furthermore, part of the Jingjiang Reach is an important nature reserve and shelters numerous water-related facilities, which inhibits the implementation of waterway deepening projects. The findings of this study demonstrate that numerous challenges are associated with increasing the waterway depths of the Jingjiang Reach.

Land surface emissivity is one of the important parameters in temperature inversion from thermal infrared remote sensing. Using MOD11C3 of Terra-MODIS L3 level products, spatio-temporal data sets of land surface emissivity in China for 10 years from 2001 to 2010 are obtained. The results show that the land surface emissivity in the northwest desert region is the lowest in China, with little seasonal variations. In contrast, there are significant seasonal variations in land surface emissivity in northeast China and northern Xinjiang, the Qinghai- Tibet Plateau, the Yangtze River Valley and the eastern and southern China. In winter, the land surface emissivity in the northeast China and northern Xinjiang is relatively high. The land surface emissivity of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau region is maintained at low value from November to March, while it becomes higher in other months. The land surface emissivity of the Yangtze River Valley, eastern and southern China, and Sichuan Basin varies from July to October, and peaks in August. Land surface emissivity values could be divided into five levels: low emissivity (0.6163-0.9638), moderate-low emissivity (0.9639-0.9709), moderate emissivity (0.9710-0.9724), moderate-high emissivity (0.9725-0.9738), and high emissivity (0.9739-0.9999). The percentages of areas with low emissivity, moderate-low emissivity and moderate emissivity are, respectively, about 20%, 10% and 20%. The moderate-high emissivity region makes up 40%-50% of China's land surface area. The inter-annual variation of moderate-high emissivity region is also very clear, with two peaks (in spring and autumn) and two troughs (in summer and winter). The inter-annual variation of the high emissivity region is very significant, with a peak in winter (10%), while only 1% or 2% in other seasons. There is a clear association between the spatio-temporal distribution of China's land surface emissivity and temperature: the higher the emissivity, the lower the temperature, and vice versa. Emissivity is an inherent property of any object, but the precise value of its emissivity depends very much on its surrounding environmental factors.

The robustness of cargo ship transportation networks is essential to the stability of the world trade system. The current research mainly focuses on the coarse-grained, holistic cargo ship transportation network while ignoring the structural diversity of different sub-networks. In this paper, we evaluate the robustness of the global cargo ship transportation network based on the most recent Automatic Identification System (AIS) data available. First, we subdivide three typical cargo ship transportation networks (i.e., oil tanker, container ship and bulk carrier) from the original cargo ship transportation network. Then, we design statistical indices based on complex network theory and employ four attack strategies, including random attack and three intentional attacks (i.e., degree-based attack, betweenness-based attack and flux-based attack) to evaluate the robustness of the three typical cargo ship transportation networks. Finally, we compare the integrity of the remaining ports of the network when a small proportion of ports lose their function. The results show that 1) compared with the holistic cargo ship transportation network, the fine-grain-based cargo ship transportation networks can fully reflect the pattern and process of global cargo transportation; 2) different cargo ship networks behave heterogeneously in terms of their robustness, with the container network being the weakest and the bulk carrier network being the strongest; and 3) small-scale intentional attacks may have significant influence on the integrity of the container network but a minor impact on the bulk carrier and oil tanker transportation networks. These conclusions can help improve the decision support capabilities in maritime transportation planning and emergency response and facilitate the establishment of a more reliable maritime transportation system.

Based on archaeological excavations, 217 samples were collected from the Luotuodun Site. Of them 63 samples from the section plane of the site layer were used for identification analysis of foraminifera, plant debris and seed fossils, and four samples were used for 14C dating and relevant analysis. Through many kinds of experiments, we have drawn some conclusions. Firstly, benthic foraminifera, such as Ammonia compressiuscula and Ammonia cff. sobrina, are found in the 10th layer, indicating that between 7500 and 5400 BC, i.e. before the emergence of the Majiabang Culture, Luotuodun Site and its nearby regions had ever experienced a marine transgression event. Secondly, we have found 450 plant fossils in this site, such as Polygonum sp., Scripus sp., Najas sp., Physalis sp., which indicated lacustrine or swamp environment.

Firm entry plays an important role in the industrial transformation of mature resource-based cities. This study describes the industrial evolution of resource-based cities at the firm level and uses kernel density estimation and econometric models to study the spatiotemporal characteristics and determinants of new firm entry from 2011 to 2019 in four mature resource-based cities. The results are summarized as follows: (1) New resource-based firm entry tends to be natural resource-oriented and path-dependent. The new non-resource- based firms show a high concentration in central urban areas, and the industry types are mainly wholesale and retail of resource products, cultural tourism, and equipment manufacturing. (2) Heterogeneous incumbent firms affect firm entry differently. Affected by competition and agglomeration effects, resource-based and non-resource-based incumbent firms have negative and positive impacts on new resource-based firm entry, respectively. Resource- based incumbent firm agglomeration positively influences new non-resource-based firm entry. (3) Besides incumbent firms, firm entry can also be affected by multidimensional factors, such as factor costs, economic environment, and institutional environment. Research on new firm entry can better reveal the path dependence and path creation process of the industrial development of resource-based cities from a micro-perspective.

Explicitly identifying the spatial distribution of ecological transition zones (ETZs) and simulating their response to climate scenarios is of significance in understanding the response and feedback of ecosystems to global climate change. In this study, a quantitative spatial identification method was developed to assess ETZ distribution in terms of the improved Holdridge life zone (iHLZ) model. Based on climate observations collected from 782 weather stations in China in the T0 (1981-2010) period, and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (IPCC CMIP5) RCP2.6, RCP4.5, and RCP8.5 climate scenario data in the T1 (2011-2040), T2 (2041-2070), and T3 (2071-2100) periods, the spatial distribution of ETZs and their response to climate scenarios in China were simulated in the four periods of T0, T1, T2, and T3. Additionally, a spatial shift of mean center model was developed to quantitatively calculate the shift direction and distance of each ETZ type during the periods from T0 to T3. The simulated results revealed 41 ETZ types in China, accounting for 18% of the whole land area. Cold temperate grassland/humid forest and warm temperate arid forest (564,238.5 km ²), cold temperate humid forest and warm temperate arid/humid forest (566,549.75 km ²), and north humid/humid forest and cold temperate humid forest (525,750.25 km ²) were the main ETZ types, accounting for 35% of the total ETZ area in China. Between 2010 and 2100, the area of cold temperate desert shrub and warm temperate desert shrub/thorn steppe ETZs were projected to increase at a rate of 4% per decade, which represented an increase of 3604.2, 10063.1, and 17,242 km ² per decade under the RCP2.6, RCP4.5, and RCP8.5 scenarios, respectively. The cold ETZ was projected to transform to the warm humid ETZ in the future. The average shift distance of the mean center in the north wet forest and cold temperate desert shrub/thorn grassland ETZs was generally larger than that of other ETZs, with the mean center moving to the northeast and the shift distance being more than 150 km during the periods from T0 to T3. In addition, with a gradual increase of temperature and precipitation, the ETZs in northern China displayed a shifting northward trend, while the area of ETZs in southern China decreased gradually, and their mean center moved to high-altitude areas. The effects of climate change on ETZs presented an increasing trend in China, especially in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau.

Water vapour and CO₂ fluxes were measured by the eddy-covariance technique above a mixed needle and broad-leaved forest with affiliated meteorological measurements in Changbai Mountain as part of China's FLUX projects since late August in 2002. Net water vapour exchange and environmental control over the forest were examined from September 1 to October 31 in 2002. To quantify the seasonal dynamics, the transition period was separated into leafed, leaf falling and leafless stages according to the development of leaf area. The results showed that (a) seasonal variation of water vapour exchange was mainly controlled by net radiation (Rn) which could account for 78.5%, 63.4% and 56.6% for leafed, leaf falling and leafless stages, respectively, while other environmental factors' effects varied evidently; (b) magnitude of water vapour flux decreased remarkably during autumn and daily mean of water vapour exchange was 24.2 mg m^-2 s^-1 (100%), 14.8 mg m^-2 s^-1 (61.2%) and 10.3 mg m^-2 s^-1 (42.6%) for leafed, leaf falling and leafless stage, respectively; and (c) the budget of water vapour exchange during autumn was estimated to be 87.1 kg H₂O m^-2, with a mean of 1427.2 g H₂O d^-1 varying markedly from 3104.0 to 227.5 g H₂O m^-2 d^-1.

This study has investigated the influence of Arctic Oscillation (AO) on dust storm frequency in North China in spring seasons during 1961?2007. There is a significant linkage between dust storm frequency and AO; a negative (positive) AO phase is related to an increased (decreased) dust storm frequency in North China. This relationship is closely related to changes in the cold air activity in Mongolia. The cold air activity exerts large impacts on the dust storm frequency; the frequency of cold air activity over Mongolia not only positively correlates with the dust storm frequency in North China, but also shows a long-term decreasing trend that is an important reason for the long-term decreasing of dust storm frequency in North China. The AO has large influence on the frequency of cold air activity over Mongolia; a negative (positive) AO phase is highly related to an increased (decreased) frequency of cold air activity over Mongolia, which results in an increased (decreased) dust storm frequency in North China.

Studies investigating innovation networks shaped by large innovative enterprises (LI-ENTs), which play a very important role in intercity diffusion of technology and knowledge, are rather thin on the ground. Using location information of LI-ENTs in China, we performed a headquarter-branch analysis to generate intercity innovation linkages and analyzed the patterns and dynamics of the generated network of knowledge diffusion. Although the network covers 353 cities across China, its spatial distribution is extremely uneven, with a few cities and city-dyads dominating the structure of the network. Furthermore, intercity linkages of innovation within and of urban agglomerations, as well as their central cities, stand out. With regard to network dynamics, the economic development level, innovation ability, and administrative level of cities, as well as the geographical, institutional, and technological proximity between cities are all found to have a positive impact on intercity linkages of innovations, whilst the impact of FDI on the national distribution of Chinese innovative enterprises is negative. Most importantly, the status of cities within the urban agglomeration exerts a significant positive effect in relation to the innovative enterprises’ expansions, which reflects that the top-down forces of government and the bottom-up forces of market function together.

Vegetation plays an important role in the dry deposition of particles with significant spatial variability, but the magnitude remains unclear at the global scale. With the aid of satellite products, this study estimated the vegetation-related dry deposition of fine particulate matter (PM_2.5). Methodologically, dry deposition was first calculated using an empirical algorithm. Then, deposition on the leaf surface was estimated to evaluate the influence of vegetation. Our results showed that the mean deposition velocity (V_d) of global PM_2.5 was 0.91×10^?3 µg·m^?2·s^?1, with high velocities observed in sparsely vegetated regions because of the high friction velocity. Under the combined effect of the PM_2.5 mass concentration and deposition velocity, the global mean dry deposition reached 0.47 g·m^?2·yr^?1. Global vegetation absorbed 0.26 g·m^?2·yr^?1 from PM_2.5 pollution sources, contributing 54.98% of the total dry deposition. Spatially, vegetation-related dry deposition was high in the Amazon, Central Africa and East China due to dense vegetation coverage or serious pollution. Temporally, the increasing trends were mainly in Central Africa and India because of worsening air pollution. The results of this study helped to clarify the impact of vegetation on air pollution, which supported related land management and planning for air quality improvement.

The rapid progress of China’s industrialization has been manifested in space as the formation and evolution of a series of industrial bases. Employing data from the years 1985, 2001 and 2010, this paper carries out differentiation, screening, and categorization of industrial bases in China. It then analyses the evolutional characteristics of these industrial bases and explores different paths of growth according to their scale or types, and summarizes the general pattern for their formation and evolution. The results of this study indicate that China’s industrial bases as a whole have gone through three spatial stages since the founding of the PRC in 1949: decentralized development before reform and opening up in 1978, gradual concentration in eastern coastal regions during the early period of reform and opening up, and balanced and diversified development since the beginning of the 21st century. By 2010, China had a total of 251 industrial bases and had thereby established the overall spatial map of its industrialization. As industrial bases expand in scale, their industrial structures develop from homogenization to diversification, and then again from diversification to competitive optimization. Leading industries in the vast majority of industrial bases constantly evolve along the track of light industries, basic materials industries, and advanced manufacturing industries. Meanwhile, the key factors in their evolution and development transition from traditional factors of production like resources and labor to new ones like capital and information, but there are significant differences in terms of influencing factors and growth paths between large, medium, and small bases. Small industrial bases primarily rely on natural resources to maintain development through a single leading industry, medium industrial bases gradually become more comprehensive in their industrial compositions, and large industrial bases evolve in the direction of a combination of basic materials industries and equipment manufacturing industries.

The study of multi-dimensional expansion of urban space (MEUS) addresses the laws of urban spatial expansion from all directions and angles. Using Nanjing as an example, this paper constructs multi-temporal, urban three-dimensional models based on RS and GIS technology and then conducts qualitative and quantitative analysis of MEUS using plot ratio change maps and MEUS quantitative index for built-up areas. Based especially on the concept of volume growth contribution rate, this paper analyzes the characteristics of MEUS in different stages. The results show that in 2000-2004, planar expansion played the main role, the internal potential development (IPD) intensity of the urban built-up areas was relatively large, and the volume growth contribution rate was low; in 2004-2008, planar expansion accelerated, and IPD slowed down; in 2008-2012, planar expansion slowed while IPD intensity increased; the contribution rates of volume growth of urban IPD for the three periods were 22.21%, 24.51% and 73.38%, respectively. This study expands the research perspective of urban spatial expansion, and the adopted methods are instructive and meaningful for MEUS research. In addition, the results of this study will deepen the understanding of MEUS laws and help improve scientific decision-making for urban planning and urban land use management.

Multi-source weighted-ensemble precipitation (MSWEP) is one of the most popular merged global precipitation products with long-term spanning and high spatial resolution. While various studies have acknowledged its ability to accurately estimate precipitation in terms of temporal dynamics, its performance regarding spatial pattern and extreme rainfall is overlooked. To fill this knowledge gap, the daily precipitation of two versions of MSWEP (MSWEP V2.1 & V2.2) are compared with that of three representative satellite- and reanalysis-based products, namely the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM 3B42 V7), the climate prediction center morphing technique satellite-gauge merged product (CMORPH BLD), and the fifth-generation reanalysis product of the European Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasts (ERA5). The comparison is made according to the dense daily rainfall observations from 539 rain gauges over the Huaihe River Basin in China during 2006-2015. The results show that MSWEP V2.1, MSWEP V2.2 and CMORPH BLD have better performance on temporal accuracy of precipitation estimation, followed by ERA5 and TRMM 3B42 V7. MSWEPs yield the most even spatial distribution across the basin since it takes full advantage of the multi datasets. As the weighted-ensemble method is independently carried out on each grid in MSWEPs, the spatial distribution of local precipitation is changed by different source data, which results in that MSWEPs perform worse than CMORPH BLD in terms of the representation of precipitation spatial pattern. In addition, the capability of MSWEPs to describe the spatial structure in the rainy season is lower than that in the dry season. Strong precipitation (≥100 mm/d) events are better represented in TRMM 3B42 V7 products than in MSWEPs. Finally, based on the comparison results, we suggest to improve the merging algorithm of MSWEP by considering the precipitation spatial self-correlation and adjusting the merging weights based on the performance of the source datasets under different precipitation intensities.

As one of the areas with numerous lakes on the Tibetan Plateau, the Hoh Xil region plays an extremely important role in the fragile plateau eco-environment. Based on topographic maps in the 1970s and Landsat TM/ETM+ remote sensing images in the 1990s and the period from 2000 to 2011, the data of 83 lakes with an area above 10 km² each were obtained by digitization method and artificial visual interpretation technology, and the causes for lake variations were also analyzed. Some conclusions can be drawn as follows. (1) From the 1970s to 2011, the lakes in the Hoh Xil region firstly shrank and then expanded. In particular, the area of lakes generally decreased during the 1970s-1990s. Then the lakes expanded from the 1990s to 2000 and the area was slightly higher than that in the 1970s. The area of lakes dramatically increased after 2000. (2) From 2000 to 2011, the lakes with different area ranks in the Hoh Xil region showed an overall expansion trend. Meanwhile, some regional differences were also discovered. Most of the lakes expanded and were widely distributed in the northern, central and western parts of the region. Some lakes were merged together or overflowed due to their rapid expansion. A small number of lakes with the trend of area decrease or strong fluctuation were scattered in the central and southern parts of the study area. And their variations were related to their own supply conditions or hydraulic connection with the downstream lakes or rivers. (3) The increase in precipitation was the dominant factor resulting in the expansion of lakes in the Hoh Xil region. The secondary factor was the increase in meltwater from glaciers and frozen soil due to climate warming.

Taking the Lhasa River Basin above Lhasa hydrological station in Tibetan Plateau as a study area, the characteristics of the annual and monthly mean runoff during 1956?2003 were analyzed, based on the hydro-data of the two hydrological stations (Lhasa and Tanggya) and the meteorological data of the three meteorological stations (Damxung, Lhasa and Tanggya). The trends and the change points of runoff and climate from 1956 to 2003 were detected using the nonparametric Mann-Kendall test and Pettitt-Mann-Whitney change-point statistics. The correlations between runoff and climate change were analyzed using multiple linear regression. The major results could be summarized as follows: (1) The annual mean runoff during the last 50 years is characterized by a great fluctuation and a positive trend with two change points (around 1970 and the early 1980s), after which the runoff tended to in-crease and was increasing intensively in the last 20 years. Besides, the monthly mean runoff with a positive trend is centralized in winter half-year (November to April) and some other months (May, July and September). (2) The trends of the climate change in the study area are generally consistent with the trend of the runoff, but the leading climate factors which aroused the runoff variation are distinct. Precipitation is the dominant factor influencing the annual and monthly mean runoff in summer half year, while temperature is the primary factor in winter season.

In recent years, cropland development in high-slope regions in China has alleviated the contradiction between total cropland balance and insufficient development space. However, this change in cropland slope brings risks to sustainable resource utilization. This study explored the slope characteristics of cropland in China from 1990 to 2020 and assessed the gained cropland stability. The results showed that (1) From 1990 to 2020, the lost cropland area was greater than the gained area, and the distribution showed an uphill trend. (2) The areas with a significant upslope change in cropland were mainly concentrated in the southern plain, containing the central grain-producing regions at its core and other well-developed eastern coastal areas. (3) The areas with distinct downslope cropland changes were mainly concentrated in the upper reaches of the Yangtze and Yellow rivers and the ecologically fragile areas of Inner Mongolia and the Loess Plateau. (4) The gained cropland stability was unsatisfactory; about one-third of the gained cropland was unstable, which had the highest abandonment rate within 5 years, and the gained cropland stability decreased with the slope. In addition, this study explored cropland conversion types at different slopes in different regions and discussed the reasons for slope cropland changes and gained cropland instability in different regions. Finally, optimization policies were proposed to protect and control newly gained cropland.

Using the Integrated Biosphere Simulator, a dynamic vegetation model, this study initially simulated the net primary productivity (NPP) dynamics of China’s potential vegetation in the past 55 years (1961-2015) and in the future 35 years (2016-2050). Then, taking the NPP of the potential vegetation in average climate conditions during 1986-2005 as the basis for evaluation, this study examined whether the potential vegetation adapts to climate change or not. Meanwhile, the degree of inadaptability was evaluated. Finally, the NPP vulnerability of the potential vegetation was evaluated by synthesizing the frequency and degrees of inadaptability to climate change. In the past 55 years, the NPP of desert ecosystems in the south of the Tianshan Mountains and grassland ecosystems in the north of China and in western Tibetan Plateau was prone to the effect of climate change. The NPP of most forest ecosystems was not prone to the influence of climate change. The low NPP vulnerability to climate change of the evergreen broad-leaved and coniferous forests was observed. Furthermore, the NPP of the desert ecosystems in the north of the Tianshan Mountains and grassland ecosystems in the central and eastern Tibetan Plateau also had low vulnerability to climate change. In the next 35 years, the NPP vulnerability to climate change would reduce the forest-steppe in the Songliao Plain, the deciduous broad-leaved forests in the warm temperate zone, and the alpine steppe in the central and western Tibetan Plateau. The NPP vulnerability would significantly increase of the temperate desert in the Junggar Basin and the alpine desert in the Kunlun Mountains. The NPP vulnerability of the subtropical evergreen broad-leaved forests would also increase. The area of the regions with increased vulnerability would account for 27.5% of China.

An evolutionary model of sedimentary environments since late Marine Isotope Stage 3 (late MIS 3, i.e., ca. 39 cal ka BP) along the middle Jiangsu coast is presented based upon a reinterpretation of core 07SR01, new correlations between adjacent published cores, and shallow seismic profiles recovered in the Xiyang tidal channel and adjacent northern sea areas. Geomorphology, sedimentology, radiocarbon dating and seismic and sequence stratigraphy are combined to confirm that environmental changes since late MIS 3 in the study area were controlled primarily by sea-level fluctuations, sediment discharge of paleo-rivers into the South Yellow Sea (SYS), and minor tectonic subsidence, all of which impacted the progression of regional geomorphic and sedimentary environments (i.e., coastal barrier island, freshwater lacustrine swamp, river floodplain, coastal marsh, tidal sand ridge, and tidal channel). This resulted in the formation of a fifth-order sequence stratigraphy, comprised of the parasequence of the late stage of the last interstadial (Para-Sq2), including the highstand and forced regressive wedge system tracts (HST and FRWST), and the parasequence of the postglacial period (Para-Sq1), including the transgressive and highstand system tracts (TST and HST). The tidal sand ridges likely began to develop during the postglacial transgression as sea-level rise covered the middle Jiangsu coast at ca. 9.0 cal ka BP. These initially submerged tidal sand ridges were constantly migrating until the southward migration of the Yellow River mouth to the northern Jiangsu coast during AD 1128 to 1855. The paleo-Xiyang tidal channel that was determined by the paleo-tidal current field and significantly different from the modern one, was in existence during the Holocene transgressive maxima and lasted until AD 1128. Following the capture of the Huaihe River in AD 1128 by the Yellow River, the paleo-Xiyang tidal channel was infilled with a large amount of river-derived sediments from AD 1128 to 1855, causing the emergence of some of the previously submerged tidal sand ridges. From AD 1855 to the present, the infilled paleo-Xiyang tidal channel has undergone scouring, resulting in its modern form. The modern Xiyang tidal channel continues to widen and deepen, due both to strong tidal current scouring and anthropogenic activities.

The influence of land use and land cover on ecological environment is a focus of global change research. The paper chooses an industrial city-Shuicheng in Guizhou Province-as a study area because the karst water quality around the city is deteriorating with land use and land cover change. The natural susceptibility of karst water system is an important factor leading to karst water pollution. But land use and land cover change is also a main factor according to the chemical analysis of karst water quality and land use change. So it is a good way to protect karst water through rational planning and managing of land use and land cover.

Impervious surface (IS) is often recognized as the indicator of urban environmental changes. Numerous research efforts have been devoted to studying its spatio-temporal dynamics and ecological effects, especially for the IS in Beijing metropolitan region. However, most previous studies primarily considered the Beijing metropolitan region as a whole without considering the differences and heterogeneity among the function zones. In this study, the subpixel impervious surface results in Beijing within a time series (1991, 2001, 2005, 2011 and 2015) were extracted by means of the classification and regression tree (CART) model combined with change detection models. Then based on the method of standard deviation ellipse, Lorenz curve, contribution index (CI) and landscape metrics, the spatio-temporal dynamics and variations of IS (1991, 2001, 2011 and 2015) in different function zones and districts were analyzed. It is found that the total area of impervious surface in Beijing increased dramatically during the study period, increasing about 144.18%. The deflection angle of major axis of standard deviation ellipse decreased from 47.15° to 38.82°, indicating the major development axis in Beijing gradually moved from northeast-southwest to north-south. Moreover, the heterogeneity of impervious surface’s distribution among 16 districts weakened gradually, but the CI values and landscape metrics in four function zones differed greatly. The urban function extended zone (UFEZ), the main source of the growth of IS in Beijing, had the highest CI values. Its lowest CI value was 1.79 that is still much higher than the highest CI value in other function zones. The core function zone (CFZ), the traditional aggregation zone of impervious surface, had the highest contagion index (CONTAG) values, but it contributed less than UFEZ due to its small area. The CI value of the new urban developed zone (NUDZ) increased rapidly, and it increased from negative to positive and multiplied, becoming an important contributor to the rise of urban impervious surface. However, the ecological conservation zone (ECZ) had a constant negative contribution all the time, and its CI value decreased gradually. Moreover, the landscape metrics and centroids of impervious surface in different density classes differed greatly. The high-density impervious surface had a more compact configuration and a greater impact on the eco-environment.

The temporal-spatial distribution features of prehistoric cultures since the Holocene in Zhejiang region were comparatively analyzed based on GIS spatial analysis. Results show that the prehistoric cultures expanded gradually in this region before 4000 cal. a BP. The notable expansions occurred twice, one in the Majiabang-Hemudu cultural period, the other in the Liangzhu cultural period. Meanwhile, the prehistoric cultures were disseminated from west to east coast along river valleys. After 4000 cal. a BP, as represented by the Maqiao Culture, the distributed area of each prehistoric culture contracted. This is obviously due to the termination of spreading trends to east coast, which was simultaneously accompanied by two different modes of production and economic transitions in the north and south Zhejiang region respectively. The distribution of prehistoric cultures was closely related with Holocene sea-level fluctuations, especially on the banks of Hangzhou Bay, where the distribution changes of prehistoric cultural sites were greatly affected by sea-level changes, with the closest relationships between them. After 7000 cal. a BP, the process of lowered sea-level and regression-epeirogenesis provided wider terrestrial living spaces for prehistoric inhabitants. Based on the comparative analyses of the changes of prehistoric cultures and the environmental evolution information recorded in the Qianmutian subalpine peat of Mt. Tianmu and muddy area on the inner shelf of the East China Sea, it is indicated that the changes of prehistoric cultures were synchronized with environmental changes in Zhejiang region. Before 4000 cal. a BP, the eastward expansion of prehistoric cultures in Zhejiang occurred under the background of the Holocene Optimum, and was the expansion and extension under the joint influences of agricultural civilization and maritime civilization. However, after 4000 cal. a BP, the geographical contraction of prehistoric cultures in Zhejiang occurred under the background of dry-cold climate trend and deterioration of coastal marine environment. It is evidenced from the above fact that the development, expansion and contraction of prehistoric cultures are positively correlated to environmental change. The change of the climatic environment is just the underlying reason for these changes and transitions of production modes and economic forms. Therefore, the climatic environment is the dominant factor of prehistoric culture vicissitudes in Zhejiang region, which has exerted great influence on distribution, dissemination, expansion and transmutation of the culture.