Based on the historical records of the drought and flood disasters during 1480-1940AD, this paper reconstructs the sequences of wetness index (WI) and drought and flood disasters. We find a good identical relationship between the fluctuation of WI sequence and the δ18O record of the GISP2 ice core in Greenland, which shows an apparent monsoonal disposal pattern of moisture and temperature. By applying the Morlet Wavelet Transform Method to deal with the data, several apparent periodicities, such as 7-8a, 11-15a, 20-23a and ca 50a, are revealed, among which some can be attributed to the solar forcing. Based on results of Cluster Analysis of dry-wet changes, we resume the regional differentiation pattern of flood-drought disasters all over Guangdong during different climatic intervals in the LIA and, find the western and northern parts of Guangdong have undergone drastic changes in drought-flood regional differentiation, but the eastern part is relatively stable, and the area of the Pearl River Delta shows stable condition of more flood disasters.

Yangtze Estuary Tidal Wetlands Geographic Information System (YETWGIS) is a comprehensive software system for environmental management and decision of Yangtze estuary tidal wetlands. Based on MapObjects components technology, Data Mining technology, mathematical modeling method and Visual Basic language, this software system has many functions such as displaying, editing, querying and searching, spatial statistics and analysis, thematic map compiling, and environmental quality evaluation. This paper firstly outlined the system structure, key techniques, and achieving methods of YETWGIS, and then, described the core modules (the thematic map compiling module and environmental quality evaluation model module) in detail. In addition, based on information entropy model, it thoroughly discussed the methods of environmental quality evaluation and indicators' weight calculation. Finally, by using YETWGIS, this paper analyzed the spatial distribution characteristics of Heavy Metal and Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) of the Yangtze estuary tidal wetlands in 2002, and evaluated the environmental quality of the Yangtze estuary tidal wetlands in 2003.

New dates for last glacial cycle in Tibetan bordering mountains and in East Asia show the glacial extent during the early/middle (MIS3-4) stage is larger than that of the late stage (MIS2) in last glacial cycle. It is asynchronous with the Northern Hemisphere ice sheets maximum and changes in oceanic circulation that predominately control global climate. In research areas, three seasonal precipitation patterns control the accumulation and ablation of glaciers. The modes of the westerlies and the East Asian mountains/islands in and along the Pacific Ocean are favorable to glacier advance with mainly winter precipitation accumulation. There was a global temperature-decreasing phase in the middle stage (MIS3b, 54-44 ka BP), when the glacier extent was larger than that in Last Glaciation Maximum due to the low temperature combined with high moisture. It is revealed that the Quaternary glaciers not only evolved with localization, but also maybe with globalization. The latest studies show a fact that the developmental characteristics of glaciers in high mountains or islands along the western Pacific Ocean are not in accord with those inland areas. Therefore, it can be concluded that glacier development exhibits regional differences. The study validates the reasonableness of the asynchronous advance theory, and ascertains that both the synchronous and asynchronous advance/retreat of glaciers existed from 30 ka BP to 10 ka BP. It is not suitable to emphasize the synchronicity between global ice-volume and glacier change.

Soil erodibility is an important index to evaluate the soil sensitivity to erosion. The research on soil erodibility is a crucial tache in understanding the mechanism of soil erosion. Soil erodibility can be evaluated by measuring soil physiochemical properties, scouring experiment, simulated rainfall experiment, plot experiment and wind tunnel experiment. We can use soil erosion model and nomogram to calculate soil erodibility. Many soil erodibility indices and formulae have been put forward. Soil erodibility is a complex concept, it is influenced by many factors, such as soil properties and human activities. Several obstacles restrict the research of soil erodibility. Firstly, the research on soil erodibility is mainly focused on farmland; Secondly, soil erodibility in different areas cannot be compared sufficiently; and thirdly, the research on soil erodibility in water-wind erosion is very scarce. In the prospective research, we should improve method to measure and calculate soil erodibility, strengthen the research on the mechanism of soil erodibility, and conduct research on soil erodibility by both water and wind agents.

Forty middle and small rivers in three towns of Fengjing, Songjiang and Zhujiajiao of suburban Shanghai were chosen as sampling sites for water quality research. Measurement results of DO, CODCr, TP, TN and so on show that the rivers are under heavy eutropic conditions, which are several times greater than the critical values of the worst level (Type V) of water. Water pollution situation has different temporal and spatial characteristics. Non-point pollution, such as village domestic sewage, farmland runoff, livestock feces, has become the primary source of pollution of the middle and small rivers in suburban Shanghai.

Agricultural landscape along the riparian zones is designated as important landscape components for partly controlling water quality, biodiversity, as well as for their aesthetic role in landscapes. Therefore, the change of agricultural landscape along the riparian zones is at the top of the agenda for many policy makers and landscape planners. As a basis for conservation management, sufficient information about landscape structure should be provided. In the present study, we reconstructed the former landscape structure and elucidated the changes in landscape patterns during a period of about 15 years. Two sets of maps were used: a landsat-5 TM image (1987) and landsat-7 ETM image (2002). The frequency index, landscape diversity index and landscape fragmentation index were calculated for analyses. The results showed that: (1) the areas of the irrigated land, river, forest and beach landscape classes presented a decreasing trend while the areas of landscape classes of pool, paddy fields, dry land and construction land increased. (2) Disturbed by human activity, landscape diversity index increased but landscape fragmentation index decreased. In short, Human activities have had important influences on agricultural landscape of the riparian zones along the Yellow River in Henan Province.

Modelling scenarios of land use change and their impacts in typical regions are helpful to investigate the mechanism between land use and ecological systems and process the land use allocation under the ecological security. A system dynamics (SD) model with the aim to modelling scenarios of land use change and assessing ecological impact in northern China in the next 50 years is developed here. The accuracy assessment with the historic data from 1990 to 2001 indicated the SD model is robust. After the different "what-if" scenarios controlled by GDP, population, market, and technology advancement were built, the different scenarios of land use change in northern China from 2000 to 2050 were simulated with their ecological impact assessed. The result suggested that such factors as GDP, population, market and technology have a strong relationship with land use structural change in northern China. It also indicated that such measures as strict controlling of population increase, importing some food to keep the supply-demand balance in the region, and improving agricultural technology will be the guarantee of regional sustainable development with fast economic growth and the obvious land use structural improvement at the same time.

This paper firstly selects 10 kinds of indexes to reflect eco-environment background condition and builds the multi-subject spatial database by using ground meteorological data, remote sensing data and DEM. It then discusses in detail the methods about evaluating eco-environment background condition and analyzing eco-environment change. The eco-environment background conditions of 1989 and 1999 are synthetically appraised. Finally, the paper analyzes the spatial distribution, quantitative change, the trend of change, the areas of change and the dynamic spatial pattern of eco-environment. The results are as follows: (1) The eco-environment background condition becomes worse from southeast to northwest in the farming-pastoral region of northern China. (2) The eco-environment background condition deteriorates from 1989 to 1999. (3) In the adjacent areas of Shanxi-Shaanxi-Inner Mongolia-Gansu-Ningxia, Horqin Sandy Land and its peripheries, and eastern Qinghai province, eco-environmental deterioration is very serious.

Landsat ETM/TM data and an artificial neural network (ANN) were applied to analyse the expansion of the city of Xi'an and land use/cover change of its surrounding area between 2000 and 2003. Supervised classification and normalized difference barren index (NDBI) were used respectively to retrieve its urban boundary. Results showed that the urban area increased by an annual rate of 12.3%, with area expansion from 253.37 km2 in 2000 to 358.60 km2 in 2003. Large areas of farmland in the north and southwest were converted into urban construction land. The land use/cover changes of Xi'an were mainly caused by fast development of urban economy, population immigration from countryside, great development of infrastructure such as transportation, and huge demands for urban market. In addition, affected by the government policy of "returning farmland to woodland", some farmland was converted into economic woodland, such as Chinese goosebeery garden, vineyard etc.

The Boao coastal system along the eastern coast of Hainan Island is a dynamic delta-tidal inlet-barrier formed during the late Holocene. The delta developed inside a shallow lagoon barred by a sandy barrier with a narrow, shallow tidal inlet opening. Two major distributary channels separated by small islands characterize the delta. The lagoon is silting up receiving and trapping sediments from both the river and, in minor measure during storms, through the tidal inlet opening and barrier washovers. The barrier at the tidal inlet is highly dynamic and changes its form, accreting (migrating spit) against the inlet during fair-weather conditions and being eroded during storms and river floods. The delta has almost completely filled the lagoon and major concerns exist on the effect that ongoing large development plans may have on the environment. These concerns include the effect on floods and rate of siltation once banks of the islands have been stabilized and floodwater and sediment load are impeded from spreading over the lowlands, and the effect of increasing pollutant loads from the new facilities on the ecosystems of the increasingly restricting lagoon water and on the seashores.

Danxia geomorphology originates from China. This paper studies the spatial distribution and differences in characteristics of Danxia landforms. Based on relevant research and investigations, three congregated areas of Danxia landform in China are discussed in this paper. They are the southeast area (including Jiangxi, Fujian, Zhejiang, Hunan and Guangxi provinces), the southwest area (the transitional zone of Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau and Sichuan Basin) and the northwest area (including Longshan mountain and along the banks of the Huanghe River and its anabranches). Not only the conditions of geology and geography of the three areas but also the differences of Danxia landforms of the three areas are analyzed. The Danxia landscape, characterized by upright-shaped peaks, Danxia mesa, stone wall, cave and vertical cave, "Danxia natural bridge", "a narrow strip of sky" and so on, often presents in the southeast area. The landscape of southwest area is characterized by Danxia escarpment faces and waterfalls. In the northwest area, the Danxia landscape has the traits of arid areas simultaneously, for example, mud-coating type, columniation type, board type, moreover, it is greatly different between these environmental factors such as the microclimate, water, wind, and the loess cover. Finally it explores the causes which lead differences in landform and also explains the landform formation process and its mechanism with reference to the rates of crustal uplift, the tectonic red-basin, and the external processes including working of running water, weathering, biogenic, gravity in each area of Danxia Landforms in China.

Sustainable development has become a primary objective for many countries and regions throughout the world now. The ecological footprint (EF) is a kind of concise method of quantifiably measuring the natural capital consumption and it can reflect the goal of sustainability. In this paper, the concept, the theory and method of ecological footprint are introduced. On this basis, the study brings forward the method of ecological footprint and capacity prediction. The method is employed for the ecological footprint prediction combining consumption model with population model and the technique is adopted for the ecological capacity (EC) prediction uniting the Geographical Cellular Automata (Geo CA) and Geographic Information System (GIS). The above models and methods are employed to calculate EF and EC in 1995 and 2000 and predict them in 2005 in Hexi Corridor. The result shows that EF is continually increasing, and EC ascended in the anterior 5 years and will descend in the posterior 5 years. This suit of method is of the character of accuracy and speediness.

Coastal salt-marshes represent an important coastal wetland system. The total area of coastal wetlands exceeds 5000 km² in Jiangsu Province, China, but it is decreasing rapidly in response to the intense reclamation activities and coastal erosion along a part of the coastline. Hence, two types of plants, Spartina angelica and Spartina alterniflora, were introduced successively into the Jiangsu coastal areas, in order to protect the coastline from erosion and to increase the accumulation rate. Pb-210 and Cs-137 analyses were carried out for sediment samples from the salt-marshes of Wanggang to determine the sedimentation rate, on the basis of an evaluation of the background activity values and the factors affecting the enrichment of Pb-210. Analysis of a typical sediment column of the tidal flat shows that there is weak absorption of Pb-210 in the silt-dominated sediment. Because of the influences of factors such as storm events, bioturbation, material sources and analytical error, some abnormal data points appear in the Pb-210 record. After ignoring these data the calculated sedimentation rate was 3.3 cm yr^-1 on average. Based upon analysis of the Cs-137 dating, the rate since 1963 was 3.1 cm yr^-1 on average, similar to the data by Pb-210 dating and the previous studies. The dating results show that there were three stages of sedimentation, with the most rapid accretion being taking place after Spartina angelica was introduced into the area. The study also shows that at the stage of Spartina alterniflora growth, the accretion rate was higher than on the flat surface with the same elevation without the cover of this plant.

The forest resources in Xinjiang were surveyed and analyzed based on RS and GIS. Satellite data interpretation was adopted to obtain the general situation of Xinjiang forest resources in assistance with the sampling method and on-the-spot investigations. Based on GIS, related data obtained from satellite remote sensing in 1996 and 2001 were studied through contrastive analysis. Moreover, the dynamic variation of Xinjiang forest resources was studied in an all-around way. In the past five years, the areas of the forestland, woodland, sparse woodland, nursery garden and the land usable for forestry in Xinjiang kept growing, moreover, the forest cover rate and the total standing stock volume increased correspondingly, showing that the wooded area and the amount of growing stock in Xinjiang were increasing. The forestland area in Xinjiang went up to 17,837 km² from 17,331 km², with an annual average increase of 101 km². Accordingly, the forest vegetation came to 1.08% from 1.05%, up 0.03 percentage point; the total standing stock volume went up to 289,985,200 m³ from 262,416,000 m³, a total increase of 27,569,200 m³, an annual average increase of 5,514,000 m³ and an annual average net growth rate of 2.00%. The analysis results showed that the forest resources in Xinjiang were increasing on the whole, however, there remained some problems, such as the sparse natural forests, low forest cover rate, imbalanced wood age structure, and mono tree species composition, etc.

Due to the influences of local topographical factors and terrain inter-shielding, calculation of direct solar radiation (DSR) quantity of rugged terrain is very complex. Based on digital elevation model (DEM) data and meteorological observations, a distributed model for calculating DSR over rugged terrain is developed. This model gives an all-sided consideration on factors influencing DSR. Using the developed model, normals of annual DSR quantity with a resolution of 1 km × 1 km for the Yellow River Basin was generated, with DEM data as the general characterization of terrain. Characteristics of DSR quantity influenced by geographic and topographic factors over rugged terrain were analyzed thoroughly. Results suggest that: influenced by local topographic factors, i.e. azimuth, slope and so on, and annual DSR quantity over mountainous area has a clear spatial difference; annual DSR quantity of sunny slope (or southern slope) of mountains is obviously larger than that of shady slope (or northern slope). The calculated DSR quantity of the Yellow River Basin is provided in the same way as other kinds of spatial information and can be employed as basic geographic data for relevant studies as well.

Here we report our recent magnetic fabric investigation of loess deposition in Shagou section, located at the northeastern Qilian Mountains, the northeastern rim of the Tibetan Plateau. On the basis of environmental magnetism data, we indicate that the variation of anisotropy of magnetic susceptibility (AMS) parameters, especially the foliation (F) and degree of anisotropy (P), might be more sensitive to the environmental change in the arid and semiarid regions than the magnetic susceptibility fluctuation. During the investigated interval, from 0.83 to 0.128 Ma, most of the middle to late Pleistocene significant climate change can be unraveled by the AMS parameters, such as the strengthening of cold/dry climate, the step drying event occurred nearly 250 ka, and the severe environmental change in MIS16. Our results also suggest that there is strong correlation between median diameter (Md) of grain size, F, and P. We propose that the AMS parameters can act as an important paleoenvironmental change indicator in the arid and semiarid regions.

Debris flows in essence are the process of mass transportation controlled by the constitution featured by a wide-ranged distribution of grain size. Debris-flow samples of different densities collected from different regions and gullies reveal that cumulative curve of grain composition, in particular for debris flows of high density, ρs >2 g/cm³, can be fitted well by exponential function with exponents varying with regions and gullies. Debris flows fall into a narrow-valued domain of the exponent, as evidenced by Jiangjiagou Gully (JJG) with high occurrence frequency of debris flows. Furthermore, fractality of grain composition and porosity have been derived from cumulative curves in a certain size range, a range that determines the upper limit of grains constituting the matrix of debris flows. One can conclude that fractal structure of porosity plays crucial roles in soil fluidization that initiates debris flows, and debris flows occur at some range of fractal dimension, in coincidence with field observations.

Late Pleistocene glaciation was restricted to only a few high mountains in eastern China. The Gongwang mountains constitute one of the typical places once glaciated. Geomorphic mapping of the area and the TL dating provides evidence for at least four distinct glaciations. YJT-I glacial advance occurred about 100 ka BP and two TL absolute ages (101,100 ±7780 a BP; 104,000±8300 a BP) indicate this advance happened during the Penultimale Glaciation. The early stage glacial advance (YJT-II advance) during the last glaciation occurred about 40,920±3400 a BP. The last glacial maximum advance (YJT-III advance) about 18-25 ka BP, which sustained by two TL ages (18,230 ±1420 a BP; 25,420 ±2110 a BP). The Penultimale and the early stage glaciations were more extensive and the last glacial maximum (LGM) and the late-glacial period (YJT-IV advance, 10 ka BP) were progressively less extensive. Correlated with the other mountains in eastern China, these glacial advances in the Gongwang mountains just like the advances in the western part such as Diancang mountains, Yulong mountains of Yunnan Province and the glacier series are more complete than the adjacent mid-latitude regions such as Taibai mountain and Taiwan mountains and are roughly representative of climate changes during the last glacial cycle in Yunnan Province.

Greenhouse-gas (GHG) emissions in China have aroused much interest, and not least in recent evidence of their reduction. Our intent is to place that reduction in a larger context, that of the process of industrialization. A lengthy time perspective is combined with a cross-sectional approach-China plus five other countries-and addressed through two general models. The findings are salutary. First, they suggest that a diversified economic structure is consistent with diminished intensity in energy use. Secondly, and the obverse of the first, they imply that a diversified energy structure promotes reductions in CO² emissions. Finally, one is led inevitably to the conclusion that, together, the findings point to a path for countries to transform their economies while at the same time undertaking to drastically moderate their energy use, switching from a pattern of heavy carbon emissions to one in which lighter carbon emissions prevail. The implications of such findings for environmental management are enormous.

Variation characteristics of temperature and precipitation in January and July and annual mean temperature and annual precipitation are analyzed with the help of cumulative anomalies, Mann-Kendall analysis and wavelet analysis. The research results indicate that January precipitation presents an increasing trend after 1990, wavelet analysis result suggests that this increasing trend will continue in the near future. The changes of July precipitation present different features. During 1900-1960, July precipitation is in a rising trend, but is in a declining trend after 1960. Wavelet analysis shows that this declining trend will go on in the near future. Temperature variations in Shanghai are in fluctuations with 2 to 3 temperature rising periods. Mann-Kendall analysis indicates that temperature variations have the obvious abrupt change time when compared with precipitation changes in Shanghai during the past 100 years. The abrupt change time of January temperature lies in 1985, and that of July temperature lies in 1931-1933 and annual mean temperature has the abrupt change time in 1923-1930. Except July precipitation, the precipitation in January, temperature in January, July and annual mean temperature, and annual precipitation are also in a rising trend in the near future. The research results in this paper may be meaningful for future further climatic changes of Shanghai and social mitigation of climatic disasters in the future.

The lower reaches of the Tarim River are one of the areas suffering from most severe sandy desertification in Xinjiang, Northwest China. Irrational utilization of water and land resources results in eco-environmental deterioration in the Tarim River. In May 2000, the local government carried out the water conveyances project in the Tarim River. The influence of water conveyance on desertification reversion is analyzed and discussed according to the monitoring data in the past three years. Based on monitored data of the nine observed sections, along the channel of conveyance, the intensity and scope of desertification reversion in the upper reaches are larger than those in the lower reaches. Dynamic changes of desertification reversion are more obvious from the channel of conveyance to its two sides. However, the range of influence and intensity of desertification reversion is limited at present. It is suggested that the way and range of water conveyances should be adjusted in the future.

Based on 740 stations of daily precipitation datasets in China, the precipitation- concentration degree (PCD) and precipitation-concentration period (PCP) of different intensity durative precipitation events were calculated to analyze their statistical characteristics, mainly including spatial and temporal distributions, variations and climatic trends of the two parameters of the durative heavy precipitation events in China. It is proved that these two parameters of heavy rainfall can display the temporal inhomogeneity in the precipitation field. And it is also found that there is a good positive relationship between the precipitation-concentration degree and annual rainfall amount in the Eastern and Central China. This method can be applied in flood assessment and climate change fields.

The Yangtze delta area is among the fastest developing areas in China. Here there are mega-cities like Shanghai, Nanjing and the attached urban areas of different sizes including those along the lower reaches of the Yangtze River from Shanghai up to Nanjing as well as their satellite cities and towns, forming one of the most densely distributed urban areas in China. This is a case study done in Suzhou city at the center of the Yangtze delta to reflect the impact of urban sprawl on soil resources using satellite images and digital soil databases. The extent of the developed land in the studied area and the impact of development on soil resources at 1:100,000 scale are estimated and the soil types impacted most by urbanization development are determined through overlaying the soil map on the satellite images (Landsat-7) of the studied area at different times (1984, 1995, 2000 and 2003). The methodology for this study consists of analyzing data resulting from using a geographic information system (GIS) to combine urban land use maps of different times derived from satellite images with data on soil characteristics contained in the established soil databases by which some results come into being to present the fast expanding trend of urbanization in the Yangtze delta area, the urban spread and the soils occupied by the urbanization process, and also the quality of the occupied soils.

Using geographic information system (GIS) techniques and the newest seasonal and annual average precipitation data of 679 meteorological stations from 1971 to 2000, the multiple regressions equations of the precipitation and topographical variables are established to extract the effect of topography on the annual and seasonal precipitation in the upper-middle reaches of the Yangtze River. Then, this paper uses a successive interpolation approach (SIA), which combines GIS techniques with the multiple regressions, to improve the accuracy of the spatial interpolation of annual and seasonal rainfall. The results are very satisfactory in the case of seasonal rainfall, with the relative error of 6.86%, the absolute error of 13.07 mm, the average coefficient of variation of 0.070, and the correlation coefficient of 0.9675; in the case of annual precipitation, with the relative error of 7.34%, the absolute error of 72.1 mm, the average coefficient of variation of 0.092, and the correlation coefficient of 0.9605. The analyses of annual mean precipitation show that the SIA calculation of 3-5 steps considerably improves the interpolation accuracy, decreasing the absolute error from 211.0 mm to 62.4 mm, the relative error from 20.74% to 5.97%, the coefficient of variation from 0.2312 to 0.0761, and increasing the correlation coefficient from 0.5467 to 0.9619. The SIA iterative results after 50 steps identically converge to the observed precipitation.

Along the north bank of the Xuxi River, the sand-intercalated-muddy gravel layer from -3.7~-5.8 m in the borehole 7508 at the East Dam and the middle, coarse and fine sand layer with a thickness of 4.5 m at the lower part of the borehole 8179 between the East Dam and the West Dam indicate that a large natural river was here before the Kingdom of Wu excavated the Xuxi Canal. The existence of Neolithic sites such as Xuecheng, Chaoduntou and Xiajiadang along the Xuxi River and the silt layer with dozens of meters archived under the earth's surface within a range of 1 km along both banks are the even more important evidences for the existence of the ancient Zhongjiang River. The floodgate of the East Dam nowadays makes against the communication between the Shuiyangjiang River and the Taihu Lake. The authors suggest the canal between Wuhu and Taihu Lake should be excavated as soon as possible, namely, the navigation channel from Wuhu through Guchenghu Lake, Xuxi River, East Dam, Liyang, Yixing to Taihu Lake should be further widen and the deposits composed of slope wash on the watershed between Shuiyangjiang River and Taihu Lake should be dredged away. Then, the channel journey can be shortened, the boats in ship transportation on the Yangtze River can be shunted to ensure the security of shipping, the resources of sand and gravel in the old river channel can be exploited and the dike of the Yangtze River can be reinforced. So, the problems of irrigation, flood diversion, pollution abatement and drainage of flooded fields in the lower Yangtze River will be resolved. Then, the above methods can impel the sustainable development of the Xuxi River and Taihu Lake area.

The method of time series is applied to analyze the variation of precipitation and temperature from 1961 to 2002 in the mountainous areas of the Tarim River Basin, as well as water consumption in the headstream and mainstream areas. Those hydrologic parameters are verified. Quantitative results indicate that the precipitation and temperature in the headstream areas have an increasing trend to different extent. The increasing trend of precipitation is less significant than that of the temperature (α= 0.05). Runoff of three headstreams also increases especially from 1994 to 2002. Compared with the perennial runoff, the annual runoff has increased by 25.163×10⁸ m3/a. However, inflows of the mainstream areas has only increased by 0.9985×10⁸ m3/a. So the runoff at the different hydrologic stations in the headstream areas has a linear decreasing trend. It is shown that the degraded trend of eco-environment of the Tarim River Basin hardly changes in the special water period for ten consecutive years. Given runoff of three headstreams is accounted in normal period from 1957 to 2003, the annual runoff of the headstream areas would be only 22.57×10⁸ m3. Therefore, more attention should be given to ecological safety of the Tarim River Basin.

Ecosystem services are premises for human beings to exist and develop in the world, and it is of importance to study effects of land use change on ecosystem functions. Songnen plain, located in Northeast China, is one of the national key bases for agricultural production. Because there were remarkable variations in land use in recent years, it can supply specific foundation for protection and restoration of regional eco-environment to explore changes in its values of ecosystem services. This study aims to qualify long-term changes in land use of Songnen plain from 1980 to 2000, and to explore the impact of land use change on ecosystem services. With 2-period land use data using RS and GIS, this paper analyzed changes in land use and in ecosystem service values using the ecosystem service value coefficients (VC) put forward by Costanza et al. Results showed that from 1980 to 2000, area of rangeland, water area and wetlands and area of cropland decreased, but urban area and unused land increased. Due to cropland's comparatively low VC and comparatively high VC of wetlands and water area, increment in cultivated land could not offset the total decrement in regional ecosystem service values because of the decrease in area of wetlands and water area. Meanwhile, city sprawl has also led to loss of ecological values. Total ecosystem service values of the study area reduced dramatically, from 34,926.10×10⁶$ to 31,744.54×10⁶$ in the period 1980-2000. This represents a 9.11% net decline in annual value of ecosystem services in the study area.

Under Rayleigh equilibrium condition, stable isotopic ratio in residual water increases with the decrease of the residual water proportion f exponentially, and the fractionation rate of stable isotopes is inversely proportional to temperature. However, under kinetic evaporation condition, the fractionation of stable isotopes is not only related to the phase temperature but also influenced by the atmospheric humidity and the mass exchange between liquid and vapor phases. The ratio δ in residual water will not change with f after undergoing evaporation of a long time for great relative humidity. The rate that the evaporating water body reaches isotopic steady state is mainly dependent on the relative humidity in atmosphere. The analysis shows that the actual mean linear variety rates, about -30.0, of the δ18O in residual water versus the residual water proportion at Nagqu and Amdo stations are consistent with the simulated process under temperature of 20 oC and relative humidity of 50%. The distillation line simulated under Rayleigh equilibrium condition is analogous to the global meteoric water line (MWL) as the temperature is about 20 oC. Under non-equilibrium condition, the slope and constant values of distillation line are directly proportional to temperature and relative humidity. According to the basic data, the simulated distillation line is very consistent with the actual distillation line of Qinghai Lake.

China is distinguished by a prominent monsoonal climate in the east of the country, a continental arid climate in the northwest and a highland cold climate on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. Because of the long history of Chinese civilization, there are abundant and well-dated documentary records for climate variation over the whole of the country as well as many natural archives (e.g., tree-rings, ice cores, stalagmites, varved lake sediments and corals) that enable high-resolution paleoclimatic reconstruction. In this paper, we review recent advances in the reconstruction of climate and extreme events over the last 2000 years in China. In the last 10 years, many new reconstructions, based on multi-proxies with wide spatial coverage, have been published in China. These reconstructions enable us to understand the characteristics of climate change across the country as well as the uncertainties of regional reconstructions. Synthesized reconstructed temperature results show that warm intervals over the last 2000 years occurred in AD 1-200, AD 551-760, AD 951-1320, and after AD 1921, and also show that cold intervals were in AD 201-350, AD 441-530, AD 781-950, and AD 1321-1920. Extreme cold winters, seen between 1500 and 1900, were more frequent than those after 1950. The intensity of regional heat waves, in the context of recent global warming, may not in fact exceed natural climate variability seen over the last 2000 years. In the eastern monsoonal region of China, decadal, multi-decadal and centennial oscillations are seen in rainfall variability. While the ensemble mean for drought/flood spatial patterns across all cold periods shows a meridional distribution, there is a tri-pole pattern with respect to droughts south of 25°N, floods between 25° and 30°N, and droughts north of 30°N for all warm periods. Data show that extreme drought events were most frequent in the periods AD 301-400, AD 751-800, AD 1051-1150, AD 1501-1550, and AD 1601-1650, while extreme flood events were frequent in the periods AD 101-150, AD 251-300, AD 951-1000, AD 1701-1750, AD 1801-1850, and AD 1901-1950. Between AD 1551-1600, extreme droughts and flood events occurred frequently. In arid northwest China, climate was characterized by dry conditions in AD 1000-1350, wet conditions in AD 1500-1850, and has tended to be wet over recent decades. On the northeastern Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, centennial-scale oscillations in precipitation have occurred over the last 1000 years, interrupted by several multi- decadal-scale severe drought events. Of these, the most severe were in the 1480s and 1710s. In southwest China, extreme droughts as severe as those seen in Sichuan and Chongqing in 2006 are known to have occurred during historical times.

Accompanying the rapid growth of China’s population and economy, energy consumption and carbon emission increased significantly from 1978 to 2012. China is now the largest energy consumer and CO₂ emitter of the world, leading to much interest in researches on the nexus between energy consumption, carbon emissions and low-carbon economy. This article presents the domestic Chinese studies on this hotpot issue, and we obtain the following findings. First, most research fields involve geography, ecology and resource economics, and research contents contained some analysis of current situation, factors decomposition, predictive analysis and the introduction of methods and models. Second, there exists an inverted “U-shaped” curve connection between carbon emission, energy consumption and economic development. Energy consumption in China will be in a low-speed growth after 2035 and it is expected to peak between 6.19-12.13 billion TCE in 2050. China’s carbon emissions are expected to peak in 2035, or during 2020 to 2045, and the optimal range of carbon emissions is between 2.4-3.3 PgC/year (1 PgC=1 billion tons C) in 2050. Third, future research should be focused on global carbon trading, regional carbon flows, reforming the current energy structure, reducing energy consumption and innovating the low-carbon economic theory, as well as establishing a comprehensive theoretical system of energy consumption, carbon emissions and low-carbon economy.