Due to complex terrain of the Loess Plateau, the classification accuracy is unsatisfactory when a single supervised classification is used in the remote sensing investigation of the sloping field. Taking the loess hill and gully area of northern Shaanxi Province as a test area, a research was conducted to extract sloping field and other land use categories by applying an integrated classification. Based on an integration of supervised classification and unsupervised classification, sampling method is remarkably improved. The results show that the classification accuracy is satisfactory by the method and is of critical significance in obtaining up-to-date information of the sloping field, which should be helpful in the state key project of converting farmland to forest and grassland on slope land in this area. This research sought to improve the application accuracy of image classification in complex terrain areas.

The ecological footprint of China's provinces is calculated in this paper. In general, China's development is not sustainable because its ecological footprint is beyond its bio-capacity. The sustainability status of each province in China is presented. Ulanowicz's development capacity formula was introduced to discuss the relationship of development and ecological footprint's diversity. The diversity of ecological impacts is related to the efficiency with which an economy uses the source and sink services of the environment and, in this view, should be a factor in economic output. Development capacity, calculated from the ecological footprint and its diversity, is used to examine the relationship of economic output with the structure of the ecological footprint. China and its provinces are presented as a case study to investigate this relationship. The analysis shows that footprint capacity is significant in predicting economic output. Increasing the ecological footprint's diversity is presented as another way to increase development capacity.

Based on the information from forest resources distribution maps of Luoning County of 1983 and 1999, six indices were used to analyze spatial patterns and dynamics of forest landscapes of the typical region in the middle of the Yihe-Luohe river basin. These indices include patch number, mean patch area, fragment index, patch extension index, etc. The results showed that: (1) There was a rapid increase in the number of patch and total area from 1983 to 1999 in the study area. The fragment degree became very high. (2) The area of all the forest patch types had witnessed great changes. The fractal degree of each forest patch type became big from 1983 to 1999. The mean extension index of Robinia pseudoacacia forest, non-forest, shrub forest, sparse forest, and Quercus species forest increased rapidly, but that of economic forest became zero. The fractal dimension each showed that forest coverage has been promoted. (3) The changes of landscape patterns were different in different geomorphic regions. From 1983 to 1999 the vegetation cover area, the gross number and the density of patch, diversity and evenness of landscape were all reduced greatly in gullies and ravines, but the maximum area and the mean area of patch types were increased. In hilly region, both the forest cover area and the number of patch increased from 1983 to 1999, but the mean area of patch was reduced greatly. In mountain region, even though the area under forest canopy reduced from 1983 to 1999, the patch number was increased greatly, the mean area of all patch types was reduced, the extension index, diversity index and evenness index of landscape were all increased. Furthermore, because of different types of land use, human activity and terrain, the vegetation changes on northern and southern mountain slopes were different. According to these analyses, the main driving forces, such as the policies of management, market economy, influence of human activities etc. are brought out.

Reviewing some important German scientists who have developed climatic regionalization schemes either on a global or Chinese scale, their various definitions of the tropical climate characteristics in China are discussed and compared with Huang Bingwei's climate classification scheme and the identification of the tropical climate therein. It can be seen that, due to different methodological approaches of the climatic regionalization schemes, the definitions of the tropics vary and hence also their spatial distribution in China. However, it is found that the tropical climate type occupies only a peripheral part of southern China, though it firmly represents a distinctive type of climate that is supsequently associated with a great economic importance for China. As such, the tropical climate type was mostly identified with its agro-climatological significance, that is by giving favourable growing conditions all-year round for perennial crops with a great heat demand. Tropical climate is, hence, conventionally regarded to be governed by all-year round summer conditions "where winter never comes".

The ecological water demand (EWD) is the least water amount required to maintain the structure and the function of the special eco-system and the temporal scale of a study on the EWD must be a season's time. Based on GIS and RS with the source information of hydrological data of 46 hydrological gauges covering 52 years and the digital images of Landsat TM in 1986, 1996 and 2000, the landscape patterns, precipitation and runoff in the East Liaohe River Basin were analyzed. With the result of the above analysis, the spatial and temporal changes of the ecological water demand in the slope systems (EWDSS) of the East Liaohe River Basin (ELRB) were derived. Landscapes in the ELRB are dispersed and strongly disturbed by human actions. The hydrological regime in ELRB has distinct spatial variations. The average annual EWDSS in the ELRB is 504.72 mm (324.08-618.89 mm), and the average EWDSS in the growth season (from May to September) is 88.29% of the year's total EWDSS .The ultimate guaranteeing ratio of the EWDSS in ELRB is 90%. The scarce EWDSS area in the whole year and in the growth season are 60.47% and 74.01% of the entire basin respectively. The trend of scarce EWDSS area is most serious according to the quantity and area of scarce EWDSS regions.

Using static chamber technique, fluxes of CO₂, CH₄ and N₂O were measured in the alpine grassland area from July 2000 to July 2001, determinations of mean fluxes showed that co₂ and N₂O were generally released from the soil, while the alpine grassland accounted for a weak CH₄ sink. Fluxes of CO₂, CH₄ and N₂O ranged widely. The highest co₂ emission occurred in August, whereas almost 90% of the whole year emission occurred in the growing season. But the variations of CH₄ and N₂O fluxes did not show any clear patterns over the one-year-experiment. During a daily variation, the maximum co₂ emission occurred at 16:00, and then decreased to the minimum emission in the early morning. Daily pattern analyses indicated that the variation in co₂ fluxes was positively related to air temperatures (R²=0.73) and soil temperatures at a depth of 5 cm (R²=0.86), whereas daily variations in CH₄ and N₂O fluxes were poorly explained by soil temperatures and climatic variables. co₂ emissions in this area were much lower than other grasslands in plain areas.

In this paper, we use CEVSA, a process-based model, which has been validated on regional and global scales, to explore the temporal and spatial patterns of Net Primary Productivity (NPP) and its responses to interannual climate fluctuations in China's terrestrial ecosystems over the period 1981-1998. The estimated results suggest that, in this study period, the averaged annual total NPP is about 3.09 Gt C/yr^-1 and average NPP is about 342 g C/m². The results also showed that the precipitation was the key factor determining the spatial distribution and temporal trends of NPP. Temporally, the total NPP exhibited a slowly increasing trend. In some ENSO years (e.g. 1982, 1986, 1997) NPP decreased clearly compared to the previous year, but the relationship between ENSO and NPP is complex due to the integrated effects of monsoons and regional differentiation. Spatially, the relatively high NPP occurred at the middle high latitudes, the low latitudes and the lower appeared at the middle latitudes. On national scale, precipitation is the key control factor on NPP variations and there exists a weak correlation between NPP and temperature, but regional responses are greatly different.

Studies indicate that the climate has experienced a dramatic change in the Heihe River Basin with scope of temperature rise reaching 0.5-1.1oC in the 1990s compared to the mean value of the period 1960-1990, precipitation increased 18.5 mm in the 1990s compared to the 1950s, and 6.5 mm in the 1990s compared to the mean value of the period 1960-1990, water resources decreased 2.6×10⁸ m³ in the 1990s compared to the 1950s, and 0.4×10⁸ m³ in the 1990s compared to the mean value of the period 1960-1990. These changes have exerted a greater effect on the local environment and socio-economy, and also made the condition worsening in water resources utilizations in the Heihe Rver Basin.

Evapotranspiration (ET) is an important parameter for water resource management. Compared to the traditional ET computation and measurement methods, the ET computation method based on remote sensing has the advantages of quickness, precision, raster mapping and regional scale. SEBAL, an ET computation model using remote sensing method is based on the surface energy balance equation which is a function of net radiance flux, soil heat flux, sensible heat flux and latent heat flux. The former three fluxes can be computed through the parameters retrieved from remote sensing image, then the latent heat flux can be obtained to provide energy for ET. Finally we can obtain the daily ET. In this study SEBAL was applied to compute ET in the Yellow River Delta of China where water resource faces a rigorous situation. Three Landsat TM images and meteorology data of 1999 were used for ET computation, and spatial and temporal change patterns of ET in the Yellow River Delta were analysed.

The regional characteristics of dust events in China has been mainly studied by using the data of dust storm, wind-blown sand and floating dust from 338 observation stations through China from 1954 to 2000. The results of this study are as follows: (1) In China, there are two high frequent areas of dust events, one is located in the area of Minfeng and Hotan in the South Xinjiang Basin, the other is situated in the area of Minqin and Jilantai in the Hexi Region. Furthermore, the spatial distributions of the various types of dust events are different. The dust storms mainly occur in the arid and semiarid areas covering the deserts and the areas undergoing desertification in northern China. Wind-blown sand and floating-dust not only occur in the areas where dust storms occur, but also extend to the neighboring areas. The range of wind-blown sand extends northeastward and southeastward, but floating-dust mainly extends southeastward to the low-latitude region such as the East China Plain and the area of the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River. Compared with wind-blown sand, the floating-dust seldom occurs in the high latitude areas such as North Xinjiang and Northeast China. (2) The affected areas of dust storms can be divided into seven sub-regions, that is, North Xinjiang Region, South Xinjiang Region, Hexi Region, Qaidam Basin Region, Hetao Region, Northeastern China Region and Qinghai-Xizang (Tibet) Region. The area of the most frequent occurrence of dust storms and floating-dust is in South Xinjiang Region, and of wind-blown sand in the Hexi Region. In general, the frequency of dust events in all the seven regions shows a decreasing tendency from 1954 to 2000, but there are certain differences between various dust events in different regions. The maximum interannual change and variance of dust events during this time happened in South Xinjiang Region and Hexi Region. The dust events generally occur most frequently in April in most parts of China. The spring occurred days of dust events occupied 60-70% of the whole year in Hetao Region and Northeastern China Region. However, in South Xinjiang Region and North Xinjiang Region, which was less affected by monsoon climate, dust events may occur at any time of the year, less than 50% of the events in this region occur during spring. In the remaining three regions 50-60% of the dust events occur in spring of a year.

Based on geographical and hydrological extents delimited, four principles are identified, as the bases for delineating the ranges of the source regions of the Yangtze and Yellow rivers in the paper. According to the comprehensive analysis of topographical characteristics, climate conditions, vegetation distribution and hydrological features, the source region ranges for eco-environmental study are defined. The eastern boundary point is Dari hydrological station in the upper reach of the Yellow River. The watershed above Dari hydrological station is the source region of the Yellow River which drains an area of 4.49×104 km². Natural environment is characterized by the major topographical types of plateau lakes and marshland, gentle landforms, alpine cold semi-arid climate, and steppe and meadow vegetation in the source region of the Yellow River. The eastern boundary point is the convergent site of the Nieqiaqu and the Tongtian River in the upstream of the Yangtze River. The watershed above the convergent site is the source region of the Yangtze River, with a watershed area of 12.24×104 km². Hills and alpine plain topography, gentle terrain, alpine cold arid and semi-arid climate, and alpine cold grassland and meadow are natural conditions in the source region of the Yangtze River.

El Nino and La Nina are the events concerned internationally. The corresponding relationship between El Nino events, temperature, precipitation and runoff in the Qilian mountain area are analyzed according to the date from the weather and the hydrometric stations in the area, the results show that effects of El Nino events to temperature, precipitation and runoff are different in the different time and zones. When El Nino occurs, temperature rises, but precipitation and runoff decrease in the whole Qilian mountain area, especially in the east and middle parts of the area. Temperature rises, precipitation and runoff still decrease in the eastern Qilian mountain area in the next year El Nino occurring, but decrease extent is fewer. There are not obvious relationship between temperature, precipitation and runoff with El Nino events in the western Qilian mountain area.

In this study the arable land changes in two counties (Zigui and Xingshan) in the Three Gorges Reservoir area in China are investigated. The statistical data from the officially published statistical books are used to study these changes in the two counties during the past 50 years since 1949. The changes of arable land, changes of arable land per capita, and changes of multiple crop index in Zigui and Xingshan counties are examined. Using an index method, we conclude that the two counties are critical in the sustainable utilization of arable land.

Reputed as a wonderful achievement of the world's highway construction history, the Taklimakan Desert highway is now facing serious sand drift encroachment problems due to its 447- km-long passage of sand sea consisting of crescent dunes, barchan chains, compound transverse dune ridges and complex megadunes. To solve some technical problems in the protection of the highway from sand drift encroachment, desert experts have been conducting the theoretical and applied studies on sand movement laws; causes, severities and time-space differentiation of sand drift damages; and control ways including mechanical, chemical and biological measures. In this paper the authors give an overall summary on the research contents and recent progress in the control of sand drift damages in China and hold that the theoretical research results and practices in the prevention of sand drift encroachment on the cross-desert highway represent a breakthrough and has an epoch-making significance. Since the construction of protective forest along the cross-desert highway requires large amount of ground water, what will be its environmental consequence and whether it can effectively halt sand drift encroachment on the highway forever are the questions to be studied urgently.

Diversity indices and abundance distribution models are statistical tools which ecologists have applied for decades for analyzing the intrinsic regularities of various ecological entities. In this work, we have applied these techniques to use the notions such as pedodiversity (as an example of geodiversity in a broad sense), in order to detect the differences and similarities between both natural resources, biological and non-biological. The discussion has mainly been conducted through the study of landform based pedodiversity analysis applied to SOTER digital databases in Hainan Island, China. The main analytical methods include indices of richness S that are the number of the categories (SOTER units relating to different soils in this work), indices based on proportional abundance of categories H' and E which are not only the number but also their relative abundance (in our case, the relative area occupied by each pedotaxa) is taken into account, models of the distribution of abundance of categories that provide the most complete description but also the least abridged and GIS mapping to show the spatial variation digitally.

The boundary between suptropical zone and temperate zone is not only important in physical geography, but also attractive in agricultural production. Seven soil profiles studied in this paper are placed along the southern slope of Funiu Mountain at different heights above sea level. Many compositions and properties of these soils have been determined in laboratory. In this paper, the laws of migration and accumulation of soil materials on the southern slope of Funiu Mountain are discussed first, then the division of the boundary between suptropical zone and temperate zone in this area according to soil geochemistry is discussed with qualitative methods and mathematical classification method in which twelve selected indexes such as Km, Saf, Ba, β, Feo/Fet, Mno/Mnt and so on are used. The result indicates that the boundary between suptropical zone and temperate zone on the southern slope of Funiu Mountain is about 950 m above sea level.

Based on GIS and statistical methods, with the help of searching historical literatures and calculating the landscape indices, the land use changes of Qian'an County in both spatial and temporal aspects from 1945 to 1996 has been analyzed in this paper. And the driving forces of land use changes and their ecological effects are discussed too. The main findings of this study are as follows: (1) Land use changed greatly in Qian'an during 1945-1996, characterized by a decrease in grassland, wetland and water bodies, and an increase in cultivated land, saline-alkali land, and the land for housing and other construction purposes. Grassland decreased by 175,828.66 ha, and cultivated land increased by 102,137.23 ha over the half century. Accordingly, the main landscape type changed from a steppe landscape to a managed agricultural ecosystem. (2) Results of correlation analysis show that the land use change in the study area was mainly driven by the socioeconomic factors.　(3) The ecological effects of land use change in the area are characterized by serious salinization, degression of soil fertility and the weakening of landscape suitability.

With the objectives to acquire the fundamental data of the territorial resource, understand the impacts of human activities on the land use and cover patterns and evaluate the potential of the future exploitation, an intensive land cover classification with an accuracy of 93% has been completed for North Ningxia by remote sensing technique based on the adoption of a combination method composed of texture training, maximum likelihood classification and post-processing such as re-allocation and aggregation. This classification result was incorporated with the contemporaneous socio-economic and meteorological data for cross-sectional regression modelling to reveal the spatial determinants of the land cover patterns and understand the human-environmental relationships. A tentative evaluation on the potential of soil exploitation in the near future was carried out in combination with our land use and cover change detection results aiming at supplying some useful references for the central and local governments in their sustainable land use planning.

The probability of crane living in reedy wetlands can reach 100%, at the same time, the area of reed, the water level and adjacent water area are main factors which control the crane's habitat selection. We all know that all these factors are spatially heterogeneous. For the Xianghai wetland safety and to protect the Xianghai wetland habitat of crane, this paper has mainly identified a solution to these problems. The wetland information is extracted from the TM images, which reflect the whole wetland landscape and are very important for both quantitative analysis of remote sensing observation of the earth system and positioning analysis in GIS database that is automatically extracted from DEM. The DEM for Xianghai characteristics of topography is created. On the basis of the GRID SUBMODULE, applying the GIS spatial overlay analysis, the relationship between the water level and the reed area below the water level and the rating distribution maps of reed area above water level is established. When the water level reaches the altitude of 165 m, the reed area, 981.2 ha is maximum, i.e., the water level of 165 m is the optimal.

According to the measured data of typhoons going over the Chinese coasts in 1949-2002, a statistic relative equation showing the relation between the central atmospheric pressure of typhoons in a certain region at a certain period of time and their accumulation of frequency is established, and the concept of recurrence interval of typhoons is put forward, which is of actual significance for typhoon disaster reduction along the coastal area.

In this paper, the CO₂ concentrations profile from 1.5 m depth in soil to 32 m height in atmosphere were measured from July 2000 to July 2001 in an alpine grassland ecosystem located in the permafrost area on the Tibetan Plateau, which revealed that CO₂ concentrations varied greatly during this study period. Mean concentrations during the whole experiment in the atmosphere were absolutely lower than the CO₂ concentrations in soil, which resulted in CO₂ emissions from the alpine steppe soil to the atmosphere. The highest CO₂ concentration was found at a depth of 1.5 m in soil while the lowest CO₂ concentration occurred in the atmosphere. Mean CO₂ concentrations in soil generally increased with depth. This was the compositive influence of the increasing soil moistures and decreasing soil pH, which induced the increasing biological activities with depth. Temporally, the CO₂ concentrations at different layers in air remained a more steady state because of the atmospheric turbulent milking. During the seasonal variations, CO₂ concentrations at surface soil interface showed symmetrical patterns, with the lowest accumulation of CO₂ occurring in the late winter and the highest CO₂ concentration in the growing seasons.

According to differences in vegetation types and their coverage, combining the latest research, using theory and method on the value of vegetation ecosystem services, this paper not only calculated goods produced by different types of vegetation but also estimated the value of various vegetation ecosystem services and set up database, GIS and eco-account of vegetation ecosystem. The result was as follows: the value of vegetation's primary productivity, soil and fertility conservation, water conservation, CO₂ fixation and O₂ release was 199.6 billion yuan/a, 22.64 billion yuan/a, 22.66 billion yuan/a, 352.24 billion yuan/a and 374.19 billion yuan/a, respectively. The total value of ecosystem services was 968.33 billion yuan/a. The temperate deciduous broad-leaved forest had the highest contribution rate, accounting for 16.42%. The result of value can reflect regional reality more exactly.

Eco-geographic regionalization has been one of the most important topics in China's regionalization researches since the end of the 20th century. It is a major ecosystem in geographic zonality. A hierarchical system, which is formed by division or combination of natural features based on geographic relativity and comparison of major ecosystem factors (including biological and non-biological) and geographic zonality, is called eco-geographic regional system. This paper introduces process of China's regionalization development. The first level unit, temperature zone, is delineated with main criteria of temperature. The second level unit, humidity region, is based on criteria of water/moisture states. The third level unit, natural region, is divided according to medium geomorphologic units. Vegetation types and soils are applied as supplementary criteria to indicate temperature and water/moisture states. Mapping process from qualitative to quantitative and China's eco-geographic regional system are also explained in this paper.

The variations of the stable oxygen isotope in different water mediums in Urumqi River Basin, China, are analyzed. The stable oxygen isotope in precipitation has marked temperature effect either under synoptic or seasonal scale at the head of Urumqi River. The linear regression equations of δ¹⁸O against temperature are δ¹⁸O=0.94T-12.38 and δ¹⁸O=1.29T-13.05 under the two time scales, respectively. The relatively large δ¹⁸O/temperature slopes show the strong sensitivity of δ¹⁸O in precipitation to temperature variation at the head of Urumqi River. According to the analyses on the δ¹⁸O in precipitation sampled at three stations with different altitudes along Urumqi River, altitude effect is notable in the drainage basin. The δ¹⁸O/altitude gradients have distinct differences: the gradient from Urumqi to Yuejinqiao is merely -0.054‰/hm, but -0.192‰/hm from Yuejinqiao to Daxigou, almost increasing by 2.6 times over the former. No altitude effect is found in surface firn in the east branch of Glacier No.1 at the head of Urumqi River, showing that precipitation in the glacier is from the cloud cluster with the same condensation level. Influenced by strong ablation and evaporation, the δ¹⁸O in surface firn increases with increasing altitude sometimes. Survey has found that the δ¹⁸O in meltwater at the terminus of Glacier No.1 and in stream water at Total Control have the similar change trend with the former all smaller than the latter, which displays the different runoff recharges, and all mirror the regime of temperature in the same term basically.

Taking two false color composite Landsat 5 TM (Thematic Mapper) images of band 4,3,2 taken in 1995 and 2000 as data resources, this paper carried out study on LUCC of Zhangye oasis in recent five years by interpretation according to land resources classification system of 1:100,000 Resources and Environmental Database of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. The results show that great changes have taken place in landuse/landcover in Zhangye oasis since 1995: (1) Changes of landuse structure show that cropland and land for urban construction and built-up area increased, on the contrary, water area and grassland decreased. These changes reflect the deterioration of eco-environment and the acceleration of urbanization, and also indicate the problems existing in the arrangement of water and land resources between the upper and lower reaches of the Heihe River. (2) Regional differences of landuse/landcover are evident, characterized by following aspects: in Sunan County located in Qilian Mountain area, unused land and grassland decreased, but cropland and land for urban construction and built-up area increased. In Minle and Shandan counties located in foothills, unused land, water area and cropland decreased, but grassland and land for urban construction and built-up area increased. In Zhangye City, Linze County and Gaotai County located in plain area of the middle reaches of the Heihe River, unused land, water area and grassland decreased, while woodland, cropland and land for urban construction and built-up area increased.

Using the methods of combining landscape ecology with GIS spatial analysis, this paper analyses the dynamics of the marsh landscape structure of the Sanjiang Plain in the past 20 years, furthermore, taking Fujin County, located in the north of the plain, as an example, analyzes the conversion between marsh and other land use types. It is shown that the marsh in the Sanjiang Plain decreased greatly in the past 20 years, but the trend has begun to reverse. The marsh area decreased by 51.33% from 1980 to 1996, whereas it decreased by 4.19% from 1996 to 2000. The fragmentation of the marsh increased; the number of the patches increased by 326 from 1986 to 1996, whereas it only increased by 18 patches from 1996 to 2000. It is obvious that the speed of patches number diminished and the marsh fragmentation decreased, which shows that the reclamation of the marsh converted from the fragmentation to the brim in a large area of the marsh. The reclaimed marsh has mainly converted to paddy field and dry land. Large-scale reclamation in the Sanjiang Plain influences its natural environment directly: the climate of the region turns from cold and wet to warm and dry, which makes the marsh both in the low-temperature northern part and in the deeply stagnant eastern part suitable for further agricultural development.

Based on climate material, the simplified terrestrial carbon cycle balance (TCCB) model was established, which is semi-mechanism and semi-statistics. Through TCCB model, our estimate indicates that the southeastern part of the Tibetan Plateau has much higher carbon content, and we have calculated the litter carbon pool, NPP, carbon fluxes and described their spatial characteristics in this region. Based on the TCCB model simulation, NPP in Tibet is 1.73×10⁸ tC/a, soil organic input rate is 0.66×10⁸ tC/a, litter mineralization rate is 1.07×10⁸ tC/a, vegetation litterfall rate is 1.73×10⁸ tC/a, the litter carbon pool is 7.26×10⁸ tC, and soil decomposition rate is 309.54×10⁸ tC/a. The carbon budget was also analyzed based on the estimates of carbon pool and fluxes. The spatial distributions of carbon pools and carbon fluxes in different compartments of terrestrial ecosystem were depicted with map respectively in Tibet. The distribution of NPP, vegetation litterfall rate, litter, litter mineralization rate, soil organic input rate and the soil decomposition rate were abstracted with temperature, precipitation, fractional vegetation and land feature.

Plant diversity is used as an indicator of the well-being of vegetation and ecological systems. Human activities and global change drive vegetation change in composition and competition of species through plant invasions and replacement of existing species on a given scale. However, species diversity indices do not consider the effects of invasions on the diversity value and on the functions of ecosystems. On the other hand, the existing methods for diversity index can not be used directly for cross-scale evaluation of vegetation data. Therefore, we proposed a 3-dimensional model derived from the logistic equation for estimating vegetation change, using native and non-native plant diversity. The two variables, based on the current and the theoretical maximum diversity of native plants on a given scale, and the result of the model are relative values without units, and are therefore scale-independent. Hence, this method developed can be used directly for cross-scale evaluations of vegetation data, and indirectly for estimating ecosystem or environmental change.

In this study the relationship between the Arctic Oscillation (AO) and climate in China in boreal winter are investigated. Correlation analysis for the last 41 years shows that the winter temperature and precipitation in China change in phase with AO. High positive correlation (>0.4) between temperature and AO appears in the northern China. High correlation coefficients between precipitation and AO cover the southern China (close to the South China Sea) and the central China (between 30^o-40^oN and east of ~100^oE), with the values varying between +0.3 and +0.4. It is found that during the past several decades the precipitation was strongly affected by AO, but for the temperature the Siberian High plays a more important role. At the interdecadal time scale the AO has significant influence on both temperature and precipitation. Multivariate regression analysis demonstrates that AO and the Siberian High related variance in temperature and precipitation is 35% and 11% respectively. For precipitation, however the portion is rather low, implying that some other factors may be responsible for the changes in precipitation, in addition to AO and the Siberian High.

Based on systematically monitoring plants on dune ridges in the southern part of the Gurbantunggut Desert in 2002, this paper, from the angle of dune stabilization by vegetation, describes the temporal and spatial distribution patterns of ephemeral plants on isolated sand dunes, analyses the natural invasion processes of ephemeral plants on human-disturbed sand surface and expounds the importance of ephemeral plants in stabilizing sand dune surface. A total of 45 plant species were identified in the study area, 29 of which are ephemeral plants. Ephemeral plants sprouted in early April and completed their life-circle within about two months. Just as aeolian sand activities came to the strongest stage from April to June in desert regions of northern Xinjiang, the total coverage of trees, shrubs and herbs of long vegetational period on most dune ridges was less than 10%, while the mean coverage of ephemeral plants reached 13.9% in April, 40.2% in May and 14.1% in June. Therefore ephemeral plants acted as the major contributor to dune surface stabilization in the Gurbantunggut Desert. Investigations of vegetation restoration on engineering-disturbed dune surface show that ephemeral plants first recolonized the disturbed dune surface.