After dividing the source regions of the Yellow River into 38 sub-basins, the paper made use of the SWAT model to simulate streamflow with validation and calibration of the observed yearly and monthly runoff data from the Tangnag hydrological station, and simulation results are satisfactory. Five land-cover scenario models and 24 sets of temperature and precipitation combinations were established to simulate annual runoff and runoff depth under different scenarios. The simulation shows that with the increasing of vegetation coverage annual runoff increases and evapotranspiration decreases in the basin. When temperature decreases by 2^oC and precipitation increases by 20%, catchment runoff will increase by 39.69%, which is the largest situation among all scenarios.

A statistic analysis predicting coastal change of the Yellow River abandoned delta lobe formed from 1964 to 1976 using Landsat TM imagery was conducted by calculating the coastal erosion/accumulation rates obtained from four different classic profiles and plotting the change curves of coastline with time. The studies showed that the regularity of the evolution of the coastline was very obvious after the delta lobe was abandoned. The coastal evolution can be divided into three different phases: erosion phase, transition phase and cyclical change phase. At present, the coast has evolved to the cyclical change phase. The natural coastline change cycle is 4 years between the dam and is 5 years to the west of the dam. In the cyclical change phase, the quasi-equilibrium line of the coast was located near the coastline of 1996, the current coast may recede 1.79 km to reach the natural equilibrium coastline. Therefore, some measures must be taken to protect the dam or the dam will be destroyed by the force of nature. The curves also revealed the magnitude of erosion/accumulation rates would decrease gradually with time. The results of the study offer guidance for coast protection, and proves that the evolution of silty coast actually was a cyclical change process too.

This paper describes the current situation of China's land use and land use changes, major driving forces, and their impacts on the environment, through a review on land use studies in the past decades in China.

Energy consumption has an inevitable connection with economic level and climate. Based on selected data covering annual total energy consumption and its composition and that of all kinds of energy in 1953-1999, the annual residential energy consumption and the coal and electricity consumption in 1980-1999 in China, the acreage of crops under cultivation suffered from drought and flood annually and gross domestic product (GDP) in 1953-1999 in the whole country, and mean daily temperature data from 29 provincial meteorological stations in the whole country from 1970 to 1999, this paper divides energy consumption into socio-economic energy consumption and climatic energy consumption in the way of multinomial. It also goes further into the relations and their changes between the climate energy consumption and climate factor and between the socio-economic energy consumption and the economic level in China with the method of statistical analysis. At present, there are obvious transitions in the changing relationships of the energy consumption to economy and climate, which comprises the transition of economic system from resource-intensive industry to technology-intensive industry and the transition of climatic driving factors of the energy consumption from driven by the disasters of drought and flood to driven by temperature.

Red tides are one of the main coastal catastrophic events in Guangdong Province of southern China. The comparison between the number of red tide events and the development indexes of cities along the coasts of the province shows that the regional differences in red tide outbreaks has close relations with the coastal urban developments. The cause for an initiation of red tide blooms may be natural factors, while wastewater caused by the fast development of population, industry and aquiculture of the coastal cities enhanced the blooms. It may explain why the two periods of frequent outbreaks of the red tides over the last two decades matched the urban developments in the coastal areas of Guangdong not only spatially but also temporally. The red tides in the first period were restricted only to the coasts of middle Guangdong, where urbanization process was at a higher speed than the other coastal areas of the province. In the second period, fast development of the coastal cities in eastern Guangdong led to an increase in the occurrence of red tides in local sea areas of the same coasts.

By using GIS and remote sensing techniques, the paper discusses how human activities have changed along the Yellow River in Henan province, China and how these altered activities have influenced the wetland landscape pattern change from 1987 to 2002. Results show that the total area of the wetland reduces dramatically compared to 1987, the total area of wetland reduces by 19.18%, the number of the patches in 2002 increases by 21.17%, the density increases by 50%, and the total perimeter increases by 1,290,491 m. Disturbed by human activities, landscape diversity index decreases from 1.1740 in 1987 to 0.9803 in 2002. During the last 20 years, the total area of the rice wetland increases, while the others decrease. Among those, the area of the bulrush wetland decreases most. In 1987, it takes 0.5% of the total area, but in 2002, it only takes 0.11%. The interpenetration of human influences on the wetland natural system has been long and close. The impacts of human activities on the spatial pattern of the wetland landscape along the Yellow River in Henan from 1987 to 2002 are great.

Coastline configuration indexes of 34 typical arc-shaped coasts in South China are investigated by the method of principal component analysis, and meanwhile deposition and geomorphologic features of arc-shaped coast are also analyzed. The results show: (1) The configuration of arc-shaped coast in South China is of the characteristic of variability and complexity. (2) The wave power and the openings of the bay are the decisive factors to result in the changes of the configuration of the arc-shaped coast in South China, however, incidence direction of the wave has no effect on configuration development of the coast. (3) Commonly, geomorphologic modes of the arc-shaped coast system in South China consist of barriers, lagoons and tidal-inlets, and can be divided into four types: the openings of the bay leaning to the east, the openings of the bay leaning to the south, the openings of the bay leaning to the west and the openings of the bay leaning to the north.

Over the past several decades, no less remarkable than the fast economic advance has been the pollution of water, air and soil all over China. The degradation of environment provides challenge as well as opportunity to the native scientists. Benefited from their regional-scaled views and unique tools of study, Chinese environmental geographers distinguish themselves from other environment-related scientists by combining geographical methodology with means of chemistry and biology and by emphasizing region-based processes of pollutants and scaling issues. Additionally, they are benefited from the basic trainings in the branches of physical geography, such as soil geography, hydrology and climatology for a better understanding in behavior of pollutants in nature.

Combined with recent historical climate data and two periods of land use data sets from remote sensing data, we test the net primary productivity (NPP) data sets in North China modelled by the satellite data-driven Global Production Efficiency Model (GLO-PEM) for detecting the widespread spatial and temporal characteristics of the impacts of climate and land use change on the regional NPP. Our results show that over the past 20 years, the mean annual temperature in the study region has remarkably increased by more than 0.064 ^oC, but over the same period, there has been a 1.49 mm decrease in annual precipitation and decrease in NPP by an annual rate of 6.9 TgC. The NPP changes in the study region were greatly affected by the average temperature and precipitation by ten-day periods as well as the seasonal temperature and precipitation in the study region. The correlation between seasonal NPP and seasonal precipitation and temperature is highly consistent with land cover spatially, and the correlation coefficient changes with the changes of vegetation types. The analysis reveals that the related areas in land use change only take up 5.45% of the whole studied region, so the climate changes dominate the impacts on the NPP in the whole study region (90% of the total). However, land use plays an absolute dominative role in areas with land cover changes, accounting for 97% of the total. From 1981 to 2000, the NPP in the whole study region remarkably reduced due to obvious precipitation decrease and temperature rise. Between two periods of land use (about 10 years), the changes in climate are predicted to promote a decrease in NPP by 78 (±0.6) TgC, and integrated impacts of climate changes and land use to promote a decrease in NPP by 87(±0.8) TgC.

The distribution of soil organic matter (SOM) and nitrogen on Gongga Mountain was studied in this paper. The results showed that the content of SOM and nitrogen (N) of A horizon had an ascending trend with the increase of the elevation. The vegetation types distributed higher than the mixed broad-leaved and coniferous forest have the irregular trends. In the transitional zone vegetation such as mixed trees and treeline, the content of SOM and N is higher than other vegetation types. The distribution of SOM and N of A horizon is dependent on the synthetic effect of climate and vegetation types. The vertical distribution of SOM and N in soil profiles has the similar trends for all kinds of vegetation types, i.e., the content of A horizon is higher than that of the B and C horizons, which is the same to the distribution of dead animal and plant in soil. The soil C:N is between 7 and 25, which is relatively low comparing to the appropriate C:N of 25-30. The ratio of soil carbon to nitrogen (C:N) increases with the increase of the elevation, but its vertical distribution in soil horizons varies with different vegetation types. The N exists in SOM mainly in the form of organic nitrogen, and the soil C:N correlates significantly with SOM.

The construction of nature reserves in China is reviewed in this paper, mainly including the number, type, administration and distribution of nature reserves, the progress in research on biodiversity, evaluation, management, sustainable development of nature reserves in China is summarized briefly, and some development tendencies of research on nature reserves are put forward.

With the long-term data of the geodetic sea level measurements undertaken in the Dongting Basin and the recent sediment data of Dongting Lake, we analyze the tectonic subsidence rate of the Dongting Basin and the sedimentary rate of Dongting Lake. From the point of view of geomorphology and hydrogeology, we distinguish the two different spatial concepts between "the basin of Dongting Lake" and "the Dongting Basin". Then, we discuss the influences of the tectonic subsidence and the siltation on the levees and the space of storing flood. The better quality of levees is required due to the tectonic subsidence and the siltation, and the difficulties of preventing flood disasters are increasing. The space of storing flood is not affected by the tectonic subsidence, but by the siltation. At present, the sedimentary rate of Dongting Lake is higher than the tectonic subsidence rate of the Dongting Basin. The tectonic subsidence capacity of the Dongting Basin counteracts a part of sedimentary capacity, and the shrinking tendency of Dongting Lake is restrained to a certain extent, but the tectonic subsidence is harmful to the situation of preventing flood disasters in the Dongting Lake area.

The spatial calculating analysis model is based on GIS overlay. It will compartmentalize the land in research district into three spatial types: unchanged parts, converted parts and increased parts. By this method we can evaluate the numerical model and dynamic degree model for calculating land-use change rates. Furthermore, the paper raises the possibility of revising the calculating analysis model of spatial information in order to predicate more precisely the dynamic changing level of all types of land uses. In the most concrete terms, the model is used mainly to understand changed area and changed rates (increasing or decreasing) of different land types from microcosmic angle and establish spatial distribution and spatio-temporal principles of the changing urban lands. And we will try to find out why the situation can take place by combining social and economic situations. The result indicates the calculating analysis model of spatial information can derive more accurate procedure of spatial transference and increase of all kinds of land from microcosmic angle. By this model and technology we can conduct the research of land-use spatio-temporal structure evolution more systematically and more deeply, and can obtain a satisfactory result. The result will benefit the rational planning and management of urban land use of developed coastal areas in China in the future.

During the last decade of the 20th century, extensive conversion in agricultural land use took place in Northeast China. The goal of this study is to ascertain its spatial distribution and regional differentiation, determine its causes, and analyze its environmental impact. Especially we attempt to elucidate how institutional constraints have facilitated the change at a time of agrarian restructuring when newly emerging free market was hybridized with the former planned economy. Information on six categories of land use was mapped from interpretation of Landsat TM images recorded in 1990, 1995 and 2000. Most of land use changes took place during the first half of the decade, coinciding with abrupt and chaotic changes in government directives. Farmland was changed mainly to woodland, water body and built-up areas while woodland and grassland were converted chiefly to farmland. Spatially, the change from farmland to woodland was restricted to the west of the study area. The change from grassland to farmland took place in the grazing and farming interlocked west. These chaotic and occasionally conflicting changes were largely caused by lack of stability and consistency in agricultural land use policies promulgated. They have exerted adverse impacts on the local environment, including land degradation, increased flooding, and modified climate regime.

About 70% of its land area as mountains and plateaus, China is the largest mountain country in the world. Thanks to its vast territory (9.6 million km²), outstanding relief and varied climates, China boasts extremely plenty of ecosystems and landscapes. From south to north, it traverses almost all the temporal zones from tropical rainforest in the southernmost to frigid-temperate needle-leaved forest in the northernmost; from east to west, it sees a gradual transition fro humid forest landscape to extremely arid desert landscape; vertical change of landscapes is most striking owing to the existence of many high mountains (above 6000-7000 m, e.g., the Himalayas, the Kunlun, the Tianshan, the Hengduan, etc.) and plateaus, especially the immense Tibetan Plateau (averagely 4500 m above sea level). All of this give rise to the richness and diversity of ecosystems and landscape in China. Some of the ecosystems are endemic to China, e.g., alpine desert and alpine steppe in the Tibetan Plateau. As a result, China bears a great responsibility in the protection of global ecosystems and landscape.

Serious soil erosion has already resulted in degradation of the Loess Plateau of China. Soil erosion is commonly accompanied by extensive soil nutrient loss. Because of enrichment processes, sediment nutrient content is often higher than that of natural soil. The objective of this study is to determine the enrichments of organic matter and total nitrogen in sediment in hilly and gully loess areas on the Loess Plateau of China. Measurements of enrichment ratios (ER) of organic matter (EROM) and total nitrogen (ERTN) in sediment as affected by rainfall, slope gradient, tillage, and fertilization were made in the field under natural rainfall conditions. The results showed that the enrichment of clay in sediment resulted in the enrichment of organic matter (OM) and total nitrogen (TN) in sediment. The averages of sediment clay ER, EROM and ERTN for the various slope gradients were 1.77, 2.09 and 1.61, respectively. The soil erosive module was negatively correlated with EROM and ERTN. Our results indicate that measures to reduce soil erosion, i.e. reducing rainfall erosivity, decreasing soil slope gradient, decreasing fertilizer use, and using level trenches, may increase EROM and ERTN. Both quantity and quality of sediment yield should be considered when implementing erosion control measures.

Radar remote sensing can acquire information of sub-surface covered by sand in arid area, detect surface roughness and vegetation coronet's layer and linear feature such as linear structure and channel sensitively. With sediment facies analysis, this paper studies the features of environmental evolution in mid-late Epipleistocene (60 ka BP-20 ka BP) in northeastern Ejin Banner. The conclusions are listed as follows: (1) The evolution of the three lakes, i.e. Gaxunnur, Sugunur and Tian'e lakes, are dominated by faults and regional climate. (2) By analyzing sedimentary section of old Juyanze Lake, the three lakes used to be a large outflow lake before 50 ka BP in northeastern Ejin Banner, and at 50 ka BP, temperature declined rapidly in northwestern China. The event caused the lake's shrinkage. (3) By fault activity uplift in the northern part of old Juyan Lake and depression in the southern part, the lake's water followed from north to south at around 35 ka BP, old Juyanze fluvial fan was formed. At the same time, Juyan Lake separated from Sugunur Lake and Wentugunr old channel was abandoned. (4) In recent 2000 years, Ruoshui River is a wandering river, sometimes it flows into Juyan Lake and sometimes Sugunur and Gaxunnur lakes. Due to human activities and over exploitation, the oasis ecosystem is rapidly degenerated in 15 years (1986-2000).

Integrating remote sensing, geographic information system (GIS) and fractal theory, change characteristics of tidal flats and tidal creeks in the Huanghe (Yellow) River Delta over the period of 1986-2001 were discussed. The results show that evolutions of tidal flats throughout the Huanghe River Delta are influenced by various factors, and that progressive succession and regression of tidal flats concur in different coastal segments of the delta. Human activities have played an increasingly important role in the succession process of tidal flats. Due to land reclamation in coastal zones of the delta in the last 15 years, lots of tidal flats were occupied, the artificial coastline migrated seaward (the maximum change rate was 0.8 kmyr-1) and tidal creeks became sparser (the highest decreasing rate of length of tidal creeks was 14.9 kmyr-1). Except for two coastal segments from the Tiaohe Estuary to the 106 Station and from the south of the Huanghe River mouth to the north of the Xiaodao River Estuary, fractal dimension values of tidal creeks in the remaining coastal segments of the delta decreased. In addition, the time dimension, sediment fluxes into the sea, waves and tidal-currents have profound influences on the evolution process of tidal flats. Four types of tidal flats-river-dominated tidal flats, tide-dominated tidal flats, wave-dominated tidal flats and man-dominated tidal flats can be identified. Owing to the intensification of human activities in coastal zones of the delta, man-dominated tidal flats have become the main kind of tidal flats.

Based on regionalized variable theory, semivariograms of geo-statistics were used to research the spatial variation of soil properties quantitatively. The results showed that the semivariogram of soil organic matter is best described by spherical model, the best model for semivariograms of soil total N and available K is exponential models and that of available P belongs to linear with sill model. Those soil properties have different spatial correlations respectively, the lag of organic matter is the highest and that of available P is the lowest, the spatial correlation of N and available K belongs to moderate degree. Spatial heterogeneities are different too, the degree of organic matter and total N are higher, the degree of available K is in the next place and that of available P is the lowest. Influenced by the shape, topography and soil of the study area, all isotropies of available P are obvious in all directions while anisotropies of others are manifested. According to the analytical results, supported by GIS, Kriging and IDW methods are applied to describe and analyze the spatial distribution of soil properties. The results indicate that soil organic matter, total N and available K are distributed regularly from northeast to southwest, while available P is distributed randomly.

In the 1950s, research on natural regionalization for highway was set out in China. This paper reviews its history and introduces the relative research in other countries. Based on the comparative analysis of the different research angles among different countries, suggestions about the future work are offered. The relations between physiographical indexes and the indexes directly related with highway engineering are suggested to be studied and the basic data for highway be tested and collected all over the country. These works will be of help to the guidance of regionalization for highway engineering. And the impact of highway on the geographical environment should also be considered in highway natural regionalization.

On the basis of extensive survey to the Quaternary paleosols, soils and weathering layers in the vast northern China and the Loess Plateau, we found some unusually special phenomena of chemical components such as unsuccessive illuvium, twin illuviums, unusually thick illuvium and multi-illuviums etc. According to the analysis on the content of CaCO3 and the data of penetrating experiment, a new theory of illuvial depth or removal depth of CaCO3 in weathering and leaching belt was constructed, which indicates that the time of CaCO3 removing to the illuvial depth is very short, and the effect of time factor on illuvial depth can be ignored. The theory can be taken as a credible foundation for studying many geological and geographical problems in weathering and leaching belt. When the illuvial depth of CaCO3 is bigger than the thickness of developing belt of soil or paleosol, it can be determined that the paleosol has turned into weathering crust. When the illuvial depth of CaCO3 is bigger than the thickness of paleosol, paleosol is leaching moderately acid soil. When two, three layers or unusually thick CaCO3 illuviums exist in the same weathering section or at the bottom of the same paleosol, there were two or more periods forming paleosol and corresponding climatic stages at that time. On the basis of the equation of relationship between mean annual rainfall (y) and illuvial depth of CaCO3 (x) (y = 305.5x + 168.5) determined in the paper, mean annual precipitation during the development of paleosol can be calculated.

In this paper, sediment samples were collected along the Wanquan beaches and sieved in the laboratory in order to obtain the grain size distributions and associated parameters, i.e. mean grain size, sorting coefficient and skewness. Furthermore, we have calculated the longshore drift sediment transport rates and equilibrium cross-sectional areas of the entrance channel by using the method of sedimentary dynamics. The results indicate that the longshore drift sediment transport is dominated by waves with a direction from south to north, which result in rapid changes of the entrance channel. Therefore, some suggestions were proposed for improving the water quality and restoring the ecosystem of estuary. The engineering method includes increasing the sea-route of entrance channel, tidal prism and water exchanges in Shamei Lagoon.

Sources of uncertainty or error that arise in attempting to scale up the results of laboratory-scale sediment transport studies for predictive modeling of geomorphic systems include: (i) model imperfection, (ii) omission of important processes, (iii) lack of knowledge of initial conditions, (iv) sensitivity to initial conditions, (v) unresolved heterogeneity, (vi) occurrence of external forcing, and (vii) inapplicability of the factor of safety concept. Sources of uncertainty that are unimportant or that can be controlled at small scales and over short time scales become important in large-scale applications and over long time scales. Control and repeatability, hallmarks of laboratory-scale experiments, are usually lacking at the large scales characteristic of geomorphology. Heterogeneity is an important concomitant of size, and tends to make large systems unique. Uniqueness implies that prediction cannot be based upon first-principles quantitative modeling alone, but must be a function of system history as well. Periodic data collection, feedback, and model updating are essential where site-specific prediction is required.

The eastern and western fronts of plate movement in Taiwan Island and Tibetan Plateau respectively are the two major sources of tectonic force for the morphogensis during Quaternary in China’s tropics. Seven examples of geomorphological effects of plate movement are enumerated to discuss the differentiation of tectonic landforms in space and time during Quaternary. The tectonic movement tends to be more active since middle Pleistocene. Some phenomena such as the arc-shape mountain systems, volcanism and crustal deformation imply that the juncture zone of eastern and western tectonic forces is located at about 110^oE.

The Yangtze Delta is one of the economically most developed areas in China. It is located in the eastern China monsoon region. Archaeological excavations and environment-archaeology studies over many years in this region provide exceptional information about climate changes, development of human civilization and also human-environment interactions. Archaeological excavations made in the study region reveal that the development of Neolithic cultures is not continuous, which may be a result of extreme climatic events. The analysis of 14C-dated buried paleotrees, peat and shell ridges show the rise and fall of human civilization in the study area. The research results presented in this paper confirm that human civilization collapsed six times in the Yangtze Delta, matching six high sea level epoches, peat accumulation and buried paleotrees formation periods respectively. This indicates that human activities in the Yangtze Delta are controlled by local climate changes and changing hydrological conditions. The collapse of the Liangzhu culture (5000 aBP-3800 aBP) in about 4000 aBP, after a tremendous flooding event, followed by a relatively backward Maqiao culture (3800 aBP-3200 aBP) confused researchers and aroused their great interest. The research results in this paper show that the collapse of the Liangzhu culture is a result of several factors, for example war and food shortage, but the flooding event occurred in the late Liangzhu culture epoch is the main factor therein.

By means of SEDEX, ASPILA and XRF, depth-dependent changes of different phosphorus forms in sediment cores from specific areas of the offshore Changjiang Estuary (Yangtze Estuary) in 1998 were analyzed. Results show that contents of total phosphorus (TP), organic-phosphorus (OP) and iron-phosphorus (Fe-P) decreased down-core, while those of absorbed-phosphorus (Ad-P) and calcium-phosphorus (Ca-P) increased. The distribution tendency of detritus-phosphorus (De-P) is not obvious. Results also show that TP, Fe-P and OP contents at Meso station of the Changjiang Estuary and Hangzhou Bay are higher than that of the other stations. This suggests that the pollutants carried by the Changjiang and the Qiantang rivers from inland have affected the natural environment in offshore area. TP, Fe-P and OP contents of each station become higher from bottom to top, indicating the amount of the terrestrial pollutants carried by the two rivers has been enhanced since the last 30-50 years. Ad-P, Ca-P, Fe-P and OP are all active phosphorus in sediments, and their re-cycling in sediment is closely related to each other.

In order to research the changing process of the pollution from the formation of Nansihu Lake, this study determined the isotope age and depositional rate and analyzed the organic geo-chemical quotas and heavy metal quotas of two sedimentary profiles of Weishan and Dushan lakes. Research results showed that from the formation of Nansihu Lake, the change of the pollution could be divided into four phrases. At the early phrase of the formation, the organic matters of the lake mainly derived from the exotic matters and had a close relation to the effect on the water and sands from the Huanghe (Yellow) River. At the middle and late phrases of the development, the endogenous matters of the lake became the main and stable source of the organic matters. The overflow of the Huanghe River, the excavation of the Grand Canal and the cut of trees caused the changes of the historic pollution. In recent 20 years, the modern industrial pollution from the organic matters and heavy metals has an increasingly heavy tendency.

The Integrated Environmental Monitoring (IEM) project, part of the Asia-Pacific Environmental Innovation Strategy (APEIS) project, developed an integrated environmental monitoring system that can be used to detect, monitor, and assess environmental disasters, degradation, and their impacts in the Asia-Pacific region. The system primarily employs data from the moderate resolution imaging spectrometer (MODIS) sensor on the Earth Observation System- (EOS-) Terra/Aqua satellite, as well as those from ground observations at five sites in different ecological systems in China. From the preliminary data analysis on both annual and daily variations of water, heat and CO₂ fluxes, we can confirm that this system basically has been working well. The results show that both latent flux and CO₂ flux are much greater in the crop field than those in the grassland and the saline desert, whereas the sensible heat flux shows the opposite trend. Different data products from MODIS have very different correspondence, e.g. MODIS-derived land surface temperature has a close correlation with measured ones, but LAI and NPP are quite different from ground measurements, which suggests that the algorithms used to process MODIS data need to be revised by using the local dataset. We are now using the APEIS-FLUX data to develop an integrated model, which can simulate the regional water, heat, and carbon fluxes. Finally, we are expected to use this model to develop more precise high-order MODIS products in Asia-Pacific region.

A scanning t-test algorithm for detecting multiple time-scale abrupt changes in the level of a time-series was used to analyze an 8000 year time series of annual precipitation which was reconstructed from tree rings for the Nevada Climate Division 3 in the western USA. The tree ring samples were gathered from eight states in the southwestern USA. Twenty-two change-points were identified by the algorithm and these were used to partition the tree-ring series into twenty-three relatively Wet/Normal/Dry episodes. These twenty-three episodes were collaborated by a coherency analysis of abrupt changes between the precipitation reconstruction series and the TIC/δ18O records from cored sediments of Pyramid Lake in Nevada, and by comparison with published results from related studies. These episodes were also compared with studies of the global climate change and with records of climate change in China during the same periods. The results suggest that the precipitation reconstruction series is quite valuable for climate-change research on multi-centurial time-scales in the western USA, and that the scanning t-test and coherency detection algorithms may have a wide use for detecting multiple time-scale abrupt changes in a long time series.As the TIC and δ18O record series are high resolution with unequal sampling intervals ranging between 3 and 14 years, a new algorithm was developed to deal with the unequal time intervals in the series.

Based on the long-term serial NOAA/NDVI dataset during 1983-1999 and SPOT/VGT dataset in 2001, the land use/cover change information in the 13 provinces of northern China was extracted based on the analysis of the cultivated landscape characteristics at first, then the effects of human activities on cultivated land process were explored by GIS and the driving forces of cultivated land change were investigated. The conclusions can be drawn as follows: (1) The constant increase of weak ecological function land as desert and cultivated land and the decrease of the ecological function land of forest and shrub were the main characteristics of the land use/cover change in the 13 provinces from 1983 to 1999, which showed the effects on the ecological adjustment function. However, such situations were changed to some extent in the 2000s because of the eco-construction policy of the government. (2) From 1983 to 2001, the Barycenter of cultivated land tended to move from northeast to southwest with the topography and transportation situations being the main influences on the cultivated land distribution. It is found that the cultivated land use intensity decreased noticably with the increase of distance from the main communication arteries. (3) The improvement of the people's living standard is closely related with the cultivated land change. The structural adjustment in the agricultural land caused by economic development and the improvement of the people's living standard is an important factor affecting the cultivated land change in northern China from 1983 to 2001.