Knowledge of the sediment flux derived from different sources is critical for interpreting the sedimentary records associated with large river sedimentary systems. For the Changjiang River system, previous studies hardly focused on the sediment load from the adjacent Zhoushan Archipelago (ZA). Based on four prediction models, aiming to improve the understanding of the sediment load from the ZA during the Holocene, we show that the predicted sediment flux of the ZA ranges from ~0.7 to 26.5 Mt·yr-1, with an average value of 10.7 Mt·yr-1, and the islands with a relatively large area or high relief contribute greatly to the total flux. This sediment load is an order of magnitude lower than that of the Changjiang River, but it is similar to those of the local small rivers. Located in the core area of the southward dispersal path of the Changjiang River plume, the ZA also influences the sediment transport into Hangzhou Bay and over the Zhejiang-Fujian coastal seas. On the Holocene temporal scale, e.g., for the period from 6 ka BP to 2 ka BP, the sediments discharged from the ZA had a considerable effect on the shelf sedimentary system. This study provides evidence for an important role an archipelago can play in terms of sediment supply and transport in coastal and inner continental shelf regions.
Based on TIMESAT 3.2 platform, MODIS NDVI data (2000-2015) of Qaidam Basin are fitted, and three main phenological parameters are extracted with the method of dynamic threshold, including the start of growth season (SGS), the end of growth season (EGS) and the length of growth season (LGS). The spatial and temporal variation of vegetation phenology and its response to climate changes are analyzed respectively. The conclusions are as follows: (1) SGS is mainly delayed as a whole. Areas delayed are more than the advanced in EGS, and EGS is a little delayed as a whole. LGS is generally shortened. (2) With the altitude rising, SGS is delayed, EGS is advanced, and LGS is shortened and phenophase appears a big variation below 3000 m and above 5000 m. (3) From 2000 to 2015, the temperature appears a slight increase along with a big fluctuation, and the precipitation increases evidently. (4) Response of phenophase to precipitation is not obvious in the low elevation humid regions, where SGS arrives early and EGS delays; while, in the upper part of the mountain regions, SGS delays and EGS advances with temperature rising, SGS arrives early and EGS delays with precipitation increasing.
Ecosystem services have become one of the core elements of ecosystem management and evaluation. As a key area of ecosystem services and for maintaining national ecological security, ecosystem changes and implementation effect evaluation are important in national key ecological function zones, for promoting the main function zone strategy and for improving the construction of an ecological civilization. This article studies the ecological zone of a tropical rainforest region in the central mountain area of Hainan Island, China. Multi-source satellite data and ground observation statistics are analyzed with geo-statistics method and ecological assessment model. The core analysis of this paper includes ecosystem patterns, quality and services. By means of spatial and temporal scale expansion and multidimensional space-time correlation analysis, the trends and stability characteristics of ecosystem changes are analyzed, and implementation effect evaluation is discussed. The analysis shows a variety of results. The proportion of forest area inside the ecological zone was significantly higher than the average level in Hainan Island. During 1990-2013, settlement gradually increased inside the ecological zone. After implementation of the zone in 2010, human activity intensity increased, with the main land use being urban construction and land reclamation. Water conservation in the ecological function zone was higher than that outside the zone. In general, it increased slightly, but had obvious fluctuations. Soil conservation inside the zone was also better than that outside. However, it demonstrated dramatic fluctuations and relatively poor stability during 1990-2013. The human disturbance index inside the zone was significantly lower than that outside, and had a lower biodiversity threat level. Especially in 2010-2013, the increased range of the human disturbance index inside the zone was significantly less than that outside.
Rodents are the main host animals that spread plague, and Spermophilus dauricus (S. dauricus) is the most common rodent in North China. In this study, a rodent density survey was carried out in China’s Jilin Province from April to August 2005. Moran’s I and semivariogram curves were used to investigate the spatial distribution characteristics of the sampling data. We found that the spatial auto-correlation index was low and failed to generate a meaningful semivariogram curve. In this case, commonly used interpolators, such as kriging, were not suitable for mapping density over the study area. However, the Sandwich model, which is based on spatial stratified heterogeneity, could be applied to our data. Our results showed that the type of soil and land use significantly influenced the distribution of rodent density, and the interactive effect of these variables was much stronger than that of each variable alone. The Sandwich-estimated rodent density map showed that rodent density increased from the southeast to the northwest in Jilin Province. Finally, a framework of a rodent density survey using the Sandwich model was introduced.
Based on objective data collected from interviews in typical villages of the Three Gorges Reservoir Area, the present study devised three livelihood scenarios related to rural transformation development: agriculturally dominant livelihood, multiple-type livelihood and non-agriculturally dominant livelihood. Moreover, the present study reports the trend characteristics of nonpoint source pollution load of crop farming in relation to the transformation of dominant livelihood types, and discussed the primary factors which affect livelihood type transformations. Results indicated the following: (1) The current farmland pattern shows a trend of diversification as self-cultivation, cropland transfer and fallow in the sample region. Dynamic characteristics of cultivated land present a special feature that is more “transfer-into” than “transfer-out”. Various scales of planting are represented among the various households, according to the following decreasing order: half-labor household > non-labor household > adequate labor household. (2) The highest pollution loading produced by crop farming occurs in half-labor households while the lowest occurs in non-labor households. With increasing labor, the pollution load per unit area tends to first increase and then decrease within families with enough labor. (3) As the type of livelihood transitions from agriculturally dominant to non-agriculturally dominant, the maximum reduction of total pollution loading produced by the agricultural industry can reach 72.01%. Compared to agriculturally dominant livelihoods, multiple-type livelihoods produce a pollution load reduction yield of 19.61%-29.85%, and non-agriculturally dominant livelihoods reduce the pollution load yield by 35.20%-72.01%. However, the rate of reduction of total nitrogen is not the same as total phosphorus. (4) The non-agricultural characteristics of labor allocation and income promote the transformation from dominant livelihood types to non-agricultural livelihoods, while potential revenue conversion follows a similar trend. In addition, different household types do not display identical conversion rates, according to the following decreasing order: enough labor household > half-labor household > non-labor household. (5) During rapid urbanization and the building of new industrial systems, the livelihood types of rural households have been further transformed to off-farm household types in the mountainous region; this process will lead to the further reduction of pollution load generated by planting and agriculture. Hence, significant decreases in the planting pollution load necessitate the development of control measures to enhance transformations from agricultural to off-farm livelihoods.
The use of multi-perspective and multi-scalar city networks has gradually developed into a range of critical approaches to understand spatial interactions and linkages. In particular, road linkages represent key characteristics of spatial dependence and distance decay, and are of great significance in depicting spatial relationships at the regional scale. Therefore, based on highway passenger flow data between prefecture-level administrative units, this paper attempted to identify the functional structures and regional impacts of city networks in China, and to further explore the spatial organization patterns of the existing functional regions, aiming to deepen our understanding of city network structures and to provide new cognitive perspectives for ongoing research. The research results lead to four key conclusions. First, city networks that are based on highway flows exhibit strong spatial dependence and hierarchical characteristics, to a large extent spatially coupled with the distributions of major megaregions in China. These phenomena are a reflection of spatial relationships at regional scales as well as core-periphery structure. Second, 19 communities that belong to an important type of spatial configuration are identified through community detection algorithm, and we suggest they are correspondingly urban economic regions within urban China. Their spatial metaphors include the administrative region economy, spatial spillover effects of megaregions, and core-periphery structure. Third, each community possesses a specific city network system and exhibits strong spatial dependence and various spatial organization patterns. Regional patterns have emerged as the result of multi-level, dynamic, and networked characteristics. Fourth, adopting a morphology-based perspective, the regional city network systems can be basically divided into monocentric, dual-nuclei, polycentric, and low-level equilibration spatial structures, while most are developing monocentrically.
Data show that carbon emissions are increasing due to human energy consumption associated with economic development. As a result, a great deal of attention has been focused on efforts to reduce this growth in carbon emissions as well as to formulate policies to address and mitigate climate change. Although the majority of previous studies have explored the driving forces underlying Chinese carbon emissions, few have been carried out at the city-level because of the limited availability of relevant energy consumption statistics. Here, we utilize spatial autocorrelation, Markov-chain transitional matrices, a dynamic panel model, and system generalized distance estimation (Sys-GMM) to empirically evaluate the key determinants of carbon emissions at the city-level based on Chinese remote sensing data collected between 1992 and 2013. We also use these data to discuss observed spatial spillover effects taking into account spatiotemporal lag and a range of different geographical and economic weighting matrices. The results of this study suggest that regional discrepancies in city-level carbon emissions have decreased over time, which are consistent with a marked spatial spillover effect, and a ‘club’ agglomeration of high-emissions. The evolution of these patterns also shows obvious path dependence, while the results of panel data analysis reveal the presence of a significant U-shaped relationship between carbon emissions and per capita GDP. Data also show that per capita carbon emissions have increased in concert with economic growth in most cities, and that a high-proportion of secondary industry and extensive investment growth have also exerted significant positive effects on city-level carbon emissions across China. In contrast, rapid population agglomeration, improvements in technology, increasing trade openness, and the accessibility and density of roads have all played a role in inhibiting carbon emissions. Thus, in order to reduce emissions, the Chinese government should legislate to inhibit the effects of factors that promote the release of carbon while at the same time acting to encourage those that mitigate this process. On the basis of the analysis presented in this study, we argue that optimizing industrial structures, streamlining extensive investment, increasing the level of technology, and improving road accessibility are all effective approaches to increase energy savings and reduce carbon emissions across China.
Under China’s innovation-driven development strategy, venture capital has become an important driving force in urban agglomeration integration and collaborative innovation. This paper uses social network analysis to analyze spatiotemporal differences of venture capital in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei urban agglomeration for the period 2005-2015. A gravity model and panel data regression model are used to reveal the influencing factors on spatiotemporal differences in venture capital in the region. This study finds that there is a certain cyclical fluctuation and uneven differentiation in the venture capital network in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei urban agglomeration in terms of total investment, and that the three centers of venture capital (Beijing, Shijiazhuang and Tangshan) have a stimulatory effect on surrounding cities; flows of venture capital between cities display certain networking rules, but they are slow to develop and strongly centripetal; there is a strong positive correlation between levels of information infrastructure development and economic development and venture capital investment; and places with relatively underdeveloped financial environments and service industries are less able to apply the fruits of innovation and entrepreneurship and to attract funds. This study can act as a reference for the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei urban agglomeration in building a world-class super urban agglomeration with the best innovation capabilities in China.
Hengduan Mountains offer land space for a variety of ecological services. However, the sustainable development and management of land space has been challenged by increased human activities in recent years. This paper performs the spatial pattern analysis of the quantitative and structural changes of various landscapes at different altitudes, and uses the land use data in 1990, 2000, 2010 and 2015 to reveal how various land patterns have changed. The results show that, within the production-living-ecological space schema, the ecological space dominates Hengduan Mountains, while the production and living space was mainly distributed in south region. During 1990-2015, the production-living-ecological spatial changes had been gradually accelerated and the regional differences had become more prominent. The agricultural production space had continuously decreased by 1132.31 km2, and the industrial and mining production space had rapidly increased by 281.4 km2 during 1990-2015. The living space had steadily increased, and the ecological space had increased with fluctuations. The land space pattern in Hengduan Mountains was greatly restricted by the terrain, such as altitude and slope. The implementations of China Western Development Strategy and the Returning Farmland to Forest Program had favorably promoted the changes of land spatial pattern in Hengduan Mountains.
