Based on the results of water sample measurements of nutrient concentrations at the Datong Station of the Changjiang River from 1998 to 1999, combined with historical data of water quality, seasonal variations of nutrient concentrations and nutrient transports are discussed.The following results have been obtained: (1) the fluxes of the nitrate nitrogen, ammonium nitrogen and nitrite nitrogen increased by time-series from 1962 to 1990, even if runoff volume had a little variation; (2) the concentrations and fluxes of the dissolved inorganic nitrogen (DIN) and dissolved inorganic phosphorus (DIP) increased notably with time, but those of the dissolved silicon (DSI) decreased pronouncedly; and (3) the concentrations and fluxes changed synchronously with time between the Datong Station and the Changjiang Estuary.

Based on biomass investigations, soil respiration and plant photosynthesis measurement of dominant trees in Hailuogou valley of Mt. Gongga, Southwest China, the carbon (C) storage, absorption and release for several typical woodlands in sub-alpine zones have been discussed. For Abies fabri forest of 3,000 m above sea level, the C storage amount is 177.4 t/ha for above-ground biomass and 143.2 t/ha for soil below-ground biomass. The annual gross C fixed by vegetation photosynthesis is 20-24 t/ha. The C release by canopy respiration is 3.0-5.5 t/ha for arbors and 10-19 t/ha for surface soil and roots. The annual net C fixed of forest ecosystem is about 6.0-7.1 t/ha. At lower elevations, the amount of C released by woodlands is higher than that of woods at higher elevations. The C fixed capacity of renewed forest with middle-aged trees is higher than that of mature forest. Before becoming over-matured forest, woodland is an important sink of C whereas bareland in woods is the source of atmospheric C.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

With the classification data covering American land-use/land-cover (LUCC) with 30 m resolution from the project of National Land Cover Data (NLCD), we normalized them and made their resolution changed into 1 km ×1 km, created the data of American land-use grade and analyzed the spatial distribution and features of American LUCC as well as the influence of population and altitude on the land-use grade in light of methods of sampling analysis and correlation study. Based on the analysis, we concluded that forestry and grassland, accounting for 71.24% of the whole country, has taken the main part of American land cover, and besides, construction and arable land has occupied 19.22% of the total land, the rest of land cover types, including water area, wetland and underdeveloped land, is 9.54% of the country's total. The developing potential of American land resources is enormous with less destroyed and disturbed ecological environment. Although, in some sense, the population and altitude influence the spatial variation of American land-use grade respectively, the influence of spatial variation of altitude and population density on that of land-use grade is not significanct.

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.

Waterfront resources are important and special kind of natural resources in the marginal area between land and water. The Yangtze River, the longest river in China, is not only rich in waterfront resources, but also has favorable development conditions with great potentiality. Aided by large-scale underwater topographic map, the major factors of the waterfront resources in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River, such as the stability, the water depth and the natural conditions for port construction, are assessed in this paper respectively on the basis of the overall investigations. The results show that: (1) the waterfront resources are abundant in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River, but lack of perfectly combined high grade waterfront; (2) there exists an obvious regional difference in the natural quality of the waterfront along the Yangtze; (3) the fore-bank water depth and waterfront stability are the main natural factors related to the waterfront quality in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River; (4) the waterfronts along the Yangtze are mainly used for port, warehouse and industrial purposes; and (5) the waterfronts near important cities are highly used, especially the high-quality waterfronts. In addition, some suggestions for the development and utilization of the waterfront resources are presented in this paper.

The dual-nuclei spatial structure is composed of a regional central city, a port city and their spatial relations in certain regions. In general, this spatial structure could be found in most of the coastal regions or regions along big rivers. In terms of the mechanism, the dual-nuclei structure is the result of the spatial interaction and the complementary characteristics of the center city and the port city. The "marginal function" of the port city and its relationship with the central city has long been discussed in the literature. On the one hand, drainage area is the main natural geographical background of the formation of the dual-nuclei spatial structure; therefore, we can build a theoretical geographic structure that is based on the drainage area. On the other hand, vicissitude of the coastline also has important influence on the formation of the dual-nuclei spatial structure. It is especially meaningful if we can notice this when we examine deeply the research on the spatial structure of delta.

The data utilized in this analysis consisted of extraterrestrial radiation, global radiation, diffuse radiation, direct radiation, total cloud cover and relative sunshine. The annual variations and trend were analyzed for monthly mean daily total global, direct, and diffuse radiation on a horizontal surface and for the relations between global, direct, diffuse radiation and relative sunshine, total cloud cover. The climatological calculation equations of global and direct radiation are put forward. The results show that global and direct radiations are characterized by decrease and diffuse radiation by increase. The main causes are due to the increase of concentration of suspended particles and atmospheric turbidities rather than cloud cover variations.

Firstly, the hydrological and meteorological features of the upper reaches of the Yellow River above Tangnag are analyzed based on observation data, and effects of EI Nino and La Nina events on the high and low flow in the upper Yellow River are discussed. The results show El Nino and La Nina events possess consanguineous relationship with runoff in the upper Yellow River. As a whole, the probability of low flow occurrence in the upper Yellow River is relatively great along with the occurrence of El Nino event. Moreover, the flood in the upper Yellow River occurs frequently with the occurrence of La Nina event. Besides, the results also show dissimilarity of El Nino event occurring time exerts greater impact on high flow and low flow in the upper Yellow River, that is, the probability of drought will be greater in the same year if El Nino event occurs in spring, the high-flow may happen in this year if El Nino occurs in summer or autumn; the longer the continuous period of El Nino is, the lower the runoff in the upper Yellow River is.

Complex adaptive system theory is a new and important embranchment of system science, which provides a new thought to research water resources allocation system. Based on the analysis of complexity and complex adaptive mechanism of water resources allocation system, a fire-new analysis model is presented in this paper. With the description of dynamical mechanism of system, behavior characters of agents and the evaluation method of system status, an integrity research system is built to analyse the evolvement rule of water resources allocation system. And a brief research for the impact of water resources allocation in beneficial regions of the Water Transfer from South to North China Project is conducted.

This study conducted computer-aided image analysis of land use and land cover in Xilin River Basin, Inner Mongolia, using 4 sets of Landsat TM/ETM+ images acquired on July 31, 1987, August 11, 1991, September 27, 1997 and May 23, 2000, respectively. Primarily, 17 sub-class land cover types were recognized, including nine grassland types at community level: F. sibiricum steppe, S. baicalensis steppe, A. chinensis + forbs steppe, A. chinensis + bunchgrass steppe, A. chinensis + Ar. frigida steppe, S. grandis + A. chinensis steppe, S. grandis + bunchgrass steppe, S. krylavii steppe, Ar. frigida steppe and eight non-grassland types: active cropland, harvested cropland, urban area, wetland, desertified land, saline and alkaline land, cloud, water body + cloud shadow. To eliminate the classification error existing among different sub-types of the same gross type, the 17 sub-class land cover types were grouped into five gross types: meadow grassland, temperate grassland, desert grassland, cropland and non-grassland. The overall classification accuracy of the five land cover types was 81.0% for 1987, 81.7% for 1991, 80.1% for 1997 and 78.2% for 2000.

The method for simulating the temporal and spatial distribution patterns of leaf area index (LAI) and biomass at landscape scale using remote sensing images and surface data was discussed in this paper. The procedure was: (1) annual maximum normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) over the landscape was calculated from TM images; (2) the relationship model between NDVI and LAI was built and annual maximum LAI over the landscape was simulated; (3) the relationship models between LAI and biomass were built and annual branch, stem, root and maximum leaf biomass over the landscape were simulated; (4) spatial distribution patterns of leaf biomass and LAI in different periods all the year round were obtained. The simulation was based on spatial analysis module GRID in ArcInfo software. The method is also a kind of scaling method from patch scale to landscape scale. A case study of Changbai Mountain Nature Reserve was dissertated. Analysis and primary validation were carried out to the simulated LAI and biomass for the major vegetation types in the Changbai Mountain in 1995.

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.

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.

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.

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 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 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.

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.

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.

Yulin district is located in the transitional zone between Mu Us Desert and Loess Plateau of northern Shaanxi Province, thus it is particularly vulnerable to degradation due to its fragile ecosystem and intense human activities there. The purpose of this study is to explore the mechanism, process and driving force of land degradation in area with vulnerable eco-environment within the context of increasing population and intensifying human economic activities, and then find out the patterns and countermeasures of how to control them using the economic and technological ways. In detail, this study includes three main sections: the first section analyzes the mechanism, causes and characteristics of land degradation, which can be achieved by the typical field investigations and systematical analysis within the regional natural, social and economic context. Based on the technologies of remote sensing and GIS, and combined with the modeling methods, the second section reveals the change characteristics of land use and its driving force from 1990 to 2000; As to the third section, feasible countermeasures of how to prevent the degradation and rehabilitate the regional ecology are proposed, which are studied from the perspective of harmony between nature and economy, and the conception of regional sustainable development.

Plant communities were sampled in the lower reaches of the Tarim River, Xinjiang. The results showed that there are 23 species belonging to 21 genera in 11 families, most of which have low occurrence frequency in quadrats. The most common species is Tamarix ramosissima, which occurred in 17 sites accounting for 89.47% of the total 19 sites. Quantitative classification (TWINSPAN) and ordination (CCA) methods were used to study the distribution patterns of 23 plant species in 19 sites in this valley. TWINSPAN results showed that the plant communities in the middle reaches of the Tarim River could be divided into 3 groups and the sampling sites could be divided into 7 types in 3 groups. CCA results were consistent with TWINSPAN results, and showed species distribution patterns correlated with major environmental variables of groundwater level and soil moisture.

Tectonic movements and climate changes are two main controllers on the development of landform. In order to reconstruct the history of the evolution of the landform in the Fenhe drainage basin during middle-late Quaternary comprehensively, this paper has provided a variety of geomorphological and geologic evidences to discuss how tectonic movements and climate changes worked together to influence the landform processes. According to the features of the lacustrine and alluvial terraces in this drainage basin, it is deduced that it was the three tectonic uplifts that resulted in the three great lake-regressions with an extent of about 40-60 m and the formation of the three lacustrine terraces. The times when the tectonic uplifts took place are 0.76 MaBP, 0.55 MaBP and 0.13 MaBP respectively, synchronous with the formation of paleosol units S8, S5 and S1 respectively. During the intervals between two tectonic uplifts when tectonic movement was very weak, climate changes played a major role in the evolution of the paleolakes and caused frequent fluctuations of lake levels. The changes of the features of lacustrine sediment in the grabens show the extent of such fluctuations of lake level is about 2-3 m.

Through high-resolution research of sedimental chronology and the sediment environmental indexes, such as graininess, minerals, magnetic parameters, pigment content, organic carbon and chronology in Ds-core and Ws-core in Nansihu Lake, the authors analyze the formation cause of the Nansihu Lake and its water environmental changes. Historical documents are also analyzed here in order to reach the conclusion. Researches indicate that the Nansihu Lake came into being about 2500 aBP and its evolution succession can be divided into four stages. In this evolution process, several scattered lakes merge into one large lake in the east of China. This process is distinctively affected by the overflow of the Yellow River, the excavation of the Grand Canal and other human activities.

Lunan stone forest is a kind of typical karst in China, which is mainly developed under red soil. In the winter of 1999, three study sites were chosen in stone forest national park according to vegetation cover, geomorphologic location and soil types. CO₂ concentration was measured with Gastec pump at different depths of soil (20, 40, 60 cm) and at the same time soil samples were gathered and soil properties such as soil moisture, pH, soil organic content were analyzed and the total number of viable microbes were counted in laboratory. In the study, dependent variable was chosen as the mean soil log (PCO₂), and soil properties were chosen as the independent variables. Multiple stepwise regression analysis showed that the total amount of microbes and soil moisture are the best indicators of the CO₂ production, with the equation LOG(PCO₂) = - 0.039(TNM) - 0.056(Mo) + 1.215 accounting for 86% of the variation of the soil CO₂ concentration, where TNM is the total number of microbes in the soil and Mo is the moisture of soil sample.

The research on the land use/cover change is one of the frontiers and the hot spots in the global change research. Based on the Chinese resource and environment spatial-temporal database, and using the Landsat TM and ETM data of 1990 and 2000 respectively, we analyzed the spatial-temporal characteristics of land use/cover changes in the Dongting Lake area during the last decade. The result shows that during the last ten years there were three land-use types that had changed remarkably. The cultivated land decreased by 0.57% of the total cultivated land. The built-up land and water area expanded, with an increase of 8.97% and 0.43% respectively. The conversion between land use types mostly happened among these three land-use types, especially frequently between cultivated land and water area. The land-use change speed of land-use type is different. Three cities experienced the greatest degree of land-use change among all the administrative districts, which means that the land use in these cities changed much quickly. The following changed area was the west and south of the Dongting Lake area. The slowest changed area is the north and east area.

With the technological improvements of satellite sensors, we will acquire more information about the earth so that we have reached a new application epoch of observation on earth environmental change and cartography. But with the enhancement of spatial resolution, some questions have arisen in the application of using traditional image processing and classification methods. Aiming for such questions, we studied the application of IKONOS very high resolution image (1 m) in Xiamen City on Urban Vegetation Cover Investigation and discussed the difference between the very high resolution image and traditional low spatial resolution image at classification, information abstraction etc. It is an advantageous test for the large-scale application of very high resolution data in the future.

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".

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

A research is conducted on the relationship between the normal reference value of 20,475 examples of hemoglobin of young women and five geographical factors in 208 areas in China, the normal reference value is determined by the hemoglobincyanide method. It is found that the correlation of geographical factors and the normal reference value of hemoglobin of young women are quite significant (F=142.81). By using the method of multiple linear regression analysis, one regression equation is inferred. If geographical values are obtained in some areas, the normal reference value of hemoglobin of young women of this area can be reckoned by using the regression equation. Furthermore, depending on the geographical factors, China can be divided into six regions: Qinghai-Tibet (Qingzang) Plateau, Southwest, Northwest, Southeast, North and Northeast China.