Pollen ratios have been commonly used to indicate landscape change and climate variation. However, the reliability of these indicators needs to be verified by studies on modern pollen process. Here, we synthesized the major pollen ratios used in previous studies and found that pollen ratios are valuable indicators for the change of vegetation types and climate, e.g., precipitation and moisture. Artemisia/Chenopodiaceae (A/C) ratio could increase from desert to steppe and positively correlate with mean annual precipitation (MAP). Artemisia/Cyperaceae (A/Cy) ratio could be used to identify cool meadow and warm steppe, and it is positively correlated with temperature of July (T_July) and negatively correlated with MAP. Arboreal pollen/nonarboreal pollen (AP/NAP) ratio can be used as a semi-quantitative indicator for landscape and regional precipitation changes. In spite of the significant climatic and environmental implications of the pollen ratios, they were also questioned in some studies under various circumstances and thus caution is needed when using them to indicate climate in different vegetation zones.

The pedogenic ferrimagnetic minerals have been considered to be the cause of magnetic susceptibility enhancement in loess deposits distributing in the Chinese Loess Plateau and Central Europe, while “wind intensity” mechanism is proposed to be responsible for the magnetic susceptibility enhancement of loess in Alaska and Siberia. However, the magnetic enhancement mechanism is still open for loess in Ili valley, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, China. To understand this, we conducted a rock magnetic investigation on Axike section that is located in Ili valley. Results show that transitional stage from magnetic (χ_lf) trough to magnetic (χ_lf) peak corresponds to soil units. The PSD and MD-grained magnetite dominate the magnetic properties of AXK sequences, and the main factor affecting magnetic properties is the concentration of ferrimagnetic fraction. For the “pedogenesis enhancement” and “wind intensity” model, it seems hard to explain the magnetic susceptibility enhancement in this area. For the concentration of fine-grained magnetite in magnetic mineral shows positive relationship with the intensity of pedogenesis, the magnetic parameters of loess deposit in Ili valley can be used to recover paleoclimatic variations.

This paper describes the scaling up to a day scale of the Ryel hour scale model incorporating the process of hydraulic redistribution (HR). The Ryel model was applied to the Inner Mongolia Huangfuchuan basins to analyze transpiration, evaporation and stomatal conductance of Artemisia tridentate, and to indicate the added value of the feedback by comparing simulations with and without incorporating HR. Five climate scenarios were designed based on 40-y continuous climate data from the study area and the response of HR to the different climate scenarios was modeled. Under 1991 climate conditions, cumulative transpiration and evaporation with HR during the growing season were 161.7 mm and 206.14 mm, respectively, compared with transpiration of 140.7 mm and evaporation of 174.2 mm without HR. Under the five different climate change scenarios, HR influenced evaporation more than transpiration. The effect of HR on transpiration, evaporation and stomatal conductance was very different among the scenarios. Inclusion of HR gave rise to the largest increase in transpiration and evaporation under the T2P0 scenario and the smallest under the T2P2 scenario, but transpiration and evaporation decreased under the T0P-2 scenario. Stomatal conductance significantly increased with the inclusion of HR. The model used in this study has potential benefits for incorporating HR into soil processes, such as water movement and mass transfer.

Severe drought is a serious natural disaster that frequently strikes East Asia, highlighting the need to understanding its drought regime and the associations with Asian monsoon. Tree-ring-based drought reconstructions provide invaluable paleoclimatic archives for detecting regional and large-scale drought variability and their potential forcings. We herein reviewed many drought reconstructions from central High Asia and monsoonal Asia and compared their similarities and differences, as well as their linkages to Asia monsoon. We compared the decadal-scale variability of six drought reconstructions for the central High Asia, where differing drought variations were found between the western and eastern portions. Seven drought reconstructions were reviewed for monsoonal Asia, from which a difference in drought variability was observed between the northern and southern parts. Therefore, we compared the drought variations of the four sub-regions of western and eastern parts of central High Asia, as well as northern and southern portions of monsoonal Asia. ENSO activity and sea surface temperature of western Pacific and northern Indian Oceans, coupled with Asian monsoon, play an important role in modulating drought variability of much area of the East Asia. An improved denser multi-index tree-ring network of longer length for East Asia is necessary for the establishment of more reliable large-scale drought reconstruction.

Surface air temperature is one of the main factors that can be used to denote climate change. Its variation in the westerly and monsoon-influenced part of China (i.e., North-West and East China) were analyzed by using monthly data during 1961–2006 from 139 and 375 meteorological stations over these two regions, respectively. The method of trend coefficient and variability was utilized to study the consistency and discrepancy of temperature change over North-West and East China. The results suggest that whether for the annual or the seasonal mean variations of temperature, there were consistent striking warming trends based on the background of global warming over North-West and East China. The most obvious warming trends all appeared in winter over the two regions. Except for the period in spring, the annual and seasonal mean warming trends in North-West China are more obvious than those in East China. The annual mean temperature warming rates are 0.34°C per decade and 0.22°C per decade over North-West and East China, respectively. The average seasonal increasing rates in spring, summer, autumn, and winter are 0.22°C per decade, 0.24°C per decade, 0.35°C per decade, and 0.55°C per decade in North-West China, respectively. At the same time, they are 0.25°C per decade, 0.11°C per decade, 0.22°C per decade, and 0.39°C per decade in East China, respectively. The temperature discrepancies of two adjacent decades are positive over the westerlies and monsoonal region, and they are bigger in the westerlies region than those in the monsoonal region. The most significant warming rate is from the North-East Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region of China to West Qinghai Province of China in all seasons and annually over the westerlies region. The North and North-East China are the main prominent warming areas over the monsoonal region. The warming rate increases with latitude in the monsoonal region, but this is not the case in the westerlies region.

This study simulated the watershed flow and sediment responses based on calibration of the SWAT model in the semi-arid Chinese Loess Plateau (LP) where soil erosion intensively occurs. After the model’s initiation and manual modification, a 7-year inconsecutively observed flow and sediment data from 1984 to 1990 was used to analyze the model’s application in the selected watershed called AJW in the Chinese LP region. The model procedure included sensitivity analysis, parameter calibration and model validation. The best parameter set was finally determined based on the combination of parameter localization and auto-calibration. Then the model was assessed for its accuracy based on the NSE estimation, resulting in 0.77 and 0.67 for calibration and 0.46 and 0.32 for validation on simulations for flow and sediment, respectively, which is a moderately satisfactory accuracy among the applications of the SWAT model. Annual watershed assessment on flow and sediment with the calibrated SWAT model resulted in a multiyear averaged annual runoff coefficient of about 2.7% and an erosion modulus of 797 t/(km²·a^−1) in the AJW, indicating a beneficial consequence from the implementation of the historical soil and water conservations.

The Huoshan Fault, being of NEN strike, is one of the most important faults in the Shanxi Graben System of North China; it is the location of the 1303 A.D. Hongtong earthquake (M_S = 8.0). The late Pleistocene and Holocene offset of some gullies that cross the fault and some fault scratches have proved its right lateral movement during the late Quaternary; however, until now, geological evidence to support the movement in the Neogene and early Quaternary was scarce. Our work provides further crucial evidence that supports both its movement in the late Cenozoic and the total right-lateral displacement since the Pliocene. The difference in the outcrop heights of the Pliocene sediment along the fault, the difference in the geomorphological development along the fault, the inconsistency in the lithological composition of the Pliocene proluvial gravels with the rock types within the catchments of the current upper stream, and the offset of the Pliocene alluvial gravels all completely indicate that the fault has always moved right-laterally since the Pliocene. Additionally, this evidence indicates that the accumulative displacement is up to 12.5 km. Based on the horizontal and vertical displacement of the fault since the Pliocene, the time-averaged horizontal slip rate of the fault is estimated to be about 3.5 mm/a, while the ratio of the horizontal to vertical offsets is about 3.8; these data are roughly close to the results that were acquired from the Holocene and the present movement of the fault. This similarity in the tectonic movement parameters may imply that the intensity as well as the configuration of the regional stress field has remained constant, and that no significant changes have taken place since the Pliocene.

In this paper, Visual MODFLOW is used to simulate groundwater flow and transport within the study area based on a certain scenario, assessing the leakage impact of a Sewage Plant accidental pool on groundwater using NH₃-N as the assessment factor. In the model constructed, soil absorption and degradation was taken into account; the adsorption process of NH₃-N adopted the Langmuir equation and the degradation was simplified as a first-order dynamic reaction. The leakage process was defined as a recharge with contaminants in the case that where there are two accidents happening to the Sewage Plant within a one month interval. The result of the model indicated that the NH₃-N concentration of groundwater increased sharply when the Sewage Plant was malfunctioning. The peak of NH₃-N concentration under the accident pool was about 8.0 × 10^−5 mg/L at the first accident. When the second accident happened, the NH₃-N concentration increased to a maximum of about 1.1 × 10^−4mg/L. At a location of about 20 m from the accident pool, the concentration declined to about one sixth of the center, which demonstrated that the NH₃-N concentration increase caused by leakage of the accident pool was little, and the spatial influence also was small. The paper provides a method of dealing with the transport of physically and chemically reactive substances in groundwater with Visual MODFLOW and assessing the Sewage Plant accident pool leakage impact on groundwater quantitatively.

Climate change will have major impacts in the Great Lakes region of North America. Particularly vulnerable are shallow freshwater estuaries, such as Lake Michigan’s Green Bay, located in the north-eastern part of the State of Wisconsin. Green Bay and the Lower Fox River, its major tributary, were considered to be severely polluted as early as 1925. As a result of large expenditures of money and a major research effort that has been conducted over the past 40 years or more, some progress has been made toward the restoration of ecosystem integrity. However, work remains, and within this context, potential climate change impacts pose additional challenges. We discuss in this paper a methodology that can be used to assess climate change impacts on ecosystems, and describe an application to the Green Bay ecosystem. The methodology employs numerical methods to evaluate the inputs from scientific, policy, and management experts who are knowledgeable about the ecosystem under study. The Green Bay ecosystem application reveals that runoff from agriculture and urban sources, already a major ecosystem stressor, will be exacerbated in the future as a result of climate change impacts.

Wet atmospheric deposition samples were collected in rainy days from 2004 to 2008 in Dalian of Liaoning Province, Northeast of China, which were measured by rain gauge and analyzed for total inorganic nitrogen (TIN) concentration. The mean annual volume of rainfall was from 438.25 to 850.94 mm, and the concentration of TIN was 3.47 mg/L, which showed negative correlation with the volume of rainfall. The order of TIN concentration among seasons was: winter>spring>autumn>summer. Increased use of fertilizers in agricultural areas or widespread use of private transportation led to the increase of TIN fluxes. Variations of TIN concentration among years were significantly different; the annual precipitation TIN inputs were positively related to the volume of rainfall and were surprisingly high with the deposition flux ranging from 10.24 to 25.17 kg N/(hm²·a). The maximum mean annual flux was 25.17 kg N/(hm²·a) which is equal to 53.94 kg N/(hm²·a) usage of CO(NH)₂ (an amount that could have caused changes in terrestrial life). The fluxes of TIN also showed a different seasonal fluctuation during the course of our study, and we found that majority of TIN deposition occurred in summer (from June to August), which accounted for 56.44% of total annual precipitation and 40.06% of total annual deposition flux. Annual TIN fluxes decreased considerably after the rainy season and reached the lowest level (1.39 kg N/(hm²·a)) in winter.

Rare earth element (REE) geochemistry on monomineral has been widely used in various fields of geosciences to reveal the origin of ore-forming materials and fluid. Quartz are ubiquitous mineral in the Shihu gold deposit that is situated in central shear zone of meso-cenozoic Fuping metamorphic core complex in the middle-northern part of Taihang Mountains. Gold-bearing quartz veins are their most important industrial orebodies. Rare earth element abundances in quartz from the Shihu gold mine, as determined by laser ablation-indutively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS) analysis, are shown to be sensitive to identify barren quartz and mineralized quartz. Amounts of REE concentrations in barren quartz and mineralized quartz are 97 × 10^−9 and 85 × 10^−9, respectively. The average (La/Yb)_N and (La/Sm)_N ratios for the barren quartz are 0.25 and 0.13, and the ratios for mineralized quartz are 0.28 and 0.19, respectively. There is a pronounced positive correlation between (La/Yb)_N and (La/Sm)_N ratios. There is no obvious correlation between REE characteristics and sampling sites. The mineralized quartz show the most pronounced negative Ce anomalies, whereas weak negative Ce anomalies are typical of barren quartz vein. A negative Eu anomaly becomes more significant in mineralized quartz than barren quartz. δCe have a broadly positive correlation with δEu. Y/Ho ratio of barren quartz and mineralized quartz are ranging from 2.14–28.75, and from 1.28–9.92, respectively. The REE characteristics of quartz indicate that the ore-forming fluids of the gold deposit were derived from the deep fluid and its formation was dually controlled by Precambrian metamorphic basement and Mesozoic granitoids. The results significantly enhance the usefulness of quartz in tracing the sources of ore-forming fluid to discuss the genesis of the gold deposit, and as an indicator mineral in mineral exploration in Taihang mountain region.

This paper reports a study on the impact of resource use, irrigation in particular, on farm productivity in the upper and middle parts of the Yellow River basin, China. A comprehensive database was constructed with processed geographical, climatic, hydrologic, and economic data to provide information for the current and future studies. Descriptive statistics and correlation analysis were used to characterize the temporal trend and spatial variation in farm productivity and resource use. Regression models were developed to evaluate the farm productivity over different land-use types and to quantify the impact of inputs on farm productivity. Data analysis results indicated that the average farm productivity in the region increased by 1.67 fold during the period of 1980–1999, which was largely attributed to the intensive application of resources and technology inputs. The spatial pattern of precipitation was displaced with that of cultivation, causing the farm productivity in the region to be associated more with irrigation than with precipitation. The average farm productivity of irrigated cropland was 13 times that of rainfed cropland, that is, about 13 ha of rainfed cropland was needed to produce the same amount of farm products as that from one ha of irrigated cropland with the same species and quality. Irrigation could approximately double the farm productivity of rainfed cropland with other affecting factors remaining the same at the mean level over the region and stood as the most dominant factor in controlling farm productivity in the region. Farm productivity was also highly correlated to the application of chemical fertilizer in the period of study. Results from this study provided a strong economic argument for converting the less cultivable cropland back to natural ecosystems and an urgent call for directing future development in the region in a sustainable manner.

Security evaluation has become a hot topic in the research field of water resource management. In this paper, we established a novel water resource security indicator system based on the Pressure-Status-Response (PSR) framework using gray relation analysis (GRA) and technique for order preference by similarity to ideal solution (TOPSIS). A case study of Beijing from 1996 to 2007 was conducted to verify the evaluation system. Results showed that the gray relative closeness degrees of water resource security to the positive ideal solution were low, with the least one of 0.360 in 1999 and the largest one of 0.527 in 2007, implying that Beijing was facing severer challenges with water resources during the concerned time. Also, the analysis of water resource security indicated that the pressure of water resource was constantly increasing. Finally, factor analysis was employed to calculate the gray relation degrees of evaluating indices with the ideal solutions so as to reveal the relativity of water resource security of Beijing, which may contribute to a better understanding of the urban water resource management and regulation.

The Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) and MODerate-Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on board NASA Earth Observing System (EOS) Aqua spacecraft measure the upwelling infrared radiance used for numerous remote-sensing- and climate-related applications. AIRS provides high spectral resolution infrared radiances, while MODIS provides collocated high spatial resolution radiances at 16 broad infrared bands. An optimal algorithm for cloud-clearing has been developed for AIRS cloudy soundings at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where the spatially and spectrally collocated AIRS and MODIS data has been used to analyze the characteristic of this algorithm. An analysis and characterization of the global AIRS cloud-cleared radiances using the bias and the standard deviation between the cloud-cleared and the nearby clear measurements are studied. Scene inhomogeneity for both land- and water-surface types has been estimated to account for the assessed error. Both monthly and seasonal changes of global AIRS/MODIS cloud-clearing performance also have been analyzed.