A geography paper is an important manifestation of geographical achievements as well as a significant carrier of information transmission and storage for geographical science and technology. How to publish scientific papers in a more influential scientific and technical journal so that the achievements can be recognized by the community, is a major concern of geographers. In this paper, we analyzed the types of potential journals and the choice principles of target journals and pointed out that the journal groups with unified online editing system had become the trends because they facilitated the paper submission. After that, we investigated current peer review forms and the choice rules of peer reviewers, and explored several key points of paper writing, including the innovation, research methods, abstract, introduction, discussion and conclusion, figures and tables and references. Finally, we analyzed comment types of peer reviews and identified them into two main types: revision and rejection. For a paper requiring revision, we suggested that the authors should carefully revise the paper and respond to the comments from reviewers. For a paper rejected, the authors should make clear the problems, make a comprehensive modification or improvement in the research methods, research contents and so on, and resubmit the paper.

Based on bibliometric data from ISI-WOS during 2000 to 2015, the scientific output, influence, discipline structure, collaboration ability and highlight results of 13 international institutes in geographic science were assessed using several advanced bibliometric indices departments, including Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research (IGSNRR), CAS; College of Urban and Environmental Sciences, Peking University; School of Geography, Beijing Normal University; School of Geography and the Environment, University of Oxford; School of Geography, University of Cambridge; Department of Geography, University of London; Department of Geography, University of California System; Department of Geography, University of Maryland System; Department of Geography, University of Durham; Department of Geographical Sciences, University of Bristol; School of Geography and Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Birmingham; Department of Geography at University of British Columbia; International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis. The analysis shows that the Department of Geography, University of Maryland ranked the top in many fields in light of citation indices. The IGSNRR, CAS is the first of the 13 institutes in terms of the number of papers among all the institutes. However, the lower citation rate indicates that there is a large gap in scientific influence for IGSNRR. In addition, the result also demonstrates that IGSNRR has become stronger in pioneering the discipline and realizing the innovations along with the increase of the fields and the ability in the international collaboration.

Xu Xiake (1587-1641), born in an elite family in the region south of the Yangtze River, was a traveler in the Ming Dynasty. His travelogue extensively documented Southwest China's landscape and culture. Yet, Xu's reputation and writings remained less known to the general public throughout the Qing Dynasty. His geographical works were popularized in the writings of Chinese geologist Ding Wenjiang, and Department of History and Geography at Zhejiang University in the early 20th century. They employed scientism to mold their townsman Xu Xiake into a modern geographer with scientific spirits and methodology. By doing so, they implemented Western methodology to the Chinese context and ushered a paradigmatic shift in modern Chinese geography.

A total of 195 soil samples of farmland were collected from oasis in the Bosten Lake Basin, Xinjiang, and the concentrations of eight heavy metal elements (As, Cd, Cr, Cu, Mn, Ni, Pb and Zn) were identified by standard methods. The spatial distribution of soil heavy metals in farmland was analyzed based on geostatistical analysis, while the pollution load index (PLI) and potential ecological risk index (RI) were employed to the assessment of the soil heavy metal pollution levels and potential ecological risk. Then the main sources of heavy metals were discussed. Results showed that: (1) The average value of the contents of Cd, Cr, Cu, Ni, Pb and Zn exceeded by 1.67, 1.13, 1.15, 1.29, 2.11 and 1.65 times of the soil background value of Xinjiang, respectively. (2) The spatial distribution of eight heavy metals showed an island-like pattern, and all the heavy metal elements showed high value areas in some parts of the study area, indicating the negative effects of human activities on soil environment of farmlands. (3) Pb presented a moderate pollution, whereas Cd, Zn, Ni, Cu and Cr a light pollution, Mn a slight pollution and As no pollution for farmland soils. The average PLI value of the heavy metals was 1.09, which showed a slight pollution. (4) The average E value for each heavy metal element was ranked as: Cd > Ni > As > Cu > Pb > Cr > Zn. The average RI value was 18.63, which showed a slight ecological risk situation. In terms of regional differences, the ecological risk index was ranked as: Hoshut County > Baghrash County > Karashahar County > Hejing County. (5) Cr, Cu, Mn, Ni and Zn contents were controlled mainly by the soil geochemical genesis and As, Cd and Pb were mainly affected by human activities. Cd and Pb were the main pollution sources of farmland soils, which should be given more attention.

Datong Volcano eruption is an important geologic phenomenon of the Quaternary in North China and has been attracting scientists' attention; however, its episodic activity has remained unclear. Here, we demonstrate some new findings to reveal the episodic activity of the volcano during the Quaternary. (1) Volcano clastic layers with different ages which deposited near the paleolakeside incline with dip angles of 30°, 21°, 9° and 4°, respectively. (2) There exist four fine volcano clastic layers in the grayish-green lacustrine sediment in the paleolake inshore. (3) There are four sediment layers in the center of the paleolake which display high magnetic susceptibility value, indicating that some volcanic ash may deposit in them. Besides, the grain size of the four lacustrine layers is much coarser than that of others. (4) There exist three sediment layers in the loess section in the land some away from the paleolake, which display high magnetic susceptibilily value and low Rb/Sr one, indicating that some volcanic ash may deposit in them. (5) Magnetic boundary of B/M and Jaramillo Positive Subzone were found in the lacustrine section in the center of the paleolake. Based on these findings, we deduced that (1) Datong volcano experienced four episodic activities during the Quaternary and there occur many times volcano eruptions during each episodic activity; (2) the beginning times of four episodic activities are older than 0.90 Ma BP, ~0.47 Ma BP, ~0.31 Ma BP and 0.09 Ma BP, respectively; (3) another episodic activity with the beginning time ~0.19 Ma BP was also recorded in regional loess sediment; (4) the occurrence of each of the episodic activities of the volcano is synchronous with that of each of the paleolake regressions, implying that there is some relationship between the volcano eruptions and the paleolake regressions.

The Paris Agreement recommended efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5℃ above pre-industrial levels. However, the current intended nationally determined contributions (INDCs) fall short of 2 ℃ scenarios, and the post-INDC period will bring severe challenges. This study details the 1.5 ℃ warming in terms of two types of restrictions. The first restriction conforms with the requirement of the Paris Agreement and requires an overall 1.5 ℃ warming restriction throughout the simulation. In the second restriction, the terminal 1.5 ℃ control relaxes the temperature restriction during the simulation and requires a 1.5 ℃ warming restriction only at the end of the simulation. Using the two restrictions, this study proposes three global cooperating abatement schemes according to different principles. Next, the study assesses the climatic effectiveness and economic feasibility of these three schemes using CIECIA, an economic-climatic integrated assessment model. The results indicate that the carbon emissions of countries should be net zero immediately following the INDC target year to meet the overall 1.5 ℃ goal in Scheme 1, and countries suffer great economic losses at the beginning of post-INDC period. In Scheme 2, the terminal 1.5 ℃ restriction allows a buffer period from INDC target years to the net zero emission period that starts in 2041. Throughout this period, approximately 52 GtC of carbon emissions are permitted. In this scheme, the economic shock around 2030 is less significant. However, by 2100 the countries suffer more cumulative utility losses than those in Scheme 1 due to warmer global temperatures during the late period. Of the three schemes, the Pareto improvement scheme permits looser carbon limits for Russia, and the high development countries (HDC) suffer more in the other schemes for industrial and geographic reasons. This scheme meets both the terminal 1.5 ℃ target and the Pareto improvement in the economies of all countries participating in global carbon abatement. Thus, it is economically feasible and climatically effective. Scheme 3 shows a link between the economies of China and the United States during carbon abatement, but it also shows that these countries are in competition with Russia and the HDC. Therefore, China could strengthen its abatement cooperation with the United States and pay attention to balance its gains with the gains of Russia and the HDC.

The complicated relationship between the Yangtze River and Poyang Lake is the factor determining the exchange of water and sediment between them and has great influence on the water resources, flood control, navigation, and ecological environment of the entire region. Based on the theory of energy, this paper explains the principle of the river-lake relationship from a new perspective. By constructing a new index F_e, the authors were able to analyze the evolution of the relationship between the Yangtze River and Poyang Lake since the 1950s. The results indicate that the value of F_e shows an increasing trend, which means the river effect is weakening while the lake effect is strengthening. Operation of the Three Gorges Dam has an important impact on the river-lake relationship, which further weakens the river effect. The river effect increases slightly in the dry season but decreases significantly at the end of the flood period. In addition, the relationship between the Yangtze River and Poyang Lake may induce drought and flood disasters to some degree. Flooding is more likely to occur when flow from the five tributaries of the Poyang Lake is large and the Yangtze River blocking effect is strong. In contrast, drought is more likely to occur when flow from the five tributaries of the Poyang Lake is small, while the lake effect is strong. Meanwhile, the probability of drought in the Poyang Lake from September to October increases due to the impounding of the Three Gorges Reservoir.

Based on the research on palaeoflood hydrology in the upper reaches of Hanjiang River, the palaeoflood events recorded by slackwater deposits in upper layers of 6 loess-soil profiles were found to occur during the Eastern Han Dynasty. In this paper, the flood time of the palaeoflood events during the study period was examined textually by the historical literature analysis, and the flood simulaton was made using the HEC-RAS model. The study results showed that the palaeoflood during the Eastern Han Dynasty might be an extraordinary flood event that occurred in September (lunar month), the second year of the Jian'an period (197) in terms of the influence scope, degree, intensity, and the deposit rule of the floodmarks. Then selecting reasonable channel sections and roughness coefficient, and setting the river boundary conditions and initial conditions, we used the HEC-RAS model to conduct the flood simulation of the palaeoflood events. The errors between the simulated and the calculated flood stages were -0.18%~0.25%. Moreover, the errors of the simulated flood stages in 1983 were 0.25% less than those of the floodmark stages in 1983 found near the profiles. The flood simulation results showed that the selected channel sections and hydrological parameters were accurate and reliable, indicating that the palaeoflood events during the Eastern Han Dynasty might be an extraordinary flood event. The study results not only prolonged the flood sequences, but also provided the important hydrological data for the hydropower project construction, water resource management and the flood control and disaster mitigation in the upper reaches of the Hanjiang River.

The numerical simulation method was used to predict the future possible changes that happened on permafrost by setting up the prediction results of the climate model from the IPCC Fifth Assessment Report as a possible climatic condition. The source area of the Yellow River with complicated permafrost conditions was chosen as the study area. The past and future permafrost distribution were predicted, and the future possible changing trends in permafrost in this area were calculated. The obtained results were, (1) during the past 30 years of 1972-2012, a small part of permafrost was degraded, which covered an area of about 833 km². In this period, the seasonal frozen soil type was mainly distributed in the of Requ river valley, Xiaoyemaling, and Tangchama, as well as the southern part of the two lake basins. (2) Under different climatic scenarios of RCP 2.6, RCP 6.0 and RCP 8.5, little difference would happen on permafrost degradation until 2050. In details, the possible degradation area of permafrost would be 2224 km², 2347 km², and 2559 km² under the scenarios of RCP 2.6, RCP 6.0, and RCP 8.5, respectively, accounting for 7.5%, 7.9%, 8.6% of the total study area. The seasonal frozen soil type would be sporadically distributed in the river valleys of Lena Qu, Duo Qu, Baima Qu, but widely distributed around Yeniugou, Yeniutan and four Madio lakes located in the Yellow River valley in the eastern part of Ngoring Lake. (3) In 2100, the predicted permafrost degradation area would be 5636 km², 9769 km² and 15548 km², respectively, and they would account for 19%, 32.9% and 52.3% of the source area. The permafrost degradation mainly occurred in the areas of Xingsuhai, Gamaletan, Duogerong, of which low-temperature permafrost would be degraded into a high-temperature permafrost type. And the mean annual ground temperature of permafrost would rise differentially. (4) Under the scenario of RCP 2.6, all permafrost with current mean annual ground temperature higher than -0.15oC would be degraded into seasonal frozen soil type, and the permafrost with the mean annual ground temperature ranging from -0.15 oC to -0.44oC would be partly degraded into seasonal frozen soil type. Under the scenarios of RCP 6.0 and RCP 8.5, permafrost with the current mean annual ground temperature higher than -0.21 oC and -0.38 oC would be totally degraded, the permafrost with the mean annual ground temperature ranging from -0.21 to -0.69 oC and from -0.38 oC to -0.88 oC would be partly degraded.

Debris-covered glaciers, characterized by the presence of supraglacial debris mantles in their ablation zones, are widespread in high mountain regions of western China. Supraglacial debris cover on glaciers has the unique thermal process relative to exposed snow and ice, the spatial distribution of which influences both rates and spatial patterns of melting. Due to the debris-cover effect, the responses of debris-covered glaciers to climate change are more complex compared to those of debris-free glaciers. In addition, debris-covered glaciers generally contain a large ice volume, and mass changes of these glaciers are expected to have significant impacts on the regional-scale evolution of river discharge and water resources. However, a better understanding of debris-cover effect in glacier status and hydrology at a regional scale remains a challenge. The difficulty of such a study arises mainly from limited knowledge of the large-scale spatial distribution of the thickness and properties of the debris cover in western China. This study systematically reviews the impacts of the spatial distribution of debris thickness on melting beneath surface debris, mass change and runoff process on debris-covered glaciers. In particular, a physically-based assessment model for debris-cover effect is proposed, which is based on visible and near infrared and thermal infrared bands of remotely sensed data and surface energy-balance process of the debris layer. This model does not require high-quality input parameters related to the extent, thickness and thermal properties of the debris cover, and has been applied to different glaciers of western China for systematically assessing the significance of debris cover and its influence on spatial patterns of ice melting, mass balance and runoff. This approach provides an important insight into exploring the average status of debris-covered glaciers and its impacts on regional water resources in western China. Nevertheless, this approach does not consider the effect of the complex surface composed of co-existing debris-covered ice, bare ice, ice cliffs and supraglacial ponds in the ablation zone, and needs further improvement in the future.

Based on the glacier inventories and meteorological data, spatial-temporal variations of glaciers in Chinese Tianshan Mountains were analyzed systematically. The results show that: (1) 7934 glaciers with an area of 7179.77 km² and volume of 756.48 km³ were identified in the study area. The number of glaciers below 1 km² accounts for the majority part of glaciers in the Chinese Tianshan Mountains. In contrast, glaciers between 1 to 10 km² and larger than 20 km² have the largest proportions of the total glacier surface area. The glaciers in the study area are mainly distributed at elevations of 3800-4800 m. (2) In 10 watersheds, the Akesu River Basin contains the most of the glaciers with a surface area of 1721.75 km², but the Yiwu River Basin has the least glaciers whose surface area is 56.03 km². There is an obvious difference of glaciers in different regions. In the Akesu region, glacier resource is the most abundant, which accounts for 43.28% and 68.85% in total surface area and volume. In the Turpan region, glacier resource is the least, which accounts for only 0.23% and 0.07% of the total surface area and volume in this region. (3) In the past half century, the loss in glacier area and ice volume were 1619.85 km² (-18.64%) and 104 km³ (21.63%), respectively. Glaciers smaller than 1.0 km² constituted the main body of the decreased glacier number. Glaciers below 5 km² experienced a significant recession. (4) The relative rates of area change for these glaciers were different for different drainage basins. The fastest change of glacier area occurred on the northern slope of the Bogda Basin and the lowest appeared in the Weigan River Basin. The main reason for glacier retreat in this region was that glacier melting caused by rising summer temperatures is greater than glacier mass supply by increased precipitation during the study period.

The early northern China (1600 BC-300 AD) can be divided into two stages roughly: 3600-3050 cal a BP (1600 BC-1050 BC), and 3050-1800 cal a BP (1050 BC-200 AD), which were recorded in many natural sedimentary archives. The former stage, corresponding to the second dynasty - the Shang Dynasty with a time span of more than 500 years, characterized by relatively stable humid climate state, is a historical period with relatively stable political and societal environment; the latter stage, coincident to the transition from the Zhou Dynasty to the Three Kingdoms with gradually becoming dry climate, showed a sharp contrast of political and societal condition to the period during the Shang Dynasty with seven unrests and consequent occurrence of new political regimes within a 1250-year period. And, marked by the relocations of capitals, the centers of these dynasties show a trend of southeastward migration. The correlation of significant climate change (usually cold and/or dry states) and some political unrests, such as, establishment of the Zhou Dynasty, Zhouping King′s eastward relocation of capital and perishment of the Western Han Dynasty, was found. These evidences again indicate that there is a certain relationship between evolution of early stage of Chinese history and climate change of Asian monsoon. This paper suggests that the following two factors, neglected in the previous research, greatly influence the correlation between society and climate. First, northern China has fan-shaped geographic space with a sharp ecological gradient for latitudinal zonality and Asian monsoon activity, which accentuates the effects of climate change on regional human society. Second, in China the small-scale self-sufficient economy cell was very sensitive to climate change. And usually, irrational social regime accentuated the sensitivity of small-scale self-sufficient economy cell to climate change through a series of feedbacks within society and resulted in serious consequences, and eventually caused the collapses of dynasties.

As one of the most important regions for paleoclimate study, the Altai Mountains are influenced by the prevailing westerly airflow throughout a year. In order to get a better understanding of the precipitation variations at different time scales (i.e., season, year, multi-decades, centennial and millennial scales) in the northern and southern Altai Mountains, we investigate the observed data from 11 meteorological stations and published paleoclimate documents (including tree rings, ice cores and lake cores) in the northern and southern Altai Mountains. The results show that the precipitation during the observed interval experiences a decreasing trend in the northern Altai Mountains, whereas an increasing trend in the southern Altai Mountains. The out-of-phase relationship of precipitation in the northern and southern Altai Mountains also exists in the two centennial intervals, the last millennium and the Holocene epoch. We propose that the out-of-phase relationships of precipitation variations at different time-scales (i.e., season, year, multi-decades, centennial and millennial scales) indicate that the Altai Mountains are an important climatic boundary. However, the reasons of out-of-phase relationship at different time-scales remains to be investigated in the future. The next work is not only helpful to understand the history of regional water vapor change, but also contributes to the understanding of the succession of the Silk Road culture along the Europe-Asian steppe.

Projection of future climate change scenarios provides the scientific basis for addressing climate change and for proposing strategies of adapting climate change. This study used the simulation data of 30 climate models, which were evolved in the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 5 (CMIP5). Through evaluating the performance of each model on simulating the historical climate change, the preferred climate models were selected. Then, using the outputs of preferred climate models as independent variables and using ground measurements as dependent variables, the partial least squares regression (PLS) models were constructed for temperature and precipitation, respectively, of each region of China. By analyzing the ensemble predictions of regional temperature and precipitation changes, we found that the PLS ensemble mean of preferred climate models is closer to the ground measurements than the PLS ensemble mean of all of the climate models and the traditionally arithmetic average-based ensemble mean. The PLS ensemble projections of preferred climate model showed that climate warming would generally continue during the 21st century, which would be stronger in the cold half-year and in the northern regions than that in the warm half-year and in the southern regions. Under the scenario of RCP 4.5, the climate warming would be stronger in the first half of the 21st century and weaker in the second half. Under the scenario of RCP 8.5, the climate warming would keep nearly constant rate and, by the end of 21st century, the temperature would rise by two folds of that under the scenario of RCP 4.5. The increasing trend of precipitation would be stronger under the scenario of RCP 8.5 than that under the scenario of RCP 4.5 and would be stronger in the dry regions than that in the rainy regions with decadal oscillations. Finally, the equal weighting ensemble projections of all of the climate models exhibit that climate warming would be stronger in summer than in winter and that precipitation would increase linearly without decadal oscillations. These findings are opposite to the primary characters of climate changes that climate warming is stronger in winter than in summer and precipitation has strong inter-decadal variability. Thereby, the PSL-based ensemble mean of preferred climate model may provide reasonable projections of future temperature and precipitation changes.

Global and regional environmental change such as land use and climate change have significant and interactive effects on forest. These integrated effects will undoubtedly alter the distribution, function and succession processes of forest ecosystems. In order to respond and adapt to these changes, it is necessary to understand their individual and integrated effects. In this study, we proposed a framework by using coupling models to gain a better understanding of the complex ecological processes. We combined an agent-based model for land use and land cover change (ABM/LUCC), an ecosystem process model (PnET-II), and a forest dynamic landscape model (LANDIS-II) to simulate the change of forest total aboveground biomass (AGB), which was driven by land use and climate change factors for the period 2010-2050 in Taihe County of southern China, where subtropical coniferous plantations dominate. We conducted a series of land use and climate change scenarios to compare the differences in forest total AGB. The results show that: (1) land use, including town expansion, deforestation and forest conversion, and climate change are likely to influence forest total AGB in the near future in Taihe County. (2) Although climate change will make a contribution to an increase in the forest total AGB, land use change can result in a rapid decrease in forest total AGB and play a vital role in the integrated simulation. The forest total AGB under the integrated scenario decreased by 33.13% (RCP2.6+land use), 32.92% (RCP4.5+land use), and 32.42% (RCP8.5+land use) by 2050, which is in comparison to the results under separate RCPs without land use disturbance. (3) The framework can offer a coupled method to better understand the complex and interactive ecological processes, which may provide some supports for adapting to land use and climate change, improving and optimizing plantation structure and function, and developing measures for sustainable forest management.

Wu Shangshi (1904-1947) is considered one of the outstanding modern geographers emerging in the early 20th century in China. It is partly a result of the introduction of modern sciences from the West. Wu graduated as a gold medalist in Sun Yat-sen University （SYU) in 1928. He was then granted scholarship to study geography in France. He studied at the University of Lyon and the University of Grenoble under the supervision of A. Allix, M. Pardé and R. Blanchard,who was one of the best known students of V. de la Blanche. In 1934, Wu finished his study in France and returned to SYU to serve as a professor of geography. He was head of the department in 1939-1945, the most difficult and perilous period during the Japanese invasion. The university moved constantly to flee the flames of war. The thousands of miles across south and south-west China became Wu's research field. To continue one's work under such circumstances required an extraordinary determination and dedication to science. Excessive hard work in tough environments ruined his health. Wu died in 1947 at the age of 43.
Among the second generation of Chinese modern geographers, Wu was a rare example of an integrated geographer. He combined comprehensive and complex geographic thought with a balanced approach between holistic perspective and detailed research. In addition, he possessed an outstanding ability to conduct field work. As such, many of his research findings have withstood the test of time and remain relevant to this day. For instance, Wu proposed "one belt and three arcs" to summarize the distribution of the mountain ranges in China. On the long debates of the stratigraphic sequence of the red bed formations "Danxia" and "Nanxiong", Wu suggested an alternative viewpoint that the two formations could be deposited at approximately the same time but in different faces and it has been confirmed by modern geologic investigation some 50 years later. Both contributions were listed on the "Great Geographical Discoveries of China in 100 Years". Wu's pioneering work covered a wide range of disciplines of geography: geomorphology, hydrography, climatology, cartography,regional geography, etc. Most of his research involved a combination of keen observation, incisive logical deduction, broad knowledge and professional instinct. The present paper summarizes Wu's major accomplishments which are scientifically significant to the establishment of modern and contemporary geography in China. It also reveals that Wu's scientific thought and practice can be traced to the French schools of geography and other Western countries.
However, his accomplishments cannot be fully appreciated without understanding of the significant role that traditional Chinese culture played in his consciousness. Wu's social connections and educational background could have easily allowed him to move within the power circles and become part of it. Yet he remained upright and forwent opportunities for fame and fortune, choosing Geography as his life's work. Wu was also a renowned educator whose list of students features names such as Luo Kaifu, Zeng Zhaoxuan, Xu Junming etc. The Geography Department in SYU has been being one of the important bases of China's modern geography science, to which Wu's crucial contributions cannot be left unrecognized.
A scientific park is under construction by the City Hall of Guangzhou at the site where Wu identified an ancient wave-cut cliff in 1937. Wu' statue placed in the park was designed by the well-known sculptors

China's investments, financial incentives and deductions on ecological conservation are based on the county level. Therefore, the monitoring and assessment on the effects of ecological conservation at the county level is significant to provide a scientific basis to the ecological and environmental quality assessment of counties. This paper quantitatively estimated the dynamics of high-quality ecosystems and the vegetation coverage in the past 15 years, and examined its relationships with the number of ecological conservation programs at the county level. Then it assessed and discussed the effects of ecological conservation measures in county's ecological changes and its regional suitability. The results showed that the proportion of high quality ecosystems higher than 50% was primarily observed in counties of Northeast China, subtropical southern China and southeastern Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, and the proportion lower than 20% was mostly found in counties of Northwest China, karst region of Southwest China and the North China Plain. In recent decades, ecological conservation focused on ecological fragile regions, so there are more than five ecological conservation programs in most counties of the Three Rivers Source Region in Qinghai Province, southeastern Tibet, western Sichuan, Qilian Mountains, southern Xinjiang and other parts of Western China, while there is one or no one found in coastal eastern China. In the past 15 years, the area proportion of high-quality ecosystems in 53% of the counties has increased. The vegetation coverage of counties in the Loess Plateau, Huang-Huai-Hai Plain, Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, Sichuan-Guizhou-Chongqing, and Guangdong and Guangxi provincial units has increased significantly. However, it has decreased in northern Xinjiang, central Tibet, central and eastern Inner Mongolia, Yangtze River Delta and other parts of China. The relationships between the numbers of ecological conservation programs and the indicators responding ecosystem restoration such as high-quality ecosystem and vegetation coverage do not show positive correlations. It is recommended that ecological conservation projects should be planned and implemented according to the distribution of high-quality ecosystems, and the restoration measures such as afforestation should follow natural principles and regional variations under the background of climate change.

This paper created a land use classification system of production-living-ecological spaces based on analyzing the theories of production-living-ecological spaces and commanding the dialectical relationships between land use types and land use functions. The classification system perfectly connected to the state standard of land use classification. Based on this system, we examined the spatial and temporal patterns of production-living-ecological spaces in China between 1990 and 2010. The results showed that: (1) The production spatial pattern almost unchanged between 1990 and 2010, and the production spaces were mainly distributed in the southeast of the Hu Huanyong Line, including Northeast China Plain, northwest Xinjiang, Ningxia, Lanzhou-Xining, Sichuan Basin, Bohai Rim, Yangtze River Delta, Xiamen-Quanzhou-Zhangzhou, and Pearl River Delta, where China's urban agglomerations and main grain production areas were located in. (2) Living spaces were mainly distributed in China's urban agglomerations and cities, showing a spatial pattern of "high in the east and north regions, while low in the west and south regions". Its spatial expansion varied in different areas. Large-scale expansion of living spaces appeared in the Bohai Rim, Yangtze River Delta and Pearl River Delta, while small-scale and point-type expansion in the major provincial capitals. (3) Ecological spaces were mainly distributed in the northwest of the Hu Huanyong Line, showing a spatial pattern of "high in the west and south regions, while low in the east and north regions". The expansion of ecological spaces were mainly in the Loess Plateau, Hulun Buir Glassland and Tianshan Mountains, while the reduction of ecological spaces were mainly in the Northeast China Plain, North China Plain, Yangtze River Delta, Pearl River Delta, Ningxia and Xinjiang. (4) Industrialization and urbanization were the basic driving powers of changes of China's production-living-ecological spaces. The main reasons for regional spatial differences across China included farmland cultivation in Northwest and Northeast China, rapid urbanization in North China, Bohai Rim, Yangtze River Delta and Pearl River Delta, and reversion of farmland to forestland in the Loess Plateau. This research was valuable for the studies on classification and evaluation of production-living-ecological spaces.

Natural ecosystems supply tangible products and intangible services, which are demanded and consumed by human beings. Therefore, supply and demand make up the dynamic process of ecosystem services flowing from natural ecosystems to human society. The process of identifying, measuring, mapping and conducting an equilibrium analysis of the supply and demand of ecosystem services is beneficial for the effective management of natural ecosystems and optimal allocation of natural resources. Moreover, this can provide theoretical support to payments for environmental services and ecological compensation, thus promoting ecological security and sustainable development. Although the study of ecosystem services supply and demand is important, related studies are limited in China and are mainly focused on Europe and North America. Based on the theory and case studies conducted in China and other countries, this paper first presented the definition of ecosystem services supply and demand, including actual supply, potential supply, satisfied demand, and total demand. Second, the classifications of ecosystem services were compared based on their spatial characteristics. Third, the methods of mapping ecosystem services supply and demand were divided as follows: (1) land use estimation, which needs simple operation and limited data, may cause errors due to the loss of internal heterogeneity and boundary effects; (2) ecological process simulation is mostly applied in water-related ecosystem services, showing detailed and reliable results with multi-calculation; (3) spatial data superposition, which is an ideal method for mapping ecosystem services with complete spatial data sets; (4) expert knowledge, where the mapping of ecosystem services supply and demand is decided by a group of experts or is based on the previous related findings; however, the mapping principle followed in a local study may not be applicable to studies conducted at other places; and (5) the use of integrated models InVEST (Integrated Valuation of Ecosystem Services and Trade-offs), which is suitable for supply analysis, and ARIES (ARtificial Intelligence for Ecosystem Services), maps service flow from natural ecosystems to human beings. Finally, we discussed the equilibrium analysis framework for ecosystem services supply and demand from three angles: actual supply and potential supply, satisfied demand and total demand, and the spatial and quantitative relation between supply and demand.

Prone to natural disasters, China badly needs a research into its spatio-temporal distribution of natural disasters and the corresponding grain loss to improve grain security and achieve sustainable development. By means of Python Programming Language and on the basis of grain production loss over Chinese 31 provinces from 1949 to 2015, this paper first constructed disaster intensity index to analyze temporal features of different natural disasters, and with trend analysis as well as ESDA to analyze spatial characteristics in different provinces. Then the paper collected crop planting data to calculate and test the spatio-temporal characteristics in grain loss through estimation model on grain loss, defining grain loss rate and geodetector. The conclusions of paper are: (1) compared with the curve of disaster-affected areas, disaster intensity index constructed in this paper could better present temporal changes of natural disasters; (2) China alternately suffered from flood and drought between 1949 and 2015 and in the coming 5 to 10 years the main suffering would be flood; (3) the ranking of natural disasters is: drought>flood>low temperature >hail> typhoon, among which, the areas affected by drought and flood occupied more than half of the total; (4) natural disasters show clear spatial characteristics and the ranking of regional areas prone to disasters is: eastern region> western region; northern region > southern region. Generally speaking, northern region is prone to only one particular natural disaster while southern region tends to suffer from several natural disasters in the meantime; (5) the sum of natural disasters, drought, hail and low temperature, with their random distribution in space, presented unclear spatial autocorrelation, while flood and typhoon, with their clustering model in space distribution, showed clear spatial autocorrelation; (6) from 1949 to 2015, the general temporal changes of disasters, grain loss amount and loss rate showed a feature that the figures would rise first, and then dropped with the critical point in 2000. Meanwhile, they had significant heterogeneity in spatial distribution, great difference in single-factor explanation power, and multi-factor interaction showed a nonlinear enhancement relation. The distribution of hot and cold spots on both sides of the Hu Line presented a polarization pattern and the gravity center of grain loss gradually moved northward. Accordingly, this paper proposes that our government should adopt different precautionary measures in different regions of China: measures against drought and hail in Northwest China; measures against drought and waterlogging in Northeast China; measures against flood and low temperature in Central China; measures against waterlogging and typhoon in coastal areas of Southeast China. And our government should show more concern to and formulate feasible protection plans for hostile-environment Northwest China and high-grain-production Northeast China so that a good harvest in grains could be guaranteed.

Aiming at examining the responses of agro-climate resource to climate change in Northeast China, this study explores the 1960-2099 daily climatic data of regional model simulation in RCP_4.5 and RCP_8.5 scenarios, assimilated with 1961-2010 ground observations from 91 meteorological stations. Agroclimate heat resources and water resources in scenarios are analyzed and the findings are obtained as follows: (1) The annual mean temperature decreases from south to north and is projected to increase across the study region. Obviously, the temperature is higher in the high emission scenario. The annual mean temperature of the baseline, RCP_4.5 and RCP_8.5 is 7.70 ℃, 9.67 ℃ and 10.66 ℃, respectively. The changes of other agro-climate heat resources are similar with those of the temperature. For example, the start date ≥10 ℃ has advanced by 3 d and 4 d; the first frost date has delayed by 2 d and 6 d; the growing season is prolonged by 4 d and 10 d; and the accumulated temperature ≥10 ℃ has increased by 400 ℃·d and 700 ℃·d, respectively. In addition, water resources have a slight increase. (2) The average temperature growth rate of climatic trendency is 0.35 ℃/10 a historically. The highest increasing rate of annual average temperature under the RCP8.5 scenario is 0.48 ℃/10a in the high emission scenario, compared with 0.19 ℃/10a under the RCP4.5 scenario in the low emission scenario. By the end of this century, the warming trend in RCP_8.5 would be faster than that in RCP_4.5 especially in the north of the study region. Other agro-climate heat resources have similar trends with the temperature, but their spatial distribution varies in different parts of the region. Precipitation in growing season is projected to increase although the trend is not statistically significant and has distinct inter-annual variations. Precipitation increases in the east part of the study region, while it decreases in the west. Overall Northeast China is getting warmer and wetter in the future with increased heat resources. However, the imbalance with water resources may have negative impacts on agricultural productivities.

Based on the global land use / cover data from 1982 to 2011(CG-LTDR), this paper analyzes the characteristics and spatial patterns of cultivated land change since the 1980s. The results are summarized as follows: (1) Since the 1980s, the world's arable land has increased by 528.768×10⁴ km² with a rate of 7.920×10⁴ km²/a, although the trend is not statistically significant. The world's arable land grew fastest in the 1980s. Areas of cultivated land in North America, South America and Oceania increased by 170. 854×10⁴ km², 107. 890×10⁴ km² and 186. 492×10⁴ km², respectively since the 1980s, showing significant trends with rates of 7.236×10⁴ km²/a, 2.780×10⁴ km²/a and 3.758×10⁴ km²/a, respectively. Areas in Asia, Europe and Africa decreased by 23.769×10⁴, 4.035×10⁴, 86.76×10⁴ km², with rates of -5.641×10⁴ km²/a, -0.813×10⁴ km²/a and -0. 595×10⁴ km²/a, respectively. Only Asia revealed a significant reduction trend. (2) Since the 1980s, the increased cultivated land in the world has been mainly converted from grasslands and forests, accounting for 53.536% and 26.148%, respectively. Newly cultivated land was mostly distributed in southern and central Africa, eastern and northern Australia, southeastern South America, central US, Alaska, central Canada, western Russia, northern Finland and northern Mongolia. Among these regions, Botswana in southern Africa has the highest proportion of increased arable land, an increase of 80%-90%. (3) Since the 1980s, a total of 1071.946×10⁴ km² of arable land has been converted to other types of land, mostly grasslands and forests that account for 57.482% and 36.000%, respectively. Global reduction of arable land was mainly found in southern and central Africa, central South America, southern Russia and southern Europe (Bulgaria, Romania, Serbia and Hungary). Among these regions, southern Africa experienced the highest reduction of 60%. (4) Cultivated lands in all continents had a trend of expanding to high latitudes, and most countries in the world are characterized by expansion of newly cultivated land and reduction of cultivated land in the earlier period.

The Tibetan Plateau boasts the greatest lake group in the Asian continent, where the lakes respond sensitively to climate change. For the exorheic lakes, the area changes based on remote sensing data are insufficient to reflect their responses to climatic changes. Water balance analyses of these lakes are needed for understanding the hydrological processes of lake basins and their relationships with climate changes. In this paper, we use the hydrological and meteorological monitoring data in the Ranwu Lake Basin from April to November in 2015 to examine the relationship between water level and runoff and reconstruct flux process line according to continuous water level data. Together with the snowmelt runoff model (SRM) simulation, we analyze the water balance process and its seasonal changes of the Ranwu Lake. The result shows that the total water yield inputted into the lake during the monitoring period is about 18.49×10⁸ m3, and that the glacial melt water is about 10.06 ×10⁸ m3, accounting for more than 54% of the lakes' supplies. Precipitation and evaporation of lake water surface and the lake water storage change have only slight effects on the process of lake water balance. Replenishment of the lake water is clearly seasonal as it depends on rainfall. Under the influence of southern branch of Westerlies, the Ranwu Lake area witnesses high precipitation, which is the main supply source in spring. Due to temperature rise in dummer and early autumn, a large amount of glacial melt water is a dominant factor of the water balance of this lake. With the temperature rise in the future, glacial melt water will occupy higher proportions in the total supplies of the lakes in this area. It will conduce to the speedy rise of the glacial lake level and lead to potential hazard risks.

Long time-series, spatially-contiguous and accurate precipitation products are one of the most important inputs for various studies, including climate change detection, hydrological modelling, drought monitoring, etc. However, due to its high spatio-temporal variability, precipitation is one of the meteorological elements that are most difficult to estimate. Recently, a new global gridded precipitation dataset that merges gauge measurements, satellite products, and reanalysis data, has been produced. Owing to its high spatial resolution, long time span, and comprehensive combination of different precipitation data sources, MSWEP data have received wide attention since its release. In this study, we first evaluated accuracy of MSWEP monthly precipitation using local gauge measurements in the Three Gorges Dam region, then produced more accurate precipitation data by combining MSWEP and gauge measurements with the GAM (Generalized Additive Model) method, and finally analysed precipitation changes before and after the dam water level rose to 135 m in June 2003. Main conclusions are drawn as follows. (1) No matter what methods are used, estimation accuracy of precipitation shows strong seasonality: more accurate in cold-dry season (spring and winter), while less accurate in hot-wet season (summer and autumn). Gauge measurement and MSWEP are complementary, with the former being more accurate in cold-dry season and the latter being more accurate in hot-wet season. (2) GAM can take advantages of both gauge measurements and MSWEP with flexibility and achieve more accurate precipitation estimation (rmse decreases by 17%-50%, and r increases by 10%-30%). There are still great seasonal variations in accuracy, with rmse being 8-20 mm in spring and winter and 20-50 mm in summer and autumn. (3) Based on the precipitation estimation results obtained in step 2, we found the following phenomena after the water level rose to 135 m in 2003: 1) dam regions south of the Yangtze River show a precipitation reduction over May-October; 2) dam regions in the western part show a precipitation increase over November-April; 3) The northwestern part outside core dam regions shows a precipitation increase over May-October, which is consistent with the results of other studies; 4) precipitation shows an increase in spatial heterogeneity, but a slight decrease in seasonality conveyed by an increase in proportion of precipitation in dry season.

Interchannel wetlands as well as multiple channels are crucial geomorphologic units in an anastomosing river system. Planform characteristics and developing level of interchannel wetlands and multiple channels have effect on anastomosing rivers. To understand the role that interchannel wetlands play in the development of the anastomosing river, a study was carried out at the Maqu reach of the Yellow River, a gravel-bed anastomosing river characterized by highly developed interchannel wetlands and anabranches. Geomorphologic units in the study reach were extracted from high resolution satellite imagery in Google Earth, size distribution of interchannel wetlands and interchannel wetland clusters (special combination of interchannel wetlands and anabranches) were investigated, and geomorphologic parameters including ratio of interchannel wetland area to interchannel wetland cluster area (P), shoreline density (D_l) and node density (D_n) were used to examine planform characteristics of interchannel wetland clusters and the development level of multiple channels in the study reach. The results suggest that interchannel wetlands with small or medium size and interchannel wetland clusters with large or mega size are more common in the study reach. The area of interchannel wetland cluster (S_u) is highly related to other geomorphologic parameters, P increases with the increase of S_u, with 80% of P value being basically the upper limit, indicating that the development of interchannel wetlands and anabranches in an interchannel wetland cluster has entered a equilibrium stage. In contrast, D_l and D_n show a tendency to decrease with the increase of S_u due to evolution processes diversity in interchannel wetland clusters with different sizes. There are three main reasons for the formation of interchannel wetland clusters: stream power diversity caused by the meadering principal channel; development of river corridor due to the weakening of geologic structure control; and high stability of interchannel wetlands due to conservation by shoreline vegetation.

The upper Jingjiang reach, which is located at the beginning of sandy channel downstream from the Three Gorges Reservoir (TGR), is undergoing continuous erosion. As a response to riverbed erosion, there has been an obvious water level drop during the dry seasons in the past decades. And this phenomenon has drawn much attention because of its close connections with irrigation, navigation, water environment, dike safety, and so on. In this article, by using the reorganized data of the gauging stations, elaborate efforts were made to examine the characteristics of the low water level in upper Jingjiang reach, including the variations in the same discharge, the same stage and the annual minimum. Besides, the impacts of the TGR operation in dry seasons were also analyzed. This operation mainly refers to the increase of the water release from TGR when its water level almost reached 175 m, which was to ease the drought-prone downstream since 2009. The results show that: (1) the drop of the water level in the discharge of 7000 m³/s were 0.59 m and 1.64 m at Zhicheng and Shashi gauging stations from 2003 to 2015, respectively. On the contrary, the lowest water level has been raised, and the duration of extremely low water level has been reduced since the impoundment of TGR; (2) The drop of low water level was evidently affected by the river bed erosion at Shashi gauging station. The drop of its low water level and the erosion of the nearly river bed were found to be of almost the equal magnitude. However, a smaller drop of low water level at Zhicheng gauging station has arisen, under the comprehensive influences of channel morphology, river bed armoring and channel regulation works; (3) The compensation operation of TGR in dry seasons can raise the monthly-averaged water level from January to April by increasing its water release. In addition, the annual lowest water level was raised, and the extremely low water level duration has been reduced. However, such compensation still cannot eliminate the impact of river bed erosion at Shashi station, even if the compensating discharge reached 2000 m³/s.

Glacial lakes not only provide the important refresh water resources in alpine region, but also act as a trigger of many glacial hazards such as glacial lake outburst flood (GLOF) and debris flow. Hence glacial lakes play an important role in the research related with cryosphere, climate change and alpine hazards. In this paper, the issues of glacial lakes were systematically discussed. Then from the view of glacial lake inventory and glacial lake hazards study, the glacial lake was defined as natural water supplied mainly by modern glacier melting water or formed in glacier moraine's depression. Furthermore, a complete classification system of glacial lakes was proposed based on its formation mechanism, topographic feature and geographical position. Glacial lakes were classified into 6 classes and 8 subclasses, i.e., glacial erosion lake (including cirque lake, glacial valley lake and other glacial erosion lake), moraine-dammed lake (including end moraine-dammed lake, lateral moraine-dammed lake and moraine thaw lake), ice-blocked lake (including advancing glacier-blocked lake and other glacier-blocked lake), supraglacial lake, subglacial lake and other glacial lakes. Meanwhile, some corresponding features presented by remote sensing images and quantitative indices for identifying different glacial lake types were proposed so as to build a universal and operational classification system of glacial lakes.

Based on the daily minimum temperature data from 52 observational stations in Liaoning Province and the NCEP/NCAR reanalysis data from 1975 to 2015, with composite analysis and correlation analysis, the spatial and temporal features of the winter minimum temperature in Liaoning and North Pacific storm track are analyzed, and the North Pacific storm track anomaly and its relationship with winter minimum temperature are studied. Some conclusions are drawn as follows. The winter minimum temperature in Liaoning had an obvious abrupt change around 1986, then the temperature continued to rise. The North Pacific storm track and the winter minimum temperature had synchronous consistent variation. In the years when North Pacific storm track was stronger, the winter minimum temperature was affected by the southwestern flow; at the same time, the Aleutian Low and Siberian High were at lower level, and the East Asia Trough weakened as it moved to north, the East Asian westerly jet stream at 500 hPa also moved to north. All these led to the weaker East Asian winter monsoon circulation, which was not conducive to the southward movement of cold air, leading to a higher winter temperature in Liaoning. In the years when North Pacific storm track was weaker, lower air temperature was observed in Liaoning. The main reason for the change of relationship with North Pacific storm track intensity and winter minimum temperature is anomalous change of atmospheric circulation at middle and high latitudes.

Based on the daily average temperature of 48 meteorological stations in Chinese oases of the distribution area of Populus euphratica, we analyzed spatio-temporal response of the onset and upset date of P. euphratica, and the dates of growing season to climate change, with the aid of methods including a multi-year trend line, Mann-Kendall mutation test, IDW under the ArcGIS software, Morlet wavelet power spectrum, and correlation analysis. The results indicate that in the past 56 years, the onset date of the growing season has advanced and the upset date has postponed; the dates of the growing period have gradually prolonged, with the trend rates being -1.34 d/10a, 1.33 d/10a, 2.66 d/10a (α≥ 0.001), respectively. The spatial difference is extremely significant, which presents the following law: from the southwest to the northeast in Chinese oases, the onset date has postponed, the upset date advanced, and the growing period shortened. The mutation point of the onset and upset dates and growing period is observed in 2001, 1989, and 1996, respectively, and the upset date is more sensitive to climate warming. The cycles of the growing season of P. euphratica are 3.56-7.14 years, which is consistent with the cycle of the El Nino event, and the onset date cycles of 3.56 years and 4.28 years are consistent with that of atmospheric circulation. Cause analysis shows that the Asian polar vortex area index, the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau index, Westerly Circulation index, and the carbon dioxide emissions are the main reasons for the change of the growing season for P. euphratica, and consistent with the results of the periodic analysis. In addition, the influence of latitude in the growing season is significantly larger than that of altitude, while the onset date is more significant than the upset date in terms of latitude and altitude. Additionally, the onset and upset dates and growing period are significantly correlated with the average temperature of corresponding month, with the correlation coefficients being -0.875, 0.770, and 0.897, respectively (α≥ 0.001). Specifically, if the March average temperature increases by 1 ℃, the onset date will occur about 2.21 days earlier; if the October average temperature increases by 1 ℃, the upset date will delay for 2.76 days; if the average temperature of March to October increases by 1 ℃, the growing period will prolong for 7.78 days. This indicates that the change of P. euphratica in the growing season has a sensitive response to regional warming. This study is of great theoretical significance in understanding the response of Chinese vegetation to climate warming and ecological restoration.