Global urban and rural settlement dataset from 2000 to 2020.

Accurate mapping of global urban and rural settlements is crucial for understanding their distinct expansion patterns and ecological impacts. However, existing global datasets focus mainly on urban settlements and ignore the delineation of rural settlements. Therefore, this study proposed a framework for delineating between urban and rural settlements based on dynamic thresholds defined by area and light brightness and constructed the first global 100-meter resolution urban and rural settlements dataset (GURS) spanning from 2000 to 2020, integrating GHS-BUILT-S R2023A, NPP-VIIRS-like nighttime light, and OpenStreetMap data.

Diverse responses of surface biogeophysical parameters to accelerated development and senescence of vegetation on the Mongolian Plateau.

Vegetation dynamics is essential for characterizing surface biogeophysical parameters. Speeds of vegetation development and senescence are well documented, however, the effects of vegetation growth rates on surface parameters during different growth stages remains unclear. By using such methods as trend analyses and correlation analyses, this study examines the variations and interactive relationships of leaf area index (LAI) and surface parameters including Albedo, evapotranspiration (ET), and land surface temperature (LST), derived from Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS), during the intra-growing season (April-October, GS) on the Mongolian Plateau (MP).

Multi-scale spatiotemporal trends and corresponding disparities of PM exposure in China.

Despite the effectiveness of targeted measures to mitigate air pollution, China-a developing country with high PM concentration and dense population, faces a high risk of PM-related mortality. However, existing studies on long-term PM exposure in China have not reached a consensus as to which year it peaked during the "initially pollution, then mitigation" process. Furthermore, analyses in these studies were rarely undertaken from multi-spatial scales.

Diverse responses of gross primary production and leaf area index to drought on the Mongolian Plateau.

Drought is a crucial factor regulating vegetation growth on the Mongolian Plateau (MP). Previous studies of drought effects on the MP have mainly concentrated on drought characterization, while the response of vegetation to drought remains unclear. To close this knowledge gap, we examined the response of MP vegetation to drought in terms of gross primary production (GPP) and leaf area index (LAI) from 1982 to 2018.

Untangling the effects of the Belt and Road Initiative on carbon dioxide emissions.

The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), which was first put forward by China in late 2013, has made a significant contribution to international economic activities and inevitably reshaped the pattern of carbon dioxide (CO) emissions. Considering the spatial spillover effects of CO emissions among countries, this paper employs spatial difference-in-differences models in order to investigate the BRI's effects on total CO emissions (TCE), per capita CO emissions (PCE), and CO emissions intensity (CEI), respectively. The results of global Moran's I index prove the existence of spatial correlations of CO emissions.

Assessment of vegetation change on the Mongolian Plateau over three decades using different remote sensing products.

As a major component of temperate steppes in the Eurasian continent, the Mongolian Plateau (MP) plays a pivotal role in the East Asian and global carbon cycles. This paper describes the use of five remote sensing indices derived from satellite data to characterize vegetation cover on MP, namely: gross primary production (GPP), net primary production (NPP), normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), leaf area index (LAI) and fractional vegetation cover (FVC). It is found that GPP, NPP, and NDVI exhibit increasing trends, whereas LAI and FVC present decreasing trends on the MP since 1982.