Zoning of precipitation regimes on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau and its surrounding areas responded by the vegetation distribution.

Compared with other factors influencing vegetation patterns, such as light and temperature, precipitation has relatively large variability, especially on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau (QTP), where the natural environment is extremely fragile and sensitive. However, the impact of precipitation regimes, rather than precipitation amount, on vegetation has seldom been revealed. This study characterised the precipitation regimes by both the amount and temporal distribution of precipitation and zoned the QTP as different precipitation regimes accordingly.

Source apportionment of particulate matter based on numerical simulation during a severe pollution period in Tangshan, North China.

Facing serious air pollution problems, the Chinese government has taken numerous measures to prevent and control air pollution. Understanding the sources of pollutants is crucial to the prevention of air pollution. Using numerical simulation method, this study analysed the contributions of the total local emissions and local emissions from different sectors (such as industrial, traffic, resident, agricultural, and power plant emissions) to PM concentration, backward trajectory, and potential source regions in Tangshan, a typical heavy industrial city in north China.

Inverse relations between amounts of air pollution and orographic precipitation.

Particulate air pollution has been suggested as the cause of the recently observed decreasing trends of 10 to 25% in the ratio between hilly and upwind lowland precipitation, downwind of urban and industrial areas. We quantified the dependence of this ratio of the orographic-precipitation enhancement factor on the amounts of aerosols composed mostly of pollution in the free troposphere, based on measurements at Mt. Hua near Xi'an, in central China.