Effect of sea surface temperature and precipitation on annual frequency of harmful algal blooms in the East China Sea over the past decades.

Coastal harmful algal blooms (HABs) in China's seas have attracted researchers' attention for decades. Among the four seas of China, the HAB frequency is the highest in the East China Sea (ECS). The impact of climate change and anthropogenic dominant factors on HABs is not well quantified and the response of HABs to the changing climate is also not clear.

Simulating flash flood hydrographs and behavior metrics across China: Implications for flash flood management.

China frequently suffers from considerable and disastrous flash floods with wide areal coverage and high frequency. Obtaining useful information to support flash flood management and decision-making is challenging for massive flash flood events that vary greatly in spatio-temporal characteristics. In this study, hydrological modelling approach (CNFF) and cluster analysis were integrated to assess simulation reliability of entire flash flood processes including both hydrographs and behavior characteristics in a manner of similarity classification, rather than at event scale.

Dynamic evolution of humic acids during anaerobic digestion: Exploring an effective auxiliary agent for heavy metal remediation.

Information on the dynamic evolution of humic acid (HA) from anaerobic digestate and the potential of HA serving as an effective agent for remedying heavy metals is rather scarce. This study monitored the evolution of the structure and functional groups and metal-binding abilities of HA during chicken manure and corn stover anaerobic digestion (AD) processes. Higher increases in aromatic (41-66%) and oxygen-containing functional groups (37-45%) were observed in HA from the AD of corn stover, resulting in higher metal-binding abilities for Cu(II), Co(II), and Ni(II) than those of chicken manure AD.

Impacts of climatic warming on cropping system borders of China and potential adaptation strategies for regional agriculture development.

Climate warming and its corresponding impacts on agriculture system increasingly attach great attentions. Earlier studies more concerned the impacts of the cultivated area expansion under climate change. Yet limited knowledge is about the impacts of climate warming on the cropping index change with the shifts of cropping system border.

Multi-criteria decision making and fairness evaluation of water ecological carrying capacity for inter-regional green development.

Determining water ecological carrying capacity (WECC) is of great significance to ensure inter-regional green development. This study presents a comprehensive evaluation framework for WECC assessment in the Yangtze River Economic Zone (YREZ), China. Effects of water resources, socio-economic, and ecological elements on WECC can be evaluated based on multi-criteria decision analysis.

Regional Resilience in Times of a Pandemic Crisis: The Case of COVID-19 in China.

The notion of resilience to analyse how fast systems recover from shocks has been increasingly taken up in economic geography, in which there is a burgeoning literature on regional resilience. Regional resilience is a place-sensitive, multi-layered and multi-scalar, conflict-ridden and highly contingent process. The nature of shocks is one important impact factor on regional resilience.

Vegetation response to climate zone dynamics and its impacts on surface soil water content and albedo in China.

Extensive research has focused on the response of vegetation to climate change, including potential mechanisms and resulting impacts. Although many studies have explored the relationship between vegetation and climate change in China, research on spatiotemporal distribution changes of climate regimes using natural vegetation as an indicator is still lacking. Further, limited information is available on the response of vegetation to shifts in China's regional climatic zones.

Analysis of microplastics in a remote region of the Tibetan Plateau: Implications for natural environmental response to human activities.

Microplastics are one of the most valuable indicators reflecting the effects of human activities on natural environment. This study was conducted in a representative remote region of Tibetan Plateau in China, simultaneously analyzing the abundance, compositions and fate of MPs both in water and soil media. MPs were detected in surface water, sediment and soil with abundances ranging from 66.

[Soil enzyme activities and their stoichiometry of typical plantations in mid-subtropical China].

We measured the activities of six kinds of enzyme, including β-glucosidase (BG), β-N-acetyl-glucosaminidase (NAG), leucine aminopeptidase (LAP), acid phosphatase (AP), polyphenol oxidase (POX), peroxidase (POD), as well as enzyme stoichiometric ratios and soil physical and chemical properties at 0-10 and 10-20 cm layers across typical Pinus massoniana plantation, Pinus elliottii plantation and mixed plantation of P. massoniana and Schima superba (broadleaved-conifer mixed plantation) in mid-subtropical China. Key factors driving the variation in soil enzyme activity and stoichiometry among different stand types were investigated.

Mapping the Spatial-Temporal Distribution and Migration Patterns of Men Who Have Sex with Men in Mainland China: A Web-Based Study.

The human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection rate for men who have sex with men (MSM) has rapidly increased in recent years in China and the migrant population accounts for a large proportion of this increase. The migration of MSM not only poses difficulties for government departments charged with treating the disease, but also increases the spread of HIV in geographical space, so it is important to understand the geographical distribution and migrant patterns of MSM. We searched the largest dating website in China to obtain open information from all users in the Chinese mainland from January 2006 to August 2017.

Numerical assessment of the effect of water-saving irrigation on the water cycle at the Manas River Basin oasis, China.

Mulch drip irrigation is widely used in the arid areas of Northwest China. Consequently, the Manas River Basin has developed into the fourth largest irrigated agricultural area in China. In this study, a groundwater model of the regional water cycle was developed to quantitatively assess the groundwater balance in response to different irrigation schemes, including traditional irrigation, conventional water-saving irrigation, and high-efficiency water-saving irrigation schemes.

Use of steady-state hydraulic tomography to inform the selection of a chaotic advection system.

The concept of chaotic advection is a novel approach that has the potential to overcome some of the challenges associated with mixing of reagents that commonly occur when injection based in situ treatment techniques are used. The rotated potential mixing (RPM) flow system is one configuration which has been theorized to achieve chaotic advection in porous media, and enhance reagent mixing by periodically re-oriented dipole pumping at a series of radial wells. Prior to field implementation of chaotic advection, the selection of an RPM flow protocol will likely require a numerical model that can adequately represent groundwater flow within the zone of interest.

Investigation of a spatial coupling relationship between carbon emission performance and regional urbanization in China.

In light of the problem of environmental pollution caused by fossil fuel combustion, and its association with rapid urbanization, China is grappling with the question of how to reduce carbon emissions through more efficient energy consumption while simultaneously advancing its economic development. We applied a directional distance function to estimate the carbon emission performance of 30 provinces in China during the period 2000-2016. We selected an index system to assess urbanization processes in these provinces and conducted a spatial analysis to investigate the relationship between urbanization and carbon emission performance.

Multi-criteria decision analysis of optimal planting for enhancing phytoremediation of trace heavy metals in mining sites under interval residual contaminant concentrations.

As one of the most cost-effective and sustainable methods for contaminants' removal, sequestration and/or detoxification, phytoremediation has already captured comprehensive attention worldwide. Nevertheless, the accurate effects of various spatial pattern in enhancing phytoremediation efficiency is not yet clear, especially for the polluted mining areas. This study designed nine planting patterns (monocropping, double intercropping and triple intercropping) of three indigenous plant species (Setaria viridis (L.

Risk assessment for and microbial community changes in Farmland soil contaminated with heavy metals and metalloids.

Food security and human health can be seriously affected by heavy metal and metalloid (HM) pollution of soil. In this study, the risks posed by HMs and microbial community responses to HM pollution of agricultural soil in southwestern China were investigated. The C, N, P, and S (nutrients) concentrations were 12040.

Modelling the impacts of climate and land use changes on soil water erosion: Model applications, limitations and future challenges.

The world is experiencing serious soil losses. Soil erosion has become an important environmental problem in certain regions and is strongly affected by climate and land use changes. By selecting and reviewing 13 extensively used soil water erosion models (SWEMs) from the published literature, we summarize the current model-based knowledge on how climate factors (e.

Observed and simulated hydro-climatic data for the lake Chad basin, Africa.

Lake Chad is one of the largest lakes in the world, but extremely vulnerable to the changing climate and human activities in the basin. The Lake Chad basin is one of the largest endorheic basins in the world and straddles the borders of Central African Republic, Chad, Libya, Niger, Nigeria, Algeria, Cameroon, and Sudan. In the last 40-50 years, the lake has shrunk from a surface area of 25,000 km to 2000 km.

Trace metal element pollution of soil and water resources caused by small-scale metallic ore mining activities: a case study from a sphalerite mine in North China.

Trace metal element contamination in mining areas is always a huge environmental challenge for the global mining industry. In this study, an abandoned sphalerite mine near the Yanshan Mountains was selected as subject to evaluate the soil and water contamination caused by small-scale mining. The results show that (1) Pearson correlation matrix and principal component analysis (PCA) results reveal that Zn, Cu, Cd, and Pb were greatly affected by the operation of mines, especially mineral tailings.

Assessment of hydro-climatic trends and causes of dramatically declining stream flow to Lake Chad, Africa, using a hydrological approach.

In the 1960s, Lake Chad (LC) was one of the largest inland water body on the earth and since then, it has extremely shrunk from a surface area of 25,000 km to 2000 km. The present study determines hydro-climatic changes in the active parts of the Lake Chad basin by using trend analysis and the causes of declining stream flow to LC due to human interventions and climate variability by using a hydrological approach. One approach, which is used to estimate changes in stream flow due to climate variability, is also modified in this study.

Effects of winter and spring housing on growth performance and blood metabolites of Pengbo semi-wool sheep in Tibet.

Objective: Sixty Pengbo semi-wool sheep ewes (approximately 1.5-years-old; 31.33 ± 0.

Analysis of climate variability, trends, and prediction in the most active parts of the Lake Chad basin, Africa.

An understanding of climate variability, trends, and prediction for better water resource management and planning in a basin is very important. Since the water resources of the Lake Chad basin (LCB) are highly vulnerable to changing climate, in the present study, a combination of trend analysis methods was used to examine the climate variability and trends for the period of 1951-2015 using observed and Climate Research Unit (CRU) data, and a combination of spectral analysis techniques was used for the prediction of temperature and precipitation using CRU data. Eighty-four percent of the temperature time series indicated extremely strong signals of increasing trends (α = 0.

Enhanced Cd transport in the soil-plant-atmosphere continuum (SPAC) system by tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum L.).

The optimal treatment designs of the heavy metal pollution sites and the calculation of the recovery capacity are important in recent studies. In this paper, we aimed to model the accumulation of heavy metals under different artificially Cd concentrations, and analyzed the various tobacco solute adsorption and fluid flow properties. The finite difference method was used to simulate the heavy metals flux and root absorption in the soil, and the model simulation was compared with the measured values to quantify the uncertainty of the metal transport and modeling parameters.

Humic substances developed during organic waste composting: Formation mechanisms, structural properties, and agronomic functions.

Aerobic composting is a typical biochemical process of stabilization and harmlessness of organic wastes during which organic matter degrades, and then aggregates, to produce humic substances (HSs). HSs are a core product of-and a crucial indicator of-the maturation of compost that can be used in soil amendments. The formation of HSs is affected by the characteristics of the raw materials involved, the presence of compost additives, microbial activity, temperature, pH, the C/N ratio, moisture content, oxygen content and particle size, all of which can interact with each other.

Pollutant source analysis and tempo-spatial analysis of pollutant discharge intensity in a transboundary river basin.

From the perspective of river basin refined management and pollution control of water bodies, a transboundary river basin and its regional pollutant sources are identified and the typical status of discharging processes of different pollutant sources are screened. Then organic connection which can comprehensively reflect and dynamically characterize the discharge of transboundary water pollutants is constructed. In addition, the integrated prediction (IP) model of the transboundary river basin and its regional water pollutants discharge is established.

Ecological Vulnerability Assessment Based on Fuzzy Analytical Method and Analytic Hierarchy Process in Yellow River Delta.

The Yellow River Delta (YRD), located in Yellow River estuary, is characterized by rich ecological system types, and provides habitats or migration stations for wild birds, all of which makes the delta an ecological barrier or ecotone for inland areas. Nevertheless, the abundant natural resources of YRD have brought huge challenges to the area, and frequent human activities and natural disasters have damaged the ecological systems seriously, and certain ecological functions have been threatened. Therefore, it is necessary to determine the status of the ecological environment based on scientific methods, which can provide scientifically robust data for the managers or stakeholders to adopt timely ecological protection measures.